I wish I was a fly on the wall in the offices of FFG and knew the answer to this question.

It seemed pretty clear from there report at Gencon that Arkham Horror is going to have more things for it but what is that going to be??

Where is this FAQ that was talked about YEARS ago???

Questions that I hope will get answers sometime soon.

diablo666 said:

That's a shared desired, I think :-)

Something small, I guess. Maybe thematically tuned to the new Yig? Who knows. I hope before Yule something good is announced. Not that I'm in a rush: the game offers endless hours of fun as it is, but still, I'd love to see something new coming :-)

I hope they are not planning to revise everything or make a Second edition of the main game. That would suck as I am trying to get everything Arkham-related right now…

 Wondering if they are aware of that as well.  I feel the same way.  New board expansion would be fun and of course, new AOs are always fun!

I actually hope they will never release the FAQ, I have so much fun discussing the rules on the forum.

And I agree that a new edition would be disastrous.

MH caps off the main Arkham material, but I would like to see a pack containing all the Arkham Nights material and the published scenarios.

We've also got a new Ally coming in the new book.

With all of the existing game materials, adding even more expansion material is probably somewhat unlikely.  Playing with every expansion would already require 2 kitchen tables.  If they keep going your going to run out of closet space.

I think there are a few things worth considering though.

Arkham Horror Deluxe super box:  Every expansion (large and small) in a single box.

Revised Kingsport Horror:  Maybe add some unstable locations, and possibly some varients for the way rifts are handled.  Kingsport gets a number of complaints for being like unpaid baby sitting;  ie, the person keeping the rifts under control by visiting locations in Kingsport doesn't have many opportunities to fight monsters (except fliers, swimmers, and the like) or enter other worlds.  Justified or not, fixing that perception may be worth trying.

More Small Box expansions:  If they do put out more small box expansions, I think that FFG ought to continue to do what they did with Miskatonic Horror, and add elements that interact with older expansions.

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 @Tbla - You do realize that with a game this big, they could probably publish 3 FAQs and not cover all of the situations and rules questions that come up on this forum alone?  Sure they'd get the big ones, but there are a myriad of situations that are so obscure.  The discussion is nice but I'd rather have some more solid answers about how to interpret phrases on cards that cause the discussions.

I have a tendency to not mix expansions as much as I think people do and while I have my list of favorites (like everyone), I find that adding 1 board with a group of 4 investigators is enough.  That's why another board expansion would be fine with me.  Playing with all of them now would be just too much of a pain.  I also don't think FFG cares about your closet space.  They care about whether or not you'd actually by the product.  The real question is, how many people who actually read this forum would by another expansion (good or bad)?  I know that I would!  :)

LordZardoz said:

This perception is due to the fact that most of the peope truly believe that they have to have an investigator in Kingsport for the whole game, dealing with rifts, and this is clearly *wrong*. You need an investigator there when you start having three tokens on a rift track. So, most of the times you have to send an investigator there only in the very last part of the game. Plus, I don't see many difference in having an encounter in an unstable location or in a stable one (in case there are no clues on either location): I'd personally prefer having an encounter in a stable one, in order to avoid "a gate and a monster appear" encounters. So, this perception can be easily fixed by playing in a strategically correct way that board. Adding unstable location can easily screw completely the dynamics of the board: a gate can block you from closing a rift once opened.

Julia,

     You'll read about her exploits in my latest story/write-up, but I have to tell you…Wendy is the BEST Investigator for Kingsport duty.  She can Evade every monster in the streets and usually has the stats to really do well in that city.

One option for Kingsport duty is to have an extra player who is played by the 1st player for that round. Any team-player investigator like Leo (prevents damage), Mandy (reroll) or George (prevents arrest) is good as you can still benefit from their special ability even when they are in Kingsport. It goes without saying that this will make the game easier for you.

Some of the Leads and Music of Erich Zann cards in Lovecraft Country deliberately point to Kingsport to make it more visitting Kingsport more profitable.

For me a reasonable fix for Kingsport is to release a monster on a stable location each time a rift marker cannot be placed due to the spots being full. This gives Kingsport some life and prevents over tactical play of completely ignoring whats going on there.

