Have the original game and Dunwich Horror. What expansion should I get next?

Big box sets tend to offer better bang for your buck. Innsmouth is preferable to Kingsport, but you may find quite an increase of difficulty level. Of the small boxes, Black goat gives you extra monsters and Lurker gives you extra gates.

danman71 said:

I would recommend Kingsport and Black Goat.......

Yours Thankfully

GM

South Africa

What do you want? Do you want more Items and Spells? More Investigators or Ancient Ones? More Encounters? More Locations? More difficulty?

Are you someone who plans to keep adding expansions to your game without subtracting? Or do you plan to switch out expansions as your mood carries you?

Do you have a HUGE playing area? Could you manage to add another Dunwich-sized board to it?

Without any of that, advice can only be given by way of how the ADVISOR wants to play, who isn't necessarily you.

All I can be certain of is (A) get Miskatonic Horror LAST, or at least after you have bought all the other large boxes, and (B) don't even bother trying to track down an original version of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh. Just get the new Revised version.

jgt is regurgitating sentiments that we've expressed countless times before.

There are generally agreed-upon "best" expansions, and also there is an agreement that big-boxes offer more universal stuff than small boxes.

But I agree with jgt. Tell us what you, or the playgroup, wants most out of the game (or more of) and we can list suggestions. These requirements may even include cost, new investigators, difficulty, theme, complexity, or table space.

Miskatonic is greater when you're using more expansions. Never get it first, and it's truly time when you own all three board expansions.

The cards in the original version of Dark Pharaoh that I consider better than the revised version are so very few that it's really pointless to get both copies. If you have that kind of money to throw around, get Dark Pharaoh (revised) and a different small box, or another big-box instead.

Just my personal opinion, but: the revised Dark Pharaoh is the best small box. It's got the best theme, it introduces a mechanic that has a major impact on the game (and is immune to dilution), and the various Location and Mythos cards are quite cool. The only downside is the Herald, while pretty cool, is not fantastic, and shuts down its own expansion's main mechanic.

Big box-wise: Kingsport has plenty of cool stuff (principally the Heralds, Guardians, and Epic Battles), but Innsmouth is definitely better. It introduces Personal Stories, the most brilliant mechanic in any expansion, and the Innsmouth board is very cool and wonderfully thematic. The only downside is that, yeah, Innsmouth is pretty brutal. I'd say this: if you know you're going to get both of the other big boxes at some point, get Kingsport first. If you're not sure, get Innsmouth.

Thanks all for suggestions.

We have the table space. We were mostly looking to expand without too much complexity and to try some variety. If an expansion radically ups the complexity or difficulty, that would be a lower priority. Obviously, value for money is desired.

Would probably add to the existing (Dunwich Horror) expansion instead of swapping out.

Then stick with a small box to supplement your Dunwich. Each small box adds Encounters, Mythos, and Items and Spells to your decks, plus one new mechanic to define the theme of the expansion. A small bump in complexity and/or difficulty, a good jump in variety, for not a whole lot of money. For your first, I would go with King in Yellow or the Revised Dark Pharaoh.

The King in Yellow has a fantastic set of Items and Spells for your decks, some a bit advanced, but all really interesting. It has a grand new Mechanic--the Act cards--that can be easily learned and integrated, or even removed as you see fit. Its Mythos cards have a habit of moving your Terror Track (ostensibly to make sure that the Ancient One Hastur has a satisfying Modifier when you end up facing him), which, at the time of its release, was a somewhat uncommon occurrence. Finally, King in Yellow also has the "best" Herald. I say "best" because it's a simple introduction to Heralds, but by far the highest "fun" per difficulty ratio.

The Revised Dark Pharaoh has a brand new Investigator Deck--the powerful yet risky Egyptian Exhibits--and a terrific new mechanic to acquire them that allows you to have Encounters in the Streets! No new Items, but a slick handful of new Spells and Allies to play with. A new "Patrol" mechanic (think "Neighborhood Watch") that will teach you the value of Sneak long before the crash course the rest of us had during Innsmouth. And Dark Pharaoh still has the BEST thematically-charged cards to date, so if you like a bit of flavor in your Encounters, this is the one you want.

Welcome to the Carnival, Danman71!

Greetings, please take a padded cell. I had the same suggestions as jgt in mind, but I think King ramps the difficulty higher than Curse, so on balance I would say add Curse as you dont want it too hard (although its really just the dread Blights from KiY that bite hard). As expansions go, Arkhams complexity does not get terribly high when new boards are added, but it does grow more complicated. A jet plane is complicated but a mayonnaise is complex, and managing the many parts of Arkham is more like building a plane that making mayonnaise, if you take my point. You need tentacles to play this game properly with all expansions. It should have an "Elder Thing and upwards" age advisory on the box. So if you have a gang and dont play solo you can ease the complication by assigning duties to each player so that nothing is forgotten.

jgt7771 said:

Not to be confused with the man who is Dam :')

Avi_dreader said:

I dunno...he is more machine now than man. Twisted and evil.

jgt7771 said:

The lava made his face red?