So were playing with Innsmouth and a few other expansions, and Shub-Niggurath as the AO. The gates keep appearing in the same locales, triggering monster surge after monster surge, but leaving Shubby at some point with only 3 doom tokens after playing a bit. We manage to seal three gates despite an environment putting mummies everywhere in the streets, and a rumor that increased the toughness of witches/warlocks/cultists. And just as we remove the last doom token the first thing we do next turn is a gate fails to open and we fill the Deep Ones Rising Track awaking Shubby. With no Doom Tokens on her sheet.

Cant sat we usually win after the AO wakes up...

Your report indicates (but does not prove), that you are not playing according to the rules in two aspects:

• If you seal a gate, you usually do not remove a doom token from the doom track, unless you are sealing with an Elder Sign (or due to some other cards, which explicitely state, that a doom token is removed).
• If the Great Old One awakens due to reasons other than a full doom track (e.g. a full Deep Ones Rising Track), its doom track is filled nontheless.

It actually PROVES that he was playing not according to the rules.

I removed doom tokens from the AO for regular sealing only my first time playing, then I re-read the rules and it was K.

Also, gates constantly opening at the same location may be the sign of bad mythis deck shuffle.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

I disagree. From what was written, it is still possible (however unlikely, which is why I wrote “indicate” instead of “prove”), that all sealings were done with Elder Signs (or similar) and the final combat was regular.

Take note of these posts. When the AO awakens, its doom track is filled. And doom tokens aren't taken off before final combat unless something tells you to take one off.

Better luck on your next game. Shub is nasty and Innsmouth's brutal.

The only things which can take doom tokens from AO at his awakening I recall are Call the Ancient One and The Path Is Lit and This Is It.

How serendipitous. I was planning to start a thread about Call Ancient One, but if it's alright with everyone, I'll just post the question here instead:

If you successfully cast Call Ancient One and lose all your Sanity in the process, are you devoured or sent to the Asylum? My instinct would be the former; spells take effect even if you spend all of your Sanity, and you don't go to the Asylum until after they've been cast, meaning you're "suspended" at 0 Sanity until the Spell is finished, at which point the AO would be awake. Or am I wrong?

In my personal opinion, any insanities or unconsciousnesses that are concurrent with the AO awakening result in a devouring. Essentially, casting the spell is what's causing the AO to awaken, so there's "no time" for the investigator to recover before the AO awakens.

Thematically, investigator can't get better in asylum during the AO awekening and be prepared to do battle, but taking madness card and being ready for battle makes sense.

It's either one or the other. Either you go insane and survive for final combat (whether or not you gain an Injury), or you're devoured. Thematically, the reason you wind up at the Asylum is that someone found your insane gibbering lump and called the authorities. If you went insane because you were awakening the Ancient One, there won't be any time for you to get carted to the Asylum. Thus, you're insane while the AO is awake, which means you're dead.

Wrzlprmft said:

They were ES. The bad shuffling wasn't just in the Mythos Deck...

As to the other, there are a lot of would be rules lawyers in the group who like to argue a lot, and sometimes the rules are interpreted 'creatively'

Which is a nice way of saying sometimes i am a sad kitteh

Bhu said:

The best way to deal with rules lawyers is to insist on Arkham's Razor. When in doubt, stab the investigators with it.