Let's Chat Deckbuilding Options for Arkham Horror! (ARKHAM TOWN HALL)

[@Yrevnoc]

For a long time the Dunwich deckbuilding was my least favourite deckbuilding rules, but the Edge of the Earth permanents completely changed them for me. Now I'm constantly going back to them to build decks that no other investigator could build.

[@astutedunsparce4036]

Nobody’s ready for the “player responsibility” talk yet, but I agree!

[@markzsombor6059]

When it comes to duplicating 5/2 deckbuilding, on top of gimmick investigators I would add ones that can't utilize large parts of the pool, like Leo's 1 foot kills a lot of rogue cards and Daisy's 3 willpower means she doesn't want to touch most spells. I would love to see a 5 guardian/2 rogue that cares about foot. It also always annoyed me that when looking at characters that combine rogue with survivor that Bob and Rita have the best combat skill with 3, it would be an interesting card pool with someone who could fight easier. A 5 rogue/2 survivor with 1/3/4/4 again would add something to the investigator pool.

[@ThousandEmu]

So many good rogue and survivor fighting options that I'd like to combine, and I'm staring at wendy (1 fight) and Preston (no illicits) as the 5/2s.

[@mr.blackpitts6850]

I've always wanted to see a mystic investigator with no access to spells. I believe there is still a lot of design space left untapped in mystics aside from "only brain matters."

[@fredfredrickson5436]

A provocative gimick might be a suite of investigators which had a strict stipulation of constantly maintaining a balance of ten cards from across a mix of three specified classes from level 0, with each of those classes then being uniquely restricted to respective level 1,2 & 3 upgrades only. Doubtless, some players would complain at launch, but those investigators would prove to be enduringly interesting. The trait tags in Arkham were really badly thought out at the outset (as MJ has previously acknowledged) and as such the categories are far too broad, with not enough sub-sets to develop ongoing distinctive investigator characterisations at this stage in the game's life. With this in mind, I think we might begin to see investigator design shift increasingly heavily toward firmer unique weaknesses and special abilities that inform deckbuilding choices with a less formal but more practical emphasis. P.s. I agree that Kate should have gotten Lightning Gun, but then I've always thought Lightning Gun should have had an arc effect, which spread the damage across multiple successive enemies. Perhaps they can do a level 4 "lost prototype" version and make me happy on both counts. P.p.s. We still need a big game hunter, a gaucho, a syndicate assassin, a police chief, a mob accountant, a political fixer, a firefighter, an exorcist, a roughneck, a witch or warlock (of Nodens), a time traveller, an engineer, and Lita Chandler as a playable investigator.

[@carriekelly7606]

I would love a second run through of all the 0-5 main class 0-2 secondary class pairings to give the pairings shackled to gimmick investigators or investigators who just don't complement their card pool a second chance. A reason why I appreciate the Dunwich investigators and think you were a little too hard on them is that they are all extremely open ended by their statlines and abilities, none of them force you into a particular archetype or towards a specific sub set of the card pool in the way many recent investigators do. How many deckbuilding options you have available is as much about the frontside of an investigator as it is the backside.

[@Kodacun]

When I created my custom gators I gave them split off class cards. The guardian for example can take rogue assets 0-1 and survivor skills and events 0-1. The synergies are as prevalent but it has caused me to experience some interesting card interactions. I would love to see more characters designed with that in mind.

[@halforange1]

0-5/0-2 - Do it, make another round of investigators (20) with core set deckbuilding EotE - FFG should do another cycle or two using different combinations (survivor -> seeker sounds fun) Trait - My least favorite. Cards that share traits are usually found in one class (as mentioned in the video) or take up the same slot (charms). I just never get excited by trait based deckbuilding. Speculation - I’d love to see an investigator that can take assets from a bunch of different classes but only their main class’s events and skills. I don’t think you could do a whole cycle like that though. Also, I wonder if FFG will have existing investigators reprinted with different deckbuilding or some kind of mix and match system that contains responsible limitations on which deckbuilding styles could be used for existing investigators.

[@gulthor]

Regarding the self-regulation mentioned around the 37 minute mark: while that's easy to do in 2-handed solo, I think a lot of the complaints are around different expectations when playing in a group. I agree it's easy to police yourself. It's a very different conversation when you're talking about wanting to police your friends. As you say, it's a cooperative game, but your friends may not agree that breaking the game with the most busted cards is un-fun. Over time, that's how you start to lose players.

[@PlayingBoardGames]

I think this is very fair, but I'm also of the belief if you can't talk to your friends about managing game expectations, that's probably a rough sign of the state of the friends. Obviously this is different if you're playing with people at an LGS or an event, but I think your friends should be the easiest group to have this conversation with!

