Very nice report and an amazing victory for your first game. I too amazingly pulled my wife into becoming a regular player. Maybe your TV will last longer now. Narly has a short doom track and to play with only 2 players and seal him is difficult, even in the base game. In addition, you were running with pretty average investigators. All in all an impressive triumph. You had talked earlier about randomizing the Mythos. Did you do that? One down and 29 to go.

Spectre2661 said: <RANT ON> And as for a solo player taking more than one character as a houserule there is nothing in the rules to indicate that rather it seems to indicate that a single player taking multiple charaters is encouraged and expected. And I have never sacrified a character for the good of the others and never felt compelled to either <RANT OFF> Boy I'd wish you'd show me where in the rules one player taking more than one investigator is encouraged and expected? Neither is it prohibited. It's just not mentioned AFAIK. Just to be clear, it's not a big deal. I play by myself all the time with four investigators. I too do not sacrifice investigators but I am willing to take more chances. Sometimes those chances payoff and sometimes they don't. I'm certainly more willing to maximize each character by altruistically trading with my other investigators. And none of my investigators take needless risks like they do when run by other less veteran players. I'd be fine with reporting a 1 player/4 investigator game in our stats files too.

I've gotten them all but only because we set out to do it as part of a home grown scenario. As part of a normal game we've only gotten Darke's once and coded messages once each. Darke's proved useful but I don't remember being especially impressed with coded messages, though it sounds good on paper. Absolutely no one is willing to take an injury for Velma nor give up the Necronomicon for the library. I've often wondered what was on the mind of the creator when he made those last two? Just some more thematism? Finally got changed in our last game by accident. Sent to the high house with enough bloods to do it. Then we realized that it still takes clue tokens to seal the gate before placing the unbreakable seal. At least that's the way we read it.

Vaxsythrakul said: I am just trying to extend the life of the product for myself (and possibly my wife) by "teasing" myself with expansions. I want to almost be sick of the base game before I bust into Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, as I plan to introduce the expacs in chronological order. I just don't see that as a problem. There's just a whole lot of stuff in these games, some of which is seldom if ever happening. My wife and my daughter Little Emily player 2 games every weekend. They've both probably played over 100 games by now. It's still a treat. If you like the game, and it looks like you are planning to, no extra extending is necessary. I agree that you should play until you start winning regularly with the base game, which I imagine will be a lot sooner than 20 or 30 games. Little Emily's favorite expansion is Curse of the Dark Pharaoh and she just loves the Exhibit items, especially the masks. Also, it doesn't really appear to make the game very much harder, but a little. We usually play the touring mode where half the cards are from the CotDP. I think you are going about playing this game in a right way. I just think your timeline will turn out to be a little long. But as the Curry Chef said. You'll know.

I hope you are too. Facing the Mtyhos is like having a baby. Everybody thinks they're ready. They're not ready. Good Luck and have fun.

Morgaln said: Mageith, I think you misunderstood Star Burn's point. Kate's text says: "monsters can move into her location as usual". The term "location" is used, although in the base set, monsters could only move into the same area as an Investigator when said Investigator was in a street. "Location" seems to be misused in Kate's effect text in this instance and could therefore also be misused in the other instance. No, I think I understand. It's possibly another example of "location" meaning something other than its defined meaning. So therefore, it must mean street and/or other world area. I don't think we can jump to that interpretation. I think the explanation was only to say that the only thing Kate prevents is the sudden appearance of monsters. I can't tell you why that wrote those words but it could be an imprecise use of the word location or it could be that the author already future expansions in mind. They created aquation locations before there was much We don't know the alien mechanism by which monsters appear suddenly in a space in which there is no gate (marker). I assume its a temporary gate opening and closing right back up the releases a monster or two. (In fact I think there's a card that says as much). That's why Kate can flux those away. Her wonderful machine prevents that even temporary gate from opening.

I think that was just to make clear that if she's in the streets, monsters can still move into her during the mythos phase. As I said, I've been interpreting rules in many games for a long, long time, longer than most of the people on the forum are old. Plus I'm always writing rules for my home groups. It's easy to trying to define something like "location" for short cutting the rules then forgetting your definition and using it in its generic sense. Also my rules quote is from the revised rules, but that doesn't mean they still rethought of everything. Bottom line, of course, is that AH is usually played in groups who accidentally or on purpose play with their own house rules and so we can play this in a way that makes sense to the owners. It makes sense to me that Kate cannot stop monsters from appearing in half of an Other World and can't stop monsters in streets which really are an abstraction of a whole bunch of streets and not just one street. On the other hand, a location, for the most part, is a small area (some exceptions like the graveyard, woods and unvisited isle, etc.)

kroen said: Why would you redraw the Sightining against Aboth? The question remains even if it isn't the first mythos. So against Aboth you would simply ignore all the Strange Sightnings? sounds a little harsh to me. Because there's no gate. It's the gate that starts the whole thing off. I was just referring to the opening card. No, a surge is a surge. That's actually happened and we just go back to the previous gate.

