"As always in my strange and roving existence, wonder soon drove out fear; for the luminous abyss and what it might contain presented a problem worthy of the greatest explorer. That a weird world of mystery lay far down that flight of peculiarly small steps I could not doubt…"
     –H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City

In Arkham Horror: The Card Game, you and your friends assume the roles of investigators brave enough to sift through the webs of conspiracy surrounding the strangest and most terrifying events taking place in and around Arkham, Massachusetts.

And what's the one, defining thing that separates you from the local police and other authorities? Your willingness to follow the clues wherever they lead you—no matter how dark or dangerous or maddening the path may become.

Now there's a new twist in your path—one that leads you into a clearing, where you can catch your breath, gather your wits, and plan your next move. The game's developers have released a new FAQ (pdf, 2.0 MB), and you can download it now to shed new light upon your investigation.

For more about the FAQ, we turn to the developers.

A Word from Designers Matthew Newman and Nate French

Greetings, brave investigators!

It’s an exciting time for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. The conclusion to The Dunwich Legacy campaign, Lost in Time and Space, is almost here. With its release, the first full campaign for Arkham Horror: The Card Game will come to a close. But with The Path to Carcosa campaign and a special scenario at Gen Con 2017 following hot on its heels, there are many more stories waiting in the wings!

It is our goal to build upon these adventures and provide players with rewarding gaming experiences and interesting stories to tell for years to come. To that end, we have updated the game’s FAQ to answer some commonly asked questions, clarify some rules, and issue errata to a couple of problematic cards.

Two cards have received errata in this update to the FAQ. The first is one of the two copies of the Burned Ruins (Blood on the Altar, 205). This is a simple errata that changes this card’s Reaction ability to a Forced ability, as it was intended to be a mandatory effect, not an optional one.

The second errata is to the Lucky Dice (Undimensioned and Unseen, 230), which is a much trickier card than it appears.

Due to the timing of the card’s original ability, it did not function as originally intended. As an “After…” effect, its effect would technically only allow you to ignore a chaos token after triggering other “When…” and “If…” abilities related to the revealing of that token. This meant that while you could ignore a chaos token’s modifier, you could not prevent a skull token from discarding a Baseball Bat (Core Set, 74), or dealing you one horror from Shrivelling (Core Set, 60). It also means that Lucky Dice could do effectively nothing against a treachery card such as Twist of Fate (The Dunwich Legacy, 93).

In order to make the card work according to its intended function, we decided we would have to change its triggering condition to “When” instead of “After.” However, doing so posed an interesting conundrum, as it allowed Lucky Dice to effectively circumvent its own downside. Changing one aspect of Lucky Dice forced us to change several other aspects of the card, but in the end we are left with a version that is crystal-clear without sacrificing any of its playability.

The new version reads: “When you reveal a non- chaos token, spend 2 resources: Ignore that chaos token and reveal another one to resolve. If that token has a  symbol, remove Lucky Dice from the game (cannot be ignored/canceled).” This version of Lucky Dice works as intended; it can be used to ignore almost all chaos tokens, but it is clear that it cannot ignore the token in any way, nor can its ability save it from being removed from the game if the  token is revealed.
We have also issued an errata to one of the resolutions for Blood on the Altar. This additional line of text won’t matter for many campaigns, but it ensures that investigators won’t get stuck when they flip to Act 1b of Undimensioned and Unseen.

In addition to these errata, we have introduced a few new rulings to ensure the long-term health of the game. For example, we clarified the order in which actions are “taken” or “lost” when an investigator has one or more “additional actions,” such as Daisy’s investigator ability. This is an advanced concept that was not covered in the Rules Reference, and is now mapped out for any eventualities that may arise in the future. We have also issued a ruling with regards to Wild skill icons. The rules, as written, do not expressly permit Wild icons to match other skills except during skill tests. For example, you would not discard Unexpected Courage (Core Set, 93) from your hand in order to avoid taking damage from a Passenger Car (Essex County Express, 167). However, we found that most players intuitively believe that Wild icons should be able to match in these instances. Sometimes, in cases like this, we believe it can be helpful to shift the rules just slightly in order to mirror players’ intuition or expectations.

The design team is confident that these updates and clarifications will improve each player’s understanding and enjoyment of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. We’re very excited for the future of the game, and we hope that you are too.

Thank you for playing!

Delve Deeper

Delve deeper into the mysteries of Arkham Horror: The Card Game by downloading the new FAQ. Then share your thoughts with the other members of our community forums, and keep your eyes open for more clues about Lost in Time and Space, The Path to Carcosa, and more!