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There are strategically blurred unboxings.
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Nov 20, 2022 15:06
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 11:29 |
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It's fully out, so they wouldn't be leaks really. It came out in the Netherlands early last week and in the US on Friday. Some people in the discord I'm in have finished it. I haven't read any of the spoiler stuff but overall tone seemed pretty positive.
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Nov 20, 2022 15:22
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Played the Blob that Ate Everything as Charlie Kane Guardian/Rogue(me) and Darrel Simmons (my friend). We were just testing the decks we were going to start the Scarlet Keys with so rather than edit our decks for the standalone scenario we just dumped xp into the customizable cards we already included. The scenario was very fun! It spawns a lot of enemies, and killing them directly contributes to the win condition but you're also not forced to go after them, had some interesting & experimental mechanics that (mostly) work, and a lot of interesting choices to make. I struggled a lot to reliably kill enemies even with an ideal opening hand, though I also had a lot of bad luck on my token draws (getting the one -5 when I swing at +4, getting the auto-fail multiple times when I swing at +5). Runic Axe is really strong with just the +1 charge a turn upgrade. Friends in Low Places didn't hit either of the times I used it (mostly because I drew all but 1 ally by the time I drew both copies of it) but it was still pretty helpful with the upgrade that lets you choose what order to put the cards back. I recommend doing everything in your power to dig for Bonnie Walsh in any game you play as Kane because she is just insane. My friend was able to freely get any clue on the board, and built a massive horde of evidence on his camera on accident because he just didn't need to use it, although the scenario is pretty heavy on enemies and treacheries that stick around so evidence was easy to come by. He didn't take much setup time either, only assets I saw him play were the Pocket Multi-Tools.
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Nov 20, 2022 15:37
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Would you say that it would have been too difficult without XP?
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Nov 20, 2022 15:59
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I don't think so. My upgrades did a lot to help me but my friend's spent xp didn't really come into play. I also had a few dead cards partly because I didn't build for the scenario (handcuffs don't do poo poo against a blob) and because I drew almost all of my allies really early. We did end up winning with about 5 doom to spare and very little damage on either of us. Then again we definitely messed up some rules in a way they benefited us.
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Nov 20, 2022 16:07
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Lmao I know how that goes. When I was building the final scenario for Circle Undone, I pulled one of the core pack encounter sets and thought it felt a little light, but I couldn’t for the life of me find the cards I thought should be in it. Well, if rats is only two cards, maybe this set is too? I had, understandably, mixed the cultists from Dark Cults in with the cultists from one of the other three cult sets in Return to Circle Undone, which in my setup means they were in a different box. Problem is, the three cultist enemies from Dark Cults hook into the agenda deck in the final scenario in a way that produces most of the doom in the game. Sometimes you just gotta play through and not show the other players what you hosed up. We still managed to lose lol
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Nov 20, 2022 16:11
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I'm having a great time with Book Roland + Darrell. Roland has an unexpected advantage in The Scarlet Keys, which is being able to expose a mini card every time he defeats a full-card-size enemy at the same location. Roland is using Runic Axe, and his single copy of Refine has netted him 2 XP in four scenarios. Sometimes a fighter doesn't have much to do. Darrell ends up with a mountain of evidence between Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, Empirical Hypothesis, and his Kodak. Usually he nets at minimum two evidence from clearing a location. The non-linear campaign is amazing. I already see how I'm not going to be able to do it all in one run. The way side-scenarios are integrated is clever: you add Time to your campaign log instead of paying the XP cost to play them, and you can travel to them based on where they are on the world map. So far the map sizes are more classic Arkham than the sprawling areas in Innsmouth and Edge of the Earth. It's nice to go back to maps that fit on my playmat again. The scenarios are inventive; MJ must have unleashed all the ideas she had in reserve for her final campaign. I haven't seen any that are rehashes of older scenarios yet. If anything they're a little more complex than other campaigns offer, their rules spilling onto acts, agendas, extra rules cards, etc. Make sure you read everything, probably twice, before starting a scenario. I love the concealed mechanic. Sometimes it's annoying, and shuffling the mini cards so they're randomized is a challenge playing by myself, but I've managed to do it somehow. It's fantastic and I need to play more.
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Nov 20, 2022 16:41
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postmodifier posted:I'm genuinely surprised that I haven't seen any campaign leaks, are they really not out in the wikd yet? I have it, but I just found out only 1 of my friends is interested in playing, and would prefer to play with more than 2.
