Rule Changes

The following rules have been changed or clarified to improve the game. Sources include:

• FAQ v1.2
• Kingsport Horror
• Innsmouth Horror
• Official responses from Kevin Wilson

Game Setup

(page 5 in the first printing, page 5 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

When setting up the Ally deck, ignore the rules from The Curse of the Dark Pharaoh in favor of the updated rules from Kingsport Horror:

Only 11 total Allies should be used in each game. When preparing the Ally deck, shuffle it and deal out 11 cards faceup, returning the others to the box. Players may examine the allies to see which ones will appear. Then turn the Ally cards facedown and shuffle them again. Allies that are taken as starting equipment in setup step 9 will come from this deck of 11 cards.

If a specific Ally is part of an investigator’s fixed possessions, remove that Ally from the Ally deck before dealing out the Allies to be used that game, then reduce the number of Ally cards placed in the Ally deck accordingly, making sure to only use a total of 11 Allies. [KH p.5]

If a Rumor is drawn during step 14 of Game Setup, discard it and draw again until a mythos card that isn’t a Rumor is drawn. [IH p.10]

If a Mythos Card with no gate is drawn during step 14 of Game Setup, discard it and draw again until you draw a mythos card that depicts a gate. [FAQ v2—unpublished]

Investigator Sheets and Markers

(page 3 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

Jenny Barnes: Jenny Barnes starts with two Common Items rather than one. [IH p.10]

Bob Jenkins: Bob Jenkins starts with $9 rather than $8. [IH p.10]

Wilson Richards: Wilson Richards has Focus 4. However, he does not need to use Focus to move his skill sliders. [IH p.10]

"Ashcan" Pete: "Ashcan" Pete starts with 5 Sanity when starting the game with Duke, and the FAQ will reflect that when updated. [KW]

Lily Chen: After moving her maximums slider, Lily Chen only restores her stamina/sanity based on its final position (she does not heal 1 point for each notch moved). Additionally, if one of her maximums increases by more than 1 at once, she only restores 1 point of that type. [FAQ v2—unpublished]

Charlie Kane: Charlie only has access to the 11 allies chosen for the game. Any of these allies that have been returned to the box may be obtained through the normal method of gaining allies (encounters, Ma's Boarding House, etc.).

Lola Hayes: Lola obtains the skill on the bottom of the deck before discarding hers to the bottom. [FAQ v2—unpublished]

Rex Murphy: When the Dark Pharaoh is the herald, Rex loses stamina for having his curse, even though he never rolls to discard it. [FAQ v2—unpublished]

Investigator Cards

(page 3 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules, updated cards provided with Dunwich Horror)

Flesh Ward (Spell) should have a Sanity cost of 1, and its text should read: “Any Phase: Cast and exhaust to ignore all Stamina loss being dealt to you from one source. Discard this spell if the Ancient One awakens.” [FAQ v1.2 p.1]

Healing Stone (Unique Item) should cost $8 and include the text “Discard this card if the Ancient One awakens.” [FAQ v1.2 p.1]

Lantern (Common Item) should cost $3 and read “+1 to Luck checks.” [FAQ v1.2 p.1]

Perform Upkeep Actions

(page 6 in the first printing, page 6 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

Bless, Curse, Bank Loan, and Retainer cards do not require an upkeep roll during the first Upkeep Phase after an investigator acquires them. [IH p.10]

Terrible Old Man (Ally) [KH] should add “Discard Terrible Old Man if the Ancient One awakens.” [FAQ v2—unpublished] Dr. Herbert West (Ally) [KH] should add “Discard Dr. Herbert West if the Ancient One awakens.” [FAQ v2—unpublished]

Arkham Encounters

(pages 8-9 in the first printing, page 8-9 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

Police Station encounter cards that include the text “Deputy Dingby absentmindedly leaves you holding his gun.” should instruct the player to take a .38 Revolver from the Common Item deck, rather than a .45 Revolver, which does not exist. [IH p.10]

Location special abilities, such as “Bank Loan” (at the Bank of Arkham) and “Deputized” (at the Police Station), are executed during the Arkham Encounters Phase (rather than the Movement Phase), and instead of having an encounter. Executing a location’s special ability is optional, of course; an investigator at a location with a special ability may always choose to have an encounter rather than execute the location’s special ability. [IH p.10]

If an investigator is drawn through a gate that appears as a result of an encounter (such as one that reads, “A gate appears!” or “A gate and a monster appear!”), then he is delayed, just as if he had been drawn through a gate in the Mythos Phase. [IH p.11]

One of the Inner Sanctum encounters instructs the player to search the Exhibit Item deck for the “Triune Mask” card. This should be the “Mask of the Three Fates” card instead. [FAQ v1.2 p.6]

An encounter in the Silver Twilight Lodge reads:

"The lights go out; you hear chanting and feel a knife at your throat. You may:

1) Flee. Lose 1 Stamina and move to the street

2) Allow them to cast their ritual upon you. Lose 2 Stamina, but take the Visions card and gain 1 Clue token

3) Attempt to take control of the ritual with a Lore (-1) check. If you pass, the Lodge offers you Silver Twilight Membership."

That 3rd option should also read, "If you fail, lose 3 stamina and all your spells, then move to the street." [KW]

An encounter in the Train Station reads:

"[...]Discard a Common or Unique Item if able, then make a Luck (+0) check. If you pass, draw a number of Unique or Exhibit Items equal to the number of successes rolled, and keep one. If you fail, follow the instructions as above but draw from the Common Item deck."

