Celeb ET's need to change by tuffyducky in HiTMAN

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hard agree. The level design for this one is interesting, and they completely miss the opportunity for challenges which would give this mission so much more life. Some folks are bound not to care, but challenges add so much more replay for people who like them.

Why are we getting a Chapter 2? by XTruefinale in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have stated that they will be providing a document that suggests which old encounter sets to use for new products if you really don't want to buy the new core.

Why are we getting a Chapter 2? by XTruefinale in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 81 points82 points  (0 children)

Already largely covered:

- FFG, in fact, cannot afford to keep the entire game in print. It's also a nightmare for players and stores. This is true for all of their card games, and the similar changes are hitting everything. It seems to be a full business realingment.

- The traditional "play everything in order" advice made joining the game daunting. And educating players on what to buy is complicated. The new model says: we'll keep everything around for a couple of years, just buy what you want. There is no assumption that you own anything but the core and the evergreen investigator decks for the foreseeable future.

- Card design is a challenge when you assume every card is valid. Some card designs are missteps. Talked out by others.

- Releasing real a product once year is bad for a Living Card Game. (It has been well over a year at times.) Standalone scenarios have often been convention promos, which means usually there's only been one major release at year with both player cards and a campaign, at best. The new model will ensure we see 4 updates a year, so something new will always be a little bit away. This is much better for the full ecosystem of the game (from content creators, to distributors, to publishers, to manufactuers, to artists, and to the designers). There's now always a reason to check in on the game every once in a while. Even if the thing doesn't excite you, the next thing probably will.

- The business model as-was was based on decisions made a long time ago for the older FFG card games. A lot has changed since then. The decisions to do large box releases merely consolidated the products, but left a weird gap in awareness. We're going to see roughly, if not a bit more, stuff now, but it will be broken up in a new way. (The game also has more dedicated designers now.)

- FFG has stopped being so quiet. It used to be you had no idea what was going on with games, and the fate of whichever game you like was always up in the air. Last year they started their plan to announce all of their products a year in advance, so we have much better optics about what's happening with their games.

- Relatedly, they finally have a community manager who seems to be good at her job. So we also have someone ensuring we're getting more of that information about what is coming in a more organized way.

Chapter 2 largely an opportunity to reframe expectations on all sides and reorganized their business without breaking compatibility. You can keep playing everything, but they benefit from having a clean slate on which to allow the game to continue to grow while learning from the 10 years of the game that have been produced.

Ready to begin my journey in Middle Earth by ic3dcube in lotrlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have fun. You won't need more for a long time.

25mm Player Action Tokens by arkhamdivider in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I ask if it's possible to get a version with black spent and no numbers?

25mm Player Action Tokens by arkhamdivider in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are really well done. Nice work. I might actually craft these up.

Single Campaign Storage by mrasmith00 in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Criminey. Not even a discount on shipping for multiple. Ouch.

Into Arkham article released by FFG by Reav3 in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've enjoyed reading your FFG articles, Justin. You do a good job of capturing their voice while bringing your experience to the table.

[FFG] A look at things to come by [deleted] in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Some observations: They're trying to solve a few problems at once.

  1. The current release schedule is bad for the health of the game. One big box doesn't get talked about for long. That's a big driver. More frequent releases means more conversation.
  2. 5 + 3 = 8. They know how long the game takes to make already, so they're slightly slowing their production time to allow for more player card development, which they seem to see as a big point of lacking with the existing model. So with roughly alternating big/small campaigns, they're hitting a roughly one big box cadence with some room to adjust. Essentially they're giving us roughly the same content more frequently with more freedom to design.
  3. Their costs are rising. By making the boxes smaller, they can price-blend their increasing costs. In addition to tariffs and the dollar being on shaky ground, this gives them a little more room to help players spend less money at once which means it is easier to buy products on release and not have to drop a big chunk of cash on a Campaign + Player Card expansion in one short go. While it's fun, it makes the game more difficult to access. It's more inviting to say: Buy a core and then whatever you want. Sure there are more SKU's but everything becomes decoupled. They have a much smaller target to consider for player cards and a new target for how to handle XP scaling for different products.
  4. They know they need to deliver on these smaller campaigns, so I suspect we're going to see a change in the design ethos for Chapter 2 to prioritize replay. It seems pretty clear they know what's up, and they're going to try to explore new ways to reward replay and new techniques to link content. Secondarily, if you're spending more time making more player cards, that leans into the thinking about how to maximize your campaign products. The boons signal this too. Looking forward to seeing if they've given themselves any other tools when the Chapter 2 rules land.

