Corey Konieczka on the possible impact of decisions within a campaign of Arkham Horror: The Card Game:

"You're going to be making decisions during the scenarios you play. They are going to carry over to the next scenario, it's really interesting.

When I was playtesting the first campaign I got to the very end of the last scenario and I get to this part where the game asks me:

It's like: "Hey, did you make this decision back in the... first scenario way back?" and I'm like: "Yes. I did, why?" and it turns out godawful stuff is going to happen to me now because I completely made a terrible wrong choice early on.

We shouldn't talk about that." [source: In-flight Report GenCon 2016 ]

Actually, I think we *should* talk about that.

Since my gaming group consists mostly of casual players, I made the experience that events that irrecoverably destroy hours of gaming effort in an instance can ruin the fun for quite a lot of people.

If taking a bad turn in the first scenario can cost you the game, that information should not be held back until the very end of the campaign.

At this point I'll just hopefully assume that Corey's anecdote was from a game played on a higher difficulty mode or that I'm misjudging the severity of the consequences described.

I think he meant thematically. If you release an evil demon from imprisonment in exchange for a favor, I think it's only right he returns at the end of it to claim your soul. It's just an example. Decisions matter - it's good. I just hope they stick to this truthfully without over/underdoing it.

I doubt they're going to be trying to trick you - any later consequences should be somewhat predictable or offset by whatever short-term benefits you got by making that decision in the first play.

The actual investigators wouldn't know what the long term consequences are in most cases, so why should the player? You're always free to do the campaign again and choose differently. Or hey, it's your game. Skip it if you really don't like it. Nobody's gonna call a tournament judge over on you. But personally I think it sounds good that you might have to take future consequences into account when deciding what to do.

This is the only thing that can increase the replayability for me. Different endings, one best outcome (so my decks/gameplay will try to achieve that). So I hope they keep them and make them challanging.

If you are worried about them, I think you should just wait for when all the acts from a campain are released and binge them. That way you can check for all the possible outcomes and see if some specific choice will be devastating for your team and prevent it/try to convince the others to avoid it. That's what everyone will do anyway after the first playthroug, so if you can't afford multiple playthroughs, just imagine you did one and read the scenario cards.

It sounds like those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. "If you choose A, turn to page 14. If you choose B, turn to page 6." Sometimes, different series of choices can bring you to the same spot. Sometimes, they don't. Or, you can cheat, read the last pages and find the ending you like best, then backtrack through the book so you know which choices to make for it to happen.

In that vein, I would imagine there are things in the early scenarios like meeting a non-player character or not. If you do, he or she shows up in a later scenario with an ability that is a big help in defeating that later scenario. If you do not, he or she doesn't show up and, while you can still defeat the later scenario, it's a lot harder. That's the impression I get from bit the OP quotes from Corey.

one of the examples given in the release announcement was that you could choose to burn down a building, it will then be missing from future scenarios.

You don't know if that choice will make things better or worse in future scenarios, it won't cause an auto loss but it will impact the story.

There are also the simple mechanical consequences we've already seen from the preview. For example, if you sacrifice an investigator to beat one scenario, that investigator will suffer lasting trauma. Likewise, if you rush the end of the adventure without thoroughly investigating every location, you'll have less XP in future missions.

They said that the whole campaign is only like 2 hours long. This isn't Descent!

They said that the whole campaign is only like 2 hours long. This isn't Descent!

The mini campaign in the core box or a full size campaign?

They said that the whole campaign is only like 2 hours long. This isn't Descent!

The mini campaign in the core box or a full size campaign?

Core set campaign, I suppose. I expect deluxe sets + related packs to form quite a longer campaign