Just ran Rita Young (pun intended) through Innsmouth Conspiracy: II The Vanishing of Elina Harper. Playing easy mode but applying hard/expert consequences for tokens. Drew the following chaos tokens in order:

1x auto fail, 5x elder things in a row (-4 plus consequences), followed by 1x stone tablet (-3 plus consequences) and finally 2x cultists (-3 at agenda 2a) in a row before finally breaking the run and drawing a simple -1 token.

At the time of drawing the elder things I really mixed the bag well and finally tipped out all the tokens, messed them up and put them back in, and still drew one more elder thing (the 5th in a row) before moving on to rest of my sequence as described above.

I think this must be my worst run of luck ever with the chaos bag!!

On another note - the scenario instructed me to set aside the Thomas Dawson and Elina Harper story assets but I couldn't find them anywhere - where do I find them?

Ouchies!! That's terrible. You pissed off any black cats lately?

I recently drew 3x Ancient Evils in a row from the Encounter Deck, which in turn advanced the Agenda and brought me to quick annhilation.

But your token pulls--9 bad draws in a row, if I can't correctly--sets a whole new bar!! I hope to never beat it. Wondering if anyone else here has.

I've told the story several times, but it's relevant here so I'll tell it again; similar to @Sir_Blacksoutalot , my friends and I were playing Essex County Express and we drew all three Ancient Evils in the first mythos phase, after spending the first round setting up (i.e. not moving). Spoilers:

It was a hilariously short scenario.

In general though, it's never a sustained run like you describe; usually it's just 3 auto-fails back to back or the tablet when any other token would be fine. Maybe I just don't notice it when it happens, but I feel like I'd remember 5 tablets in a row. I think my record's 3 or 4.

6 hours ago, SGPrometheus said:

In general though, it's never a sustained run like you describe; usually it's just 3 auto-fails back to back or the tablet when any other token would be fine. Maybe I just don't notice it when it happens, but I feel like I'd remember 5 tablets in a row. I think my record's 3 or 4.

This is the first time I've ever made a note of my bad luck with the tokens, as I've never experiences a run of draws like this before.

My previous most notable bad luck in a game was a few years back when I managed to roll eleven ones in a row in an RPG using d10s. The descriptions the GM came up with to describe the unfolding scene were amusing.

12 hours ago, Janaka said:

On another note - the scenario instructed me to set aside the Thomas Dawson and Elina Harper story assets but I couldn't find them anywhere - where do I find them?

They are part of that scenario, so should be there. They do have player backs, so could they be with your player cards?

Our bad luck is similar. Three Auto Fails in a row has happened on more than one occasion. We once had a huge plan in TCU on which the whole scenario hinged and it was the perfect solution. Succeed and we were gold. Fail and we were toast. Setting it up went swimmingly and we were down to the test to make it work. Everyone committed cards to make sure we couldn’t fail....and the token is? Auto Fail. On the plus side, we’ve never pulled 3 Ancient Evils in a row.
Our most recent run of bad luck was just the other night. We pulled encounter cards back to back that make you choose 2 things you can’t do during your turn, so we couldn’t move, investigate, fight or evade, but adding insult to injury (literally), our location did not allow us to draw cards or resources. So we had to essentially waste our turn with an enemy salivating all over us and one showing up in the enemy phase, to plaster us. It was great!

On 11/7/2020 at 11:49 AM, Janaka said:

On another note - the scenario instructed me to set aside the Thomas Dawson and Elina Harper story assets but I couldn't find them anywhere - where do I find them?

I've just taken a look at my copy of Innsmouth, as I hadn't taken the cards out of the plastic yet - they have player card backs, and come immediately after the Basic Weaknesses in the pack which leads with a copy of Tempt Fate. If they aren't with your encounter set for The Vanishing of Elena Harper (which they should be, as the set symbol in the top right indicates they're part of that set), maybe they're in with your weaknesses?

@Mimi61 - If that's the card I think it is, doesn't it say to only pick one more if you draw an additional copy during one Mythos phase, rather than two more? Can't remember the title right now, or I'd double-check.

Thanks guys,

I found the story assets tucked behind the weaknesses as dysartes suggested. I'd set them aside in a box with the new character and player cards I wasn't using.

I could basically say "the entirety of my Return to Carcosa run with Calvin and Patrice", because the final two scenarios were the only ones that didn't end painfully. Patrice kept drawing every Hidden weakness and could never get rid of them, so she was only ever drawing 2-3 new cards every turn. And racking up insane damage whenever she tried to get rid of them. It was a bad time.

In a recent run through The Secret Name with Stella and Jacqueline, I was literally one turn away from winning. Jacqueline was in place to end the scenario at the start of her next turn, then she drew Ghostly Presence and Nahab killed her. And Stella was in no state to wrap up the scenario by herself.

