Hi,

I just had a couple of rounds of the game and I am really fascinated. The only thing that bugs me are the mysteries.. The main winning purpose are the mysteries. So you would expect that those are sophisticated and thrilling. But - you just have to collect some markers. Yes, it is hard to collect them, and yes, you have the theory behind the markers (clue markers help to solve the "riddles" the investigators have to face etc)

But - when many of the other game mechanisms are outfitted with story, why not the "great main purpose" of the game? I would've expected a very difficult special exploration. Or a special encounter in another world. Something like that. Imagine a unique epxloration popping up with an new mystery card. A unique exploration that is bound to a location (himalays for example) and an elder one. And maybe you must be i na team with at least two investigators to solve it. I think this would be rather more atmospheric than .- "undertake a research and collect the token, n times")

Did some of you also think about this fact?

Well maybe I should make some thoughts about custom elder one mysteries

darkstain

While many of the mysteries are of the "place clues earned from research encounters on the mystery" type, there are several other types that take much more work (and therefore make it easier to provide more of a story):

- spawn an epoic monster and defeat it (and in some cases the monster can only be harmed if the investigator has a specific artifact that you must first collect)

- close gates matching the current omen

- fight off specific monsters (and also spend clue)

Personally I like the overall mystery mechanic (together with the research and special encounters) as it allows for games against different AOs to plkay out differently.

We've found something similar to Ricedwit, some mysteries seem cool and climactic, others (particularly the do X research encounters) ones to be a little dull and not fitting for a final task.

To control this, we have a seeded system to make the Mysteries. What we do is divide the mysteries for each GOO into two sets of three, A (more dramatic) and B (less so). For example, Azathoth's A mysteries are Tzulcha, the Close-gates-that-match-the-omen one, and the Get-the-Requiem-for-Shaggai-and-a-big-sack-of-clues ones (as you can probably guess, I don't have the cards handy). The B mysteries are the Do-X-research encounters and the two Spend-two-clues-X/2-times ones.

So, we have our A mysteries and our B mysteries. We draw the Mystery 3 (i.e the last one we will do) from the A deck, and Mystery 1 from the B deck. Then we shuffle together the remaining mystery cards (four at this point, 2 A's and 2 B's) and draw Mystery 2 from the mixed pile. This gives us the stack of three Mysteries we will use during the game.

This way, the first mystery we will do is always from the B set, the second is A or B, we can't tell going in, and the last is always from the A set. Upshot is, that we always end on something cool/hard!

To control this, we have a seeded system to make the Mysteries. What we do is divide the mysteries for each GOO into two sets of three, A (more dramatic) and B (less so). For example, Azathoth's A mysteries are Tzulcha, the Close-gates-that-match-the-omen one, and the Get-the-Requiem-for-Shaggai-and-a-big-sack-of-clues ones (as you can probably guess, I don't have the cards handy). The B mysteries are the Do-X-research encounters and the two Spend-two-clues-X/2-times ones.

So, we have our A mysteries and our B mysteries. We draw the Mystery 3 (i.e the last one we will do) from the A deck, and Mystery 1 from the B deck. Then we shuffle together the remaining mystery cards (four at this point, 2 A's and 2 B's) and draw Mystery 2 from the mixed pile. This gives us the stack of three Mysteries we will use during the game.

This way, the first mystery we will do is always from the B set, the second is A or B, we can't tell going in, and the last is always from the A set. Upshot is, that we always end on something cool/hard!

I like this a lot. Maybe FFG will notice it and mark mysteries as A/B in this way for AOs (and publish a list of levels for existing AOs) and make this an official variant.

If you're curious (and now that I have the cards handy) this is how my group has broken it up.

Azathoth

A: Voice of Azathoth, Omen of Devastation, The Green Flame

B: Occult Research, Seed of the Daemon Sultan, The True Name

Shub-Niggurath

A: Spawn of the Black Goat, Blasphemy of the Black Goat, Rituals in the Wild

B: Hunting the Thousand, Nature of the All Mother, Hour of the Moon Lens

Yog-Sothoth

A: Where the Old Ones Broke Through, Void Between Worlds, Spawn of Yog Sothoth

B: Arcane Understanding, The Beyond One, The Stone CIrcles

Cthulhu

A: Watching the Stars, Queen of the Deep Ones, R'lyeh Risen

B: The Deep Ones Attack! The Stars are Right! Threatening Seas.

Yig

A: Crown of the Serpent, Descendents of Yig, Kn'yan unearthed

B: Migration of Serpents, The Winged Serpent, Rise of the Serpent People

Ithaqua

A: The Gnoph-Keh attack, Hyperborean Aurora, Exploring Hyperborea

B: A Spreading Storm, Supply the North, Growing Hunger

Rise of the Elder things (Note, the 2nd and 3rd mysteries are drawn from the leftover A&Bs

A: The Dark God's prison crumbles, Binding the Dark God, Invasion of the Elder Things, An Alien Ritual

B: Mysterious Disappearances, At the Mountains of Madness, An Expedition Compromised, Discovery of an Ancient Civilization

Note that for the Syzygy and the Mi-go, we don't use the A/B system, as both of these GOOs have own special, climactic third mystery-equivalent.