Well, the game's not even out the gate and it's already time to start up the questions. This is really for Fantasy Flight (on the off chance that the right person might read it): what can you do for free when receving first aid at the entrance? The rules say you can heal 1 Sanity and 1 Stamina, while the reference sheet says you can heal 1 Sanity or 1 Stamina.

Ahhh, that's kind of an important distinction. Whoops. I'm guessing that the rules are wrong, as they do make the "or" distinction in the second part (pay 2 trophies to regain all of his Stamina or Sanity). I think you have to go with whatever's on the reference sheet, considering it's not just a reference sheet but also an actual component in the game.

Instant errata.

Yes, that was my thought. Not only is the "or" listed on the sheet, the preview that originally showed the sheet says that "An investigator may receive first aid to recover his wits or strength, or both, though receiving treatment for both mind and body requires the expenditure of trophies gained by completing Adventures and defeating monsters." Still, it's unusual for a rulebook to have a blatant mistake (not just a confusingly worded rule, but an outright incorrect one), so let's hope we get an official response.

Where is the reference sheet? Personally, I don't see an issue with the way the rules are written. 1 sanity and 1 stamina healed for free. Otherwise, fully heal one or the other for 2, fully heal both for 4. Make sense to me, more so than 1 sanity OR 1 stamina for free.

For those looking, the reference card was shown in the "Better Good Than Lucky, Part Two" preview.

It is rather difficult to go either way since the game isn't even out yet. It is entirely possible that the reference card shown was simply a prototype and the one that you get in the actual game matches the rules. On the other hand, it is not unheard of for FFG games to need errata even when the game first comes out. Just look over at Mansion of Madness for that one. I would wait till the game comes out before trying to panic.

As a general reference though, I would go with the rulebook. It's quicker and cheaper for a company to change wording in a rulebook then it is to change the printing on a card, so rulebooks tend to have the most up-to-date rulings.

Read the rules several times now and still can't get two points straight in my mind.

1. A Turn: Each turn does ONLY the active player move, and then attempt to resolve an adventure? Or do ALL players move in turn, and then all resolve an adventure in turn, with finally the active player advancing the clock at the end? (If only the Active Player moves, how can there be more than one player on an adventure card?)

2. If you Fail to resolve and adventure card, do you have to remain on that card?

What do you think?

K xx

Mr. K said:

1. Each turn only the active player takes a turn and it goes clockwise around the table. There may be more than one player on an adventure card if you move there after another player has moved there previously and failed the adventure.

2. You have to remain there but could move away on your next turn. You are only returned to the entrance if you complete the adventure.

@ Loticus - Yes, I believe you are right on both counts. I've been playing Arkham Horror too long, Sometimes it's sooo easy to misinterpret a rule! For me, anyway.

K xx

GrimWizard said:

I disagree because in this particular case, the reference card is a component in the game that players move to. That should take precedence. Also because the ref card is the harder version and typically the rule for AH is that if there's a rule question, whatever would make the game more difficult is probably the right answer.

Also, if you can heal 1 Sanity and 1 Stamina for free, the free option is often more desirable than the one-trophy option (fully healing Sanity or Stamina), which doesn't really make sense.

Walk said:

I have not played the game yet, so keep that in mind.

Like other AH games, time is important. While the PC is sitting on the entrance they aren't helping the group complete tasks. That is why spending the trophies make sense and is necessary. If someone gets pretty beat up, you don't want them sitting on the entrance for 3-4 of their turns just healing. All of the PCs have more than 1 or 2 stamina/sanity, so regardless any stamina/sanity loss is going to accumulate and the healing provided for free is still pretty minimal and a poor choice overall, regardless whether it heals either OR or AND.

Yes, but the point still stands. I was specifically comparing the free option (which is, possibly, 1 Sanity and 1 Stamina) and the one-trophy option (which is fully healing either). Now, imagine that you are one below your maximums in both Sanity or Stamina. The free option is clearly the better choice. Now what if you're one below in one stat and two below in the other? Again, the free option is still a better idea. Heck, I'd go so far as to say that, even if you're two below in one stat and three below in the other, free might still be a good idea, since you never know which stat will be targeted. What I'm saying is that, since the one-trophy option is more costly than the free option (much more, since trophies are hard to come by), the one-trophy option should be much more attractive. And yet, we have a number of common situations where the free option is not only as attractive, but more so. It doesn't make sense, which is why I'm inclined to believe "or" is the correct interpretation.

You could certainly be right. Keep in mind, though, that each turn you heal you are essentially doing nothing. You are not helping the group and time passes for each players turn. Time is against the group, as each time midnight rolls around bad things happens and the GOO awakens more. So, for example ... a PC is 2/6 stamina and 3/4 sanity. Sure, they could heal twice (or more) for free, wasting several turns to heal up enough to go back to the adventures. Or, they could use a trophy and completely heal their low sanity in a single turn, fairly confident that a 2/6 stamina isn't all that dangerous (yet). whereas 2/4 sanity (after a single free healing) is still dangerous.

It's about options. Trophy healing, healing all of one type of damage, is still necessary. Honestly, I think if it is actually "OR" then the free healing is pretty much useless. It heals too little for the cost of too many wasted turns.

In AH St. Mary’s heals one stamina for free or all stamina at a cost and Arkham Asylum heals one sanity for free or all sanity for a cost. To me, at least, it feels as though it should be ‘Heal one stamina OR Sanity for free’ to reflect a similar approach.

You either spend your turns healing one Stam OR San a go for free whilst the clock ticks and your friends fight and fall around you or you hand over your hard earned trophies and get back into the fray. I think that even if the official answer is AND I’d be inclined to play it OR just to up the pressure