We are bewildered, and could really use some assistance--

1. We have started playing our new Goat expansion -- When we have to draw a corruption card, how do we know if we should draw from the green corruption deck, or the red corruption deck?

2. We have recieved invitations-- at locations -- to join the "Cult of a Thousand." We have looked at some of the cult cards, and they are usually very dismal, and very adverse to the player. Who in his right mind would voluntarily want to join this cult? The player has a choice-- join or not join. Why would anyone want to join? We have generally just said no. However, it appears to be important to the game that some players "infiltrate" the cult. What's the wise course of play? Is there any logic to this?

3. We have ALL the expansions. When we added all the cards for the new expansion, we felt the decks were much too fat. So we deleted all cards for the KiY and the CotDP. We kept Dunwich and Kingsport. Even so, the decks are pretty fat. Does this water down the new cards to the point that we are not going to enjoy the new expansion?

Looking forward for some help. Thanks in advance--

Glasgow Scotland said:

1. The BGotW rules say you shuffle the green deck, shuffle the red deck, then place the green deck on top of the red deck. The green deck are a little "nicer" than the red deck, but when all Corruptions are in play/discarded when someone goes to draw one, the GOO awakens.

2. The main reason to play them is because it is the theme of the expansion - to infiltrate the Cult that is growing in power in Arkham. Honestly I don't see why some people think these cards are so adverse to the investigators. I like some of the cult encounters (Tithes that Bind, Watching and Waiting, Baptized in Blood, A Simple Choice, Unbreakable Oath) and I like some of the Corruptions (Endless Greed, Primal Surge, Call the Beast). And while you do sink further and further down the spiral from having cult encounters and corruptions, they certainly bring some flavour.

3. If you think it does water down the experience, take all the other expansions out. Just for a base AH game with no expansions involved I play with: all base & BGotW Mythos cards, all base & expansion Gate cards ( I don't have KH yet, and CotDP is on its way), all base, Dunwich & BGotW Location cards (KiY references itself too often, and if someone gets a rail pass encounter with no expansion map they instead gain $3), Madness & Injury cards, all Spells, Skills, Allies, Common & Unique Items, all "membership" cards (Sheldon Gang, Lodge & Cult), cult encounters, corruptions, plus all the base extra cards and the Dunwich Condition special cards (3 of them if not playing Dunwich map). I am kind of thinking of reducing the item decks though, as Elder Signs are far too rare these days.

1. As stated, you go through all the green first, then all the red. Once the cards are gone, the GOO awakens.

2. They seem to be more theme than benefit. But what else did you expect? Everyone keeps asking for harder so this is harder!

3. I always play with just the base game and only that expansion when first trying it out. Then mix and match as needed.

@ Thorgrim And it's a bad thing that Elder Signs are very rare now why? ::Shrug:: they also added in two of those tomes that remove a doom token, and there's a possibility that William Bain will be an ally. Besides :') you don't want Arkham Horror to be easy, now do you? More horrifyinger please!

Avi_dreader said:

Dammit, it's not right that a man should agree with his Arch-Nemesis this often, but I'm with Avi on this. I'm running all the expansions minus KH together and feel blessed if I see one ES in a game.

Dam said:

Feh, if you're running "all the expansions minus KH" you're not running all the expansions ;'D GO BUY KINGSPORT! Yeesh. Maybe you'd stop complaining about final battles being so easy for smaller teams if you had epic battle cards. The joy of an unexpected devouring is a precious thing, but I wouldn't expect you to understand, demon-from-the-vanilla-pit :')

;'D I could've just thanked you for the agreement, but that wouldn't have been very arch-nemisis(sy?) of me. That doesn't sound right. I am not an archnemisissy!

I'm still amazed that you could spend money on expansions like CotDP and KiY and not KH. More monsters, more GOOs, Epic Battles, New Investigators, Rifts (which you can just ignore— or just ignore rows that are double full— and then they act to decrease the time limit, which is pretty fun). YAAAAAAAAAR!

And once Innsmouth comes out, you will weep. Weep like Gollum!

Avi_dreader said:

Come on, KH adds another Elder Sign, ADDS ! True, the ratio probably goes down, but still, ADDS??? Also, KH gives you an investigator that start with an ES as fixed !

Avi_dreader said:

I actually like DP, esp. the added threat to the OW encounters. KiY I'm sorta ambivalent towards.

Avi_dreader said:

Yay, YAY, meh, MEH, meh.

Avi_dreader said:

We'll see if the Innsmouth is more like DH and it's balanced additions to the base game or like KH and it's overpowered, broken and boring additions .

When discussing the interest of the KH expansion, do not forget the rifts. They add another threat, and are fun.

Usually we do the upkeep for the rifts until two have opened. If that occurs, we just stop all the upkeep and forget the rifts. Two are sufficient to enjoy the added risk and interest from the rifts.

With all the expansions -- and we have ALL -- the variant rules just become a bit on the overly complex side, so we cut a few corners.

Glasgow wrote: When discussing the interest of the KH expansion, do not forget the rifts. They add another threat, and are fun.

Usually we do the upkeep for the rifts until two have opened. If that occurs, we just stop all the upkeep and forget the rifts. Two are sufficient to enjoy the added risk and interest from the rifts.

With all the expansions -- and we have ALL -- the variant rules just become a bit on the overly complex side, so we cut a few corners.

Mageith: Am I to understand you want rifts to come out? Why not just start with 1 then? That will add about 3 doom tokens and 6 monsters if you don't take care of it.

