Having had a chance to look at (and then subsequently play a couple of games with) the Revised Dark Pharaoh, quite a few questions arise from just a quick glimpse:

First and foremost (and this is going to bug me way too much for way too long):

So there's this question that people frequently ask about, and there is this official errata from Kevin Wilson (question 10. in Reply #6), and FFG is changing a bunch of the other encounters (Arkham and Other World), including making the font smaller on at least some of the cards, is there any good reason this encounter was not changed to at least include the official errata?

(note this is not word for word it is a rough paraphrase from memory - unfortunately the exact wording is likely very, very important)

The Mask of Vice: exhaust when you have the opportunity to purchase an item to instead gain that item without having to pay for it

Right. So how does that work when shopping at the Curiositie Shoppe or General Store, given the ruling/clarification about having to buy an item? Do you still have to pay for 1 of the 2 Unique or Common Items you don't use the Mask of Vice to obtain? What about Ye Olde Magick Shoppe?

This came up in one of the two games we played (along with three other masks, the Chime of Ra and the Scales of Thoth - what else are you going to do in a Sandstorm?)

(Again rough paraphrase from memory)

The Messenger: -1 to All Skill Checks; if you are devoured remove two doom tokens

So, does this still work in the end fight? Ancient One devours the investigator with The Messenger and loses two doom tokens? If the last investigator left during the End Fight has The Messenger, and there is one or two doom tokens left when said investigator is devoured, who wins?

Look, I think this version of CotDP is a vast improvement over the previous incarnation, but there seems like there are some pretty significant things that could have, and should have been further clarified. And since these are just from memory, and only at a quick glance there could well be a bunch more (e.g. Scales of Thoth could probably use a clarification: can you use it if your Stamina and Sanity are already equal, would you get the +1 bonus to skill checks from it if you did?). Plus not fixing that encounter is just plain dumbfounding.

Couldn't they have vetted this with Arkham vets like ColtsFan, Dam or Tibs, or heck let diablo666 and myself do it (we've played Arkham Horror literally hundreds of times)?

Additional notes: so making the readily available method of acquiring Exhibit Items fairly rough (especially when compounded with the randomness of the card draw) while subsequently improving and making more interesting most of the Exhibit Items makes sense. Nerfing and not improving some of the others (i.e. one-shot [discard for effect] items [other than the differentiated elder parchment pieces, which are pretty cool and interesting] for stuff that is generally speaking much harder to come by than the Unique Items is pretty rough) does not really make that much sense. Also, fixing the Exhibit Items to work better with the Cursed Relics Rumor, and also changing the Cursed Relics Rumor was perhaps more than necessary, but making said Rumor rougher is just mean.

Cannot seem to get editing posts to work properly

Cannot seem to get editing posts to work properly

That's better

Or not.

totl said:

Messenger. It's a pyrrhic victory for the players. They savd the world, but none of them survived to enjoy the fruits of their labour, which feels appropriate in a Lovecraft game. There is a mission which devours a player but causes the players to win, even though that player was devoured. This would have the same effect if you won that mission in a one player game.

Mask. Not seeing the card, I can only speculate, but you I'd suggest that the player needs to be able to afford the item in question. In this fashion, they have the opportunity to purchase the good, they just succumbed to the lure and used the Mask of Vice.

If you have both sets you are in the fortunate position of being able to choose which components you use. If you feel an item is nerfed / overpowered, go with the alternate version.

totl said: