I picked up Miskatonic this afternoon, as well as Curse of the Dark Pharaoh (OUCH! There's a bite out of your paycheck!). Since our bi-weekly gaming session was today, I cracked them open immediately, and we played Pharaoh (with the new Pharaoh and Miskatonic Mythos cards). Had some fun.

But when I got home, I face a bit of a conundrum.

I love thematic games. Despite having all the small-box sets and Innsmouth, I had never played more than one expansion at a time (though I might have done KIY with Innsmouth once). All expansions contributed a few new 'global' cards (relationships, new items, Other World cards, ect.) But Miskatonic's enhancements really don't allow for pure thematic games anymore - a large chunk of the new encounters cross reference things in various expansions and so on. What's a guy who loves thematic games to do?

After hemming and hawing for a long while, my final solution was to (mostly) bite the bullet. I took Lurker at the Threshold and Black Goat - the two expansions I felt were the LEAST thematic, and permanently incorporated them into my base game, as I felt they would still make sense. All the Lurker and Black Goat games I've played felt like the only effect they had on the game was the contribution of the Herald and nothing else. But when playing KIY and Pharaoh, it really changed the full flavor of the game. For that reason, I decided I'd keep KiY and Pharaoh seperate, while just shuffling in all the encounters ect. from the other two - and the only theme games require the Herald.

What are your guys thoughts on my conundrum? Do you have the same problem? Do you agree with my solution? Disagree? Thoughts? Ect?

Master Fwiffo said:

If you're a theme player, I'd say only pick the cards to play the theme you're most interested in. I.e. be the secret gamemaster for your group. Personally, I enjoy it primarily as a strategy game (and I hate spending the time required to assemble the deck), so, do as you'd like :') But... It really does make for great theme games now if you're willing to put a bit of effort into it.

Here's an example of what I mean. Let's say you want to play King in Yellow with Kingsport. Don't include Kingsport encounters anywhere other than Kingsport, and then only thicken the Kingsport decks with King in Yellow Encounters. That way you'll have a more themeatic KiY experience in the base game area, and in the expansion area, without watering it down in either place.

To add to playing a King in Yellow game, remove the Yuggoth gates and cover up the Yuggoth space with a spare Lost Carcosa gate (I assume you're using either the Lurker gates or the original gates, but not both). This space now counts as Lost Carcosa. Add Lost Carcosa gates to the mix.

Remove all yellow and blue Other World cards that show Yuggoth as a possible location, and add in all the yellow and blue OW cards from Dunwich. Ta-da! Instant King in Yellow.

Additionally, you could add the yellow-blue encounter card from Dark Pharaoh, but when someone gets it while in Lost Carcosa, he faces Hastur in a one-on-one battle. Nice!

Tibs said:

Ooo... Good idea... I'll have to remember that for the next time I host a theme game (aeons from now).

I included that in my "league" scenarios. I'll be updating them relatively soon, with an added Miskatonic scenario to bring the count to 10.

I shuffle the cards for the theme(s) I want, by expansion symbol, and place them above the other cards, this is similar to the visiting exhibit mode except the other cards are still underneath. This used to make the other expansion boards less active but I'm hoping that Miskatonic Horror has fixed that now.