Unhappy homes gloom expansion rules

Question

The new rules for the "Gloom" expansion deck "Unhappy homes" states:

"A blue-themed mystery card is the only card that can be placed on a Residence and can be placed on any Residence as either of your two plays"

I tried playing with this expansion deck with two of us last night but this new rule/deck proved problematic.

If we interpret that rule literally we cannot play death cards on a Residence ever and they don't have to be killed to edit the game in the usual way. At first sight this seems to make sense - "killing" a Residence sounds odd and the blue-themed mystery cards have buffs that apply to the whole family, but two things make this seem wrong:

1. The reverse of the residence cards have death messages exactly like the rest of the families.
2. The blue-themed mystery cards have pathos points which seem pointless if you can't kill the residence because pathos points on living characters count for nothing according to the original rules and there's no exception to this in the expansion deck rules.

In light of this we tried to interpret this rule as permitting death cards also and requiring the death of a residence exactly like any family member, but with two players we twice played a full game where neither player was successfully able to play a blue-themed mystery card, due to the other requirements of these cards, and so were unable to kill the residences because they didn't have negative pathos points.

We gave up trying to kill the residences in the end both times because we each reached a stage where our entire turns consisted of discarding cards to get new ones when we draw back up, which frankly got a bit dull quite quickly.

What's a sensible interpretation of the new rules? What's the purpose of the pathos points on the blue-themed mystery cards if the residences are unkillable?

Answer 1

What's a sensible interpretation of the new rules?

I am going to assume you mean the rule you quoted above. Mystery Cards are a new card type that is available in Gloom: Unhappy Homes. Mystery Cards unlike Modifiers, Events, or Untimely Deaths may be placed on Locations. Gloom's card components are mostly transparent, but the parts that are not, cover up previous cards that were played before the current one (and remove those previous effects if they are covered). From the rules on Atlas Games

You can't play Modifiers, Events, or Untimely Deaths on a Location. Nothing can take your house rule away from you, so enjoy it while you can.

What's the purpose of the pathos points on the blue-themed mystery cards if the residences are unkillable?

Those points count towards a families final total. From the Official Site.

A Mystery is the only card that can be placed on a Residence (and only a Residence), and can be placed on any Residence as either of your two plays. It gives that Residence's player a special effect and Pathos points that count toward his final Family Value. A Mystery remains even if the requirements for playing it are lost. You may discard a Mystery from your hand as a free play.