Against The Old Ones - A Global Campaign Stand Alone Expansion

By Dylath_Leen, in Fan Creations

This is an idea that is still a jumbled collection of feverish notes and incoherent ramblings at the moment. It is an inbred amalgamation of ideas ripped, mangled and regurgitated from Arkham Horror, Runebound, and A Touch of Evil with a healthy sprinkling of my own ideas. At the moment I am torn between making it an actual stand alone expansion for AH (as the subject line suggests) or perhaps as a game in and of itself. Either way, it would play a quite different to your typical game of Arkham Horror.

Basically I wondered if there was any interest in something like this so I know which project (gathering dust) to focus my severely limited time on (got another addition to the family arriving in June - talk about sleepless nights and reality shattering bouts of insanity to come!).

I'll try and give a brief (if incomplete) synopsis of the idea (terminology is not set and may be confusing atm):

Played on a global map with locations of various places that investigators can visit. These include 'Towns' (the equivalent of stable locations) and 'Unique' locations (the equivalent of unstable locations). The board also features an 'Investigation Track' where unresolved encounters are placed (similar to Runebound); as unresolved cases build-up they can cause the 'Doom Track' to advance (just one of the ways in can advance). If the Doom Track is filled up the AO's schemes succeed and the game is over. There is also the 'Campaign Track' which is populated with one of two sorts of cards from the 'Campaign Deck'. The cards on the Campaign Track are revealed one at a time by meeting various requirements, a revealed card has various immediate and global effects (these functions partially like Mythos cards). The Campaign Track is first populated (during setup) with green cards (non-specific), when the final green campaign card is revealed the AO card is turned over (AO card is randomly selected at setup and remains unknown till this point). Once the AO is revealed (which also adds it's own global effects as they do now in AH, but they have no final battle stats) the Campaign Track is re-populated with red cards that are specific to the revealed AO (each AO has it's own themed deck). The players now try to reveal the red Campaign Cards, the location of a showdown being determined by/when the final red card is revealed. Note: A showdown is most likely to be with cultists, AO minions, etc but in some cases may feature a weakened AO (or avatar of the AO) that would it would feasible to actually combat (in some way). Depending on which AO is in play there will be a number of possible locations for the showdown.

There is another deck of cards that function in a similar way to the Mythos deck, this is the Case Deck (working titles atm). One of these cards is drawn (currently at the end of each player's turn) which amongst other things generates the appearance of 'cases' on the boards 'unique' locations that require investigation. Cases replace AH gates. Solving cases slows the advance of the Doom Track as well as giving the investigators the knowledge to fight the mythos threat. Amongst various things that make up the game's 'currency' are 'clues' (main use of which is to reveal campaign cards on the Campaign Track) and 'Mythos Knowledge' (used to gain spells and foil the AO's plot, they also lower maximum sanity, if your maximum sanity drops to below zero you may be out of the game or even go over to the other side (ala evil elders in A Touch of Evil) amongst other things). Insanity and Injury cards from AH would function as normal.

'Town' (stable) locations also have their own 'encounter' decks (as with AH) but perform multiple functions. For instance you can choose to have an encounter ( most town encounters are neutral or benign but there would be some unpleasent surprises such as revealing allies of the AO's plot that complicated/increases the difficulty of your task. You can also shop for equipment at 'town' locations (current idea being you can browse the deck for one particular item at double cost or draw three random items and buy one or more for listed price). Bare in mind you would not be able to buy spells, tomes or artifacts though they may be found via encounters from stable, unstable locations or other sources too.

So basically the investigators have travel around the world solving cases looking for clues to uncover the AO's campaign plot and foil it's scheme before the Doom Track fills up (and the AO wins).

As I say, this is just some of the very rough basics of the idea and I would love to hear thoughts, suggestions and condemnations. I'll try to answer any queries in more detail....if I have any! ;o)

@ OMW This is why I was asking about your plans for a campaign idea, didn't want to be treading on each others toes, so to speak.

Ooo, lots of tumbleweed! serio.gif

Maybe not too popular then this idea. heh heh

Sounds like a plan to me - could be lots of fun.

I agree, I would check it out.

Woohooo, responses! Thanks for the interest guys. This project may be a long time coming as it is only in 'scribbled on several beer mats' stage, but as I reach certain milestones with developing the idea I will post the new info here. But as already mentioned any and all thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome.

I'm also 'working' on a couple of other projects that unrelated to Arkham Horror, namely a mission based zombie apocalypse boardgame (oh no not another zombie game - yep but this is going to be a lot grittier and serious compared to stuff like Last Night On Earth (so long as All Things Zombie isn't too similar to the stuff I have drawn up)) and of course my idea for a game based on Jaws (three or more opposing factions trying to achieve their own goals before the shark kills too many people.

I've been pondering a similar idea except I was thinking of "Against the Brotherhood", a global game fighting the global cult of the Great Old Ones. You have a lot more ideas in place than I have at the moment.

The_Big_Show said:

I've been pondering a similar idea except I was thinking of "Against the Brotherhood", a global game fighting the global cult of the Great Old Ones. You have a lot more ideas in place than I have at the moment.

The themed 'campaign decks' would make something like that possible. Basically you have the base setup and rules and then the individual campaign decks tell the 'story' so to speak. Works in a similar way to the adventure expansion decks from Runebound.

Eldritch Horror eh? Bugger, I should have done something with this old idea of mine.

Not only EH, but also Cthulhu Wars... you should start asking royalties :whistle:

My old Haunted House mini expansion had some very basic similarities to MoM I feel. :ph34r: I'll pass a collection tin round! :D

Edited by Nyogtha

You should be billionaire now... :)

Strange, according to my profile I have no posts/threads. Now I'm getting paranoid! :wacko: Corey Konieczka will be here any minute....gak, who's that at the do................................. :o