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Obama 2012 posted:I'm baffled by their tone--they read less like tales of inexplicable weirdness than they do mediocre young-adult fiction. I wish they were more 'Lovecraft/Weird Tales/Stephen King' and less 'Nun-with-a-shotgun-on-a-motorcycle'. I guess that's just how FFG thinks of their brand of Arkham. To be fair, this sounds a lot more like how a session of Mansions of Madness or Arkham Horror go than the traditional Lovecraft stories.
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Mar 14, 2018 21:21
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| # ? May 9, 2024 23:39 |
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I really can't wait until The Forgotten Age fully drops so I can tell my friends who are on the fence that the game has two really solid campaign cycles and a ton of additional amazing players cards. Alternative hot take: Record in your campaign log: Your Mind is Blown. Matt is such a great writer, you can't wait to read his horror novel. You said 'What a Twist!' but totally not ironically.
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Mar 23, 2018 06:46
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Wanted to get in on this when it started, but couldn't get a copy and forgot about it for a long while. Now that there is some more stuff out, is it still basically mandatory to get 2 cores? And is it best to keep to release order (i.e. Dunwich before Carcosa or the upcoming one)? Game holding up well now that its got a bigger base of cards?
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Mar 23, 2018 10:18
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Yes and yes and yes. Never trust people trying to convice themselves a single core of an LCG is fine, this is pure self-denial. I mean, it'd be okay to like buy core + some other big box for variety as your first purchase, but sooner or later you'll want those extra copies of core cards. Well, the order of buy-in into cycles is one thing entirely up to you, but I'd still advise Dunwich first, if only to ensure there's no availability issues in a year or two. While Carcosa is good and fun, it's also a bit gimmicky and weird and characterful and it's nice to have a more straightforward campaign of killing monsters and scooping clues that's a bit more substantial than the semi-tutorial of the core set to lean on.
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Mar 23, 2018 10:37
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Honestly at this point I'd say it's FFG's best designed LCG and I'm not sure it's even close. I've actually been surprised at how well it's held up and how replayable everything is. My regular group is already planning on restarting Carcosa after the last pack's released and we finish that. They've done a real good job, and seeing some of the new cards makes me feel even better about the future of the game as it seems they're going into some interesting directions in terms of design space.
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Mar 23, 2018 14:59
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Myself I'm itching to see what they're trying to do with the ENGAGE EVERYONE archetype they're slowly seeding cards for.
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Mar 23, 2018 15:13
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My only real complaint is I wish they would release all the level 1 cards at the beginning of the cycle (in the box) and then only stuff that requires XP to buy from then on.
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Mar 23, 2018 15:32
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Is the one core set experience supposed to be fairly punishing, or are we awful at this game? Because we just went through twice (once with Roland/Wendy, the other with Daisy/Skids) and got completely wrecked in game three both times. Like, not even close to success. although one time we did get lucky and were able to throw Lita to the beastie, which is...well, not a loss exactly
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Mar 24, 2018 22:32
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Boxman posted:Is the one core set experience supposed to be fairly punishing, or are we awful at this game? Because we just went through twice (once with Roland/Wendy, the other with Daisy/Skids) and got completely wrecked in game three both times. Like, not even close to success. If you are good at the game you should be able to fairly easily and reliably beat it on hard if you have two cores. I saw one person suggest playing on easy. Bump up the difficulty once when you are good and once when you have two cores, which seems about right. Just get a second core. It lets you have all three missions pre-assembled and you'll want the duplicate player cards.
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Mar 24, 2018 22:40
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Boxman posted:Is the one core set experience supposed to be fairly punishing, or are we awful at this game? Because we just went through twice (once with Roland/Wendy, the other with Daisy/Skids) and got completely wrecked in game three both times. Like, not even close to success. With one core, decks become super-random, which means that it takes much longer to set up, which means scenarios get harder. While it certainly is doable to beat the scenarios, you need to be quite skilled or have the stars align. What do you do for example, if Roland doesn't find a weapon quite quick or Agnes Shrivelling is at the bottom of her deck? A second core doubles the chances of drawing vital cards, which makes for a much smoother experience. The core set cards are still quite widely used, so a second core is still worth the expense.
