I don't like using more than about 2 expansions at a time, as I find that both games mechanics, and, what is worse, the theme, suffers. Nor do I much enjoy sifting through bloated piles of cards after every game, however, to change expansions, and I am beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to buy another Arkham Horror set, and keep each set permanently merged with one expansion. Has anyone done this?

...no way, man ! Except if I was wealthy, which I am not at all ! I got the seven boxes (4+3) and they are all very very well set (i'll provide new pics in my "storage" topic soon since everything is now perfectly stored). No way I would buy a new one. And I disagree with the idea that themes suffer dilution when you mix everything ! Wait... actually I disagree with the idea that this dilution sucks ! It is great ! Sometimes a gate bursts, sometimes someone becomes a member of the sheldon gang, sometimes someone meets an ancient one in R'lyeh, sometimes someones is having hard time in the Underworld, sometimes a rift opens... in Arkham ! (with no kh board that is), sometimes the second act of the KiY is happening while at the same moment momies are trashing down the streets of Arkham, sometimes someone hesitates if he should go insane or turn mad, while his friend on the left is looking at this beautiful exhibit item he found when the river of Arkham was very very low... life is beautiful and so different in Lovecraft's world !

I mean... at first, before buying my first expansion, I saw guys here saying they had mixed everything, and I thought "I ll never do that, that's crazy, the town and the game will turn into a big mess !". And now... I realize it is just plain great. Our games are never, ever the same. We discover a new stuff every minute, and we love that. So NO WAY is my answer to your question mate Cheers !

Hem said:

Ah, another one has seen the light. Welcome, true believer !

Dam said:

Ahah, no but I mean come on, I'm serious ! You can't imagine how I am looking for new stuff I've not seen yet, like someone (make it be me ! me !) finally becomes a member of the one thousand young cult ! that **** event never occurs !

Hem said:

Use the BGotW Herald, if you don't get a shot a becoming a member, I'll be very surprised. At least if you actually kill hexagon monsters and don't just sit back and let the GOO wake up. Killing hexagon monster -> Corruption -> more Corruption -> eventually you'll get one of the "Speak to Your Friend" ones, then it's all a matter of getting the right Mythos card coming up (with either Black or White triangle). My ratio for getting the Cult Membership with BGotW Herald is 10 in 12 games or there abouts, not including multiples (as I run 4 investigators).

I only use the additional board, mythos cards and allies from one big box expansion - apart from that, I use everything, including additional Other Worlds, gate cards, location cards and all the items and extra stuff (like Injury/Madness, Epic Battle, Personal Story). Sometimes I add mythos cards from small box expansions, sometimes I don't.

... so boards, allies and mythos cards are the only components I sometimes have to add / sort out.

I do have another copy of the original unrevised Arkham Horror release, but it's still factory-sealed. After playing a bunch of games very quickly after purchase, I noted to myself, "Oh, I am so going to wear this game out," and immediately located my emergency backup game, which I plan to crack open after civilization has fallen, FFG and the free market has vaporized, and my board has disintegrated. This turned out to be an even better move than I thought, since FFG changed the colors on the Revised board, making it all bright and cheery: I have a fresh backup of the original darker board when I need it.

On the other hand, my Jenny and Bob are permanently mired (twice!) in their ancient typos.

Hem said:

Hum... the question of theme dilution obviously depend on whether you think that all of Lovecraft's ideas and stories are part of a single 'world' as you put it. It's an idea that has mainly been developed through Call of Cthulhu, and in my opinion it doesn't really work thematically. It's like Sherlock Holmes turning up in a game about the White Company, simply because both were creations of the same author. Arkham Horror is, of course, predicated partly on the Lovecraft 'world' view, but I think the theme, and therefore the all-important atmosphere tends to work better by concentrating on a few ideas at a time. As far as I'm concerned, the strength of it is that you can make the same game be about radically different things thematically by usng different expansions.

oldthrashbarg said:

I understand your point, but you cannot prevent it: Even with just the base game, you have Shoggoths / Elder Things, Star Spawns, Vampires, Ghosts, Ghouls / Nightgaunts / Gugs, Hounds of Tindalos, then there are several tomes like the King in Yellow, locations like the Witch House or the Unnamable, and the current Ancient One could be Yig who doesn't have to do anything with the things I just mentioned.

What I'm trying to say is: It's impossible to stay with a single theme with Arkham Horror. I understand if you want to have a strong theme, but that's just your personal taste, and your arguments don't work here, because your way to play doesn't help making the game like a typical single Lovecraft story.

HëllRÆZØR said:

I actually dislike the Disneyland-o-monsters approach AH has, and, hopefully, with Innsmouth, we'll have enough monsters to thematically approach the game. Already, with Black Goat, you have the hex monsters, which are predominantly Shub-Niggurath monsters, separate from the monster cup. Once I get ahold of Innsmouth, I'll look further into the monsters.

As for separating the components by expansion, it's no problem whatsoever. The base game box holds the base game, DH's Injury and Madness cards, KH's Final Battle cards, and the cards which use no special components (eg. Bast's deck, and Eihort's brood tokens). Cards are stored in plastic CCG deck protectors. A big box expansion insert's large well fits a small box expansion box just fine. At the end of the game, the other players separate out the cards, and I have only one expansion's worth of decks to sort and put away.

Gameplay-wise, it's the base set which has all the "bread and butter" items, predominantly the common and magic weapons. One expansion set dilutes these cards just fine, but all them results in drawing useless items most of the time. Also, bigger is not better when it comes to decks. Why have a 100+ card Unique Items deck when you will only draw 20-some of them in a game? And, considering the stiffness and smallness of the items decks, it takes much less time to shuffle 40+ cards than 200+...

On the question of why have so many Unique Items: I like having large decks since it adds variety. Plus, the less cards in the Unique Item deck, the easier the game is -- Elder Signs are easier to come by.

HëllRÆZØR said:

Yes, of course, that's why I said that AH is to some extent predicated on lumping all of it together. It's not that I go for 100% purity or anything, I just prefer to have only one overall Lovecraft theme (Cuthulhu, say), with only hints of alternative stories (e.g. the king in yellow) I do find it a bit stupid, though, when you have ghouls, shoggoths and moonbeasts strolling hand in hand through Arkham....

I think in fact that monsters are my main quibble with AH; first of all, there ared too many of them. I'd prefer more cultists and maniacs (with radically lower combat abilities on the part of the investigators, obviously), which are also nicely generic thematically. Secondly, they are the most obvious way for themes to get mixed up. story-specific monster cups might be a good idea here. Thirdly, AH monsters do tend to dampen the horror of the game because they are too common and too easily dealt with by earthly weapons.

I actually agree with everyone here. Oldtrash (I don't mean it, you understand right ?) you are right, if you're looking for that kind of stuff then you are right. As for Hellraezor who disagrees, he's still right : it is a game, it is not Lovecraft's, so you can't help it. (Mat, you are right too : I love these UI ).

But then, I agree the most with one thing that you said, ced1106 : I f***ing love the Disneyland aspect of it ! I love Disneyland, for if you accept to let the dream get in you and behave as a child, then Disney just rocks, with everything melting together around you. Same here : this is my personnal portable tiny Lovecraft-Land game ! Imagine it : a Lovecraftland with thematic quarters, get in Lovecraft imaginary world, and all... it simply rocks.

Only the quarters are sanity, and instead of giving you change back, they're eaten by the gatekeeper!

I smell a new fan-made expansion here...