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kaffo posted:Basically this Especially if (Forgotten Age spoilers) you don’t side with Alejandro, or you do side with him and then fail to rescue him in Threads of Fate, the whole City of Archives scenario seems like a non sequiter. Threads of Fate rocks though. It’s like the promise of Midnight Masks made good, much like Fortune and Folly seems to be delivering on the promise of House Always Wins.
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Jan 23, 2024 18:41
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TFA is a campaign of high highs and low lows. Some all timer scenarios and so absolute stinkers. Kinda the opposite of EotE for me, where every scenario is pretty decent but theres no massive highs.
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Jan 25, 2024 12:13
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Carcosa continues to have probably the highest average scenario quality. But most campaigns have some absolute bangers and some stinkers. Even Carcosa has its boring (worst sin to commit) third scenario.
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Jan 25, 2024 12:32
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Bought these sleeves to put the Return To dividers into in order to better preserve them: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D8LGTXQ They came in today and they fit perfectly. Pretty happy with my purchase.
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Jan 25, 2024 22:11
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Anonymous Robot posted:The campaign also does have at least one scenario that ends with “everyone dies, campaign over” if you lose, which I don’t love as a design choice. Honestly, I can appreciate those as essentially gates to give you an out if you're just getting steamrolled over every scenario. Arkham's a game about staying in pace with the campaign, if you fall off too fast it's okay to just ollie out but it's also enjoyable to get a conclusive ending to your story instead of just throwing your hands up and giving up on it. Circutron fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Jan 25, 2024 |
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Jan 25, 2024 22:29
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Circutron posted:Honestly, I can appreciate those as essentially gates to give you an out if you're just getting steamrolled over every scenario. Arkham's a game about staying in pace with the campaign, if you fall off too fast it's okay to just ollie out but it's also enjoyable to get a conclusive ending to your story instead of just throwing your hands up and giving up on it. Sure I can see the logic in that, but that opens up the chance that a campaign is going fine but the players get a little careless or unlucky and have their entire campaign lost because of it. I think it would be better to do something like "if your trauma is greater than x you go mad/die" or "double your trauma" if you wanted to force a failing campaign to end early.
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Jan 25, 2024 23:16
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sirtommygunn posted:Sure I can see the logic in that, but that opens up the chance that a campaign is going fine but the players get a little careless or unlucky and have their entire campaign lost because of it. I think it would be better to do something like "if your trauma is greater than x you go mad/die" or "double your trauma" if you wanted to force a failing campaign to end early. That’s what happened to us. We “lost the campaign” because we all needed to end the round with ten cards in hand, with a hand limit of 4, so essentially drawing six in a turn. On the final turn, I drew an enemy that attacks cards in hand. No big deal as you can parley with it to actually draw cards instead. Critical failure on the parley. As a result of that, it’s a total campaign wipe on what has otherwise been a pretty successful run as far as the xp curve goes. We aren’t willing to reset the campaign or just not play the last three scenarios, so it’s a question of whether we’re going to replay the scenario and win it or just say we won it and move on.
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Jan 25, 2024 23:26
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Orange Devil posted:Carcosa continues to have probably the highest average scenario quality. The Unspeakable Oath rules though. I remember A Phantom of Truth being the one I wasn't too hot on.
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Jan 26, 2024 01:27
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I think Unspeakable Oath is just considered to be too easy? I think its gimmick is quite clever. Phantom of Truth is the paris one I assume? I find the escape version to be too easy and boring persoanlly but the one where you're pursuing him I think is fine.
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Jan 26, 2024 02:01
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Even in Unspeakable Oath it feels less bad to me because it’s generally not a total party wipe, so you can just roll a new character (which, as recently discussed, is easily scalable to your preferred level of punishment) and move on. City of Archives is a total party wipe and definitively the end of the campaign, which leaves a few possible outcomes: -Start the campaign over after 6 scenarios, hot off the back of a scenario that most people already have to replay at least once. -Quit. -Roll a whole new party, which for me personally would be pretty burdensome as the people I play with generally ask me to do this for them. -Tell the game to shove it and either mark it down as a dub or replay the scenario which, again, most people have just repeated the last scenario at least once. Edit: got some wires crossed and thought that Unspeakable Oath was being discussed in the “game over” design context. Anonymous Robot fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 02:15
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I feel like the dual agenda Carusa mission is shiftless, there’s really not a big time pressure there. It’s more like “do we want to go back and deal with the stranger? I guess we could, OK.”
