[Cthulhu Gloom]

Games Discussion ARCHIVE: Card Games & Board Games
1

I play quite a bit with coworkers during lunch, and we have hit a few tricky rule situations that leave a lot to interpretation.

  • There are two situations where you can play a modifier on a dead character: the death card that says modifiers can continue to be played as if they were alive, and the event card that lets you place a modifier on a dead character for free. In both of these instances, if the modifier has a Immediate Effect, does it happen? Such as discard a hand, or draw two cards. We feel that it should happen, but then, the character is dead afterall. The question arises somewhat because the death card implies they are still alive, but the event doesn't use the word alive.

  • There is one Triple-Zero Death card, that wipes out all pathos points. Since it nulls the points, does the character need to be negative to have the card played? Normally that would be when you would want to play it on someone else, wiping out high points. But could it be played on someone with positive pathos points? No points at all? There is also a death card with -15 built-in, but it seems more obvious that that card could be played on anyone with less than +15, even no modifiers.

  • There is a transformative card that allows the player to salvage events. This makes it difficult for the other players to use events against them or in general. The example we ran into was using an event to move a death from someone dead to someone living (the character with the salvage events power). Does that player get to salvage that event? The character was technically alive in the instant before the death card was moved.

  • If you have the Cancel Event event card, when must you use it? As soon as a player says they will play an event, or can you wait to see HOW they use the event? For instance, if they use an event to remove a death from an opponent, you would probably let it fly. But if they are removing one of YOUR deaths, you would want to stop it. Should you get to wait and see, or should you play it immediately, and face the consequences?

2

We interpreted it that if we play a modifier on the character with the Is dead but dreaming, the immediate effects work, but the persistent and continuous effects don't, because they are covered up.

The Is resting in peace card can be played only on a negative character - so the rules doesn't change. See: The Death card gives the modifier, and the character become 0 after his/her death. (There is also an event that let you give modifier to a death character - so you can change a character self-worth after his/her death.)

Event salvage: I don't think he gets the death moving event because that modifier has been already covered up with the death card.

We play all the cancel cards after we see what the opponent want to do with their cards: If we like what he/she does, we let it. Other card games let you do the same, imho it would be senseless to cancel anything before you see its aim and meaning.

3

My apologies for leaving this unanswered for so long!

There are two situations where you can play a modifier on a dead character: the death card that says modifiers can continue to be played as if they were alive, and the event card that lets you place a modifier on a dead character for free. In both of these instances, if the modifier has a Immediate Effect, does it happen?

Excellent question. My ruling is that immediate effects DO occur, because they happen when the card is played. Ongoing effects will not take effect, as they will be covered the instant they are played.

here is one Triple-Zero Death card, that wipes out all pathos points. Since it nulls the points, does the character need to be negative to have the card played? Normally that would be when you would want to play it on someone else, wiping out high points. But could it be played on someone with positive pathos points? No points at all?

No. Unless the character has a negative self-worth, he isn't a valid target for an Untimely Death. It doesn't matter what his score will be AFTER the death is played; in order to play the death on him, his score must be negative.

There is also a death card with -15 built-in, but it seems more obvious that that card could be played on anyone with less than +15, even no modifiers.

Again, unless the character has a negative score BEFORE the death is played, he's not a valid target for the death.

There is a transformative card that allows the player to salvage events. This makes it difficult for the other players to use events against them or in general. The example we ran into was using an event to move a death from someone dead to someone living (the character with the salvage events power). Does that player get to salvage that event? The character was technically alive in the instant before the death card was moved.

My ruling is that you resolve the event first, THEN deal with the effect of the transformation. So if the event kills the character or removes the transformation from it, by the time the event resolves, the character no longer benefits from the effect of the transformation and doesn't receive the event.

If you have the Cancel Event event card, when must you use it? As soon as a player says they will play an event, or can you wait to see HOW they use the event? For instance, if they use an event to remove a death from an opponent, you would probably let it fly. But if they are removing one of YOUR deaths, you would want to stop it.

As long as they haven't moved on to their next action, you can still use it. So...

  1. Player A says "I'm playing Even Death May Die.
  2. Player A says "I'm playing it on your character, Player B."
  3. The death is removed.
  4. Player A says "Meanwhile, Randolph Carter was..."

You could play it anywhere in steps 1-3. By the time you get to step 4, it's too late.