Hello people. Quick newbie question here:

To what extent do cards from expansions refer to material from earlier expansions? If, for example, I wanted to play the base game with The King in Yellow, would I have to go through the KiY cards to remove those referring to locations or cards from The Curse of the Dark Paraoh and The Dunwich Horror?

Thanks

I don't think there is any expansion interdependence (Much to the exasperation of some fans who buy every expansion anyway). FFG purposely designed it so that you do not need every expansion to play and so you do not have to weed out cards if you aren't playing a certain expansion with another.

Hastur's right. (AAAA! Sanity to 0!) All expansions are designed to be played with just the base game alone. The cards of one expansion shouldn't have any references to anything from any other expansion. There might be a few exceptions, but I honestly can't think of any. Of course, the Kingsport Rulebook tosses in a paragraph about playing with more than two boards, but other than that, any "expansion interdependence" rules or adjustments pretty much start here, with us fans, in the forums.

There's no interdependence, but a couple of cards in King in Yellow and the Handcuffs in Kingsport apply effects to some elements in other expansions (in addition to elements in the base game, so they're not useless without those other expansions). I was really impressed with the King in Yellow allusions, particularly.

FFG should make an expansion interdependent expansion after Innsmouth :'D

While I don't think (or expect) that FFG should make an interdependent expansion, I fully support Colts's idea for an "expansion expansion" that includes like new Dunwich -location Mythos cards, more Next Act cards, and rules for how much of each should be included with how many other expansions.

Tibs said:

Yes. Um. That.

2 things come to mind:

* The GOO fight cards of Kingsport also incorporate those for the Dunwich GOOs. Similar, there will be fight cards in Innsmouth, that need the base fight cards from Kingsport.

* The story cards to appear in Innsmouth will be for all investigators, even those of other big box expansions.

I think that is all. Cannot remember any other card or item that would not have any function outside its own set.

kilrah said:

Not sure if this counts, but if you have Dunwich Herald, but no Dunwich Horror expansion, Herald's unusable RAW. Herald's downloadable, thus not sure if you count it.

Hello, I'm also a newbie here and enjoyed my first game yesterday. Perhaps Dam will think I'm following him in all his favourite game forums!

This is not really IT, but not completely OT. I have only Dunwich Horror expansion and decided to use it partially with the base game. I adopted Madness and Injury cards, new Spell, Ally, Skills, Item cards, new Character and Ancient cards. I left out Dunwich Board & cards, plus additional Mythos and Gate cards. New Arkham location cards were shuffled into respective decks.

The manual says you can partially use the expansion with the base game, as you wish, but new cards have interdependencies that sometimes can't be solved if you don't use everything. For instance, if you have Rita Young and don't use Injury/Madness cards, her ability is useless. I discovered that Sheldon Gang Membership is related to new encounter cards in Uptown and I accidentally left home the Dunwich Horror box with Sheldon Gang Membership cards.

Arkham Horror is a very very complex boardgame, in terms of cumulative effects. The more expansions you add, the more interdepencies you will found. Each expansion is a stand-alone, with the exceptions that only experienced players know, but it's always better to introduce every single piece in the game, not bits of it.

The_Warlock said:

Yay, my personal stalker, purple-bordered Warlock (regular Warlock being yellow-bordered) .

The_Warlock said:

What you're talking about isn't really interdependence, though, but references between cards within a given expansion. There's no particular reason why Arkham Horror expansions should be interdependent. Personally I prefer to have a reasonable amount of thematic coherence (to the extent that that is at all possible), so I can imagine that I'd often just play with one expansion at a time.

Tibs said:

This is an absolutely fantastic idea, these have been my group's only complaints about playing with all the expansions together, not enough dunwich activity and not enough danger of Act cards popping up... not that these things have NEVER happened when playing with all the expansions, but they are extremely rare, but as things stand right now, the fun(and challenge) that all the expansions together add is worth the "watering down" that happens because of it.

In short... I'd most definately buy an expansion like this.

Well hold on. Someone had a good idea for keeping Dunwich active, and I can easily extend it for the Next Act problem.

When you go to draw the mythos card for the turn, roll a die. On a 1 or a 2, draw and discard until you get a Dunwich or Next Act card. This also fixes the Beloved of Bast issue because it increases the chance of the Story Continues card showing up.

Of course, if you don't roll a 1 or a 2, you can still draw a Dunwich or Next Act card normally, so you never truly know. This variant should keep Dunwich activity and Next Act threat a lot closer to the same, regardless of the number of expansions used.

Tibs said:

Hmmm... Or you could regularize it instead of making it randomized ;') must everything in Arkham Horror be randomized?! :')

Personally I split the deck into two:

1 small Deck that contains:

* The Story continues

* The 6 Act cards

* All card showing Dunwhich locations (the cards with Arkham locations from the Dunwich set do not go in here)

* The card "Old debts come true" or whatever that one is called (from the Dunwich set)

The second deck has every other card.

Then proceed as said. On 1-4 draw from the large deck. On 5-6 draw from that special deck. This combination is very close to the original propabilities of the cards.

Yes, there are countless house rules to solve the problem... I'd just like an "official" solution, that's all.

stwerner92182 said:

I agree with you there. I love official rules. With a couple notable exceptions that fit my play style.

When it comes to something that affects the game down to its core, an official solution would be great.