Hey theeeere!

First things first.

I got AH, three cheer for me! *hooray* And i played it yesterday! *hooray* And i lost, when GOO who awakes destroys everything! *Hooraaay…. Wait what?*

So i had question about beeing Devoured. I kinda understand it and at the same time i dont! If that makes sense! So i wanted to make it clear.

So Let's take Joe Diamond, he had 6 stamina and 4 sanity (if i recall right)

If he looses 6 stamina in a fight with a monster, he is immidiatly sended to Hospital and regains 1 stamina (Or all if he has money). Am I Right? I'm Right!

If he looses 4 sanity in a horror check, he is immidiatly sended to Asylum and regains 1 sanity (or all of he has money).Am I Right? I'm Right!

So When Exactly is he Devoured?

When he loose more stamina that he have? Like, he has 4 stamina left, but monster deals 5 stamina. Devoured?

Or/and When he loose more sanity than he have? Like, he has 3 sanity left, but monster deals 4 sanity. Devoured?

I just need nice and clean explanation!

Thanks in advance!

He is devoured under a few conditions:

1) When his sanity and stamina reach zero simultaneously. This doesn't happen often, but there are some encounters which cause you to lose both sanity and stamina.

2) When his MAXIMUM sanity or stamina reaches 0.

3) During final combat against the Ancient One, if he is reduced to zero sanity or stamina.

4) When other game effects say he's devoured. For example, being lost in time and space vs Yog Sothoth, or failing the luck check against The Black Man (one of Nyarlathotep's masks).

jack21222 said:

Boy, that's some book.

Embery said:

This doesn't seem strictly correct. Specifically, the "or all if he has money" parts aren't right. Here's what the rulebook says:

If an investigator is ever reduced to 0 Stamina while in Arkham, the investigator is knocked unconscious. He must immediately choose and discard half of his items and half of his Clue tokens (rounded down), along with all retainers (if any). The player then immediately moves his investigator to St. Mary’s Hospital. The investigator is restored to 1 Stamina and has no further encounters this turn. The investigator may take his next turn as normal.

Since the "pay $2 to regain max stamina" effect at St. Mary's Hospital is an encounter, it does not happen immediately. The soonest it can happen is on the investigator's next turn.

jack21222 said:

A little addition: An investigator is also devoured if he/she is lost in time and space when the Ancient One (any Ancient One) awakens.

Everyone has already provided good info. I would also like to take a moment to point out that you can find more information on what Devoured means in game terms by referencing page 17 of the main rule book. This gives very specific and straight forward definitions of how and when an investigator is devoured along with what happens next.

From reading the original post, it sounds as though you just picked up the base game a short while ago. With that being said, it is unlikely that you'll see many cases where an investigator is devoured until you start adding expansions. Expansions increase the possibility on an exponential basis (at least for me) for an investigator to be devoured. But with the base game, there are only but a select few times where you will see this rule actually come into play. Most of the time, you're just headed to the Asylum or St. Mary's.

Hope this helps and don't let the doom track fill up!

Aye, thanks all of you who helped me, as newbie to AH, with this problem. It is bit clear - ish for me about devouring.

And Devouring (as one of main problems) will come up with Expansions, So then i will enjoy peacefull life with out devouring threat so high!

Thanks again, mates!

Ya' all can wait for more posts from me!

*sight* Oh boy, right?

Sorry for the thread necromancy but I couldn't find a solid answer anywhere since I'm still a little lost… I'm a total noob and will likely be the rules lawyer for my group so I'd like to have a good grasp on them before we play.

I've been reading the rules as I wait for my copy to arrive and the, "When his MAXIMUM sanity or MAXIMUM stamina reaches 0" rule is still confusing me. When reduced to 0, doesn't that character just go to the asylum/hospital/lost in space and time to heal for 1 if it isn't the final battle? So then how does the character get devoured when if the max reaches 0 that character always just ends up healed back to 1?

I get the whole both 0 at once or if you're lost in space and time when the big baddie awakens but this one rule seems to contradict the other one. Am I just looking at it incorrectly?

Maximum refers to the maximum amount of sanity/stamina for a character. For example, Harvey Walters has a maximum sanity of 7 and maximum stamina of 3. Over the course of the game he can be hurt or drivien insane so that he can be at 6 out of 7 sanity or 2 out of 3 stamina. There are certain effects (most common in the base game is playing against Cthulhu) that can lower that second number permanently. Similarly there are effects that can raise the maximum (having Duke or Sir William Brinton as an ally). If that number is ever lowered so much as to be 0, it can't be increased at the hospital/asylum and the character will die.

DearZeus said:

Basically every character has two values for his Stamina and Sanity: Maximum and Current.

When a character is injured it is the current value that goes up and down, sending you to the hospital or asylum when it reaches zero. A character with zero stamina or sanity is unconscious or insane, respectively.

Maximum stamina and sanity are the highest the current value is allowed to be. These go up or down only when a specific effect (on a card etc) says so. Because Current stamina/sanity can't be higher than the Maximum value, a character with zero maximum stamina or sanity is permanently unconscious or permanently insane- hence they are devoured.

You really won't see it much with the base game, but with the expansions it becomes much more common.

Two_Hands said:

Makes 100% sense now. Thank you so, so much!

Necro-ing for two timing questions about devouring. I've looked through several FAQs and not seen anything. I'm wondering how exactly the replacement investigator gets introduced to the game. The rulebook does say to bring in the new investigator "immediately," but doesn't clarify how this interacts with the normal turn order. The first question is: does the new investigator play later phases of the turn normally? It seems clear to me that they do. For instance, if I am devoured by a Shan during my movement, will my new character receive an encounter from his home location during the Arkham Encounter phase? If I were somehow devoured during upkeep, would my new character be able to move normally? The rulebook's wording strongly suggests yes, but my playgroup objected on the grounds that it intuitively feels like the new character should start next turn, and that they didn't want to delay everyone else's encounters while the new character was being set up.

Second question: When my investigator gets devoured, it's still my turn during the relevant phase. Does the new investigator act normally in the same Phase? That is, if I fight a Shan during movement and get devoured, does my new character get to move immediately? If an Arkham Encounter devours me, does my new character draw an encounter at their home location? My intuition says "no" but I'm not sure.

Both your questions were addressed by this FAQ entry (pag 14):

Q: When starting a new investigator after a previous one has been devoured, at what point in the turn does the new investigator start?
A: The new investigator starts at the beginning of the next turn.

So, basically, after being devoured you start playing again during the Upkeep of the turn following the one you were devoured

Thanks! I actually found that answer later last night. I appreciate having the community here, for sure.