I just bought BGW and after reading it I think it may be a bit much for my group to handle. We never close stuff in time so we almost always rely on monster surges to pass turns so the doom counter doesn't go up. So I was wondering, can we still use some of the new stuff from it without using the actual herald? Can we still join the cults and stuff? Also the instructions say to use "the eight red corruption and the eight green cards." I was wondering if this means that you use 8 of the 16 for each and shuffle those and then put the green 8 on top of the red 8 or is this a typo and you are supposed to use all 16 of each? Is the green on top of the red because they are more positive corruption things? I don't really understand the corruption too much. Also, a question dating to Dunwich: how can you even join the Gang? I've never even seen an option for it... And, the DH has never come out for us. Is that unusual? Thanks! I'll definitely have more questions tomorrow when we play the new expansion.

Also: do you ALWAYS read the full text of the card or do you only read up to if it says "if you accept" or something until the player accepts? Sometimes it seems like I should be telling the guys what is going on and sometimes it ruins the choice. Any help with this and the above questions would be much appreciated.

karpluker said:

You can, but won't see a lot of Corruption or the Cult most likely. If you want a mini-nerf (boo, hiss, grow a pair ), could just ignore the doomer for surge on the Herald and use the rest of the text. Yeah, 16+16 is how you're supposed to do it. Green are so-so, can be helpful at times, Red are bad (from reading them, never actually gotten that deep into the deck).

You can get an encounter at Woods that offers you a shot at the Sheldon Gang Membership. DH hasn't come out that much my games either, usually when the DH Herald is in play, it'll appear.

As for reading, depends on the group. I read (or really, skim the relevant info) the card in full. More theme-geared groups have another person read the encounter up to the choice part and then you have to make the choice not knowing the good/bad results. At least you won't know them the first time, the wording soon becomes familiar, you'll remember the bad choices easily enough. "The cultists thrust you forward..." OW encounter, you know what's coming.

Heralds are optional. Unfortunately, without the Black Goat herald, as Dam said, corruption cards will be far less frequent.

Also, I assume you're supposed to read the full text of the card, but I find it MUCH more fun and thematic to stop reading at a choice or at the end of a sentence with a skill check in it. Even when playing solo!

karpluker said:

Typo, 16.

Personally, I think BGotW was a very badly designed expansion (you'll see once you try it). The concept was cool, but the execution failed. After you try the herald and don't like it :') as almost everyone who tries it doesn't like it, visit my photobucket page and try my modified Black Goat herald. It's ferocious in it's own way, but it's not game ruining through doom token splurging, and it doesn't waste time setting up hexigon cups. It's also quite fun ;') Or so I've been told, I wouldn't know, my shriveled heart is incapable of such feelings.

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Our group always has someone else read the card text and stop at the decision point. With the cards from all the expansions added in, its a long time between repeats so it's somewhat rare to remember the card.

The annoying ones are the 'you try not to make noise as you move the tentacles to grab the idol' and we are all yelling "No, I don't do that". We all much prefer to be given the option whether or not to do it.

I have two questions about the "flute of outer gods" card. Does the term "area" refer to the location/street area you are directly on or does it refer to the colour of street area/location such as Miskatonic University area? Also can you use this card to kill the Dunwich Horror. I see no rules so far against doing so. Also a question about the cult deck with BGotW: Do you re-shuffle the cult deck everytime like other location decks or just at the start of the game and put the played cards on the bottom of the deck? Thanks for the help!

karpluker said:

It's just location/street, not the whole neighborhood (2-3 colored spaces). It works on the DH.

As for the Cult Encounters, don't think we have anything official. I go with shuffle before every draw, just like the normal location decks. Cuts down on the card-counting possibilities .

Do identical corruption card's effects stack? Like if someone had to "endless greed" cards would the effects be doubled every time a black hexagon showed up in the mythos phase?

No, one endless greed card has the hexagon on white, the other has it on black. All the corruption cards work that way, so it's effect can only happen once per monster movement. If you have both though it means the effect would happen any time hexagon comes on either movement color. I had that happen, not with Endless Greed, but with Downward Spiral, which got messy fast.

Is delayed the same thing as "stay here next turn"? I was playing that when you are delayed you don't get an encounter, but I kinda' feel like that you do now. It's confusing because now I don't know how long you are lost in time and space. So you get sent there on turn one (and are delayed), then you spend turn two there, and are you out in turn three ready for action on any location?

karpluker said:

Uh... Sorry I didn't answer this before. But yes. I made a custom herald redesign of The Black Goat of the Woods that makes cult memberships and corruptions plentiful (without using the noxious hexagon monster cup or surge/doom). Um. A word of warning. Wendigo and Creature in the Clouds are going to undergo minor revisions soon, so I wouldn't download them just yet.

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

In the fan creations section of the forum, in the custom heralds thread, Amikezor has posted his latest version of The Sheldon Gang (it's still under construction), but that looks like it'll also get plenty of corruptions into play (but not cult encounters) and be potentially interesting and fun.

Mine incorporates both aspects though ;') it was designed to make the inactive components of BGotW function properly and entertainingly. But don't worry :') it won't be a pushover, it's a herald, not a guardian :'D

karpluker said:

Yes, delayed = stay here next turn.

LiTaS

Turn 1: let's say LiTaS via OW encounter (the most common case), place investigator on side

Turn 2: Miss the entire turn, only stand up the investigator.

Turn 3: Start of Upkeep, place investigator in any allowable space.

Avi_dreader said:

hey, that's me right there in your quote, Avi :-)

The Sheldon Gang will be soon finished (i hope). It does use cult membership (totally useless unless you use Avi Herald, which I recommand) but it does have some corruption card involved and bank robbery... woohoo !