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Chaosium Digest Volume 18 Number 05
Chaosium Digest Volume 18, Number 5
Date: Sunday, February 9, 1997
Number: 2 of 2
Contents:
CF: N'Kai (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS
CF: An Unexpected Calamity (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: CF: N'Kai
System: Mythos
** THE CARD FILES: N'KAI **
THE CARD
--------
Name: N'kai
Set: MSGS
Type: Location
Region: Exotic Location
Location Attributes: Country, Underground, Artifact, Tome
Public Attributes: Outside
Gate Attribute: Yes
San: -2
Unique: Yes
Special Effect Box: You may play this card only if your Current
Location is Underground. You must walk out of N'kai. While at N'Kai
all Monsters in your Threat function as if it is Night.
THE SOURCE
----------
"[N'Kai:] A black realm of peculiar-sensed beings which had no light
at all, but which had had great civilisations and mighty gods before
ever the reptilian quadrupeds of Yoth had come into being."
-"The Mound", Howard Lovecraft & Zelia Bishop
Lovecraft first told of N'Kai in "The Mound", a story he ghost-wrote
for Zelia Bishop. It is a great black abyss, deep within the Earth,
below the unearthly realm of K'n-yan, below even cryptic Yoth. When
the god Tsathoggua came to Earth, he first dwelled in N'Kai for a
time. Today, his Formless Spawn still live there, worshiping the toad
god's statues. Most gates to N'Kai are sealed, but those who can read
the ancient Yothic manuscripts can still learn of its horrors.
CLARIFICATIONS
--------------
Because N'Kai is in the Country, you must walk to it. You can't use a
Car, Train, or other mode of transportation because of the stipulation
"You may play this card only if your Current Location is Underground".
Whenever you play a Travel Event, it goes to the top of your deck, and
becomes your Current Location. Thus, by the time you're ready to play
N'Kai (even if you just played a Car), your Current Location is not
Underground, and thus the play is illegal.
Note that N'Kai places no stipulations on where you must exit to. You
must walk, but can go to any subregion or region in your current
Dimension. The Location you're walking to doesn't even have to be
Underground. You could enter N'Kai from Pickman's Apartment, and exit
to The Office of Dr. Freud. This, of course, doesn't override regular
restrictions on Locations (ie, you couldn't exit to Celeano, which
requires you to Travel through Space).
Like all Exotic Locations, N'Kai is unharmed by Spells and Events that
affect the top card of your story deck. This means it can't be hit by
Cthulhu Rising, Wave of Oblivion, or any of a number of other things
which bury, discard, destroy, or otherwise directly effect your top
card. However, it can be indirectly effected. You can, for example,
cast "Create Time Warp" while in N'Kai, and thus put another card on
top of it. You could also use Create Time Warp to move N'Kai to the
top of your Story Deck, since the Special Effect Box isn't used until
after N'Kai has already been made the top card. Likewise, Artifacts
such as the Sphere of Nath can affect N'Kai.
Note that even when you are walking to N'Kai, it's safe. This is
because Exotic Locations are protected when they are your "top card",
which is defined as "the card at the top of your Story Deck, which may
have any Orientation".
QUESTIONS
---------
Q: Is N'Kai really supposed to be "Outside"?
A: Yes. It's big. Really big. So hugely big that you can't even
imagine how big it is.
Q: What happens if I have a DREAMLANDS Fireworm in my Threat, which
makes all the Monsters in my Threat function as if it is Day, but
I'm in N'Kai?
A: All Monsters in your Threat function as if it is Day. The primary
rule for resolving card conflicts in MYTHOS is that the last card
played has the dominant effect. By extension, if a Spell is cast
after something else, the Spell has the dominant effect, and if a
Monster is revealed after something else, the Monster has the
dominant effect. In this situation, N'Kai is already in play, and
then the Fireworm is revealed. Since their powers conflict, the
Fireworm wins.
Q: What happens if Tulzscha is out and I'm in N'Kai? Do the Monsters
in my threat function as if it is Day or Night?
A: They function as if it is Night. N'Kai says "all Monsters in your
Threat function as if it is Night". Tulzscha says "It is
day". These effects do not conflict.
Q: Can I walk from N'Kai to an Island?
A: No. The standard rule for Islands, as of MSGS, is "You can not walk
or use Travel By Land or Travel by Air cards to go to, from or
between Islands, unless Special Effects say otherwise." Nothing on the
N'Kai card directly overrides this. Alas.
STRATEGIES
----------
I'm a bit hestitant to offer strategies for N'Kai. The problem is that
it's Unique, and it's a Location. This means that it isn't going to
show up a lot. However, if you use the following strategies while you
have N'Kai around, sometimes you'll end up better for it.
