Arkham Horror: The Card Game – By the Book: Challenge Scenario
Arkham Horror: The Card Game – By the Book: Challenge Scenario Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Parallel Investigators
Parallel investigators are alternate, print-and-play versions of investigators from existing Arkham Horror: The Card Game products. These investigators, along with their advanced signature cards, are fully playable in any scenario or campaign.
- When building a Roland Banks deck, you may choose whether to use the original version or the parallel version of both his front side and his back side. Each version has its own advantages and disadvantages. You can also mix and match the two versions. This means that you can use both original sides, both parallel sides, the original front side and parallel back side, or the parallel front side and original back side.
- Regardless of which version of Roland you use, you may also optionally upgrade Roland's signature cards to his new advanced signature cards (replacing the original versions). These versions are indicated by the Advanced keyword. These are included only as a set—if you choose to upgrade Roland's .38 Special, you must also upgrade Cover Up. Doing so costs no experience, and may be done at any point during a campaign. However, once this upgrade is made, it cannot be undone unless you are instructed otherwise.
Challenge Scenarios
Challenge scenarios are special print-and-play scenarios that utilize existing products in the Arkham Horror: The Card Game collection, along with additional print-and-play cards, to create new content. These scenarios are designed with certain prerequisites in mind, in order to craft a challenging puzzle-like experience.
The By the Book challenge scenario centers around the investigator Roland Banks, and therefore has the following prerequisites:
- Roland Banks must be chosen as one of the investigators when playing this scenario.
Standalone Mode
When played as a standalone scenario, follow the steps for Standalone Mode in the Rules Reference. Refer to the section below for additional setup instructions. When played as a standalone scenario, By the Book has four difficulty modes. Construct the chaos bag with the following tokens:
- Easy: +1, +1, 0, 0, 0, –1, –1, –1, –2, –2, Skull, Skull, Cultist, Tablet, Elder Thing, Elder Sign, Auto-Fail.
- Standard: +1, 0, 0, –1, –1, –1, –2, –2, –3, –4, Skull, Skull, Cultist, Tablet, Elder Thing, Elder Sign, Auto-Fail.
- Hard: 0, 0, –1, –1, –2, –2, –3, –4, –5, –6, Skull, Skull, Cultist, Tablet, Elder Thing, Elder Sign, Auto-Fail.
- Expert: 0, –1, –2, –3, –4, –5, –6, –7, –8, Skull, Skull, Cultist, Tablet, Elder Thing, Elder Sign, Auto-Fail.
Proceed to Setup.
Side-Story (Campaign Mode)
A side-story is a scenario that may be played between any two scenarios of an Arkham Horror: The Card Game campaign. Playing a side-story costs each investigator in the campaign a certain amount of experience. Weaknesses, trauma, experience, and rewards granted by playing a side-story stay with the investigators for the remainder of the campaign. Each side-story may only be played once per campaign.
When this scenario is played as a side-story during a campaign, play it as if you are setting up the next scenario in the campaign, with the same chaos bag, weaknesses, trauma, and story assets previously earned.
Investigators can only play By the Book as a side-story if Roland Banks is in the campaign. Playing the By the Book side-story costs Roland Banks 3 experience, and each other investigator only 1 experience.
Expansion Symbol
The cards in the "parallel investigator" series can be identified by this symbol before each card's collector number. The symbol is a pair of vertical arrows, one pointing up and one pointing down.
Regulation Abilities
Each of the five Directive assets included in this set possesses a "Regulation –" ability, which represents a restriction that Roland must follow during gameplay. "Regulation –" is an ability descriptor with no inherent rules.
Regulation abilities are a subset of constant abilities—they are always active and have no point of initiation. However, some card effects (specifically, Roland's [Regulation icon] effect) refer to regulation abilities by name.
Scenario Setup
- Gather all cards from the following encounter sets: By the Book, The Midnight Masks, Agents of Shub-Niggurath, Cult of Umôrdhoth, Chilling Cold, Dark Cult, Nightgaunts, and Striking Fear. Each of these sets except for By the Book can be found in the core set. These sets are indicated by the following icons, one per set in the order listed above: [encounter set icons].
