Game: Miskatonic Madness

Thread: Re: Combat question, or Where Does the Magic Go?

johngorno — 2008-01-07T06:44:16+00:00

Good question, I hadn't thought of that. I had just blithely assumed that items were automatically retained. Similarly, what about an item a Cultist is carrying (having already won it in combat at its location of discovery)? There might even be a difference in the disposition of items the Cultists can use and those they can't. Tough call. I would go with the simplest rule, that already claimed items can't be claimed again in battle: they're not encounter tiles anymore, waiting to be discovered (they're placed under the possessor), and nobody gets killed in combat, they're merely driven away to collapse and be carted off to the Infirmary (or the Cult's Holistic Medicine Center and Day Spa, as the case may be). It had always assumed that Items assigned to an Investigator for the day were non-transferrable, but I think I was wrong: they merely "stay with" him, i.e., in his location, and can be transferred to and used by any single member of his team, for instance, if he gets knocked out in combat (the Note on Using Items on page 4 says that an assigned item can be used by one Investigator at a location, not all, rather than saying "only by the Investigator it was assigned to").

Gorno

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atimrogers — 2007-12-24T22:16:24+00:00

P&P Deluxe(ish) -- Miskatonic Madness in a wooden box, with a hard-mounted board.

Thread: Combat question, or Where Does the Magic Go?

atimrogers — 2007-09-22T17:33:41+00:00

Reading the rules in preparation for play, I've found myself wondering what happens to the items used by an investigator who loses in combat.

Should these items go back into the discard pile, or does the investigator player get to keep them and transfer them to another investigator next turn? (In other words, do investigators invariably recover items dropped by their fallen comrades, or are those items stolen/lost/recovered by cultists?)

Thread: Re: Cultists on Campus

Rliyen — 2007-07-09T22:06:18+00:00

Absolutely love this game, even though there are several contradictions in the rules and the tiles themselves.

Thread: Cultists on Campus

FNH1 — 2007-07-09T20:58:31+00:00

The Cult that had come on Campus was well hidden and secretive.

We knew it was there when we started investigating the Mass Murder near the woods. We soon found a Withered Corpse like those in the woods,in the Science hall and knew we were up against a well organised group that was close to home.

Doctor Mendum was attacked in the Library, ending up in hospital and Heather had to be sent to the sanitorium at the same time. She had been found gibbering and couldn't tell us what she had seen.

Before they had recovered a girl had gone missing and we suspected she had been abducted. About the same time an Asteroid fragment was stolen from the Science Hall, could these two events be linked?

While checking for the missing girl Jonny Dark ( the P.I. ) was attacked out by the Sports field and was sent to hospital. He said he had been stalked by a "dark" horror.

Heather returned feeling much better but was shaken to find a hideous slime trail in the Anthrapology dept.

Prof Dramis was then attacked by an angry young man he found out at the Sports field, Heather was also attacked by a raving looney in robes.

We were starting to put the clues together. Following these clues we discovered a tentacled monster which we fortunately despatched. Unfortunately everyone suffered from a bad dreams and these gave Johnny a case of the "wobbles".

An old friend of Johnny, Jimmy Mack turned up and decided to help but was immediately put into hospital and never left the hospital bed.

When everyone was back together, IT happened. The beast, the living darkness, the shapeless evil appeared. Heather and Prof Dramis minds turned to jelly merely at the sight of it. The evil thing then struck and killed Johnny and Mendum.

What happened next, no one can tell...

Thread: Re: Clarification required

FNH1 — 2007-07-09T20:15:25+00:00

medrian wrote:

1. Where the cultists get points for certain markers being revealed - if these go back in the their hand at midnight and are played again in the next round, do the cultists still get a point for reveal even though it isn't the first time?

Back in the hand for repeated affects.

medrian wrote:

3. Should 'no action' markers be classed as 'resolved' once uncovered and be out of the game or should they go back in the bag?

Into the discard deck

medrian wrote:

4. Some clarification about which items should go back into the bag and which should be discarded would be helpful as my partner playing the cultist found he had a lot of the same items each hand.

This can happen, its up to the Investigator player to take/destroy these items.

Cultists are returned to the hand.

If a cultist has an item this never leaves the hand unless the Cultist player claims he is using it ( e.g. in combat ) . In this case if the Cultist loses the combat the item would be discarded along with the cultist.

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johngorno — 2006-06-21T15:07:40+00:00

Card case made of Fine Mythonian Leather

Thread: Rules Clarifications/Reconstructions

johngorno — 2006-06-21T13:50:22+00:00

The rules seem to contain several contradictions and one huge omission. Below are my guesses/reconstructions of what I think the rules are intended to be (with rules item numbers where available) and the clues I used. The huge omission is that almost all events (most cards) are discarded after they occur (are revealed). I also include "house rules" for ambiguous cases and just for the hell of it.

There will be two discard piles: the regular discard, next to the draw deck and the Cult player; and the Discard-From-Play pile, for one-time-only cards, across the board from the deck. The latter cards are clearly marked. The regular discard pile (for all other cards) is only reshuffled into the draw deck when it is depleted or after a cultist is defeated in combat (not lost in a Ritual).

