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This is more a question for the big games with a lot of investigators. A few non-critical tokens seem to be able to run out, and I can't find anything about those specific tokens in the rules.

Do you just rip a piece of paper and create a clue token or are they out when out? I do know some of the tokens (like portals) awaken the Ancient One when they run out, but for the others there are no mentions in the rules (or I'm just missing them) about what to do when there are none left in the box.

In an 8 player game I've had this problem with Clue, Stamina, Sanity, Money and Explored (those you get once coming back from a portal) tokens. I don't believe the intention is to get sucked back into the portal just because there are no tokens left, but I might be wrong.

Any ideas about official rulings in these cases?

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    I'm having trouble understanding how you are running out of those things. How many people are you playing with? Any house rules? Are you sure you have a full component set? (There is a list on page 2 of the rulebook). For starters, you should have 54 points worth of stamina/sanity markers. That's almost 7 per character in an 8 player game.
    – Pat Ludwig ♦
    Commented Jan 5, 2011 at 22:24
  • Does it matter how? The fact is my supplies are running low. I'm boosted with allies, retainers, items, etc.
    – Don
    Commented Jan 6, 2011 at 1:13
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    well, I suspect you are playing a different game than I am. I've played a fair amount of AH (~50 games) and not run into this problem. Therefore my suspicion is that either you are using house rules that lengthen the game, or perhaps you are misunderstanding a rule or two. If you don't have a full component set, then you should address that as well. (FYI, if you include a @pat, I'll get notified of any response)
    – Pat Ludwig ♦
    Commented Jan 6, 2011 at 8:25
  • So far I've had 1-2 games with 8 investigators where a couple tokens run really low/out, I only want/need to find out official rulings (if they exist) and yes I have a full set. I also have some spare copies from a game that was destroyed but I am not sure I should mix those markers with my current copy until I manage to find out the answer to the question ;)
    – Don
    Commented Jan 6, 2011 at 20:23
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    Also in a 6+ player game its convenient to have pools of these around the table for ease of use. With somewhat limited components you need to be careful how you size each pool.
    – cfeduke
    Commented Jan 6, 2011 at 20:41

4 Answers 4

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Its very easy to run out of clue tokens, especially when playing on the double clue easy level or using a herald that provides extra clues each turn - I do every single game at some point (usually early to mid game). There is nothing in the rules to say that the number of clues is limited to the number of tokens provided so use any other counters in pace of these.

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What I do in my playing is give the players enough stamina and sanity tokens to reach their maximum, in denominations so that the player can "break" their stamina and sanity totals without ever having to put them back into the pool, or take new ones out (unless their maximum goes up, obviously).

For example, if an investigator has a maximum of 5 sanity, I'll give them one 3 sanity token, and two 1 sanity tokens, for a total of five. If they take two points of sanity damage, they move their two single sanity tokens off of their investigator card (or onto their card, it doesn't really matter so long as they are consistent in how they do it). If they then take a further point of sanity damage, they move the 3 sanity token onto the card, and put the two singles back.

The same can obviously be done with stamina.

There are no official rules that state that something happens when clues or money or explored tokens run out, so I would assume that it's safe to go ahead and replace those with stand-ins (small change works well for money: pennies for $1, nickels for $5, and dimes for $10, for example).

One thing that may be worth checking out if you have an iOS device is the Arkham Horror Toolkit released by Fantasy Flight Games on the App Store. It can keep track of your sanity, stamina, money and clues. It's not free, but it does have some other neat features (support for the expansions -also not free, but not too expensive), and a built in dice roller.

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I agree with Pat in that it appears next to impossible to run out of any/all markers and tokens. However, if this situation does arise, after reading the rules it appears that the intent is not to limit the players by the amount of tokens but rather that the supplies are given the numbers they are because they clearly can't just give you infinite of all supplies.
From reading through the rules I inferred that, should you run out of tokens that don't have any explicit result (like losing if you run out of gate tokens), they should just be replicated with paper and pen, or other odds and ends (pennies, paper clips, etc...).

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  • I looked on the official boards and was unable to find anything on this. My inclination would be to awaken the GOO if you run out of clues. The rest can be faked. I've never come close to running out of money. Go shopping!
    – Pat Ludwig ♦
    Commented Jan 7, 2011 at 19:35
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    @Pat Not a bad idea to awaken the GOO if you run out of clues, I just figured that if that was the intention, it would have been stated as it is for running out of gates. Although, if you have 8 people and have gone through all 48 clues and aren't spending them, then perhaps the GOO should be awakened just to teach you a lesson! =)
    – Pithlit
    Commented Jan 7, 2011 at 20:47
  • Yes, it isn't like you're going to have a better shot at him/her/it :)
    – Pat Ludwig ♦
    Commented Jan 7, 2011 at 20:48
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The faq posted in 2012 here says

Q: What happens if the general supply of Clue tokens is depleted?

A: Use pennies, poker chips, or some other small items to stand in for the Clue tokens until the general supply is replenished. Alternatively, if no more Clue tokens are available, track any Clue tokens that are gained or placed in play with paper and pencil.

I don't see mention of how to treat stamina, sanity, money, and explored tokens, but given that if any of these were to be argued to be limited it would likely be clues in some story driven way, and given that they explicitly say the above answer for clues, you can likely infer that the same can be done with the other items in question.

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