Oh, I'll fully admit that EH has flaws. I find it too random, for one. But then, I come from strategy and roleplaying games, where we usually try to eliminate that.

As for repetitiveness of the mysteries... I'd say there's more than three types. Let's try to classify them...

*Go to place, do special encounter set

*Do research, gather clues. Subsets: go to location, then spend clues.

*Close gates, and variants

*Kill monsters. Subset: kill epic monster, kill number of monsters

*Find specific artefact, often in combination with special encounter, kill monster or spend clues.

That's five types. Not great, I'll admit. Still... I'm not sure how one would improve this. I mean, look at Arkham. THere's one and just one win condition, close gates. I still prefer having several.

On 9/12/2017 at 11:07 PM, Matt620 said:

Hmmm...so if we have the four from MoM, and the one from the card game, I wonder which three occupations could be left?

Gonna go out on a limb and say...a pilot? A banker? Anyone else got any ideas.

I would like to see a big game hunter(something like that jumanji dude),a Ninja or a Mechanic.

The idea of the pilot sounds interesting.

We could go all in.

I can bust out my entire EH and AH collection and compare items,effects,monsters... and determine which one is more random through numbers and statistics.

I'd be down for that.

3 hours ago, Runko said:

We could go all in.

I can bust out my entire EH and AH collection and compare items,effects,monsters... and determine which one is more random through numbers and statistics.

I'd be down for that.

That'd be interesting... if you didn't end up in Arkham Asylum in the process!

The tough thing to accurately account for would be the availablility of "randomness mitigation". I suspect that Julia is right that EH is more random than AH (though to what extent is arguable), but I also think mitigation methods are slightly easier to obtain in EH (but not by much). Clues are easier to obtain in AH, but it takes a lot more of those clues to close gates and win the game, so it's probably a wash. The focus mechanic in EH makes re-rolls very easy to obtain, but it also creates a potential "trap" for players who spend too many actions on Focus tokens. Hanging out in Rome for a couple turns gives you a good chance of getting Blessed in EH, but there are locations in AH that do the same.

As far as "randomness" in terms of predicting what skills you'll need in certain encounters and what you'll get from those encounters, it feels like a wash to me. The 9 cities in EH have become more random in what they give as expansions have come out, but in my opinion, we're better off for it. I want to have an idea of what will likely come out of an encounter, not for sure what will. AH's locations are no different (I don't have nearly as many plays of AH under my belt as EH, but those icons on the spaces that supposedly tell you a "most likely result" seemed nearly useless in most of my games). As far as randomness in the OW cards... I'd wager that the majority are still Lore/Will related (I'd be curious if that's actually the case still, though!), but there's definitely plenty with Str and Inf. I'm not sure how that's much worse than the OW encounters in AH, where you know you're going to spend 2-3 turns doing completely random things. For players who don't tirelessly memorize what allies and what cards will show up in which deck in AH, I do think EH has the edge though in some ways in that you know, for instance, that there's a high chance that if you're doing a city encounter (particularly a generic one) you'll need Inf (or Obs) and most Research encounters will use Lore and Obs (except for frickin' Atlach-Nacha and her stupid "Don't have a spell? No clue for you!!!" crap).

Anyway, I'm rambling, so... TL;DR: That'd be an awesome thought experiment, Runko!

I only have the expansions up to Signs of Carcosa, but I'd be willing to go through the other worlds and sum up skill tests. Sounds interesting. Pretty sure they'd go something like Lore-Will-Observation-Influence-Strength in frequency, anyway.

We're not done yet!

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/9/26/arkham-nights-2017/

" You'll have the chance to play and purchase the Streets of Arkham expansion for Mansions of Madness Second Edition before its release to the outside world, and you can peek behind the curtain at upcoming expansions for both Elder Sign and Eldritch Horror . "

Woohoo!

I am pretty excited as well. Nice to know they are going to keep going with the game. Hopefully it is another expansion like Strange Remnants or Cities of Ruin.

4 hours ago, hengst2404 said:

I am pretty excited as well. Nice to know they are going to keep going with the game. Hopefully it is another expansion like Strange Remnants or Cities of Ruin.

But Eldritch Horror's expansion always alternates between big & small boxes right?

If not mistaken, the expansions are in this order or release : Forbidden Lore > MoM > Strange Remnants > UtP > Signs of Carcossa > Dreamlands > CiR > *Upcoming Big Box*

Can't wait!

I'd love to see a mechanic as big as Devastation, but well integrated into a big box. No idea what that would look like, but it sounds awesome. I mean, Mountains of Madness and Under the Pyramids didn't have anything that much changed how the game felt when played. Well, Focus, I guess. But impairment tokens and glamour spells, while nicely designed and good additions to the game, weren't all that gamechanging. Dreamlands had the dream portals, but those don't come into play much.

I hope this will be the "Miscatonic Horror" Expansion, bringing all Expansion elements into a tight nicely alligned form.

I don't want a Miskatonic expansion yet... because I have af eeling it would be the last one.

According to that "press release" there are two "promotional" characters for Elder Sign to be released in the goodie bags.

I don't live near Minnesota, so I can't go. But I wonder if these are characters not mentioned in the games yet?

