Here you go ladies, gentleman, and deep ones. This forum is for suggestions for the next run of the Arkham League. There are a couple of big changes that are already in the works.

The score recording form is being changed.

The results wil be update more frequently, they have changed format already. If any other changes need to be made let me know.

Happy Investigating,

JR

I would like to see a campaign rule that you can keep items acquired in one scenario brought over to another scenario. I am just talking about small cards not trophies. This would include Injury and Madness if introduced and any Allies, Items, etc.

While this might make it a bit easier on the investigators, the scenarioes could be shifted to slightly more difficult to compensate. It also rewards longevity while making a devourement or retirement more of a penatly. It would also be a way to bring cards from one expansion into the next scenario even if that expansion is not being used. But perhaps in that case, an item could bus used until discarded in which case it is simply removed fromt he game instead of going to the bottom of its respective pile.

I also think it would be great to add new Herlads / Guardians or even Ancient Ones as needed. Perhaps sneak peeks of any that might appear in Innsmouth or another upcoming expansion.

These were ideas that popped into my head when the league was first announced and sorry to not see them in this one.

ColtsFan76 said:

Oh dear god, no... Don't allow this, it will totally ruin the game balance... If you were to allow something like this, you would need extensive playtesting... Even if you made a rule that no Elder Signs or Elder Parchments or Kings in Yellows could carry over... No. No. No. I can't see this working at all. It's way too easy to break unless you work some way of items degrading into the game, like a permanent Ithaqua effect where you roll for items, or perhaps just one or two items per turn and discard them on a one or on a failure, depending on what is required for balance...

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Errr... Rules question for Scenario 10: can we keep *fixed* unique items? Or are even those replaced?

Avi_dreader said:

I think every unique item should be replaced. If you have some starting unique items, you should draw a random skill intead. Or, at least, this is what the special rules seem to suggest

Turambar said:

That's what I did, even though I wasn't sure about it, and I'm not playing for score ;'D after all, I wouldn't want to make the game any easier.

I guess I'd like to see some Black Goat scenarios, or finding interesting ways to use the components from a particular expansion without all the other stuff.

I'd also like to use the other Ancient Ones in the game, or at least not alot of repeats. I like how the league started out relatively easy, and got harder with each session.

I wonder if it would be possible if, when an encounter would allow a player to gain an Ally that is not one of the starting 11 that the player could instead discard an item/clue tokens/etc. and a random Ally to gain the chosen ally, if desired. I don't know how this would work mechanic wise, or if it would be play balanced, but I sort of like the concept.

If I have any other ideas, I now know where to go.

JerusalemJones said:

Jumping off this idea, it might be fun having a scenario where all of the allies are available, but they can only be gained as a result of encounters (no allies from spending trophies at Ma's boarding house). Similarly having a scenario or two with some or all of the shops closed from the start of the game would be interesting. For example if the Curiosity shop was closed from the start it would restrict the availability of the unique items, without completely removing them from the game.

A pacifist scenario would probably also be a interesting challenge. Set up as normal except remove all weapons, the martial artist skill, and possibly the weaponlike spells. This might be good to pair with kingsport and a guardian, as not being able to effectively fight most of the monsters would greatly increase the difficulty.

I'd like to second ColtsFan's suggestions, and add too that any Investigator who was the First Citizen of Arkham in the last scenario should get a bonus in the next sceario (say one extra Common or Unique item, or $5, something like that). Just a little extra recognition for kicking some butt over time. It would work well with the "experienced Investigators" idea ColtsFan suggested.

I would like to see scenarios (either standalone or part of a league) which uses special rules and components from all expansions to thematically beef up the Ancient One and/or the actual story, even if the given expansion is not fully used.

Example 1: A scenario with Yig which is not using Kingsport Horror fully but uses the Serpent People from it (and everything else from all other expansions which are snake/Yig related).

Example 2: Egyiptian themed scenario using AH and CotDP with the DP herald and Bast as Guardian, Nyarlathothep as AO, using Mask monsters from all expansions plus a thematically tweaked item list (again, using all expansions as source for them).

