Tibs said:

Can you explain this? I've been using your anti-dilution rules for the last few games and like it a lot, but I don't recall reading anything in your posts about modifying/randomising the number of monster appearances per gate (which I also like sound of, btw).

Right: Gate > Clue > Monster > Text. My typo. Though the only instance I can think of where this will matter is if the Shadowy Figure is on the board.

Criswell said:

Sorry! Well, I got sick of the double-deck anti-dilution variant, because:

• It greatly reduced the occurrence of non-Dunwich/Innsmouth cards
• It supports using Dunwich, Innsmouth, and King in Yellow togher, but not just one or two of these expansions
• Pulling the "special" deck cards out of their red sleeves when showing Innsmouth to new players was annoying
• If another board expansion with location-specific mythos cards is released, gates in Arkham will be non-existent

I came up with a completely different (and much simpler) anti-dilution that uses just one mythos deck and only two rules:

1. Whenever a monster emerges from a gate in Dunwich or Innsmouth (including surges), roll a die. If the result is less than the number of expansions you're using, add another monster*.
2. (If using King in Yellow expansion): After resolving a mythos card that is from an expansion other than King in Yellow, roll two dice. If their sum is exactly 3, flip over the next card on the Three Acts deck and resolve it immediately.

*You don't roll again for the new monster. Extra monsters aren't limited by the monster surge rule that no gate receives more monsters than the surging gate.

This new variant scales perfectly with any number of expansions, and even supports a 7th expansion, and will be easily adaptable for up to 13 expansions. The idea occurred to me when I realized that it's not the gates that trigger Dunwich's and Innsmouth's dangers, it's the monsters. If I leave the gates at diluted frequencies (i.e. one huge mythos deck) and compensate by multiplying monsters that come out of said gates, it ought to average out to make the boards about as active as using them on their own. Of course, taking standard deviation into consideration, that means that the number of monsters in any given game will stray from the average more than "normal": there will be games with few monsters in D/I; there will be games with loads of them (such as mine).

It greatly reduced the occurrence of non-Dunwich/Innsmouth cards

That was my problem with it as well.

1. Whenever a monster emerges from a gate in Dunwich or Innsmouth (including surges), roll a die. If the result is less than the number of expansions you're using, add another monster*.

Is that "per gate"? If there are two gates in Dunwich, each getting one monster, roll a die for each gate? If all surge monsters are in Innsmouth, you roll for each monster, even if they're all coming through the same Gate?

2. (If using King in Yellow expansion): After resolving a mythos card that is from an expansion other than King in Yellow, roll two dice. If their sum is exactly 3, flip over the next card on the Three Acts deck and resolve it immediately.

I assume you don't "move all monsters" as if a Next Act Begins card was drawn. You just flip the next Act card.

Why "exactly 3"? Because that's 2-out-of-36(?) possible results from rolling two dice?

1. Whenever a monster emerges from a gate in Dunwich or Innsmouth (including surges), roll a die. If the result is less than the number of expansions you're using, add another monster*.

Is that "per gate"? If there are two gates in Dunwich, each getting one monster, roll a die for each gate? If all surge monsters are in Innsmouth, you roll for each monster, even if they're all coming through the same Gate?

Yes, you've got it. Each monster emerging from a Dunwich or Innsmouth gate is affected. This may seem like a lot when you consider that all surge monsters can be in Innsmouth, but remember that since Innsmouth gate locations are far less frequent, such an occurrence should be extraordinarily low. So low, in fact, that I've started a thread about it

I do not apply the rule to monsters placed into town via Mythos text, but you can change that if you wish. After all, any such mythos card is getting "diluted" just like the gates are. However, the reason I don't count those cards is that the Mythos cards that clean out the neighborhoods on expansion boards are also diluted. Also note that I do not apply the rule to monsters entering Kingsport (even through a gate if the Naacal Key is used) because Kingsport's board mechanic isn't affected by the presence of monsters.

______

2. (If using King in Yellow expansion): After resolving a mythos card that is from an expansion other than King in Yellow, roll two dice. If their sum is exactly 3, flip over the next card on the Three Acts deck and resolve it immediately.

I assume you don't "move all monsters" as if a Next Act Begins card was drawn. You just flip the next Act card.

That's right. There's no monster movement, no terror level increase, and the first player does not get a clue token. You're just flipping the top card. However, you resolve it immediately as normal.

______

Why "exactly 3"? Because that's 2-out-of-36(?) possible results from rolling two dice?

Yes exactly. It's the closest you can get on two dice to the probability of a Next Act Begins card appearing with just King in Yellow (1 in 15.5) without exceeding it: 1 in 18. I justify the slight drop in probability with the fact that such Act cards occur in addition to a normal Mythos card, rather than instead of one (like normal). Additionally, unlike normal Next Act Begins cards, you can't assess your chances of rolling a 3 on any given round based on how many times you've rolled 3 already. With the Next Act Begins cards, the longer you go without drawing one, the higher your chances of drawing one next Mythos phase.

Also, the "3" is a perfect number, as it reflects the total number of acts, and the order that King in Yellow was released as an expansion

Man I miss the old forum's quote system.

Tibs said:

I don't know if it's an official answer, but it says, "Place a Clue token on the indicated location unless there is an open gate there," on Pg.10.

I would think that you wouldn't place the clue at all if there's a gate- so no clue dropping on investigators?