Hey Arkham Junkies!

I just got my order of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh today and I had an absolute blast looking at all the new cards and rules. There's something so satisfying about implementing new cards into the old decks. It feels so good to shuffle every deck knowing there are new surprises in store!

Anyways, onto my question:

Exhibit items are obviously the key addition that come with this expansion. Have you made exhibit items a permanent part of your Arkham game? Obviously, these items come from the Exhibit that is traveling through Arkham. But what if you don't use the Mythos/Herald cards or the Ancient Whispers Marker? Suppose you simply come across an Arkham or Other World encounter that tells you to draw an exhibit card.

Do you ignore those cards in your playthroughs or do you say "Well, even though I'm not really using this expansion, I suppose it's possible for my investigator to still stumble across one of these items. ESPECIALLY in an Other World."

I'd just like to see what other people do and how they feel it affects their games.

Ben, the old version of the Dark Pharaoh allowed you to draw one Exhibit Item instead of a Unique Item every time an encounter instructed you to draw a UI. In this way, Exhibit Items had a chance to be part of every Arkham game, even with no other components of the Pharaoh in.

I haven't played with the new Pharaoh yet, so I don't know if there are particular interactions with the new edition and this is possible, but I'm confident it still is.

There is but there isn't, Julia. Basically, the Dark Pharaoh Herald treats UI and Exhibits as one and the same for the sake of Herald effects--take a hit to sanity every time you draw one, even during set-up. However, I believe the new rules clarify that you can only gain exhibit items during an Exhibit Encounter now.

As for how I use them, I just include the Whispers token now in any game so I can make use of the Exhibit items too. Unfortunately, that also means needing to use the Patrol tokens too.

I think you're missing something, Julia. Even the original CotDP didn't have that option. Rather, its rules clarified that locations where you were likely to get Unique Items would be likely to offer Exhibit Items: sometimes such an encounter would give you the choice of which one you wanted. But there was never a universal rule that always let you pick between the two.

In addition, Dr. Faust, recall that the herald penalty is different whether you obtain a Unique or Exhibit item: you suffer a sanity loss or gain a curse, respectively.

Julia, you should get the revised edition. Just from looking through the contents of the box, it looks really fun.

Dr. Faust, there are definitely ways to get exhibit items apart from having Exhibit Encounters. There are several Location, Other World, and Mythos cards that allow for an investigator to draw an exhibit item without having to go to the Ancient Whispers token on the board.

But yeah, that's kind of what I envisioned doing myself as well: always having the Ancient Whispers token moving around on the board, even without using other components. Although, I imagine that it should make perfect sense to be able to draw Exhibit Items from encounters without the Ancient Whispers token moving around Arkham. Being that those cards that allow you to draw one are fairly rare (Especially when being watered down by all the other cards in the decks), it should be a pretty amazing reward to be able to draw one for free.

:laughter: ok folks, THANKS for pointing this out! Don't ask me why, but I've always been 100% sure you were always granted that option. Thinking back, there was a time when I played AH, DH and CotDP and most of the Pharaoh encounters allowed you to choose, so that, at some point, I guess we houseruled you were always allowed to choose to avoid diluting Exhibit items from appearing into games (not that I remember of drawing any in the last 5 years or so apart from League scenarios).

Apologies, I didn't want to quote a non-exsting rule and create confusion

Ben, I do have a copy of the revised edition. Simply, I'm still studying Miskatonic Horror, and I have a couple hundreds games still to play before opening the new Pharaoh. No rush

In addition, Dr. Faust, recall that the herald penalty is different whether you obtain a Unique or Exhibit item: you suffer a sanity loss or gain a curse, respectively.

Yeah, you have a good chance to gain a curse. And than the 'boiling blood'-effect will do everything to make you feel like your welcome in Arkham. No, seriously, for me and my group the Exhibition Items are mostly avoided, because if we add an expansion to our game, we add every component. So there is always Exhibition items and the Dark Pharaoh. And this creates some difficulties. There were only few opportunities were one of us was actually happy to gain an Exhibition Item (mostly only if he/she was cursed already ). And some of them are really nice, but just like in the other Item Decks, there is always great disappointment there as well.

Well Heralds are a variant, and when you get more and more expansions you'll find that they're meant to be inter-mixed. Kingsport and Innsmouth come with more than one herald, which implies that they're intrinsically modular.

Yes, prinicipally because they provide the opportunity for street encounter sometimes. Mind you, I'm an all-in player anyway.

BenEggler,

I do use them 100% of the time, as I'm an "all-in" player. Also, I have house-ruled that Monterrey Jack may choose between Unique and Exhibit Items to make him a bit more interesting.

Cheers,

Joe

Jake and Joe, being all-in players, does that mean you play with EVERYTHING all the time? Can you maybe talk about what that experience is like opposed to just playing with the base board or one expansion? And Jake, that's a really good point about street encounters. I like that logic. Also, I really like that house rule, Joe. That makes perfect sense for Monterrey Jack. I think I'm going to have to implement that into my own games...

When I get Curse, I plan to put them in permanent rotation, yes.

I dump everything in, except for the game boards. Normally we use no more than two expansion boards at a time. (e.g. Kingsport and Lovecraft Country) If a Mythos card refers to an element that does not exist (e.g. open a gate at Devil Reef, when you're not using Innsmouth) just redraw. Darn sight easier than taking out everything each game.

Occasionally we'll slip down to one game board when the scenario tends to call for that (e.g. Haunted House, Masks of Nyarlathotep)