I am new to Arkham Horror (just got it yesterday). I possess the base game and the Dunwich expansion. I plan on buying other expansions when i get a couple of games under my belt.

My question is the following, as i add expansions do i have to separate the cards, by that i mean if i am only playing the base game do i remove the extra cards from the other expansions or can i use them?

That depends on how you want to play the game. I added my King in Yellow and Curse of the Dark Pharao cards to the basic game and play both expansions as permanent additions. I noticed that most of the standard stuff like common and unique items doesn't really make a difference if used with or without the expansion they came in.

If you want to play the game without references to the expansion themes you can remove the Arkham Location and Mythos cards from the game, so that they won't pop up and talk about the Egyptian exhibit or the Actors perfoming the play. Beyond that I don't see any reasons to keep the expansions apart.

PS: Unique expansion stuff like the exhibit deck or the Act cards should of course only be used if you want to play with the relevant expansion.

I have integrated the Dark Pharoh and Black Goat expansions as follows:

As Arag said, new spells, common and unique items can be shuffled into the oirignal deck permanantly. As far as I know, none of the new items for those decks are incompatible with other expansions.

Encounter cards: I have mixed all of these in together and then at the start of the game we choose which expansion(s) to play with and simply ignore encounter cards for the expansion(s) that are not in play.

Mythos cards: To play Black Goat I have simply mixed these cards into the base mythos deck.

When playing Dark Pharoh I keep the Base+Black Goat & Dark Pharoh mythos decks separate and alternate between the decks (as described in the "Visiting Exhibit" section of the Dark Pharoh rules).

My basic aim is to make the most of each expansion (and not let it get diluted), but trying to avoid increasing the set-up time.

I have Innsmouth Horror on the way to me, so I will have to figure out the best way to add the new mythos cards for that also.

My advice is for you to decide what you want to put into, and get out of, your expansions. If it's important for you to play each expansion in it's "pure" form then integrate and separate the relevant decks for each game. Otherwise, find a Pick N Mix solution that suits your game.

It depends on how comfortable you are with separating out expansion materials and choosing which expansions to play, versus dealing with theme and mechanics dilution when multiple expansions are added.

The big-box expansions come with "universal" components: the investigators, ancient ones, monsters, and heralds may be used with whatever expansions that you want (even none). For the most part their items and skills, and even location encounters, can also be considered universal.

Three of the four small-box expansions aren't really "universal." All of their components tie in thematically or mechanically with the rest of the expansion. Lurker At The Threshold seems to be the exception: its items, encounters, and from what I've seen, Mythos and Gate cards, can be permanently combined with your base game. Lurker even comes with two components deliberately designed for universal use: replacement gate tokens (new gates with new effects and penalties) and Relationship cards that each offer a small bonus to two investigators, tying them together thematically.

Personally, I use every single expansion for every possible game, except for those where I'm introducing new players. However, I also use a house-rule to ensure that Dunwich and Innsmouth gates, as well as King in Yellow's Next Act cards, come up as frequently as if I had been using only one expansion:

Anti-Dilution For All Seven Expansions

When I show new players the ropes, they don't get to see multiple expansions until their 9th game:

"League" for introducing new players

And I actually started a poll where players could vote on which expansions "mixed well" with others, and this is the result (in chart format):

It essentially says that you should never use more than 4 expansions, unless King in Yellow is one of them: then you should not use more than 3.

Tibs said:

Maybe you intended three of the four little-box expansions (sorry for being pedant, but it's just to avoid confusion to newcomers ;-))

Anyway, my two cents. I always have all items and locations mixed up, from all expansions and then, from game to game, I decide which boards to use, as long as which Mythos and Other Worlds encounters shuffle into the base decks

Woops. Let me fix that...

Funny how the chart ended up being (almost) symmetrical like that. It like there's a method in all this madness somewhere. =P

Steve-O said:

Soon it will shape itself into an Elder Sign.

One more small box (perhaps a blender pack) would definitely give it that shape, depending on the "alignments"...

EcnoTheNeato said:

When the boxes are right...