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Nov 20, 2022 17:25
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My group recently finished a four player campaign run of Dream-Eaters, the full eight scenarios. It was fun and had some interesting ideas, but I can see why it's not the most popular. We decided to be silly and ran a group of Barkham investigators through the Dreamlands scenarios. That was amusing, though maybe a touch underpowered. I also made the terrible decision to put together a jank Mark Harrigan sniper deck for the other four scenarios. I can confirm that the taboo version of the Springfield is actually sort of usable? It's definitely still overcosted XP wise though, it should probably be 3xp. Brand manages to mostly mitigate the main problem with the gun, fighting things engaged with you. The big difficulty is that you have a hellish time fighting massive enemies. In fact, I seem to have picked the worst possible campaign to crack out the build. The last scenario in particular, where you fight the weaver, was an issue. Normally, you can at least use the Springfield to shoot massive enemies that are exhausted. However, every card of the weaver is massive and has a special rule that means it's never actually exhausted. So, it would be always engaged with Mark, meaning I couldn't use my rifle to shoot the city sized spider. It could have been worse, I ended up not moving the entire latter half of the scenario and spent my time shooting the aloof spiders that could add doom. The action economy on that was quite good at least. Plus, it was pretty amusing to have a gun with like six upgrades attached to it. Anyhow, Mark can actually do okay with the taboo Springfield. If it was a little less do, I could see it as a viable mid campaign weapon, or tech card, in some guardian decks. It hits that 3 damage threshold and feels really good when you deal with some problems by sniping them.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:40
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Harvey and Tommy were able to get all six cultists with 1.5 turns left in midnight masks (normal). It was partially due to lucky draw, partially due to enchanted machete, and getting the shortcut in the middle helped. It’s amazing how much soak that scenario required, we killed Tatsuo three times and ended the scenario both almost dead. Shout out to the guard dog (2) as well, dealing with aloof enemies.
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Nov 20, 2022 22:07
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Just finished Into the Maelstrom with my Sister Mary .35 Winchester deck. I was super helpful and had all three weapons in the bottom 6 cards after Preparing for the worst and whiffing. My bottom two cards were both my guns  We did win but that was on the back of doing really well earlier in the campaign and landing the only missing key in the first location we entered. Well, and Silas evading the two ancient ones with his net , which felt very silly.
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Nov 21, 2022 00:17
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If I am playing Lola Hayes and I have a summoned servitor in play, can it take actions when Lola isn't mystic? The text of summoned servitor is "It can take 1 action during each of your turns...", so it's the servitor taking the actions, not Lola. Also, can I use the bonus exp from Down the Rabbit Hole to check off check boxes on customizable cards?
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Nov 21, 2022 01:38
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Cynic Jester posted:Well, and Silas evading the two ancient ones with his net , which felt very silly.
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Nov 21, 2022 02:31
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We played the first scenario of the introductory campaign with 4 players tonight but lost in the final act. I thought we were doing pretty well but we pulled three ancient evils off the encounter deck in a row which advanced the final agenda on what was almost assuredly going to be our last turn of the game. I thought we had played pretty well, our investigators had taken some damage but were prepared to finish off the boss and it felt like we just got screwed by some poor card draw. This seems like the game that defeat can be snatched from the jaws of victory fairly often, am I wrong?
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Nov 21, 2022 09:58
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Nebrilos posted:If I am playing Lola Hayes and I have a summoned servitor in play, can it take actions when Lola isn't mystic? The text of summoned servitor is "It can take 1 action during each of your turns...", so it's the servitor taking the actions, not Lola. First question I don’t know, Lola is too much of a rules headache for me. Second question is a yes.
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Nov 21, 2022 10:06
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tofes posted:We played the first scenario of the introductory campaign with 4 players tonight but lost in the final act. I thought we were doing pretty well but we pulled three ancient evils off the encounter deck in a row which advanced the final agenda on what was almost assuredly going to be our last turn of the game. I thought we had played pretty well, our investigators had taken some damage but were prepared to finish off the boss and it felt like we just got screwed by some poor card draw. This seems like the game that defeat can be snatched from the jaws of victory fairly often, am I wrong? To be bluntly honest, if you play low player count and get all copies of Ancient Evils, especially in scenarios that shuffle the encounter deck, you got unlucky and might be a bit screwed. Playing 4 player however you are all but guaranteed to draw them. However, the tempo gained from extra actions and synergies still makes 4 player the easiest player count. This means you just were not doing as well as you thought. Which makes sense for your first time playing. Try to critically evaluate your decks and decisions during the game to be able to go faster next time.