- Remove the original scenario reference card from The Midnight Masks encounter set from the game. Use the new scenario reference card provided in the downloadable By the Book encounter set.
- Remove the original act and agenda deck from The Midnight Masks encounter set from the game. Build the act and agenda decks using only the new act and agenda cards provided in the downloadable By the Book encounter set.
- Remove the Your House location and both copies of the Mysterious Chanting treachery from the game. These cards are not used in this challenge scenario.
- Choose one of the two Downtown locations and one of the two Southside locations at random and put them into play. Remove the other versions of Downtown and Southside from the game. Then, put the Northside, Easttown, Rivertown, St. Mary's Hospital, Graveyard, Miskatonic University, and Arkham Police Station locations into play.
- Each investigator begins play at the Arkham Police Station.
- Shuffle the 9 Cultist enemies from the Cult of Umôrdhoth and Dark Cult encounter sets together, then place one of those enemies facedown underneath each location in play, as a conspirator.
- You may optionally decide to gather the cards included in the Return to the Cult of Umôrdhoth encounter set, as well, if your collection includes them. This set is indicated by the [Return to the Cult of Umôrdhoth icon] icon. If you do, shuffle the 3 cards from this encounter set with the 9 Cultist enemies from above, and remove 3 of the 12 cards at random from the game without looking at them. Then place one of the remaining enemies facedown underneath each location in play, as a conspirator.
- Roland Banks begins the game with 1 clue (from the token pool).
- Shuffle the 24 remaining encounter cards to build the encounter deck.
Do Not Read (Until the End of the Scenario)
Printed box: DO NOT READ until the end of the scenario.
If no resolution was reached and Roland resigned: Proceed to Resolution 1.
Resolution 1
Your evidence presented and the case closed, you return to your typical day-to-day of investigating bootleggers and common criminals. Those responsible for the murders—those you could catch, anyway—are safely behind bars. With the proof you collected, not even Mr. Grey's extensive influence can pardon their crimes.
But returning to your usual cases has proven difficult. Nagging worries pull at your thoughts. Something compelled Mr. Grey and the others to commit these heinous crimes. To sacrifice human lives in the pursuit of some dark, sinister purpose.
A rot lies beneath the surface of this town like mold hides in the foundations of an old, rotting house. With so much left unknown, how can you be sure the guidelines of the Bureau account for what you've seen? What if next time, you have to break the rules to get to the truth? What will you do then?
- Roland Banks earns experience equal to the combined Victory X value of each enemy in the victory display.
- Each other investigator earns experience equal to the combined Victory X value of each location in the victory display.
- If the number of Cultist enemies in the victory display is…
- 4–5, Roland Banks begins the next scenario with 1 additional card in hand.
- 6–7, Roland Banks begins the next scenario with 2 additional cards in hand.
- 8–9, Roland Banks begins the next scenario with 3 additional cards in hand.
- 10, Roland Banks begins the next scenario with 3 additional cards in hand. Choose and remove any non-symbol token from the chaos bag, for the remainder of the campaign.
- If Mr. Grey is in the victory display, Roland Banks may either upgrade Roland's .38 Special to its advanced version, or downgrade the advanced version of Cover Up to its original version.
Resolution 2
No amount of procedure or training could have prepared you for the monsters that emerged during your investigation—both the human ones and the literal ones. Despite your best efforts, you were forced to close the case and lay low. Any further involvement might have been the very end of you. Mr. Grey and his goons may never face the proper consequences for their heinous acts.
But at least now you know of the true rot that lies beneath the surface of this town. You'll be better prepared next time. Rules or no rules.
- Roland Banks earns experience equal to the combined Victory X value of each enemy in the victory display.
- Each other investigator earns experience equal to the combined Victory X value of each location in the victory display.
- Roland Banks must either upgrade Cover Up to its advanced version, or downgrade the advanced version of Roland's .38 Special to its original version.