Infinite threat? Scenario 4

By Flashfires, in Mansions of Madness

In the fourth scenario, the keeper has the Uncontrollable Urges action and one of the exploration cards placed on the board is the Ceremonial Skull (full text listed below). I've been puzzling over these two cards, as it seems to allow the keeper to generate an infinite loop of threat gain. Yes, I realize the Skull does not always come out in the Keeper's favor, but the best odds for investigators are only 50/50 while the best odds for the Keeper range up to 80/20. Any help or work arounds to this problem would be appreciated.

Uncontrollable Urges (Threat Cost 2)

Keeper Action

Action: Choose an investigator. You may then move him to an adjacent space or force him to resolve an action from 1 of his Spell, equipment, artifact, or tome cards. You make all required choices.

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Ceremonial Skull

Artifact

Gain +2 Lore

Action: Test your Luck.

Pass: Gain 3 skill points.

Fail: Keeper gains 4 threat.

You should probably shoot this question to FFG (use the rules questions link).

Personally, I think that the action/item forced to be used can only be done once per player. So, you could only force a player to use the skull once per turn.

I don't understand how you could get infinite threat. They still take the test and can pass.

Brine said:

I don't understand how you could get infinite threat. They still take the test and can pass.

If the investigator fails the roll, the Keeper has spent 2 threat and gains 4 threat, for a total of +2 threat. The Keeper then spends another 2 threat to cause the investigator to use the skull again. Should the investigator fail that roll, the keeper has gained another +2 threat. Keep going, as long as the investigator keeps failing the roll the Keeper will be gaining a net +2 threat per time. that is how it is "infinite" threat.

Considering it is a Luck roll, which is a value anywhere from 2-5, with the average investigator having about a 3, and the fact that you cannot use a skill point to add to Luck tests, the chances of the investigator failing are pretty good.

Even if the investigator passes after failing a couple times, the Keeper can just do it again.

that's why I would probably suggest just only allowing the Keeper to force the use of a specific object once per turn. <shrug> Or, you could add +1 to the test for each subsequent use in the turn, making it more 'dangerous' for the Keeper to keep forcing the test, and more likely for the investigator to succeed.

To my mind, logic would dictate the following:

How many times can a player's investigator use the skull in his or her own turn: once (as an action)

Ergo, if the player's investigator is "compelled" to use the skull in the Keeper's turn, he or she can only be compelled to use it once.

Presumably, use of the skull takes a finite amount of time, so the Keeper should not be allowed to compel someone to use it multiple times per turn.

Excatly. You can not give your player multiple actions per turn with the Uncontrollable Urges Keeper Action card.