So, as the title suggests, it is hypothetical time. Let us say that your place of residence catches fire. It is a minor fire that occurs while you are at home, and you manage to put it out before it spreads too far. The only major damage is to your Arkham base game and expansions, which are burnt to a crisp or irreparably charred. At the same time, you happen to win the lottery (or you get some unexpected inheritance, or something; this hypothetical is becoming unwieldy). Coincidentally, the amount you receive is the exact same amount of money it would cost to repurchase all of your Arkham stuff. Going down to a nearby game store, you discover that all of the Arkham products you owned are in stock. Which products, if any, would you not repurchase?

Honestly: I would buy them all. SUre, there are some that aren't that great, but I'm a completionist. All of the expansions have something to recommend them, and it wouldn't feel the same not playing an all-expansions game.

All: completionist.

Forced to reject one: Black Goat.

Forced to buy only one big and one small... uh... Dunwich and Dark Pharaoh, probably.

Tibs said:

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

BGotW has arguably (even for a BGotW fan like me) the worst investigator cards of any expansion. Tibs' favourite Call the Ancient One Spell, everyone's fav Milk of Shub-Niggurath. Ancient Spear (and a couple of the Common Items) are nice, but then you also have Soul Gem, Naacal Key, Gray's Anatomy, Student Newspaper.

For me its redeeming value is the BGotW Herald, best of the lot.

Dam said:

Actually a couple of times I won a game because of the Milk ::laughter:: and I tried to use the Naacal Key in another couple of games (an Atlach game, to open a low frequency location, and an Avi game - read: obnoxious and really difficult custom Scenario Avi created and I hijacked).

As for the original question... I love Arkham too much, and I'll get all expansions back without thinking about it.

Just a question (really important): the inherited sum is enough for covering also the sleeves, right? Otherwise I have to find another job ::laughter::

Black Goat has some good items (Astral Mirror and the Magnum), and some not-so good ones (Soul Gem). Its spell selection is crap.

But anyway, I'd go without Black Goat mostly because of the failed Cult/Corruption mechanic. Corruptions seemed fun but they never come into play unless you use the herald, but then the herald makes the game too short to really enjoy them. There is no real incentive to join the cult since the encounters aren't all that great. I'd only really miss the Dark Druid monster out of the nine, and there is no pervasive theme as with KiY and CotDP.

I'd rather have Black Goat than not have it, and Miskatonic does make its shortcomings a bit less of an issue, but it'd easily be the one I'd drop if I was forced to drop one.

Dam said:

I like the student newspaper quite a bit. It's just a neat idea. You pick up an important clue by reading about it in the paper. I don't know why it has to be a "student" newspaper, but whatever.

I would like student newspaper more if it didn't just remind me of the fact that I didn't get a research materials instead.

Anyways, yeah, definitely also get them all. If I didn't quite have enough money for all of them, Kingsport is the one I'd probably skip. My "one big , one small" picks would probably be Innsmouth and Lurker...not because I particularly like Lurker ( obviously ), but I love relationships, the new gates would restore some of the variety I'd be craving, and it's one of the few small boxes that I wouldn't have any qualms about permanently mixing in with the base set.

I would grab it all again, except for the original Dark Pharaoh. (It serves ZERO purpose now, and I could always find another box to lock away other cards that have no business being in Arkham Horror: Joining the Winning Team, Call Ancient One, Massa Di Requiem Per Shuggay.) Every box has something in it that I love, even if I don't play with it every game.

If I absolutely had to start leaving things behind, Black Goat would be first, pretty much for the same reasons Dam would keep it. If I had to lose a big box, I'd leave Miskatonic behind before I lose any of the towns.

Oh, is "old Dark Pharaoh" on the list? Then yeah, that would be the first to go. I just assumed that there was one "Dark Pharaoh" in consideration.

Miskatonic would be the first "big box" to go, sure.

Wow....that's a toughie.

I'd welcome the excuse to buy a new Base Game cause my monsters are all frayed around the edges. I have all the expansions except Dunwich and Miskatonic, and have the 2nd version of Dark Pharaoh without the first. I might get Dunwich instead of replacing Kingsport, at first- with every intention of saving up another $50 for Kingsport later cause I love it.

But if I really HAD to forsake one expansion? Hmmm..... It'd have to be Lurker At The Threshold. Almost picked King In Yellow even though it's technically the best "small-box" cause it's so different from all the others- but it'd be Lurker. Why Lurker? Because it makes the game easier. Don't get me wrong I love nearly everything about it; Relationships, new Gates, even the Devouring Gate- plus the Location and OW encounters are all excellent. The Herald makes things too easy...

But really I'd re-purchase all of them....plus I'd buy Miskatonic and Dunwich to celebrate the fact that my home survived the fire....and I would also go to all the trouble of re-printing, re-gluing, re-cutting, and re-sleeving all the components for "Vermont Horror: Machinations of the Migo" as well (AirborneXO's expansion) because it's awesome and even tho it's 'fan-created' I consider it part of Arkhams 'canon'.

Ordinarily I would say Black Goat, because I really don't like the herald. Sure some disagree with me -I dont like it.- I don't like playing with it, and I dont feel it makes the game more fun. I think the investigator items are okay, but as mentioned, not great. And I'm a spell guy, can't think of any really cool BG spells. However, BG doesnt qualify for me because I don't own it in the first place.

My next choice would be Kingsport. I've played with this several times. My wife loves the investigators and would buy it just for that. Personally while I agree with her that the investigators are neat to have, I don't think it justifies the cost of the expansion, and I find the kingsport board to be dull and boring mechanic. However, it doesn't qualify either, for the same reason as Black Goat.

Obviously I don't buy expansions I don't like. But of the remaining ones that I have, I'd likely buy them all back. Perhaps I would not repurchase Dunwich. Let me explain, I love Dunwich... very much in fact. It's likely my second favorite expansion that I own after Innsmouth. But... you may have noticed... it's after Innsmouth. Playing usually with only 2 players and having limited table space, 1 extra expansion board is really all we ever do. We never use 2 boards anymore. We used to, but once we cut it down to Innsmouth alone we didn't realize a drop in difficulty, and it was more manageable from a setup perspective. While I love Dunwich, the fact that Innsmouth is so good means for me that Dunwich barely ever sees play. I'd miss Mark Harrigan, but otherwise I could pass on the Investigators, and while I like the items too, I think I could deal without them.

-awp

Black Goat would be the first one I'd leave out for the reasons everybody mentioned. The second is Kingsport - while I do like the Investigators and AO's, unlike Dunwich and Innsmouth, it just doesn't add stuff to every game. While I can't imagine playing without Madness/Injuries and Personal Stories anymore, Guardians are only played with sometimes, and you rarely get to the Epic Battles, and the thing that makes it really cool (the Sinister Plot cards) come up so rarely that it just isn't worth it.

THough come to think of it, I suppose I'd take Kingsport over Miskatonic, if only because without it a bunch of cards in Miskatonic are useless.

Being a completist I'd pick up all them. The only expansion I wouldn't miss if it were gone would be Black Goat. All the others either bring something to the game that I feel is essential (e,g. Injury/Madness, Epic Battle) and/or add some "fun" element that I like to use (e.g. King In Yellow herald). I like how MH expanded all of these (and fixed the King in Yellow mechanic).

Come to think of it, I might not miss the new Dark Pharaoh as it doesn't add something that could be used in all games (although I guess you could add in the Exhibit Items, Ancient whispers etc without using the other elements).