Played a game last night with some friends, and had this situation.

A player with the torch ran into a room with a darkness token. I moved a monster into the room and he failed his horror check, so I played the Trauma card (I don't have it in front of me so I don't remember it's name) that caused him to have to drop all his items. I was about to attack with the monster when we got into a debate.

The debate went like this, I wanted him to take the -2 debuff to his attribute check because of the darkness, since he no longer had his torch.

His arguement was that yes, he no longer had the torch, but it was the top card on the floor and should still illuminate the room, so he shouldn't have to take the -2 darkness debuff.

So my question is, when an item is dropped, does it still have effects? How do you handle dropped items, as known items, or face down just the same as unexplored items? My response was that since it was no longer an equiped item, it would not give him the bonus. Is there a rule stating this effect or do you think this is a situation where a house rule needs to be established?

The players voted against me, I tihnk they were just mad because they were behind at that point.

Also, on the subject (and this might be in the rules, it just popped into my head and I don't have the game in front of me), if a room has a darkness token, and it gets set on fire, is the darkness removed? Can both exist in the same room? Does darkness take effect again if the fire is somehow put out?

Also, once again this question might be in the rules, are dropped items placed face down or face up in a room?

Read some more question about fire and darkness in another post that never got answered, so reposting them here.

If a monster that is on fire runs into a room with darkness, does this negate the darkness debuff? Also if the keeper puts darkness on a room that is on fire does it put out the fire, do both take effect, or does the darkness not have any effect until the fire is put out?

EvilTekno said:

It sounds like darkness and fire can both be in effect at the same time, with full effect. The theme explanation is that the darkness isn't necessarily natural in nature and so is in effect even when a room is on fire.

This is not found in the rule book, but was FAQ'd on the BGG forum.

As for the dropped torch, my gut would say that since the investigator no longer has the torch it no longer grants any advantage to the investigators until picked up again. Theme-wise you could say that as they the torch it extinguishes, and needs to be picked up again to be re-lit. I do not know whether the cards go on the exploration deck face up or down, but would think face up since the investigators know that it is there.

I believe your instincts were correct. Items only give their effects to the Investigators that posses them. Oh, and dropped items are placed face up.

Status effects appear not to interact with each other, however unintuitive that may be. For the purposes of the game, the Fire Status effect does not cast light. Similarly, Camp Fires don't appear to give light, but are used to spread fire and burn corpses.

It is slightly weird, though. Hope that helps!

K xx

I'm pretty sure that if a torch is dropped, it no longer illuminates the room (it could be the torch has gone out, rolled behind an item and is not casting enough illumination, or perhaps is the Uk equivalent of a torch and the impact shut off the beam). Otherwise the arguement could be made that a torch, even a face-down one, in any room illuminates it. Without the rules in front of me I can't comment on burning monsters as I dont' remember how they are worded.

As for items dropped by the characters, I believe they are face up, as they are known items. Otherwise, if they were dropped in a room with an obstacle, the investigator would have to clear the obstacle before picking up the cards because the investigators wouldn't know which cards are which.

JerusalemJones said:

They are placed face up on top of the objective card.

1) Investigators do not get buffs from items they don't have just cause they are laying on the floor near them.

2) Dropped torches in real life, tend to grow extremly dim and even go out.

3) The darkness is self may not even be simple "the lights are of darkness", keep in mind what kind of manison your in.