Trivia / Res Arcana

Trivia items

• Dear Negative Reader: Board game YouTuber Rahdo gave a glowing review of the game, but didn't like the attack mechanic. This led to designer Tom Lehmann writing a long response arguing that Rahdo was unfair on the mechanic, and he turned hostile during the argument that ensued after Rahdo showed up to defend his review. Tom later apologized for how the conversation went.
• Word of God: Several players have been confused about the Mermaid from the base game — you'd probably expect its card to manipulate the pearls in Perlae Imperii, but it doesn't. The designer has explained this by saying that the mermaid can use the pearls, but doesn't use this ability in the game because it doesn't want others to exploit their power.

Other trivia

• The base game's cover art features a collage of art from the cards. The Necromancer, the Druid and the Fire Dragon have been flipped for aesthetic reasons. In contrast, the cover art for the expansions features original art.
• Perlae Imperii adds an artifact (Scrimshaw Awl) and a Monument (Solomon's Temple) that can get you to the win condition of 13 points on their own as long as you have enough essences to feed them and make them generate Pearls, which are worth a point each.^note Windup Man with Pearls in the game can theoretically also win on its own — put a Pearl on it in round 1, and it'll generate 2 pearls at the start of each subsequent round. Sadly, it'll only get to 13 pearls in round 7, which is much longer than the average mid-to-high level game. The Dolphin is an even slower artifact that can theoretically win on its own, as it generates one pearl at the start of each round. Also, the Seafarer mage can pay some essences and tap to create a pearl, which can theoretically win on its own with enough essences and untap effects, but some artifacts have the same property. Previously, only Places of Power could make a theoretically unlimited number of points on their own.