Welcome back, intrepid investigators!

Everything seems charged with anticipation as Chapter Two approaches. There’s a warmth in the air, a change in the wind, and Arkham faces a bright new dawn. Because it’s full of hope, naturally. Not because it’s all ablaze.

Not yet, at least.

But as we turn the page and begin a new chapter, it only seems fitting to look back to whence we came and celebrate our history with FAQ 2.5: The Legacy Edition! This updated FAQ includes new errata, rulings, taboos, and even some exciting new ultimatums to spice up your play as you prepare for what’s coming next.

Come with us, and let’s see what secrets Chapter One still has tucked away for new and old players alike!

Errata

The design team works tirelessly to seal the breaches in reality—or at least in Arkham Horror: The Card Game—before they ever reach the eyes of the general public. But on those occasions where the Ancient Ones’ machinations still manage to slip past us, we turn to the errata list to set the record straight and ensure all your adventures continue to unfold as intended.

First, we're digging back in time to the original core Rules Reference itself! The alpha and omega of Arkham Horror: The Card Game’s first decade needed a couple new details to account for our modern range of card abilities—and the mad scientists in our community! We’ve established a more thorough game identity for that ever-ambiguous phrase, “the collection,” and added protections against all the dark sorcery some folks have been trying to do with permanent cards.

Meanwhile, Agatha Crane has clearly been toying with forces beyond our ken; as printed, her signature Ocula Obscura (The Drowned City IE, 9) could seize total control of the chaos bag by repeatedly resolving and re-sealing the same numerical token. A new limitation on the device’s powers should keep it in line going forward.

(Note that the following paragraph contains light spoilers for The Dream-Eaters and The Drowned City Campaign Expansions.)

Finally, both Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu have been undermining players’ success in their respective campaigns, and it was time we put a stop to it. Dark Side of the Moon’s Moon-Beast Galley (The Dream-Eaters CE, 214) is now actually possible to escape unnoticed, and in Sepulchre of the Sleeper, your team’s artifacts will remain charged up when Cthulhu finally awakens Beneath the City (The Drowned City CE, 174).

As always, we are deeply grateful to the community for all your feedback and engagement with the game, helping us catch those wily bugs wherever they’re hiding! There truly is no substitute for the eyes and minds of thousands of devoted investigators.

Hm. That sounded less sinister in my head.

Rulings and Clarifications

We may be a bit late for the holidays, but nevertheless, this FAQ brings with it a veritable cornucopia of new and revamped rulings, ready to save you from the Grim Rule in a variety of situations!

There are far too many to list here, but highlights include ruling (1.32) on Costs and Restrictions during the Initiation Sequence, which finally clarifies just why Spectral Razor (The Dream-Eaters IE, 201) works the way we all think it does. The new version of (2.16) “Farthest from all investigators” should be faster and easier to apply during gameplay. And the new ruling (2.29) really gets into the weeds on Massive Enemy Attacks, making it clear just how good Daniela Reyes (Edge of the Earth IE, 1) is at shutting them down.

Memories of Another Life (The Drowned City IE, 125) also gets the entire ruling (2.28) to itself, because it seemed easier than continuing to answer a different rules question about the card every week. Even if you were a dog handler in a previous life, you can't materialize additional physical copies of Sled Dog (Edge of the Earth IE, 127) out of thin air. It was a noble effort, however, and great fun to watch some ambitious players try!

The Taboo List

Our goal with this update to the Taboo List was to leave the Chapter One cardpool, at least for the moment, in as polished a state as possible. While we did strike down some familiar overperformers, this also took the form of passing a loving hand over a few old friends and hopefully giving them a new lease on life as they transition into the Legacy and Limited environments.

Wither (The Circle Undone IE, 157 & 321) has long struggled to compete with its more successful sibling Sixth Sense (The Circle Undone IE, 158 & 322), not to mention the variety of other offensive spells in the cardpool. This fresh mutation offers new interactions with Bless and Curse, and higher-level withering even persists for the entire investigator phase. Give the new version a try; we're optimistic that Wither can carve out a new niche as a support spell!