It should instead read like this: Discard a Common or Unique Item if able, then make a Luck (+0) check. If you pass, draw a number of Unique or Exhibit Items equal to the number of successes rolled, and keep one. If you fail, Discard a Common or Unique Item if able, then make a Luck (+0) check. If you pass, draw a number of Common Items equal to the number of successes rolled, and keep one. If you fail this second check, nothing happens. [KW]

A Ma’s Boarding House encounter [BGotW] begins "Ma asks you to give her a hand moving a piano..." There are two Pass outcomes. The second, “you lose 1 Stamina and are delayed,” should be the Fail outcome. [FAQ v2—unpublished]

A Newspaper encounter [CotDP] begins: A reporter will pay you handsomely, whether in money or information, for an exposé on the life of a monster hunter. Discard any number of monster trophies to gain $1 or 2 Clue tokens (in any combination) for each point of toughness worth of monsters discarded. The offer should be “gain $2 or 1 Clue token (in any combination).” [FAQ v2—unpublished]

Other World Encounters

(page 9 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

Due to a printing error, one of Lost Carcosa’s encounter symbols is purple. It should be blue. [FAQ v1.2 p.6]

Open Gate and Spawn Monster

(page 9 in the first printing, page 9 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

In a game of Arkham Horror with five or more investigators, when opening a gate in a location where there is no elder sign or gate, draw and place two monsters instead of one. [IH p.10]

When, at the beginning the Mythos Phase, the first player draws a mythos card that shows a location that already has an open gate, this triggers a monster surge. When a monster surge occurs, the number of monsters drawn and placed is equal to either the number of open gates or the number of players, whichever is greater. When placed, these monsters should be divided as evenly as possible among the open gates, with no gate having more monsters placed on it than the gate where the monster surge occurred. If there are more monsters to be placed than allowed by the monster limit, the first player decides where monsters will be placed, but he must do so before monsters are drawn from the cup. [IH p.10]

Monster Movement Specialties

(page 11 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

If two investigators are equally close to a Hound of Tindalos when it moves, the Hound moves to the location of the equally close investigator with the lower Sneak value. In case of a tie, the first player chooses among the locations where the tied investigators are located. [IH p.11]

Flying Monsters

(page 11 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

These four instructions clarify how Flying monsters move:

1. A flying monster only moves when its symbol appears in the Mythos Phase, just like other monsters.
2. A flying monster will not leave a location or street area that already contains an investigator. Even if its movement symbols comes up while it occupies such a space, it does not move.
3. When a flying monster in a location or street area does move, it moves to an adjacent street area containing an investigator if there is one, or, if there is not, to the Sky.
4. When a flying monster in the Sky moves, it moves to a street area where there is an investigator. If there are no street areas containing investigators, the monster remains in the Sky. If there are multiple street areas containing investigators, the monster moves to the street area containing the investigator with the lowest Sneak. If several investigators are tied for the lowest Sneak value, the first player chooses among the street areas where the tied investigators are located. [IH p.11]

Weapons and Spell Limits

(page 15 in the first printing, page 16 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

A spell or weapon that gives you a bonus (even one that says it lasts until the end of combat) only continues to give you the bonus while you devote the required number of hands to it. You can choose to switch weapons/spells in later combat rounds, but as soon as you “release” a spell or weapon, it stops working for you. Similarly, spells that are refreshed (such as at the beginning of each combat round in the Final Battle) cease to work and must be re-cast. [IH p.11]

Investigator Status

(page 16 in the first printing, page 16 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

An investigator reduced to both 0 Sanity and 0 Stamina at the same time is devoured. [IH p.11]

An investigator whose maximum Sanity or maximum Stamina is reduced to 0 is devoured. [IH p.11]

The Terror Track

(page 18 in the first printing, page 20 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

Once the terror level reaches 10, if it ever increases again (due to a mythos card special ability, for example), instead of moving the terror track marker, add one doom token to the Ancient One’s doom track for each point the terror level would have increased. [IH p.11]

The Ancient One Awakens

(pages 18-19 in the first printing, page 20 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

In addition to the normal conditions causing the Ancient One to awaken, the following conditions also awaken it:

• The Ancient One awakens if a monster should be drawn from the monster cup, but there are no monsters in the cup. This is only likely to happen if the investigators have acquired a large number of monster trophies. If this is the case, they should spend some of their monster trophies (for example, at South Church) to replenish the monster cup.
• The Ancient One awakens immediately if a new gate would open, but there are no gate markers available. This could happen if the investigators have acquired a large number of gate trophies. If this is the case, they should spend some of their gate trophies (for example, at Ma’s Boarding House) to replenish the supply.
• The Ancient One awakens if the terror level has reached 10 and there are monsters in play equal to twice the normal monster limit (for example, 16 monsters in a five-player game). [IH p.11]

The Final Battle

(page 19 in the first printing, page 22 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

Before the final battle begins, discard any active mythos cards. Also, investigators no longer collect money or roll for Retainers or Bank Loans. [IH p.11]

Monsters in Encounters

(page 20 in the first printing, page 22 in the revised printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

When an encounter generates both a gate and a monster (e.g., “A gate and a monster appear!”), both the gate and the monster stay on the board. However, when an encounter only generates a monster (e.g., "A monster appears!," "A horrible monster appears!," etc.), the monster does not stay on the board. If such a monster is defeated, it may be taken as a trophy (unless its special ability states otherwise). However, if it is not defeated, the monster is returned to the monster cup, regardless of whether the investigator evaded it, was knocked unconscious, was driven insane, etc. [IH p.11]