First let me say that this game is amazing. It really got everything I look for in a game, and I am very hooked into it.

What I love especially is that the design framework of the game really leaves a lot of freedom for designers to be creative and come up with unique experiences.
Somehow it reminds me a lot of the best parts of T.I.M.E. Stories , by being really sucked into the story and live a real "experience" with your friends, more than just simply playing a game.
However I find the mechanics and the longevity of this game much bigger even of that one, if it is exploited correctly.

The only aspect I find maybe slightly weaker than the rest is the investigation for clues one, where most of the time it just represents a skill test and you get clue tokens as rewards. For a game so thematic as Arkham, sometimes this feels very game-y and it could be easily be improved within the existing design of the game.

What I really would love to see more and more in the future is , as in T.I.M.E. stories, the presence sometimes of riddles or puzzles to solve, to make the investigation a bit more interesting.
The same concept is also present in mansions of madness, even if in a bit of a different way since there's the app involved, and more than riddles those are really minigames to solve.

You could have certain encounter cards or locations present the players with a riddle that could have several answers, and for each answer there could be an associated card. Players would have to solve the riddle and pick the right answer/card, and then deal with the consequences. Again, the already quoted T.I.M.E. stories managed to do this really really well into its "asylum" scenario, and I would absolutely love if arkham could somehow get inspired by the same mechanic and introduce it in a future expansion.

For the rest, thanks again for the game, I am having a blast and I plan to support it for long long time!

That final puzzle in asylum made me angry. Angry enough to whip my phone across the room and crack it. Well not angry, but frustrated. Everything was so clean, and so amazing, but that final puzzle broke the immersion.

I think they have plenty of ideas going forward, and I hope for way more alternate endings and even branching paths in the future. Also, fingers crossed that the next deluxe really is the kick off to the Hastur themed campaign.

Not sure if you ever got the "quiz" program Crystal Maze in the U.S. but you could take a leaf out of their book and some clues could be found by doing Physical challenges (a clue is hidden on top of a high book case or under something really heavy), Mental or Agillity (you have to squeeze through a small space or walk a ballance beam over a pit) etc, this could lead some of the more brutish characters feeling like they are part of the team and not just the tank ..... also failing the challenges could result in a lock in (imagine something like House on Haunted Hill where an investigator fails a challenge and gets trapped in a room or something until the others can "buy" them out) , basically not all your clue finding challenges rely in the brainy "clue hoover" in the game .. also as you say a clue could be a riddle .. so instead of getting a clue there and then you are given a clue to where the clue is (or where the next riddle to the over all clue is) so as opposed to the act advancing when you reach a certain amount of clues you are chasing clues/riddles to an ultimate goal, I know this could reduce the re-play value cos once you know the answer then you will remember for next time so maybe this kind of thing could be addressed in Homebrew or stand alone scenarios ?

I agree that the general clue finding system is a bit bland, but they do change it up with requiring different skill checks for uncovering a clue, or allowing clues to be uncovered in different ways. Not to throw out spoilers, but The Devourer Below checks different stats to find clues and The House Always Wins makes clue finding more interesting than that. Characters also have some ways to help them find clues so no one is totally left out either.

The problem with the game being solved by a puzzle is simply replay value. It couldn't be a "real" puzzle, but they could maybe add some flavor by having clues draw a random card from a side deck, and require you to find the right combination of cards for a certain action... You could get lucky and find the right cards immediately, or it could be drawn out - something they will likely explore in time but I don't think this could replace a "normal" system.

Making the players solve riddles or puzzles themselves also breaks the RPG aspect of the game. What happens for players who are smarter than Agnes' two intellect? Or not as quick as Daisy's 5 says she should be? This is a common issue in RPGs, but you've usually got the GM there to help things along. In an automated co-op game there's no way for the game to help you solve the puzzle that you can't, but your investigator should be able to.

It is a bit generic, and I wouldn't have minded seeing something more specific and flavorful replace clues, but in the end it would have just been a lot of fiddly bits to keep track of. "I've got 3 of Clue A and 1 Clue B, anyone else have any Cs?"

2 hours ago, Buhallin said:

Making the players solve riddles or puzzles themselves also breaks the RPG aspect of the game. What happens for players who are smarter than Agnes' two intellect? Or not as quick as Daisy's 5 says she should be? This is a common issue in RPGs, but you've usually got the GM there to help things along. In an automated co-op game there's no way for the game to help you solve the puzzle that you can't, but your investigator should be able to.

It is a bit generic, and I wouldn't have minded seeing something more specific and flavorful replace clues, but in the end it would have just been a lot of fiddly bits to keep track of. "I've got 3 of Clue A and 1 Clue B, anyone else have any Cs?"

Mansions of madness solved it by having investigators with higher intelligence be able to make more moves into the minigame that it is needed to be solved, so there could be something similar where the high intelligent characters can for example see extra hint cards maybe?

6 hours ago, Doma0997 said:

That final puzzle in asylum made me angry. Angry enough to whip my phone across the room and crack it. Well not angry, but frustrated. Everything was so clean, and so amazing, but that final puzzle broke the immersion.

I think they have plenty of ideas going forward, and I hope for way more alternate endings and even branching paths in the future. Also, fingers crossed that the next deluxe really is the kick off to the Hastur themed campaign.

I loved it instead, with my group I managed to solve it just in time and was very satisfying. And to be honest, if I would replay it now after several months, I probably would need to resolve it again...

Anyway: I do agree with you guys that replay value would go down, but I am not proposing to replacing the whole clue system always, just that, from time to time, they could manage to reward certain clues not only with a skill test but also with somehow a more creative approach. They indeed do try something already in certain scenarios that are already out, I just hope they can diversify even more this aspect. It's the only "bland" bit of the whole design.

3 hours ago, shosuko said:

I agree that the general clue finding system is a bit bland, but they do change it up with requiring different skill checks for uncovering a clue, or allowing clues to be uncovered in different ways. Not to throw out spoilers, but The Devourer Below checks different stats to find clues and The House Always Wins makes clue finding more interesting than that. Characters also have some ways to help them find clues so no one is totally left out either.

The problem with the game being solved by a puzzle is simply replay value. It couldn't be a "real" puzzle, but they could maybe add some flavor by having clues draw a random card from a side deck, and require you to find the right combination of cards for a certain action... You could get lucky and find the right cards immediately, or it could be drawn out - something they will likely explore in time but I don't think this could replace a "normal" system.

Agreed, but as I said, I don't want to replace the normal system, just getting a bit of more creative solutions from time to time to keep the surprise effect going. As you correctly said, certain scenarios are already expanding a bit in that direction, I just hope they can manage to bring that even further