I'm looking to get into LCGs after a long time hating on CCGs, having been lured in by FFG's upcoming release of Android Netrunner. Call of Cthulhu will be my next investment likely, but I'm curious about a few items.

#1 - I get that the Core Set is needed for getting the fundamentals, but what are these different expansions I'm seeing? They range from $15 to $30, but I'm unsure what to expect from their contents. Do they expand out specific aspects of deckbuilding? Factions?

#2 - How often do you see expansions get released? I like setting aside some "fun money" each month to keep myself from buying too many indulgence items, and I want to know how often I should expect to buy.

Thanks in advance for any help, as well as any links if these questions have been answered many many times before here.

Just follow this link to get an exact overview of what's in each expansion: www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html

As you can see, so far there's been two 'deluxe expansions' and we're now into the seventh 'Asylum Pack' cycle, where each cycle consists of six packs.

The former have been released unregularly (one every 1-2 years), the latter have been released monthly, but in the future there'll only be deluxe expansions. According to the current plan, FFG will release one every four months.

The Core Set is the best place to start - it has the rules (handy!) and one set of Story cards, which are needed for play. It also has a good set of cards for each of seven factions.

After the Core Set, the Secrets of Arkham is the best thing to get next - it has additional cards for each of the seven factions, and considerably expands deckbuilding possibilities.

The Order of the Silver Twilight adds an eighth faction, but also has a few additional cards for the other factions - I would consider it optional until you are ready to start building Silver Twilight decks.

After that, you can consider the smaller expansions, which each provide a few cards for each of the factions. Of the various cycles, the best to get are probably the first cycle, Forgotten Lore, as well as the most recent cycles, Ancient Relics and Revelations. Also note that the first expansion pack of Ancient Relics - The Shifting Sands - has the most current version of the Story deck, which is needed for tournament play. All of the cycles are in print, except for Dreamlands, which is out of print, somewhat hard to get, and has an uneven card distribution (one of some card, three of others).

Also as mentioned above, going forward, FFG is switching to a system of deluxe expansions only, with each expansion focused on one faction.

#1 - I get that the Core Set is needed for getting the fundamentals, but what are these different expansions I'm seeing? They range from $15 to $30, but I'm unsure what to expect from their contents. Do they expand out specific aspects of deckbuilding? Factions?

There are two boxed expansions currently, these are the $25-30 ones:

Secrets of Arkham - I recommend this be your first purchase after the Core set, it has lots of great cards (2x each) for all 7 factions in the Core set
Silver Twilight - Adds a brand new 8th faction to the game, and has a couple cards each for the existing factions. Required if you want to play Silver Twilight, all cards are 3x.

The rest are the asylum packs, which are monthly releases. There are a TON of them by now, but you can look up what cards are in each one and pick the ones you want to buy first. They all contain roughly equal numbers of new cards for all the factions, and all cards are 3x. The ones from the Rituals of the Order, Ancient Relics, and Revelations cycles contain Silver Twilight cards, the earlier ones do not.

#2 - How often do you see expansions get released? I like setting aside some "fun money" each month to keep myself from buying too many indulgence items, and I want to know how often I should expect to buy.

Until a few days ago, asylum packs came out on a monthly basis (skipping a month here and there) and the boxed expansions were always a surprise when one turned up. However, Fantasy Flight is changing the model and the last asylum pack just got released. Going forward, they will no longer be doing monthly packs - instead they will release a boxed expansion three times a year (ie - every 4 months). This has been generally met with approval as it provides a lower cost per card to buy them in bigger batches, fewer SKU's, etc… And, the game has a big enough card pool to support it. The same idea would be awful if applied to Netrunner right now which really needs cards to flow out more quickly than that.

For your purposes, you can indeed set aside a small amount and pick up one asylum pack per month, or two, or whatever level you want to spend. All of them are in print except the Dreamlands cycle, which we're hoping will return to print in the near future - possibly in a new boxed format.

The first new boxed expansion seems to emphasize Miskatonic, but they said that future ones could be based around factions, particular themes, or whatever. No real guarantees, and we haven't even seen one example to tell what "emphasize" really means. Personally, I think there will be more cards for that faction, but I predict it won't be totally lopsided - just a minor advantage.

So starting out I'd recommend a Core, Secrets of Arkham, then start picking up some asylum packs. At some point, you'll likely want a second Core set. Opinions vary, but I generally feel you should get at least 6 asylum packs before another Core. Others like to get it earlier. The tradeoff is that the Core gives you more cards per buck but they aren't *NEW* cards you haven't seen. There are a lot of really staple cards in there though. And as Runix mentioned, go out of your way to pick up Shifting Sands since it has the latest set of Story cards. There are only 3 sets of Story cards out for the game - they're in the Core, Secrets of Arkham, and Shifting Sands. So, it's quite easy to get all of them and if you ever go to tournaments only the Shifting Sands set is currently used for tournaments.

Thanks to all of you for the advice and explanations, it's really appreciated. Seeing as I may be waiting until "Mid-September" for the official Netrunner release (not sore about that, just really anticipating this release), I'll likely visit my FLGS for a Cthulhu Core so I can get some play time in and prep my friends for starting in on LCG format games.

Any advice for getting semi-formal play going in an area? I know a lot of folks that are burned out on CCGs and I'm hoping now may be the time to get LCGs the player support it's been lacking in our area.