If you were to play on just the regular Arkham board, with no other boards, which components would you use from the other expansions to create the ultimate game? Which Ancient One cards? Which groups of investigator? All of that.

Thanks.

Is this a joke? Everything.

Asuming you mean, which components to use from other expansions when using only the main board to make a really hard game, I say take all the Gate bursts and rumours which happen in Arkham and add them to the base mythos, add in all the monsters, play with Black Goat as Herald, and Atlach Nacha as the AO.

If your question is "what do you use EVERY game" then I'd say:

• AOs, heralds (except the board-specific ones of couse) and investigators (and their starting items)
• Personal stories
• Relationship cards
• Injury/Madness
• Epic Battle
• SOME monsters from each set, but not all.

Nothing else gets in unless I'm using its associated expansion. Most of my games are all-expansion games, but I enjoy introducing new players to the game by having heavily-thematic one-expansion-at-a-time games to prepare them for the whole taco. All-expansion games are no fun, mechanically, unless you've seen each expansion's mechanics at their prime. All-expansion games are no fun, thematically, unless you've been introduced to the flavor of each expansion individually.

Tibs said:

Ooooo...well said. For those of us who never grew into the All-Expansion family, Tibs does a great job of explaining why we never took that last step. It's not that I think All-Expansion games aren't fun; I'm just unwilling to sacrifice each expansion's mechanics or individual flavor "at their prime".

Tibs, might I ask which monsters you leave OUT of your "every game"? Or is that something that changes depending on other factors?

To be honest, like I said above I prefer all-expansion games, so the only times I'm ever using less than every expansion is for the purposes of introducing players.

So by that token, the very first scenario in my "league" should delineate what comes out. Every subsequent scenario uses these components plus some more, except that I take out one or two Serpent People.

But to give a more specific list, this is what I'd remove:

From Arkham Horror:
Byakhee (×2), Chthonian (×1), Dark Young (×3), Dhole (×1), Elder Thing (×1), Formless Spawn (×1), Ghoul (×2), Gug (×1), High Priest (×1), Shoggoth (×1), Star Spawn (×2), Witch (×1)

From Dunwich Horror:
Colour Out of Space (×2), Cultist (×1), Dark Young (×1), Formless Spawn (×1), Goat Spawn (×2), Mummy (×1), Rat Thing (×1), Tcho-Tcho (×1), Wizard Whateley (×1)

From Kingsport Horror:
Cultist (×1), Formless Spawn (×1), Ghast (×1), Gnoph-Keh (×1), Leng Spider (×4), Moon-Beast (×2), Nightgaunt (×2), Serpent People (×3), Tcho-Tcho Priest (×1)

From Black Goat of the Woods:
Everything: Child of the Goat (×3), Dark Druid (×1), Dark Young (×3), Goat Spawn (×2)

From Innsmouth Horror:
Barnabas Marsh (×1), Cultist (×1), Deep One (×6), Deep One Hybrid (×4), Elder Thing (×1), Priest of Dagon (×1), Proto-Shoggoth (×4), Servitor of Outer Gods (×1), Shoggoth (×2)

Thank you for the responses.

I've an additional question: Would using all the Arkham Location cards from each expansion be done without any house rules? Would they flow nicely with just using just the original game board?

allenkwest said:

Yes. I'm pretty sure none of the Arkham location encounter cards reference anything that appears on other boards. I don't think the new items or monsters from the big box expansions are referenced either. For the little box expansions, I believe new items and allies are referenced, so you would maybe want to have those things handy. It's been a while since I had Curse of the Dark Pharaoh in the mix, but I think it has encounter cards that allow you to get exhibit items and allies from that expansion.

There are probably a few little things, but the only one that comes to mind is that the Rail Pass encounter at the train station, which isn't exactly game-breaking, it's just not something you'll be particularly interested in with only one board. But I do generally keep the big box encounter cards permanently integrated with the base set, and it's been fine.

edit: huh, actually there is also an encounter there that takes you to Kingsport. (I guess I just haven't been spending much time at the train station.) That's a little annoying.

If you do hit one of the rare encounters that involves another board, I'd just draw again.

there are quite a few encounters that reference expansion components, like cult encounter, exhibit items, corruption, injury and madness etc.

Anything that pertains only to cards can still be used without the boards. E.g. ,the fact that you don't play with the Dunwich board does not mean that you can't draw Injury/Madness cards.