I don't have it yes (it's on my to buy list though) but I've seen the board at BGG and I have aquestion: What is the insentive players have exploring the new board? There are no unstable locations there, so why would people waste precious turn exploring the board? (other than to try something new...)

I would really like to know. Thx ahead.

Because of the Rift Mechanic on the Kingsport Board. If a Rift opens you are in trouble as Monsters will spawn in Kingsport and Doom Tokens will get added to the Doom Track.

The MAIN reason to go there is to keep the rifts in check. Once they open up travelling around Arkham, they can become a real pain. Unfortunately, this also leads to the one complaint I've heard about the expansion...groups tend to have one sacrificial lamb go to Kingsport for the majority of the game, their only job is to a) keep the rifts from opening, and b) reset a rift if it happens to open. I've only played with KH about 3 times, so someone else should be able to comment about the encounters and stuff you can get better than I.

-- Edit: Edited to replace vortexes with rifts.

By vortexes, I meant rifts...I need an edit button.

-- Edit: Found it!

Locations in Kingsport have a lot of Allies in them in addition to handing out some pretty sweet stuff. Letting Rifts open is pretty much unacceptable, so in KH games you end up leaving one person in Kingsport most of the time. That person is generally in no particular danger and tends to accumulate a fair chunk of power. The best tactic seems to be to rotate which character is in Kingsport several times during the game.

If no one pokes around Kingsport, you usually see a Rift open at about turn 6 or 7 and then things degrade rapidly. It's kind of like letting the Dunwich Horror run around for how much damage it does to the Doom and Terror track.

-Frank

Scientists Warn of Dimensional Rifts! Terror Level goes up 1.

There's only a 1/3rd chance per turn of a rift progress marker landing on a particular rift area. It's actually less than that because after there are 2 rpm on a track, it bounces off harmlessly. I've gone games where the rift doesn't show up until nearly the end. In addition, there's an enviroment that doesn't allow rift progress markers to be added and I think one that takes off a RPM. And its not even really that bad because a rift progress marker is not added unless the Mythos card is one of the six configurations. Strange sightings, for example won't add a rift progress maker.

Once a rift is out there's a 1/3rd chance of it moving and bringing out a monster. There's a 1/6th chance of it moving and adding a doom token. I've never had a rift add two doom tokens.

The quickest a rift can come out on its own is in four turns. You'd really have to unlucky to have that.

My games last an average of 18 turns. So by the time a rift gets out there under normal circumstances the game will be probably be half over. However if you completely ignore the rifts a new rift might be coming out every 2 or 3 turns after the first one So the whole thing could mushroom.

Most of my rifts come about through a Mythos card that immediately brings out a rift.

If you intend to manage the rifts, then it will probably take investigators a total of about 8 of their turns turns to do so. If you rotate investigators then add another two turns of movement per investigator to and fro Kingsport.

On the other hand, there are a higher percentage of friendly encounters there and a goodly number of allies to be had.

If a rift does open, I usually try to close it. That will take four turns plus traveling time. It's a good job for the Deputy. He comes and goes fast and doesn't risk his patrol wagon unless he has a monster encounter.

Once a monster gets into Kingsport it just goes around in circles unless if flies or greens back to Arkham somehow. It doesn't count against the Outskirts or monster limit.

In short, Kingsport is mostly a distraction. Keep the main goal in mind of sealing and closing gates. Once in a great while the rifts will get out of hand. If you are playing a game with 5 or more players, then I'd probably spend more time managing the rifts. If you are playing a game with 3 or less players, good luck anyway.

Hmm I still think they should've made some locations in KH unstable for increased intesive... with the IH expansion soon to come, who in the world would go to Kingsport when there are 3 other boards with unstable locations?!

To deal with Rifts?

Th Rifts mechanic is actually very clever, since it means that the incentive to go to Kingsport is pretty much the same regardless of what other expansions are around or how many unstable locations there are. No matter what you do, and no matter what you draw there will be a Rift opening by somewhere between turn six and turn 12. Since it's based on monster movment rather than gate openings there could be a hundred board expansions, and Kingsport would still be something of a priority.

Frankly I think that when a Rift Progress Marker is pulled for one of the tracks that is full that a monster should pop out at the place since the rift marker isn't actually placed. So much so, that I'm going to put that rule into Shadowrun Horror. It would make the tactic of leaving a track all the way filled dangerous.

-Frank

The other solution for that is to make it so that if one side is full, you start filling up the other side, so you don't need two of one movement and two of the other, but four total of the two types of movements. It would open rifts faster and make it more appealing to remove tokens.

Frank said:

Feh... It's not necessary to pay so much attention to the rifts. Two reasons. One, even if a rift opens, it only adds a doom token if it moves on the same color sign. So assuming one rift opens, it'll probably add one or two doom tokens. Two, rift tokens only open for their signs, so you can basically get three half full rift tokens and as long as you prevent the bottom parts from going to three, you'll be safe (and then of course you can just ditch the town later in the game if you need a few extra turns). Anyways... I just wanted to say that you can probably skip 6-12 turns in KH depending on the cards drawn and how much trouble you're in elsewhere. So, at least for me, it often takes up the attention of half an investigator ;') and I only shift with someone if the KH investigator has gotten clues while another player's spent theirs.

I just read through the KH rules. Seems frickin' awesome. Can't wait to get it.

The real question that needs to be asked is... with IH, would on earth in gonna have big enough table for 4 boards and all the decks?!

kroen said:

Non-Euclidean table. Duh

Tibs said:

:')