MrsGamura said: Hmmm... I'm for don't play all expansion... really getting all next act cards, gates in Dunwich, double doom tokens, etc will make things blow outta proportion... their suppose to be rare for that reason! It's like having everything on a pizza then complaining there is not enough bacon, then when more bacon is punt on you complain there is not enough mushrooms so on and so fort... rant end Exactly. (Well not really exactly, adding stuff to Pizza is still usually very good!) Nearly every game is going to be a Dunwich Game. If you only get an Act card 1 out of 15.5 times, its going to be a rare game when you get 2 and a really rare game when you get three. I had a game last night with 21 turns, the longest since I've been keeping records. It's amusing to hear all the ways to make all the expansions relevant. I gave up on that idea a long time ago. Back to the Pizza. If every Pizza had everything on it, Little Emily would never eat Pizza (her favorite food with the right ingredients). The Anchovies would just ruin it for her as would the mushrooms. So that's how it is for us with all expansions added.

kroen said: 1. What happens if it's the first mythos card of the game? (I'd rule that no monsters are spawned) 2. What happens if it is drawn while Abhoth is the Ancient One? (I'd rule that no Child of Abhoth is spawned, as Aboth reads "put a random Child of Abhoth on the surging gate" and in this case no gate was surged) Am I right? I really like the way you put the image of the card in question. 1) We always draw another card with a gate on it. I think Kevin once suggested that, too. Before that we'd just considered ourselves lucky. 2) Yep, there's no gate to put a child on. Lucky again! But, as I said, now we'd draw another Mythos card, so that question wouldn't (and hadn't) come up.

What a location is is absolutely clear in the rules text. If FFG has possibly misused the term in other places is really irrelevant. Game authors do it all the time. They take a common generic term like "location" and make it a rule, so they don't have to write 'stable or unstable location' and can just write 'location'. Then they forget their own defintion. As to Silas, remember the games are only playtested with the base game. There are no aquatic streets in Arkham. There may or may not be aquatic streets in Innsmouth. In fact, I wondered about that when they made the aquatic rules in Kingsport. Merchant streets flood in the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh but are not aquatic in for Kingsport purposes. Kate is already one of the stronger investigators even with the conservative intepretation. So we won't be playing her power works in either the Other Worlds or street areas. Besides it makes sense to me for the various reason outlined by other posters. In nearly 300 games, I cannot remember the time monsters have appeared in Kate's street area. I also agree with the interpretation that Kate only prevents monsters appearing in her space, even in monster surges. The Harsher the Better.

Unique Ability: Science! - Any Phase: Gates and monsters cannot appear in Kate's location due to her flux stabilizer. Monsters and gates do not disappear if she enters their location, however, and monsters can move into her location as usual. I think the key is the term "location". This refers to the round circles in Arkham. In the other worlds, we have "areas". Of course, location could be used generically here but until otherwise noted I interpret it techncally. "2. PLACE INITIAL CLUES Place one Clue token on each location on the board that has a red diamond above it. These locations are unstable and represent the places where dimensional gates can open and monsters can appear. Locations are identified by circular illustrations overlaying the Arkham portion of the game board (for example, Silver Twilight Lodge and Ma’s Boarding House)."

Graksnor said: Gravedigger sounds so cool! My guess: Arkham Encounters: Instead of having an encounter in the graveyard, roll a die. On a 1, you are arrested. Otherwise, draw a monster trophy from the cup and keep it even if it has endless. Wouldn't that be a grave robber? Grave digging would be a legitimate profession, but I'd bet he'd know things! I wonder where his home start will be. St. Mary's? Or his he the odd man who'll start in a non stable location? I want to know who's going to use the rifle, carbine, brass knuckles, .357 magnum, & crowbar now that we have the cavalry saber and knife in someone's hands. I like the sailor best. I don't quite yet feel the spy makes sense, thematically. I'd certainly play the chef with zest. Reminds me of the butcher in The Mist. Something's amiss! Something's in the Mist!

