Cthulhu 500 FAQ
Q. The Spikey Bits Mod card states that it will damage any vehicle that successfully passes the vehicle with the Mod. Does this prevent a damaged vehicle from passing the vehicle that has this mod, as a damaged vehicle that takes additional damage will be passed by the vehicle directly behind it?
Yes, the damaged vehicle is prevented from passing. (Or, more accurately, a successful pass is immediately undone.) Although this seems kinda grim on the face of it, it really isn't, when you think about it, because:
a) It's pretty easy to fix your damaged car.
b) There are lots of ways to get rid of someone's mod.
c) There are cards that move cars around without a passing test.
Q. In Example 2: Vehicle B is damaged and at the front of the pack, while Vehicle A is at the back. Vehicle A has Spikey Bits. Suppose Vehicle B successfully passes Vehicle A. Vehicle B takes damage from Spikey Bits because of the successful pass; therefore, Vehicle A should now automatically pass Vehcile B. Should it end up that Vehcile B receives a lap counter for the successful pass, but ends up at the back of the pack behind Vehicle A?
The answer to this is that once it's clear that a damaged vehicle can't pass a vehicle with Spikey Bits, it doesn't matter, because being at the front of the back is an equivalent state to being in the back of the back with one more lap counter.
Q. If both the lead car and the tail are damaged, and the lead car pass the tail but they tie on the roll and so both take damage again, they switch places. In this case, does the new tail car gain a lap token?
A car can't gain laps without actually passing the entire pack, just by jockeying back and forth between the front and back position.
The resolution to this sticky problem arises from the fact that there's no functional difference between being at the head of the pack, and being at the back of the pack with a lap token.
So, if there's ever passing or placement confusion between the car at the front of the pack and the car at the back of the pack, the easiest thing to do is to move the car at the front to the back, give that car a lap token, and then resolve the passing, switching, or whatever, as you normally would.
For this problem, imagine this example, with cars at the left being at the back of the pack and asterisks representing lap counters:
Car D -- Car C** -- Car B -- Car A*
If some passing situation between A and D should result in them switching places, you can just move Car A to its equivalent back-of-the-pack position:
Car A** -- Car D -- Car C** -- Car B
And then resolve the switch of places between cars A and D:
Car D -- Car A** -- Car C** -- Car B
A semi-corollary of all this is that a car at the back of the pack should really never be moved to the front of the back other than by passing his way back up through all the cars in between. However, a more generally useful rule is that moving from the front of the pack to the back of the pack always gains you a lap counter, and moving from the back of the pack to the front of the pack always *costs* you a lap counter.
Q: Do you need a Fungi card in the driver position in order for Fungi in your pit crew to contribute a bonus to your passing rolls?
A: Yes, absolutely. Even though each Fungi crew card in your pit crew increases the Drive stats of all other Fungi cards you have in play, only the crew card in your driver position contributes his Drive stat to your passing rolls.
Note that theoretically, a single Fungi by itself in your pit crew has a +2 drive stat (+1 from its native drive stat, +1 more from its special ability since there is one fungi in the pit crew). However, since that lone Fungi isn't your driver, it doesn't contribute anything to your passing rolls.