So for 4 player - what do I actually need to get? To be precise, we will be playing under the house rules that no one can be the same character. We have not yet decided if the specialization is going to be unique or not to each player. We might for "efficiency" and to save money honestly. So far I've picked up 2 core sets and 1 legacy pack. Will this cover our needs?

Thanks for any and all help everyone.

37 minutes ago, LionCub said:

we will be playing under the house rules that no one can be the same character.

Thats an official rule.

It depends on how much deckbuilding you want and how much money you want to spend. For 4 players 2 cores is fine if you all play different classes but you will still be fighting over some generic cards and offf class cards.

Yes, sorry - I meant classes; not character =3

2 cores per person is ideal. 2 cores for 4 is stretching it very thin. I wouldn't bother since you wont be doing any deckbuilding.

What you have will allow you to play 4 characters without overlapping classes, you just won't have a ton of card options. It should be fine to get you started though, and then you can determine for yourself if you need more.

8 minutes ago, Meretrix said:

2 cores per person is ideal. 2 cores for 4 is stretching it very thin. I wouldn't bother since you wont be doing any deckbuilding.

Wait.. 2 cores per player? So if we are to play 4 player we should have 8 cores for ideal gameplay? That's.. Insane, isn't it? So much wasted cards and what not. I mean, that can't be accurate.

4 minutes ago, SuperMarino said:

What you have will allow you to play 4 characters without overlapping classes, you just won't have a ton of card options. It should be fine to get you started though, and then you can determine for yourself if you need more.

Each core provides one of each player card right? So 2 cores and 1 legacy should cover all card options for two players assuming there is no overlapping classes, right? You can have up to two of the same card in a deck, or am I remembering it wrong?

Thanks a lot of taking the time to answer, both of you

2 cores per player is ideal, but in that situation it would also be ideal that each player is purchasing their own cards. I agree that it's insane to expect one person to own 8 core sets just for the sake of playing with four people. Best way to approach it would be to play with what you have, and if everyone enjoys it, try to explain the benefit of players having their own playsets.

That said, 2 cores is enough to play with 4 people. You'll have to use the recommend starter decks with no wiggle room, although owning Dunwich might let you do some very minimal deck customization. That will change as more cards are released, and I'd think that by the end of the first cycle you'd have some decent deckbuilding options.

When I play with my 4 man group, I have 2 cores and another member of the group also has 2 cores. So far we haven't had any problem letting people build decks with that set up, so if you have to supply all the cards for the group and really want deckbuilding to be a thing now, I think 4 cores is the way to go. 100% not necessary to enjoy the game though.

TL;DR: 2 cores will let you play with restricted deckbuilding, 4 will let you play with far less restricted deckbuilding, and 8 cores will ensure everyone has their own playset and there's not any potential for card shortage, although it is a ridiculous amount of investment for one person to make.

Sticking to the core set characters, you would never need more than 4 cores with 4 players. With 4 cores, you have at least 4 playsets (4x2 cards) of each neutral card and you have 2 playsets of each class card. And unless you play one character twice, you will never be able to have 3 characters that can have access to the same class.

With the Dunwich investigators, you will have more deckbuilding options and maybe everyone ends up wanting that one card twice which you only have 4 times but given that you also get more cards to customize, I think you should totally be fine with 4 cores.

As previous people mentioned, you can build four characters with 2 cores but you won't have all the options.

2 cores and a copy of Dunwich is serviceable for 4 basic decks, but I'd coordinate on deck building or even have a single person construct the decks with feedback from the others.

I put together 5 decks (one for each class: Roland, Daisy, Agnes, Pete, and Jenny) out of that card pool, and while some of the decks are kinda meh, they're all very much playable.

I will stick to 2 cores and 1 Dunwich for now. Will see once we actually get to play it. Will be playing 2 player the first time so I'm sure what I have should work. Once I've gotten some experience with the game I might have an easier time forming an opinion myself. I'm also hoping that getting one each of the upcoming packs will fill the void of that the missing cores might leave behind.

Having 2 cores per player just seems insanely wasteful. They should make a single core be equal two cores, without unneeded duplicates. FFG are not much for being environmental it seems =p

2 hours ago, LionCub said:

I will stick to 2 cores and 1 Dunwich for now. Will see once we actually get to play it. Will be playing 2 player the first time so I'm sure what I have should work. Once I've gotten some experience with the game I might have an easier time forming an opinion myself. I'm also hoping that getting one each of the upcoming packs will fill the void of that the missing cores might leave behind.

Having 2 cores per player just seems insanely wasteful. They should make a single core be equal two cores, without unneeded duplicates. FFG are not much for being environmental it seems =p

I agree. It's extremely wasteful. They should have just charged a bit more for the core and included 2x player cards or sold 2 versions of the core with different scenarios.

1 Core per player seems about right.

The basic idea is whether you just want to play or if you want lots of deck construction option. If you just want to play then 2 cores works just fine for 4 players otherwise 1 core per player should give you plenty of options as at 4 you will have a full playset of each card for two people so you can fully cover two players for each of the classes.

2 cores and 1 Dunwich should be fine for 4 players, I have 3 cores and 1 dunwich and I have made 6 decks including both roland and zoey as well as jim and agnes, everyone doesn't get exactly what they want but all of the decks so far are quite good, so 2 cores and 1 dunwich should be fine for 4 players even if two of them want to play the same "class"

As other people have stated multiple times 2 Cores is the right amount of core sets. IMO I think people are trying to build 4 solo decks to play with multiplayer (So every investigator gets all the good stuff) but because its multiplayer you can make every investigator specialize in something. Makes the game more thematic. Also your playing as a team working with each investigators strengths and weaknesses.

Thank you all for your help and advice. It's been very useful. Finally gotten around to playing the game a few times and I now know I love the game and have decided to go with 2 copies of each expansion. I will gradually up my amount of cores to 4 too probably, but not too rushed about that (since it's so wasteful!). What I have learned is that I want at least 4 of each class player cards - whenever playing four players we will just have to work around 3 or more wanting the same card. We will be building the decks together mostly so.

Again - thank you all for the tips and help with figuring this out. You have all been great. Have a internet gold star each of you!

While having unlimited deckbuilding options is nice, there is something to be said about the meta game that comes with arguing with your friends on who gets what.