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Jan 26, 2024 02:44
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ChewyLSB posted:I think Unspeakable Oath is just considered to be too easy? I think its gimmick is quite clever. Lol someone hasn't played this true solo
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Jan 26, 2024 08:48
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Anonymous Robot posted:Even in Unspeakable Oath it feels less bad to me because it’s generally not a total party wipe, so you can just roll a new character (which, as recently discussed, is easily scalable to your preferred level of punishment) and move on. I'm fine with some scenarios saying you lose if you fail them when it makes sense for that to happen. Like in the Unspeakable Oath you get trapped in a mental institution after already failing to break out of it. It makes sense that you can't continue the campaign after that. City of Archives also makes sense since if you can't transfer back to your real bodies you would naturally just be hosed with no alternative way out. Ultimately nobody is making you actually quit the campaign so you can just try the scenario again which feels appropriate for failing it.
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Jan 26, 2024 12:46
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You can get trapped in that weird body for the rest of the campaign as a potential outcome though right? The Carcosa scenario Orange Devil was referring to was Echoes of the Past, generally considered quite boring at best and incredibly swingy to boot, if you can get control quickly then you're under no threat for the entire scenario basically, if you don't it can become a boring slog or an absolute rout with the doom stacking up. I think every campaign has at least one scenario I've not enjoyed much and usually it's also the community consensus one (U&U, Echoes of the Past, etc) but in Circle Undone I actually really disliked the Secret Name, which people seem to like a lot and I thought Wages of Sin was.... fine, not a ringing endorsement but I expected it to be utter poo poo from the way people talk about it. Dream Eaters didn't have any really bad scenarios but outside of the opening one in the Waking side none of them were standouts either and I've not finished Innsmouth yet, stalled a bit cause I've been playing other stuff and when I did sit down to play the scenario I was on, it was the driving one, I looked at the rules explanation and thought "I can't be arsed to try and parse this tonight, I'll come back to it". thebardyspoon fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 13:02
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Innsmouth seems to have the most variance on how people view the scenarios. Most people love In Too Deep i think, but Vanishing of Elina Harper has real mixed opinions. I think most people agree that the end scenarios are pretty easy for a climax, especially compared to the start of the campaign.
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Jan 26, 2024 13:07
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thebardyspoon posted:In Circle Undone I actually really disliked the Secret Name, which people seem to like a lot and I thought Wages of Sin was.... fine, not a ringing endorsement but I expected it to be utter poo poo from the way people talk about it. I've always had an alright time with Wages of Sin too, but that was playing with three or four - I get the impression that it doesn't scale at all and might be miserable solo.
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Jan 26, 2024 13:18
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Orange Devil posted:Carcosa continues to have probably the highest average scenario quality. I've played this campaign so many times and that scenario is such a buzzkill that sometimes I stop playing after a few turns where it's clear I'm going to win, collect the XP I would have gotten, and move on.
