Devoured when completing an adventure!?

By Vala_Melkor, in Elder Sign

Posted at

Hi Guys

We had an odd situation during our game where the character ( who had one sanity left ) was going to die whether he failed the adventure ( penalty = lose one sanity! ) or finish off the last task but lose one sanity as the last symbol to succesfully complete the adventure ... so what to do!?

Looking at the rules ... Elder Sign Page 7 ...

Note: If satisfying a task’s requirements would bring an
investigator’s stamina or sanity to zero or lower, that player
cannot attempt to complete the task.

... we shouldn't be allowed to attempt the task, but as the investigator was going to die anyway, we threw him to the ghouls! Luckily, he completed the last task and won an Elder Sign for the group, before being devoured by the foul smelling undead!

We made up our own houserule to allow "Heroism" of the investigators ... giving their life for the party! ... oh dear, now I sound like a communist.

Any thoughts guys & girls, or official posts/answers floating about?
Thanks, Walts

Posted at

Well, the official rule was already listed by yourself. An investigator cannot suicide an adventure like that. It seems that you got that Elder Sign a little too easily, plus a new investigator with full stamina, sanity, and starting items. That investigator should not have been able to complete that last task, which would have failed that adventure, killing the investigator with no reward. There is no "since he's going to die anyway, might as well steal an Elder Sign." No, your investigator made a noble effort, but died in the process. Alternatively, the investigator could have spent their turn getting first aid or attempting an adventure that wouldn't kill him, letting another investigator attempt the adventure that rewarded the Elder Sign.

The rules are meant to keep the game somewhat challenging. I feel that your heroism house rule takes a major shortcut, granting a huge imbalance towards the investigators. Nevertheless, house rules are house rules; and if that's how you enjoy the game, then enjoy it!

Posted at

Hi Musha

We don't play the rule that you get a new investigator when u die, so that makes the game a lot harder than most playing. We thought that was the dumbest rule in the game. If you know you can keep killing off characters till there's none left, well ... it's just dumb and doesn't challenge us in any way ... so each of us has one investigator and that's it till the games end. With the Unseen Forces expansions, the games even easier with more investigators to keep killing off!

What happened was the investigator had three sanity when they started the adventure, but the initial failed task attempts had terror rolls which reduced his sanity to 1 ... he was trapped ether way, so rather than die needlessly, "Heroism" was born. It just seemed more in tune with the concept of roleplaying/adventuring in general and as we only play with one investigator ... it just seemed more cinematic?

Walts

Posted at

You do add a doomer when an investigator's devoured, right? If so, I don't see how having more investigators to keep killing could make the game easier.

As for the heroic leap... that rule has always made me wonder... I don't see a real problem if you sacrifice yourself: I'd accept the sacrifice if:

a) there are no other task to attempt on that adventure card (in case, you can't, for obvious reasons)

b) the amount of Sanity you sacrifice to complete that task brings your current Sanity to 0, and not below (you cannot sacrifice what you don't have)

But again, it's just my take on a houserule

Posted at

Hi Julia ... Yes, we do add the doom tokens for devoured investigators. That was a good idea for the game ... you could imagine the investigator being sacrificed to the GOO!

As Musha pointed out, you start with a fresh character and all his/her goodies if you got devoured, so it seemed a cope-out just getting someone new with the rules as their written. We're all RPG'ers and used to having one character to compete an entire adventure, so we know the " stress levels " are higher if you have one chance to complete a game. Odd players where starting to get reckless and threw their investigators to difficult/impossible adventure cards, knowing a new character was available if they died, so we stopped this very early on in our games.

In this one off situation, which has never happened before/after , there was just the last task to complete and his sanity would be reduced to zero by completing or failing the adventure card ... it was better to burn out than fade away!

Houserules can make the game more engaging I think and realistic for us RPG'ers, who are now starting to use the same characters. We would never use a houserule which allowed the game to be easier. This situ still required a task completion with two rolls of the dice left, so it was nail biting till the end! ... Walts