Everything was going pretty well, despite taking a nearly six turns before we could get an Investigator into a Gate as the first two had opened in either Innsmouth or Dunwich . Monsters in the area kept us in bay and admittedly, I focused a bit too much attention on either Passing or Failing (in the case of Tony Morgan) the Personal Stories . Additionally, Tony completed a Task ( Geneological Report ), and still managed to seal one location. By the end of the 10th turn, both Tony and Silas had each sealed one location, Bob had sealed two (and would have used the Gate Trophies to Pass a Rumor ), and Jenny had a few items which would have given her the requisite Clue tokens to close the gate she had recently exited. Then it happened…

After ignoring the first two Environment Cards which plaed the 1st and 2nd Act into play, a Weather Environment (despite facing-off against Cthugha) appeared destroying our Investigators …

Uops. Seems like you're king-in-yellowing with Miskatonic… sorry Joe… it's tough when it happens…

Let me tell you, after 100+ games, I know that I've skirted-th-edge with the King in the past…ignoring the Terror Track, allowing Blights to come about; remaining cool and indifferent to the Acts' cards, even the new Miskatonic ones…but today that all changed. He dropped the curtain on us…

Yep, it's a sad end for a good game. Amikezor used to have this house rule: the third act triggered final battle instead of instant defeat. Not so sure I'm so happy with this thematically, but I guess it's a good thing to ease the pain of an instant defeat

Julia,

I'm sure that a book which encompassed all of the Variants would rival the 40+ page FAQ. Even with Innsmouth , I'm not enamored with the Deep Ones Rising Track serving ostensibly as a second Doom Track . Instead, once it's filled, I add a Doom Token to the actual Doom Track .

Cheers, Joe

The Professor said:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

:-p

hahaha! Sorry, did I say something wrong…?

The Professor said:

::laughter:: nope, you simply houseruled the destruction of one of the most thrilling mechanics of Innsmouth :-p (clearly, play it the way you like the most, but still, it was really brilliant in the original way)

Whew…I thought I called forth your inner Pirate! I really like each of the Innsmouth and Dunwich vortices doing their own thing, without being something else. So, for Dunwich should the DH appear, there's a chance every round that you'll add a Doom Token , whereas in Innsmouth , it's potentially a longer run, but once it's filled, it WILL add a Doom Token per turn. Also, it has a Kingsport -y feel to it. (I think that I may have conjured Dam)

The Professor said:

Ahoy? ::searching for an eye-patch

The Professor said:

So, once you fill up the DOR you add a doomer every round, regardless of any new monster jumping into vortices? From your earlier post, it seemed that you simply added a doomer and that's it! Sorry if I misunderstood.

Still, strategically you can take advance from this situation too: a Devil reef surge on Mythos one will allow you several rounds of gearing up for war (eh, final battle) instead of inducing an instant defeat, hence the DOR track is a lot less scary. Additionally, if Martial Law is proclamed, but you are very near to score a sealing victory, you can simply be uncaring of Innsmouth at all, lowering again the threat. I think it heavily depends (as usual) on how narrow your victories are: if you're very close every time you play, then a +1 doomer could mean Final Battle.

Ah, for the record: I had to go to FB in my latest game (Bokrug + Ghroth). Sigh. Bloody gate burst removing an Unnamable seal. Fortunately no Beings of Ib were on Bokrug's sheet, so it was kinda easy stomp on him (even with Mark devoured at the beginning of the battle). Nonetheless, Bokrug seems to be my affliction: I often have to go to FB (twice out of four games, IIRC)

Julia,

Regarding the Deep Ones Track , yes that's the idea…fortunately, it has only ever received between three to four tokens during a game. It's busy, but not overwhelming. I have to admit, several of the Variants I've introduced have made the game manageable without necessarily diluting the fear factor. for instance:

• Add a Rift Token to the Rift Track in Kingsport only when a new Gate opens, vice every card
• The Deep Ones Track definitely keeps me on my toes without having to worry about a massive outlay of Clue tokens
• Gate Bursts force the token to be flipped from the Elder Sign to the Doom Token side.

