So the Miskatonic Horror will be upon us some time this year. It might be a good idea to have a thread specifically devoted to the facts.

Game Trade Magazine Thread

Facts: Tells us that there will be 14 new reckoning cards, eight new Epic Battle cards and 24 new Cult Encounters for the Black Goat of the Woods. We also learn that there will only be three institutions. Finally, we learn that one of the Blight cards will be Harney Jones. His effect will be to close Harney Jones' shack and reduce the Outskirts Limit by one.

Conjecture: It seems reasonable to assume that the rules for the final battle will not change substantially. Hence you will still draw eight red and eight green cards for the final battle, but there there are twelve possibilities for each deck.

FFG First Preview

Facts:

The article reads: With nearly 450 new cards, Miskatonic Horror adds new Mythos and Location cards for Dunwich, Kingsport, and Innsmouth, as well as new cards for Gates, Epic Battles, Relationships, Injuries, Madness, Skills, Blights, and much more. Miskatonic Horror provides new materials for every Arkham Horror expansion.

Miskatonic Horror includes:

•New Skill, Gate, and Mythos cards for the Arkham Horror base game
•Additional Exhibit Item cards for Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
•New Injury, Madness, Dunwich Location, and Dunwich Horror cards for Dunwich Horror, as well as an all new Dunwich Horror Herald sheet
•More Blight and Act cards for The King in Yellow
•New Kingsport Location, Epic Battle, Blessings of Noden, and Visions of Hypnos cards for Kingsport Horror
•Over 20 new Cult Encounter cards for The Black Goat of the Woods
•New Innsmouth Location and Innsmouth Look cards for Innsmouth Horror
•Additional Relationship cards and Reckoning cards for Lurker at the Threshold
•Plus new Player reference sheets and a new Institution variant!

Conjecture:

Whilst the the term nearly could mean more or less than 450 cards, it will be more likely to be less than 450 cards, as if there had been more the marketting bumph would have read ...more than... rather than nearly. It is likely that the Visions of Hypnos merely refer to all the locations which are not already covered by Hypnos. that would be 9 locations for Dunwich, 12 for Kingsport and 8 locations for Innsmouth. Theoretically the Streets could also be included, but this would be unlikely.

Facts:

One of the new cult encounters is entitled Drink from the Cup. It causes the Investigator to lose 2 stamina, but gain two clue tokens and remove one hexagonmonster from the board. One institution is called Organised Crime. The remaining institutions have abilities called On the Chase and Academic Pursuits.

Conjecture:

The remaining institutions will be the Miskaronic University and the forces of law and order (either Arkham Police Force or the Feds)

FFG Second Preview

Facts:

We learn the following details about new madness and injury cards.

Disfiguring Scars (Injury)

Each time you fail a Sneak check (not including Evade checks) while in Arkham, raise the terror level by 1. treat this card as a duplictae of the xenophobia madness card for the purposes of being devoured.

Superstitious (Madness)

Each time you fail a Luck check, lose 1 sanity and you are Cursed. Treat this card as a duplicate of the Jinxed Injury card for the purposes of being devoured.

Conjecture:

It is hypothesised that there is one corresponding madness for each injury and vice versa. Consequently, this would make tweleve the injuries and twelve new madness cards.

Eh-hem, just to, uh, clear up some of the facts: Harney Jones lowers the monster limit by 1. Slight difference, but since it was in the fact section, I figured I'd make sure there was no confusion :-D

Here's some conjecture for you. All eight battle cards will be green—there will be no reds.

Here's why I think that:

In typical epic battle, you're supposed to see all greens before reds. Most epic battles don't last that long, so players who've done a lot of epic battle will know the green ones inside and out. They'll be able to count cards. The reds are largely unfamiliar.

Assuming you're supposed to shuffle them and pick 8, then there really can't be any new reds, because what if you randomly don't include "End of Everything"? The purpose of that card was supposed to be so that you don't run out of cards and have none left to draw in further rounds.

It is good news that the Blight cards will include expansion characters. So it's reasonable to assume that the Hypnos cards will add clues to expansion boards. But this still promises only that inter-board activity will increase, but not inter-expansion (Mythos) dilution.

I don't think that the fact that "The End of Everything" needs to be included in any given Epic Combat means there will not be new reds. In the rules that will be included in the expansion, I could see them say that while building the epic combat deck, you just need to include that card before randomly determining the others. While I would like to see more Green (for the reasons mentioned by Tibbs), I predict it will be 4 green and 4 red.

