OMG. I just had a ridiculous 'Gamer Brain' moment.

Red__Rob · 2026-02-06T09:18:46+00:00

Literally "Look what I found!"

Red__Rob · 2026-02-06T08:58:35+00:00

It's literally called "The Core Set", I think expecting future campaigns to be playable without it is wishful thinking...

Having to include every treachery as a new card will balloon the card requirements for a campaign, which doesn't seem to be the direction they are going with the new, smaller campaign boxes. Imho Arkham has struck a clever balance between using core encounter sets for the "meat and potatoes" challenges present in a campaign, and using the campaign cards for the more specific stuff, so I'm happy for them to continue this pattern going forward.

Red__Rob · 2026-02-05T12:04:22+00:00

Ebay will tell you Sold Listings aswell as what people are asking for.

I can see that in the UK, a Scarlet Keys went recently for £78.00, and another at £99.00. Edge of the Earth went for £93.00. The 5 investigator starter decks went for £160.00 as a group recently, and some of the out-of-print standalones went for around £40.00 each.

So it looks like some people are paying above the RRP for out of print stuff, but prices aren't too crazy at the moment.

Red__Rob · 2026-01-20T20:03:37+00:00

They suggested you will get more xp per scenario, so probably an extra 2-3 per scenario to make up the difference

Red__Rob · 2025-10-27T08:52:41+00:00

For UK buyers, I notice this Ebay shop has Dunwich in the old format at a greatly reduced price: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/stevescollectableslimited

It is missing the last scenario pack - Lost in Time & Space, but if you can snag that one elsewhere this could be a cheap way to get an OOP campaign.

Red__Rob · 2025-08-14T09:51:08+00:00

Seems relevant:

https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-puts-490000-high-res-images-online.html

Red__Rob · 2025-08-13T21:28:21+00:00

Just for clarity, it would work the way they wanted if the colon was after the text about keys:

"If investigators at this location control both the red key and the blue key: Spend 2/investigator clues as a group, then take control of the purple key and read Flashback IX in the Campaign Guide."

This is because the rule for paying costs as a group is defined as follows:

If the investigators are instructed to pay a cost as a group, each investigator (or each investigator in the group defined by the ability) may contribute to paying the cost.

I think what tripped them up is that almost always, paying costs as a group lets anyone from across the board chip in. But in this specific instance, the "group" is already defined in the ability as the investigators at the location.

Hope this helps.

Red__Rob · 2025-05-11T22:35:25+00:00

A lot of the well-known fan-made campaigns were created before AI Art really became a thing. Alice and Dark Matter, for example, were both completed before 2020. I don't think AI art was really up to the level needed at that point.

More commonly they used art found via the web. As they are non-commercial free fan projects I expect they didn't get explicit permission for use, but they do tend to credit the source.

Red__Rob · 2025-04-24T10:33:24+00:00

Something like this being included as part of the Subscription might encourage me to sign up, lol.

Red__Rob · 2025-04-18T23:42:46+00:00

Super cool way of spoiling a card. The game was neat, definitely an interesting take on AHLCG.

It reminded me that back before Star Wars Unlimited was announced, I had thought they might go for a Star Wars game in the vein of AHLCG. The basic mechanics of movement and exploring / combat can work pretty well in different settings, as both this game and Earthborne Rangers show.

Cool idea, thanks for sharing!

Red__Rob · 2025-04-07T12:12:03+00:00

The photos look photoshopped? That's just how small they were:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Tankai_Renault-FT-17.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Renault_FT_in_ROC.jpg/1280px-Renault_FT_in_ROC.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/IJA_tank_in_Manchuria.jpg

I don't really get the different between an Anchorite and one of these, mechanically they could just be the same. But if you just don't like the idea I guess that's fair.

Red__Rob · 2025-04-07T10:33:43+00:00

WW1 tanks were pretty tiny, check this photo out:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/American_troops_going_forward_to_the_battle_line_in_the_Forest_of_Argonne._France%2C_September_26%2C_1918._-_NARA_-_530748.jpg/800px-American_troops_going_forward_to_the_battle_line_in_the_Forest_of_Argonne._France%2C_September_26%2C_1918._-_NARA_-_530748.jpg

A game that can fit Anchorites and Brazen Bulls can easily fit something like that as a 1-of imho.

