Here . But the game is still at the printer. Sob

It seems that the new Reckonings are good to satisy even the Aviest of men ::laughter:: and Relationship cards seem to be good also. I start having good feelings about this expansion!

Looks like we are getting some serious reckonings indeed - who nows, maybe I'll need to reconsider some of my house rules.

Julia said:

Two of the reckonings were good. The discard your gate trophies was a real eye-roller for me (even though that is somewhat appropriate for a Yog Sothoth herald). Hopefully most of the new reckonings are also good (i.e. evil), because otherwise I will throw my Miska— no, no, no I won't. I WON'T. IA IA!

Julia said:

Quite a few of the old expansions + the base game are now at the printer.

ricedwlit said:

Oh good, once the new reckoning comes out we're going to have to reconsider all the Lurker house rules and heralds ;'D ... Eeeee... Not so thrilled about that, but still excited.

Avi_dreader said:

Heh. I figured you'd be complaining about the one that devours investigators, since a devouring is almost as likely to help the investigators as hurt them.

avec said:

Yeah if you look at that one you get 3 power from it as well, all you need is a new investigator with 2 clues and dive right into the nearest gate right off the bat.

Veet said:

Still, starting with three power and a dark pact off the bat will surely not go unnoticed by the Lurker, resulting in even more punishment for the new investigator.

I hope we'll see more Reckonings that force investigators to take dark pacts and/or power.

avec said:

Oh, no, not that one, that's fine. Unpredictable devourings can be very painful. No, the one that eats gate trophies (big deal).

mi-go hunter said:

If it's an and/or, I'm for it. Perhaps a reckoning that worked like an environment, giving all investigators one power per turn once it is drawn. Heh heh heh...

Sigh... I still get sad when I think about how much wasted potential Lurker has... Oh well. Maybe Miskatonic will correct it...

Anyway, once nice thing about the addition of cards like these is even if not all of the cards are good, the Lurker deck will now be trimmable to make it threatening. Looking forward to it :'D

Avi_dreader said:

I agree losing gate trophies isn't as bad as getting devoured. But, toward the end of the game when clues are drying up, losing a gate trophy can hurt. It can also wreak havoc with some personal stories, or trying to shut down some Beings of Ib (Bokrug + Lurker = Evil combo!)

Julia said:

The article does say, "Miskatonic Horror is released later this quarter!" which means June. But that seems cutting it awfully close if it is still at the printer.

Finally a new preview! Yet, a part of the article confused me about a Lurker rule...

It says:

"An Investigator who has entered into a Dark Pact with the Lurker must draw and resolve Reckoning cards whenever a Gate opens" ( italics added by me)

Considering the text in the Herald sheet says "Each time a Gate opens, draw and resolve a Reckoning card. Do not resolve a Reckoning card for the Gate that opens at the start of the game", I've always played it with a reckoning card being drawn after each gate opening, regardless of any player having made dark pacts or not . Yet the text from the preview I quoted before seems to suggest otherwise.

Was it my mistake or just their quick-but-not-very-precise way of explaining what reckoning cards are about?

I was hoping for a ''big box'' expansion or base game preview. Almost all previews were about ''small box'' stuff. Anyway, it looks good and it gives Lurker some boost since players almost consider him as a guardian lol.

Weyoun said:

Likely just their mistake. But it does give another way to house rule the herald to make them more effective: when a gate opens, make it draw one reckoning card per pact in play . Aieee!

ricedwlit said:

That's normally true, but when Lurker's in town you can just use pacts to spent sanity or stamina as clues. Seriously, if the deck isn't changed radically, there's just going to be a sliver of risk, still nothing significant though.

I'm not too fussed about the Lurker. There seems to be a pretty strong consensus about how to make it into a Herald. Namely: Power can't be spent if Pacts are exhausted, Reckoning cards are drawn when a gate opens or closes, and Power tokens can't be used to reduce Stamina or Sanity damage from Reckoning cards. Those are the core ideas - plenty of tweaks and minor variations have also been suggested. I'm not looking to Miskatonic Horror to fix the Lurker, just to add variety to how the Lurker works.

avec said:

Actually... You just gave me an interesting idea for another bit to add to Lurker Variations. I never heard of the drawing a reckoning when gates close, but :') and this actually solves most of the issues with power tokens. Whenever an investigator with power tokens attempts to close a gate, a reckoning must first be drawn. (I'm not sure if this would require the anti-damage prevention rule, or if it would be a strong enough effect to fix the power exploits).

Avi_dreader said:

You mean as opposed to any time a gate closes? Probably either way would work fine.

I personally like the house rule where two Reckoning cards are drawn each time a seal prevents a gate from opening. The attraction is mostly thematic: it makes the Lurker angry. It also increases the number of Reckoning cards slightly as the game progresses.

Avi_dreader said:

I included something similar in my lurker compliment herald a few months back when we did the heraldify the lurker challenge.

avec said:

Opposed to whenever a gate closes (because by then a player can already have dumped his power to seal it).

Veet said:

I can barely remember last night let alone several months ago ;') but I do remember the challenge.

Last night you and I talked on the phone about how I just got Mansions of Madness. Also you told me your deepest fears and gave me express permission to post every last hilarious one of them.

Back from vacation.

The new preview looks quite good so far. I'm pleased that they seem to be focusing more on making the pacts themselves dangerous, as this should lessen the chance for the Lurker to be abused. If just taking a pact exposes you to extreme risk, then even if you're using the power-abuse tactics, you're still at a high risk (I think I've said before that the pacts should have been the main danger, not the power, and it looks like they're trying to move that way). Not to mention, frankly, thematically I always felt that what should matter is whether you took a pact at all, not how much you used it. :-P

Plus, more relationships. Fun!