I'm thinking of picking up one of the smaller expansions, and I was wondering what the general consensus was for the best of them? I was leaning toward Lurker but I thought I'd ask first.

Even though I use all of my expansions together, my first (and most loved) small box expansion is The King in Yellow ~ Very thematic and doesn't dilute when you get Miskatonic.

Hello,

Best two small expansions:

1. Dark Pharaoh

2. Black Goat

Love them both. Great fun to play.

Yours thankfully

GM

The Professor said:

Indeed, KiY is probably the best small expansion ever, with Lurker close second. Plus, you can actually implement the KiY mechanics from Miskatonic without having the MH expansion.

Mmmm, sounds like KiY is a good expansion. I must give it a go. I have the expansion, but have not opened the box yet. Sounds like I am missing out on a good expansion.

Yours thankfully

Luigi

Gary Manning said:

Indeed. Mythos cards in particular, and all cards in general, add a lot of flavor and a great theme to the game. Definitely recommended

Well then, perhaps King in Yellow is the way I'll go.

So, I just thought of a way to classify the small boxes that sort of summarizes some of the differences that I've been trying to put my finger on for a while. The first distinction (mechanics/content) is whether an expansion is mostly interesting because it alters the rules or mode of gameplay in some significant way, or whether it's because of the new items, monsters, encounters and so on (think of this as the Innsmouth/Dunwich distinction, if you like ). The second distinction is whether the expansion moves the theme in a conspicuously different direction from the base set, or whether it's basically more generic lovecraft fare. Importantly, I don't mean "generic" in a bad way; if you feel like you've seen all the encounters and want some new ones in the mix, but don't necessarily want them all to be about Egypt or the theater, then generic might be just what you're looking for.,

Dark Pharaoh: Content-Thematic

King in Yellow: Mechanics-Thematic

Black Goat: Content-Generic

Lurker: Mechanics-Generic

Naturally, this approach leaves a lot out--for example, it doesn't say a thing about the heralds (or gate bursts, etc), which make a big difference; also, I definitely hesitated before labeling KiY a "mechanics" expension because it kicks butt at both (in contrast to say, BGitW). For that reason, I agree with the endorsements of KiY (also, it really is just the best), even though in general I think that mechanics expansions (like Lurker) are probably best bought after you've gotten a lot out of the existing mechanics and content.

Dark Pharaoh - Strong in theme; gives you a new class of item (Exhibit Item); some new benefits and detriments and the chance to have an encounter in the streets. It has two fan expansions ( Gilman Wing: http://cgjennings.ca/eons/samples/gilman.html and Cult of the Golden Scarab: https://sites.google.com/site/cultofthegoldenscarab/ ) to broaden it out. Herald tends to work against the expansion, IMO.

King in Yellow : Introduces a new way to lose. Gate bursts also make the game tougher. Relatively strong in theme. Herald makes Terror Track far more interesting.

Black Goat - 9 extra monsters (all hexagon). Cult is a let-down, seldom does the opportunity to join occur and seldom is it worth it. Herald is generally held as very hard. Contains Gate bursts.

Lurker at the Threshold - Extra gates with special powers. Encounters are relatively generic, good for broadening out deck but not great on theme. Contains gate bursts. Herald is potentially exploitative, and possibly a little confusing if not exploited.

Personally I'd recommend them pretty much in the order I've listed, but if you want extra gates / monsters, you might want to get Black Goat or Lurker first.

To me, it was a diffcult tie between DPh and Lurker at first.

DPh has amazing theme, the OW and Arkham encounter cards are the best in the whole game in my oppinion. Then the whisper marker and patrols add a most needed variety to the otherwise empty (and possibly boring) streets. Fair amount of investigator cards, a herald that makes Nyarli actually hard, it's a great expansion overall.

Lurker encounters are a lot more generic imo, which was a bit of a disappointment. Luckily, it adds much needed theme through the herald, which is actually a guardian under most circumstances (Try him against Yog-Sothoth!) and is immensely fun (So, you want to close that -5[2] gate on Unvisited Isle? Sell your soul mortal, you have no choice!). The new gates and relationship cards add new mechanics, making the game more interesting overall.

KiY is considered to be very popular from what I've seen around the forums, but I don't have it or Black Goat yet, so my oppinion about those is flawed at best. KiY is all about theme I think, acts get diluted fast (Tibs offered a way to work around that, though.) and it only adds new mechanics if you play a certain herald. Decent number of new items and also introduces one of the most overpowered tools, don't ever give it to Patrice!

Although Black Goat adds corruption mechanics, you won't see much of it, unless you're playing with the aforementioned Goat. Which is hard, as in makes the doom level progress like no other. The only expansion to add new monsters.

So personally, I would recommend DPh, if you want theme and consider the streets boring. Lurker, if you want new and interesting mechanics, or if your group struggles with sealing away the Ancient One.