I've been unsuccessful searching the forum on this Dunwich Unique Item (it's probably been discussed in the past on the old forum, but oh well).

Dhol Chants says to spend a couple movement points and make a Lore check to "gain an ally" and lose some Sanity. Not draw, not select, just "gain." So how do people play this? I've been interpreting it as "select randomly" since it's a $5 card and this would otherwise be a cheap way to choose a specific ally -- even better, if Pete's around he can suck it off the bottom of the deck and get it used multiple times.

So do I select a random ally from the deck or do I get to choose?

Unless otherwise noted, my group plays that you get to pick an ally

I play it as random, gain a common don't me you search for dark cloak but gain a random common same for the ally.

The precedent for thinking that you get to pick the ally you want comes from Ma's Boarding House, the only rules text that deals with allies. The text on Ma's Boarding House specifies that when you turn in your trophies, you get to pick the ally you want. Dhol Chants merely allows you to draw a random ally. It's the difference between Nameless Cults and Livre d'Ivon. Nameless Cults does not allow you to draw any spell you want from the deck. Just one random one. Same for Leo's or Charlie's starting ally. You don't get to pick it, it's just there.

There's no more reason to think that it would let you pick an ally than there would be if you drew an encounter card that said draw a common item to think you could search the common item deck. The only reason some people have this confusion is because they're used to selecting their allies through Ma's. But it doesn't say pick. It says draw.

I'd say it's a random ally.

The trouble is that the card says "gain 1 Ally" instead of "draw 1 Ally." This was my confusion, because I don't know how "gain" should be interpreted. Typically cards say "draw 1 xxx" where xxx is either unique item, common item or spell. Other cards (e.g., location cards) say to "take" an Ally but mention him/her by name. Ma's instructions also say to "take" an Ally, but it specifically says you get your choice. So in situations where investigators are instructed to select a random Ally, why would the designers use "gain" instead of "draw" or "take?"

Cards do say "gain" when they talk about getting clue tokens but that seems irrelevant to the gain vs. draw issue since they're all the same. And as far as Charlie and Leo go, their starting Allies are listed as Random Possessions, so I don't think that is relevant either.

To push it one step more (for fun), how would Charlie's ability to "gain" [sic] Allies from the box work with Dhol Chants if "gain" means they must be drawn from the deck?

In any case, I've been playing things as gain = draw, and will keep doing so unless there's some compelling reason not to.

Thanks All!

Aeaea said:

What do you mean, Charlie? Certainly FFG has not been consistent with their terminology and maybe the mean something different when they use "gain" versus "take". We went through this hard and heavy in the Charlie discussion and I was on the losing side (not there were manyother on my side). The overwhelming opinion is that gain and draw and take are the same thing.

In every game I play, I leave the ally cards face up and eventually someone reaches to turn them over. At that point, I pick up the allies and lay them out and tell them that they can look at the Allies at any time and get their choice for 2 gate tokens, etc. It's the best deal in the game! But still, no one (literally) takes advantage of it. The only time we buy/ gain an ally at Ma's is to pay off a rumor. (We always shuffle before gaining/taking/drawing a random ally, however).

Also, and this is not official, if you build an investigator on Strange Eons and you add a random ally, the program advises you against it for, I think, thematic purposes.

We interpret it as 'draw randomly' - shuffle the allies and then one gets drawn out face down.

I think the big reason FFG used the "gain" wording as opposed to the "draw" wording was to make the allies feel more like actual people and less like cards.