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Mar 25, 2018 06:32
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I think a good rule of thumb is playing with one core is the same as playing at +1 difficulty
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Mar 25, 2018 06:46
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Now that the Carcosa cycle has wrapped up, what did people think? Spoilers through the end of Dim Carcosa: On the whole, I liked this campaign. They did a good enough job with the unreliable narrator schtick, that’s a very hard thing to pull off in this medium. But I was a little let down by the Stranger tally resolution: I kept hoping they’d pull some legacy nonsense and include a “Do Not Open Until You Have 5 Tally Marks” or something. It just affecting how quickly the first agenda ended was a bummer. We went full on with Conviction: we burned the house down, heeded the warning, and fought the stranger in the Catacombs. Hastur, Lord of Carcosa was a real challenge, especially with Mark’s already low sanity and mental trauma.
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Mar 26, 2018 03:07
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Beat Cop (2 xp), Aquinnah (3 xp) and Brother Xavier (1 xp) enter the Thunderdome. Who will leave and go on to have thrilling adventures with William Yorick? I'm really tempted by Aquinnah (if only for the joy of dealing with enemies by simply running past them and watching them self-destruct. Also it'd let me use the deck slot of leather coats for some other xp additions), but that +1 fight of the beat cop is quite hard to pass up on.
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Mar 26, 2018 09:39
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The correct answer is Charisma.
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Mar 26, 2018 14:13
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Also, I've got a passing thought that Survivor is hands down the best class to off-class for pretty much any other color. This both to its generalist nature (i.e. there is no deck Lucky! wouldn't fit in) and the fact Survivors exchange 4+ xp cards for the exile mechanic, meaning your standard 0-2 level access opens nearly entire red cardpool. I wonder if they've acknowledged the latter when applying the deckbuilding template to various investigators.
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Mar 26, 2018 15:52
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So I got a single core of this, and was playing Skids solo. I got to the final scenario (The Devourer Below, I think?) and.....uh. Is this a thing I'm supposed to be able to do? I'm only playing on Normal, but it seems kinda impossible. I started off with 2 Doom on the Agenda, but things went as well as they could've, really- I even drew an Elder Sign to escape the entrapping woods- and it just seemed hopeless. I had a first turn machete and flashlight!
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Mar 26, 2018 17:33
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Well, I did it on a single core solo Skids, so it's definitely doable. It requires a fair bit of luck, though, espacially with draws on a single core. While I think I've done it by virtue of really being on a roll with my flashlights and a well-placed dynamite stick, the dirty secret of The Devourer Below is that if you know what you're up to, it's the single most cheesable scenario in the game - currently and in the foreseeable future. If you've given up on doing this the hard way, the lame speedrun solution is not to give a single gently caress about gathering clues. Since running out of Agendas doesn't end the scenario, but rather initiates the bossfight, you can spend the entire adventure just standing in place and gathering weapons, supplies and tricks for the big fight. And if you control Lita Chandler you can literally do nothing but draw cards and fend off random ghouls until you find her.
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Mar 26, 2018 17:51
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Lichtenstein posted:Beat Cop (2 xp), Aquinnah (3 xp) and Brother Xavier (1 xp) enter the Thunderdome. Who will leave and go on to have thrilling adventures with William Yorick? When I first read this post I thought you were referencing Blood on the Altar. Orange Devil posted:The correct answer is Charisma. Seconded. Lichtenstein posted:Also, I've got a passing thought that Survivor is hands down the best class to off-class for pretty much any other color. This both to its generalist nature (i.e. there is no deck Lucky! wouldn't fit in) and the fact Survivors exchange 4+ xp cards for the exile mechanic, meaning your standard 0-2 level access opens nearly entire red cardpool. This kinda annoys me. A quick search on ArkhamDB for level 3+ cards shows 10 Guardian cards, 11 Seeker, 6 Survivor, 9 Rogue, and 11 Mystic. If Will to Survive wasn't one of those cards, being a primary Survivor would be completely forgettable.
