Hey everyone, first time poster but longtime Arkham player!

So a group of us got together and decided to play using Stormson99's campaign rules with an extra modification I found elsewhere that you play the next chapter with half the terror level rounded down of the previous chapter, as well as the Epic Battle cards should we ever fight an Ancient One. However, we don't typically randomize the Ancient Ones with the expansions we're playing. We either pick or randomize the Ancient One, then sculpt the expansions to play with around that.

THE STORY THUS FAR:

We've done 5 Ancient Ones so far:

1. Glaaki (with Dunwich)

2. Cthugha (with Innsmouth)

3. Shub-Niggurath (with Black Goat herald and a One of the Thousand cult variant to spread more corruption)

4. Nyarlathotep (with Dark Pharaoh herald)

5. Atlach Nacha (with Kingsport).

None of our characters (Marie Lambeau, Mandy Thompson, Jenny Barnes, and Leo Anderson) have been devoured or retired. So far, they've all been a breeze; our only close call was with Nyarlathotep, when the Doom Track was one away from unleashing him.

Currently, we're very super-powered:

Marie Lambeau is using Zebulon Whateley, Seven Books of Hsan, Red Sign of Shudde Mell, Shriveling, Wither, and a Spirit Vessel to make her monsters worth even more.

Mandy Thompson is using True Magick with Healing Stone, so she's gaining a Clue Token every round for free.

Leo Anderson is carrying a Shotgun and an Enchanted Blade/Enchanted Knife combo, and has Eric Colt.

Jenny Barnes is carrying a Lamp of Alhazred and a Tommy Gun, accompanied by her beefcake bodyguard/bedtime buddy Tom "Mountain" Murphy, as well as a Vision Quest to suck up clues faster.

We're also hoarding two Find Gate spells. In this last campaign in Kingsport, Mandy Thompson acquired Captain of the White Ship, and since it's a status card, it technically carries over. Our bank is depleted: everyone (except Marie, although she was recently deputized) has excessive amounts of money from Retainers, Deputy salaries, the Business Associates relationship between Leo and Mandy, and Jenny Barnes' trust fund.

Our only detriments are that Marie Lambeau has Schizophrenia and Jenny Barnes has Claustrophobia. At this point, it's almost really unfair to the game.

THE STORY CONTINUES...

So, we turn to you, the community, to tell us what we should do next to make us at least break a sweat! We have all of the expansions and are willing to play with fan-made material, so you can go nuts. We'll take (almost) all suggestions and incorporate them into our next chapter.

I'll be posting session progress each time we play. We're getting together about two to three times a week, and our goal is to go through all 24 ancient ones, ending with Azathoth using all of the expansions.

One idea we're incorporating for this upcoming campaign is we're doubling the $ cost of everything, and increasing the cost of location encounters like South Church and Police Station by 1 gate/5 toughness of monster trophies. This way it scales up to match our progress.

We're also considering drawing two mythos cards a turn, and resolving the gate opening of the first card only. The concern in the group is the doom track climbing too quickly, although I think it should be fine.

So, we pose this question for you:

Who should our next Ancient One be, and with what buffs/detriments? What expansions/part of expansions should we be using with that?

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

I also have a thread going on in BGG. They're calling for the Arkham Nights version of Cthulhu with Mother Hydra and Father Dagon as heralds, using the Innsmouth expansion.

I'm thinking of adding a rule where you can only place Clues on the Feds track if you're in a location. That way players can't avoid drawing Innsmouth encounters (which are generally pretty bad but also sooo thematically rich) by simply spending Clues in the street.

Aside from that and raising the costs of things, I'd say we're set.

Should we add the following or will it be too difficult:

Gates and monsters in Innsmouth counting toward the gate and monster limit?

Increasing the amount of gates to win by sealing to 7 or 8?

Might I recommend losing gear? Each player organizes all of their items, spells and the like into separate piles (one for each type, including Allies) and then roll a single die for each pile.

For instance:

Common Items, all stacked, shuffled and placed face-side down. You roll a die, you get a 2. Discard the top card of the pile and roll again until you get a success for that pile. Then move on to the next.

Suddenly, it's a HUGE threat to your steady work, and works thematically as well; the cultists, after being thwarted, aren't going to take it lying down that they were stopped and so whether out of revenge or a desire to punish the non-believers, they lash back by destroying gear, stealing it or driving off Allies. On top of that, Allies may have, you know, other things to do besides saving the world!

I noticed that in the link to your campaign rules there was some talk about an old-school campaign mode with printable cards and a printable campaign herald.

Would anyone be interested in seeing the source material that I have laying around? (I think an early version of the PDF it is still on BGG) Is it worth revisiting this concept for the current state of the game?