Mythos CCG Errata, Rulings & Clarification (7.

7 1/31/2007) - Alex Broadhead

NOTE: Items in black are ‘official’ rulings from the Chaosium website and/or The Art of Playing Mythos. Items in
red are ‘unofficial’ rulings culled from the Mythos Digest and/or from transmissions directed by the Yithians into
my brain. Note that some ‘official’ rulings have been modified or supplanted by ‘unofficial’ ones. In particular, note
that entries marked with an asterisk (*) are explicit reversals of ‘official’ rulings.

Deckbuilding/Mythos Flavors

The rules for deckbuilding and about the various ‘flavors’ of Mythos have been badly mangled by the migrations
from one rulebook to another. Here they are compiled as culled from the various editions of the rulebook:

All Mythos decks must include a single Investigator card; Investigators need not be unique among the players.
All Mythos decks require a minimum of 52 cards (with no maximum).
All Mythos decks use a four card limit (4CL) – no player may use more than 4 copies of any one card by title.
All Mythos decks use a one card limit (1CL) on Unique cards.

There are no further rules on deck contents or playability. Notably, there is no requirement that a player include
any Adventures (or Allies, Artifacts, Events, Locations, Monsters, Spells or Tomes - though you do need 52 cards).
Players are not required to attempt, or even to be able to attempt to complete Adventures – it can be very
difficult to win without them, though, and good sportsmanship requires that players should play to win.

Basic: A game of Basic Mythos ends either with the first play of an Adventure by any player, or with any player
going insane, whichever comes first. Basic decks are built using the standard rules (above).

Advanced: Advanced Mythos is simply Basic Mythos with the possibility of playing non-Location cards as your first
play(s). It is required for Campaign and Tournament Mythos.

Campaign: Campaign Mythos allows for the completion of more than one Adventure. The usual Adventure Point
(AP) total required for completion of a Campaign game is 20, but this number can be set at whatever point the
players agree upon. It is strongly suggested that players build their decks around the ability to complete the
agreed upon amount of AP, as the only way to win otherwise is to drive another player insane. Otherwise, Campaign
decks are built using the standard rules (above).

Tournament: Official Mythos Tournaments require players to play a series of Campaign games (usually to 20 AP).
While there are a number of additional rules pertaining to timing and scoring, there are no further restrictions on
deckbuilding.

Rulebook (NA) Errata, Rulings & Clarification

The example on p.40 of the rulebook has Reverend Baxter Lully joining with Serpent Men. This is incorrect, as he
does not have that ability.

On p.43 of the rulebook, under ‘Control’, the sentence, “Add the Monster to your own Threat (place it crosswise),”
is incomplete and misleading. It should read, “Add the Monster to one of your Directed Threats or use it to create
a new Directed Threat (place it crosswise as a reminder that is not your card).”
General Errata, Rulings & Clarification

Cancel: Some cards state that they may be used to ‘Cancel’ play or use of another card. Cancellation of card play
causes the affected card to be (or remain) Buried, while its effects are undone. Cancellation of spell casting
causes the Spell to remain flipped, while its effects are undone. Note that while the effects are undone, any costs
required to play the card or take the action are not, e.g. any Sanity paid to cast a Spell is still lost.

Day/Night: All Day Events should be treated as if they include the text, “It is now Day.” All Night Events should
be treated as if they include the text, “It is now Night.”

Event Resolution:

Non-Travel, non-Threat Event resolution falls into three classes: Instant, Persistent, or Delayed. Travel
Event resolution is generally quite clear from card text; Threat Events are treated separately below.

Instant Events are resolved when played. They should then be treated as if their Special Effects text
ended with the phrase, “Then Bury this card,” even if that text is not present.

The following Events and Event Subtypes are Instant: Alien Abduction, Amnesia, An Unexpected Calamity
(both), Angry Zoogs, Beatrice is Released from the Attic, Betrayal, Black Galley, Blink of an Eye,
Catastrophic Failure, Crop Circles, Cthulhu Rising, Discover Secret Cache, Earthquake, EPIDEMICs, Flee To
Special Room, Frivolous Lawsuit, Going Postal, Governmental Cover-up, Harney Reginald Opens Fire, Highway
Robbery, Hound of the Tindalos, In the Nick of Time, Instability in the Mythos (Gibbons), It’s Full Of
Stars!, Motion Sickness, Phobophobia, Police Investigation (NA), Poltergeist, Shipwreck*, Succumb to
Temptation, Surprise Meeting, The Innsmouth Look, Thieves In Your Attic, Time Flux, Yithian Mental
Contact, Yithian Psychic Possession.

Persistent Events have effects which persist until they are Buried or Discarded, usually as the result of
other card play. They must have a legal target at time of play, though they may persist without targets.
Some Persistent Events also have an Instant effect which is resolved (only) at the time of play; Persistent
effects of the Event may acquire new targets as they are played, e.g. new Allies and the two ‘Children’ cards
and/or Television.

The following Events and Event Subtypes are Persistent: Beast in the Cataract, Children Have Nightmares,
DAYs, Drought, Guardians of the Great Ones, Media Hyperbole, NIGHTs, PHILIAs, PHOBIAs (except
Phobophobia), Serial Killer, STARs, STORMs (except Shipwreck*), Strange Humanoid Encounter, Television,
The Children Have Sweet Dreams.

Delayed Events schedule an effect for later resolution. Some Delayed Events have effects which are fully
determined when played; in this case the card itself remains in play until resolution, though only as a
reminder; Burial or Discard of the card will not prevent resolution. The following Delayed Events follow this
template: Ambush, Government Quarantine, Instability in the Mythos (Sullivan), Mugging, Police
Investigation (Limited). Other Delayed Events schedule a later decision and can have a variey of effects
depending on that decision; in this case the card itself is still ‘live’ and its Discard or Burial will prevent its
resolution. The following Delayed Events follow this template: Rude Awakening, Terrorist Strike, Townsfolk
Riot. (Note that in all of these latter cases, due to the specific schedule (‘next Turn’), neither the player
who is the target nor the player of the card normally has a window of opportunity to prevent resolution;
other players, however, might.)
 Threat Events: The Subtypes ‘Threat’ and ‘Threat Event’ are equivalent. Threat Events acquire targets (or
fail to) when revealed, not when played. They may be played to your Threat whether or not they have a legal
target at the point of play. If they have no acceptable target when revealed, they are Buried to no effect;
otherwise they persist through Combat and are then treated as if they read, “Bury this card at the end of
Combat.”

First Play(s): “Your Region and Dimension is [sic] determined by the first Location that you play. Until you play a
Location, you may not play any cards that depend upon your Investigator being at or in certain Locations or
Regions.” (NA Rulebook, p.12) Note that in Basic Mythos, your first play must be a Location.

Face-Down Cards:

Allies: Face-down Allies do not participate in Combat (they cannot give or take damage), though they may still be
the target of Events and Spells; note that they may not be targetted by Artifacts, Monsters, etc. Face-down
Allies’ attributes and Special Effects may only be used to qualify or disqualify them as targets of Events or
Spells, or to complete Adventures. (NA Rulebook, p.65) They may not be given Artifacts (or Spells).

Spells: Face-down cards may be affected by Event and Spells, including Spells which would flip them face-down.
(See Anathema, Dominate, Steal Life, and Wrack.) Similarly, Whirligig can be cast for no effect.

Invisible: Some Monsters bear the Invisible attribute; others have conditional Invisibility (Colour Out Of Space
(Limited), Dark Young, Fire Vampires, Star Vampire). Those whose Invisibility is not a permanent attribute should
be considered to gain that attribute temporarily under the proper conditions.

Locations:

Current Location/Top of Story: These are not the same thing. Your Current Location is the Location or Travel
Event that is face up (or rotated) on top of your Story Deck. At the start of the game (and possibly at other
times in the game when you have no Locations in your Story) and while Walking, you have no Current Location.
Earthquakes, the Sphere of Nath, and the Wave of Oblivion can affect you while Walking; Cthulhu Rising and
the Green Mist of Doom cannot.

