I’m relatively new to the game and missed the first few promo characters. I love the game and I’m dying to own all the characters, but I may not be interested in buying a bunch of novellas. Will there be any accommodation for fans like myself? When can I buy a “character pack” or whatever, to increase my play options? I realize the game is still young, but come on... I pay money for new characters. How long must I wait, and why?? There must be another way to get them...

From the initial announcement of the books:

Each Arkham Horror novella comes with five cards for Arkham Horror: The Card Game that are exclusive to the novella

So it looks like the only way to get them is by buying the books.

I notice though, that each signature card and weakness of the novella investigators has the “Replacement” keyword, just like Roland and Jenny’s alternate novella versions. Makes me wonder if ALL these new investigators will be represented with alternate art and compulsory cards later on.

I don’t care if they’re different versions, as long as I can get these characters by more direct means.

From what I understand each ”novella investigator” will be available in a Deluxe eventually.

Just a question of when, I guess.

Marie is the only one I have doubts about as her “regular” version was included with the book instead of the replacement one.

They have stated outright several times that Marie will be released as part of a regular expansion. And you will eventually have access to all the novella characters. The signature and weakness replacement cards are what are going to be mechanically different. Even the alt-art investigator cards list their non-replacement signature and weakness cards.

8 hours ago, mwmcintyre said:

They have stated outright several times that Marie will be released as part of a regular expansion.

That may be the case, but I am believing them less and less with each deluxe expansion.

7 hours ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

That may be the case, but I am believing them less and less with each deluxe expansion.

Have they announced who the mystic is in the next set? I might have missed it but I'd say there is a good chance it will be Marie.

They haven't announced, but it was leaked. It is not Marie.

7 hours ago, Jobu said:

They haven't announced, but it was leaked. It is not Marie.

Your source?

They have officially announced 4 of the investigators for Forgotten Age 1)Ursula Downs 2)Leo Anderson 3)Finn Edwards 4)Calvin Wright

There was a leaked picture that included several of the mini cards for the investigator and the picture on one of them was Father Mateo. So it's looking like Father Mateo is the mystic.

Yeah that's not going to be Marie in the next Deluxe.

So let's count more or less 8 month for the next deluxe.

Around 2 years of waiting to potentially have Marie in the regular line of product. If each actual exclusive investigators will be released 2 years later ... then ... take a sit and let's wait xD

I think that's sort of why they're releasing extra investigators with the novellas. The LCG is the youngest, and therefore furthest behind in releasing the characters. Additionally, due to the format, they're releasing them at less than 10/year (the cycles are roughly 7 months each).

Missing Characters (of 55):

• Arkham Horror: 6
• Eldritch Horror: 0
• Elder Sign: 1
• Mansions of Madness: 24
• Arkham Horror LCG: 31

The LCG's missing 31 do not include the promo Marie, the three exclusive novella characters, or the final investigator of the Forgotten Age.

I believe that they are getting us investigators at an advanced rate by including them with the novellas on purpose.

At the same time, it's really frustrating. It's almost as if those of us who didn't support the pre-sale of Investigators of Arkham Horror are being punished by the fact that they are holding off announcing the mystic investigator.

Before any of you say anything, I know, I know. "Patience." It is wearing thin if I have to wait another year only to be disappointed again.

3 hours ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

At the same time, it's really frustrating. It's almost as if those of us who didn't support the pre-sale of Investigators of Arkham Horror are being punished by the fact that they are holding off announcing the mystic investigator.

Before any of you say anything, I know, I know. "Patience." It is wearing thin if I have to wait another year only to be disappointed again.

To be fair, Marie is not very good with the card pool we have right now. There just aren't very many "occult" cards, and there are only 2 cards that make her ability usable. She seems like a great investigator, but when she releases I'm sure she'll probably have better options for deckbuilding anyway.

I wouldn’t say the LCG is the furthest behind, it’s not like it is he end goal of the game to have all investigators out as soon as possible.

I think the pace at which new ones are presented is fine. There are still investigators I haven’t really tried out.

Comparing the LCG to other games is also not fair. Elder Sign took 7 years from initial launch to the latest expansion, so who knows. And the way FFG “rushed” the investigators in Mansions second edition also sucked, because the difference in quality (and size) of the sculpts between the “old” and “new” edition is very obvious.

In my opinion, the longer FFG needs to release all the investigators, the longer the game will be around.

4 hours ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

At the same time, it's really frustrating. It's almost as if those of us who didn't support the pre-sale of Investigators of Arkham Horror are being punished by the fact that they are holding off announcing the mystic investigator.

If you really feel this way, you might be taking this too serious.

Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to the Forgotten Age, having finished The Path to Carcosa just recently. I am looking forward to the gameplay mechanics that will be offered, as well as the player cards, and the new investigators, even if Marie is not included. I'm just saying, I would like to have the opportunity to have all that is currently available. I just didn't have $60 US to spend on a pre-order at the time.

