With these forums gone, I will check into FFG's site generally much less often, and be less attentive to their product news and advertising.

I guess there could be an argument that by having in-house forums they are insulating players of their games from a larger internet public. If all of the discussions we've had here took place on BGG or in a public |f| group, for example, that would give the game more exposure on more widely-used platforms. Mind you, I think that argument would be wrong, and that forums in a diversity of platforms are good. I've been active on BGG this whole time, but I've appreciated the different and more focused "scene" here.

I like the idea of having my whole collection in "Return"-sized boxes. I've got two generic card boxes that are nearly that size that I use to hold the newest cycles, and I've got a big "shoebox" with all the player cards in it. But I'd be happy to break the player cards into class-specific boxes.

I keep the non-basic non-story weaknesses in their own little bin next to basic weaknesses. They are a border case, like multi-class player cards (ugh).

The playmats for this game have been out of stock in the FFG store for a long while, and the player base has continued to grow. I think putting out new playmats--or even just reprinting the old ones--should be like printing money, right? They've put these together as organized play premiums before, where they are operating at a loss for promotional purposes. Why not have some to sell? On a related note, I don't think they've ever sold the deck boxes like this one that have been issued at Arkham Nights events: In light of the often-expressed consumer appetite for storage solutions, I wonder if these would be commercially feasible?

I had pestered my local shop about Devil Reef and WOTOG so much that they evidently set aside two copies of each for me. So even though I had picked up my (paid in advance) copies last weekend, I got a phone call today saying they were holding them for me.

Meat Cleaver Zoey ("Zoey's Bloody Hands") is still one of my favorite deck designs for sheer thematic appeal.

These packs are late at my local shop, too. Not yet arrived with no coherent ETA. They're blaming the distributor.

I recently played the Daisy challenge scenario "Read or Die." I was able to fulfill the minimum conditions to have a chance at victory, and in the token draw that could have brought me a win (a little better than a 30% chance), I pulled one that not only made me fail, but caused my defeat through horror. I considered that to be a perfectly balanced, successful session.

The mulligan becomes more important as a cycle proceeds. It's more likely that you've added some individual high-value cards, and/or that your accumulated trauma makes you anxious to get out assets for "soaking" incoming punishment.

I think they're pretty spoiler-free; I tried to make them so.

Yes, I've read both, and my reviews are at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/238813/arkham-horror-fiction-reviewed I thought The Last Ritual was terrific.

I just saw that Cryo Chamber had put out a new desert mix, and it made me want to play Guardians of the Abyss right away!

I just buy at my local shop during the week of release, and I've never missed a box or a pack.

I use a pocket divider for each cycle in my three-ring rules binder. The campaign guide from the deluxe goes in the front pocket, and I put campaign logs in the back.

First Watch seems to be right up Gloria's alley. She would get to decide both who got each encounter and what order they would resolve in. She's got special chops to get the most out of Fool Me Once. On the Skill front, Take the Initiative is perfectly bankable for her in the encounter phase, and Intrepid is quite nice too. At 2x, that's 8 cards out of the 10 subclass cards she could take, not too discouraging as an option. Most of the cards she really wants are Mystic cards anyhow.

I did make my bicycle run to pick up In Too Deep at the local shop yesterday. I was surprised to see that they also had Dark Revelations, when they have not previously stocked any of the novellas. My pre-ordered copy hasn't arrived yet, but UPS tracking shows it has made it to my local post office.

Weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow. I'm hoping to bicycle over to my FLGS for In Too Deep.

For Arkham, it certainly appears so.

Doubt token = -2 to Willpower tests, +2 to Intellect tests, in other tests treat as skull Conviction token = +2 to Willpower tests, -2 to Intellect tests, in other tests treat as cultist

I had similar misgivings, but ... We just played a session of Blob using Mary and Trish. Mary was a lot of fun, and her impact on the bag made a big difference for Trish too. I'm not so sure that it's "here to stay" for future cycles. Keywords are one thing (although haunted seems to have vanished after TCU), but the need for the bits suggests that this bit of "bloat" is peculiar to Innsmouth. If it's a hit, maybe future cycles will have their own tokens for the bag. (A token mechanism could have been used for Doubt/Conviction in Carcosa, or for Yig's Fury in Forgotten Age, for example.)

I just got email notice that my preorder of Agatha Gloria HAS SHIPPED. 😁

For any standalone scenario, use the standalone rules in the Rules Reference. They allow you to spend up to 9 XP upgrading your deck, plus an additional 10 XP for each added basic weakness you are willing to add. Where that becomes a point of diminishing returns depends on the investigator and your card pool. If you're worried about overpowering the scenario, play on hard/expert. But I think it is reasonably tough on easy/standard. And yes, set the player cards aside.

I just got an email that says my copy of Dark Revelations is "shipping soon."

I did take Followed x2. I lucked out in my Basic Weaknesses for Trish--they are all enemies! Although I'm not really looking forward to Accursed Follower.