Had a minor but still confusing problem in a game this weekend.

On the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh mythos card called "Escape from Arkham Asylum!" it says, "Collect up to 3 Maniacs, drawing them first from the monster cup, then from the Outskirts, then from those claimed as trophies. Place them all in the Downtown streets. Investigators who defeat all 3 Maniacs before the end of next turn may draw 1 Exhibit Item. Leave this card in play until then to indicate this."

So what happens if some or all of these 3 Maniacs can't be placed on the board because of the monster limit? I would assume that the excess Maniacs would go to the outskirts, but does that mean that it is now impossible for investigators to get the reward of 1 Exhibit Item?

Thanks in advance!

There's another similar encounter with Ghosts. Uncertain of the offical ruling, I treat them like monsters in encounters/spawn monsters-they're not considered to be on the board, don't count against the monster limit and disappear once the Mythos card that spawned them is removed from play.

Maniacs and Ghosts are subject to the monster limit. Each Ghost offers 1 Exhibit item, so if one of them is placed in the outskirts you can still get a reward. However, if any of the three Maniacs gets put into the Outskirts it will be nearly impossible to get the reward.

About his encounter, I always had a doubt on who gets the reward ?? If all 3 maniacs are defeated by a single investigator, he get the reward once or thrice ? What if 3 investigators defeat one of the 3 ? Who get what reward ?

thank you

Each time a Ghost is defeated or removed from the board by an investigator-initiated effect, that investigator draws an Exhibit item.

The investigator who defeats/removes the third and final Maniac gains the Exhibit item.

Tibs said:

Is this from the fabled, forbidden tome called proto-FAQ? Didn't it used to be one investigator needs to *****-slap all 3 Maniacs?

"Investigators who defeat all 3 Maniacs before the end of next turn may draw 1 Exhibit Item."

Investigators is plural, implying that multiple investigators can participate in the elimination of the Maniacs. However, it doesn't make sense that each involved investigator gets an Exhibit item, because then you could exploit this and get three. Clearly, the intent is that if all three of them are destroyed, then one Exhibit item is obtained.

This is my interpretation anyway, and I'm sure that if it's in the FAQ then it will say that.

Tibs said:

I wouldn't say it implies that at all. It can just as easily mean that any investigator who defeats all three maniacs may draw the item (and nothing else). The phrase is ambiguous. Based on your reading of the text as written, there's no reason to say that it's not a potentially exploitable situation where an investigator can evade two and kill one, and another investigator can kill and evade, and the third can pick off the last gaining an exhibit item. (Do I think that's what it means? Of course not).

Also, it's not in the proto-FAQ. Include it?

Dam said:

I vaguely recall a ruling saying this from way back when.

I love how Arkham Horror is the only game with secret rules ;'D

I should have clarified that the fact that it says "investigators who kill all three Maniacs gain an Exhibit item" should mean that you don't forfeit the Exhibit item just because multiple investigators were involved in their removal. In other words, it shouldn't require that a single investigator must kill all three maniacs to get the item, and that if it took multiple investigators that the item is not gained.

This card came up in our last game. The interesting part is a maniac was already in the street. The card says to take maniacs from the cup, then from the outskirts, then from monster trophies to put on the board. Since there were only two maniacs left available, they were put where they needed to go. So we have 3 maniacs in two locations. However, the card still mentions when all 3 maniacs are defeated, investigators may draw one exhibit item.

So we concluded that the original maniac that was not grouped with the other two still had to be defeated for the item because nothing on the card mentioned otherwise. it was already on the board, it just wasn't grouped near the asylum with the others.

We also concluded that since the card said investigators (plural) may drawn an exhibit item when the 3 are defeated before next turn, that yes, any investigators participating in their destruction can draw one.

So we ended up having one investigator (me) defeat the single one, and another investigator (playing Michael McGlen) defeat the other two. We could have both drawn an exhibit item and I don't see this as being exploitable, and here is why:
With 3 maniacs on one space normally, you need to defeat one, and then evade the others. So two characters are doing some evading, and at least when we play, most of us don't have the evade numbers to bother, if we want decent movement. Not only that, you need 3 characters to be close enough to their location, which again, if they are far away, they won't be able to evade the others if they need high movement to get there. This also has to all be done on one turn, otherwise the maniacs stay but the reward doesn't. Last, when playing with the DP Herald, getting an exhibit item is risky with the chance of a curse and the stamina loss that goes along with it.

So in the end, I ended up choosing not to take an exhibit item (the card does say MAY) because we were playing with the DP Herald, and I didn't have the stamina to lose if I got cursed. Michael McGlen did take the chance because his special power would negate the stamina loss. He ended up rolling a success and not getting curse anyway.

Well if you're using the DP herald, you could just avoid the Maniacs for the turn. Nobody's forcing you to evade one of them so your friend could come in and kill the others, causing you both to get an item and be cursed. It really seems unlikely that you can pull more than one item out of them because then it means that the number of items the maniacs were carrying was retroactively dependent upon the number of investigators who stopped them, and that seems off. Plus, since exhibit items are pretty good, two or three items for defeating lowly maniacs seems too strong. Lastly, if you're playing a 1- or 2-investigator game, it would be impossible to get the third item, making your ability to collect multiple exhibits also somewhat dependent on the number of investigators in the game.

In other words, I am still unconvinced.

But that's a good catch: the card does not say to re-locate Maniacs who are already on the board. I guess, so many years later, I know what the card means by "collect up to 3 maniacs."

The confusion this card creates is one of the reasons I don't play with CotDP until the FAQ comes and makes it all clear. I was under the assumption that this was the #1 question that most desperately needed a comprehensive answer in the new FAQ. If this indeed is not already included, then it should be, ASAP. Heck, remove ten pages of answers for all the Innsmouth-related questions just to get this one answered, if needed, and I'll be happy.

-Villain