Wow! First let me say a big thanks to Grace for an awesome demo. Her positive energy was infectious and you can tell she's passionate about the games she designs.

We played Astral Alchemy and I loved it. I won't spoil it, but our group did end up all winning. Though I and several others had to leave a few turns beforehand to go play 16 player Eldritch Horror. (This is the only even close to bad part of Arkham Nights; having to choose between all the awesome stuff to do)

Speaking generally, the scenario had good tension, and aweome narrative, we were fortunately able to determine our goal quickly which helped a lot, but isn't guaranteed to happen.

The new miniatures are great quality. I especially can't wait to paint the large and extra large baddies.

I could say more, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who doesn't want it spoiled. I can't wait to get this!

My group tried to get a chance to play, but the slots were always full. It was very disappointing. Thanks for sharing your impressions!

On 10/16/2017 at 7:10 AM, Scummy Rebel said:

Wow! First let me say a big thanks to Grace for an awesome demo. Her positive energy was infectious and you can tell she's passionate about the games she designs.

We played Astral Alchemy and I loved it. I won't spoil it, but our group did end up all winning. Though I and several others had to leave a few turns beforehand to go play 16 player Eldritch Horror. (This is the only even close to bad part of Arkham Nights; having to choose between all the awesome stuff to do)

Speaking generally, the scenario had good tension, and aweome narrative, we were fortunately able to determine our goal quickly which helped a lot, but isn't guaranteed to happen.

The new miniatures are great quality. I especially can't wait to paint the large and extra large baddies.

I could say more, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who doesn't want it spoiled. I can't wait to get this!

The new Investigators, for the most part, look great too. I think Finn is going to be a favorite of many groups due to his amazing passive. Unfortunately, Diana (one of my favorites in the other games) may not see much play, especially in longer games, however, due to a glaring weakness in one of her stats.

Thanks for sharing! Any info on the other 2 episodes? Do we know the average length and the difficulty for this one and the other two episodes?

I'm glad to hear you liked it! I look forward to getting this expansion.

On 10/16/2017 at 11:19 AM, KBlumhardt said:

The new Investigators, for the most part, look great too. I think Finn is going to be a favorite of many groups due to his amazing passive. Unfortunately, Diana (one of my favorites in the other games) may not see much play, especially in longer games, however, due to a glaring weakness in one of her stats.

Diana is my bf's favorite investigator. I don't think I'm going to be able to convince him NOT to use her. :/ Maybe if I pair her with Carolyn...

1 hour ago, Soakman said:

Diana is my bf's favorite investigator. I don't think I'm going to be able to convince him NOT to use her. :/ Maybe if I pair her with Carolyn...

That's who I played. Definitely a fan.

Diana is one of my favourites for Eldritch Horror, but for this one I feel for my play style Tommy i more down my alley. " At the start of the game, Tommy gains his trusty rifle, Becky. This weapon offers him the special ability to reroll one die once per round—in addition to packing quite a punch when it's fired"

Sign me up! Someone else will have to take care of the Lore tests though...

On 19/10/2017 at 4:33 PM, Juan4aigle said:

Diana is one of my favourites for Eldritch Horror, but for this one I feel for my play style Tommy i more down my alley. " At the start of the game, Tommy gains his trusty rifle, Becky. This weapon offers him the special ability to reroll one die once per round—in addition to packing quite a punch when it's fired"

Sign me up! Someone else will have to take care of the Lore tests though...

Get Ashcan and have Duke bringing Becky to anyone in need!

On 19/10/2017 at 2:59 AM, Soakman said:

Diana is my bf's favorite investigator. I don't think I'm going to be able to convince him NOT to use her. :/ Maybe if I pair her with Carolyn...

Yeah, Diana has a 2 in Willpower, but her ability compensate a lot bigger Horror damage.

Don't forget the expansion introduces Improvements, so that that starting Will could easily go to Will 3

4 hours ago, Julia said:

Yeah, Diana has a 2 in Willpower, but her ability compensate a lot bigger Horror damage.

Don't forget the expansion introduces Improvements, so that that starting Will could easily go to Will 3

True. We'll see how it goes. I can guarantee she'll be hitting the board a lot even if she feels sub-par, so we'll have lots of time to figure out strategies to make her work.

5 hours ago, Julia said:

Yeah, Diana has a 2 in Willpower, but her ability compensate a lot bigger Horror damage.

Don't forget the expansion introduces Improvements, so that that starting Will could easily go to Will 3

Well, hopefully the improvements aren't too easy to get... I'm already worried about them potentially making the game too easy.