On 9/20/2017 at 9:39 AM, BoardRadio said:

I would like to see a big game hunter(something like that jumanji dude),a Ninja or a Mechanic.

The idea of the pilot sounds interesting.

I see the Pilot as someone who's Travel action could let him carry another character with him.

Leo Anderson already seems like a hunter, and we've got Tony as a Bounty Hunter already. Lily sorta shows up the martial artist thing.

Mechanic...hmmm, that seems different. Not sure what power they'd have though.

Personally, based on powers, I can see Sefina (the painter) getting extra dice to deal with Madness, similar to how Rita gets extra dice for injury types, since painting is seen a therapeutic. I see Agatha as getting an extra die on Research Encounters, Mateo getting an extra die when dealing with Boon and Bane conditions. Not sure about the others.

1 hour ago, Matt620 said:

According to that "press release" there are two "promotional" characters for Elder Sign to be released in the goodie bags.

I don't live near Minnesota, so I can't go. But I wonder if these are characters not mentioned in the games yet?

From the pictures posted on the official FFG announcement, they just seem like Monterey Jack and Ursula Downs, with their updated portraits from Eldritch Horror / Investigators of Arkham book and a different starting items is seen on Ursula (on ES retail set, she starts with a Unique Item, Common Item & a Clue. Her promo version starts with a Clue and an unidentified rounded logo). She and Monterey will probably have different abilities from their retail version too.

1 hour ago, Matt620 said:

I see the Pilot as someone who's Travel action could let him carry another character with him.

Leo Anderson already seems like a hunter, and we've got Tony as a Bounty Hunter already. Lily sorta shows up the martial artist thing.

Mechanic...hmmm, that seems different. Not sure what power they'd have though.

Personally, based on powers, I can see Sefina (the painter) getting extra dice to deal with Madness, similar to how Rita gets extra dice for injury types, since painting is seen a therapeutic. I see Agatha as getting an extra die on Research Encounters, Mateo getting an extra die when dealing with Boon and Bane conditions. Not sure about the others.

Yeah I hope Father Mateo gets some reroll on Boon/Bane reckoning effects like Michael McGlen and his deals. Sometimes my Blessing can't even last for a full round lol

I hope it will be big box expansion covering New England and all famous lovecraftian towns and places - Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich, etc. - that would be totally awesome.

On ‎9‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 11:51 AM, Embir82 said:

I hope it will be big box expansion covering New England and all famous lovecraftian towns and places - Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich, etc. - that would be totally awesome.

Could not agree more. This is the expansion that I have been hoping for.

But... why. That material has been covered a million times in Arkham Horror and tons of other games.

2 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

But... why. That material has been covered a million times in Arkham Horror and tons of other games.

Arkham and Eldritch are separate games so I don't understand your argument.
It's as if you said there is no point in making Eldritch Horror game at all because it's topic has been already covered by Arkham Horror.

Personally, for me it really depends on the Ancient One if we're getting a big box. You've got one who's thematic to it and one that isn't. Are any new Ancient Ones specific to this area? Mostly, though, please put me in the "no" pile. I'd rather see a new place, if we're taking choices.

Maybe we'll get a new main board like they did with Talisman.

24 minutes ago, Meretrix said:

Maybe we'll get a new main board like they did with Talisman.

I wouldn't mind that... mine's starting to show its age a bit.

On 30.9.2017 at 3:01 PM, Embir82 said:

Arkham and Eldritch are separate games so I don't understand your argument.
It's as if you said there is no point in making Eldritch Horror game at all because it's topic has been already covered by Arkham Horror.

They are very similar games, in the rules and the theme and of course, they share universes and characters. The difference is that Arkham covers a short timespan in a small town, while Eldritch covers expansive travel across the entire world. Arkham has covered that area of the world in much more detail than Eldritch can an I think focusing on so small an area is not playing to Eldritch's strengths. Additionally, what I want to see from Eldritch is new ground, areas of the world that have not been covered by other AH files games. I mean, the card game is going to Paris and Venice, I think it would just be a bit of a shame if EH went back to a territory that has already been so extensively covered instead of doing something new.

I think I would prefer a smaller box expansion along the likes of Cities of Ruin or Strange Remnant that keeps things confined to maybe just a new major mechanic/flavor and then some new investigators or perhaps some newer version of existing ones. I feel like they already have enough big box ones. Unless as somebody else suggested, it will be a "final" big box.

18 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

They are very similar games, in the rules and the theme and of course, they share universes and characters. The difference is that Arkham covers a short timespan in a small town, while Eldritch covers expansive travel across the entire world. Arkham has covered that area of the world in much more detail than Eldritch can an I think focusing on so small an area is not playing to Eldritch's strengths. Additionally, what I want to see from Eldritch is new ground, areas of the world that have not been covered by other AH files games. I mean, the card game is going to Paris and Venice, I think it would just be a bit of a shame if EH went back to a territory that has already been so extensively covered instead of doing something new.

Given that the New England area is a major focus of Lovecraft themes, I want a big box expansion coving this area in my favorite game which is EH not AH. I predict that it will be the most popular EH big box expansion.