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Mar 26, 2018 17:55
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It's mostly a card pool size issue I think. Similarly we could really do with more Guardian allies. Or Rogue events. Or non-Mystic accessories. Or really anything in the body slot. Edit: Just did some crawling through the card pool on ArkhamDB and I didn't actually realize that out of all the skills printed, only 7 have required experience. Of those, 5 are the lvl 2 upgrades to the iconic core set skills. The remaining two are Stroke of Luck (2), which is an exile to (pretty much) succeed a skill test card, and Seal of the Elder Sign (5), which is a remove from game to (pretty much) succeed a skill test card. Survivors have gotten more skills then any other faction and they just haven't printed more than a literal single high level skill card so far which was released in Dim Carcosa. Maybe it took them a while to figure out where exactly they wanted the power level of inherently pretty-much-single-use-cards-that-cost-XP? Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Mar 26, 2018 |
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Mar 26, 2018 18:24
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I remember Nate French confirming in some interview that low xp values for survivor cards were an intentional choice: since the class is meant to represent ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances, he felt that these big, flashy 5 xp cards would run counter to the intended feel of the class. The (currently 100% class-specific) Exile mechanic was designed explicitly to give survivors some additional xp sinks as a result of that decision. I just wonder if they've though about its impact on off-classing. Now, back to speaking entirely out of my rear end, I wonder if there's a reverse thing supposed to be going on with rogues. Exceptional is pretty much a Rogue-specific mechanic (the one Guardian exception easily handwaved as an equivalent of Possession not being mystic; also the only card directly referencing exceptionals belongs to Sefina) that kind of mirrors their gambling double-or-nothing aspect. Now, the  part is, perhaps just like their in-mission modus operandi is to make mad dosh and then throw it at every problem they might face, maybe they're timidly geared to go big or go home on xp across the span of a campaign. First, ever since the core box, their level 0 oeuvre has been fairly disappointing, with most of the reason for bothering with them tied in a lot of legit cool upgrades.Second, let's take a look at XP-boosting cards in the current pool. Non-rogues currently have two: Delve Too Deep and Yorick's Bury Them Deep. The first is very Mystic in execution, the latter kinda sorta ties with what the character is about. Meanwhile, Rogues currently have a whopping three of such cards: - Charon's Obol, the most straightforward one, - Alt-Jennys xp-discounting medallion, - Xp-discounting adaptable. There's a bit of a pattern to them. Each of these cards allows for a bigger net gain than the abovementioned, and therefore a faster snowball. Moreover, they're greedy - they are benefitting only the owner, rather than spreading the experience among the team, like the out-of-class cards do. Now, given how Rogues and Survivors have a strong opposition thing going on - amassing riches vs going broke, exceeding tests vs failing forward, explosive gambles vs consistency - I wonder if they're meant, or will be meant, to mirror survivor's xp curve, guzzling xp and snowballing while the survivors hit their skill ceiling and stick to amassing additional contingencies.
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Mar 26, 2018 19:45
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For the reason you point out, Pete and Jenny make a pretty good team also. Jenny needs some XP upgrades and some in-game setup time to really do her thing, at which point she rolls face. Meanwhile Pete is good to come right out of the gate swinging like a madman. Plus you get to play a trust fund dilettante and a hobo smashing eldritch horrors. So what's not to like?
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Mar 27, 2018 08:39
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What/how many spells (with charges) are people running on Akachi? Angered Spirits hit me right at the end of Curtain Call with no realistic path to clearing it, but the deck has 2x Shrivelling, 2x Clarity of Mind, 2x Alchemical Transmutation and 2x Rite of Seeking (which I'll probably switch out for 2x Suggestion when the Seeker gets going more). That's more than enough right?
