So, I made a custom board that has a special location type. Rather than stable or unstable, these locations are "Destabilizing:" they are stable locations at the start of the game, but once the Doom Track reaches 6 they become Unstable and gates can begin opening there.

The problem is implementation. Originally I was going to have Mythos cards that had the "Alternative Gate" option, where one gate would be an unstable Location and one would be destabilizing. If the Doom level was below 6, you opened the gate at the unstable location; six or above, and you opened it at the destabilizing location instead.

The problem with this is that Strange Eons does not allow you to put two custom locations on the same Mythos card -- if one of the gates shown is a custom location, the other one must be from one of the official boards. Since the board I'm making is supposed to be usable without any of the expansions or even the base game, this is something of a problem.

Does anyone have any ideas that could solve this?

First of all, your idea is simply brilliant! Love it!

And agreed, alternate gates seems to be the best choice. As for the customization thing: you should totally ask Thelric. Send him a PM, or post your question in the SE thread (he always answers in a reasonable time) so that he can tell you if Strange Eons is customizable according to your needs.

Hope this helps

Another method might be to have instability tokens which are added to a specific area (e.g. Summerisle ) Each turn, at the start of the Mythos, you draw an instability token from the cup and add it to the specified location. When there are three instability tokens on a given location, remove them and breaks the seal there (if there is one) or else the next gate is placed there instead of the listed location on the Mythos card.

The advantage of this method is that it segues into the base game without the need for extra Mythos cards, and it allows you to control the frequency of variably unstable locations. A highly unstable location might have a lot of tokens, a low unstable location has less tokens. For balance purposes, some of the tokens can be blanks (you get the occasional day off, just like a gate bounce) and some of the tokens might have a clue icon on them as well as a location: instructing the player to add a clue token to that location as well.

A secondary benefit of this method is that you can use this mechanic in encounters. (e.g. The treasure you found in the secret temple will undoubtedly prove valuable in your quest to defeat the ancient one, but taking the druid's treasure from its sacred resting place has ramifications beyond your understanding. Gain a Unique Item but add an instability token to The House on the Borderlands . )

Another benefit of this method is that you can scale it: In a 7-8 player game two tokens might be enough to trigger a gate, in a 4-6 player game, three tokens might be required and in a 1-2 player game, four tokens might be required.

Arkanian,

I replied to your message some time ago but haven't heard back. I need an email address to send a small plug-in file to. If you are still around, check your messages and reply with an address.

Cheers,

Chris