When dealing out an investigator's fixed starting items, what if two or more investigators start with the same item and there aren't enough copies of the item for all of them? I assume fixed starting equipment is dealt out in turn order (ie, the First Player gets his/her fixed items first, then the next player, etc.) If this is the case, can the investigators who can't get their fixed starting items because of lack of copies of it get replacement items of equal value, or are they just SOL?

jeremyj621 said:

Hmmm....haven't gotten any replies to this, so I'll post some possible solutions:

1) If any investigator has a unique, one-of-a-kind item that they start with (such as Luke Robinson and his Gate Box, of which there is only one in the deck), and another investigator starts with the same item, the second player will just have to choose another investigator.

2) The second player chooses another item from the same deck of equal or lesser value.

3) Same as #2 above, but the player may choose from a lesser deck, such as exchanging a unique item for a common item of equal or lesser value.

This problem is likely to occur when mixing custom-made investigators with official Fantasy Flight game investigators. From the expansions I own thus far, it doesn't appear that any two official Fantasy Flight investigators share the same one-of-a-kind starting item(s). Personally, I would opt for option #1 rather than hassle looking for alternative items to start with.

This would be similar to a situation brought up recently in the main forums where an investigater started later in the game (due to a devouring) and all the copies of a fixed item were already in the possession of other investigators. Officially the investigator who would get it last is SOL. In the case of this happening during game setup you can just look to the rule book for the answer. The first player is chosen in step 3 and fixed possessions are dealt in step 7, the text for dealing fixed possessions specifically states that you start with the first player so you have a built in way of knowing who would get the items first and who would last.

That being said while officially the character would start with 1 item less than normal it would not be unreasonable to deal them a random item of the same type as compensation.

If a character's fixed items are not available because they are already in play, why not just "pencil in" those items, and write down on some scrap piece of paper all the relevant item information for the item they're supposed to have, then play as usual like it was a real card?

I suppose the problem with this is that you're creating an additional card to whatever deck it's supposed to be from and that you're throwing off the card / deck odds, etc.... but since you're worried about custom investigators clashing with official ones, just think you're compensating for the additional fun of being creative or something....

Not really an "official" solution, but I think for casual games, it should serve ok.

When this problem arises while I play, I usually just give that character a random item drawn from the deck.