* Unstoppable - All Exotic Locations have an identical advantage. They
can't be buried or discarded by Spells or Events when they are your
top card. You can turn this to your advantage to complete
adventures. If you have an Exotic Location in your adventure, save
it until last. About the time when people are thinking that they
should stop you by Discarding something, they probably won't be able
to. You may even want to use an Exotic Location if you don't need
to. With N'Kai, for example, you could fulfill the Country/Gate
requirement of an Adventure, and know it probably won't be blasted
away. It's also advantageous to have an Exotic Location as one of
the requirements for summoning a GOO, since people probably won't be
able to destroy it even if they realize what you're up to (ie, you
can use N'Kai to help summon Tulzscha, Abhoth, Hastur, Ghatanathoa,
Nyarlathotep, or Nodens). Don't make it your only Location, since
all Exotic Locations in LIMITED and MSGS are unique, but have it
around as insurance.
* The Monster Bash - N'Kai is a nice place to summon Monsters.
Dimensional Shamblers are +1 because it's an Exotic Location.
Skeletons, Vampires, and Zombies are +1 because it's effectively
Night. LIMITED EDITION Dholes are +2 because you're Underground.
DREAMLANDS Ghouls and Gugs are +1 because it's Underground. Since
the N'Kai gate isn't reusable, you need to have the Create Gate
spell or various Summon/Control spells to take full advantage of
this. Using Create Gate to get out Joined Monsters is the best,
since otherwise you're paying 1 Sanity, to typically get 1 Sanity of
extra damage.
* The Magical Mystery Tour - N'Kai can be used as a somewhat
inconvenient but vastly cool way to get from one Region to another,
particularly between Lovecraft Country, Europe, and the Middle
East. It's also almost impossible to stop (even more so than
U-Boats).
* An Easy Exotic Location - Of all the Exotic Locations in print up to
DREAMLANDS, N'Kai is definitely the easiest to get to. You just need
to walk there from one of a number of Underground Locations you can
stack in your deck. This starts really being an advantage with
DREAMLANDS, which has one adventure that requires you to journey to
a (generic) Exotic Location, and has an Artifact and a Tome which
can only be found at Exotic Locations. There will be more Exotic
Location specific items in the future too, so expect this advantage
to grow. In addition, remember that each Exotic Location forms its
own region. Thus, if you walk down from Pickman's Apartment in
Boston to N'Kai, you've suddenly fulfilled the requirement of
visiting two regions, without having to go through the bother of
boats or planes.
* The GOO Deck - Take one pinch of N'Kai, and a handful of cards from
some region (any will do, Europe, the Middle East and Lovecraft
Country all have Underground Locations). Add in The Strange Case of
Charles Fort. You've now got all the reqs to summon Ghatanathoa,
Hastur, Abhoth, and Nodens. Throw in a sprinkling of New Moons,
Nyarlathotep, Dholes, and Dimensional Shamblers for additional
fun. You'll need another adventure or two too. And, you'll want a
few more Underground or Country/Gate Locations. Seeking Everlasting
Life 1 and Seeking Everlasting Life 2 are my first choices for
additional adventures (22 points).
COUNTER STRATEGIES
------------------
* Destroy in Advance - Most of the time, you can see when someone is
heading towards an Exotic Location. For example, with N'Kai, your
opponent has to play an Underground Location first. That card can be
destroyed, as long as you catch it before your opponent plays the
Exotic Location.
* Destroy with an Artifact - Exotic Locations are proof from Spells
and Events, but not Artifacts. Though the Sphere is Nath is
expensive, it can destroy Exotic Locations.
* Keep Sanity Low - All Exotic Locations have high Sanity
requirements. If you keep your opponent's Sanity low, he won't be
able to play them.
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: CF: An Unexpected Calamity
System: Mythos
** THE CARD FILES: AN UNEXPECTED CALAMITY **
THE CARD
--------
Name: An Unexpected Calamity
Set: Mythos Limited
Type: Event
Affects: Passing
Special Effect Box: Play this card and announce "Pass." This Pass ends
the current Round, even if it is the only Pass in the Round.
THE SOURCE
----------
No specific source. Unexpected calamities regular befall investigators
in both Lovecraftian stories and Call of Cthulhu. It's only
appropriate that the same be true for Mythos investigators. The
artwork for An Unexpected Calamity is from _Mansions of Madness_, a
Call of Cthulhu 1920s adventure book.
CLARIFICATIONS
--------------
An Unexpected Calamity ends card play and causes combat to begin.
QUESTIONS
---------
Q: Can I play In the Nick of Time to avoid An Unexpected Calamity?
A: No. There are no "instants" in Mythos. Cards get played on your
Turn, and only on your Turn. After An Unexpected Calamity, you
won't get an opportunity to play In the Nick of Time until the next
round, and by then it's pointless, since it voids Passes in the
current Round.
