Here are a few I've thought up (although I don't use them yet). I just posted this in another thread, but then I thought, this might make a fun topic if other people contributed their ideas too:

For the Dunwich Horror, there are two really easy ways to add to the threat. Have monsters spawn double on gates outside of the main town of Arkham (even if you're playing a team of under five), and the second one is have monsters that go into the Innsmouth vortices also add to the Dunwich track. You could do vice versa as well, but I'd imagine you don't want to make the Innsmouth track even *more* annoying ;') (And of course, you could also add the Dunwich Horror herald to make it even more challenging).

As for fixing the act deck, there's a very easy way. Whenever you draw an act card and do not return it, roll a die. On a 1, or a 1-2, or a 1-3 (depending on how risky you'd like your games to be), draw another one. Personally, I'd make it a 1. I wouldn't want *too* many games to be shattered because of drawing it.

Unfortunately, I can't think of an easy way to allow exhibit items back in the game (perhaps you could allow investigators to draw one for the price of five dollars at the magic shop, but only if the terror level is at five or higher— that way it can't be harvested for the Elder Scrolls easily, and it won't see play *too* often, but it won't be almost completely out of the game as it is now).

As for cult encounters, you could make a house rule so that investigators could trade five (or ten) toughness worth of trophies at the Woods, Black Cave, or Unvisited island and join the cult instead of having an encounter.

Regarding exhibit items: anytime you have the option of drawing a unique item (and won't be paying for it), roll a die. On a 1, the investigator has the option of substituting an exhibit item. For instance, this applies to starting equipment or when an encounter says "take a unique item". It doesn't apply in a case like the "Estate Sale" mythos since that specifically mentions paying for the card drawn.

I've used this in all my games where I use CotDP and it does a reasonable job of getting exhibit items into play. You can't shop for them, they just happen now and then.

ricedwlit said:

Hmmm, that might work, but it's not really the sort of elegant solution I'm looking for, since it means rolling more dice and usually getting no extra effect...

My solution for Cult of the Golden Scarab was just to house rule that there's an Exhibit Item shop at the Library, and it works exactly the same way as the Curiosity Shop. I valued the CotDP Exhibit items at $6 each, which I'll admit is pretty arbitrary, although it probably is a bargain just as often as it's a rip-off.

A while ago I tried to come up with a new kind of Mythos card event called a 'Gate Storm', which had a sort of conditional gate opening thing on it, so it opened gates and rifts and spawned monsters in different locations depending on which ones had got the least activity. The idea was that a gate storm card would be an automatic counterbalance during the game; if either the Rifts or the Dunwich Horror or the Deep Ones were being too quiet, it'd accelerate that track... but you won't be surprised to hear that I couldn't make the probabilities work right.

Here are the ones I use: they're extremely effective, and are compatible with future expansions too.

• 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 facedown Act card and resolve it immediately.
• For each monster that emerges from a gate in Dunwich or Innsmouth, roll a die. If the result is less than the number of expansions you're using, place an additional monster there. You do not roll again for the new monster.

For example: suppose you're using Dunwich, Innsmouth, King and Yellow, and Black Goat of the Woods.

You draw a mythos card that causes a monster surge. Ordinarily, 5 monsters would come out, since there are five open gates. One open gate is in Dunwich and two are in Innsmouth. For the monster that came out of the Dunwich gate, you roll a 2. The result is lower than the number of expansions (4) so you would add another monster. For the monster that came out of the gate at Devil Reef, you rolled a 1. Another monster comes out of the Devil Reef gate! For the monster that game out of Marsh Refinery, you rolled a 4. No additional monster is placed at the Marsh Refinery. For the two remaining monsters that emerge in Arkham, you do not roll for extra monsters.

After you finish resolving the Mythos card, you notice that it is from the Black Goat of the Woods expansion. So you roll two dice, and they total 9. If they had totaled 3, you would have had to flip the next facedown Act card.

Anti Dilution: I have the mythos cards divided up by expansion in a large plastic card box I used to use for magic with dividers. Each game we decide on 1-3 expansions to play. Before each Mythos we roll 1 die. For example: Kiy and Innsmouth: On a 1-2 Base set mythos, 3-4 Innsmouth mythos, 5-6 King in Yellow mythos. Otherwise everything else is combined as normal (small investigator cards, Arkham encounter cards). If I use three expansions, I don't use the base set at all. If I want to emphasize a particular expansion I'll increase its dice roll chance at the expense of the base set.

That's 33% chance of each expansion. That means Innsmouth and Kingsport is about right, Dunwich is slightly under emphasized (as if one were playing with just the base set and the xpansionthe way I believe they were playtested). The small expansions are slightly over emphasized. Of course the base set is very much under emphasized (as in all dilution schemes).

If Curse of the Dark Pharaoh is in the game, there's plently of Exhibit items. For awhile I shuffled in the Exhibit items with the unique items but players could choose to discard the exhibit item without looking at it and draw the next unique item. Most did, so I stopped that.

I also sort the Other World cards to prevent Other World dilution. When a card comes out of one slot, say Dreamlands, we put in in the back of the next listed slot (Either other or the named place). The main problem with this is that Other and Dreamlands become very large and some of the newer Other worlds will empty out. Then we take the cards, by color, from the larger of the stack of Other or Dreamlands.

mageith said:

How do you get DH under emphasized at 33%? With AH + DH, chance of gate opening in DH is just under 25% (25 in 103). Or are you referring to just any DH Mythos card (36 in 103)?

Dam said:

Yes. I am simply trying to simply represent how the the Mythos cards will come up as if I shuffled the base game and the expansion together, so 36/103. I still have to go way out of my way to awaken the Dunwich Horror though, even with the herald. I sometimes use my own herald which moves all monsters but green monsters toward the vortices as if they were black bordered. However I just can't bring myself to not go up to Dunwich at the first sign of activity, so we're seldom overwhelmed. Even after all my games, I can't remember defeating the Dunwich Horror but I think I've only tried once. If he does come out, its usually late in the game and I just soldier on despite his effects.