20 hours ago, Soakman said:

To be fair, Marie is not very good with the card pool we have right now. There just aren't very many "occult" cards, and there are only 2 cards that make her ability usable. She seems like a great investigator, but when she releases I'm sure she'll probably have better options for deckbuilding anyway.

She can manipulate doom at the moment, which is pretty cool. She also has one of the less punishing weaknesses. If she has enough protection, The Baron can actually give her an extra action. I was one of the lucky ones. She's probably the best Mystic out there for potential. If the cards are right, maybe better than Jimmy.

6 minutes ago, bern1106 said:

She can manipulate doom at the moment, which is pretty cool. She also has one of the less punishing weaknesses. If she has enough protection, The Baron can actually give her an extra action. I was one of the lucky ones. She's probably the best Mystic out there for potential. If the cards are right, maybe better than Jimmy.

I mean, her design is great, that's true. Her deck restrictions are hard to handle well right now in my opinion and finding a good way to place doom on her own cards seems shaky.

20 hours ago, Soakman said:

To be fair, Marie is not very good with the card pool we have right now. There just aren't very many "occult" cards, and there are only 2 cards that make her ability usable. She seems like a great investigator, but when she releases I'm sure she'll probably have better options for deckbuilding anyway.

There are 4 cards that can be used to trigger her ability. Blood Pact, Arcane Initiate, Reinfield and Alyssa. I think you can use these to good effect.

I doubt we will ever get a ton of level zero occult cards. That seems to be there for a specific purpose.

I did run Jim through a campaign where he used Blood Pact and Moonlight Ritual to great effect, I could see similar items happening for Marie.

I totally forgot about blood pact somehow, which is arguably the best card to use, so thanks for that. I'm anticipating Marie too, I'm just hoping there will be some more fun to be had once she launches officially.

On 4/8/2018 at 11:44 AM, Turtlefan2082 said:

At the same time, it's really frustrating. It's almost as if those of us who didn't support the pre-sale of Investigators of Arkham Horror are being punished by the fact that they are holding off announcing the mystic investigator.

Before any of you say anything, I know, I know. "Patience." It is wearing thin if I have to wait another year only to be disappointed again.

Yeah, I use to be frustrated that I didn't have a copy of Marie. This game wasn't even on my radar when Investigators of Arkham was released. I went through a period where I was trying to find her, that didn't work out and I wasn't happy about.

Luckily for me, shortly afterwards, I hit a point were I just didn't care that I did not have her. Its working fine for me now.

So rather than suggesting patience, I suggest not caring about it, if you can get there.

To help with the not caring:

1. We are getting other investigators who are cool.
2. There are plenty of investigator options in the game as is (16 released so far, to be 21 in just a month or so). That's a lot of options. I don't have time to play all of them myself.
3. The fact that other people have a card that you don't is only a bad thing if you decide it is.

Hope that helps.

9 hours ago, Jobu said:

Yeah, I use to be frustrated that I didn't have a copy of Marie. This game wasn't even on my radar when Investigators of Arkham was released. I went through a period where I was trying to find her, that didn't work out and I wasn't happy about.

Luckily for me, shortly afterwards, I hit a point were I just didn't care that I did not have her. Its working fine for me now.

So rather than suggesting patience, I suggest not caring about it, if you can get there.

To help with the not caring:

1. We are getting other investigators who are cool.
2. There are plenty of investigator options in the game as is (16 released so far, to be 21 in just a month or so). That's a lot of options. I don't have time to play all of them myself.
3. The fact that other people have a card that you don't is only a bad thing if you decide it is.

Hope that helps.

And the other key part for me is that it's a co-op game, so it's not like someone in a competition would have an advantage over you. I'd be more sympathetic to the frustration if it was a competitive game. Just like the novellas, I would like to have them, but at the end of the day, it doesn't make a huge difference to my gameplay options.

13 hours ago, bern1106 said:

She also has one of the less punishing weaknesses.

The Baron obviously didn't come for you at the beginning of The Gathering, in a 4-player game.

On 4/8/2018 at 3:44 PM, Turtlefan2082 said:

At the same time, it's really frustrating. It's almost as if those of us who didn't support the pre-sale of Investigators of Arkham Horror are being punished by the fact that they are holding off announcing the mystic investigator.

And I'm sure that if Marie dropped in Carcosa two months after the book, the people who paid the $60 would be highly upset.

If you care about play, it's really not hard to proxy - the images are all available, and you don't even have to make actual cards, just use someone else's signature/weakness and keep a printed copy of the actuals nearby. If you just care about having the actual card... <shrug> Sorry. If you care about play but aren't willing to proxy, then you're pretty much just punishing yourself for the sake of it.