When FFG announced A New Direction in moving from asylum packs to thrice-yearly deluxe expansions, they stated: "Some of the these upcoming deluxe expansions will focus on a particular faction, while others will focus on themes from the mythos."

We can safely expect future packs for The Agency, Cthulhu, Hastur and Shub-Niggurath, but what other themes do you think they'll come up with, or do you want to see?

Having just had Terror in Venice, I expect there'll be more location-based packs. Where do you think we might travel to? Egypt, Antarctica, Congo, Peru, Bermuda Triangle or an Australian Outback set..?

I can also imagine an other-worldly theme: they came from the stars.

Perhaps they might focus a set on Ancient Ones, with their cultists & servitors.

But the one thing I'd really like to see is a dedicated expansion to formally introduce Call of Cthulhu multiplayer.

I was thinking along the lines of an other-worldy theme, but perhaps with a new mechanic where your characters go off to something akin to a mini-story (and are gone for a bit on another world, similar to Akrham Horror) that has an effect on the game if you solve some task/meet a certain requirement. It would be a bit like the Quest cards from Warhammer: Invasion.

An expansion focusing on the Dreamlands/Dreamer subtype might also be interesting.

By the way, if you like CoC multiplayer you should give the Cenacle rules a chance. They are a tons of fun, far better than the multiplayer variant FFG put out.

I'd like to see more cards showcasing the characters, locations and events from HPL and chums stories. There is so mcuh material there, just in HPLs works, and most of it we haven't seen. Where is Herbert West for instance? Or the Unnameable?

I'd like to see an Orient Express themed set if we're talking locations, although Egypt or far-east (China, Japan, etc...) would be cool too. Or, do one centered on legendary places, the mythos is full of those. Antarctica would be nice to bring back the Polar cards.

A cult themed expansion would be really interesting, the human factions could get characters who were secretly cultists or hunting down the cults.

Thematically, I'd like to see more Prophecies, more Masks, and filling in of the well known but "missing" Ancient Ones that aren't yet in the game.

Those are some excellent ideas. I would be happy with any of them.

Though unlikely due to licenscing fees/restrictions, I'd love to see an expansion that focuses on one of Lovecraft's major works, such as At the Mountains of Madness, or even some of Chaosium's highly acclaimed mega-campaigns from their RPG (Beyond the Mountains of Madness, Masks of Nyaralthotep, etc).

I've always wanted to run a "story tournament" where you score points for playing the most thematic combos on the table. Having a boxed set that brought all the characters from one of Lovecraft's novellas together could really ratchet up the thematic elements of this game.

Cultists are my favorite subtype (with Mi-Go and Serpents a close second), so of course I'm in favor a cultist-themed set. There are all kinds of card ideas for a cultist expansions - opening gates to summon Ancient Ones, bringing about the end of the (game) world, secret rituals that force you to kill off characters in a specific sequence, etc... Good stuff.

Gates sound like a great idea for a theme that hasn't really been touched too much yet. We do have some summoning cards but it could expanded and maybe use gates for other purposes as well like traveling or access to special locations.

Yipe, on 18 Sept 2013 - 03:23 AM, said:

...By the way, if you like CoC multiplayer you should give the Cenacle rules a chance. They are a tons of fun, far better than the multiplayer variant FFG put out.

It seems that CoC cards have been written with multiplayer in mind, with cards referencing "choose an opponent", "each player", "any opponent", "player to his left", etc., so some more cards that introduce fun multiplayer interactions would be great. And I'd love to see new boards introduced specifically for multiplayer (possibly as mini-boards that fit one story card each, with marked spaces for five success tokens either side - which you could also use in a single player game for conspiracies, placing the mini boards alongside the Core set board).

I really think giving multiplayer some real cred in Call of Cthulhu could rejuvenate the game - bringing back players who liked the game but have lost interest in it, while adding a social/diplomacy aspect that could draw new players in.

Well, FFG did create a multiplayer-specific boxed set for Warhammer: Invasion, and that's something I thought would never happen. It's definitely possible we will see something similar for CoC, though I'm not sure it would revitalize the game. Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer: Invasion seem to be the niche LCGs. It's not impossible to find players, but you need to do some hustling to build a steady group.

For reasons discussed elsewhere, I think AGoT and Netrunner are the two big boys on the LCG block, with LotR and Star Wars rounding out the pack (at least for now). Based on the IP alone I can see SW catching fire as more cards are released, and LotR will always have a strong following if only because it's currently the sole co-op LCG on the block which makes it fairly unique.

Unfortunately I've not heard anything good about that Cataclysm multiplayer expansion for Warhammer: Invasion from my friends who play that game. I'm told that because WH:I was only ever intended to be one-on-one, there are regular cards in there that are too good under multiplayer rules and take all the fun out of it. I don't believe that CoC would suffer from the same problem, but I just hope this doesn't put FFG off of producing a CoC multiplayer set.

I guess my point is that FFG can't just keep printing new cards if they want to get more people playing the game. They need to shake it up somehow (without turning off existing players), and I think that by providing a new experience - multiplayer - it could make an impact.

...Either that, or they need to do a better job of marketing what they've already got. For a start I'd suggest repackaging existing asylum packs in to cycle box sets, so that newcomers only see a choice of 7 cycle boxes to buy and not an intimidating 42 packs to buy, on top of the 5 deluxe expansions and Core set). Then, if FFG can afford it, chip in to help Guillermo del Toro get his Mansions of Madness movie made and then ride that bandwagon.

Having said all that, I really like some of the suggestions you guys have made for new expansion themes for when FFG are looking to just pump out more cards for us - which I can't get enough of! = )

For reasons discussed elsewhere, I think AGoT and Netrunner are the two big boys on the LCG block, with LotR and Star Wars rounding out the pack (at least for now). Based on the IP alone I can see SW catching fire as more cards are released, and LotR will always have a strong following if only because it's currently the sole co-op LCG on the block which makes it fairly unique.

I'd say Star Wars is getting pretty big already - look at their Gencon numbers for instance.

We've tried the Cenacle 3p rules here once and it worked pretty well, I wouldn't mind playing it again although I'd need to refresh myself on how it worked. There are some adjustments - Arcane become more valuable for instance, and some cards get a buff in multiplayer while others don't, but I can't think of anything that would be flat out broken.

Anyway, if there WAS a multiplayer expansion it would probably be for Gencon next year. That would follow the faction,faction,theme box pattern we've seen so far and also be a good time to introduce a new set of story cards which have been estimated at about that time based on the intervals they've been released at in the past. It's all speculation of course, but there it is for whatever it's worth...

I think over time the faction boxes will help draw more new players in as it gives them an easy and inexpensive way to hit the ground running with a decent deck. It just takes time to put out all the factions.

Conspiracy cards work differently in the Cenacle rules: When you play them they replace a story card, leaving any existing success markers in play. That makes them a lot easier to score.

I had forgotten about that - our game didn't have any Conspiracies so the rule didn't come up. With some of the recent strong Conspiracy cards I hope that this would not throw off balance too much. Some Conspiracies deserve a little warning before they go off.