This is probably the most pragmatic approach.

I don't think this is true. Both scenarios favor fewer investigators. The latter scenario does due to the speed at which doom piles up on the board between investigator rounds, leaving players with too little wiggle room trying to deal with it. Both problems are fundamentally tied to mythos cup and how broken it starts getting to draw 10-12 mythos tokens every round in a single phase. Even though players get clues faster in this scenario, faster clue accumulation does not benefit players as much as faster doom spreading benefits the GOO and this is part because clues are underpowered for general use. Instead of giving you a single die reroll, they should have done something a bit more impactful like granting your observation bonus to a test or giving you an additional 1 on a die roll. Regardless, I think the big miss was not having a core rule to dilute the mythos cup a little with more players. I houseruled this a while back, so instead of using the story mode rule from UDW, I just add 1 blank to the cup for 4-5 player games (meaning there are 15 tokens in total), and 2 for 6-7 player games (meaning there are 16 tokens in total.) This helps make the mythos phase a little less punishing and tedious with larger player groups with an added bonus of supporting 7 player games.

After significantly more playtesting, I've significantly altered the rules to still rebalance the game without being too Santa Clausy with players. They are designed to: -address the scaling issue while adding support for 7 investigators and incorporating variants of the different game modes in UDW -rebalance the stats and a few dead-weight investigators -modestly increase the challenge levels of outbreak and terror scenarios -add a bit more flexibility and thematic flavor to the action economy -give proper weight to clues when used outside of the research action and a balanced use for Remnants for non-spellcasting investigators

So with these three codex "type" game modes, I have always worked under the assumption that outbreaks made for the easiest games, then terror, then anomaly based scenarios were the hardest, and my experience so far with playing the game supports this. Does this jive with other peoples' experience? If so, I've been considering how to add a bit more challenge at least to outbreak scenarios, possibly to terror scenarios. The simplest thing I've come up with is to spawn a monster when an outbreak occurs in the outbreak. Another option is to worsen the effect of the reckoning in those scenarios such as regenerating monster health, placing an additional doom at the unstable space, etc. Has anyone tried this type of fine-tuning?

I settled on having a new action called Resolve that lets investigators test will to repeat their first action in place of their normal second action. It adds flexibility to the two action economy and makes Will more useful (and consequently buffs high will investigators), but it's inherently risky in that if you fail you can lose your second action, so it's important to be prudent when doing it.

TYVM! Any way we could take a quick look at scenario wins/losses by investigator count?

Really not a fan of the art and I don't think the initial cast covers the bases well enough. Also, it really should be 5 player. The rest I'll wait and see.

Actually, scratch the above. I believe the best fix is to simply add one blank to the cup for 4-5 players or 2 blanks for 6 players.

I've said it elsewhere, but I believe the biggest issues with the scaling are the elite monster mechanics and with the lack of increasing doom allowance with investigators. I like using the mythos cup to adjust difficulty, but that's not really a good solution to the scaling issue itself. IMO, the scaling needs to be specifically addressed, and then you can use mythos modifications to make scenarios easier or harder independently of the investigator count. I'm experimenting with the following houserules: 1.) On spawning, elite monsters automatically take 1 damage for 2-3 players, 2 damage for 4-5 players, or 3 damage for 6 players. This has the effect of significantly nerfing weaker elite monsters (usually spawned from the monster deck) while only slightly nerfing epic monsters (spawned through the codex) with rising investigator counts and helps to make things feel more properly tuned. 2) 1 additional doom is allowed in neighborhoods/locations at 4-5 player, and 2 more is allowed at 6 players. This accounts for so much more happening during the mythos phase and makes it more likely investigators can respond in time. It's also possible to partially address this through other means, for example, curating the headline deck so that it tends toward more neutral rather than just bad.

Mythos Cup & Game Modes Standard Mode: With 4-5 players, add one blank to the mythos cup. With 6-7 players, add two Expert Mode: As standard, but replace one blank token with one doom token Nightmare Mode: As expert, but replace another blank token with a monster token General Gameplay: Two Remnants allow you to reroll a single die during a test Focus allows you to reroll a single die during a test, as normal Clues allow you to add a number of dice equal to your Observation to any test. In Outbreak scenarios, when an outbreak occurs, also spawn one monster. In Terror scenarios, you remove two doom from the neighborhood, placing one on the scenario sheet and discarding the other (instead of all doom from one space) New/Modified Actions: Gather Resources: Gain $1, then test Influence. On success, gain an additional $1 Recuperate: Regain 1 Stamina or 1 Sanity. Then, you may test Strength to regain 1 Health or Will to regain 1 Sanity. Resolve: test Will to repeat your first action instead of taking a different one. If you fail, you lose your second action. Shop (experimental): Depending on your location, you may purchase one item from the display if an item of the named type is available in the display (you may not draw from the top of the deck). For spells, you may draw two and choose one, shuffling the other. Curiosity Shop – curio Item Ye Olde Magic Shoppe - spell General Store – common item Investigator updates (non-echo versions): Norman Withers – When focusing either Lore or Observation, he may also focus the other, and this only counts as 1 toward his limit. Dexter Drake – When he may draw an item from the display, he may draw a spell instead. Rex Murphy – Can become blessed normally or by suffering 1 damage and 1 horror during reckoning. While blessed, 5s and 6s count as successes. Wendy Adams – Can focus other investigators in her location Minh Thi Phan – Her ability also works for up to two clues in her possession.

I think I may like a combination of this with Julia's rule. Add an action to the action list: Resolve - test will to repeat your first action instead of taking a second one. If you fail, you may still take a 2nd action per the normal rules.

I quite love this game, but the statistics reveal something that many people already intuitively knew - the game is significantly more punishing for larger player groups, which a shame because if anything it should be the opposite. It really needs to feel tight and enjoyable with larger player groups given that can help distinguish it from the card game. I'm curious what others' opinions are on this, but there are two rather obvious issues to me that I'm frankly surprised were not thought through better in the game rules (and I've made houserules around both.)a.) the elite monster rule is gratuitous and unnecessary given the mythos scaling and the # of monsters that appear on the board with larger player sizes - you'll lose several turns in combat with them while the board spirals out of control. There was really not a need to even have this feature, but at the very least the scaling should be significantly less, such as health of 2 + 1/2 the # of investigators. b.) more doom entering the board creates far more opportunities for doom spread triggers that the players never have a chance to intercept. There should have been a rule that (softly) scales the # of doom allowed in a neighborhood or space based on the # of investigators. As an example - add 1 the amount of doom that can be in a neighborhood space for 3 or 4 investigators, or 2 for 5 or 6 investigators.