I've had an idea! Now, it could be a load of rubbish as i'm new to AH (only played twice so far) so I don't have the experience yet to know if this would be feasible or not. I was thinking of ways to make the Mythos threat escalate and slowly build over time. How about tieing the Mythos Phase into the number of Doom Tokens on the Doom Track? So in the first round there's 1 Doom Token so you draw a Mythos card if you roll a 1 (or 1-2) on the dice. When the Doom Track goes up to 2 you draw a card on a 1 or 2 etc. Probably on a roll of 1-2 with 1 Doom Token, 2-4 with 2 tokens would be better thinking about it or it could take forever!

Like I said, i've no idea if this would horribly unbalance the game. Just wanted to see what people thought.

I'm quite prepared to have my idea banished back to it's fitful slumber...

I am sceptical.

One objection is that as long as there is only one doom-token in play you will only draw a new card on a diceroll of 1. It may take several rounds before you roll a 1 and another gate opens so by that time the investigators may have become killing-macvhines and maybe sealed the only open portal.

The increasing threat exist anyway with the original rules (Rumours, Gate burst, Next act, Rifts..) not to mention all the monsters that run amok in Arkham.

Yeah, it's not going to work for Svavelvinter's reasons. The doom track rising at a steady rate as it already does essentially is the slow buildup to demise.

If you've already played the game and found there to be a pacing problem, pick up an expansion (preferably a board expansion). All the expansions add difficulty in some form, but the big (board) expansions add things like Gate Bursts, new unstable locations, and a mechanic that speeds up the doom track later in the game.

For the record, BGotW also adds Gate Bursts.

kroen said:

Yes, and Dark Pharaoh and King in Yellow add double-doom cards. But Kingsport and Dunwich handle the pacing best of all the expansions (so far. Innsmouth, hurry!), and Black Goat is my least favorite :-P

Tibs said:

Black Goat is my most favorite small expansion

Rezza said:

How many investigators? You're not drawing a Mythos card for each investigator are you? I think the pacing problem most people have is the game starts slowly, builds up speed, but then as the gates get sealed, slows down again and the final turns are mostly just bookkeeping. Personally, I've never had a problem with this pacing. With the Dunwich Horror expansion, there's usually enough risk, even in the end game to keep me happy.

Just use a Herald if you want to make things harder... try Black Goat!