Chaosium Digest Volume 16, Number 12 Date: Sunday, October 20, 1996 Number: 2 of 2 Contents: C&S: Tulzscha (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS C&S: Tiara of Opulent Fantasy (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS RF: Travel Between Regions (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS -------------------- From: "Shannon Appel" Subject: C&S: Tulzscha System: Mythos ** THE CARD FILES: TULZSCHA ** THE CARD -------- Name: Tulzscha Set: MSGS Type: Monster Subtype: Outer God Requirements: Underground Location, Solstice Special Effect Box: It is Day. Bury any Night or Day cards in play; new ones may not be played while Tulzscha is in play. While this card is in play, three Passes are required to end card play in a Round. No Investigator may gain Sanity. CLARIFICATIONS -------------- As with all GOOs, *YOU* must have the requirements in play to bring out Tulzscha. That is, your Current Location must be Underground, and you must have a Solstice card out. There are numerous Underground Locations, most notably in Boston (2), in Kingsport (2), scattered across the Middle East (3), and scattered about Europe (3). Currently, the only Solstice card is Dawn of the Solstice. As is noted, three Passes are required to end card play in a Round. This means there must be a total of three Passes, and during that time, the person who initiated Passing must do nothing except Pass (not even lose a Turn). Typically, this means that someone Passes three times in a row, but there are numerous other permutations. QUESTIONS --------- 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. Q: What happens if I cast Mao Ceremony, allowing me to avoid the effects of all GOOs in play, and I then play a Night Event? Is it Day or Night? A: It's Night for you only. If you have any cards requiring Night to be in play to use them, you can. In addition, all Monsters in your threat function as if it is Night. Your Night card will get Buried at the end of the Round, as soon as the Mao Ceremony wears off. STRATEGIES ---------- * Standard GOO Strategies - Use the Shining Trapezohedron to help get your GOO out. Gain Sanity while your GOO is out by using the Mao Ceremony. Protect your GOO from the Sign of Eibon by always adding Monsters to your Threat very early in the Round (Zombies are also good for this). Use Thirty-Five Abominable Adulations of the Bloated One or Wakalea to keep your GOO in play. Use the Servitor of the Outer Gods in your deck. In order to make really good use of a GOO, you need to design a deck around it. A few deck strategies are examined here. * The Long Life Deck - In most Mythos games, you get "stuck" at a certain point in a Round, can't play any more cards, and thus Pass. The idea of the Long Life Deck is to build a deck which avoids this. Definitely keep all Locations in the same Region. Keeping everything in the same Subregion is even better (eg, Arkham has 24 different Locations). Concentrate on either Tomes or Artifacts in your deck, but not both. Make sure all Spells you put in your deck are usable in every single Tome. Finally, make sure that your Adventures don't depend on unique Cards which might tempt you to idly Pass, waiting for that last card. Into this mix add: an Investigator with low Min and Max, a Tulzscha or two and a handful of In the Nick of Times. You should be able to play late into the Round, after other people have already expended their cards. Note that In the Nick of Time will really make your opponents cry: it voids all Passes, and three are required when Tulzscha is out. * The Day Deck - Tulzscha makes it Day and forbids the playing of Night cards. Thus, you can more efficiently use the powers of cards that get better during the Day. Currently, this list only includes Hunting Horrors and Fire Vampires, but it's a start! COUNTER STRATEGIES ------------------ The standard GOO Counter Strategies are the best to use against Tulzscha: * Standard GOO Counter Strategies - Bury the GOO with the Sign of Eibon, the Elder Sign, or Wakalea. Use the Mao Ceremony to avoid the GOO's effects. Pass to cause the GOO to quickly leave play (though this last strategy only works in a limited manner on Tulzscha). Use the Servitor of the Outer Gods in your deck. -------------------- From: "Shannon Appel" Subject: C&S: Tiara of Opulent Fantasy System: Mythos ** THE CARD FILES: TIARA OF OPULENT FANTASY ** THE CARD -------- Name: Tiara of Opulent Fantasy Set: MSGS Type: Artifact San: -1 Special Effect Box: Costs 1-point of Sanity to use. Replace all of your attributes (not Title or Special Effects) of your Current Location with all the attributes on your target's Current Location. If you use a Gate, rotate your own Location card. Flip this card when used. CLARIFICATIONS -------------- The Tiara replaces your Current Location's attributes with those of an opponent's Location. Attributes specifically include: the Locational Attributes (listed under the card's Title), the Gate Attribute (located in the top left corner), and the Public Attributes (the icons running down the left margin). They specifically do not include: Title, Dimensional Indicator, Region, Subregion, Sanity Cost, or Special Effect Box. Note that the definition of Current Location in the MSGS rules (pg. 28) is "The Location on top of, and right-side-up on, your Story Deck (includes Locations at which you have summoned Monsters)." You can not use the Tiara upon a Location that someone is walking to. If someone is walking, they do not have a Current Location. For the same reasons, you can not use the Tiara if you are walking. As long as your Current Location remains on top of your Story Deck, it keeps the Attributes introduced by the Tiara. This remains true even if the opponent you used the Tiara upon leaves his Current Location, or if the Tiara is Buried. As soon as your Current Location is Buried, however, it reverts to its original Attributes (MSGS rules pg. 16: "all cards revert to their natural attributes [when buried]"). QUESTIONS --------- Q: Can I use the Tiara against someone currently using a Travel Event? A: Yes. Travel Events are played to the top of your Story Deck, and are considered the player's Current Location as long as they remain there. Q: If I've already used a Gate at my Current Location, and then Tiara someone else's Gate Location, can I use it again? A: No. Whether you can use a Gate or not depends totally upon the orientation of your own Location card. If it's already inverted when you use the Tiara, you can't use it again. STRATEGIES ---------- * Finish an Adventure - Can't get that last Gate, Church, Forest/Water Location or whatever other Attribute might be required for your Adventure? Just wait until an opponent travels to such a place, Tiara it, and then play your Adventure. This can be slightly tricky because if your Location is Buried, it loses its new Attributes. Thus, you must be short just that one Attribute when you use the Tiara, and you have to make sure no one else Buries the Location. If you want to be super-safe, use the Tiara from an Exotic Location, since they can't be Buried (but that's probably overkill). * Play Cards - Tired of being stuck without a Tome, Artifact or Gate Location? Usually, at least one of your opponents will possess the Attribute you need. Thus, the Tiara can be used to make sure you don't get stuck during card play in a round. * Avoid Phobias and Monsters - If you want to avoid the special powers of Byakhee, Fire Vampires, Rat Things, or other Monsters that depend upon Attributes, you can use the Tiara to borrow a safer Location. Likewise, you can temporarily avoid the effects of some Phobias (although avoiding Phobias in this manner is a pretty small win, only truly useful if you're really struck with bad cards). * Make Your Monsters Better - Dholes get better only if you are in an Underground Location. If any of your opponents are Underground, you can borrow their Attributes. Mummies, Skeletons, and Zombies get better if you or your opponent is in a Cemetary. Perhaps neither of you is in a Cemetary, but a third player is. Again, you can borrow the Attribute to make your Monster better. COUNTER STRATEGIES ------------------ There are a few strategies which may be used to make the Tiara less useful. * Typical Artifact Strategies - Steal the Tiara with Mi-go or Thieves in the Attic. Decrease your opponent's Sanity level so that they can't afford to use the Tiara. * Keep Away - A marginal strategy, since it tends to hurt you as well, but once you've learned about an opponent's deck you can stay away from the Locations that benefit him most. Is he using Dholes? Avoid the Underground. Is he trying to finish Lost in the Catacombs? Stay away from Churches. * Nuke the Site from Orbit - If an opponent uses the Tiara on a Location, it's probably fairly important to him. There is little better time to use Location destruction cards. Bury it with Earthquake. Discard it with Cthulhu Rising or the Wave of Oblivion. Force your opponent to leave with a Townsfolk Riot. Note that this is one of the cases where Burying cards is highly useful, because it causes the Location under the Tiara's influence to lose its new Attributes. It's the only way to be sure. -------------------- From: "Shannon Appel" Subject: RF: Travel Between Regions System: Mythos ** THE RULES FILES: TRAVEL BETWEEN REGIONS ** Travel between Regions. There are a lot of ways to do it in Mythos. This Rules File attempts to quickly gloss through them all, at the same time answering the most common questions related to Travel between Regions. TRAVEL EVENTS The most common way to Travel between Regions is by using Travel Events. There are currently three types of Travel Events that can be used to move through different regions: Travel by Air (Closed-Cockpit Monoplane, Dirigible, Seaplane), Travel by Sea (Mauretania, Titanic, Tramp Steamer), and Travel Underwater (U-Boat). The methods differ primarily in where they can get you (certain locations forbid certain types of Travel), in what can prevent their play (certain Storms forbid certain