[@MAnto19-666]

In my experience, there is a point (around the start, before you do any playtest) in game design when you just pull numbers randomly on gamepieces with very loose benchmarks, with the intent of coming back and adjust them in case something goes over the edge. I found that often deckbuild restrictions miss that last adjustment. Let's take Kate as an example, but a lot could be said similarly with other gators: it seems they just went with random Kate 0-5 seeker 0-4 science, nothing was broken, and no one came back to it to adjust anything. Or i'm wrong and there will be a non seeker lvl 5 science that is gamebreaking with her in the next set. I'll take it as a win-win situation

[@bluebunny1394]

On the Dunich investigators i think it would have been interesting if they had access to limited number of cards and a max of like 5 xp in the off class. would open up some interested build options between reliability and power from the off class (maybe disallow permeant cards). I generally prefer the trait limited deckbuilding as it makes you look at the card pool differently. I honestly would like to see some more characters with limited upper limits like 0-3 of their main class with maybe 0-2 in 2 off classes giving up depth for breath. I would love some more edge of the earth style investigators they could get another 3 cycles of them.

[@MattCrawley_Music]

The Barkham investigators have the best deckbuilding

[@ethanlivemere1162]

"Cards that look like they smell interesting" is the best deckbuilding option ever

[@dragonhawk00]

The thing about myconid's power level is that the floor is strong and the ceiling is broken. I'm just running myco in rex. No actual direct support, just book boost and investigate. I eat 2 to 3 things a game, my flex fighter is beginning to question why they are even playing.

[@natooo8312]

Here's an idea! The next town hall while eating progressively hotter and hotter hot sauce? Appreciate the banter!

[@emergency.jergens]

Parallel investigators can solve the Gimmick vs. Deckbuilding issue

[@PlayingBoardGames]

I unfortunately think parallel investigators aren't real enough to solve these issues.

[@emergency.jergens]

@ Well glass half full: I think it’s good that there are spaces in deckbuilding they haven’t explored yet because it gives us cool potential things to look forward to in future products 😄 kinda like how everyone was excited for Seeker-Rogue!

[@PlayingBoardGames]

@emergency.jergens Agreed!

[@Gaudaloth]

Can we get a paralel investigator rank?

[@zachfisher3364]

Marion should be allowed to use bandoleir. However, they really need to put "No two-handed assets" on her card. It shouldn't be a flavor nor mechanics loss for her to have more carrying capacity. It is a loss if we have to think of how she would possibly be firing the Ornate Bow.

[@PlayingBoardGames]

I can get behind this!

[@rupert7565]

Imagine the next seeker (after drowned) to have restriction: no allies. I think I would like to see a no illicit rogue, with access off-class events

[@mudgee92]

For the Myconids it's not about the power-level of the card. Seeker shouldnt be able to delete enemies and or ward an encounter card every round. Why is that in their colour pie along with everything else they already have? Maybe Seeker should be able to do this, but while jumping through hoops (discard cards for Blood Rite, or drop clues for that insight ward), but these cards don't even require you to stop picking up clues! You do it in parallel to the job that youre doing already...

[@PlayingBoardGames]

@@mudgee92 I agree with you on the basis of the design, but that doesn't change my opinion in the video regarding the power level.

[@flopus7]

Core set makes no sense as a standalone. Especially the investigators, I start new players with dunwich or starter decks

[@siege1289]

I feel like Down the Rabbit Hole with Zoe is just too good for her deck building to be considered as weak as it is. Also the spell events to grab 2 clues in a pinch or to engage and deal 3 damage to an enemy. Everytime I make a Zoey deck I'm impressed by the options i have.

[@DanPyre]

If they ever repeat 5-2's, they really really need to focus it on folks who had restrictions to begin with. Preston and Patrice come to mind; I'd love to play less 'weird' builds with those class identities!

[@DAMNnext]

If the Dunwich investigators had been in the core box, you weren’t be able to play the game with the old core box. I remember that there were only the cards for a certain combination of investigators in the old core. You could not play Roland and Daisy together because both use seeker cards and there were only around 10 cards of each color. So maybe that’s the reason, why they released the Dunwich investigators not with the core box.

[@carriekelly7606]

Let's imagine that the alternate reality Core Set that had the Dunwich investigators also had a slightly modified player card suite.

[@M-E_123]

That's my thinking. Dunwich Investigators would be a good place to start new players, similar to the Starter Deck Investigators who are all a single class - it just makes sense for introducing what each class does. But to get the original Core Box to fit the card budget for that release, they needed multi-class Investigators who could theoretically be played with 1 copy of each class card. So they made a switch. But not saying it was a late decision, just what they needed to do to get the original Core Box out within budget.

[@woodroeparadee8374]

Hank Samson should have been a guardian, his ability is a guardian ability and it would be far less of an overlap with Silas and Calvin

[@Belegarth_Bench]

Not me wondering why you said my name at the beginning of the stream and remembering I attended this on twitch lmao

[@GuerricSamplesGames]

Official ruling for Underworld Support vs Parallel Skids' additional upgrade options, for those curious, is that the cannot in Underworld Support is inviolable and the additional upgrade option does not allow you to exceed the limit of 1 card by title

[@PlayingBoardGames]

@@GuerricSamplesGames Now what kind of official is this? FAQ official, email official, or Discord official?

[@GuerricSamplesGames]

Email ruling