This is a question for those who've tried it...

I know the game says 2-5 (ie Keeper + 4 investigators). How difficult would it be to add a 5th investigator (ie 6th player) and keep the game balanced? Would giving the keeper increased threat, or somesuch, work? I've got a group of 6 players that the game would be fun to play with (3 sets of couples) and wouldn't really want to leave anyone out of the game.

Unless there is a specific mechanic or card that requires only 4, I can't imagine it would change the game too much.

I think the game could be scalable in this way.

You would definitely have to add a bit more difficulty to the adventure somehow obviously, but I think you could rack in all 8 investigators if you so chose in a big game.

I havent looked at the rules yet so I have no idea if there is a rubric for scaling the difficulty level based on number of players, but I imagine that even if there isnt it shoudlnt be too hard to do. Increased amounts of threat tokens per turn, that sort of thing.

The game comes with 8 investigators, so I think it could potentially cater to 9 people at most.

This is only based on playing a single game though so dont buy too much stock into my opinion.

We need to see rules people..RULES

OD

Thanks every, especially Hellfury. That is what I am thinking, that adding a player or two shouldn't be too difficult ... and your single gameplay at least gives you an idea of the mechanics, etc. so I think you're in a good position to offer thoughts, anyway.

I ran the game with a fifth investigator and it is easily scaleable. I suspect you could run with 9 players using all 8 investigators if you wanted.

The game might get a little confusing and chaotic, but it would probably be fine, since the keeper basically gets more actions the more investigators there are.

The only downside would be this: Normally a dead investigator is replaced by one that is still available, but as yet unplayed, in order to keep the player in the game. The more players there are, the less replacement investigators, so in an 8 investigator game, when a player's investigator dies they have to sit out the rest of the game.

I tend to board game with my RPG group so five players and a keeper would be fantastic. I'll probably do it as the book states to start, but then test the waters with more players as I go.

The other option is like the underrated Buffy board game where we let two people 'share' the evil role. That way the bad guy doesn't get lonely on their side, either.

I'd ahve to try it, but ran several 3 and 4 player games this weekend for our preview event. It would be interesting to see how that 5th investigator (or more) affects the game. It could make some sceanrios easier for the investigators, as some of the sessions I ran had very few monsters involved, making it easy for a larger group to defeat them.

One of the control mechanisms for the Keeper are Threat tokens, used to power effects that hinder the investigators. The Keeper gets 1 threat each turn per invesitgator (including eliminated ones). So balancing threat may be the key to extra investigators. It may be that an extra threat may need to be added above 5 in a 5 investigator game, or maybe not. We'll (and that's "we" and is everyone, not just our group) have to try it out a few times and see what happens.