Also, I don't think that the conjecture that the only mythos cards included will open gates in Arkham means that they will have no effect on the expansion boards. Reason to believe this: the "Time After Time" mythos card from Kingsport Horror. It makes gates to another time more difficult to seal/close. Since this card is from KH and "Another Time" is in DH, I think this indicates that the people at FFG are not above including mythos cards that will affect other expansion locations. For instance, I could see some Arkham mythos cards that may given skill bonuses to only investigators in Dunwich/Kingsport/Innsmouth.

I predict more skills that provide bonuses to evade/combat/horror/spell checks instead of sneak/fight/will/lore checks. There may also be skill cards that are similar to revelation of script which given bonuses to sneak/fight/will/lore but not evade/combat/horror/spell. Maybe a skill that grants Movement points. Perhaps skills that give focus.

As far as Gate cards, I am hoping for more Final Combat gate cards. Perhaps Hastur in Lost Carcosa and Nyarlathotep in Dreamlands or Lost Carcosa.

It seems obvious that the new Visions of Hypnos cards would correspond to expansion locations.

I imagine some of the new Innsmouth Look cards will make you loose sanity/stamina instead of just nothing happening.

Could be. Or they could include one extra rule called The End of Everything that devours all investigators. This means Green = "safe, or as safe as you can be when there's a monster the size of Cincinatti prowling around New England", then Red = "We could die at any moment", then "Game Over, Man"

Fact: One of the institutions is called Organised Crime. When Organised Crime is the Institution, during set-up players may choose to discard $3 or one item in order to receive either a Retainer or Sheldon Gang Membership.

This Institution has three other abilities. Call A Lawyer allows an Investigator to avoid arrest for $3. This includes being Arrested in Innsmouth.

Send a Sawbones optional triggers during Upkeep. It requires an Investigator to pay $1. The Investigator must be in a location (not a Street, Outer Worlds, or presumably LiTaS or the Jail Cell) If they have 2 Stamina or less, they may restore 1 Stamina. If they have 2 Sanity or less, they may restore 1 Sanity. (Each instance appears to require separate payment, but there doesn't seem to be a restriction to prevent Investigators using both abilities, should they have the capability to do so.

The third ability is The Black Market. If an Investigator is on the streets they may draw a Common Item and purchase it for $1 more than the list price, or draw a Unique Item and purchase it for $2 more than it's list price.

Conjecture: Institutions appear to be human versions of Guardians. Whether they have an extra rules associated with them, or whether they play just like Guardians is unknown at this stage. Presuming the latter, the Organised Crime Institution would be perefectly playable with the base game and no other expansions.

Fact: A close examination of the .png file reveals that the second (possibly Federal Agent) Institution refers to Agent Tokens.

Conjecture: From this it is reasonable to conclude that there must be at least one stiff card sheet which contains the agent tokens. Whether this sheet also contains other materials is unknown. Skill sliders, as the game with all expansions can now take ten players, and extra Stamina and Sanity would be nice, as would Shantak and Sand Dweller monster tokens, but we have no evidence to support this.

Fact: TBGotW states that the One of the Thousand cult meets in the areas of Arkham closest to nature, specifically the Woods, the Black Cave and Unvisite Isle.

Speculation: Why wouldn't the Cult also meet at Cold Springs Glen in Dunwich? I'm guessing there will be a couple of opportunities to encounter and join the Cult among the new Cold Spring Glen encounter cards.

Solan said:

Don't forget Devil Reef (or perhaps the order of Dagon?) as Innsmouth possibilities. Not sure about Kingsport, though, if they'll offer any. They seem to like to make them at unstable locations...

The new Mythos cards appear to be for the base game only. This would mean that the effects they could have on expansion boards would be minimal.

But having effects on expansion boards isn't enough. We need gates to open much more frequently in Innsmouth and Dunwich.

Also, I imagine that the new Innsmouth Look cards will act as a replacement for the ten that currently exist. They'll probably be numbered from one to ten, and when the player draws a certain number of them, he has to take the effects of the highest numbered one, ranging from sanity and stamina loss (1 to 4) to full out transformation (10).

Tibs said:

I would be shocked if they did that. That provides too much predictability as to what will occur. It would resemble the Dust cards too much. I think that the unpredictability of the Innsmouth look cards is the most important part of it.

Fact: The CotDP reprint announcement says "This expansion will be compatible with the upcoming Miskatonic Horror expansion, which will add new Exhibit Encounter and Exhibit Item cards."

Conjecture: the MH Exhibit Encounters should be usable without the revised CotDP, provided you're willing to use the Zhar token or something or one of the activity markers to track its position.

