If I acquire an injury/madness during combat in the movement phase and move to the hospital or asylum, am I delayed or do I have an encounter during the encounter phase?

Medix311 said:

No encounter; basically, when you're reduced to zero sanity or stamina, you have tw options:

a) you must immediately choose and discard half of his items and half of his Clue tokens (rounded down), along with all retainers (if any). You have to move immediately your investigator to the Asylum / Hospital. The investigator is restored to 1 Stamina and has no further encounters this turn. Next turn everything is restored to the normality

b) you may choose to gain a Madness / Injury card. If you do this, you do not lose any items or Clue tokens for being driven insane / knocked unconscious, and your Sanity / Stamina is restored to its maximum value instead of to 1. However, you must still move your investigator to either the Asylum / the Hospital, as appropriate. In addition, you must draw one Injury card. No encounter even in this case, and the following round is a normal round

Remind me, Julia: do you lose still lose your Retainer if you opt to take an Injury? I've been playing "yes you lose it" but I cannot for the life of me remember the official answer.

Tibs said:

I think officially you aren't meant to? Does it not count as an item?

Though I suppose as a house rule it would also work to make the game a bit harder.

No, you normally lose all retainers(retainers are special cards, not items). Drawing a madness/injury card, however prevents all losses that result from going insane or being knocked unconscious, so you get to keep the retainer. I think the term "retainer" extends(or should extend) to various membership cards as well, and also special cards like rail pass. That's the way I've been playing, but I'm not sure about that. Is there anything in the FAQ about this?

Tibs said:

Yep, you keep them, as Zealot said.

@Zealot: memberships are not considered items, thus they should not be discarded. I think it's the same even for special cards, like Velma's gratitude and so on.

What I meant was: do membership cards count as retainers?

One of Diana Stanley's abilities(The Redeemed Cultist) is that she never loses her silver twilight lodge membership card. But how can you lose it anyway if it doesm't count as an item or anything else for that matter? Or can you lose it as a result of an encounter?

zealot12 said:

This.

I for one see any losses normally associated with unconscious/insanity as a result of them. You stil went bonkers even if you take a Madness, so Retainer is gone. Note that the DH rules only mention you don't lose Clues or items, but doesn't state that about Retainers. Could be oversight, but one might think the boss still hears you were taken to the Asylum against your will and decides you're not worth the money.

That was my reasoning, Dam.

Dam said:

I'd play discard the retainer too on the basis of the play masochistically rule ;') and a literal reading of the text. I have no idea what FFG's intention is though.

A retainer is like a part-time job maybe. If you're driven insane or knocked unconscious,you're incapacitated and hospitalized for a period of time, so you lose your position.If that's the case, getting an injury or madness may also leave you unemployed.

Dam said:

Getting unconsious or insane forces you to loose half of your items and clue tokens. In DH rule book "items" are described as Common Items, Unique Items and Spells - obviously it should also include Exhibit items.

No mention about special cards (deputy cards, membership cards, retainer cards, bless cards etc.)

Getting a madness/injury card is simply a way to keep your items "at a cost" and despite how reasonalbe it sounds (loosing your job due to hospitalization which takes time) it doesn't force the Investigator to to discard special cards. You can loose Blessing and Retainer cards during the Upkeep Phase and via encounters.

I sugest making it a house rule if it pleases you.

YoshiPL said:

So you're saying that because DH specifically mentions that you keep items + clues if you take a Injury/Madness and makes no mention of special cards that you automatically keep special cards ? I would definately read it the other way, those that are mentioned you keep, no mention = follow standard unc/insanity rules.

Hmm, regarding special cards other than the retainer it is not clear whether they're discarded or not. Since most of them have their own discard conditions.(The Patrol Wagon, effects like Tainted, Annointed, Barred, etc.) Magical effect cards like Azure Flame, Third Eye and the Beast Within are linked to their respective activation spells. You may house-rule that membership cards and rail passes are discarded, since these rarely leave your possession.

Is there a limit to the number of injury/madness cards a character can have at a time?

I think the rulebook says that after drawing 2 injury/madness cards, a player may choose to have the character devoured and a new one, but as long as 2 injury/madness cards of the same type are not drawn (e.g. 2 broken hands), does this mean that a player could accumulate several cards during a game?

Would this even be a good idea? Or do the disadvantages of the injury/madness effects outweight the loss of items in the long run?

The only limit would be when you have one of each.

Practically speaking, I've had games where an investigator had several injuries and several madnesses. If there's time i may retire them, otherwise they keep soldiering on.

Yep, pretty much. And if you're playing with Rita Young, there's no limit. I like Rita, because there are some Injuries and Madness cards that have limited impact, so she can always choose the lesser evil.

zealot12 said:

Not properly, I'm afraid. Rita is allowed to draw two Injury / Madness cards and then choose which one keeping. Imagine a situation where Rita already has 2 Injuries (a Broken hand and Jinxed, for example). She's reduced again to zero Stamina and she decides to have a third Injury. The first card she draws is Jinxed. The second one another Broken hand. Regardless of which card she chooses to keep, she is devoured. A very unlucky case, but it's possible.

Julia: don't forget that Rita can ignore the effects of duplicate Injury/Madness cards!

Also, what happens in the unlikely event that you run out? You just can't choose to take them anymore? But what if you're required to take one—you should be devoured, I'd hope.

This has never happened in our games. There are more than enough. Though we only play with 3 investigators.

But yea, I guess forced devourment is the most sensible penalty.

Tibs said:

::shock:: forgot this point, sorry to everybody for the misleading information. Thx, Tibs

So, do you lose half your money too?

Nope, that only happens when you're arrested.