I love this game, I realy do, but one thing really annoys me: The borderom aka the streets. I really really hate ending my turn in a street area, even if I kill three monsters in it. The lack of encounter makes me not end my turn in the street 95% of the time and just let the outskirts fill and the terror rise. I have a solution for this: Street Encounters. And before you scream that with the amount of streets in the game then it would be too many added decks to the table, you can relax: There will only be one street encounter deck that will be used for all streets.

The most popular type of street encounter would be a variant of this:

While you walk in the empty streets at night a man calls you from behind you. "It's not safe here," he says. "Follow me". You may move to a location in this neighberhood and immidiately have an encounter there.

But there can also be encounters like "a monster appears" and other encounters involving goodies, allies, etc. Basically just about anything.

Thoughts?

Hi!

I look at streets as a (relatively) safe place. Between monsters moving around, flying monsters especially, they are not even all that safe.

Also some cards add activity to certain streets. Cards can also make the streets dangerous (arrested perhaps) or beneficial (there is a DP card that lends the possibility of finding an item).

IMHO I think streets come into play enough and there is just enough “spice” to them at times that makes them interesting, but for me the most part, safe.

Just my two pennies

Peace

Roger

I respect your opinion, but I persoanlly don't like safe. Safe equals boring in my book.

p.s. having street encounters can also mean I can create an investigator with the abiltiy "Street Wise: Whilse [name] have a street encounter he draws 2 cards instead of 1 and executes one"

More replies? I'd like more opinions in this matter.

Well, it's an interesting variant rule. I dunno if I'd want it a full time thing, but interesting. I kind of tend to think the streets should be empty, because being able to kill monsters and get an encounter is pretty good indeed. If you're still not convinced, why not just aquire the DH expansion for the Sheldon Gang membership cards? That's additional getting stuff in the street... Also, I'm in favor of no street encounters because it can speed up the game. If you have to fight two monsters and roll horror checks, spell dice, combat dice, calculate bonuses, etc... that's enough. In our group, assuming the killing of said monsters isn't critical to other players, we often have everyone else continue on while the fight is taking place. Adding on more rolls for street encounters makes the 'monster killer' character take up a disproportionate amount of play time compared to other members of the party. I will probably comment more later, but don't have the time now. Anyway, that's my $2 worth.

Heh... It would be interesting if there was an expansion added just to put some extra action into the streets. I.e. draw from a street deck once a turn. Something happens at an unpredictable location or two.

Almost all monsters that move tend away from locations, and towards the streets. There is your element of danger.

I guess a "streets" encounter deck would not have been such a bad idea, but the occasional Mythos card that allows investigators to take a gamble in the streets makes up for that.

Locations are usually enclosed, shady, and the perfect place for monsters to hide. The encounters are all for locations, because that is where you would want to do your investigating

I've written a Street Encounters. However, I'm currently waiting for Innsmouth Horror. Once this out, I know the names of the streets being used in Innsmouth and the new mechanics for that accursed town, I'll finish up the project and post it on BGG. In short, I hope to publish it to the AH community sometime this Summer.

I think street encounters would make several people in my group cry. They're getting annoyed by our losing streak and one guy in particular gets devoured every game and having him face, say, a mask monster when he's trying to get to the hospital is just going to have him spend the game hiding at the Newspaper where he's less likely to be destroyed. Even if they didn't define the goal as trying not to be devoured until the end it'd still have the time issue awp832 mentioned.

Plus the streets have rumours. If you want street encounters why not have a rumour deck you draw from every time you solve one?

You might be interested in a fan variant called "Arkham Nights: Street Locations." It essentially an encounter deck for each street location in Arkham. It's available at:

http://homepage.mac.com/nephilim/arkham_investigations/cases.html

IMO it goes a bit too far the other way - street encounters are often more detailed than location encounters. But perhaps you'll find it useful.

kroen said:

Hi!

As I said, I think the streets should be (minus monsters) a somewhat safe place to go. While I realize its boring, if I just have to get to the Asylum or the hosptial, I do not want to "sweat" the streets. The monsters seem enough to me (plus the occasional mythos card).

Who knows maybe once I am over the "newness" of the game, I will also find streets too boring and want a change.

Personaly, I do not spend a lot of time in the Streets. If I will end up on a street because my destination is too far off for my speed, I duck into a location and have an encounter (unless low on SAN or STAM).

Peace

Roger

Part of the reason that street encounters aren't used might be because of Ithaqua's ability. Having to make every street encounter generic to the point where it won't commit to a specific weather condition might have been annoying or boring. Having to make a separate deck for Ithaqua might have been a good solution, but I personally like things just the way they are—streets are where monsters go, and where you need to go to get anywhere.

I only had the encounter go off if you ended your turn in a street which did not contain a monster by the time of Arkham Encounters phase. Most of them were as dangerous as green areas (i.e. not very) It did add to the game length, but it kept everyone involved. Oh, and I used the Street Encounters link as an initial base, but it soon grew from there.

The Streets belong to the GAME. Monsters move into and around the circuit. Flyers arrive and depart. Monsters block and kill. Mythos cards put Clues in the Streets now. Almost anything that would use an Activity Marker happens in the Streets: Rumors, Special Environments, etc.

I say the Streets are "boring" for Investigators, because the Streets... ARE NOT FOR THEM.