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Mar 27, 2018 10:07
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That's definitely more than enough.
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Mar 27, 2018 11:35
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Alright that's what I assumed but I don't think I ever had 4 spare charges on spells the entire game. Having to kill 11 enemies in the first scenario was probably an outlier.
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Mar 27, 2018 12:07
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Akachi's stats allow her to do good with a backup weapon like a knife which you then upgrade into a Spirit Athame. Let's you deal with small enemies without having to use Shrivelling charges for everything. Also, Alchemic Transmutation is really only worth it explicitly as a way for Akachi to have cheap access to charges, imo. I guess it doubles as a in-case-of-total-emergency piggy bank. Though to be honest, I like Scrying more as a cheap source of charges. Also also, if somehow this still isn't enough charges, you are better off adding Arcane Initiate to draw your spells more consistently rather than adding more spells with charges.
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Mar 27, 2018 15:23
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This game feels like Lovecraft crossed with Indiana Jones, leaving something still recognizably the latter but totally unlike the former. And I think I'm okay with that? I don't know if HP would be very card game friendly on his own.
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Mar 27, 2018 21:56
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Yeah, for better or worse all FFG's treatment of Lovecraft is a bit of pulpy Shoggoth Chainsaw Massacre (also brains are the second hp track). Once upon a time I was sad about this trend in gaming, but by now Cthulhu Mythos are the equivalent of zombies in the overused nerd tropes department, so I really don't care anymore. Having said that, the gimmicks of Path to Carcosa are actually a rather nice tribute to Chambers.
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Mar 27, 2018 22:05
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Orange Devil posted:Akachi's stats allow her to do good with a backup weapon like a knife which you then upgrade into a Spirit Athame. Let's you deal with small enemies without having to use Shrivelling charges for everything. Yeah I just ran no hand items at all planning to xp into Spirit Athame later so ended up Shrivelling rats. Arcane Initiate's in the deck it just whiffed like four times, nbd. Alchemical did feel like overkill though, especially with both Emergency Cache and Uncage the Soul in deck. In my defense my last two runs were as Jenny then Minh so my sense of economy is hosed. This is all good advice so thanks, I just wasn't prepared for her weakness at all.
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Mar 28, 2018 00:06
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Single Tight Female posted:Yeah I just ran no hand items at all planning to xp into Spirit Athame later so ended up Shrivelling rats. Arcane Initiate's in the deck it just whiffed like four times, nbd. Alchemical did feel like overkill though, especially with both Emergency Cache and Uncage the Soul in deck. In my defense my last two runs were as Jenny then Minh so my sense of economy is hosed. Mystic always feels really feast or famine resource wise when I play them. Either I'm choking on resources with no where to spent them or I'm scrabbling for every cent to put it into my brain gun.
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Mar 28, 2018 00:57
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Dug out my cards and I'm planning to play a two player game in the near future. I don't remember any of the deckbuilding strategies, so I might just go with the suggested decks in the rulebooks. At least for our first game, and then redo the decks once we're familiar with the mechanics and replay the first "your house" scenario. I have a couple of the expansions, but is it better to stick with the core set cards and investigators for the core set scenarios?
