Chapter 2 scenario is up now on the news. It appears deceivingly simple...

TroySterling said:

It's not deceivingly simple. It *is* simple. It should've been scenario one, because it's going to be easier than scenario one ::shrug::

The lack of clues from the mythos is soooo evil, though......

This'll be fun

SylvanEve said:

No it isn't. You get three clue tokens every time you kill a cultist? I think this scenario is going to be a joke compared to the last one— you can seal gates *and* you don't have those annoyingly tough monsters ::shrug:: It's going to be very easy. Making toughness=clue tokens was a big mistake in the scenario design. Think of it this way. Lets say you get a monster surge that puts out 4 monsters with a toughness equal to eight in total. It's like eight clue tokens are spawning in a turn instead of one. It's ridiculously easy if you do a little bit of fighting.

This does sound considerably easier than last scenario. That being said, I like some of the mechanics. Having one scenario affect another is great. Changing how clues are gotten is cool (feels a little bit like testing a new game.)

The odd thing to me is not making the monsters harder to kill. The monsters in scenario 1 were a lot harder to kill.

I do have a few questions:

Do you get to keep the monster trophys as well as get clues for killing them, or do monsters the monsters go back to the cup?

Do you get the specials for killing monsters as well: i.e. do you get extra clues if you kill a warlock, do you get clues and a unique item for killing a Migo? If you don't get both, do you get the clues or do you get the special prize (Migo unique item)?

Do the investigators still get $1 for each clue they would have started wth?

Twilight said:

::Shrug:: I posted a few of your questions in the FAQ. Personally, I'd say just play it as the card is written. Nothing on it suggests that conditions from scenario one are still valid.

I had similar questions. As a I read through I kept thinking, 'Nice. Nice?! There's bound to be a catch." As I finished reading it seemed there wasn't a catch. I wouldn't laugh too hard at this one, perhaps the catch is in scenario 3. Perhaps those who see this as a chance to rack up points may be kicking themselves in round 3 when the trophies become a negative. I.E. For as many trophies as you had in Scenario 2, place that many creatures in play immediately, or however many clue tokens were left over become point deductions in Scenario 3 or for every 10 clue tokens you had in scenario 2, increase the terror track by 1 or any other deviousness...

TroySterling said:

::Laughter:: and maybe the terror track will start on twenty.

Twilight said:

Updated FAQ:

"Investigators do not start with any clue tokens. And no they do not receive any compensation, as they get to use whatever they had saved up from Scenario 1 at the bank.

Monsters only provide clue tokens if they become trophies, so the Warlock and Endless monsters do not provide extra clue tokens."

It wouldn't be AS easy if you had to trade the trophy for the clue tokens - it would drive scores down for folks who aren't being very clever with their strategy and who solely rely on clue tokens to make their roles. I would be interested to see the scores on this scenario.

It still may be easier, but it'll be interesting. You do have to give up the trophy to get the clues, don't you?

ETA: My math may be off, though. I don't know how many toughness points people generally collect, nor how heavily one relies on clues....

SylvanEve said:

No. You don't.

It looks deceptively easy, yes, but I won't say anything final until we get to experience this scenario for ourselves XD

Avi_dreader said:

Hmmm. That does sound somewhat easier, then.

SylvanEve said:

Yeah ;')

Scenario 2 is definitely harder. In scenario 1, no one has had to count past the low 30's during scoring. In scenario 2, players will have to learn to count a lot higher.

Not just that, but the fine motor skills required to ballance all of those clues one the character sheets is much greater than those from scenario 1.

Add to that the fact that there are more invenstigators to choose from, and some players will be paralyzed with indecision before the game even begins.

Even arguing about how this scenario is too difiicult is harder than tin he last scenario

Not that i'm complaining. If the next scenario ties into this one with new challenges, I'm more than happy to play something that looks easy in round 2.

I can't remember how many clue tokens we had left over from last time, not something I usually record.

This seems easier since the monsters don't have as much toughness or sanity loss. We didn't pick up any clue tokens last time because we were too busy going through gates, so the lack of clues doesn't bother us.

With 2 players the winning is the same as the first scenario, I reckon we shall just end up with the same score, or thereabouts.

Plus in 5+ player games two monster on a Gate opening. So you go to the Gate kill the monster and get the Clues from the dead monsters to Seal the Gate but we sealed the last one while Ithaqua was one Doom token away from waking. So was close

Played this scenario last night and....I have to say it seemed too soft. We had a lot of extra clue tokens! When I say a lot, I mean we committed a die to keeping track of the clue tokens we were owed. I have never used every clue token in the game contents before. The fact is, Ithiqua is one of the easier Ancient Ones to deal with and the clue token payout on monsters was way to much. In the end, we did have fun.....so I guess that is the whole point. I am really curious to see how high the average score is for this scenario. It is going to be high!!

- Dr. V and the Women

Ozzy said:

This time it wasn't quite as bad. Michael McGlen turned into a real powerhouse, though, and still had 15 clue tokens left after sealing the sixth gate. It was the character I had chosen to be accompanied by Calvin . Later he first received Bob Jenkins' Healing Stone and near the end found a Lamp of Alhazred in an outer world. Naturally, he had also been blessed by Joe Diamond for the second half of the game. Joe himself had a streak of bad luck with his blessings, though: He lost his blessing three times; each time with the first roll

Anyway, this chapter was really relaxed. Still, it almost came to a final battle after an Arkham Encounter surprised me with a gate opening...

The final score actually wasn't that great: 24 points for a four investigator game ( "Ashcan" Pete being the fourth).

Going to play this Tuesday, so I'll let you know.

Since I can't remember how many clue tokens we had left, we'll go with none. It wasn't tons anyway, got no time for that in a 2 player game.

Hm. We played this last night with 4 characters, and did mediocre.

We drew the "Disturbing the Dead Rumor" which knocked our score down some by raising the terror track to 3, and making me sacrifice a couple of gates to close it. I played Jenny Barnes with Calvin and Bob Jenkins - but I was so tired I thing I was half asleep (I did some truly stupid things - forgot how to count, it seemed, and took on a monster or two that I ought not have --> unconsciousness) (Gestating is tiring!). My husband played Gloria Goldberg and Michael McGlenn, and was the powerhouse in the game.

We just seemed to have lousy luck in our rolls - Gloria got LiTaS once, ahe had an enormous amount of trouble closing a -3 gate, and it was just kind of a bad rolling night. It was fun though, and we will try again.

The only real trick with this scenario is that if you want clue tokens (other than the ones from the last scenario) you will more than likely have to go outside in the street and take damage from Ithaqua. This makes sealing gates a little tricky, but that fact that gates can be sealed at all this time around makes this one less of a race against the clock and more of a race for points.

I think it would be cool to win 3 times at once!

Seal the Sixth Gate that also happen to be the last Gate on the board and the # investigators +4 Gate victory!

And then fight Ithaqua just for kicks, right?

My group played this scenario last night. We played through purely for fun with a single goal: kill Ithaqua on the first round. Joe, given stuff all game by Bob and Jenny, went into the final combat blessed with a shotgun, +1 Fight and 34 clues. He went first, and still had 19 clues left over before Ithaqua was dead. It was absolutely brutal, and the most fun we've had in a game of arkham in a long time. We only had 21 points, though, so we'll probably play again looking to raise our score. We could probably keep even more than the 25 clue tokens we did...

Remember that you are limited by the number of clue tokens in the game.

JR