Exotic Location: Exotic Location cards are immune from the effects of certain Events and Spells that affect
the top card of your Story (NA Rulebook, p.32). Note, however, that Travel Events which are Exotic (due to
having been played to leave an Exotic Location) are not, despite being Locations in an Exotic Region (as below)
for other purposes, e.g. play of Zenig.

First Location: You may not begin play at an Exotic Location or at any other Location which has a Travel or
Special requirement for play. (NA Rulebook, p.36) Note that you may begin on an Island, per the errata to
Islands below.

No Location: At the beginning of the game each Investigator is considered to be Outside [Walking]. At any
other point in the game at which an Investigator has no Locations in their Story, they revert to being Outside
[Walking] in the Region and Dimension of their most recent Current Location.

Travel Event/Location: Just as Monsters in your Ally area become Allies for most purposes (and vice-versa),
Travel Events are treated as Locations when they are played to the top of your Story (but not if exposed by
Burial or Discard of your top Story card when you have no other Locations – you then have no Locations, as
above). As such, they may take on attributes as required by other card play, e.g. gaining the Gate attribute
while Abhoth is in play.
Monsters as Allies: Monsters played as Allies retain their Subtype (effectively as an attribute) unless or until it is
supplanted (e.g. by ‘Living Dead’).

Play: The word ‘play’ is used in a remarkably large number of different senses in Mythos. According to the
rulebook (NA, p.45), “Each player is entitled to one play during his or her Turn. A play is defined as one of the
following actions: Play A Card, Rotate A Location, Use One Artifact, Cast One Spell, Follow Card Instructions,
Take Any One Card Action, Flip One Face-Down Card, Pass.” Thus, a ‘play’ may or may not involve the ‘play of a
card’; this is the sense of ‘play’ that applies to Hobo/Waif Investigators. Cards in your Story Deck (except for
your Current Location) are not ‘in play’, nor are cards in your hand, Mythos Deck, or discard, and, while Monsters
(and occasionally other cards) are ‘played’ to your Threat, they do not count as ‘in play’ for purposes of Adventure
completion (unless they are GOO, and thus face-up). All other cards on the table are ‘in play’ (and count for
Adventures), whether face-up or not.

Protection:

Named Card: Some cards state that they provide ‘Protection’ against other named cards (e.g. many Detectives
‘Protect’ their Investigator against Police Investigation). Protection prevents play of the named card against the
Protected player. Note, however, that acquiring Protection will have no effect on a Police Investigation that is
already in play.

Artifact, Tome, and/or Spell in Tome: Some cards state that they will prevent the loss of Artifacts, Tomes, or
Spells in Tomes (e.g. Seal of Isis, Detectives); note that the card scheduled to be Buried or Discarded (lost)
must be the target of that card (i.e. it must satisfy the ‘Affects’ line or other targeting text).

‘Strange’ Requirements: A few Adventures have non-card requirements (e.g. On the Edge requires both that you
drive your own Sanity below 6, and that you ‘Reroll’ your Investigator using the Call of Cthulhu Tome). If no other
time frame is specified in the text of such ‘strange’ requirements, these requirement must, by default, have been
accomplished since the completion of any previous Adventure. For example, if you are doing SEL I & SEL II (the
latter of which requires you to use the Resurrection Spell to play a Cultist from the Past), playing SEL I (or any
other Adventure besides SEL II) after Resurrecting the Cultist will ‘reset’ the strange requirement; you must play
SEL II after the Resurrection is accomplished and before any other Adventures are completed.

Travel By Sea Events: The Seaplane and all Travel by Sea Events from Limited (Mauretania, Titanic, Tramp
Streamer) as well as The White Ship from Dreamlands should have the phrase “Play this card at a Location
featuring the Water attribute,” added to the beginning of the Special Effects Box of the card.