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Mar 28, 2018 01:39
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Orange Devil posted:Stick to the Plan doesn't even really cost 6XP because you can easily decide you now only need the 1 copy (which you are guaranteed to see) of cards like Ever Vigilant or Extra Ammunition or an Emergency Cache (2) or (3). So over easter my group wants to bang out the entire Dunwhich Campaign. I am planning on playing Mark Harrigan and just want some advice never having played a guardian before. This will be a 4 player game so I am not going to do anything other than murder people. code:A) Should I include a painkillers? B) Should I be rolling dodge? C) Should I be carrying more skills? Feels so weird to only have 4. D) What do I cut! One smoking pipe seems like a good cut, but not sure beyond that. Upgrade plan is probably Module 1: 2 * Stand Togethers - this card just seems pretty amazing, cutting the two emergency caches Module 2: 1 * Stick to the Plan 1 * Ever Vigilant 1 * Upgraded Emergency Cache - I'm not sure I need this with ever vigiliant... unless I get lightning gun? ^ These two with the dream pull hand are just bananas. Play ever vigilant, play a gun, a flashlight and a guard dog - a good loadout and a free action! I just don't know what to cut, and maybe I do the Beat Cops First Module 3: 2 * Beat Cops (Replacing the beat cops) Charisma Module 4: 2 * Vicious Blow 1 * Lightning Gun 1 * Extra Ammo 2 * First Aid
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Mar 28, 2018 03:35
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Since we were comparing survivors to rogues, I really like A Test of Will and Devil's Luck as slightly kludgy survivor version of Adaptable. Upgrade the card you want to replace with one of the exile cards, get a one time powerful effect, and afterwards switch to the new level 0 card for free. Switching level 0 cards feels bad. Exile cards feel expensive for what they do since they hinder long term growth. Getting both features for one xp is actually palatable though.
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Mar 28, 2018 05:48
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Single Tight Female posted:Yeah I just ran no hand items at all planning to xp into Spirit Athame later so ended up Shrivelling rats. Arcane Initiate's in the deck it just whiffed like four times, nbd. Alchemical did feel like overkill though, especially with both Emergency Cache and Uncage the Soul in deck. In my defense my last two runs were as Jenny then Minh so my sense of economy is hosed. If you are playing on normal being 2 over the check is good enough odds. So Akachi can just fist-fight rats even without a weapon and save the Shrivelling charges. Cthulhu Dreams posted:So over easter my group wants to bang out the entire Dunwhich Campaign. I am planning on playing Mark Harrigan and just want some advice never having played a guardian before. This will be a 4 player game so I am not going to do anything other than murder people. You've already correctly identified that Mark Harrigan doesn't really need skills and is really good with assets that can soak damage. I don't know what difficulty y'all plan to play, but if it's Normal and probably also Hard, you can go even more all-in on this. Ie. ditch the Overpowers. Keep in mind that Dunwich places 2 specific requirements on your character if you want to make it out alive: 1. You need good willpower to be able to do pretty much anything against the Broods. 2. You need to be able to collect some clues to get out of the last scenario alive. With that in mind, give some extra consideration to Police Badge or some way to trade resources for Willpower as upgrade options. Also, if your plan to grab clues is going to be Flashlights throughout the entire campaign (definitely doable) then you need to already be thinking about your handslots right now. Mark can do really really well with a Shotgun, especially now that you can guarantee Extra Ammo. Getting two Shotguns is expensive though, so you are probably better off starting with at least 1x Prepared for the Worst right from the get-go and placing this on your Stick to the Plan once you get it. As a bonus Prepared for the Worst can get you Intellect icons. Anyway, hand slots, if you are going Shotgun or Lightning Gun (and again I like the Shotgun more on Mark) you'll need a Bandolier or two. And while this card is not efficient in a level 0 deck, it is more XP efficient for you to include it from the start than to grab it later. I suppose you can use it as a less good Overpower for the first bunch of scenarios. You're running some cards I just flat out don't like, like First Aid and Beat Cop (0). Beat Cop might be justified for no other reason than having another draw to get clues with in The House Always Wins though. In general I feel like you might be bringing too much horror healing. In our Carcosa campaign Mark was just making GBS threads out allies (Guard Dog, Beat Cop (2), Brother Xavier) left and right and used them as ablative horror armour. Didn't bring any horror healing and it worked out fine. The Smoking Pipe isn't bad though, up to