Hello there, after 5 months waiting for my 3 boxes (2 Core Sets + Dunwich expansion), i'm finally going to play this game with 4 players.

So far i only played the game 2-player with 1 Core Set and premade decks (only "the Gathering" Scenario)

Me and 3 friends are all going to play with my 3 boxes, but i have a question about the basic weakness pool for a 4 players game.

I know we should just use the 10 basic weaknesses from 1 Core Set, but having 2 of each Amnesia/Paranoia in 1 Core Set and 2 of copies of each in Dunwich Expansion confused me about how to set the pool for the 4 players to draw randomly from. Does this mean that Amesia/Paranoia/Dunwich weaknesses are the ones that can be repeated (2x copies) among the 4 players? But only 1x Mob Enforcer/ Silver Twilight Recruiter, etc?

If correct then the Basic Weakness Pool should be 16 cards:

2x Amnesia

2x Chronophobia

1x Haunted

1x Hypochondria

2x Indebted

2x Internal Injury

1x Mob Enforcer

2x Paranoia

1x Psychosis

1x Silver Twilight Acolyte

1x Stubborn Detective

We'll be drawing blind random weaknesses without looking at them to put in our decks (i'll use a tiny slip of paper inside the sleeve to "mark" Indebted since it's permanent). I like the ideia of having the exact same chance of EVERY basic weakness and that among the 4 investigators every weakness can exist up to 2 times, so that if YOU draw a "Mob Enforcer" during the game now i know that one isn't my weakness. So what are your thoughts about using the 2nd core set + Dunwich to have exactly 2 of each basic weakness? (22 cards total).

Thanks in advance

"players should use the same pool of weaknesses, which is constructed using all of the basic weaknesses from only 1 copy of each product they own"

Quote from the official FAQ, page 5 top right.

You can get the FAQ from the support section of this page: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/arkham-horror-the-card-game/

That's the official answer but if you want to use 2 of each, by all means try it....it's your game

I can't imagine it will make much of a difference in a 4 player game.

Yes, i read that hence my list of 16 cards above to confirm if i understood it correctly.

What confused me was the fact that there are some basic weakness x2 while others are x1.

I Don't see any reason why Amnesia or Chronophobia should be more common than Hypochondria for example.

My guess is game balance.

Also remember that while it's cool to not know what your weakness is going to be, you are supposed to look at your weakness and unless you can find a way to tell if you have it and still keep the others hidden, it's crucial for the Indebted that you know you have it since it is a permanent and starts each game already in play because it's only effect is to reduce your starting resources.

Yup! That's why i said above:

Quote

We'll be drawing blind random weaknesses without looking at them to put in our decks (i'll use a tiny slip of paper inside the sleeve to "mark" Indebted since it's permanent).

Maybe i wasn't clear enough, i'll put a tiny piece paper to mark inside the sleeve of Indebted on the back of the card, and fan the weaknesses out for my friends to take them randomly if they pull out Indebted, i'll notice it and place it face up on the corresponding Investigator. If it's not marked (Indebted), then we'll shuffle it in our decks without looking it.

And I totally missed that because I was skimming. My bad.