Q: Can I play Yithian Mental Contact to avoid An Unexpected Calamity?
A: No. As with In the Nick of Time, you won't have an opportunity
until the next round. Yithian Mental Contact only affects cards
"just played" which is defined in the rules as "a card played since
your last Turn in the current Round."
Q: What happens if I play An Unexpected Calamity when Tulzscha is out?
A: Not a lot. When Tulzscha is in play, three Passes are required to
end card play in a Round. Since GOO powers always override anything
else in the game, this means that An Unexpected Calamity does not
end the Round. However, the "Pass" that is announced when An
Unexpected Calamity is played does count as one of the three.
STRATEGIES
----------
An Unexpected Calamity is quite simply the most powerful Mythos card
around. I know of tournament finals where each of the four players had
four Unexpected Calamities in their deck. This is primarily due to the
first strategy mentioned below. Players more interested in playing
Mythos for fun, or to tell enjoyable stories, will probably get little
mileage out of the first strategy. Still, the other two make An
Unexpected Calamity a useful card.
* Speed! - If you're out to win Mythos via Adventures, as is required
in a tournament game, only one thing is important, Speed. After
selecting an adventure, you play all the cards specifically required
for that Adventure, then Pass to end the round, redraw to get more
necessary cards, and repeat. An Unexpected Calamity makes this even
more efficient. When you've played your relevent cards, you can just
play Calamity and immediately end the round. If you're using this
strategy, you need tunnel vision. Avoid distractions, and keep moving
forward. As long as your deck is the fastest one out there, you're
in good shape. If it's not, you'll will wish you had more
interactive cards, to slow your opponents with.
In conjunction with this strategy, you might want to use Tomes which
increase your hand size (ie the Greek and Latin Necronomicons) and
investigators with Low minimums. Both of these will allow you to go
even faster.
* Discard - One of the worst things you can do in Mythos is force a
Discard. This takes away cards that an opponent might have needed
for an Adventure. An Unexpected Calamity can Discard, kind of. If
you think an opponent is holding a lot of required cards (perhaps
he's nearing the end of one Adventure, and is trying to stack cards
for the next), you can play An Unexpected Calamity as your first
card in a round. You'll probably force your opponent to Discard six
cards or more. If he was holding numerous cards of value, he'll be
reshuffling momentarily.
* Redraw - A pretty obvious strategy. If you've got nothing to play,
you can use An Unexpected Calamity to get out of the current round
and draw lots of new cards.
COUNTER STRATEGIES
------------------
First, to briefly address the Discard Strategy:
* Ironmind - This DREAMLANDS spell increases your Maximum by 3. You
can cast it during the Artifact/Spell phase of combat if you realize
you'll otherwise be Discarding vital cards. Unfortunately, it's a
Dream icon spell, and thus hard to find outside of the Dreamlands.
Dealing with the Speed strategy is a bit more difficult, but here are
a variety of suggestions:
* Tulzscha - Tulzscha not only totally destroys the usefullness of An
Unexpected Calamity, but also extends the round by requiring three
passes.
* Police Investigation - If your opponent is playing speed, he is
counting on drawing An Unexpected Calamity every few rounds. Police
Investigation will dramatically decrease his chances of doing so,
and also mess up his whole strategy of drawing his needed cards.
* Leeching - Go with the flow. If you've got a speed deck of your own,
you'll be able to play just as fast as your opponent, and will be
quite happy to see short rounds. In fact, if you're in a four player
game where everyone else has An Unexpected Calamity in their deck,
you'll be ahead of the game if you *DON'T*. They'll be offering you
plenty of opportunities to draw, while you have space for four more
cards in your deck. The only deficit is that you're not in control.
* Keep Him Moving - Force your opponent to constantly move, and make
sure he's doing it in a wasteful way. Townsfolk Riot and DREAMLANDS'
Rude Awakening might force your opponent to leave his current
Location. DREAMLANDS' Blizzard can slow use of Cars, Camels, or
Zebras. MSGS' Downpour slows City travel. Earthquake, Cthulhu
Rising, and other cards of this ilk can be useful if they destroy a
Location that your opponent just had to walk or Travel to.
* Aggression - This doesn't keep the Unexpected Calamity from being
played, but it stops your opponent from taking full advantage of
it. Beat his Sanity down with Monsters and Phobias. Monsters are
especially useful since speed players will try and ignore this
aspect while moving toward victory. Decreasing Sanity in this way
may prevent your opponent from playing required Tomes or Artifacts.
If someone is playing speed, they're just asking for trouble, in the
same way that a high Sanity player is. You and his other opponents
need to give it to him.
--------------------
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