you. Between Dogs and Cops you can actually do a whole bunch of damage without checks. This means you can use actions for moves and kill fools who attack of opportunity you while being rewarded for the damage your allies are taking. This is very efficient. As such, I think having both Elusive and Shortcut is too many movement cards, especially for Dunwich. Elusive is also on the expensive side for Mark. Taunt however really has some value in 4-player Dunwich. Mark Harrigan is really, really good with Assets that soak HP. He needs economy though. Ever Vigilant is amazing economy for Mark as long as he runs enough Assets. It's also a card you want on your Stick to the Plan. Just be sure you're packing enough Assets right from the start. As for your questions: A) Nah. B) Dodge can soak a big horror hit + protect other people from poo poo. A lot better than First Aid. C) No. Vicious Blow and The Home Front are the only skills that carry their weight for Mark, imo. D) First Aid, Elusive, Overpower, maybe Smoking Pipe. Get rid of True Grit once you add Charisma and Brother Xavier. Upgrade Plan: 1. 1x Ever Vigilant for 1x Emergency Cache 2. 1x Stick to the Plan, place 1x Ever Vigilant, 1x Emergency Cache and 1x Prepared for the Worst on it. 3. 1x Charisma, 2x Beat Cop (2) and 2x Brother Xavier. 4. 2x Stand Together 5. Police Badge(s) somewhere here maybe? 6. 1x Shotgun + 1x Extra Ammo replacing the Emergency Cache on the Stick to the Plan. 7. 1x Keen Eye for the last scenario. 8. Vicious Blow (2) I guess. You can also go a second Charisma. You should already be wrecking all the faces at this point. Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Mar 28, 2018 |
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Mar 28, 2018 09:26
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Quick Jim Culver idea: 2x Arcane Research and St. Hubert's Key. - You poo poo XP like a madman - The 6 remaining brains are still pretty comfortable given the trumpet and stuff. - St. Hubert gives the two stat boosts Jim wanted for reliable spellslinging and not-poo poo investigation (add an ally or splash magnifying glass for seeker-tier clue gathering) - With the key out, you're just 1 horror short of enabling desperate cards and its discard clause essentially negates the initial trauma if necessary. I also wonder if he'd play nice with Recall the Future: apart from a standard -number call to act as a faux-Lucky! you could also call the skulls (of which usually there are multiples) so effects like Song of the Dead +damage can trigger where a result of 0 would not suffice. On the other hand, Mystics are so willpower-focused I'm not sure that would come up often in practice.
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Mar 28, 2018 12:35
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Just make sure you also recycle Grotesque Statues when doing that with Jim. Not the quickest start (both campaign and in-scenario wise) but drat if it doesn't get insanely powerful. I think the main issue is not being able to tutor for the Key unless you get generous help from a Seeker friend. Take too many Desperate cards which become blanks without one of those 2 copies of the Key and your deck starts to fall apart quick.
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Mar 28, 2018 15:58
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what matt what are you even how why
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Mar 30, 2018 17:02
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Is there a recommended build for two decks built out of two core sets to tackle the core campaign co-op?
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Mar 30, 2018 17:18
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Lichtenstein posted:what Oof. I'm sure this is interesting in group play but solo seems like it would be very much up to card draw in the early stages.
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Mar 30, 2018 17:21
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Lichtenstein posted:what This looks amazing and I can't wait to see my enemies in hell.
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Mar 30, 2018 17:21
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| # ? May 9, 2024 23:39 |
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Chaotic Flame posted:Oof. I'm sure this is interesting in group play but solo seems like it would be very much up to card draw in the early stages. Actually I think he'll be more useful in solo than in a group. At least until we see some asset that directly adds HPs to your investigator while on table, Calvin's stats won't really go that high, with the possible advantage being getting everything to 4-5. Also, I expect a big part of getting these numbers will be letting some rats nibble on you for a few attacks of opportunity - which might actually be quite nifty in solo, given how tempo-based it tends to be. I do wonder what combos they have in mind for him though, as in the current cardpool you probably could just pick Ashcan instead.
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Mar 30, 2018 17:33
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