Miskatonic Horror - Facts and Reasonable Conjecture only

By Jake yet again, in Arkham Horror Second Edition

EcnoTheNeato said:

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!

I think what irritates some people about it is how random and unfair it can seem sometimes. I say, "So what!?" Then I start biting people.

FACT: MH will contain a new Dunwich Horror herald and several new Dunwich Horror cards

CONJECTURE: The new herald will be the same as the DH herald released online with added effects presumably tied to the new Dunwich Horror cards (I'm presuming it means the cards with the picture of the Horror on the backs)

FACT: MH will contain new Cult Encounter cards for BGotW

CONJECTURE: 15 or more of these cards will give beneficial encounters (some with inherent catches) so that Cult Membership isn't such an overwhelming curse. That it was beforehand has put me off purchasing BGotW (along with the absurdly difficult looking herald).

Fact: The latest preview describes new epic battle cards. We are shown two new cards, an Epic Battle Condition called "Two worlds being torn apart" and a new Epic Battle Effect called "Fortune's Fool"

Two worlds being torn apart has the effect that all 6's count as an additional success, whereas all 1's reduce the number of successes scored by one (to a minimum of zero). The effect is permanent. When the card is drawn a new Epic Battle card is resolved shortly afterwards.

Fortunes Fool is an instantaneous effect. The first player may choose to look at the top three Epic Battle cards and put them back in any order. If they do so, they are Cursed.

Source: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2169

Conjecture: The colour of these cards is not described, nor are the rules concerning the epic Battle cards. It may be that all cards are added to the Epic Battle deck, or that an Epic Battle deck is always composed of eight green and eight red cards. The former method is easier to implement, the latter method allows for more variation. you can no longer guarantee that you will see certain cards during the final battle, making the battle a more tense affair.

Both cards replace themselves. It seems likely that this will be a common feature for all Battle Events and Battle Conditions. If combined with the latter method this also has the advantage that of adding a ticking clock to the final battle, especially if there is a rule that if all the Epic Battle cards are exhausted the players immediately lose.

Fact: There is a new Blesing of Nodens card. It reads as follows:

+1 Horror. When you pass a Horror check you may ignore a monster's Nightmarish ability. Discard this card when you discard your blessing.

Conjecture: It seems likely that there will be counterpart cards for +1 Spell, +1 Evade and +1 Combat. Given that the +1 Horror check provides immunity to the Nightmarish ability, it seems plausible that the +1 Combat card would provide immunity to the Overwhelming ability.

Other "holes" that might be filled in for the Blessing of Nodens deck are a search-and-discard effect for Exhibit Items and +1 Focus.

Fact: There are new Visions of Hypnos cards. The sample card adds a clue to both the Hall School and to the Gilman House Hotel. However the look at two cards and choose one effect is restricted to the Gilman house Hotel.

Conjecture: Hypnos was made available with Kingsport. therefore it seems likely that most of the doubole clue cards will be Kingsport + either dunwich or Innsmouth. In this fashion the card is always useful, but it's use is extended if you possess the Dunwich Horror or the Innsmouth Horror

It may be that there are no or few "look at two card" effects for Kingsport, but they are supplemented by a double helping of clues. Excluding the Jail Cell (which no player would voluntarily visit) there are 8 locations within Innsmouth. In Dunwich there are 9 locations, but if one adds Sentinel Hill (so that Investigator have an incentive to visit it without fighting the dunwich Horror) that makes 10 locations. That makes a grand total of 18 locations. Ignoring Kingsport Head, there are 9 "town" locations within Kingsport, thus each town location could be doubled up. We can then throw in three additional single clues, "choose one from two cards" for Kingsport Head to round out the set.

Fact: So far, the previews for Miskatonic have given us a base overview, new cult cards (Black Goat), New injury and madness cards (Dunwich), new Acts and Blights (King in Yellow), Battle Conditions, Blessings of Nodens and Hypnos cards (Kingsport). The preview for the revamped Curse of the Dark Pharaoh has hinted at it's compatibility with Miskatonic Horror.

Conjecture: We haven't seen articles which relate to the Miskatonic Horror and the Lurker at the Threshold, nor ones which relate to Innsmouth. The Curse of the Dark Pharaoh has only been mentioned in passing. Also the phrasing "the source of Arkham's distrubances is at hand" may hint at a game-changer that we haven't yet antcipated.

The initial preview states that there will be new relationships for Lurker and new Innsmouth Look cards for Innsmouth. It seems likely that these may be the focus of future articles.

Fact: The Dunwich Horror has seven differnet forms, with varying Immunities, Resistances and damages. We're getting new cards for the Dunwich Horror in Miskatonic Horror.

Speculation: At least one of the new cards will be the Dunwich Horror with Weapon Immunity, and another will have the Dunwich Horror force you to draw Corruption cards when you fail the Combat check against it.