The Professor said:

Sure, Wendy is brilliant. But sadly, she's brilliant on *every* board, especially to stop monsters diving into vortices (you can simply park her in front of a vortex and nothing will move after entereing her street area / location, plus she doesn't even have to roll the Evade, because she auto passes all the rolls). Plus, her starting 8 clues (ES + 3) it's amazing. Half of the sealing work can be done by her very very soon in any game.

Been playing a few Kingsport games recently, and I'd agree with Julia.  The first few games with the expansion it really did feel like someone had to be up there all the time just have encounter after encounter.  It made me not want to play it.  But we kept at it.  At this point, we rotate investigators in and out of Kingsport so no one is permanently on "kingsport duty" and it actually works out better this way because the investigator in Kingsport will be 'needed' in Arkham for something 'important'.  You CAN afford to let the rift track go for a bit unless the game becomes long.  We have also sent 2 investigators up to Kingsport to spend a few turns and return to Arkham after the track was back under control.

As an example: our game last night against Yibb-Tstll saw three of the four different investigators spend time in Kingsport.  At one point we had 2 in KS working rift tracks down at the same time.  Yibb almost spawned but thankfully, we were able to get our 6th (7th because of a gate burst) with Charlie Kane (of all people).  Lily was devoured trying to establish the 6th seal in R'lyeh (2nd pannel) because she only had 1 stam.  Over all a very exciting game.  The key point being that I don't think anyone felt as though they were 'stuck' doing KS duty.

I like visiting Kingsport. It does feel like a small break from the insanity elsewhere.

The key, though, is recognizing that an investigator doesn't need to be there straight from the beginning of the game. Typically, I don't send anyone up there unless one rift is just about to pop.

Tactically, it may very well be the case that you do not need to spend much time in Kingsport.

However, compare that to the other two 'big board' expansions.

Dunwich Horror:  Gates will open here very often.  Monsters can feed Vortex and awaken the Horror and also feed the terror level.  If Dunwich horror wakes up, you need to go there and kill it to keep Doom Track from accellerating because every time the horror moves, you add a doom token.  Killing the Horror is a fun challenge.  Sealing a gate in Dunwich will add to the victory conditions of the game.

Innsmouth Horror:  Gates open here very often.  Monsters will feed vortex and cause a Deep One uprising and awaken the GOO immediately as well as feeding the terror level.  You need to spend clue tokens to get the feds to raid the place.  There is also the added challenge / risks from Marshal Law and having to draw Innsmouth Look cards.  If you go out to the reef, you need help to get back.  You go to Innsmouth both because it is needed and because it is fun.  Sealing a gate in Innsmouth will add to the victory conditions of the game.

Kingsport Horror:  Gates never open here.  If a rift opens, it open where the gate opened.  No monsters show up in Kingsport except monsters with special movement rules.  Rifts will accellerate the doom track so there is a reason to go out here.  You can also try to get 'Changed' or 'Captain of White Ship'.  This will require monster or gate tokens, neither of which you are likley to get in Kingsport.  And getting the 'Changed' state will take up yet more time (at least 3 turns).  However, time spent in Kingsport cannot advance progress towards winning the game.  it might help, but most likely it will be time spent not sealing gates.  At best, your just buying time to keep the doom track and monster population under control.

Kingsport takes up just as much table space as Dunwich or Innsmouth while adding a whole lot less fun.  It is not a bad expansion, but out of the 3 'big box' expansions, it is arguably the weakest.

I just cannot see how arguing 'Kingsport might not be interesting to explore, but at least you do not have to spend much time in Kingsport' is a good selling point.  The entire location is just a timesink with minimal incentives to visit.  Innsmouth kind of sucks to visit with the crazy number of chances to get devoured or arrested, but it is interesting and you are given reasons to be there.  it adds more strategic choices to manage.  Dunwich is not nearly as brutal but there are positive incentives to kiling that monster.  And after dealing with a Deep One Uprising or killing the Dunwich Horror, you do not have to spend 2 or 3 turns going somewhere else to get back to the business of sealing gates.

Kingsport can be improved.

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