User Manual

2. Fight or Flee
Next, the investigator must choose: He may either
attempt to flee or fight the monster.
A. Flee
The investigator tries to evade the monster, using an
Evade check just as described under “Evading
Monsters” earlier in these rules. If he passes the check,
he eludes the monster and the battle immediately ends.
If he fails the check, the monster deals its combat dam-
age to the investigator and the battle continues (see
“Monster Damage,” below).
B. Fight
If the investigator fights the monster, he makes a
Combat check. A Combat check is a skill check using
the investigator’s Fight value. This value is modified by
the monster’s combat rating (printed in the lower-right
corner of its combat side). The difficulty of this check is
equal to the monster’s toughness, which is represented
by the number of “blood drop” icons that appear in the
lower center of the monster’s combat side.
If the investigator passes the Combat check, he defeats
the monster. The investigator’s player removes the
marker from the board and places it in front of him as a
monster trophy. If the investigator fails the check, the
monster deals its combat damage to him (see “Monster
Damage,” below).
Example: After failing his Horror check, Ashcan Pete
decides to fight the Star Spawn rather than attempt to
flee. Pete’s Fight is 6 and the Star Spawn’s combat rat-
ing is –3, so Pete rolls three dice. The Star Spawn’s
toughness is 3 (the difficulty for the check), so Pete must
succeed on all three dice to defeat the monster. If Pete
succeeds, he takes the Star Spawn marker and places it
in front of him as a monster trophy. If he fails, the Star
Spawn deals its combat damage to Pete.
Important: If a monster’s toughness is greater than 1,
partial success has no effect on it. A monster must be
completely defeated in one Combat check or it ignores
all successes the investigator rolled.
3. Monster Damage
Each time an investigator fails to evade or defeat a mon-
ster, the monster deals its combat damage to the investi-
gator. The amount of combat damage a monster deals is
printed below its combat rating. The investigator loses
Stamina equal to this number. The player discards the
appropriate number of Stamina tokens from his investi-
gator sheet. An investigator reduced to zero Stamina
tokens is knocked unconscious (see page 16).
Note that some monsters have abilities that add some
special effect to their combat damage. For example, the
Nightgaunt drops the investigator through the nearest
open gate instead of causing the investigator to lose
Stamina tokens.
If the investigator remains conscious, sane, and in the
same space as the monster after this step is resolved, the
combat continues. Return to step 2, Fight or Flee, and
continue the combat until it is resolved.
Example: Pete fails the Combat check, so the Star
Spawn deals its combat damage to him. The Star
Spawn’s combat damage is 3, so Pete loses three
Stamina. Battered, bruised, and more than a little crazy,
Pete prepares for another round of combat.
15
COMBAT
Example: Here, Amanda has decided to
fight an Elder Thing. The first thing she’ll
have to do is make a Horror check. Her
Will is 2, but looking at the Elder Thing’s
horror rating (A), she sees that its modi-
fier is –3, bringing her total down to –1,
which automatically fails. As a result, she
loses 2 Sanity, as shown beneath the
Elder Thing’s horror rating.
Assuming that Amanda isn’t driven
insane by the Sanity loss, she can now
make a Combat check to try to defeat the
Elder Thing. Her Fight is 3, and looking
at the Elder Thing’s combat rating (B),
she sees that it has a modifier of +0, giv-
ing her a total of 3 dice for her check. The
monster has a toughness of 2, so she’ll
need 2 successes to defeat it. Crossing
her fingers, she rolls the dice and gets
this result:
The 5 and the 6 are both successes, giving
her the 2 successes she needed to defeat
the Elder Thing! She claims it as a mon-
ster trophy.
If Amanda had failed, the Elder Thing
would have dealt its combat damage to her,
causing her to lose 1 Stamina and 1
Weapon or Spell of her choice. She would
then have to decide whether to fight it again
or try to flee from it. However, she would
not
need to make another Horror check,
since she’s already made one this combat.