[Future] Mask's of Nyarlathotep will be the last expansion ?

By ReyD, in General Discussion

Guessing forsaken lore is the highest selling expansion for what replayability it provides.

But agree with @tsuma534 above that trying out some POD card packs would be interesting.

I think we’re beyond AOs, investigators and monsters, but extra Mysteries and Adventures would be welcome. Would probably have to assume the buyers had every expansion which might be complicated tho.

Edited by Krysmopompas

I'm perfectly fine with no new "expansions." There are plenty of characters to choose from.

But I'd be okay with an expansion that had 3 AOs, a new mechanic (maybe the Cult of the Thousand) and no new investigators. Just some assets and such

5 hours ago, Krysmopompas said:

Would probably have to assume the buyers had every expansion which might be complicated tho.

Not necessarily every expansion. A single PrintOnDemand would need just some of the expansions.
Historically, PoD's are the only way a FFG publishes expansions that require other expansions.

Now that the complete info about Masks is out, I'm convinced it's the last expansion. And, yes, that likely means a new Arkham Files board game is just around the corner. And for FFG that's definitely going to be a winning move. No matter, how dedicated the fan base for Eldritch Horror is, sales are always declining with every additional expansion. You can easily recognize this trend by looking at the submitted games. Hardcore completionists are rare compared to players who'd rather just buy a new game, especially given that the base game is typically the only one that offers excellent value for its price. It recently struck me just how expensive EH expansions are:
The base game came with 12 investigators and 4 Great Old Ones for a mere 60$. Large expansions almost cost the same (50$) but add only 8 investigators and 2 Great Old Ones. And small expansions include exactly half of that for half the price. So, one large and one small expansion cost 75$, i.e. 125% of the base game and you're still short one Great Old One compared to the base game!

I was never 100% happy with the streamlined EH compared to my old favorite AH. Yes, AH had a lot of clunky rules, but it also was a lot more fun (to me). So, I'm game for another reboot.

Nicole : We just got the Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion a few days ago. As much as I hate to admit it, Masks does have a sense of finality to it. It feels like Fantasy Flight is wrapping things up and tying loose ends together with this expansion.

Ian : It feels like a capstone expansion; It fleshes out and references previous expansions, it appears to finish a system for every character, it has eight encounter cards for each location, it has the number two version of every relic unique assets that only had one version in previous expansions (ie: cursed tablet, wooden puppet, ect), and there is no side board. Then you have the campaign mode which appears to be a complete list....it just seems like a final expansion.

Although I agree there are AO's left to explore, the fact that they chose Antediluvium, which is just a rehash of Cthulhu, is telling...sort of a golden anniversary of Chthulhu, HPL's most popular AO. Nyarlathotep, meanwhile, is an anthology of AO's, sort of the guy behind a lot of things. Also, the missing AO are typically not mentioned in the encounter lore of EH. Whereas Nyarlathotep was mentioned all the time (Do you remember a single mention of Tsathoggua?). They really haven't been building up other AO's at all. For the lore they gave us in EH specifically, this feels complete.

I wrote a (very long) post over at Boardgamegeek speculating on future expansions for EH.

To summarise:

Firstly, just because Arkham Horror ended at eight expansions doesn't mean Eldritch has to. EH has been designed from the ground up to be modular and shows a great deal of forward planning, allowing it to be infinitely expandable. By contrast, as I understand it, a lot of the Arkham Horror expansions effectively patched the base game's flaws.

Secondly, I don't think that running out of investigators is a problem for EH. This is an AO-centric game, not an investigator-centric one. There's no reason future expansions have to include any new investigators at all. A more useful question to ask is whether there are any decent AOs left to add.

While I was thinking about this, I noticed a curious little feature in the design of EH that might just give us a hint.

Whenever we've had an Epic Monster associated with a Rumour, and the same monster has later turned up as a fully fledged AO, the naming conventions go like this:

Rumour Epic Monster token = has a title (e.g. The Wind-Walker)

AO Epic Monster token (or sheet) = has a name (e.g. Ithaqua)

This prevents you from having two Epic tokens on the board with the same name on the board at once, avoiding any rules snafus. It also suggests forward planning by FFG. They know which AOs are possible candidates to include down the track, so they make sure the Rumour versions of the monsters have titles rather than names.

Some examples off the top of my head:

The Wind Walker ---> Ithaqua

Crawling Chaos ---> Nyarlathotep

Spinner of Webs ---> Atlach-Nacha

Sleeper of N'kai ---> [Hmm... this is clearly Tsathoggua. Does that mean we might see him as an AO in the future?]

Render of the Veils ---> [This would be Daoloth if it showed up as an AO.]

On the other hand--and here's the interesting part--some Rumour Epic Monsters are given their actual name on their token. Examples: Ghatanothoa, Rhan-Teggoth and Quachil Uttaus.