34 minutes ago, KBlumhardt said:

Well, hopefully the improvements aren't too easy to get... I'm already worried about them potentially making the game too easy.

You presume that having great stats assures a win muhahahaha

4 minutes ago, Scummy Rebel said:

You presume that having great stats assures a win muhahahaha

It certainly doesn't assure a win but it could definitely make it easier, as the game obviously wasn't originally designed with improvement tokens in mind balance-wise.

As I understand it, the stat improvements are linked to the elixir items:

Quote

Elixirs give you the unique ability to improve a chosen skill by one, a change marked by placing improvement tokens on your investigator card. No skill can be improved more than once with an elixir, but you may use this unique opportunity to help balance a character’s abilities or make them too powerful to deny in a given area. However, consuming an unknown substance involves a certain amount of risk; there is no telling what side effects these chemical potions may induce, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Elixir cards are double sided and have an unknown effect described on the back. When you drink one of these concoctions, you must immediately flip the elixir card and resolve the effect for good or ill, and the card is no longer considered an item. This is steep price to pay, but with the growing threat to your lives, the risk may well be worth the reward.

I guess that whatever effect is on the other side of the elixir card makes this risky enough to think twice about getting that improvement…

29 minutes ago, KBlumhardt said:

It certainly doesn't assure a win but it could definitely make it easier, as the game obviously wasn't originally designed with improvement tokens in mind balance-wise.

I wonder if they would tweak the other scenarios to use the improvement items. They are handled with Elixirs, so they could just as easily be left out of the item pool resources.

1 hour ago, Samea said:

As I understand it, the stat improvements are linked to the elixir items:

I guess that whatever effect is on the other side of the elixir card makes this risky enough to think twice about getting that improvement…

I can't really respond without nullifying my spoiler free tag. I'll just say: Obviously what the preview says is true, but it doesn't mean it's all the info about them.

3 hours ago, KBlumhardt said:

It certainly doesn't assure a win but it could definitely make it easier, as the game obviously wasn't originally designed with improvement tokens in mind balance-wise.

Depends on the number of times the stats are improved over a game. If we consider the total of the stats, they are around 21 points. Moving from 21 points to 22 doesn't seem game breaking. Moving from 21 to 27 would be more of a problem. I totally trust the developers and the testing team.

4 hours ago, LordPyrex said:

I wonder if they would tweak the other scenarios to use the improvement items. They are handled with Elixirs, so they could just as easily be left out of the item pool resources.

Would they have to? The mesmerized effect from Beyond the Threshold can also appear in previous scenarios. And if the stat improvements are balanced by the elixir effect (one stat improves, but you also take one unknown drawback), you do not really have to take them into account since they will not unbalance a scenario.

Sure, sometimes someone will pick just the right stat on just the right investigator and the disadvantage from the elixir is minimal. But sometimes people will roll extraordinarily well or intuitively make a right decision without any actual knowledge to base it on. That does not mean that the game balance is off, just because outliers do happen now and then.

2 hours ago, Julia said:

Depends on the number of times the stats are improved over a game. If we consider the total of the stats, they are around 21 points. Moving from 21 points to 22 doesn't seem game breaking. Moving from 21 to 27 would be more of a problem. I totally trust the developers and the testing team.

The question is, what the drawbacks would be. If an investigator did raise all his stats, I would expect him to be severely crippled by a combination of adverse effects that make him barely playable. And since it would be the player's decision to improve the stat and take the risk, I would be fine if someone shuffled through the scenario as some kind of limping, blind, paranoid maniac with one point of health, who performs above average at every test.

3 hours ago, Julia said:

Depends on the number of times the stats are improved over a game. If we consider the total of the stats, they are around 21 points. Moving from 21 points to 22 doesn't seem game breaking. Moving from 21 to 27 would be more of a problem. I totally trust the developers and the testing team.

Looked at on a macro scale, I agree with you, but on a per-stat basis it even 1 point can be very powerful. As illustrated by our comments about Diana, on a heavily-used stat like Will the difference between a "2" and a "3" (or even a "3" to a "4") is huge, especially when tests often require 2 or more successes. Obviously, there are (highly sought after) items that give a +1 to all rolls for a certain stat now, but you can't rely on getting them... hence my worry if elixirs and stat-boosting items are too easy to obtain.

If they don't reliably pop up in every game, I'm not too worried (or yeah, if the penalties are bad enough to balance them out). I chose to only look at the new investigators at Arkham Nights, so I have no idea... I'm maybe just over-cautious.