Greetings.

I am new to this game so I would like some help from you, kind people :) To avoid spamming the place I shall put all of my questions into this thread.

My question is: If I commit a card to a story and my opponent chooses NOT to defend that story do I still get to refresh my card if I have arcane icon(s) and do I get one bonus succes token if i have investigation icon(s)? I suppose battle and terror are useless since I don't have an opponent?

Thanks for your help :)

Baron Vortis said:

Welcome!  You know this is where the horror begins right?

1)  Yes.  When you commit to a story and have no opposition, you technically still go through each struggle, but don't terror anyone, don't kill anyone, but you would refresh a character cause you won the arcane struggle, and get a token if you win the investigation struggle.

2)  Yes.  If at the end of the struggles, when you look at your skills if you don't have 0 and your opponent does, you get an extra token for him being uncommitted.  Even if your opponent did commit characters and they were removed over the course of the struggles, you still would get an extra token if hes at 0, and your not at 0 skill (I say this because you may have only 0 skill guys and not be eligible for the extra token).

3)  Terror and Battle struggles are technically useless, cause you have noone to terror or kill, but you still need to walk through the struggles.  Who knows, they may be an action/response thing that could go off as a result of one of those struggles.  For example, theres one Yog character who makes opponents discard if you win a struggle by 4 or more (Gatekeeper?).

The best advice is keep playing, because the game at first seems like a game where you simply compare icons in storys to win.  As you play more, you begin to discover the subtle mechanics in the game that make it great.

Thanks for reminding me Ephraim, I can't get rid of the chills since I started playing it. You have been most helpful :)

Now, onto my other questions:

1) When I spawn Cthulhu I get his forced response that says: "After a player draws cards during his draw phase, he must sacrifice a character, if able."

So, after I play Cthulhu and finish with my turn my opponent gets to his draw phase and he MUST draw two cards and then sacrifice HIS character? After he is done with his turn and I get to my draw phase I TOO MUST draw two cards and sarcifice MY character? And so it continues to run like this, am I getting this right? And in the end if I don't have any more characters must I sacrifice Cthulhu himself?

2) Sacrifice. If I have to sacrifice a character does that character have to be in play (on the table) or can I sacrifice a character in my hand?

Thanks for your help :)

 Yes, you have to sacrifice a character if you draw cards.  Of course if you don't draw cards, then that is different (Hapless Graduate Student, for example).

You get to choose which of your own characters gets sacrificed though, assuming you have more than one in play.  And yes, you can only sacrifice a character you control that is in play.

May I choose not to draw cards in my draw phase?

Baron Vortis said:

Even though the rules (I'm looking at) don't say "must", you draw two cards during your draw phase.  TheProf. mentions things that could influence the draw phase though.

Cthulhu is a hungry guy.  He eats in your turn, and your opponent's turn.  There's a sandwich shop at Rutgers University in New Jersey that will name a sandwich after you, if you can eat five of their sandwiches in like 45 minutes.  If Cthulhu knew about this, there would be a Cthulhu sandwich.

Hahah! Although there should be some non-human modifications for the sandwich eating rules :)

Thanks guys, I'm really getting into this game now and you guys helped with clearing out some important stuff. I will feel free to ask for you help when it's needed again.

More questions! :)

1. I got only the core set and I play with my friend. Is there any rule for deck constructing in the core set with two players or anyone can take whatever he/she wants? Can one player take cards from (example) 4 or 5 factions?

2. Example: Anthropology Advisor has "Investigator characters you control gain plus one investigation". Does that means Anthropology Advisor too gets plus one investigation  and then plays with 2 investigation icons?

 1.  Deck construction rules are pretty straight forward (and in the rules p.14 "Deck Building Rules").  You have to have at least 50 cards in your deck and you can't have more than 3 of any cards with the same title.  This last bit is an important detail that doesn't matter with the Core set.  For example, suppose you wanted to include the Cthulhu character Julia Brown, Strangely Amphibious as well as the Neutral character Julia Brown, Insomniac.  They both have the TITLE "Julia Brown" even though they have different Descriptors.  So you could only include a total of 3 Julia Browns.

2.  Yes, the Anthropology Advisor is my favorite Miskatonic Character as he helps out everyone including himself.  And his is not unique.  So if you have two Anthropology Advisors in play, then all of your investigators are getting 2 extra investigation icons!

Haha, amazing :D Thanks mate.

One short question:

Richard Upton Pickman. He has the ability to copy keywords and triggered abilities. Now imagine this situation:

Richard copies toughness +1 and goes into a fight. He gets wounded. Until the end of phase he carries the wound mark. Phase ends. He lives or he dies?

Baron Vortis said:

I don't have access to the card right now, but Pickman would live for as long as he was able to keep the copied keyword.  So, if card says "...till end of phase" then once the phase ends, he dies.  The reason is, if he got wounded during a story struggle, he would have a wound token on him, that wouldnt go away unless he could heal somehow.  So, when the keyword that was copied drops, he doesn't have 2 toughness anymore, he has 1 toughness, and dies.

I didn't realize that about Julie Brown.  I guess it makes sense, otherwise someone could have 2+ versions of an ancient one and have six+ cards of the guy in his deck. 

Thank you. 

Now, I've got a question about the asylum packs. I'm planing on buying some asylum packs and was hoping you guys could tell me what would be the best 3-4 asylum packs to start with. I already told you I play with only one core set with my friend so I would like to keep balance between the factions. If you have any ideas please help me out :)

Thanks.

Grab the spoilers, go through them, pick your favs would be my suggestion. If you're planning on including Day/Night into decks, then the first AP from the Dreamlands cycle (Twilight Horror) is pretty much a must-buy. That is if I'm remembering my spoilers correctly.

Baron Vortis said:

You have to start out with AP you have easy access to.  Just start buying AP from the current cycle.  They come 3 copies of each card to a pack, so 1 deck will have all the cards it needs.  The early AP get kinda fugly cause they didn't have the same amount of copies of each card, so technically, you'd need to buy 3X each AP to get at least 3 of every "Rare" card.  See? and a lot are tough to get right now.

As was mentioned, the first cycle had a lot of day/night mechanics stuff, and the second cycle was a lot of dreamscape stuff- If i remember correctly, maybe the madness has set in.  Anyway, If you plan on playing with friends, and not competitively, start with the current cycle then go back and get the others as FFG reprints them.  New AP are coming out like every 2 months, so You'll get a large card pool fairly fast.

Ephraim said:

It doesn't really matter with which cycle you start, but I'd recommend to buy a complete cycle rather than picking individual APs from all over the place. Otherwise you probably won't have enough cards to support a themed deck.

My greatest thanks guys. I'll see what can I get and hopefully inform you about my new purchase soon with many questions about the "new" cards :)