Hey guys, wanted to clarify something that's been bugging me the last one or two games...

1. The subject of Damage, be it health or sanity.

Should I be giving the players their full health and sanity in tokens to begin with and taking it from them as they lose it, or giving them tokens of damage as they accrue it?

2. In relation to this, the trauma cards. If a trauma card says nothing on the brain/heart, I can give that to players any time I like that they accrue damage.

But, if a number is there, (eg. 4), does that mean I can only give it AFTER they have accrued at least 4 damage, or does it mean that I can only give it after they have accrued enough damage to bring their health DOWN to 4 or less?

I guess the question is how is health meant to be measured. Thanks in advance.

I have had the same bugging questions as you have had.

But I think according to the rules you are supposed to deal out damage and horror tokens whenever an investigator is suffering from either damage or horror.

but your way of letting them start with those tokens and than remove them as damage or horror occurs, actually makes more sense when it comes to trauma cards. As the numbers on the trauma cards should be read as: # or less remaining hitpoints / sanity. So a high number like 8, means it can only be played on an investigator that has 8 or less remaining wounds / sanity left.

That is my understanding of the rules. So if you feel comfortable using the tokens in the above mentioned way, go ahead just do it. But be sure to reverse the intention on cards, like Isabella's letter, instead of loosing a horror token, you would instead gain an horror token.

good gaming and look forward for a very exciting expansion. (lake tiles, including a movable boat).

You are correct that the # is a threshhold... does the investigator now have less than X health or Sanity left.

We throw people markers as they take damage, but it would save you the math if you can just look how many tokens people have left.

And if you give your players tokens at the start to represent health and sanity it is easier for the keeper to see how much you have left. In our first game the keeper had to ask all the time how much the players had left because he couldn't see the starting number on the sheets and so we changed that, too.

While counting down may be easier, I imagine it would be somewhat taxing on the components, in particular where you had four investigators.

Thank God investigators are NOT limited in the amount of HP markers they can place on their sheets.

Yeah, perhaps there aren't enough 8 HP markers around - but I guess my pals can add 5 + 3. Or 3 + 3 + 2. Or whatever else lies around. Just that there are enough important HP markers for the monsters

Was thinking about counting down too, will see if I need it.

After my first game I decided to use the health/sanity tokens from Arkham for the players.

Its best if the Keeper can see health at a glance rather then having to ask all the time imo.

Descent tokens work as well (and so would tokens from alot of games).

My players play Arkham so they are used to the tokens being for the investigators and they dont look out of place in the game.

I like to give them out and then ask; "How many do you have left?" Then I'll look at my hand and grin. Keeps them jumpy.