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Nov 21, 2022 10:11
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I think it's a bit unfair to say they just weren't doing well. It sounds like they didn't know about Ancient Evils before they drew 3 copies to run out the clock on them. If you don't know that's in there, it's reasonable to take your time and prepare for the big fight at the end rather than rush into it to try to end the scenario. Ancient Evils is one of the worst encounter cards to be unprepared for in the game. There's not much you can do about it either but play faster, or cancel it with Ward of Protection. tofes posted:We played the first scenario of the introductory campaign with 4 players tonight but lost in the final act. I thought we were doing pretty well but we pulled three ancient evils off the encounter deck in a row which advanced the final agenda on what was almost assuredly going to be our last turn of the game. I thought we had played pretty well, our investigators had taken some damage but were prepared to finish off the boss and it felt like we just got screwed by some poor card draw. This seems like the game that defeat can be snatched from the jaws of victory fairly often, am I wrong? Yeah this game loves to toss out some big surprise challenge right at the end of a scenario but by then you should be prepared for it, and if you aren't then it's ok because losing a scenario almost never means losing the campaign if you're not in the final scenario. Granted, losing usually means you get some disadvantage later on or don't collect as much xp as you'd like, but most campaigns are built around the idea that you will fail a scenario or two along the way.
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Nov 21, 2022 14:09
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It’s worth mentioning that Ancient Evils is one of the worst designed encounter cards in the game, such that there are multiple revised versions of it published in later sets to act as potential replacements, and the last scenario of the core set campaign is regarded as a pretty bad scenario. If you want to retry the scenario, there’s an easy proxy for ancient evils. Any time you draw it, house rule it to be resurgent evils:  Edit: though even if you did this, you’d be either taking the doom or drawing off six encounter cards which could potentially sink you anyways. It’s a truly bad draw.
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Nov 21, 2022 14:32
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A fun interaction with safeguard is that you can take the priest out of the final room a lot easier. We were able to win because we moved him to Lita, instead of the typical pattern, move, parlay, move back.
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Nov 21, 2022 15:01
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I've always just houseruled it that Ancient Evils is Victory 0. Most Doom Clocks assume you get around 3 in my experience.
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Nov 21, 2022 21:32
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sirtommygunn posted:I think it's a bit unfair to say they just weren't doing well. It sounds like they didn't know about Ancient Evils before they drew 3 copies to run out the clock on them. If you don't know that's in there, it's reasonable to take your time and prepare for the big fight at the end rather than rush into it to try to end the scenario. Yeah the end result of that is "not doing well though", just that they didn't know they weren't doing well because it was their first game, which makes it very understandable. It's not a personal failing to fail at your first attempt at a new game.
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Nov 21, 2022 22:19
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 At last, glorious organization! All the investigator cards, all the mythos cards, all the scenario cards, slotted away in a mostly-logical order. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all the inserts 
The Lord of Hats fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Nov 22, 2022 16:39
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Shades of Suffering is the most difficult scenario they've put into a campaign so far. It's The Wages of Sin except it hates you. You're constantly having actions stolen from you, trying to complete multiple difficult goals at the same time, and to top it off the boss will absolutely melt you if you oversucceed at attacking or evading her. Good luck if you go that way! The Scarlet Keys is great overall though. I really like the map and the choices you get to make, seems like everyone will have a different experience their first time through. There's even some hints and stuff in the text where you'll want to visit places in a certain order to track things down, so it's not just "which scenario do I want to play next", it seems you'll have a reason to do things in a different order. There is a massive difficulty spike that's like slamming into a wall. Scenarios have their difficulty tweaked in various ways depending on how much Time you've spent so far, and I don't think they got it quite right. If you look on the Mythos Busters Discord you'll see people talking about two scenarios in particular that are monsters if you try to do them late in your campaign.
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Nov 23, 2022 23:34
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LifeLynx posted:There is a massive difficulty spike that's like slamming into a wall. Scenarios have their difficulty tweaked in various ways depending on how much Time you've spent so far, and I don't think they got it quite right. If you look on the Mythos Busters Discord you'll see people talking about two scenarios in particular that are monsters if you try to do them late in your campaign. Glad to hear there are multiple difficulty knobs to adjust this time. I assume one of the main ways the difficulty spikes is because of turn restrictions, ie. you begin with X more doom on the scenario. Is that the case? Either way... 
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Nov 24, 2022 00:20
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Buying another copy of the core set cause I lost 1 copy of the holy rosary. I could just use my printer and one of the 11 copies of knife to proxy it buuuut I want the card.
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Nov 24, 2022 02:25
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neosloth posted:Buying another copy of the core set cause I lost 1 copy of the holy rosary. I could just use my printer and one of the 11 copies of knife to proxy it buuuut I want the card. It is worth it for the extra rats so you can have campaigns ready to go
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Nov 24, 2022 02:52
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I was trying out some new decks so I played Curtain Call (from Carcosa) a bunch of times How is it possible that the Man in the Pallid Mask always spawns on the opposite side of the level from the investigators? It should be a 50/50, but in like 6 games he has never spawned on the same side. What do they know that we don't?