In the world of chaining, Monster Slayer (The Dunwich Legacy IE, 300) has been by our side loyally ever since our first outing in Dunwich…but its high level tended to keep it from having a chance to shine. Unchaining it to 3xp will hopefully make it an easier commitment as a tech card for those enemies that just won’t stay down. On the other hand, the more recent show-offs Strong-Armed (The Feast of Hemlock Vale IE, 31) and Bum’s Rush (The Drowned City IE, 55) have received a +1xp slap on the wrist for proving a bit over the curve.

As for repeat offenders, the Rod of Carnamagos (The Feast of Hemlock Vale IE, 85 & 98) has been chained to bring it more in line with Mystic’s other token reveal options. Ravenous Myconid (Sentient Strain) (The Feast of Hemlock Vale IE, 59) has undergone a subtle mutation that weakens its protective capabilities and prevents it from using a 0-shroud location to counter the Mythos Phase entirely. Finally, players who used Spectral Shield (The Drowned City IE, 71) as a direct route to immortality for the low cost of 0xp will find that the spell now only triggers a more reasonable once per round.

This Message Will Self-Destruct

Perhaps the most dramatic addition to this Taboo List is the third and final entry on the Forbidden list for Chapter One: Burn After Reading (Edge of the Earth IE, 76)! And so soon after the last Forbidden card—clearly, we’ve gone mad with power!

In reality, Burn After Reading is an extremely fun card, but one which warps the intended function of many other aspects of the game around itself…sometimes in alarming ways. It has proven capable of opening strange rules loopholes, generating a slew of unintended card interactions, and even threatening the fundamental design space of the Taboo List itself! Burn After Reading is truly a cosmic threat, and one we felt could only be answered by allowing it to burn itself out.

Ultimatums, Boons, and Refractions

This FAQ’s update to the Ultimatums list codifies several popular and long-standing community house rules, as well as incorporating a few challenging Refractions from this year’s set of Designer Dares.

If you’re one of the many players who softens their random basic weakness via the classic “draw 3, cut 1, randomize” technique, the Boon of the Morrígan shows that the Phantom Queen has witnessed your meddling with fate…and approves!

On the other hand, those who see a dire challenge from the Ancient Ones even in the kindest corners of reality may already play with the Ultimatum of Malevolence. This variant is known by the community as “Stanhard,” a custom game difficulty that mixes the strategic flexibility of the Standard chaos bag with the brutality of Hard/Expert symbol token effects.

Our newest Refractions introduce whole new dimensions of difficulty for The Path to Carcosa, The Forgotten Age, and The Drowned City campaigns. Accept the Ultimatum of Spoilage to see your supplies dwindle perilously throughout your next excursion to R’lyeh. Take on the Ultimatum of Ambuscade, and any unwelcome intrusion into parts unknown will be met with deadly Serpent warriors behind every tree and stalagmite. And for those who venture back down the Path to Carcosa, the Ultimatum of the Brass Crown stretches out the long arm of the King even into our reality, threatening your investigators by threatening you, the player!

Go, then, and face these fresh horrors—if you dare!

Current, Legacy, and Limited Environments

Last, but most certainly not least, we’d like to thank everyone who engaged with the “beta” versions of our upcoming deckbuilding environments over the last year. We got some great insight into the Current, Legacy, and Limited environments, and we are looking forward to releasing the official versions soon alongside the Chapter Two core set! We also thought this would be a great place to clear up a couple of questions we’ve seen about the environments going forward.

First and foremost, the original Arkham Horror: The Card Game core set and investigator starter decks from Chapter One will not be included as the foundation of the Current and Limited cardpools in the final release. The official versions of these environments will list the Chapter Two core set and investigator decks as evergreen products instead, with the Chapter One core set and each investigator starter deck remaining viable options for your Limited pools, and a permanent part of Legacy.

As for the beta versions of the environments, those will be preserved for posterity via this FAQ release! If you’ve enjoyed deckbuilding and playing using these cardpools and would like to revisit a “Chapter One” variant of the various environments every once in a while, the rules for doing so will remain available in this document.

Sparks of a Fresh Flame

With all that and more awaiting you inside, we come to the end of the final FAQ for the first chapter of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Chapter One has been an absolute joy to share with you all, both as designers and as fellow players, and we are beyond excited for you to experience everything we’re cooking up for the future!

We’ll see you all in Arkham very soon! In the meantime, it’s cold out there. You may want to light a fire for warmth…

 

Written by Josiah “Duke” Harrist, Nicholas Kory, A. Reid Bradshaw, and Alex Werner