But the single worst luck I've ever had was my very first run through Echoes of the Past. It's been a few years, so I don't remember the exact sequence of events. But it was a two investigator group (Ursula and Akachi) and we weren't able to dispatch all the cultists right away. Come mythos phase, we get a bad pair of cards that forces the agenda to advance on turn one. And then advance again on the very next turn. We were forced to retire on turn three with no victory points, no proper resolution, nothing. It was miserable, and despite the whole experience taking less than half an hour, we were so pissed that we didn't even feel like continuing the campaign that day.

18 hours ago, Janaka said:

Thanks guys,

I found the story assets tucked behind the weaknesses as dysartes suggested. I'd set them aside in a box with the new character and player cards I wasn't using.

No worries - I had a similar issue with a "missing" card when I was learning to play solo with the starter. Ended up hitting Google to see where this card was, or whether it was actually missing.

I now make a point, when I open the cards from a campaign box, to get all the encounter sets together before I do anything else with it.

I pretty much draw an elder thing on 50% ratio in all 3 innsmouth scenarios so far - and that's with removing one from the bag lol

(Dunwich Spoliers)

The penultimate scenario in Dunwich, with Rex and Jim. Both had a ton of trauma. Jim had been eliminated (insane), Rex had only one health left, and had three hunting monsters only a turn away. He was basically bleeding out and alone, clawing his way up the hill for one last hopeless chance. But he finally used the dynamite he'd been carrying around all campaign to defeat the enemy at the top of the hill. One last skill check, and he'd beat the scenario! He used every single skill booster he had left, and was almost sure to win. The ONLY WAY he could lose was to draw the elder thing, or the -5 that had been added at the end of the last scenario.

-5. The universe was devoured.

It was so Arkham though, I loved it. Didn't even replay to move on to the last scenario.

On 11/8/2020 at 4:54 AM, dysartes said:

I've just taken a look at my copy of Innsmouth, as I hadn't taken the cards out of the plastic yet - they have player card backs, and come immediately after the Basic Weaknesses in the pack which leads with a copy of Tempt Fate. If they aren't with your encounter set for The Vanishing of Elena Harper (which they should be, as the set symbol in the top right indicates they're part of that set), maybe they're in with your weaknesses?

@Mimi61 - If that's the card I think it is, doesn't it say to only pick one more if you draw an additional copy during one Mythos phase, rather than two more? Can't remember the title right now, or I'd double-check.

You are right, it does say that! Now as I remember, the two that were left we couldn’t do anyway. So it was same outcome. I just remembered it being because of the back to back card draw! 🙂

On 11/10/2020 at 10:59 AM, Sarre said:

(Dunwich Spoliers)

The penultimate scenario in Dunwich, with Rex and Jim. Both had a ton of trauma. Jim had been eliminated (insane), Rex had only one health left, and had three hunting monsters only a turn away. He was basically bleeding out and alone, clawing his way up the hill for one last hopeless chance. But he finally used the dynamite he'd been carrying around all campaign to defeat the enemy at the top of the hill. One last skill check, and he'd beat the scenario! He used every single skill booster he had left, and was almost sure to win. The ONLY WAY he could lose was to draw the elder thing, or the -5 that had been added at the end of the last scenario.

-5. The universe was devoured.

It was so Arkham though, I loved it. Didn't even replay to move on to the last scenario.

Spoiler for The Cirlcle Undone.
We had a similar experience, but it wasn’t really bad luck. It was just the route we went. I really don’t want to say more, but it was very unexpected and a little unnerving!

On 11/10/2020 at 12:59 PM, Sarre said:

-5. The universe was devoured.

Well you can't save them all. That scenario in particular is one of my favorites from the cycle, is this your first time playing Dunwich?

Could this be a new high (or low depending how you look at it)?

Just played Rita Young versus the Eternal Slumber. Lost in four rounds. Took me much longer to set the game up than it actually lasted.

Rita starts with 1 mental trauma, so has 4 mental health as she begins. In the first round my first action is to play Rabbit's Foot. Next I investigate, but I I the failed the investigation and use Rabbit's Foot to draw a card: I drew Rita's signature weakness; Hoods. For my third action - I failed to evade. In fact I continued to fail to evade for the next three rounds too. This means Hoods deals four mental damage in four rounds and I lost without even leaving the opening location - the Streets of Cairo.

The chaos bag on the set up for Guardians of the Abyss is harsh on a no-hoper like me. And to use my lucky rabbit's foot to instantly draw my signature weakness that kills me, just about sums up my ongoing fortunes playing Arkham Horror.

Oh well. I wonder which investigator to play as next? 🙂

Not as bad as Janaka's string of back luck above, but Roland just drew two of these in a row.

Yep, that would be two U's Wraths, each with a tentacle draw. Ooof.