Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

I had the cult membership card and my friend played Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum on me. I said I was not a cultist, so I couldn't lose the cult membership card (which is an item anyway), but I also said that I was a cultist, so I couldn't become one. Can I do this?

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Typically, all of a card's effects are atomic as the card is resolved. So I don't believe you would be able to switch your Cultist status midway through resolving the card's effects.

EDIT: I still maintain this opinion, even after read the following FAQ entry:

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

I thought the Cult Membership card just fools people into thinking you're a Cultist the same way Fake Beard makes monsters treat you as a Dwarf. It doesn't make you a cultist.

So if you get dragged off to the asylum, they won't try to get you to join a cult that they already think you're a part of, and you can't lose your status as a cultist if you're just pretending to be one.

Maybe?

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Originally Posted by The FAQ
Q. I have the Cult Membership card. When am I a cult member? How often can I change it?
A. You can change it at will, whenever you wish, for whatever purposes you wish (and no others). For instance, you can count as a cult member for purposes of gaining +2 bonuses in combat, while not counting as a cult member so you do not give the only other non-Cultist a level. If this is confusing, you should probably avoid reading any eldritch tomes you might encounter.

I think that this points in favor of what I did, but does not answer it completely, you could still interpret it either way.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

The reason I disagree is that, while you can simultaneously be a Cultist for some things and not be a Cultist for others, the Curse! card is a single thing, and you have to choose to be one or the other when resolving its effect.

Andrew, I can see that we need an official ruling on this. Would you please give us one?

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Yes, yes we do.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Another thing. Even if you can't change your class twice in one card, what if you say that you're a cultist? You can't lose your cultist class because it's given to you through an item, so would you lose the cult membership card instead?

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

I don't know how to quote from other threads but:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...embership+card

This thread they say you can be a cultist for one thing but not another, they mention winning conditions which would imply that if you had to pick, picking a cultist would end the game (if everyone else was a cultist.)

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

I don't know off the top of my head what the exact effects of the curse are, but if the gist is "Suffer X effect if you are a Cultist, and Y effect if you are not," then I would say you have to pick one effect or the other, and if one does not apply, then you have to take the other.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Still, if this is true (which i'm not sure it is, see forum post above) then choosing cultist wouldn't do anything since you don't have a cultist card to discard.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Hence "one does not apply," hence "you have to take the other," just like with Bad Stuff. At least that's how I see it.

From what's been said, I gather that this curse gives you the cultist class if you do not have it, and takes it away if you do. Clearly the intent of the curse is to have some effect on anyone whether they have the class or not, and I don't think the CMC is intended to make you completely immune to this curse.

Confusion over for what purposes you can use the CMC to count as a Cultist, and for what purposes you have to actually have the Cultist class, is why I hate the CMC.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

It may not be intended to make you immune to certain curses, but it is a pleasant side affect if it does. Can we please get an official ruling on this?

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Official ruling: the CMC cannot let you act as a Cultist and not a Cultist for the precise same effect. If you're resolving a Curse that has different effects for Cultists and non-Cultists, you have to pick one or the other.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

This doesn't answer the original question, though. If you decide you are a Cultist for that particular curse, would you lose the CMC even though it's an item and not a Cultist Class card?

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Ah, now I see the quandary. Easy answer: if you use the CMC to claim you are a Cultist, you have to lose your Cultist status -- which means, in this case, you discard the CMC. If you do not use the CMC to claim you are a Cultist, then you become a Cultist. (Which, at least, allows you to keep the CMC, even though it's currently useless for you.)

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Sorry to keep dragging up details, but I just got home and read the Curse! in question. It says to pick a replacement Class from the discard pile. If you were using the CMC while, say, a Professor, are you immune to this part of the Curse!? I assume yes, because any other Curse! that can't affect you, you ignore.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

I have a better suggestion.

Take the Cult Membership Card out of your deck. Tear it into little pieces. Throw them away. Forget it ever existed.

THAT is my final, official answer.

...

OK, not really. But at this point, I have more important things to do than keep dissecting one card interaction. If Erik wants to weigh in, he's welcome to do so, but I'm tapping out.

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Cleanest screen I've ever had, thanks again Andrew!

Pat

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Wow!!! Really??? So just to beat this dead horse, I love tender horse meat - says the Vegan - if I have a "Cult membership card", and I am the last non-cult member - and someone throws a "dragged off to snarkham asylum" on me - I can either A) discard my Membership card - and not end the game - Because , remember I'm the last non member, or B) Become a Cultist , and end the game. But in order to not become a Cultist I have to Discard the Membership Card , because just having the card doesn't make me immune from this curse? Or finally C) jump over the table and stab the person responsible for putting me in this position in the first place, screaming , "Why do you make me hurt you??!!!??"

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Looks like you got it, but I highly recommend against option C unless you want to be dragged off to an asylum in real life...

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Yup, tear it UP! ;-)

But, seriously. . . Tear it up. . .

No, no, I'm kidding. . . Um, time to put on my thinking pants. Be back in a few. . .

Re: Cult membership card and Curse! Dragged Off To Snarkham Asylum
 

Not to bring up a bad subject.. but was this ever resolved? it came up at a game today. Big fight over it - I said that since the cultist membership card says i am to "be treated as a cultist whenever i choose" i should get all the benefits of a cultist. they disagreed and said that i can only choose to be treated by a monster as a cultist.

thoughts?