(see Card Library: “Police” (which makes a point that it isn’t discarded) and “Bad Dreams” (“in the event of a reshuffle”) plus rules page 3.4, “Combat Resolution.” The logic seems to be that reshuffling every turn would be a pain but that the Cultist player would run out of goons to guard stuff if they weren’t reshuffled into the deck when discarded (defeated). If he loses (discards) his last one in a ritual, though, that’s the risk he took.

2) Tile Placement
B) (also (4) "Cultist Secret Rites")
if any 1’s are rolled, discard 1 (and only 1) cultist to the regular discard pile (see above). The limit of one seems fair, since multiple successes only count as one.

3) Investigation Phase. Items assigned to an investigator must stay in his location but may be transferred to another of his team there, for example, if he is knocked out of combat. (Note on Using Items on page 4 says that an assigned item can be used by one Investigator at a location, not all, rather than saying "only by the Investigator it was assigned to").

4) ~~Tile~~ Encounter Resolution. Only tiles at places that get investigated are revealed (becoming encounters). It's more dramatic to reveal (and resolve) each encounter location in turn (as the Investigator chooses), rather than all at once. Tiles are resolved in this order: group combat with Cultists (see (2)B); other combat tiles (resolved individually in the order the Investigator chooses); non-combat sanity loss; other -- if multiple tiles are of the same category, the Investigator player chooses the order in which they are resolved.

- Turn over all tiles at the current investigation site.
- Most cards are discarded after being revealed. Items return to the Cultist’s hand until claimed, so may be revealed repeatedly turn after turn, with repeated effects.

Skill Rolls: When a card says, “Requires an Intellect of 2,” it means 2 successes.

Combat Resolution: … If a cultist is defeated, their card is discarded. (and the discard pile will be reshuffled into the deck at Cleanup). (Cross out the line about "and all other non-discard tiles are mixed back into the draw Tiles" as it seems to imply that guarded items (and events) vanish if the guard is defeated! I think it simply means that this will trigger an eventual reshuffle of all non-discard-from-Play discards) I personally disregard the rule about defeated Monsters being discarded from play: it doesn't seem unreasonable that there could be more than one Thing in the Well or Tentacle Creature, and the Hunting Horrors fly away forever whether they win or lose.... Life would be pretty boring if Arkham ever ran out of monsters!

Multiple Tiles in Combat: I think this is meant to apply only to multiple Cultists fighting as a group -- it certainly seems unlikely that the Angry Young Man would fight alongside a Hunting Horror! I would imagine that the minor monsters are too stupid to cooperate with anyone, and the Hunting Horrors to be loners, so I think that only cultists can gang up on the investigators, while all other combat tiles are fought individually (combat encounters at the same location being resolved in the order the Investigator chooses). Besides, each turn is a day/night's work, so different encounters may occur hours apart.

5) Cleanup at Dawn, not Midnight
(just a personal preference -- most of this stuff happens at night: it is college!)

B) Any unclaimed Items and undefeated Cultists return to the Cultist hand. All other tiles are discarded to the appropriate discard pile. If any Cultists were defeated in combat, all regular discards are shuffled into the draw deck.

Card Errors/Inconsistencies -- I assume the Card Library descriptions are correct if the card differs (although it would be easier to assume the other way and correct the Library instead of the cards!)

Ceremonial Dagger: It's unclear if the +1 to Cultist Secret Rites (which really doesn't help their success much) means that they no longer lose a cultist on a roll of 1 (a big help). I split the difference and say that instead of +1, on any 1, the Rite succeeds but a cultist is still lost.

Comet Passes Close to Earth: Library implys that only one of the Investigators can try an Intellect Roll, card says each may try!

Magic Ring: The Library states that you get a free reroll of all the dice in a roll, the card says "any," which implies that you might just reroll the ones you didn't like.

Police: The Library says that all investigators must escape for them to gain a Mythos Point, the card doesn't.

Hope this is helpful,
Gorno

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johngorno — 2006-06-21T12:43:06+00:00

Investigator and Cult (2 choices, made w/ glue gun) Tokens

Thread: Clarification required

medrian — 2005-10-22T19:02:52+00:00

We played the game for the first time today and I'd like clarification/thoughts on the following points.

1. Where the cultists get points for certain markers being revealed - if these go back in the their hand at midnight and are played again in the next round, do the cultists still get a point for reveal even though it isn't the first time?

2. We did not realise what was meant by d3 initially so used a d6 and halve d the value. There was reference to it in the rules constantly but no actual definition. For anyone else wondering... here is a survey on the topic: http://grabjobs.net/d3/d3.asp

3. Should 'no action' markers be classed as 'resolved' once uncovered and be out of the game or should they go back in the bag?

4. Some clarification about which items should go back into the bag and which should be discarded would be helpful as my partner playing the cultist found he had a lot of the same items each hand.

Thanks for any feedback!

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drfunk — 2005-07-18T01:45:25+00:00

Cards 02

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drfunk — 2005-07-18T01:45:25+00:00

Cards 01

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drfunk — 2005-07-18T01:45:24+00:00

Game Board