Why the difference in naming conventions? It could just be an accident. But I suspect it means we won't see any of these as AOs. Pity. I'd like to see Ghatanothoa at least.

Now this is just a hunch. And just because FFG has a spreadsheet somewhere with possible AOs planned out so they can future-proof their Monster tokens, it doesn't mean they'll actually get around to releasing those AOs. They just took steps in case the stars came right. But it's intriguing...

We could also see more AOs like Syzygy or Antediluvium--reinterpretations or alternative versions of existing AOs.

Then there are 'species' AOs, like Rise of the Elder Things. How about Mi-Go or Yithians?

And we haven't seen Dagon yet to my knowledge. Just an Epic Monster for a Mystery or Rumour, probably, but still... Hydra but no Dagon?! I call shenanigans.

I dunno, EH seemed to have its act together at first but the crappy nature of the MoN expansion (for the most part) with unnecessary things like Resources contradict effects of other cards and mechanics.

5 minutes ago, Krysmopompas said:

I dunno, EH seemed to have its act together at first but the crappy nature of the MoN expansion (for the most part) with unnecessary things like Resources contradict effects of other cards and mechanics.

I like MoN. And whereas we didn't NEED resources, I've already found them pretty useful in the 2 games that I've played. Also, I know people are down on the campaign play, but I'm enjoying it. Could it be better? Probably. But it really does make the Personal Stories shine. Jacqueline and Wendy are beasts if they pass theirs.

We have finished 2 AO's so far via random selection. Had Syzygy, followed by Azathoth, followed by Yog. Syzygy + Azathoth is a pretty nasty prelude combo. Four to go.

On 3/3/2018 at 10:38 AM, NICOLIAN said:

Nicole : We just got the Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion a few days ago. As much as I hate to admit it, Masks does have a sense of finality to it. It feels like Fantasy Flight is wrapping things up and tying loose ends together with this expansion.

Ian : It feels like a capstone expansion; It fleshes out and references previous expansions, it appears to finish a system for every character, it has eight encounter cards for each location, it has the number two version of every relic unique assets that only had one version in previous expansions (ie: cursed tablet, wooden puppet, ect), and there is no side board. Then you have the campaign mode which appears to be a complete list....it just seems like a final expansion.

Although I agree there are AO's left to explore, the fact that they chose Antediluvium, which is just a rehash of Cthulhu, is telling...sort of a golden anniversary of Chthulhu, HPL's most popular AO. Nyarlathotep, meanwhile, is an anthology of AO's, sort of the guy behind a lot of things. Also, the missing AO are typically not mentioned in the encounter lore of EH. Whereas Nyarlathotep was mentioned all the time (Do you remember a single mention of Tsathoggua?). They really haven't been building up other AO's at all. For the lore they gave us in EH specifically, this feels complete.

Pretty sure I ran across an encounter recently that mentioned Nyogtha. I think it was an otherworld encounter. Maybe.

14 hours ago, Zen Shrugs said:

I wrote a (very long) post over at Boardgamegeek speculating on future expansions for EH.

To summarise:

Firstly, just because Arkham Horror ended at eight expansions doesn't mean Eldritch has to. EH has been designed from the ground up to be modular and shows a great deal of forward planning, allowing it to be infinitely expandable. By contrast, as I understand it, a lot of the Arkham Horror expansions effectively patched the base game's flaws.

Secondly, I don't think that running out of investigators is a problem for EH. This is an AO-centric game, not an investigator-centric one. There's no reason future expansions have to include any new investigators at all. A more useful question to ask is whether there are any decent AOs left to add.

While I was thinking about this, I noticed a curious little feature in the design of EH that might just give us a hint.

Whenever we've had an Epic Monster associated with a Rumour, and the same monster has later turned up as a fully fledged AO, the naming conventions go like this:

Rumour Epic Monster token = has a title (e.g. The Wind-Walker)

AO Epic Monster token (or sheet) = has a name (e.g. Ithaqua)

This prevents you from having two Epic tokens on the board with the same name on the board at once, avoiding any rules snafus. It also suggests forward planning by FFG. They know which AOs are possible candidates to include down the track, so they make sure the Rumour versions of the monsters have titles rather than names.

Some examples off the top of my head:

The Wind Walker ---> Ithaqua

Crawling Chaos ---> Nyarlathotep

Spinner of Webs ---> Atlach-Nacha

Sleeper of N'kai ---> [Hmm... this is clearly Tsathoggua. Does that mean we might see him as an AO in the future?]

Render of the Veils ---> [This would be Daoloth if it showed up as an AO.]

On the other hand--and here's the interesting part--some Rumour Epic Monsters are given their actual name on their token. Examples: Ghatanothoa, Rhan-Teggoth and Quachil Uttaus.

