While we wait for the actual release of the game, there is this one small detail that rubs me the wrong way every time I read it on the rules. I mean the you skip the Mythos Phase on the first turn... It feels clunky to me. Why it's not just the final phase in the turn. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I think that would achieve exactly the same effect, and avoid that little wrinkle in the very first turn, wouldn't it? What I'm missing?

I thought the same thing when I first read the rules. Someone pointed out that the reason is probably so that any effects which last until the end of the round are not still in effect for the mythos phase.

Might be.. However you could write those few relevant effects as "until the end of the Enemy Phase" or "until the start of the Mythos Phase"; instead of "until the end of the turn".

Might be.. However you could write those few relevant effects as "until the end of the Enemy Phase" or "until the start of the Mythos Phase"; instead of "until the end of the turn".

Or you could put the Mythos Phase at the start of the turn, so that you end up saving terminology head space and can use a lot more "until the end of the turn" triggers without worrying about making a lot of variant other durational ends.

They went with what they went with. In this case, both bad guy and good guy "until end of turn" effects end at the same time and last until the end of the same turn.

It also fits the theme of all the other Arkham Horror files games I have played. Investigators go first, then bad stuff happens. For the purpose of game tempo and progression (you can win/move forward on your turn without being forced to end with mythos) it seems to make sense to me. I see the other side of the coin on this but I guess I don't think about it too much either way.

I fear it might be just because the game is called Arkham Horror : the card game. Eldritch Horror does the Mythos phase at the end of the turn, and that does flow better, but I guess they want that familiarity for Arkham players.

It was answered during AMA on reddit by Matt Newman (one of the designers of arkham LCG) :

"1)We placed the Mythos Phase at the beginning for a number of reasons. One, it mirrored the quest phase from LOTR, which we thought would be helpful. Two, it was important that the Upkeep phase was the final phase of the round, for the sake of intuitiveness. We also liked that the Mythos Phase could give you effects that mess with your current round ("Until the end of the round, you cannot something something!") as opposed to wording it for next round, which is awkward."

While honestly reasons 1 and 2 don't make a lot of sense to me ( 1 we do it this way because in an unrelated game we did it too; 2 upkeep is the initial phase in other games like, I dunno, MTG, so there goes intuitiviness), I can sort of see the final one. Thanks for the reference in any case!

Not everyone plays Magic. I appreciate that they don't make any concessions to its rules, terminology, or players, when designing a game. Because, frankly, they shouldn't have to.

I agree with Mon no Oni that the final reason is the only good one. Intuitiveness is subjective and mirroring another game is not a valid reason (mirroring another game is neither good nor bad in itself).

except in the case of point two in a multitude of other games, x-wing, warhammer 40k, tanks, firefly, zombicide, just to name a few the "upkeep and/or cleanup" step is always the last part of the round, because that is the best time to take care of tokens, game effects etc. perhaps calling it intuitive is poor wording but the reasoning is sound. IMO

I agree with Mon no Oni that the final reason is the only good one. Intuitiveness is subjective and mirroring another game is not a valid reason (mirroring another game is neither good nor bad in itself).

But mirroring another game is good if you're trying to get fans of that game to sign on.

I agree with Mon no Oni that the final reason is the only good one. Intuitiveness is subjective and mirroring another game is not a valid reason (mirroring another game is neither good nor bad in itself).

But mirroring another game is good if you're trying to get fans of that game to sign on.

I agree with Mon no Oni that the final reason is the only good one. Intuitiveness is subjective and mirroring another game is not a valid reason (mirroring another game is neither good nor bad in itself).

But mirroring another game is good if you're trying to get fans of that game to sign on.

What about fans of FFG LCG's, where the Encounter phase happens towards the beginning of the round, and the Upkeep happens at the end? Seems like they should be doing loyal customers a service by keeping gameplay consistent between their products, and not confuse things just to bring in gamers from an outside group.

I agree with Mon no Oni that the final reason is the only good one. Intuitiveness is subjective and mirroring another game is not a valid reason (mirroring another game is neither good nor bad in itself).

But mirroring another game is good if you're trying to get fans of that game to sign on.

What about fans of FFG LCG's, where the Encounter phase happens towards the beginning of the round, and the Upkeep happens at the end? Seems like they should be doing loyal customers a service by keeping gameplay consistent between their products, and not confuse things just to bring in gamers from an outside group.

That's exactly what I was referring to.

I agree with Mon no Oni that the final reason is the only good one. Intuitiveness is subjective and mirroring another game is not a valid reason (mirroring another game is neither good nor bad in itself).

But mirroring another game is good if you're trying to get fans of that game to sign on.

What about fans of FFG LCG's, where the Encounter phase happens towards the beginning of the round, and the Upkeep happens at the end? Seems like they should be doing loyal customers a service by keeping gameplay consistent between their products, and not confuse things just to bring in gamers from an outside group.

That's exactly what I was referring to.

Apologies. I thought you were arguing the opposite, that they should have mirrored Magic's round structure to appeal to that fanbase.

I see this as a non issue.