types of Travel, and Drought makes Travel by Sea and Travel Underwater impossible), and in what attributes they have (Inside, Outside, Tome, Artifact, etc). Unlike other Events, Travel Events are played to the top of your Story Deck. For all purposes, they become your Current Location until they are Buried. This means that they can be affected by the various cards which interact with Current Locations: the Sphere of Nath can Bury a Dirgible, someone could borrow the Mauretania's Tome Attribute with the Tiara of Opulent Fantasy, and anyone suffering from Hydrophobia will definitely be the worse-for-wear in a U-boat. However, the instant your Travel Event is Buried, it is no longer a Location. It's just a plain Event again, and won't be found by cards that search your Story Deck for Locations. (MSGS Rules pg. 16: "All cards revert to their natural attributes [when buried].") Certain Travel Events have restrictions on what type of Location you can be at when you play the Travel Event. ERRATA: The Three Travel by Sea Events from MYTHOS: LIMITED (Titanic, Mauretania, Tramp Steamer) have all been errated. They now have had the statement "Play this card at a Location featuring the Water Attribute" added to the start of their Special Effect Box. Many Travel Events also have restrictions on what type of Location can be played after the Travel Event. Some require the Location to be in a different Region, while other require it to have a certain Attribute. If you have a Travel Event as your Current Location, and wish to play a new Location, you must meet the requirements on that Travel Event. Slower Travel Events say to play a Location card on a following Turn. You are under no requirement to do so immediately on your next Turn. You can do any legal actions while sitting on a Travel Event, including Passing, playing Events, finding Tomes or Artifacts (if the Event allows it), etc. Your final destination is played at your leisure on some future Turn. You do not have this option on Travel Events that say to "immediately play a new Location" (eg, Closed-cockpit Monoplane, Camel, Car). All Travel Events have some Attributes (eg, Inside, Outside, Water, Artifact, Tome, etc). These Attributes work exactly like the Attributes at any normal Location (eg, you can find a Tome on the Mauretania). While you remain upon a Travel Event, you can take advantage of its Attributes. While upon a Travel Event, you possess the Region Color Bar and Dimensional Indicator of the Location you just left. You are never in a Subregion while upon a Travel Event. As is noted in the MSGS Rules (pg. 17), you may discard a Travel Event, replacing it with a crosswise Location Card. This new Location Card must have been a legal play in the Location that you left when you played your Travel Event. This allows you to leave a Travel Event if you got stuck (eg, if you were on a Travel by Sea, and realized you had no Locations with Water Attributes). You may also choose a new form of transport, such as another Travel Event, a Travelling Monster, or a Fly Spell. Again, you discard the Travel Event that is on the top of your Story Deck. You must then immediately play your new form of transport to the top of your Story Deck (eg, play a Train, a Boat or a Plane right-side-up; cast a Fly spell and play a new Location crosswise; cast a Summon spell and play a Dhole right-side-up; etc). This new form of transport must have been a legal play from the last Location you played before your Travel Event (eg, if you Discarded a Train, and want to play the Titanic, the Location you left from in the Train must have the Water Attribute). SUMMONED MONSTERS A couple of Monsters in MYTHOS: LIMITED could be used to Travel, namely Byakhee, Dholes, and Shantaks. More Travelling Monsters will appear in MYTHOS: THE DREAMLANDS. First, it should be noted that the text on these three cards, which says "If controlled..." is misleading. You must use a Summon/Control spell, but you use the Summon element of it in order to Travel. Byakhee and Shantaks work exactly as described on pg. 12 of the MSGS rules. On your turn you: cast your Control/Summon (Lesser Servitor) Spell, flipping it; play your Monster right-side-up to the top of your Story Deck; and then play your new Location right-side-up to the top of your Story Deck. That's it! You're there! Byakhee act as a Travel by Air Event. Shantaks act as a Travel by Air or Sea Event (your choice, declared at the instant you play the Shantak), with the restriction that they can't go to Underground Locations. This means these Cards each suffer all the normal restrictions of those forms of Travel (eg, you can't use a Byakhee to go to an Island). Likewise, Byakhee are stopped by Powerful Storms, and Shantaks are stopped by Hurricanes, since each blocks their specific manner of Travel (in fact, you may not attempt to Control these Monsters in order to Travel if they can not legally do so at the time). Both cards also have the extra bonus of being able to Travel to Space locations. Dholes are an odd case, because