Travel/Walking: If, while Walking or Travelling, you change your mind, you may as your Turn Discard the top card
of your Story deck and play a new Location or Travel Event as if the revealed Location were still your Current
Location. You may not Walk or play Travel Events while already Walking or Travelling. You may take any other
action while Walking; note, however, that playing an Adventure while Walking will result in the discard of the
player’s entire Story, including the sideways Location to which they were Walking.
Card and Set Specific Errata, Rulings & Clarification

New Aeon

• Chronoportation – The Special Effects text should read, “Immediately play a Tome or Artifact not normally
playable in this Dimension that would otherwise be legal at your Current Location.”
• Create Stasis - Change ‘played’ to ‘cast’.
• Cthulhu For President - The Affects line should read, “Affects All Investigators”.
• Dark Horse – Change “Onboard the 747, you accompany your candidate to caompaign stops in THREE different
Subregions,” to “You accompany your candidate to campaign stops (LOCATIONS) in 3 different Subregions.”
• Diabolical Cultist – The last sentence of Special Effects text should read, “This Investigator is a member of
the Silver Twilight Secret Society, and gains an additional point of Sanity each time he completes a Corrupt
Adventure.” (Making it clear that the Cultist satisfies the ‘member of a SECRET SOCIETY’ requirement of
Summon Great Cthulhu.)*
• Enthrall Victims - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Allies”.
• Hitch a Ride - Should have the Outside public attribute.
• Maison Nationale De Sante - Is Unique.
• Make Them Pay! – Change ‘THREE different CITIES’ to ‘3 different CITY Locations’.
• Media Hyperbole - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Current Location”. Note that this
change renders it useless against Exotic Locations.*
• Mugging - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Investigator”. Add the text “Then Bury this
card,” to the end of the Special Effects Box.
• Nemesis - The Affects line should read, “Affects All Investigators”.
• Shaggai Mental Possession - Change ‘Ally’ to ‘Allies’ in the Affects line.
• Song of the Stellar Larvae – The Affects line should read “Affects Your Hand”, making it clear that it can be
cast while at an Exotic Location.

Dreamlands

• Angry Zoogs – The first sentence should begin “The opposing Investigator with…”.
• Betrayal - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Corrupt Ally”.
• Cats of Ulthar - Should, technically, have the Outside public attribute.
• Channel Prophecy – Clarify ‘Maximum’ to ‘Maximum (End of Round hand size)’.
• Come Sail Away – The last sentence should end “…finally put in at a PORT in the Dreamlands.”*
• Concentric Rings of the Worm - Change ‘Threats’ to ‘Threat’ in the Affects line.
• Equilateral Screen – Add the text “May not be cast in Combat,” to the beginning of the Special Effects Box.
• Green Mist of Doom – The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent’s Current Location”.
• Harbor of Celephais, The – Change ‘Weapon’ to ‘that Artifact’.
• Highway Robbery - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Artifact”.
• Ironmind – The first sentence of the Special Effects Box should read, “Increase the Maximum number of
cards that you may keep in your Hand by three for the remainder of the Round.”
• Lunar Eclipse - Add the text “This is an Eclipse card,” to the beginning of the Special Effects Box.
• Old Brick Powderhouse – The last line of Special Effects text should refer to ‘that Weapon’.
• Petition of Menes - Change ‘Allies’ to ‘Ally’ in the Affects line.
• Phobophobia - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Phobia”.
• Sky Galleon - The Affects line should read, “Affects Your Investigator”.
• Splendid Cathuria - The first sentence of the Special Effects Box should read, “The Basalt Pillars of the West
must be your Current Location to play this card.”
• Stars are Right, The - The Affects line should read, “Affects Your Investigator”.
• Temple of Bokrug - Subregion should be Mnar.
• War Horse – The Special Effects Box should read, “An Ally with a War Horse may wield one additional Weapon.
An Ally with one Weapon may also be assigned a War Horse. An Ally may not have more than one War Horse.”
• White Ship, The - Should have the Outside and Water public attributes.
• Zenig of Aphorat – Clarify “Bury when the Adventure card is played,” to “Bury when the Adventure card is
played (but before reshuffling, if playing Campaign).”
• Zoog Chieftain – Add the words ‘face-down’ between ‘card’ and ‘and’.