Avi_dreader said: You guys left out Rex Murphy (named after Murphy's Law). Rex Murphy May 3, 2007 ... Current and archived opinions from one of Newfoundland's best-known journalists. www.cbc.ca/national/rex/index.html - Similar pages Anybody from Newfoundland? Maybe one of the authors is? I'll bet there's a girlfriend in there someplace.

thorgrim said: More of an homage than a joke as such, but I always though Dexter Drake's name was derived from Mandrake the magician. Could be completely wrong, but that's my idea. I always thought so. Charlie Kane the poltician made me think of the Citizen Kane the movie. Wison Richards has the names of the Authors of the game in it. Kevin Wilson Richard Launius

timf said: Yep! That's it. Millmaster. Sorry, my memory is spotty and I had just remembered it was an "M" name... got Millmaster confused with Magelith. Sorry. Anyway, back to the original point - I was on the old boards (with Millmaster, et all), then I disappeared, and have been lurking around these boards for a while now. I've been confused with worse.

With the Sailor I think we'll see more White Ship Captains.

timf said: Indeed, I am talking about you. In my hazy memory, there was a time where you weren't posting on the AH boards, and people were looking for your input into things... and you weren't posting. There is a fairly good chance that I've confused you with somebody else - one of the other "regulars" that stopped posting. Probably Millmaster

Tibs said: I think I read one article that tried to spin Lovecraft as an "Anglican enthusiast." Ha—euphemisms. When John Wesley broke off from the Anglican church and the Methodist church was formed, their first derogatory nickname was enthusiasts. The derogatory epithet that stuck was "methodist:". I imagine enthusiasm in the Anglican church is a rare commodity. Actually I thought Lovecraft was an atheist? So maybe Anglican enthusiast is a triple entendre ?

timf said: That's more than possible. I didn't know there were more than two forums - this and the "old" forums. The last thing I clearly remember from the "old" forums was a discussion on "where has Magelith gone?" When the formus moved, Magelith dissapeared for a while, and (s)he was sorely missed (by me as well as many others). I'm glad to see (s)he posts to this incarnation as well. If you are talking about me I never left an Arkham Horror forum. I did just stop posting on a Warhammer Forum a few years back. I just lost interest in the game. I am a he.

Kublacon is coming up!

It's packed to the gills with games. Sometimes they even give discounts.

Tibs said: I do know the answer to one of those. Kingsport doesn't have a monster limit probably to keep consistent with the other expansion boards. Innsmouth likely doesn't have a limit either. Consistent with the other expansion board (singular), at least at the time. If that's the reason, and it probably is, its really a poor reason. The reason given for Dunwich is that it has a mechanic affecting the monster limit. Kingsport doesn't (except for the occasional Mythos card). Monsters just go around in circles the whole game. Silly.

Tibs said: And don't forget what I said about Epic Battle and the difficult Kingsport AOs. Maybe it would be more helpful to see just the Kingsport investigators together, with no one else: Wendy Adams 69.7% Tony Morgan 63.3% Lola Hayes 61.1% Lily Chen 60.7% Luke Robinson 60.5% Daisy Walker 55.7% Rex Murphy 55.2% Charlie Kane 48.1% Oh. She's in the bottom three. Well Wendy clearly pulls ahead of everyone else, and Tony through Luke are pretty close. Poor Charlie Kane. Your time will come. Go out there and slap Glaaki for me buddy What Avi said. This doesn't really prove anything. And I notice you are not saying it does. In addition, while this is a very interesting statistic to me but it doesn't tell us a whole lot. When Kingsport came out the big uproar was over Lily. She was supposedly way too powerful being able to heal two points of Sanity or Stamina per turn and Kevin relented. So how is Lily being played? per her power or per Kevin's relentment? With complicated investigators and most of these are (esp Daisy, Rex, Lily, Wendy, Charlie and Luke) a lot depends on the experience of the players. As I said repeatedly, literally no one I've play with (and many of them are in your statistics) has played Daisy or Wendy to the max. Charlie is so complicated nobody nows how he works. I haven't been able to make either Rex or Luke work myself. By working I mean contributing to the success of the party instead of bringing them down. I like trying to make Luke work, but Rex bores me. An other investigator that defies logic is Amanda. Isn't she really high?

Gator Games is a retail game and hobby store in San Mateo, CA. 650-571-PLAY (7529) 4212 Olympic Ave, San Mateo http://www.gatorgames.com/ They have also sorts of eurogames. There might be something closer. It's about 12 miles from Palo Alto.