Why the difference in naming conventions? It could just be an accident. But I suspect it means we won't see any of these as AOs. Pity. I'd like to see Ghatanothoa at least.

Now this is just a hunch. And just because FFG has a spreadsheet somewhere with possible AOs planned out so they can future-proof their Monster tokens, it doesn't mean they'll actually get around to releasing those AOs. They just took steps in case the stars came right. But it's intriguing...

We could also see more AOs like Syzygy or Antediluvium--reinterpretations or alternative versions of existing AOs.

Then there are 'species' AOs, like Rise of the Elder Things. How about Mi-Go or Yithians?

And we haven't seen Dagon yet to my knowledge. Just an Epic Monster for a Mystery or Rumour, probably, but still... Hydra but no Dagon?! I call shenanigans.

I'm still hoping for an Arkham, Innsmouth, Kings Port sideboard that could include Dagon and an adventure around the Dunwich Horror...

21 hours ago, Soakman said:

I like MoN. And whereas we didn't NEED resources, I've already found them pretty useful in the 2 games that I've played. Also, I know people are down on the campaign play, but I'm enjoying it. Could it be better? Probably. But it really does make the Personal Stories shine. Jacqueline and Wendy are beasts if they pass theirs.

We have finished 2 AO's so far via random selection. Had Syzygy, followed by Azathoth, followed by Yog. Syzygy + Azathoth is a pretty nasty prelude combo. Four to go.

Don't forget Rex. We started a campaign, and Rex's player managed to finish his personal story and oh... my... God. His just becomes insanely good.

Personally, now that we've finished the AH characters and are in unexplored territory investigator-wise, if we get more expansions, I think it'd be a great opportunity to embrace the world-spanning nature of EH and get more 'gators from other corners of the world. How about an investigators from places like India, Mexico, Ireland, or Russia? Maybe more investigators from South America, Eastern Asia, and Africa? Maybe an Australian, Inuit, or (as has been mentioned on these boards) a Native American?

Edited by KBlumhardt
7 hours ago, KBlumhardt said:

Don't forget Rex. We started a campaign, and Rex's player managed to finish his personal story and oh... my... God. His just becomes insanely good.

Personally, now that we've finished the AH characters and are in unexplored territory investigator-wise, if we get more expansions, I think it'd be a great opportunity to embrace the world-spanning nature of EH and get more 'gators from other corners of the world. How about an investigators from places like India, Mexico, Ireland, or Russia? Maybe more investigators from South America, Eastern Asia, and Africa? Maybe an Australian, Inuit, or (as has been mentioned on these boards) a Native American?

I love this. Especially for a global game like Eldritch (as opposed to AH). I of course would love to see them end up in the other Arkham Files games too though.

I also wanted to mention Skids for his Personal Story. GD is he good if he passes. It doesn't matter how many impairments he has, he'll succeed at just about anything. The thing about this one though is that it is truly random whether you will succeed or not.

Edited by Soakman
On 3/7/2018 at 5:41 PM, Soakman said:

I love this. Especially for a global game like Eldritch (as opposed to AH). I of course would love to see them end up in the other Arkham Files games too though.

I also wanted to mention Skids for his Personal Story. GD is he good if he passes. It doesn't matter how many impairments he has, he'll succeed at just about anything. The thing about this one though is that it is truly random whether you will succeed or not.

On 3/6/2018 at 1:55 PM, Soakman said:

Especially with a Blessed condition. Could only fail on a roll of 3 during a test. Out right rigged.

we have to see yet the follow old ones:


Bokrug
Chaugnar Faugn
Cthugha
Daoloth
Eihort
Glaaki
Nyogtha
Tsathoggua
Ubbo-Sathla
Y'Golonac
Yibb-Ts

And now they can release portals for another locations without images, like the portals in spaces 3, 8 and 13 releasead in this expansion.

I am hopeful that FFG will continue to produce expansions for this amazing game. I believe that the mechanics and genre of EH will support many future expansions even if no new investigators are created. I would really like to see additional AOs and sideboards. Lovecraft Country would be at the top of my list, but other sideboards and AOs that have been mentioned on this forum would be welcome as well.

Even more so, I would like to see FFG produce mini-scenarios for EH designed to be played in 1-2 hours. Perhaps these could involve killing a single epic monster or accomplishing some other interesting or thematic task. I believe these mini-scenarios would be very popular and profitable for FFG. I would personally love to have the option to play a 1-2 hour game at times and can envision many intriguing mini-scenarios.

Edited by Haunster

Maybe we will get an announcement at GAMA.

On 10.3.2018 at 6:16 AM, Alonzo666 said:

we have to see yet the follow old ones:


Bokrug
Chaugnar Faugn
Cthugha
Daoloth
Eihort
Glaaki
Nyogtha
Tsathoggua
Ubbo-Sathla
Y'Golonac
Yibb-Ts

And now they can release portals for another locations without images, like the portals in spaces 3, 8 and 13 releasead in this expansion.