Conjecture: the new Exhibit Encounters will move the Ancient Whispers token to the expansion boards

Tibs said:

It's possible they might do something like make a number of them dual gate cards with one targeting an expansion location and instructions to add a doom token if the expansion isn't in play. Still would technically be Base game. Possible, but the likely-hood remains unseen.

Acebob said:

I don't understand what you mean. The cards would still be shuffled before you drew them, and you'd still have only a one in ten chance of becoming a deep one like before. But this would be a good way to inject other effects in case you haven't drawn the Innsmouth Look card. A replacement deck with ranking cards would work better than additional cards to the older deck.

Tibs said:

oh, I see. We just weren't understanding each other. So you suspect a deck where you draw however many cards you need then resolve a single one depending on its ranking? I could see that. But at the same time, it would seem weird to me that FFG would implement in Arkham Horror a situation where you draw a card and completely disregard it if you draw a different card (of higher rank).

What I could see them implementing are Innsmouth Look cards where if you draw them (and are not devoured) then your character takes the card and if they draw a similar one, they are devoured, similar to how madnesses and injuries work (but not just pairs, maybe a set of 4 in a deck of 10). It could be seen as early stages of the Innsmouth look manifesting itself

You draw and disregard cards in Arkham all the time. Between shopping, cards that allow you to shop but don't force you to buy one, and there's even an encounter where you draw a common item and discard a card. Oh, and there's also the old Innsmouth Look system, as well as the Dust Deck. Plenty of examples there, I think

EcnoTheNeato said:

I've considered this idea before. I think the problem is that Innsmouth is already controlled by the Deep Ones, and they don't seem to have much love for the Cult of the Black Goat. It would be really hard for the two cults to coexist in Innsmouth. It would be like two rival gangs sharing the same city block. The only location in Innsmouth that seems to be -mostly- free from the Deep Ones is Falcon Point. It's hard to imagine the Cult of the Black Goat having much sway over fishermen.

I agree, though, that Cold Springs Glen would make a great cult location.

I wonder how will be the new Act cards. I didn't like the old system, frankly.

I think they'll just be more of the same, not really new. What don't you like about the old system? I don't like the fact that the game just ends, so we play the Old Awakens at the third act rather than just end the game.

My guess about the new Acts is that either:

Acts 12 are random in their penalty (either you draw the old "2 doom" oneyou have to pay some new penalty: 6 total cluesmaybe 3 terror upssomething)

Or, it's just simply a set of new "The Next Act Begins!" Mythos cards, which I think is a little less likely.

mageith said:

Same as you. The game abruptedly ends and it's anticlimatic. We usually fight Hastur if the Third Act begins,then if we manage to defeat him we go on with the normal game.

On the issue of dilution, I really think that's the purpose of this expansion (or I really hope so).

Now that Lurker introduced the double gate card, I can hope that those type of cards will call one in Arkham and One in another Village with the rule of ignoring the other village if its not in play.

Fact: Miskatonic Horror adds in four new Act cards, with an all-new Overture card. There are still three Acts to the play, and players still lose if the final Act begins. However, with the Overture card starting in play, presenting new rules, Act cards are revealed in different ways. This provides a new game experience for those who have seen this play before.

The overture kicks into effect immediately. When an Environment (Mystic) is put into play Act I is brought into play.

Act III will still lose the game for the Investigators.

Conjecture: With Act I being triggered by Mystic Environments, it seems likely that acts II and III will be triggered by effects that are independent of a direct draw from the Mythos deck, such as other types of Environment, Headlines, Rumours, increases in Terror Level or Monster Surges. Of couse this does not preclude the original "Next Act Begins" cards triggering incrementation in Acts. Indeed they may be necessary for Atlach-Nacha who specifically causes the discard of Mystic Environments without effect.

It is something of a misgiving that Act III will still be an automatic game over for the investigators. It might be more interesting for Act III to immediately awaken the Ancient One. In this fashion, mixing old and new Act cards would cause the Investigators to be unsure as to the final scene of the play, which would add an extra level of tension to the game. As ever, there is always Strange Eons...

Atlach-Nacha only prevents Environment (Mystic) cards from taking effect, not from being drawn. Drawing one will still trigger the Overture.

I've always wondered why people don't like it how Act III makes you lose the game. Do you not play with Azathoth because he's a let-down if 7 gates open o_O It makes it more suspenseful, man!

That being said: It appears that the other 3 Act cards are similar to the overture. It's my belief, however, that they may have different effects when coming into play, and/or have different sacrifices needed to prevent it from coming into play. But that's just my reasonable conjecture!