the wording on their card differs from the rules. Most notably, it says to play your new (Underground) Location on a following turn. Thus, on your first turn, you cast your Control/Summon (Greater Independent) Spell and place the Dhole right-side-up on top of your Story Deck. On a following turn, place a new Location with the Underground Attribute right-side-up on top of your Story Deck. Note that Dholes themselves have no Public Attributes. Thus, riding a Dhole is the only time in MYTHOS that you can be neither Outside nor Inside. Dholes are not listed as any specific type of Travel (Sea, Air, Land, or Underwater). This means you suffer from none of the liabilities of these forms of Travel, but also do not gain any of the benefits (eg, you can go to an Island, which only restricts Travel by Air, but you could not go to the Lost Temple of Atlantis, a Location which requires Travel Underwater). Like other slower forms of transport, you can do a variety of things while upon a Dhole instead of arriving at a Location. And, if you find you don't have an Underground Location, you can Discard the Dhole, and either play a new Location cross-wise, or use some other form as transport, as per the rules for Discarding Travel Events, above. WALKING There are a few methods that allow you to move between Regions simply by walking. They are noted here. HASTUR: He Who Shall Not Be Named makes all Locations act as if they were in the same Region, even Exotic Location. This means that you may walk anywhere, within the same Dimension. If you want to go to a Location in a different Region, simply place it cross-wise on your Story Deck (you can't arrive instantly because, clearly, the two cards aren't in the same Subregion). Note that normal restrictions still apply. For example, although you can walk to R'lyeh, you are not allowed to play that card unless you have all three pieces of the R'lyeh Disk. THE FLY SPELL: After casting this spell, you may walk to any non-Exotic Locations. That means, you cast the spell, and then immediately play a new Location card cross-wise on your Story Deck. On your next turn, you'll be able to rotate it and arrive. Like the Dhole, Fly is not listed as any specific type of Travel (most notably, it is not "Travel by Air"). This means you could use the Fly Spell to visit Islands, but could not use it to go somewhere restricted to only Travel by Air (eg, Serannian in the upcoming MYTHOS: THE DREAMLANDS set). N'KAI: Although you must travel to N'kai from an Underground Location, you can Walk anywhere from it (except places which restrict Travel to certain methods, typically Exotic Locations). Thus, N'kai is a simple way to go from one Region to another: you play an Underground Location in your current Region; on your next two Turns you walk to N'kai; on the turn after that you play a Location in a new Region crosswise; and on a fifth turn you rotate that Location right-side-up and arrive. OK, perhaps it's not so simple. RESTRICTED TRAVEL Travel to and from certain Regions is further restricted. These restrictions are briefly discussed here. DIMENSIONS: Dimensions won't be introduced into MYTHOS until the release of MYTHOS: THE DREAMLANDS, but are mentioned here for completeness sake. They form a sort of super-region, and you may not Travel from a Region in one Dimension to a Region in another unless you have a Card that specifically allows it. Currently, there are none. EXOTIC LOCATIONS: Exotic Locations can not be travelled to by normal means. Exotic Locations in Space require you to play a Travel Event that explicitly allows Space Travel (currently, Byakhee and Shantaks). Exotic Locations that are Underwater require you to play a Travel Event that explicitly allows Underwater Travel (currently, the U-Boat). You must use these same methods to leave these Exotic Locations. Other Exotic Locations have specific requirements listed on the Card for how to reach them and leave. Some Exotic Locations in Space or Underwater may also be reached by other methods, if specifically mentioned on a card. ISLANDS: The islands from MYTHOS: LIMITED have been errated. ERRATA: The original MYTHOS: LIMITED Islands had erroneous text which said "You must use a Travel by Sea card to get to this Location." This text on all the LIMITED islands (R'lyeh, Bal Sagoth, Easter Island, Otaheite, Ponape, and Retoka) should be stricken and replaced with the following rules: "Islands are special Locations found within Regions. You can not walk or use Travel by Land or Travel by Air to go to, from, or between Islands, unless special effects say otherwise." These new rules will appear in the MYTHOS rulebook starting with MYTHOS: THE DREAMLANDS. This means that you could get to an Island by a Travel by Sea Event, a U-Boat, a Shantak (declared as Travel by Sea), the Fly Spell, or any number of other methods which are not Travel by Air or Travel by Land. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.org. The old digests are archived on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.