Well some of these are quite obscure, even I haven't heard of some of them and I read all works from HPL, many from Derleth and some from Howard (Who are Glaaki, Y'Golonac and Eihort e.g.?) but a far more important AO ist missing in this list and IS included in AH, Ghatanothoa. I still hope we will see him in a future expansion.

I still think this will be the last expansion for EH, but who knows. Even if it is the last, it doesn’t mean they are going to stop printing the EH products. They are still printing all the AH products over a decade since that game’s release even with the LCG which for all intents and purposes is the successor game (as it is also for the old CoC LCG). In fact, apart from the Star Wars stuff, AH has been their top seller (which is why it still gets printed). Plus, MoM 2e is kind of their focus on the board game front right now (as if should be). At this point, I would consider “EH”complete. This game with all the expansions packs so much content it is a bit overwhelming (much like AH became as well). There are still years worth of play time that can be had with what we have now. So while EH may be done, it is far from dead.

Paying particular tribute to “the eldritch horror” Cthulhu does make it feel final, but i hope not (of course business factors apply). I pretty much love everything that was added, but haven't had much chance to play lately. I thought I’d have a problem with resources, but the fact is it allows characters who never have a realistic chance of acquiring higher value assets to do so – if they can spare the time. Obviously, Nyarlathotep, the investigators and personal stories are all great additions, but what I didn’t love is what wasn’t added, namely the New England sideboard which to my mind the game is screaming for. It could’ve/should’ve been Nyarlathotep and Dagon, or Nyarlathotep and something like the Dunwhich Horror, stalking New England. Or if this is to be last expansion, all three!

Opening a big box expansion which is only a third full was disappointing, to say nothing of the financial slap. So either they’ve ended things a bit poorly for me (which would barely take the shine off a game that I intend to be playing for many years), or are trying to stretch out a couple more expansions. Which would be preferable. As long as there’s a NE board coming.

Day off work. I’m off to have a crack at Nyarly :)

On 4/8/2018 at 7:55 PM, GBI said:

Well some of these are quite obscure, even I haven't heard of some of them and I read all works from HPL, many from Derleth and some from Howard (Who are Glaaki, Y'Golonac and Eihort e.g.?) but a far more important AO ist missing in this list and IS included in AH, Ghatanothoa. I still hope we will see him in a future expansion.

Glaaki, Y'golonac and Eihort are creations of British horror writer Ramsey Campbell. He wrote lots of Mythos stories early in his career, before shifting over to other horror work. Derleth advised him to set his stories locally, so he created a 'Campbell Country' in England with its own Great Old Ones. He also wrote about Daoloth (the Render of the Veils), Groth, the Insects from Shaggai and the moon-lens in Goatswood, among other things.

Most of this stuff featured in the Call of Cthulhu RPG, which is why it's in Eldritch Horror.

His collection Cold Print is well worth checking out. The stories start out as mediocre imitations of Lovecraft, but steadily improve as Campbell hones his craft and finds his own voice, until you reach really impressive work like 'The Tugging' or 'The Voice of the Beach'.

As for Ghatanothoa, I'd love to see him/her/it as an AO... but I doubt it will happen. My little theory about the naming conventions for Epic Monsters suggests that only Monsters with titles (like 'The Wind Walker') are likely to show up later as an AO under their real names (like 'Ithaqua'). Ghatanothoa is in the game already and its token is called 'Ghatanothoa', so I reckon that's all we'll get. I hope I'm wrong, though. I like 'Out of the Aeons'. :(

Edited by Zen Shrugs

Why did they only give us 6 improvement tokens for each skill!? Out of all the expansions we kept waiting for more but they never came. :( For those of us who regularly play 8 players this would be really helpful....

I don't know about the exact timeline of official previews for Eldritch Horror, but shouldn't we get one by now if this was not the last expansion?

Edited by Runko

I did some calculations a while back.
based on earlier times between release and first preview the earliest would be February 26th, average May 19th and latest July 6th.

So a little bit later than average but not too late yet.

2 hours ago, StLemon said:

I did some calculations a while back.
based on earlier times between release and first preview the earliest would be February 26th, average May 19th and latest July 6th.

So a little bit later than average but not too late yet.

With Nikki Valens's departure from FFG, I've moved from the "EH almost certainly isn't done" to "yeah, we're probably not getting more expansions".

5 hours ago, KBlumhardt said:

With Nikki Valens's departure from FFG, I've moved from the "EH almost certainly isn't done" to "yeah, we're probably not getting more expansions".

I didn't know that. But some digging found a tweet that said she had designed something that would probably come out Q4 2018 for FFG so maybe (probably not), just maybe, there's one more there.