Example 3: scenario where all open gates lead to the Other World which is thematically related to the AO, regardless of what the gate marker shows except Dreamlands, Another Dimension and Another Time (which are still standing as it is). E.g. with Ithaqua all gates open to the Plateu of Leng (except the 3 Other World above) but still using the gate close modifier as written on the gate marker.

More using of the Madness/Injury system from DH (could be a good way to balance out particulary tough scenarios).

Nagypapi said:

I realize that these would take more time designing and playtesting, but I really like the idea of having strongly themed scenarios. I would like to see scenarios that feel like a short story, rather than an Arkham horror game with a few special rules.

I also like the idea of including only parts of some expansions to support the theme without diluting the decks too much. I really like the injury and madness cards from Dunwitch and the blight cards from King in Yellow as they make the decision making process more complicated and therefore make the game richer.

2 More logistics ideas, scenario independant.

1. I would like to see a shorter timeline for the league 3-4 months preferably. If it remains as popular we could have a 3-4 month league, a month overrun for score reporting, a month off and still have time for a second league this year. To hit this timeframe I think the goal should be to either have 12 scenarios and post them once per week or have 8 scenarios and post one every two weeks. To be frank, I was getting tired of the league after playing as essentially the same team for 6 months.

2. Make it easier to change the team composition by allow retired investigators to come back, but not devoured ones. I think if an investigator is retired during a scenario they should be unavailable for the next three following scenarios (they are spending time in the hospital or asylum or recovering in the country). If they are retired between scenarios they should be unavailable for the next scenario (they are off traveling). For example if we were to retire Joe Diamond between scenarios he wouldn't be in the scenario that we were encountering, or the following scenario, but would be available after that. However if we were in the middle of the scenario when we decided that he needed to be retired he wouldn't be available for the rest of the scenario and the next three scenarios. After that time another investigator could be retired (or devoured) and Joe could be brought back.

I think it would be great if the scenarios required more encounters in the unstable locations. One of my favorite parts of Arkham is resolving the location encounter cards. However, there never seems to be enough time to poke around in most of the locations off the beaten path. The Investigators barely have time to hit the stores to gather equipment before the GOO hits the fan and its a frenzied dash to close and seal gates. Maybe a scenario could include a set of simple tokens (enough to put one on each location) and that includes 1 secret token among them (a secret minion in league with the GOO). One of these tokens is placed on each location face down and the secret minion token must be discovered by encountering the location before the investigators can win the game. The investigators must continue to draw and resolve Mythos cards until the secret minion token is found even if there are no open gates or 6 gates have been sealed. Once the secret minion is discovered then the game can be won by closing all gates or sealing 6. The Final Battle would occur as normal.

The random placement of the tokens could result in the search for the secret minion being trivial or well-nigh impossible so I dunno if its workable. There would probably need to be adjustments for the number of Investigators, too. Does anyone have any ideas for encouraging exploring some of the less desirable locations?

I'm also keen on the focused theme idea mentioned in previous posts.

Next time we fight Cthulhu, I expect to see all the investigators begin with madness cards as starting items ;'D after all, it *is* Cthulhu.

dinky_gnatbane said:

What I would like to see most in the next league:

• A rule allowing Rita Young to have exclusive access to Injury and Madness cards when the Dunwich expansion is not used. Otherwise, she has no special ability if you wanted to use her

Also I can't help but notice that the last league used 10 Ancient Ones. There are 16 now, and if Innsmouth is like the other big box expansion it should have 4 Ancient Ones, bringing the total to 20...

Will the next League be including Innsmouth and Black Goat expansions!?

Ah I love speculation.

A scenario that make "Bast" pretty kick ass...I want to feed the cats and kill the AO all in the same game! Is that to much to ask?

definitely penalise for retiring characters, so no cherry picking for each scenario

how about a scenario involving tasks and missions as the main focus?

I also like the idea of alternative win scenarios, like 'kill no monsters' 'all get devoured' 'points come from item $ values collected with a win'

Here's an easy one: proportionally more base game scenarios . During the last league, there were around 195 registered teams and about fifty-percent played only the first and second scenarios. If you're planning to have 10 scenarios on the next league, five should only use the base game.

But I'll settle with four .

Interestingly enough, I want to feed cats to the Ancient One.