Most of my games prove to be nail-biters and I like the feeling of impending doom from the very beginning, but on the face of it, when you play with everything as I do, the chances of quick losses can occur with great frequency and that doesn't appeal to me. I have to tell you, the game is definitely more "non-competitive" than "cooperative" in many ways.

Cheers,

Joe

The Professor said:

I'm a bit curious. What does the flipped token do?

Tbla said:

On the first Gate Burst, the Elder Sign is flipped to the Doom token side. In case of a second burst at the same location, the token is removed as per normal rules for gate bursts. That's a common houserule suggested to make the game a little easier (or a lot easier if you play Atlach)

In other words, the flipped token still acts as a seal. It just allows for two strikes for a gate burst to occur, rather than one.

Julia/Tibs,

Thank you both for answering the question. It's been long hours and little sleep recently, so I'm not out here that often. Speaking of which…got to go….but before I take-off…

Tbla,

I'm vacillating on this one, as there are only so many Gate Burst cards and as an average game for me has produced only 15-20 Mythos cards, the chances that a Gate Burst will appear…well, about 1:3 games and more than one, frankly I've never seen it. I'm currently playing a game with the following Investigators : George (who, by the way, I love…just sayin'); Mandy , Rita , and William (another guy who is phenomenal) against Ghanathoa . I've only had seven Gates appear in 12 turns so far ~ along with one Double-Doomer card, a Rumor (which we let Fail since it appeared so early in the game), and a Gate Burst. They currently have five Gates sealed and George is standing at the Witch House …the epicenter of the Gate Burst and I'm torn between flipping the token or removing it entirely from the board. If I remove it (the Doom Track is sitting on 9 of 13), it will make the game a bit more challenging through the next 6-8 turns…if I keep it sealed, it will prove a much easier victory…

I see.

Well the gatebursts can really be unplesant. But I think I prefer to play them as usual. I often had the situation in the basegame when I realised that I could really not loose anymore (except by the terror level and that is rare) and that it was just a matter of time before victory. Doesn't having two shots at every gateburst pretty much send you back to those stiuations?

Personally I use two house rules to make the game game more diversified. Both of them I found on this forum. The first is that spells only cost sanity if they are successful and the other is that you can use the Great Seal to seal a gate (you don't need clue tokens). Both of these things I think encourage people to try different things and makes the game more fun.

Tbla,

I see I'm not the only one awake at this hour. Unless someone else had a similar idea, I was the one who experimented with the Sanity cost for successful Spell casting notion. It actually works well, primarily because it doesn't inhibit Investigators from using Spells . I'm not a big fan of insta-devour options in the game nor do I like a mechanic ( Spells , as written) in which you suffer a consequence with no benefit. I know, the other side will argue, your Honor, that why play Arkham Horror , when so much is out of your control. For Spells , it just seems like an easy tweak which doesn't significantly unbalance the game.

Well when I wrote it it was actually in the middle of the day over here (Sweden).
I guess that's the good thing about different time zones, they increase the chance of other people beeing awake in odd hours.

Personally I have no problem with the cost-for-no-gain mechanic. What I don't like about the spells is that there's really no reason to use them very often. And I think it's a shame that such a big part of the components and rules rarely gets used. Same with the Strange House in Kingsport. I want there to be different choices in the game, not just "go to locations with clues, use weapon to fight".
I agree that your spell rule is an easy tweak to make and it doesn't really make it easier, it just gives the option to use spells as a viable alternative. And I think it's a great idea.

Tbla said:

I'm considering lowering the cost to become Changed to 1 gate trophy / 5 toughness worth of monster trophies: considering the fact that to climb up and down the Kingsport head requires 5 turns, the time investment should be considered part of the cost of the card

Tbla,

Thanks for the review of the Spell variant. By the way, I'm back to using Gate Bursts , as advertised.

Cheers, Joe