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Jan 26, 2024 14:13
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MikeCrotch posted:Innsmouth seems to have the most variance on how people view the scenarios. Most people love In Too Deep i think, but Vanishing of Elina Harper has real mixed opinions. I think most people agree that the end scenarios are pretty easy for a climax, especially compared to the start of the campaign. Forgotten Age frontloads its difficulty but then still has humps you gotta get over later, though it also has some more relaxed scenarios. This campaign probably benefits the most from knowing what challenges are coming. Innsmouth frontloads its difficulty and if you start to fail during those eary scenarios it gives you further penalties in later scenarios that actually make those difficult as well. But if you ace the early scenarios the latter third to half of the campaign is stupid easy. It's like the campaign was designed intending you to only very partially succeed in the first 5 scenarios. All the other ones are more of a ramp-up, with Scarlet Keys being the most unsteady due to the way the Time mechanic works. I really wish they'd design a campaign that makes subsequent scenario's more difficult if you succeeded harder on earlier scenarios. Dunwich had a little bit of this. I don't remember if Carcosa did. But anyway I remember some of that happening early in the game lifecycle, but since then their campaign design has been more about snowballing. Like, remember how Dunwich would just straight give you some extra XP in Interlude 1 if you had been knocked out during either scenario 1 or 2? Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 14:14
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Yeah. A lot of people didn’t like being “punished for succeeding,” but it’s better design overall. If you fail because of it later, you just get adjusted back down. Edit: it’s a balancing act, though. It’s good to incentivize pushing for success with fun trinkets too. Not everyone is motivated by discovering a story thread, especially on a replay. I think the scepter supply in Forgotten Age is a great example of this. You spend extra time on a tight timetable to secure the trinket and later you get to command the annoying birds in Return to HOTE. Anonymous Robot fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 14:38
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Orange Devil posted:Forgotten Age frontloads its difficulty but then still has humps you gotta get over later, though it also has some more relaxed scenarios. This campaign probably benefits the most from knowing what challenges are coming. On the other hand, my wife and I didn't explore a lot in the museum and hauled rear end out of there as quickly as we could, netting us one whole XP for our troubles >_>
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Jan 26, 2024 15:22
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EotE has a mechanic where if you get the bad end on certain scenarios you get to talk to an additional team member in between scenarios as a bit of a catch up.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:24
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Orange Devil posted:I really wish they'd design a campaign that makes subsequent scenario's more difficult if you succeeded harder on earlier scenarios. Dunwich had a little bit of this. I don't remember if Carcosa did. But anyway I remember some of that happening early in the game lifecycle, but since then their campaign design has been more about snowballing. I can name a couple of fan campaigns that do this. Cyclopean Foundations, for instance, has a mechanic somewhat similar to Yig's Fury where you get bad points for succeeding at scenarios, and bonus bad points if you get lots of experience i.e. were killing it at the scenarios. If you nail the scenario and pull out all the experience things get harder as a scaling thing, and meanwhile bombing a scenario entirely actually lets you subtract bad points.
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Jan 27, 2024 05:59
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Full expansions are out in some countries, someone is showing off the cards here, Guardians first, confirms that the leaks were real seemingly. Think there's only a couple cards utterly unspoiled now but they will get revealed at some point soon. https://arkham-starter.com/explore/fhv
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Jan 30, 2024 18:14
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Not seeing a ton of must haves, but cleaning kit means archer Skids doesn’t need to keep a venturer around all campaign.
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Jan 30, 2024 18:47
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I kind of like Blessed Blade [4].
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Jan 30, 2024 19:04
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Batterypowered7 posted:I kind of like Blessed Blade [4]. I feel like for four xp you should have a more transformational effect. Two blesses a turn every time there’s an enemy is good but the other options for four XP are the brand of cthuga (+2 to hit, choice of fist / willpower, one to three damage), the shotgun (came out eight years ago, but does one to five damage), the sledgehammer (2 to 6 damage, although it’s two-handed and there’s a big action cost), the grenades, and the M1918 Bar (which is the gun equivalent of the brand of cthuga). It’s hard to tell because the curve is thrown off by Enchant Weapon. Four years later, you have to justify why you’re _not_ adding it to your kit. I like hold up. Nathaniel can get a lot of use out of Purified and some out of Guided by Faith, although he’ll have to commit for it. This is the sister Mary apology pack. Fully 17 of these cards could slot with her without breaking up the normal play flow (add blesses, kill monsters, kill yourself, get ancillary clues). Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Jan 30, 2024 |
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Jan 30, 2024 19:24
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How does Timeworn Brand compare to some of the other weapon options? That's another weapon I think is neat. E: I also like Runic Axe a lot.
