Hi there!

Yesterday we played this PoD adventure for the first time. And we had a little problem: at a certain point Brady shows you another way out. You're instruct to put the Patio into play. Is the Patio in some way connected to the Front Yard or the Graveyard? I'm asking because of the Camp fire. It's better burning some corpses rather than saving them as Shoggoth food.

But if they are not connected, what's the sense of this "other way out"? It's just something more you have to take care of, and nothing else (no objects, no clues, nothing, just a corpse marker that can be raised as a zombie by the Keeper. It's a waste of time going there.

Plus: what if the named witch is killed? There is nothing preventing invstigators from doing that. How can she complete the ritual (we played according to clue 1A). It's kind of a non-sense. A witch is celebrating a ritual. Investigators kill the witch. And then? You still have to play, and if the Shoggoth eats enough people you read "the witches completes the ritual". What the Hell?

Thx

JULIA

Way out? Objective is to leave? Leave through patio?

Maybe witch launched her ritual in motion and it'll work even if she's dead?

Btw, you can always houserule things you're uncomfortable with.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Not every objective requires you to leave the mansion. In fact, the objective we were playing required the investigators to kill the Shoggoth. So, for that objective, the arrival of the Patio is just another way to waste time and give the Shoggoth more meat to eat.

Plus, my question was very specific: is it connected to the rest of the garden? Because of the Camp Fire (this would have a huge influence on the game)

As per the ritual thing... generally speaking, in the more or less 11 years I've been playing, I've never seen a ritual being finished with the caster being killed in the meantime. I've seen rituals misfire, be perverted, but there is no way they were ever succesfully completed. But still, let's say it's possible: even in this case, the cackling voice of the witch bothers me a lot. I can certainly houserule differently, but the point is that many of these Scenarios have a flavour text that not always is appropriate (and being the game based on flavour text and theme, this is a huge minus - for me, at least. Fixing this will include proofreading and proofplaying the Scenario several times, and honestly it's a work that the playtester should have done before the expanion's out). This could have been easily fixed by not putting the witch into play until later.

Julia said:

I just assume it is like classic horror films somewhat, where the evil menace is stopped and yet it returns to win at the very end, ala The Evil Dead or Nightmare on Elm Street. Killing the witch is not the objective; the witch herself, in theory because of this particular game mechanic, flavor-wise will keep coming back.

Julia said:

I believe one of the scenarios is an "escape" victory condition for the Investigators, and the Patio is an alternative means of doing such. I could be wrong. Been a long time since I've played.

Tromdial said:

This is something I could accept :-)

Thanks for both your feedbacks, Tromdial