This is a question directed at those who are apt to play home-made custom scenarios.

So, one of my absolute favorite aspects of this game is the wide open design space when it comes to locations. A house. A city. A forest. A campus. Really, the potential is limitless. Now, I've also noticed that the number of locations in each scenario is in that 9ish range, give or take. So is there such a thing as too many locations? Or as long as the Act and Agenda cards and the clue and doom token requirements take this into account, you can have bigger boards? Or is that not something people are interested in because bigger boards and more required clue tokens, doom tokens, or objectives makes for a longer scenario and we want to keep it within the time limits listed on the box? The reason I ask is because I am working on a custom scenario and I have a version that has a very large board (15 locations) and a version closer to the norm (11 locations). Any input or thoughts would be appreciated!

I think it's all about balance, and what's required in the scenario.

If you have a ton of locations, and each one has a ton of clues and/or high shroud that kind of need to be cleared, then that might be a little rough.

On the other hand, if you're concentrating on something specific being located in one of the locations (for instance), but they only need to be investigated once or so, that would make more sense.

Basically, I wouldn't limit myself to a certain number of locations if I were designing something. But, I would make sure that everything makes sense together, and play test, play test, play test.

1 hour ago, StupidStupidDan said:

I think it's all about balance, and what's required in the scenario.

If you have a ton of locations, and each one has a ton of clues and/or high shroud that kind of need to be cleared, then that might be a little rough.

On the other hand, if you're concentrating on something specific being located in one of the locations (for instance), but they only need to be investigated once or so, that would make more sense.

Basically, I wouldn't limit myself to a certain number of locations if I were designing something. But, I would make sure that everything makes sense together, and play test, play test, play test.

I certainly agree on the balance aspect and feel that balance would be maintained, but at the same time, this isn't the board game with Dunwich, Kingsport, and Innsmouth side boards taking up your entire table, side table, dresser top, kitchen counter, and bathroom counter space with boards and locations. I don't want to push this game beyond what it is not intended to be, and I certainly want to create content that others may find enjoyable, and increasing locations and extending play time may cross that line.

At this point I've settled on the 11 locations, but my mind frequently wanders back to the more locations. Of course, nothing but myself is limiting from creating and providing both.

The other thing to be mindful of is the physical layout. 12 locations that layout in a 3x4 grid in a way that movement is still intuitive is more manageable than 9 or even 6 locations that need to be placed differently relative to each other.

Likewise, if you have multiple versions of each location, it magnifies setup time versus setup time, even several additional locations with only one version each.

In other words, pay attention to usability. Particulalry if you're testing via octgn or TTS, or some other app that can handle setup automatically.