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Jan 30, 2024 19:38
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thebardyspoon posted:Full expansions are out in some countries, someone is showing off the cards here, Guardians first, confirms that the leaks were real seemingly. Think there's only a couple cards utterly unspoiled now but they will get revealed at some point soon. Lame, I disliked most of the leaked cards. A lot of Double cards which I'm not really enthused about. It's bizarre that only a handful of the Guardian cards are relevant to Wilson. Flurry of Blows looks useless. 5XP to attack 3 times with two actions, but then it ends your turn. So you'll basically only be using it on your second action which means the only reason to ever use it is in very specific circumstances. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Jan 30, 2024 |
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Jan 30, 2024 20:56
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Batterypowered7 posted:How does Timeworn Brand compare to some of the other weapon options? That's another weapon I think is neat. I love the axe for the versatility and the heals, probably Zoey’s best weapon. Timeworn Brand came out in 2018, when rogues and survivors (or neutrals) didn’t have many options for repeatable one-handed melee weapons. I think you can get 90% of the way there with switchblade(2) or fire extinguisher(3). The second ability has a hidden catch. Most times killing the elite monster ends the scenario anyway.
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Jan 30, 2024 20:59
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Nephthys posted:Lame, I disliked most of the leaked cards. A lot of Double cards which I'm not really enthused about. It's bizarre that only a handful of the Guardian cards are relevant to Wilson. Flurry of Blows is 4 attacks I think, you take the action once and then repeat it 3 times.
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Jan 30, 2024 21:15
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Microscope four is amazing.
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Jan 31, 2024 05:55
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 Yeah, it actually looks really good for Kymani too. Unlike the level zero version it doesn't exhaust to add evidence, so two evades per mob (with Stealth XP3) lets you build it up fast, and +6 to their Intellect should be good enough to do work on Hard if you build your deck towards cluevering. The double action cost is fine too because Kymani works well when geared towards gaining extra actions. A few other cards I wanna mention:  This is a very playable card for a class that doesn't have much in the way of compelling accessory slot items. Funny that it works for the Ornate Bow too, you'd think they would've specified Firearm but maybe it made the text too clunky.  I really wanted to like Flurry of Blows when it showed up as a text spoiler a while ago, but it's just not a good use of that much XP. Best I can come up with is the Blessed Blade XP4, since it's a low damage weapon that you might want to hit with multiple times and the fact that it doesn't deplete the Bless tokens in the bag means you'll have a higher chance of success on all of those attacks. You're still at the mercy of bad symbol token effects though.  I really like this. Dunno if it's actually good but it looks like fun.  I really like this AND it's good. Absolutely baller card.  Is this the best replenish effect yet?
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Jan 31, 2024 10:37
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Unless there are a bunch of melee assets which aren’t weapons, Hand-Eye Coordination from the same set seems much cheaper and better value than Flurry of Blows. Admittedly Flurry can do 4 attacks for 2 actions, but its targeting is a lot more restricted and its 5 exp instead of 1.
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Jan 31, 2024 14:46
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I think they really screwed up the explanation and wording for things that ignore >> costs. it’s a very precise wording difference I can make some cards amazingly useful if you play them and others… Not. I’m more excited about the Mystic stuff. Up until this pack, it was almost always better to bring spell assets than spell events. With the new Mystic signature card, you can guarantee to keep those things around as long as you’re able to pay for them.
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Jan 31, 2024 22:09
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Golden Bee posted:I think they really screwed up the explanation and wording for things that ignore >> costs. it’s a very precise wording difference I can make some cards amazingly useful if you play them and others… Not. No doubt, but my understanding was that “Ignore > cost” cannot ignore >> costs.
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Jan 31, 2024 22:19
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Re-ran City of Archives last weekend and pulled out a win. This time around we had a certified Arkham moment, with the other two investigators trying to convince me that they had to kill themselves to secure ultimate victory, and me dragging them over the finish line.
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Jan 31, 2024 22:27
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If Wendy Adams has her amulet in play, gets an auto fail on a skill test and an investigator activates Evanescent Ascension to trigger her elder sign ability to automatically succeed, does she pass or fail?
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Jan 31, 2024 23:15
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The Grim Rule would apply, I would think.
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Jan 31, 2024 23:17
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The effect is the elder sign in addition to all other results. So she fails and then succeeds, getting the benefits and penalties of both.
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Jan 31, 2024 23:19
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Golden Bee posted:The effect is the elder sign in addition to all other results. So she fails and then succeeds, getting the benefits and penalties of both. This is incorrect. There is an explicit ruling about this: faq posted:Q: What happens if a skill test both automatically succeeds and automatically fails simultaneously?
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Jan 31, 2024 23:25
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