JerusalemJones said:

tamsyn said:

Well, that last one could easily get abused. All get devoured sounds good in concept, but there would have to be some other limiting factor, elsewise our team would have beat Abhoth twice . And it should be easier for a 2 investigator team to get devoured over an 8 investigator team. Sacrificing am investigator, however, I like that idea. Perhaps to seal a gate w/o an Elder Sign there is a chance of being devoured, or to remove a Doom Token from the Doom Track.

Kill no Monsters, well, the tough part there is the Monster Limit and the Outskirts. Again, there are two different viewpoints here between your 2 investigator team vs. our 8 investigator team. Out Outskirts level is 0, so this could make for a very short game before the AO awakens. Two investigators could probably better manage it. Instead, why not make it so that every Monster Trophy was worth only 1 toughness when turned in (modified by investigator abilities and other cards in play). We'd still have to take down the Dhole and Ythians, but they wouldn't be worth as much.

How about a scenario where there are civilians on the board that we have to protect or guide somewhere? We could use the unused investigators to represent a civilian, who we then have to bring to a place of safety. These could be fixed or Random, and even better if they started in Dunwich or Kingsport. Civilians will move 1 space each turn towards their "home," unless guided by an investigator, are immediately killed if a monster enters their location (they are treated as investigators for monster movement types, like Fliers and Stalkers), and can only enter non-street locations if accompanied by an investigator. An investigator must spend 1 Movement Point to escort a Civilian, but that Civilian will follow the investigator for the remainder of the investigator's movement. If a Civilian is killed, raise the Terror Level by 1; if returned to Home, lower the Terror Level (or Doom Track) by one.

I like the idea of negative points after an investigator is retired, but within reason. One of our players "retired" Montery Jack after the 3rd scenario, because he just didn't like him. Another retired Wilson Richards, because our team had too many fighters and not enough high-sanity characters. I didn't necessarily care for that reason, but that was his choice. Maybe make it so that any retired character is no loner available for the league, and/or for each retired character character after the first a team is penalized -2 points for each previously retired character on the current scenario (so, in the above, Wilson would net us -2 points, and if we retired a thrid character later it would cost us -4 points, and if two characters were retired the following week the first would be at -6 points and the second -8, for a total of -14 for that scenario). That would cut down on retired characters prety quickly, but would require a bit more paperwork.

I am going to take the opposite point of view on retiring investigators. I am aware that there has to be a mechanism to prevent people from cherry picking the investigator to match the scenario, but there also has to be opportunities to change without too much penalty.

I played Darrel Simmons through the intire league, and let me tell you, after 4-5 months of playing him I was just about ready to send him face first into a dhole. Ovbiously the longer you play the same investigator and the same team the better you understand their special abilities and how the characters work together. Unfortunately the longer you play the same one, the more you desire some variety. Our group is definately looking forward to the next league, and we have collectively decided not to play the same characters. We may have some of the same investigators, but if we do, they will be played by other players.

Argonel said:

We had a six investigator team, and while one of our members always wanted to play Lily Chen, we usually randomly set out the other investigators to the players so we could have some variety.

I also think some small trinket rewarding the First Citizen of Arkham for use in the next scenario might be worth considering, as it could add a little spice to each game and a greater sense of continuity to the league. Something small that wouldn't unbalance the game or upset other players. Short-lived mini boons like Enchanted Jewelry or Silver Key, or maybe a skill pertinent to the scenario just triumphed over.

On the other hand perhaps it is better to enter each scenario on a level playingfield as they have been designed and singling one player out may work against the cooperative nature of the game, I don't know. I leave it up to more experienced Arkham minds to rule on this.

Concerning the above comment about rewarding the First Citizen of Arkham I think on reflection that it is probably a bad idea. I enjoy the co-op nature of the game and think that the concept of First Citizen goes against that. What I really want is interesting, challenging scenarios that most importantly add some type of thematic twist that draws me in and takes a familiar game in a new direction, like all the Arkham monsters relentlessly moving to the Black Cave in the third scenario.

Regarding gameplay balance I play as part of a two investigator team and I imagine these scenarios play a lot easier with more players. I guess that tweaks to scenarios based on size of group would be more work than it's worth though.