The original Dark Pharaoh had a Mythos card (a double doomer) that was called Murderer at Large; Victim's Brains Missing. It's headline was "Victims of a string of murders are left desiccated corpses with their brains and internal organs removed." There's an image of it here:

http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Image:Mythos136.png

As you probably know, "desiccated" means to dry out. In other words, the victims had basically been turned into mummies, though not the animated kind.

Earlier this year, I noticed on the Arkham Horror wiki that "desiccated" had been incorrectly transcribed as "desecrated." It just bugged me. You know how these things can get to you. "Desecrated" means to profane a sacred object. It usually applies to religious objects. You can desecrate a grave by digging it up, or you can desecrate an alter by throwing pig's blood on it (unless your church is into that kind of thing). You can sometimes desecrate a corpse if you molest it in some way. It's a very general, abstract concept, and that's what bothered me. "Desiccated" means something very specific, and very cool, in the context of this card. It means that someone dried out the corpses. Along with the information about removing the brains and internal organs, we can see that someone has been killing people and mummifying the corpses. If the word is changed to "desecrated," it just means that the corpses have been ****** with in some way. But the card tells us that the brains and internal organs had been removed, so we already knew that the corpses had been ****** with. So putting the word "desecrated" on this card tells us absolutely nothing.

Anyway, it bugged me so much that I created a wiki account and changed it. Then I felt a lot better.

Then the revised version of Dark Pharaoh came out, and guess what? Now the OFFICIAL CARD says that the corpses were desecrated, not desiccated.

Nooo! NOOOO!!!!

You can desecrate a body as well. That's often what it's called when bodies are mutilated in obscene ways or have something removed - like a brain.

Maybe the Mi-Go gave up mummification?

My point isn't that "desecrated" is wrong in this context. It's that the word is lame and boring and it doesn't tell us anything. But the word "desecrated" is probably more familiar to most us than the word "desiccated," so it's natural to substitute one word for the other.

If the card is otherwise identical to the original, then if you don't mind I'll be leaving the older version in.

Thanks for the heads up, avec.

Here's another fun one. Remember this encounter from the Silver Twilight Lodge?

The lights go out; you hear chanting and feel a knife at your throat. You may:

1) Flee. Lose 1 Stamina and move to the street.
2) Allow them to cast their ritual upon you. Lose 2 Stamina, but take the Visions card and gain 1 Clue token.
3) Attempt to take control of the ritual with a Lore (-1) check. If you pass, the Lodge offers you a Silver Twilight Membership. (errata: the following was not printed) If you fail, lose 3 Stamina and all of your Spells, then move to the street.

Well, the errata is still missing in the revised edition.

They did, however, change "1d6" to "roll a die" in the Unvisited Isle encounter.

This is potentially handy stuff. We need to keep a thread of all the differences between the two versions. It'll make it a lot easier to combine the sets.

I'm very suprised they didn't errata the StL encounter. Is the Triune Mask still in there too, or do we finally have a mask to interact with that card?

avec said:

*Nyarlathotep smirks*

avec said:

Jake yet again said:

It's the Mask of the Three Fates on both the encounter card and the Exhibit Item card.

Also, they provided the mummies' stats on the Clothing Drive card, which is nice. (And I checked and the stats are right.)

A lot of the spells are completely different now, by the way. Revelation of Script is: "Cast and exhaust this card to gain one clue token for each Unique Item or Exhibit Item you gain until the end of the turn." It still has a Sanity cost of zero, fortunately.

avec said:

Man, I so first read that as 1 Clue for each UI and EI you HAVE . That would've been sick and driven Avi over the edge with the abuse it would've offered.

Dam said:

Avi_dreader said:

Same here. +3 to read a Tome makes far more sense. Still - once they launch it in the UK - having both sets gives the luxury of picking and choosing.

How many Exhibit Items are completely different and are there any new cards?

Jake yet again said:

All of them, I think. Maybe a couple haven't been changed, but I don't know which ones.

Jake yet again said:

There are new Exhibit Items and the Ancient Whispers mechanic. Most of the spells are essentially new cards, even though the names and the artwork haven't changed. A lot of the Allies have been nerfed and the Messenger has been completely reworked. I was hoping for more dual color OW cards, but no.

I'm holding out on more double-color OW cards in Miskatonic. Since it promises 56 OW cards, I can look at the breakdown like this:

For example, for the 14 reds:

1. Abyss + Another Time
2. Abyss + Kadath
3. Another Time + Dreamlands
4. Another Time + Kadath
5. Another Time + Leng
6. Another Time + R'lyeh
7. Dreamlands + Kadath
8. Kadath + Leng
9. Kadath + R'lyeh
10. Another Time (full flavor) + Other=discard
11. Another Time (full flavor) + Other=discard
12. Kadath (full flavor) + Other=discard
13. Kadath (full flavor) + Other=discard
14. A new dual-color

or:

1. Abyss + Another Time
2. Abyss + Kadath
3. Another Time + Dreamlands
4. Another Time + Kadath
5. Another Time + Kadath
6. Another Time + Kadath
7. Another Time + Kadath
8. Another Time + Kadath
9. Another Time + Leng
10. Another Time + R'lyeh
11. Dreamlands + Kadath
12. Kadath + Leng
13. Kadath + R'lyeh
14. A new dual-color

I'm not one to hold high hopes for such things, but after seeing the double-gate Mythos cards, it seems like anything's possible. Plus, Miskatonic would be the perfect opportunity to add in such a card.

Sorry in case this was already said but... the revised CotDP Mythos cards have Gate bursts?

Julia said:

Nope.

Jake yet again said:

+3 to gate closing was the more useful side of it, though. Considering Sigil of Hermes Trismegistus from Lurker only gives +2, costs a sanity, and has a -1 modifier - though it can be used on people other than the caster - it might have been a bit powerful by comparison.

avec said:

::sigh::

Julia said:

I suppose if they put gate bursts in CotDP, there may have been pressure for them to add gate bursts to KiY too.

For those who have the revised edition, what are you opinions of the revised Allies? Seems like most of them lose one of the buffs, and the left over one is reduced, however changed to the base skill (Combat changed to Fight). Not a bad trade-off.

For you non-difficulty-mongers, do you plan on replacing them or keeping the old ones?

Still have to wait September to be able to judge ::sob::

Brine said:

I think if Leo or Charlie started with The Messenger, they'd have good reason to be annoyed. (-1 to all tests, if you are devoured with The Messenger, remove two Doom tokens). I guess you could have fun with it on the Innsmouth board ("Please, someone devour me! Yay, I'm arrested!")

I never liked the uber-power DP allies, so the nerfed versions sit better with me.

Don't get me wrong: I enjoy difficulty, but the Dark Pharaoh allies had something no others had: special check bonuses. Danforth was the first effect, ever, to offer a focus bonus. That takes me all the way back to '05. Memories.

The new Messenger seems... odd. –1 to all skill checks to hope to remove doom tokens upon your sporadic and unpredictable devouring is not ally material.

Tibs said:

Yeah but pair him with Silas?