Tbla said:

Do you? Oh!

Um…

Oh! So, maybe the reputation goes along to the new Investigator? As in: "Mandy Thompson? I know you, you were friends with ol' Ashcan, weren't you? He had talked about you the last time he came in here. Any friend of his is a friend of mine…"

Maybe?

Nun of your business said:

::laughter:: I'm more oriented on "he's wearing his [= the dead friend's] Star Spawn friendship bracelet, too"

Wanna play. So baaaaaaaaaaaadly. Sigh.

Yeah, there's no good explanation of the trophy thing. Even with the "reputation" idea, it still doesn't quite explain how everyone manages to coordinate their gratitude. (Gossip would have to be near-instantaneous and very far-reaching.) Also, there are a number of indications that trophies are physical, or, at least, sometimes are. Take, for instance, the Science Building's Dissection ability, which is clearly supposed to represent the scientists dissecting the corpse and giving you information they gleaned from it, the various Graveyard encounters which give you a trophy for finding a corpse, and this encounter from Miskatonic: "Harney tells you that the critters have tried to break into our world before. He shows you a strange object of wood and stone, tied together by iron bands. Draw a gate marker from the stack of gate markers and keep it as a trophy, even if it is an Endless gate."

Well, I did say that trophies "aren't necessarily anything tangible." I've so rarely visited that old Dunwich Shack, I had no idea Harney had his own Gate Trophy. So a Trophy could be any number of things.

We should probably treat it like Schrodinger's Cat: a trophy is "all things" (both alive and dead) until it is used. Then you'll know exactly what it is by the story it tells!

jgt7771 said:

With the only difference that we don't know whether the cat's alive or not as long as the box is closed, while we know for sure that trophies are dead and stay dead, box closed or not.

Uhm, I hear something knocking in distance…

…

Julia said:

Except when they don't. In our last game, there was either a Mythos or Encounter (pretty sure it was a Mythos?) card that had some specfic monster trophies jump up and try to kill us.

Silly quantum monsters.

Nun of your business said:

Miskatonic Arctic expedition returns? ::laughter:: why on Earth should they have returned? ::laughter::

Schrödinger's Trophy. It's both an anecdote and physical evidence, until the manner by which it is spent collapses its waveform.

I believe a trophy or a clue doesn't exist and doesn't have a purpose, until it is spent. Only then does it acquire a purpose and form.

edit: reading the last few posts, it seems a lot of you imagine it this way too I guess it's because it really is hard to imagine trophies as big sacks of meat and bones

Likewise, a turn length averages 18 hours, but changes on a turn-by-turn basis to meet thematic requirements

Tibs said:

Exactly! "4th of July parade" followed by "Icy Conditions", anyone?

I think I will settle for a combination of abstract things like information, fame etc. and real things like claws, teeth, and documents. This would probably satisfy my needs to explain things. This is btw the way I have always thought about clues, how I could fail to make the connection to trophies is a mystery.

But it is still quite amusing (not realistic) to think of monster trophies as the monsters themselves. Imagine someone trying to sneak past a patrol while draging the carcasses of two starspawns and a dhole behind him.

Maybe you just hide the corpses. And then you give the Science Building people some infos on how to rescue them, so that they can go and dissect them there. Or you give Ma some Chthonian steaks for some help. Dunno. Still not much realistic (Q: "where's the Dhole?" A: "I kicked it in my cellar" ::shock: , but, as Tbla said, the idea is a lot of fun

Tbla said:

I'm imagining a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation. This horrifies me.

Mostly because I can't believe I ever sw that awful movie.

Tbla said:

But it is still quite amusing (not realistic) to think of monster trophies as the monsters themselves. Imagine someone trying to sneak past a patrol while draging the carcasses of two starspawns and a dhole behind him.

…and 2000+ years later, that Investigator's descendent will be the nameless Marine of DOOM, effortlessly carrying nine weapons, including a BFG-9000, a Rocket Launcher, and a Chainsaw.

Tibs said:

After today's examination, I feel as though I'm no longer qualified to make Quantum Mechanics jokes.

Tibs said:

Too bad, those are the best jokes. I told my girlfriend one on our first date, It's a wonder we're still together after 7 years.