Question: For those of you who played LOTR, how often were these standalone sets printed? I'm surprised to see another one so soon. Is this normal or a rarity?

Either way I'm excited.

rather rare to be honest. . most of the sets however followed a loosely tied theme or story so to me most of them feel very standalone, however i really only ever recall the epic quests from gen-con being the stand out standalone sets.

The art revealed is just fantastic. Even if I didn't own Arkham Horror, I'd think about picking it up.

Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.

Stranger: Indeed?

Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.

Stranger: I wear no mask.

Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!

Love how this is revisiting the "terror in Venice" deluxe expansion from the call of cthulhu lcg. Same characters, locations and artwork with lots of extras added in.

Here's hoping the aborted storyline from CoC's collectible sets makes a comeback. I really want to know what happened in that warehouse.

I think we'll see a lot of these POD scenarios.

They are like side quests in imperial assault.

In IA you alternate between story missions and side missions, so you can replay a campaign and it will still feel fresh because every other mission will have changed.

While I'm excited about new scenario's available, and the more on offer the better, isn't it a little jarring to interrupt a campaign with a trip to Venice from a story perspective?

"OK, we've searched the Miskatonic University and found a copy of the Necronomicon"

"Great let's take the Essex Express to Dunwich. There's no time to lose"

"Hey... wh-why don't we just go to Venice for a bit?"

While I'm excited about new scenario's available, and the more on offer the better, isn't it a little jarring to interrupt a campaign with a trip to Venice from a story perspective?

"OK, we've searched the Miskatonic University and found a copy of the Necronomicon"

"Great let's take the Essex Express to Dunwich. There's no time to lose"

"Hey... wh-why don't we just go to Venice for a bit?"

"Whew, that was close... Who knew that there was an evil cult in Arkham that was behind all that?"

"They are not done yet! They're holding their evil ritual - tonight!"

"Uhm, guys... how about a short detour to New Orleans?"

Perhaps they should add a new basic weakness: Compulsive Wanderlust (-1 to all skill tests, health, sanity, max hand size, number of hand slots, deck size, doom tokens needed to advance agenda, number of charges on items that have charges and number of items you actually receive when ordering at the FFG shop. When you start a side adventure far, far away from where the current scenario takes place, discard this.)

You could view them as flashbacks, if you want.

Yeah...

"We gotta stop the cult!"

"Wait, guys. Do you remember this one crazy weekend in New Orleans?"

"Right, that is where Roland got traumatized - still is, now that I think about it... Say, do you still bear that curse? Ah, what do I know, can't think straight with the horrible pain from the gator bite that I've actually had the whole time..."

No...

Honestly I feel they would work best nestled between full campaigns.

Honestly I feel they would work best nestled between full campaigns.

I imagine that the extended 8 scenario campaigns will have more logical breaks between the scenarios, especially since they won't all be released at once.

You know, meet Professor Armitage, go to Miskatonic University and the Clover Club on some errands, wrap that up, go to New Orleans for a much needed break, come back and find out Armitage needs some help at the museum. Relax for a while, hit up Venice to put all your terrors behind you, come back and decide to take a relaxing picnic in the countryside a short train ride away. Something like that.

Honestly I feel they would work best nestled between full campaigns.

That's the way I'm planning it. Of course, unless you're doing a mega-campaign, the trauma and story assets won't carry over, which isn't as fun. Maybe the Deluxe-to-Cycle will have enough of a narrative split, like LOTR does, that you can drop into Venice between Dunwich and Miskatonic.

If you "cheat" a little you can start a campaign by first playing the Curse (noting -1 XP), then the Carneval (provided you got more than or equal to 4 XP in the curse) and then start the Night of the Zealot (or any other campaign) as the investigators have returned from their trips.

If you "cheat" a little you can start a campaign by first playing the Curse (noting -1 XP), then the Carneval (provided you got more than or equal to 4 XP in the curse) and then start the Night of the Zealot (or any other campaign) as the investigators have returned from their trips.

Or save the carnevale for the end if you're planning on taking the characters through the dunwich campaign after.

I like the idea of playing a "mega campaign" where you can keep characters through each campaign story. Since the weaknesses and traumas build up, I see this as naturally balancing the advantages of more powerful cards. Add in an xp cost to advance, and note in your campaign log when certain characters dropped out and others picked up (or possibly when they died / went insane) to have an involved, full game story. It could be fun

I would happily buy this one, but I didn't receive CoR yet... I won't pay another $20 for transport just to get lost somewhere. My order of CoR is still ”in transit”, since November 21st There are three weeks now...

Yeah...

"We gotta stop the cult!"

"Wait, guys. Do you remember this one crazy weekend in New Orleans?"

"Right, that is where Roland got traumatized - still is, now that I think about it... Say, do you still bear that curse? Ah, what do I know, can't think straight with the horrible pain from the gator bite that I've actually had the whole time..."

No...

If that's your problem with seeing it as a flashback then how do you rationalise an entire session of Roland never drawing his special .38? He forgot it at home? Even worse if he draws it in the middle of the game.

No...

I think you have to keep a balance between story and gameplay, and flashback works well for me.

Personally, I don't have to rationalize anything, I'm content with just playing the scenarios without having to explain the whole story. Originally I just wanted to point out that an excursion to Venice during the Dunwich campaign is not less plausible than one to New Orleans during the core set campaign.

However, from years of GMing p&p rpgs, I have a personal dislike of flashbacks - it always ended up with stuff happening in the flashback that just could not have happened in the past. So I guess I prefer no explanation to a tricky one.

But that should not mean that anyone should do the same or even agree with me, I was just making fun.

*minor spoilers

in this case, for Rougarou you'd have possibly made an ally, or, become some half beast transformation you just forgot about until you remembered your flashback.

i do believe standalone expansions are going to work best between campaigns unless they are taking place in the general area of that campaign.

*minor spoilers

in this case, for Rougarou you'd have possibly made an ally, or, become some half beast transformation you just forgot about until you remembered your flashback.

i do believe standalone expansions are going to work best between campaigns unless they are taking place in the general area of that campaign.

It doesn't have to be that you forgot. Since it only occurs when you draw that one card, you could even theoretically have that in your deck and never draw it. Maybe you didn't forget about it in The Gathering, but you were never outside for the moonlight to trigger it?

Did anyone buy 2 copies? Or is 1 really sufficient?

One is sufficient.

Did anyone buy 2 copies? Or is 1 really sufficient?

One is sufficient. There are no player cards that are gained outside of story, so you don't need a second copy of anything.

I have a question about adding the side scenarios like Curse of the Rougarou and Carnevale of Horrors to a campaign, specifically regarding the chaos bag. The rules for side-story in campaign mode for them both say that if you're playing them as a side-story, you use the same chaos bag as you've been using for your entire campaign. Doesn't this put you at a slight advantage because, depending on when you add it to your campaign, you won't have certain symbols in your chaos bag?

My friend and I went through the base campaign once and met a horrible end in the third scenario. We're going through it again and might just add Rougarou/Canevale between the second and third scenarios. It's so tempting to look through the sets, but we want to keep them a surprise.

Mine came in today. It looks pretty good!