Also, I am curious, how many turns does it take on average for the first rift to come out? And then the second? You can't have too many numbers.

Dam said:

Feh... Complaining about the rifts is like complaining about the terror track. It's a great idea! It adds tension (without requiring a herald or diluting the gate locations even further). I used to complain that Kingsport (the town is boring) because I didn't understand how the rifts worked exactly (the effective way of dealing with them is letting a top or bottom part of a track fill up (while not letting the other half fill up), that way it wastes turns where it could fill while not requiring you to just plunk down an investigator there for the entire game). You also can just let one of the tracks fill up (it *probably* won't kill you), it'll only add one or two doom tokens on average. Captain of the White Ship is *very* useful at times, and once there are more monsters spawning in aquatic locations (Innsmouth) it's going to be a hell of alot more exciting there for investigators who dare to travel to a potentially watery grave :') I want Innsmouuuuuth. And as for the fifth elder sign :'P have you seen the size of the unique item deck? If you're playing a three-four person team, odds are you might not see a single elder sign anymore, let alone two. And the Elder Scroll Parchments are almost never in play anymore due to CotDP dilution (I'm tempted to take out that entire expansion except for the allies, equipment, the double doom tokens, the rumors— I'm thinking about doing the same for KiY— I don't like how the small expansions dilute Dunwich and the Acts (which aren't threatening at *all* anymore). The only thing that ever excites me from CotDP anymore is the Messenger, Erica Carlyle, or the unlikely chance of being eaten by a GOO ;'D

I'm sorry, I used to be more ambivalent about Kingsport, but the more I play with it, the better I understand it (and the more I like it). And thus, I will defend it to the death by cannibalism!

Btw, so *what* if it includes two, or arguably four strong investigators (I still dislike Lily and Rex, even though I recognize that they're strong characters if used well). The investigator deck is *huge* if you have all of them. 32. Lets say you play a 4 player team. Odds are you won't draw any of the best investigators, let alone more than one of them. Just draw random. Yeesh! ::Snicker:: and you know, if you really like drawing bad investigators ;') you might draw lucky and get Tony Morgan. Bleh... At least the new investigators are different and interesting. I always enjoy drawing one of them at random (except Tony, okay, well, even sometimes Tony, but then again I also like drawing Sister Mary— I like every game to be interesting and a surprise). Don't complain about the new characters until you throw out Mandy, Joe, Darrell, and Leo from your investigator deck ;')

P.S. You'll never know the joy of life, until you've suckled from Y'Golonac's sweet sweet teat.

Avi_dreader said:

Okay, this SO needs clarification !

Avi_dreader said:

Mandy and Joe I'll go along with, but Leo? Okay, in some games he can be nice, but at times he'll get a "useless" ally and crappy Common items to begin with and doesn't really do anything worthwhile, no matter how hard you try. Darrell??? I barely count him as average. Sure, avoiding "a gate and a monster" encounters is nice, but with the location encounter decks so diluted even without KH, they have become a rarity. Also, for me, Darrell seems to always get Clue quickly, mainly because of his ability, but then he'll just wuss-out of his OW excursion through some nasty encounter there.

Avi_dreader said:

I'd have figured you more of a Atlach Nacha sucking kinda fella !

Dam said:

Leo's not Mandy/Daisy quality, but he's pretty tough, and his ability can save plenty of ass (while also being very exploitable for certain encounters and environments— like blood magic). As for Darrell, you're not using him properly. He should almost *never* be sent to other worlds (well, maybe once or twice to dump clue tokens and get a quick seal in an easy world later in the game). He's much better for going to dangerous locations to gather clues, and for keeping a permanent retainer (by going back to the newspaper every time his retainer expires). And if you can get him a Dragon's Eye... Then he gets *really* nasty ;') He can also search for the alchemy search encounter in Dunwich regardless of how many expansions you have, and in Kingsport, he's very good at rift hunting (while picking up useful items) or for getting the remove doom token encounter with Olney. If you barely count Darrell as average, you're not using him to exploit game dynamics well enough ;'D Feh... Really, you shouldn't send him into difficult gates, (and definitely not until he's gotten some decent equipment).

As for myself, Erica, and Y'Golonac— no further comment.

Avi_dreader said:

What's the point of him getting those tons of Clues, if he never uses them? And by using them I mean sealing gates, because that's what wins you games. Difficult gates? He's got Fight 5, which is plenty to close against all but Yog. Having a char just walking around town getting encounters is the same reason I won't bother with KH and rifts, that's not what the game is about for me. It's about closing gates, exploring OWs and killing those monsters that are needed. Camping for a permanent Retainer? Yawn . Money doesn't really matter that much, since the shopping opportunities are limited, even with tons of $. In fact, he should be a lot better gate-hopper than the main fighters (IIRC Mark has Focus 1, leaving him vulnerable to Sanity loss monsters if you want his Fight at 6) and more durable than the high Lore people (having more Fight/Lore than Gloria for example). Only reason to have him hopping around town is Tasks/Missions, which he excels at.

Dam said:

The point of having lots of cash is to be able to work through the unique item deck. If you can supply the other characters with two or three elder signs and maybe a KiY or an Eltdown Shards, and perhaps a few weapons or useful tomes, you've provided a great service to the team (if you can add in sealing one gate during the game), well, then I'd say you did alot with your investigator. To me the game is about making the best with what you draw. I'm not set to any particular strategy :') as long as I win.