The Dark Reckoning card Prisoner's Dilemma states;

"The investigators must choose: either the investigator with the most Power is devoured , or the investigator with the least Power is driven insane ."

What happens in the case when investigators have no power or dark pacts at all? Are they all considered to have the most and the least amount of power at the same time since they all have zero power or are they exempt from the cards' effects?

Having the investigators safe from the cards effects if they have no power or dark pacts seems thematically like the best option as the investigators have not yet given in to the Lurkers' temptations and should therefore not be at risk of being devoured or driven insane. This is how I am currently playing this card, however I would like to know how other people are doing it.

Sola said:

If none has Power, I'd see zero as the least Power (you can't have negative power, so zero is the minimum you can have). Hence, one in your team is driven insane. That's the way I'd play it, anyway

Julia,

I completely agree with your reasoning...I simply play it a bit differently. The Lurker needs to be engaged. Thus, only those Investigators with pacts suffer the "Gate close" penalty or benefit/suffer from the Reckoning Cards. Thus, if no Investigator has a pact, there's no Investigator who has the least/most Power. Again, for me this works...

The Professor said:

Yeah, I agree with you. He totally needs a Lurkress ::laughter::

(sorry, couldn't resist)

The Professor said:

Eh, I had always played it the way Julia had first suggested due to the fact that you are already choosing the Lurker as the Herald in the first place. If these effects don't want to be triggered in the game at all, I had the notion you shouldn't have him as a Herald, otherwise what's the point of playing with him if nobody is going to be tempted by his pacts? All the other current Heralds affect the game in some manner so this is his way of affecting it. If that means everyone (in the example given by Sola in the first post) has 0 power, then there is a least amount person in the game and are unfortunate enough to be affected by his presence.

I don't know, that's how I've viewed it.

Julia said:

That's how I play it as well. The thematic reason is that one of the investigators is driven insane because he/she is conflicted whether or not to make a deal with the Lurker.