Arkhamites,

For those who've never visited Minnesota, especially this suburban area of Minneapolis, it's quite a nice aera, with a restaurant which serves some of the best food (all fresh from local farms) I've had in a while, named Good Earth.

As for the event, I'll have more to report upon my return, but suffice it to say there were about 50-60 folks in attendance last night. It got off to a slow start upon our arrival (around 5:00), but by 5:30, I had a chance to speak with the Marketing Manager and one of his associates regarding the card displays, and jump into a game of Arkham Horrror with 6 Investigators and Yig as the GOO (more to tell later). Between 7-8, there was a Q&A session with Richard L. and Kevin W., which proved both humorous and informative.

We left the event (staying close by at a Days Inn) around 11:30 last night, and we're getting ready to return today. from one of the organizers, they're expecting ~150 folks, so we'll see... The other game I want to try is Elder Sign, which seems fast-paced and fun.

That's it from here. Happy Gaming!

The Professor

The Professor said:

Please share more about that.

please put the goody bag up on ebay ASAP

Any word on whether or not new expansions are coming?

I might as well be the first to ask. Tell us about Master Hastur.

And the other unnamed GOO. Tell us about that.

Arkhamites,

I don't have the time right now to get into all of the intricacies of the weekend, but let me answer some of the easier ones...

@ Grudunza and Master Fwiffo: Both Kevin and Richard discussed their inspirations for the game, their early connection to the Cthulhu RPG, and their favorite Lovecraft stories and those authors which advanced the Mythos legend. Additionally, they talked about their various approaches to designing games (this is the part of the Q&A which proved humorous...and not to be a verbatim rendering of the statements):

Richard: "I like Dice!"

Kevin: "Well someone comes into my office and says, ' we need this and this and we need it to cost around this.' which caused a few chuckles. With a raised 'thumbs-up gesture, Kevin continued, "Okey Dokey! And there's my inspiration."

I had asked if MH would be the last of the series and when might we see the FAQ. While Richard had no response to the latter part, and Kevin only obliquely stated that 'it's still in the works' I certainly understand his position as he's not directly responsible for that project. As to the first part, both hinted at potential future expansions, but understandably couldn't comment on any 'in development/concept' projects. Both guys are incredibly affable and seem to really enjoy these events.

@ Shub-Niggurath: No chance, my friend. I'll use the bag for the copy of Elder Sign my girlfriend bought for my birthday and I'll use both Hastur (@ Jake yet again: now at -5 Combat Ability, instead of - X (where 'X' is the Terror Track value. As for her bag of goodies, it's going to a hard-core AH gamer who introduced the game to me.

@ mi-go hunter: the other Goo is Daoloth for Elder Sign

That's it for now!

The Professor

Awesome, thanks.

The Hastur thing is fairly good news. Given the previous Cthulhu change, I wasn't expecting anything radical, and it definitely patches an important imbalance, but I'm also a little disappointed to see the ol' King lose some of his Terror flavor

My last game AH game for the weekend included the 'new' Hastur, and I have to tell you, I'm not enamored by him ~ when I play the original Hastur, I have to play with King in Yellow to give the ol' boy some bite...and bite he does!

Professor,

thanks for sharing your experience, thoughts, memories and answering our questions.

Glad you seem to have a great time in Roseville

JULIA

Julia,

Once I get the pictures downloaded, I'll share those as well!

The Professor

Ugh, is that all that happened to him? His one definitively cool feature was removed ? Did they modify his annoying feature—make it 7 clues to seal rather than 8 at least? Is this because of things like Messa Di Requiem? Come on.

They could have made it –3, and his start of battle ability would be to lower his modifier once for each 2 terror ticks. That would have been a great middle ground.

Did they at least change his picture?

The Professor said:

Interesting. From this its easy to deduce that there is actually something in the works. I really hope it is not some superdelux collectors edition shaped like a tome and bound in human skin. Clearly, that should be the FAQ.

Tibs,

Overall, he's not changed that much around the periphery, as he's retained Physical Resistance, and no changes to either his Worshippers or Attack.

Here's where things get interesting:

Hastur, The Unspeakable One...While Hastur stirs in his slumber, immediately after an investigator seals a gate he or she must reduce his or her maximum Sanity by 1. (An investigator may seal a gate even if doing so would reduce his or her maximum Sanity to 0.)

Each time an investigator in Arkham is driven insane or devoured, raise the Terror Level by 1.

It seems like the revised old Great Old Ones have a thing for lowering your max stats. Oh, well. Again, thanks for sharing ::smiling:: and for the intention of sharing the scans too!

The Professor said:

So just to check if I've got this correct....

Worshippers: Cultists get flying and -2 combat.

Passive effects: Cost to seal gates is 8 not 5. Sealing gates = -1 Max Sanity. Driven insance or devoured = +1 Terror.

Final Battle: AO attack modifier: -5, Physical Resistance. Decreasing Luck checks / 2 Sanity damage for final battle.

No, I think he means that the 8 Clues to seal is no longer part of the ability. Right?

Doom track still 13?

Julia said:

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

I took a couple of generic tokens and made labels of -1,-2, etc. and we place them on the character sheet next to the appropriate stat.

OK, that's much cooler. I still miss the –X ability, but I otherwise look forward to using this new version. Nobody will miss the "8 clues to seal" ability.

Maybe I'll make a hybrid version

What's the new image like?

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

I suppose that depends on how you like to keep track of your stamina and sanity in general. The way we do it is that we have our stamina and our sanity in tokens on our character sheet. As we lose them, we put them to the side. If we lose max sanity or stamina, we just remove that piece from our vicinity. We just remember because that heart or brain isn't there anymore.

Anyway, more to the point.

New Hastur:

Cultist ability unchanged. (-2 Combat and Flying)

He does NOT make it more difficult to seal gates. He has lost the necessity for three extra clues per seal. He instead punishes your sanity for sealing, making you lose one max sanity each time.

In addition, he raises the terror level every time an investigator goes insane or is devoured.

His combat effect is the same, but his modifier is now a flat -5.

While there are interesting stories about using Call Ancient One or the Massa Requiem book, the fact is Hastur was easy to beat without even bothering with his extremely difficult seal difficulty. Optimal play against new Hastur no longer involves keeping the terror level down then beating the crap out of him when he wakes up. While they closed that awfully annoying exploit, I rather liked battling his extra three clues to seal as well. (We, like many of you, always go for a seal victory.) New Hastur is not the most terrifying Ancient One. The exception has to be when you are playing with an additional terror effect, like Dagon or the King in Yellow. This turns a relatively commonplace occurence (going insane) into something to be avoided at all costs. Just play New Hastur with one of them for best results.

flamethrower49 said:

This is almost exactly what I do. Except I rebox lost max sanity or stamina.

Well, now that I know both old and new Hasturs - I like the old one more.

I think I'd enjoy playing a combined mod of the two, X=double terror level (pretty harsh Tibs!), and sealing a gates reduces max sanity by 2. (Max 1 reduction is too easy to game into insignificance).