Standard

• Ambush – Add the text “Bury this card at the end of the Round,” to the end of the Special Effects Box.
• Cthulhu Rising - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Current Location”.
• Dark Young – Change ‘Forested location’ to ‘Forest Location’.
• Dust of Suleiman - Change ‘a’ to ‘one’.
• Governmental Cover-up – The Affects line should read, “Affects Event in Opponent’s Story Deck”.
• Tiara of Opulent Fantasy – Should have an Affects line reading, “Affects Your Current Location”. Additionally,
change ‘your target’s’ to ‘any Opponent’s’ in the Special Effects Box.

Limited

Catskill Mountains: All ‘Catskill Mountains’ locations (Martense Mansion, Tempest Mountain) should have the
subregion ‘Catskills’ (i.e. the same subregion as the New Aeon locations Lefferts Corners and Maple Hill) instead.

Islands: The old Island travel restrictions have been overridden by the following general rule: “Islands are Special
Locations found within Regions. You cannot Walk or use Travel By Land or Travel by Air cards to go to, from or
between Islands, unless Special Effects say otherwise.” All old Island cards (R'lyeh, Bal Sagoth, Easter Island,
Otaheite, Ponape and Retoka) should have the old text which said, “You must use a Travel by Sea card to get to
this Location,” stricken.

Threat/Directed Threat: The concept of a Directed Threat was not part of the original rules for Mythos. Cards
from the Limited edition which refer to a Threat or Threats should be taken to refer to all cards in Directed
Threats and/or any cards in (or still in, in the case of Combat) the Threat area of the affected player. This
includes GOO and cards which have been returned to or elected not to leave the ‘main’ (non-Directed) Threat. (See
Barrier of Naach-Tith, Create Bad Corpse Dust, Eibon's Wheel of Mist, Nyhargo Dirge, Sarnath Sigil, Sign of
Eibon, Sign of Kish. Note also that the effects of most of these Spells persist until they are unflipped.)

