hi my question is this

the COTDP mythos card 'cursed relics' is a little sketchy. it involves putting doom tokens on it (a rumour mythos card) and then every mythos phase one token is taken off and put on the terror track. that parts easy.

the funny part is in how you prevent it. the wording on the card seems wrong because by exhausting an exhibit item or discarding a unique item prevents ts the doom token from being removed from the rumour card thus creating a permenant rumour. should it be that the doom token is still removed from the card but not put on the terror track?

also i had the parchment of the elder sign while this rumour was out. this exhibit card doesn't normally allow itself to be exhausted, so can you exhaust and refresh like other exhibit cards to satisfy the cancelling action of this rumour card, ie does the rumour card allow you to exhaust and refresh a card that doesn't specifically say it can be

Place 5 doom tokens on this card when it comes into play.

Ongoing Effect: At the end of every Mythos Phase after the first, move 1 doom token from this card to the terror track and increase the terror level by 1. Any player may exhaust a ready Exhibit Item or discard a Unique Item to negate both effects.

Pass: If there are no doom tokens on the terror track after the last doom token is removed from this card, discard this card. Each player draws 1 Spell.

Fail: If there are doom tokens in the terror track after the last doom token is removed from this card, discard this card and all doom tokens from the terror track. The terror level rises by a number equal to the number of dome tokens discarded.

If you exhaust the Exhibit or discard a Unique item, you instead discard the doom token that was on the card. The "two" effects being negated are the placement of one doom token on the track and increasing the terror track. The "one" activity that happens every turn no matter what happens is the removal of the doom token from the Mythos card.

If you manage to do this for five turns, you all get a free Spell. If you let it by even once, the Terror track is going up.

As has been clarified from the designer, you can exhaust a card that typically doesn't exhuast in order to satisfy this Mythos card (and a few others, if I remember correctly). So the mere possession of the Parchment should allow you to pass as long as you didn't lose it within 5 turns, have another effect that demanded the parchament be exhausted, or have another effect that prevented the refreshhing of cards.

Welcome to the world of poorly worded CotDP cards.

Thanks for your reply, and thanks for posting the full card text, something i know i should have done. I was rushed for time though.

I had followed the same reasoning you did, in the use of the Cursed Relics card; it seamed the common sense thing to do. I was playing the Touring Exhibit style play which is why the card turned up in my game. I usually play with all the expansion cards mixed in even when not using the extra towns. however due to the number of people shunning the Curse of the Dark Pharoh expansion i decided to see what all of the fuss was about and set up the one board: Arkham, with the touring exhibit set up.

I have played two solo games now each with one investigator and I had a fantastic time, I simply love the touring style play, its like adding another board in a way. I am now definitely going to do the same thing for the dreaded 'Yellow Play' too!

I think your comment on the Curse of the dark Pharoh cards is fair, many of them are baddly written, and use terminology that is not reflected in the rules very well. However as you have kindly shown, many of the discrepancies can be reasoned through with logic and or common sense and certainly playing groups can make a ruling, (right or wrong), on a card for a night to keep the game flowing. These forums are an excellent pit stop in which to get on the spot advice or confirmation about card usage, just like I have done here.

Finally I recommend to any one who has given up on this expansion or has refused to buy it, to think again. the cards, warts and all, are great, at least in purpose and theme and the touring style exhibit on offer is a whole lot of fun, it could just be the thing to add a new horror to your game before the roads to Innsmouth are finally opened up!

I love the idea of CotDP and it would probably be my favorite expansion if it weren't for all the ambiguity.

Yes, as written, you can come up with a ruling on the fly and still have fun with the game. More so than the awkward language, I am less pleased with the means of executing some cards. Searching through the cup for specific monsters, or finding a chit and changing the numbers (why not just add a monster chit or print it on the encounter card!), how the masks work, and plenty of other things.

But the expansion would be so much better if they just spent a week or two with it and cleaned up the language, changed Exhibit Items to Unique Items and maybe tweaked a few other things. I would gladly spend the money to rebuy it and toss the old cards.