Hello everyone,

A month's worth of lurking, but here's a first post. Hi!

I have a few, hopefully quick questions, mostly about rules;
1) When you draw an injury or madness card for hitting 0 Stamina/Sanity, Only the following changes?:
- No loss of Clue tokens
- No loss of Items
- Stamina/Sanity at Maximum, instead of 1

2) Environments.
Nothing seems to fully clarify this, and the rules seem vague, but do you only keep 1 environment card active? or is it 1 of each type?
Or is this simply so vague that it's a judgement call?

3) (More of a personal experience question)
If you have played with '1 environment card' or '1 of each', which do you find has been harder?

As we say to newcomers, Welcome to the Carnival!

Let me respond to each one, in-turn...

1. Injury or Madness cards do prevent, as you mentioned no loss of Clue Tokens or Items and the respective characteristic (Sanity or Stamina) is restored to maximum value. These cards can serve you tactically...meaning you're not debilitaed for a round or two at either St. Mary's Hospital or the Arkham Asylum. Additionally, considering the expansions you play, they may be seen as strategic assistance in garnering Power Tokens if you play with the Lurker Guardian/Herald or just 'Guarald'

2. Yes, you may keep only one type (Environment, Headline, and Rumor) active at a time.

3. Playing by the rules and displaying only one at a time works quite well, until you have an Environemnt which is painful. Of course the corollary to this is Noden's Favor which allows you to seal gates for two less Clue Tokens. You can guarantee that the board will take that little benefit away quickly.

The Professor

Excellent, now, where is the midway?

That explains the environments very well, thank you. I have seen a few threads here, and on the BGG forums that have people confusing that rule, without a full clarification on it.

I haven't seen a rules F.A.Q. on this forum that summarizes the most recent updates. Is there a link that leads directly to them?

I should clarify the question on Injuries and madnesses;

- When you go Insane/Unconscious, Madnesses/Injuries only protect you from losing Clues, Items, and Stamina/Sanity.
Other effects (discard retainers, follow any effects in play that trigger on Insanity/Unconsciousness) still apply, correct?

Good catch ~ Retainers are...well...retained.

Unfortunately, there's no link to the broad-based, in-the-works-for-thre-years FAQ, but I and others have heavily edited the work at arkhamhorrorwiki which has served well as the FAQ-like product. Yes, it's a function of group think, but seriously it's a game. We're not all playing it exactly the same way...and that's okay.

To answer a couple lingering questions:

• I believe Retainers are lost, and all other "unconscious" effects are still triggered. Taking an Injury does not mean you haven't gone unconscious: it just means your penalty is different.
• Don't play with all three Environment types in play. As has been mentioned, things like Nodens's Favor and No One Can Help You Now will stay for much longer than they're supposed to. One of the subtle effects of Ithaqua's ability is that environments linger a little bit longer, since Weather cards can't replace them. Additionally, there will be a thematic disconnect when you have Sunny and Clear (weather) in play with Darkest Night (mystic).

Tibs,

Yes, you are correct Retainers are, in fact. lost (unless it was just one of many oversights when they wrote the Injury/Maddness Rules in DH). As to the Clues and Items, you do keep them, so the "going unconscious/insane" does not trigger their loss. You do move to either St. Mary's in the case of an Injury or Arkham Asylum in the case of a Madness (or Lost in Time and Space in the case of an Other World Encounter) and your respective characteristic does return to its maximum value. Good catch!

The Professor

Tibs;

Funny you should mention that example, it came up in my first game when I was doing the 'one of each' error.
My logic was the Days are Sunny and Clear, and the Nights are Terrifying. ... Actually I don't believe there was any logic involved, just 'well, this is different'.
Alternatively, you could see it as a solar eclipse?

The Professor;

Thank you, that is much clearer. Where is this FAQ-monstrocity held? I haven't seen an uber-link on the Arkham horror Wiki, just the lot of rules, with all the assorted FAQs. Was that what you meant?

Aurus said:

The FAQ are as secret as a stolen nuclear weapon. They were started many years ago; in 2010, some valiant men from this very forum worked on them together with FFG, and then... darkness had cometh.

Nobody knows where the FAQ are, or when they will published. Just listen to me, don't ask. Others have asked, and then...

KNOCK KNOCK

[...]

Julia said:

Thank you for the heads up

Aurus said:

::wink:: you're welcome :-)

I propose we rename the FAQs the "Outstanding Frequency Unanswered Questions," or the O-FUQs.

I mean, I guess you could think of both Environments as a solar eclipse, though:

• It makes sense that Sunny and Clear modifies the stats it does, understanding that it's sunny out; likewise, it makes sense that Blackest Night modifies its stats if it's actually dark out. It can't be both.
• Note how each card modifies the Haunter in the Dark monster; they don't make sense together.
• There is already a solar eclipse environment card that causes your spells to stop working!

Also, Julia—2010? The FAQ project got its start right after Kingsport... 2008!

Avec—as an astronomer (a field where acronyms are very close to the heart), your suggestion was not lost on me.

Tibs said:

Yeah, I know. But..., maybe I'm wrong... wasn't the first draft finished in 2010? The one with the answers, not just the questions!

Tibs said:

In 2008, 3 Arkham Horror forumites got lost in the FAQ. They were never seen again. ...

...

DUN DUN DUN!

I'm really beginning to think that the reason the FAQ isn't released is because we're all so entertaining when someone asks where it is! If the FAQ were out...there would no longer be a show! (Instead we would just drone out, "I T ' S O V E R T H E R E .")

But it's possible that the FAQ isn't completed because FFG might actually think we don't need it. I mean, none of us have stopped playing because there's an odd clash of statutes; we simply adapt as we wish to, and compare notes with the rest of us later. If there's a "majority-accepted" rule, we suggest it, but I know not every one of us uses any given one of those rules. (I know I don't: shotgunning the immune, indeed. ) I notice a bunch of other FFG games have FAQs all the time...but all of them are in some way competitive. Human vs Human needs rules clarified or else it devolves into whose invisible gun is stronger than whose invisible force field. But with us, we're all so intelligently strange that we will advocate on behalf of the silent game that wants to kill us, ruling in favor of it as often as we do in favor of ourselves.

We ARE the FAQ.

jgt7771 said:

It seems like an Arkhamite rewording of a notorious sentence from Stranger in a strange land ::laughter::

All this talk of no FAQ had me confused until I took a closer look at the *cough* "current" one on the support page... "January 4, 2007" This is sad.

Tibs said:

Deep breath...

If you assume that each turn is an aggregate of a prolonged period of time, more than 24 hours, then it could be both Sunny and Clear (in the daylight) and Darkest Night (er, at night).

You'd have to then assume that each encounter/monster fight also stretched at least throughout dusk/dawn in order to accumulate both sets of mods.

We once played a 'all Enivronments stay forever' game. It got interesting. Then we vowed never to do it again.