• Aldebaran Moves in the Sky – The Special Effects Box should begin “If Aldebaran Moves in the Sky is not
already in play…”.
• Asenath Waite Derby - Arkham should be on a Green background.
• Astrophobia - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Investigator”.
• Auction, The – Change ‘THE’ to ‘YOUR’.
• Become Spectral Hunter - Pentagon should be Yellow.
• Book of Dyzan (Atlantean) - Is a Tome, not an Artifact.
• British Museum – The Special Effects Box should begin “You must have an Ally who is a Professor, Student, or
Scholar…”. (Explicitly prohibiting the use of part of an Investigator’s title to satisfy the requirement.)*
• Brown University - Should have the University attribute.
• Call of Cthulhu - The Special Effects Box should read “’Re-roll’ your Investigator. As your turn and while a
Waning Moon is in play, Bury this card (plus any joined spells) and exchange your Investigator Card for another.
Current Sanity does not change (unless above maximum).”
• Celeano - The correct title of this card is ‘Celaeno’.
• Chant of Thoth - Pentagon should be Yellow.
• Church of Starry Wisdom – ‘Aldebaran’ should instead read ‘Aldebaran Moves in the Sky’.
• Circles of Thaol – Change ‘as well’ to ‘instead’.*
• Create Gate - The Affects line should read, “Affects Your Hand”. The Special Effects Box should read,
“Immediately play a Monster or Monsters to your Threat as if you are at an unused Gate Location. You must
pay any Sanity cost for playing the Monster(s).”
• Cruise, The – Change ‘different CITY’ to ‘different CITY Location’.
• Curious Parcel, The – Change ‘(3 cards)’ to ‘(3 different Locations)’.
• Curse of the Rat-Thing - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Phobias”.
• Docks, The – Add the line “Ignore Sanity gain/loss for playing that Artifact,” to the end of the Special Effects
Box.
• Dominate - The Special Effects Box should read “Place a counter on one of your Allies; for as long as that Ally
remains in play, treat it as if it were in all respects a copy of the target Ally. Flip target Ally.”
• Dimensional Shambler (Limited) - The Special Effects Box should read, “Bypasses your opponent's Threat. Add
1 point to the value of this card if your Investigator is in the Past, or in any Exotic Location, during Combat.
Joins Dimensional Shamblers.”
• Easter Island – Change ‘Artifacts’ to ‘Artifact’.
• Eclipse of the Sun - Add the text “This is an Eclipse card. It is now Day,” to the beginning of the Special
Effects Box.
• Expedition, The – Change the first ‘the’ to ‘AN’.
• Faraz Najir - The correct artist is Stephen Barnwell.
• Flee to Special Room - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Card Play”.
• Hospital for the Insane – Remove the spurious ‘Inside’ private attribute.
• K. J. Hooper - Attributes should include Knows English.
• Lamp of Alhazred – The first sentence of the Special Effects Box should read, “Spend 1 Sanity point and flip
this card to add the Past attribute to your current Location.”
• Lost in the Catacombs – Should require ‘THE’ CATACOMBS BENEATH PARIS.
• Make Money Fast – Change the fourth ‘the’ to ‘AN’.
• Mao Ceremony - The Affects line should read, “Affects Great Old Ones & Outer Gods”.
• Mauretania - Change ‘icon’ to ‘attribute’.
• Mosque of Ibn Tulun - Is Unique.
• Necropolis, The - Should have a Gate swirl.
• Nyhargo Dirge – The Affects line should read, “Affect’s Opponent’s Ally or Threat”. The Special Effects Box
should read, “Either Bury one random Living Dead Monster from an opponent’s Threat or Bury one Living Dead
Ally of an opponent.”
• One Dark and Stormy Night – Change ‘at least one TRAVEL BY CAR’ to ‘at least one CAR’.
• Orne Forumula & Diagrams – Should have an Affects line reading, “Affects Ally’s Value”.
• Otaheite – Change ‘Artifacts’ to ‘Artifact’.
• Ponape Scripture Hoag MS. - Background should be Tome/Artifact colored.
• Powder of Ibn Ghazi - Should read ‘Round’, not ‘Turn’.
• Pragmatic Hobo - Should have a Minimum of 0 and a Maximum of 7.
• Royal Geographic Society, The – The first sentence should read, “Tell us tales of a Lovecraft Country SITE, a
LOCATION in Europe with Catacombs in its Title, and a LOCATION in the Middle East with Tomb in its
Title.”
• Seal of Isis – Should have an Affects line reading, “Affects Opponent’s Card Play”. Also, the Special Effects
Box text should begin “At the moment when you would lose…” instead of “If opponent plays a card that would
cause you to lose…”. (Making it clear that the Seal protects against both Insects and the Song of Hastur.)
• Seaplane - Add the text, “May travel to or from Locations (except Exotic) where Travel by Air is normally
forbidden.”
• Secret of Power and Glory is Yours!, The - Should have a value of +6, with +2 for the Sanity gain.
• Shantaks – Change ‘Water’ to ‘Sea’.
• Simon Orne - Should have two Region colors, green and purple. Add ‘& Diagrams’ to ‘Orne Formula’.
• Song of Hastur - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Spell or Tome”.
• Stand Against the Order – Should require ‘THE’ MARSH MANSION and the MARSH REFINING CO.
• Stange Case of Charles Fort, The – For clarity, should read, “2 LOCATIONS in different Regions”.
• Summon Great Cthulhu - Should have a value of +13, not +7.
• Sun Worshipper, The – Change ‘TRAVEL BY CAMEL’ to ‘Travel by CAMEL’.
• Thieves In Your Attic - The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponent's Artifact”.
• Tramp Steamer - The Affects line should include, “Affects Your Investigator”.
• Ultra-Violet, The – The Affects line should read, “Affects Opponents’ Threats”. Additionally, change ‘attacking
Threat’ to ‘Threat Directed at you’ in the Special Effects Box.
• Voola Ritual - Pentagon should be Yellow.
• Voorish Sign – The Affects line should read, “Affects Your Spells”.
• Wave of Oblivion – The Affects line should read “Affects Opponent’s Story Deck”.
• Your First Big Story – Change “THREE GATE LOCATIONS located in three different cities or towns” to “3
GATE Locations in different Cities, Towns or Villages”.