4

We have been confused by some phrasing in the "How to Summon the Ghost" section in the Secrets of Survival booklet for haunt 2, "The Scéance", in Betrayal at House on the Hill (2e). Emphasized below:

Each hero can attempt a Knowledge roll or Sanity roll of 5+ to conduct a séance. An explorer can attempt either one of these rolls during his or her turn, but only while that character is in the Pentagram Chamber.

Each time one of these rolls succeeds, put a Knowledge Roll or Sanity Roll token (as appropriate) in the room where the haunt was revealed. When the heroes have a number of those tokens equal to half the number of players (round down), they've completed the séance.

My first inclination is to interpret this as

When the players have a number of tokens (each of which may be Knowledge or Sanity) equal to half the number of players (round down), they've completed the séance.".

but it seems like it could also mean this:

When the players have a number of Knowledge tokens and a number of Sanity tokens both equal to half the number of players (round down), they've completed the séance.".

This is further confused by the "Right Now" section of the rules, which instruct us to:

Set aside a number of Knowledge Roll tokens (triangular) equal to the number of players. Set aside an equal number of Sanity Roll tokens (triangular)

How could we ever need a number of either token equal to the number of players? Shouldn't it ask us for the a number of tokens "equal to half the number of players (round down)"? The location of tokens doesn't matter, so as soon as players have aquired the required number there's no reason they'd collect any more.

After the game we checked the Traitor's Tome, but it didn't help:

We thought there might be some way for the traitor to remove or manipulate tokens so that the extras were neccessary but it didn't mention the tokens at all.

How many of which tokens do the survivors require to summon the ghost?

2
  • There are two short threads about this on BoardGameGeek: #841127, #622488. They think it means the total number of tokens, but don't explain why you are asked to set aside so many.
    – Jeremy
    Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 0:41
  • 2
    The only thing I can think of is that setting aside only half the tokens would give the traitor player a better idea of how many successes were needed (if they had never played the scenario before)
    – EvilAmarant7x
    Commented Mar 9, 2013 at 20:57

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Basically, it's saying you can do either token as you want. The number of either token must equal the given amount (this changes on different haunts).

Let's say you need number of tokens = number of players (6 in this example) to win. You can have 3 knowledge and 3 sanity, 2 knowledge and 4 sanity, or just all 6 knowledge. Those are all valid conditions.

The instruction to set them aside is just to get them out of your storage area for easy access (and as I explained earlier, some tokens could be used more than others).

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .