Hi all, new player here with 1.5 games under my belt and I have a few questions regarding some of the wording on the cards and certain events.

Hoping you guys can shed some light on some things for me.

A) Do "discard after use" (such as Holy Water) and "return to box" (such as Elder Sign) mean different things?

I'm thinking that discard after use means the card goes back in the deck but return to box removes the card from the game, is this correct?

B) Skill cards give 2 effects: 1) a permanent +X to a skill and 2) gaining additional dice when spending clue tokens for certain rolls, correct?

C) Can there only be 1 environment card in play at once? Or is it one of each environment type? (Urban, Weather, etc…)

D) Your max stamina and sanity can never be exceeded. Even if a magical encounter of some kind says "gain 3 stamina", if you are at full health, nothing happens, yes? (I do realize that your max can be increased)

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm sure I'll come up with more questions later.

Well, as it appears as though you'[re in the middle (.5) of a game, here are the answers to your inquiries based on my interpretation (3+ years/100+ games) or the general consensus:

A) Do "discard after use" (such as Holy Water) and "return to box" (such as Elder Sign) mean different things?

I'm thinking that discard after use means the card goes back in the deck but return to box removes the card from the game, is this correct? Yes, absolutely correct ~ Elder Signs, once used shall not see the light of day again.

B) Skill cards give 2 effects: 1) a permanent +X to a skill and 2) gaining additional dice when spending clue tokens for certain rolls, correct? Correct. So, a +1 Fight gives you the permanent extra die to wherever you have the Skill slider and when you opt to throw a Clue Token, there's a statement at the bottom of the card which allows an additional die.

C) Can there only be 1 environment card in play at once? Or is it one of each environment type? (Urban, Weather, etc…) Only one Environment at a time. While there a few individuals who play with multiple Environments, that's truly the way of madness.

D) Your max stamina and sanity can never be exceeded. Even if a magical encounter of some kind says "gain 3 stamina", if you are at full health, nothing happens, yes? (I do realize that your max can be increased). That's generally true, but there a few encounters (one at Gardner's Place from Dunwich comes to mind in which you do increase your Stamina by 3 ~ when lost, however, it may not be restored/regained.

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm sure I'll come up with more questions later.

To avoid making another thread title “new person has questions” I’ll post my question here. Can someone offer a little explanation on items, for example, the .45 Automatic. It requires 1 hand and gives +4 for combat checks. What happens after I use it after a fight with a monster? Is it used and returned to the deck? Is it used and can’t be used again until the following upkeep phase (for example, I’m fighting 2 monsters back to back, I use the .45 automatic for the first monster, but I don’t get to use it during the second battle) If I need two rounds of combat to kill a monster (because I failed the first one and took the stamina loss) can I use it 2 rounds in a row. OR can I use it indefinitely, never having to discard the item throughout the entirety of the game (unless another action forces me to discard items) and can switch between other weapons throughout the game as I see fit?

Also how does it work with switching items? So I’m fighting a monster, I’m using the .45 automatic and do a round of combat but I don’t kill it. So now its round two, can I switch to the shotgun now?

Dynamite is easy, use it and then discard it just like it says. But it’s the other weapons that puzzle me. Also I guess I have the same question with spells. If they don’t specifically say “discard after use” or specifically mention an upkeep, do I just get to keep the spell?

Thanks for the help. Fun game, confusing at first, but fun!

About the weapon. If it's not said to discard, don't discard. You can change what you put in your hands every round of fight.

So yes, you can fight the first round withe the .45 Automatic and second still with it or with a shotgun.

Yes you can fight a monster with the .45 Automatic and then fight another monster, in the same turn, with the same .45 Automatic.

About the spells, if it doesn't says to discard, it exhaust. You can use one spell all along a fight, as long as you have hands to use it. At the end of a fight, or as soon as you don't have hands for that spell (for example, using a shotgun), the spell effects don't take place anymore. Next upkeep, you'll refresh it and will be able to use it later.

Hope, my explanations are okay… and understandable.

A quick addendum, which I throw in because I didn't realize this at first: you can indeed switch weapons every round, but you must do so before you cast any combat spells. Thus, if you try to cast a spell and fail, you cannot use the hand(s) used to cast the spell until the next round.