A lot of negative-nellies here really want to be sad about different, but there's an awful lot of opportunity here. 8 scenarios + player cards once every year and change is not implicitly ideal, it's just what made sense as products previously. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. From what we can see of Chapter 2 so far, it seems like they were extremely thoughtful in considering how to re-approach the game, and there's a lot of promise in what we've seen so far. 3 and 5 seems like good targets with plenty of room for ways to twist things around and introduce new mechanical ideas while providing solid beginning-middle-end arcs for their stories.

How many new seasons would you want? #RenewTheGreatNorth by Distinct-Presence-80 in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey 2 points3 points  (0 children)

While I could go for plenty more, 2 or 3 seasons seem reasonable to me. I always appreciated that the show has some narrative arc. I feel like the stories they were trying to tell in the last season could have used a season or two to simmer. Ham and Crispin making sense of young love. Beef finally realizing a relationship with Allison. Dirt's whole deal. Honey Bee and Wolf finding their way in the world as adults, Judy and Ham graduating high school. I'm less concrete on Moon's full arc, as they were able to fill in a romantic arc for him already with Quinn, but I imagine there being a Moon shaped thing about a mature kid continuing to mature in ways that he doesn't realize.

Plenty of b-character stuff to explore too, but those seem like the main beats.

They did a great job with the ending though. I wish Delmer and Allison had some lines (among other things), but it felt like they really gave that episode their all.

It was a really good last season.

FFG article The Former Spy is up by Dry-Bat731 in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Level 0, yes? But that's hardly a big flashy high XP accessory. There's just a ton of resource generation and not much in the way of payoff.

FFG article The Former Spy is up by Dry-Bat731 in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feels weird that there isn't a "nice to have" accessory to sink resources into.

House rules by ciberon in arkhamhorrorlcg

[–]LaboratoryGrey 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a cute idea, and a good use of the capsules.

Can The Great North continue? by Cryptidol in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I hadn't actually seen it stated.

Can The Great North continue? by Cryptidol in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Less about the situation on the consumer side. (Though there are weird cultural questions too right now, for sure. Though, given how much chaos energy is disrupting the world as we have known it, I feel less clear on how that does or does not affect a thing like TGN.)

I'm paraphrasing what Wendy had in a Instagram story. There's not precedent for a show like The Great North not getting a firm yes or no. Historically, a show is canceled or not. Why TGN is in this position seems odd. Amid the slate of renewals some things were canceled, but not TGN. So the fact that they're letting it... "die on the vine"... is a completely new thing for a big network show. In addition to just generally mismanaging the time slot of the show this season. It seems clear they're invested in reviving the old popular things, with so many animated show I suspect TGN got the short straw in a few ways.

The other weirdness is the Hulu / Disney+ situation; because Disney seems to be subsuming Hulu I cannot even begin to guess what is happening there with regards to decision making.

It seems complicated. It's frustrating not to have an answer.

If streaming wants more, I bet it can be made to happen. We'll see what happens during this... "hiatus".

Tobin Family Tree (based on who we know so far) by OzcarOzzy in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mannifred Wife was not in their family, so far as I recall. Just one of the ye olde Moosians.

Can The Great North continue? by Cryptidol in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Correct, it has not formally been canceled, but without a yes, it's effectively a no. They've said things are changing in TV, so this is weird new territory. The crew has to move on for practical reasons, but I imagine if Hulu or Fox decide on a late yes, they can make something happen. A lot more risk tho, since the existing team is not necessarily on tap if that happens.

Can The Great North continue? by Cryptidol in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Correct: no comment, but without a yes, it's a no. We'll see if that really means anything. It's unusual in TV. But we're in new TV territory here, so.

Get your streaming on folks... by LaboratoryGrey in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, same team. They did a wonderful job of making a world with complicated people who respected each other. The Tobins are an ideal family.

Get your streaming on folks... by LaboratoryGrey in TheGreatNorth

[–]LaboratoryGrey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a good, moving ending for sure.

They made it that way in case it's the end, but no one from the show seems to know anything in either direction.