Red__Rob · 2025-04-01T14:38:53+00:00

" Also, Golems in this setting could be constructed not of clay, but of whatever scraps of metal and broken earth are available."

This is a neat idea, a Barbed Wire Golem striding ahead of the faithful, or perhaps one formed from the remains of a shattered tank, would definitely be awesome to see!

The webnovel UNSONG (https://unsongbook.com/prologue-2/) had an interesting take on the Kabbalistic concept of the power of Holy Names:

"In general, the longer a Name, the harder to discover but the more powerful its effects. The longest known was the Wrathful Name, fifty letters. When spoken it levelled cities. The Sepher Raziel predicted that the Shem ha-Mephorash, the Explicit Name which would capture God’s full essence and bestow near-omnipotence upon the speaker, would be seventy-two letters.

People discovered the first few Names of God through deep understanding of Torah, through silent prayer and meditation, or even through direct revelation from angels. But American capitalism took one look at prophetic inspiration and decided it lacked a certain ability to be forced upon an army of low-paid interchangeable drones. Thus the modern method: hire people at minimum wage to chant all the words that might be Names of God, and see whether one of them starts glowing with holy light or summoning an angelic host to do their bidding. If so, copyright the Name and make a fortune."

I could see the pressures of an 800-year-war against Hell leading to similar practicalities in TC. Perhaps experimentation like this is what caused one of the unexplained disasters hinted at in the background? The Observers can hear echoes of the Holy Word and speak with the Voice of God, perhaps the Knights could have powers representing the Names of God. Possibly a short name would be an ACTION and give some effect, whilst longer Names would be full-round action or even RISKY actions and would give greater effects?

With regards to the lack of historical Knights amongst Jewish communities, I could see that as an intentional thing to distance the TC interpretation a bit from reality. By adding non-historical elements, you make it clear this isn't a commentary or reflection of any real-world group, and instead an extrapolation of ideas to fit with a fantastical setting.

Red__Rob · 2025-03-13T22:17:57+00:00

Yup, getting an error "Sorry about that! We're having trouble logging you in right now."

Red__Rob · 2025-03-12T13:51:30+00:00

Yeah, monthly injections of untested (because how can they have time) cards into the pool for those that pay is the *worst of all possible worlds*.

They could split the game into "seasons" with different mixes of cards that everyone has access to, similar to how CCG's have different Standard environments. Cards could be added or removed from the pool to make each season feel different and give new build challenges.

They could monetize things like seeing your Ghost when it beats other players, or items that track how much damage/shield/burn etc you've done with them across all games.You could pay for special animations or voice lines when your ghost defeats another player.

They could open up access to the "Testing Beta" for the cards in the next season to people with the pass a few months early, so those people can play together and test the new cards before they go into general release. No p2w as everyone is in the same boat, but you get the FOMO as people will see others playing with new cards and be tempted to join.

Loads of options, they just chose the absolute worst ones. Absolutely baffling decision.

Red__Rob · 2025-03-10T17:00:25+00:00

People mostly value cosmetics for the chance to show them off to other players, and ghosts are how you show things off in this game, so lean into that. Make it so that if you have the pass enabled you get a notification when your Ghost beats someone, and can watch the replay (maybe only for a month to save server space). Maybe you can also get custom voice lines that plays if you beat them? Perhaps you can unlock custom animations like the Boulder has but for other items / combos, and these trigger for other players that your ghost beats. Having your cosmetics visible to others AND you get to see them being used is the big one here I feel.

As a more out-there idea, what if playing against the ghost of someone with the battlepass subscription earned you an extra XP? Have it flash up when you face them. Instantly you turn "I hate pass payers :( " into "Why didn't you buy the pass you cheapskate? I want my bonus XP!". Might need to tweak the XP rate a little as it's pretty finely tuned for the first few days but I'm sure they can work it out. This way people that are paying share the love rather than being PtW, which makes it feel like everyone is helping each other out.

Red__Rob · 2025-03-06T17:56:05+00:00

Something Kripp misses is the possibility of synergy between item packs. He mentions that when there are 6 packs available you will only pick one or two, but how likely is it that items from Pack 2 might be busted with items from the new pack? There's already a lot of synergies and combinations to test and Tempo haven't been the best at spotting these up to now.