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Nov 25, 2022 00:58
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Just picked up my copy of TSC, gonna start with a few friends on the weekend. Looking forward to it a lot! Built myself a weird Runic Axe Vincent Lee deck. Should be able to pump up the damage numbers pretty high while tanking a lot of damage through healing all while sniping a few clues during any downtime. Or it'll fail to do anything well because it's a bunch of jank that has spread itself really thin.
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Nov 25, 2022 05:48
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Nebrilos posted:I was trying out some new decks so I played Curtain Call (from Carcosa) a bunch of times I’ve had him spawn next to me. You gotta split the team baby.
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Nov 25, 2022 05:51
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For people who already got to try Scarlet Keys: are the maps in it smaller than eote? I liked eote but I feel like I never want to replay it because of the location set up. Most of the scenarios outside of ice and death could've been 2 or 3 times smaller imo I think the amount of reading you had to do was crazy too, but it's something that I really enjoy when playing solo and not at all when I have to play with a group (thank god for the arkham cards app) KPC_Mammon posted:It is worth it for the extra rats so you can have campaigns ready to go That's true. Having extra unexpected courages and other basic skills is awesome too
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Nov 28, 2022 02:40
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I've only played 3 of the scenarios (London, Marrakesh and Istanbul), 2 were of a manageable size and 1 was large like EOTE scenarios.
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Nov 28, 2022 03:28
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neosloth posted:For people who already got to try Scarlet Keys: are the maps in it smaller than eote? I liked eote but I feel like I never want to replay it because of the location set up. Most of the scenarios outside of ice and death could've been 2 or 3 times smaller imo They are absolutely smaller, and thank the Elder Gods. I can't replay EotE until I get a bigger table. By reading do you mean scenario rules or story? Because there's a lot more of both than usual. The larger, bound campaign guide gives them more space for all that, and scenario setup is more complex than average. I will say it's worth it. Gameplay is smooth once you get past setup, and I loved meeting all the characters.
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Nov 28, 2022 06:20
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I missed rat talk but I just want to point out a piece of trivia which probably isn't worth the time it's taking you to read these words, and that is... Edge of the Earth is the first campaign where there are no rats! Must've been too cold for them. I sleeved the new campaign yesterday but I'll probably wait until Xmas to do my first run, and goddamn if it wasn't exciting seeing a tonne of new content for this game. I hope they come out with some kind of new supplemental product in addition to the Arkham Nights scenario pack because it feels a bit sparse now with only two releases per year (outside the new re-boxed campaigns).
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Nov 28, 2022 06:38
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LifeLynx posted:They are absolutely smaller, and thank the Elder Gods. I can't replay EotE until I get a bigger table. I was mostly just thinking of the amount of branching conversations you have in EotE. It was a bit hard to get the table on board with reading through it, even though I really enjoy the choose your own adventure format. Either way, shouldn't be as big of a problem now that I got app narration. Excited to try scarlet keys out!
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Nov 28, 2022 09:28
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I just realized that you’re (probably?) only supposed to use the core set weaknesses and the campaign set you’re building the character for when drawing weaknesses. I’ve just been drawing off a huge block of all of them lol
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Nov 28, 2022 14:38
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I don't think the rules tell you to do anything either way specifically, however I think they assume most people who have multiple campaigns will just be putting the stuff into a collection and pulling from that, when a campaign scenario resolution says to pull a weakness and add it to your deck, it doesn't say "from this campaigns set and the core" or anything, it just says the collection. In the new format weaknesses are in the investigator boxes as well, obviously they are named after the campaign but they're somewhat decoupled thematically. We do the thing where you draw 3, pick one to not have and then randomly get one of the other 2. Just to avoid having a truly unpleasant thing where your weakness ruins your deck.
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Nov 28, 2022 14:46
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thebardyspoon posted:We do the thing where you draw 3, pick one to not have and then randomly get one of the other 2. Just to avoid having a truly unpleasant thing where your weakness ruins your deck. I understand why it's not part of the core rule set, because for someone running night of the zealot that's a huge ask to have a player look at three weaknesses, determine what's worst for them and discard one, all before they even know what an investigate action entails But, I do feel like they should have put this as an official variant at the end of every book, like by the standalone play xp rules, because this is the perfect way to handle weaknesses imo
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Nov 28, 2022 15:28
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And yet, some out there play with a surprise weakness.
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Nov 28, 2022 15:34
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Kalko posted:I missed rat talk but I just want to point out a piece of trivia which probably isn't worth the time it's taking you to read these words, and that is... Edge of the Earth is the first campaign where there are no rats! Must've been too cold for them. Yeah I really thought they were going to do 2 campaigns a year, but alas.
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Nov 28, 2022 17:11
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 11:29 |
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My hope is that with MJ moving on to other projects, the new lead designer may feel an urge to put out more content to make their mark Will it be as good, welp
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Nov 28, 2022 21:03
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