Can you gain a retainer if you have one?
Can the reporter get his perma-retainer (with his personal story) and then gain another temporary retainer on top of that?

If you have a copy of a "special" card, i.e. Retainer, Blessing, or Curse, and you receive another one, it replaces the first copy. This effectively means you will not roll during the next Upkeep to see if you lose the new copy (the old copy has already been replaced and lost).

This also means that if you're using the Nodens herald, who grants random bonuses when you're blessed, and you get a new blessing, you must lose your current Nodens bonus and get a new random one.

...which is a really wordy way of saying "no".

AH Manual, Special Card Limitations, page 23: "In most cases, a player may never have more than one copy of each special card at the same time. This rule applies to Retainers, Bank Loans, Silver Twilight Memberships, and Bless/Curse cards."

Zapranoth said:

Hang on a moment! The Reporter , Rex Murphy , doesn't have a permanent Retainer (with or without his Personal Story). Do you mean the Photographer , Darrell Simmons ?

Not that it matters because as it has been stated, the rulebook makes it clear the answer is no. The Personal Story for Darrell Simmons (There's Your Proof!) gives him a Retainer but it is a "standard" Retainer (even if he keeps it for the rest of the game) so in that sense it conforms to the usual rules that apply to Special Cards.

jgt7771 said:

In most cases? What would be the exception?

Krawhitham said:

Indeed. The wording on that rule has ALWAYS bugged me. But there are no exceptions.

I meant photographer. Thanks -- sorry, I shoulda caught that in the rules! But it is an extremely poorly "organized" rulebook, gotta admit. Thanks to you guys for helping make sense of it!

Well, they were covering their bases in case they made some condition to break that rule. Or, it's possible that Blessings, Curses, Retainers, and Bank Loans are just members of a broad class of cards called "special cards" that may include things you can have multiples of:

• Deputy cards
• Barred from Neighborhood
• Benefits
• Detriments
• Sheldon Gang Membership
• Rail Pass
• Conditions
• Blights
• Magical Effects
• Blessings of Nodens
• Visions of Hypnos
• Beloved of Bast
• Captain of the White Ship
• Changed
• One of the Thousand Cult Membership
• Corruptions
• Personal Stories
• Relationships
• Dark Pacts
• Miskatonic Student
• Even the rare Gate card that says "keep this card..."

Some of the above things you cannot actually acquire, but some you can (you can have two Detriment cards). Under the right circumstances, you can have to identical copies of the same card (you can have two Rail Passes, two Inner Beasts, and probably, if things go exactly right—or wrong—two Barred from Neighborhood cards).

Tibs said:

How do you get 2 rail passes? What purpose would that serve?

No purpose, except to give one to someone else later. But there's nothing preventing it from happening.

Fascinating.

Tibs said:

Hang on a moment, are you inventing rules again Tibs?

Why do you think you can have two Rail Passes?

The Rail Pass is a Special Card , it's there in the rules for Dunwich Horror, on both page 2 and page 3. Nothing on the Rail Pass card itself indicates that you can have a second, and nothing in the rules concerning Special Cards (i.e. page 23 of the Arkham Horror rules) indicate that you can have more than one of these. "In most cases, a player may never have more than one copy of each special card at the same time"

Why do you think that you can trade Rail Passes?

While this might make sense thematically, the rules don't appear to allow this. You can play it as a House Rule, which is fair enough, but I can't find any indication that you can trade Rail Passes.

I don't like inventing rules.

I think, xris, over the past couple of weeks, I may have accidentally leaked a couple things that I was not supposed to, because I confused them with publicly confirmed things. Aside from the fact that I obviously should not, it's making me look like I'm pulling things out of a hat.

I will be a lot more careful to check my sources before I answer anything again. There's much to be admired about how Brian doesn't post a lot anymore.

Tibs said:

;'D This is why I generally don't post in these sorts of threads, because I know I'll let stuff slip.

This one Rail Pass tidbit was leaked a while ago, but still—not cool on my part for dredging it up.

Anyway I've been playing that Rail Pass is tradeable (and there certainly isn't anything saying that you can't have more than one). But is it an item? I've been playing "yes."

Tibs said:

But there is (concerning allowing possession of more than one Rail Pass). If they want to make an exception (yet another) fair enough but I really don't understand why you state (twice now) that there isn't anything in the rules that doesn't allow you to have more than one Rail Pass.

From the Dunwich Horror rulebook, page 2

20 Special Cards

• 8 Sheldon Gang Membership Cards
• 8 Rail Pass Cards
• 4 Condition Cards

From the Dunwich Horror rulebook, page 3

The new Special cards include Sheldon Gang Memberships, which may be acquired at the Woods; Rail Passes, which can be acquired at the Train Station; and four Condition cards, which are explained in full on page 6.

So from this it is clear that a Rail Pass is a Special Card. And we know that there are limitations on Special Cards.

From the Arkham Horror rulebook, page 23

SPECIAL CARD LIMITATIONS
In most cases, a player may never have more than one copy of each special card at the same time. This rule applies to Retainers, Bank Loans, Silver Twilight Memberships, and Bless/Curse cards.

As for allowing it to be traded. That's another kettle of fish since it is a grey area but the existing rules strongly imply it cannot be traded since it doesn't appear to be an "item". As mentioned, it might make more sense thematically to allow Rail Passes to be traded but at this point in time it should still be considered a house rule (a good one but still a house rule).

I thought I'd missed something in your post, xris, but I didn't.

It is fair to say at this point that trading Rail Passes is still in the realm of house rules. They could either be slips of paper or, as flamethrower49 called them, "photo IDs." But you did post this:

In most cases, a player may never have more than one copy of each special card at the same time. This rule applies to Retainers, Bank Loans, Silver Twilight Memberships, and Bless/Curse cards.

Note that it says "most" and not "all." This is specifically what Krawhitham was asking about—I just provided potential examples. The rule also doesn't make a distinction about what "copy of each special card" means. Does it mean more than one of the same type (Detriment)? Or does it mean more than one identical card (Inner Beast)? There's no reason to believe that you can't have two Detriments or two Inner Beasts.

Obviously, the rules that you cited are from the base game and will not mention any of the examples I listed. But it certainly does not mean that you can't have multiple copies. This may very well be in the realm of house rules as well, but it's certainly not definitively disallowed.

Boy, I can't tell you how much it thrills me to know that I'm playing things wrong and only having the ability to SUSPECT that I am, while knowing that someone else KNOWS that I am.

Only Great Old Ones can wait forever, gentlemen.

Actually, I have a confession to make: I've been lying the whole time.

The FAQ is actually only one page long and it simply reads, "Aw heck—play what feels right!"

The rest of the page is adorned with photos of the design team playing the game and flashing a thumbs up. There is also a preview for the new expansion, New Jersey Horror .

Nice save, Tibs. We may yet let you roll again.

Tibs said:

We already know that Snooki is an Elder God, no need to rub it in.

As a side note, last night I went onto omegle and used the "spy" feature. To anyone unfamiliar, you type in a question and watch two random strangers discuss the answer.

My questions was "Do you know who Carl Sagan is? And do you know who Snooki is?"

The response was:

Stranger 1: No; Yes.

Stranger 2: snooki oh yeah

Stranger 1: She is my cousin.

Stranger 2: mine too

I wish my keyboard could adequately convey unfathomable sadness...

jgt7771 said: