When exactly do people add new cards from the scenario packs to their cardpool?

I am just starting with AH and played the core set. Now I am starting with the Dunwich Legacy. I made new decks witg new inveatigators. They will earn XP after the first scenario, correct. So I can change the deck. When I move on to the first scenario pack new player cards will be available, will people generaly add these new cards to their deck building options before or after playing the scenario from the pack?

As an extra question. I guess the special standalone scenario's also come with player cards, will people just add them to the cardpool after that? Or are some cards to strong/ specual to add?

I am asking this as product is hard to come buy, luckicly I got hold on the first deluxe and expansion, but I guess after this I need to skip a few and get hold on the newest releases. Than I might be able to go back to some earlier sets after reprint. But would it be a problem to add/use newer playercards to older sets? Or do people only play cards chronological the way they got released?

Thanks in advance!

It's up to you when you want to add the players. My group just add them as soon as it is available.

The player cards in standalones can only be acquired by playing through the scenario. They are not added to the normal card pool.

I don't neccesarily mean the investigators, but more the cards you get to build your dwleck from the scenario packs. I was guessing that they are cards which are conected to the scenario and so they might have an impact of you have access to them before or after the scenario. Or isn't that the case?

I believe most people add the player cards as soon as they get them. So, if you are just about to start Dunwich for the first time but have all the Dunwich mythos packs, you would open all the mythos packs and include all the level 0 player cards as valid options for your starting decks. Likewise, any card that cost experience would be a valid choice when upgrading your deck after the first scenario.

Personally I like to open packs one at a time as I get to them, playing in "release order". This stops me from being overwhelmed by all the new options!

45 minutes ago, Wodi said:

I was guessing that they are cards which are conected to the scenario and so they might have an impact of you have access to them before or after the scenario. Or isn't that the case?

Any player cards directly connected to a scenario cannot be included in your deck unless the scenario guide/resolution instructs you to. These can be identified by an encounter set icon in the top right of the card, like Lita Chantler from the core set who has The Gathering icon:

If memory serves, all the player cards from the stand-alone scenarios are like this. I hope that helps!

A lot to address here, let's see...

The "progression" style of play is certainly a fun one, where you only give yourself access to the cards that were available at the time of release. For Dunwich, this is going to give you not a whole lot of options, as Dunwich was the first cycle. It might be more fun to give yourself access to the entire cycle of Dunwich cards right away, so you have some choices when deckbuilding.

Generally speaking, after deck creation, the deck can only be changed by spending XP, or when the scenario tells you to add a card. This can lead to a bit of a annoyance especially in the Dunwich campaign where you purchase a new pack with a level-0 card in it that you like, and are stuck with the choice of either spending 1 XP per level 0 card, which is not very efficient, or letting these new cool cards sit in limbo until you start another campaign and create decks from scratch again. The rogue card Adaptable can help with this problem, but only a handful of investigators can take it. Although it's a house rule, it's common to allow swaps of level-0 cards from a new pack into the existing deck, replacing other level-0 cards. Again, this is technically not allowed, but it is a common practice anyway to allow players to reasonably play with newly released cards right away.

What is definitely not encouraged is to add story assets to the general card pool. Story cards like Lita serve a specific purpose in the campaign, and are often rewards for doing well at a scenario. Some of them can even be mutually exclusive. They are also generally more powerful for their cost than non-story cards of the same experience cost, and could slant the difficulty of your experience a bit.

Power creep in this game is not too bad. I have replayed Dunwich with (nearly) the current card pool, and found it to be still challenging. It is a little bit easier to handle with full access to the card pool -this is to be expected- but it's not a walk in the park either. If you find yourself wanting to replay some of the earlier scenarios with a large card pool and you are concerned about the effect that will have on the game, I would suggest increasing the starting difficulty level.

We just started playing a year ago and ended up buying everything that was out over the course of two months. We decided to only add the cards for the Mythos pack of whatever we were playing and added them gradually that way. It was kind of like Christmas, opening the next pack of cards before leveling up. It took great restraint, but it was fun.

Thanks you all for the replies!