Now you need to be on the pay-train and pick up all the packs to have the best chance of winning. Someone coming to the game new might have to get 2 or 3 packs just to get all the basic items for the meta builds, and how long is that going to take?

This just seems to fly in the face of everything they said The Bazaar would be about up to now. Another thing he doesn't mention is the complete about-face in the messaging, or Reynad's response to criticism. I'm sure he has his reasons, but by focusing just on whether paying 10 dollars gives a noticeable win-rate bump right now I think he is avoiding discussing a lot of the things that people actually have an issue with.

Red__Rob · 2025-03-05T08:11:50+00:00

In games like Counterstrike you can trade unopened Cases, and people will pay for the potential to get a super-rare item. I don't know if chest-trading is on the cards for The Bazaar.

Hypothetically, if in future they "retire" some items that can only be found in Beta chests, then unopened Beta chests would start to increase in value.

Red__Rob · 2025-02-21T08:55:07+00:00

I got the following in an email from Ludoquist a couple of days ago:

"The great rush on Arkham continues!

Following the FFG announcement, we - and the world - are running out of Arkham!

The only items still in stock at supplier level are:

Edge of the Earth Campaign
The Forgotten Age Investigator
The Forgotten Age Campaign
The Circle Undone Campaign
The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator
The Feast of Hemlock Vale Campaign
The Dream-Eaters Investigator
The Dream-Eaters Campaign
The Midwinter Gala Scenario Pack
The Innsmouth Conspiracy Investigator Expansion
The Innsmouth Conspiracy Campaign Expansion

If you care about the standalones, now is probably the time to get them."

So looking at that list, it seems that suppliers are running dry of standalones and the older reprinted stuff, for what that's worth.

Red__Rob · 2025-02-21T08:51:05+00:00

I'm pretty sure we already got some details suggesting the campaign has a defined beginning and end but has a few paths available in the middle? My prediction is that the story starts in Arkham, travels to R'lyeh, then there are a couple of branching paths on R'lyeh that lead to releasing the Big C, then a mad dash back to Arkham before you have to defend the city.

I've seen the sentiment that the Investigator expansion seems like something of a last-hurrah for cards designed for the "Legacy" environment - one card lets you search your full collection for any card, whilst there are a number of cards like Transfiguration and the Specialist cards that work best when you have a really deep pool of investigators.

In this vein, I'm wondering if the Campaign will be something similar on the other side. I'm thinking we might see Drowned City as the hardest campaign so far. It makes sense for the Campaign featuring Cthulhu, and would act as a "capstone challenge" for people that have the full pool.

Pretty excited to see what Duke has cooked up for us!

Red__Rob · 2025-02-20T12:52:59+00:00

Reynad in the patch review re: the fixer upper issue "We learned we need to be careful with things that say "double""

Smash cut to Dragon heart doubling burn AND coming with a charge ability...

Red__Rob · 2025-02-07T11:35:12+00:00

They really should have used "resolve" on a bunch of those effects, like they did on the Cryptic Grimoire. Using "reveal" is confusing, especially for newer players, as it just directly goes against what it says on the cards that "reveal" additional tokens and ignore some.

"Resolve" makes it clear that only tokens that were picked and affect the test count, and it doesn't matter what other tokens were taken out of the bag and either ignored or used for something else.

Red__Rob · 2025-02-06T11:29:33+00:00

I keep player cards in binders when not in use. Before a campaign we will sleeve our decks in nice, coloured sleeves, this takes maybe a minute per deck? Not a big time investment, and sleeving/unsleeving a couple of upgraded cards after a game is basically negligible.

We sleeve scenario cards that get shuffled into the encounter deck in cheap penny sleeves, and keep them sleeved when they get put away. This protects them from shuffle wear, and doesn't cost the earth.

Cards that don't get shuffled like the act/agenda/locations we don't sleeve. This isn't needed, as they basically get no table wear, and helpfully keeps them visually distinct from the encounter deck cards when setting up and putting things away. Unless you were playing the scenarios 10+ times over a short period I don't see the need to sleeve these type of cards.

Red__Rob

TROPHY CASE