Something my friends and I struggle with is improvising random directions for fire spreading. We all agreed that we don't want the direction to be player controlled, and since the app doesn't handle it (but oh, if only it did!) we usually end up cheesing some off the cuff test, be it numbering fire tiles and rolling a direction die, then rolling again to determine direction or flipping spare tokens like coins. As you can imagine, the amount of pain in the butt this is scales with the amount of fire... I was thinking of using a couple different coloured direction dice rolled at once to determine which tile is spreading and which direction it spreads from that tile. Has anyone else already gone down this road or tried an alternative method? I really want to get the "fire spreads" to resolve as fast as possible, since it generally happens later on in scenario when there are bigger issues at hand and I want to keep the momentum up.

In case FFG is watching, I would be willing to buy a "Fire manager" feature as DLC, on top of extra narration, a "hard mode" for hiding skill test results until after tests are rolled and some sort of undo button for when someone accidentally dismisses the skill test dialog...

While I've not had this issue yet (having not played enough games that fire has been an issue), this sounds like it could be solved with a coin with an arrow painted on it. Spin the coin on the board, and when it settles the arrow shows which direction the fire spreads. It may have to be repeated if the fire attempts to spread off the map, unless you have house rules to say it's not spread that turn.

Aaand, I've just realised that this wouldn't solve the issue of which tile is spreading. Back to the drawing board.

+1 for the fire management in the app, tho' I think something that fundamental could be provided gratis.

When we first started playing, we didn't realise that Fire spreading was decided as a group. The way we spread it before that, was by counting every adjacent space to those that contained fire, then rolled an appropriate dice (7 spaces got the d8 with an 8 being re-rolled, as an example). We always keep a set of RPG dice handy for whenever the Random rule is needed, such a which facedown Damage or facedown Horror to discard.

Are you sure that the fire doesn't spread to all adjacent spaces containing fire?

29 minutes ago, Husker949 said:

Are you sure that the fire doesn't spread to all adjacent spaces containing fire?

No, this would make the fire consume the entire board within a few turns. It is just 1 adjacent space per Mythos Phase.

When I play, we all decide on a tile that we would LEAST want fire to spread to, and add a token there.

30 minutes ago, Husker949 said:

Are you sure that the fire doesn't spread to all adjacent spaces containing fire?

From the Rules Reference Guide, page 9, Fire: "If one or more spaces contain Fire, place one Fire token in a space adjacent to a space that contains Fire."

My friends and I originally interpreted it as "fire spreads to every adjacent space, but only place 1 token per space" which did indeed result in fire eating the entire board very quickly, haha. Going back to that same reference is what put us on the "a group of contiguous spaces on fire are considered a single fire, which spreads to 1 adjacent space only" interpretation. So say there are 3 fires on the board at once (I'm looking at you, angry Innsmouth townspeople), we would spread each fire 1 space per round. That scenario was hectic, but we pulled off a minor victory, so the interpretation seems OK so far.

I think fire is in part balanced by the group getting to decide where it goes. This means you often have a few turns to react before the fire becomes a big problem, or you can use it to to aid you a bit against monsters and so on.
Rolling it randomly is of course fine too, but it does make the game a bit harder than intended. If you think the game is a bit too easy as it is, rolling randomly is probably a good idea. If you want to play super-hard-mode, place the fire where it would hurt the group the most instead. ?

Ok perfect, my group originally played it the correct way but another guy who prides himself in being a rules lawyer said we played it wrong and it goes everywhere. I will promptly tell him he is wrong and the maps will be much easier to play.

This discussion makes me wonder about the possibility for the app subtlely using fire as an enemy... Say it could manage fires, maybe on a given scenario a big-boss enemy could utilize the fire mechanic against the investigators, burning mission objectives if not them. The direction it burns could be slightly influenced by how much time is left in the investigation, or on the possession of an item or the condition of an investigator (mesmerized seems like a good fit). The most memorable Cycle of Eternity I played involved an inferno caused by an dropped lantern and investigators having no actions to spare to extinguish it, so it can add to the tension big time

If you're seeking a true random direction, either the scatter die from Warhammer Fantasy/40k, or any spinner from a game (there are some apps that have them, otherwise break out your copy of Twister) should do it.

Anything Warhammer is overpriced (please don't start tangential argument to that), so I did find a free version of the die.

In the game, you roll the die. Whichever direction the prevailing arrow shows, that's the direction of the scatter. A second die is rolled to indicate the number of inches it moves off of its intended impact. The cross-hairs indicate that the aim is good and does not scatter. If you're inclined, you could rule that it's roller's choice on the cross-hairs. Although I think the spinner would yield a superior random.

Ugh I have way too many scatter dice to be proud of. It isn't a bad idea to use them. How would you determine which fire space to spread from to start, and what if it spreads in the direction of a wall or other fire tile?

I am legitimately interested in this concept so the more hammering out of it that gets done the quicker I can show my group lol

There's really no universal way to handle this, because first you need to roll to pick a fire space that isn't already surrounded by fire and has free room to spread, then you need to roll to pick a spread direction.

I suggest that if you want to do this randomly, toss a d12 into your box (because it can act as a true d2, d3, d4, and d6, and a jury-rigged d5 and d7-11). Then just assign numbers (on the spot) to all valid fire spaces and roll, then assign numbers to whatever directions are available for spread and roll.

I'd roll the scatter die / spin the spinner. Then determine the number of tiles that could spread in that direction, number them, then roll a die until one of those numbers comes up.