Clue tokens may provide vital information about the weaknesses of your adversary(whether monster on Ancient One). When you run out of clues, you become clueless as to how to defeat whatever/whoever you're battling, so you give up the cause and lose.

Monster trophies are decoys for the likes of Shub-Niggurath and Thsathoggua. They eat up the dead monsters instead of killing you.

Gate trophies represent lore about the particular gate you've closed and the world it led to, and thus provide insight into the alien nature of Yog-Sothoth and co. as well as the AOs' weaknesses. Sort of like clue tokens, you could say.

Note that you don't die merely from reaching 0 clues at any time (for example, spending them before Nyar's attack), you die when you have 0 at the end of his attack.

Tibs said:

The answer said you die immediately. So I'd think you'd die from spending them. Why do you think otherwise? You think it's just bad phrasing? If it is, it needs to be clarified before the final draft.

Because the question and answer are in regards to Nyar's attack. Nothing on Nyar's sheet (or Shub's or Yog's) says you'd get devoured when you run out of that thing at any time other than Start of Battle or the AO's Attack. Granted, in almost ALL cases this is not an issue, but I think maybe the answer does need to be a little clearer.

For example: if your final monster trophy is a Serpent Person, and you're going to die from Shub's next attack, it might be better to spend it to gain the +3 dice and inflict as much damage as possible before going down.

Tibs said:

Been very clear with whom? As far as I can tell, that's an extremely short list: Tibs, Avi, Coltsfan. (And then there's Mushu, who seems to be able to magically pull answers from FFG where none existed before.) And now that you all seem to be under a fairly severe gag order (but not Mushu...?), this "good communication" is less than evident.

I hope it's as awesome as you project, Tibs...awesome for everyone, and not just for a small cabal (?) able to curve the rules because the game's "too easy".

jgt7771 said:

I meant clear to me but I assume to Avi and ColtsFan too. I was trying to express that this thing is real, and that the guy running the show seems both interested and sincere. It wouldn't be clear to any of you guys, I guess. Perhaps this project still looks like it did way back when two other people tried to start it. But, fear not. This FAQ will be finished someday and all will be revealed within.

Patience everyone!

Tibs said:

Yes! All will be revealed! And you shall know the meaning of life and death! And the universe shall then implode! IA! IA! F.A.Q. FHTAGN!

Tibs said:

This interpretation also fits the flavour, i.e. when Nyarlathotep strikes again, you're clueless how to evade him

The way I interpret it is that if at any time during Nyar's attack, you have 0 clues, then you are devoured. You don't get to make the check because you're devoured the moment he goes to attack (not like the check would help anyway).

jgt7771 said:

I assure you, it's not magic. All I do is click the Rules Questions link at the bottom of the support page and ask my questions. 2 or 3 days later, I get answers. Simple as that. Then I share my answers with the community in case other people had the same questions. I'm not working on the FAQ so I'm not keeping secrets.

Musha Shukou said:

jhaelen said:

There's actually only one person that answers questions for each game, that way they are able to reduce the amount of miscommunications and inaccuracies, but it also adds to the amount of time it takes to answer questions, especially if there are lots of questions being sent. Also, until recently, the servers, computers, software, whatever they were using to answer questions was down and they were unable to answer anybody's questions. I had to wait a very long time for my first batch of questions to be answered, but this last batch of questions was very quick.

Musha Shukou said:

I'm still waiting for a single question about Fury of Dracula to be answered... ten days passed, no signs received

I'm still waiting for a lurker question to be answered....three months.

Well, then, I suppose I am, indeed, lucky. What I did before was call them and asked if they had received my questions. Soon after that, I got my answers.

Musha Shukou said:

jhaelen said:

Haha, yes. I called them with my phone. They have GREAT customer service.

What about Obsidian Statue and a Blood or Soul Pact?

1. I use the Soul Pact’s upkeep action: “Exhaust Soul Pact and lose X Sanity to gain X Power.”
2. I choose X to be ∞ or let’s say 35.
3. I then lose X Sanity, which I cancel by discarding the Obsidian Statue (“Discard Obsidian Statue to cancel all Stamina or Sanity Loss being dealt to you from one Source.”)
4. I gain X Power, hooray.

Wrzlprmft said:

My guess is you pain X Sanity point. You're not dealt damage. So you can't prevent the damage. And you can't pay more than you have.

Tibs said:

The Story Continues...

Unfortunately, using the Soul or Blood Pact makes you lose sanity/stamina. So the Obsidian Statue would cancel that loss. You could say that you only gain as many Power as the sanity/stamina you lost, but then that would contradict the ruling that Harvey Walters can lose 2 sanity and gain 3 power.

Lurker herald, ugh.

Tibs said:

Tibs is correct there. For the obsidian statue, I would argue that you can not choose to lose more sanity than you have.

Sorry my bad... But my point of view seemed better :/

Musha Shukou said:

You might want to replace “obsidian statue” by “soul pact”, because the Obsidian Statue should be able to protect you, if you have 1 sanity and are about to lose 4 sanityj

Hugues said:

I like your point of view more. It is better thematically and it fixes a number of mechanical issues with the herald. I am going to change "lose" to "spend" in this these cases.

Problem(s) solved. Mostly.