Goal of this replacement set: Bad Luck is an encounter set that is sadly just utterly forgettable, with both of its cards having little to no impact on the gameplay and just being weak all around. The replacement set doesn’t want to increase the power level too much, but it does want to make the set feel more relevant. One card is getting a fairly flashy effect that is sure to be memorable. The other one leans harder into the gambling flavor, actually giving the player a choice to either participate in a short mini game or not. This replacement set keeps the gamble/casino flavor of Bad Luck and in fact, leans into it even more. That means it’s still somewhat out of place in Miskatonic Museum, but while i could’ve gone for a more general “bad omens” flavor, i felt like there’s enough of that in Arkham LCG.
Replaces Twist of Fate. Number of these in the encounter set: 3
About this card: Foreboding Omens makes a player lose an action and most of the times that will be it. If the action is important right now, the player is offered a chance to gamble for it, though. The chances to pull a non-symbol are usually higher than pulling a symbol, so this can be attractive… but also dangerous. The original Twist of Fate isn’t really much of a gambling card, it just makes something random happen. Gambling includes a player choice and something to gain or lose. Foreboding Omens aims to provide both of these things.
Replaces Cursed Luck. Number of these in the encounter set: 3
About this card: Like Cursed Luck, Pushed Too Far can stick around in an investigator’s threat area for a while without doing anything. But at some point, it will and while the effect itself is not all that terrible (basically, it costs a single action), the threat of this card comes from how unpredictable the timing can be.
Appears in: Untamed Wilds, The Doom of Eztli, The Boundary Beyond, Heart of the Elders #1, Heart of the Elders #2, The Depths of Yoth
The Poison set only has two copies of one card that gets shuffled into the encounter deck, the other four cards are copies of a weakness that players can get after being hit by certain effects from enemies and treacheries.
Number of Creeping Poison in the encounter set: 2
What it does: Creeping Poison surges into the next encounter card. While doing that, it also deals one damage to anyone who is currently poisoned.
My take: The Poisoned weakness has a couple of consequences for players that earn it. Some token pulls are turned into auto-fails when poisoned and between the pages of the scenario leaflets there is two points of physical trauma that can be gotten from it. Next to these, the one damage ping from Creeping Poison doesn’t look very relevant, but as a surge card it’s of course never something you want to draw from the encounter deck.
Threat level: Low to Mid for Creeping Poison. High for the Poison mechanic as a whole. Surging cards are never to be underestimated and while a simple damage ping isn’t terrifying on its own, there are a lot of damage treacheries in the Forgotten Age cycle which Creeping Poison can conveniently cycle into.
Dealing with it: The Forgotten Age has a lot of sources for trauma waiting in its interlude and scenario texts, and managing which ones to accept and which ones to spend resources on to avoid can be difficult. Trying to not gain any trauma at all will take a lot of supply tokens that are going to be sorely missed in other places of the campaign. However, getting poisoned is difficult to prevent completely and comes with other complications than just the trauma, so spending the supply tokens to bring a few units of medicine will usually be a good idea. It’s certainly a better investment than blankets.
Appears in: Untamed Wilds, Heart of the Elders #1, The Depths of Yoth
My take on this set: The two cards in the Expedition set share nothing in terms of mechanics and are best evaluated on their own. One copy of Lost in the Wilds and Low on Supplies usually start out in the exploration deck, representing the dangers of a failed exploration test on a location. Both are fine cards for that job, especially Lost in the Wilds which can make sure that no further exploration can happen for the rest of the turn. All things considered, this isn’t a very exciting set, but it’s fine for what it’s supposed to do.
Number in the encounter deck: 3
What it does: If a medium difficulty willpower test fails, the player is dealth one horror for each point it failed by. Also, if test failed, the treachery will be added to the player’s threat area for a turn where it will prevent that investigator from moving or exploring.
My take: If the investigator can not reliably pass their willpower check, they should consider investing a card or two so they can pass. Being hindered from moving and exploring can often be a big nuisance. This is especially true in Heart of the Elders and Depths of Yoth which feature big Hunter enemies, but just having to stay in one place for a turn can cost enough tempo that it’s worth trying to stop this treachery from doing its thing.
Threat level: Mid to High. How much a player cares about this card is going to be context dependant, but the ceiling is pretty high and almost feel like losing a turn when there is already some pressure on the board.
Dealing with it: Luckily, passing the willpower test will completely defuse this card and the difficulty for that test is within reach of almost anyone – it might just require committing a card or two. There aren’t much other sources of horror from treacheries in The Forgotten Age, so as long as the player doesn’t completely fail his test, that part of the treachery shouldn’t be too terrible. Investigators with low sanity should have some sort of mitigation plan for horror treacheries anyways. This leaves the “cannot move or explore” effect and that should dictate how much much you’ll want to invest into passing the test. Overcommitting here can save a turn of progress, so it should at least be considered.
Number in the encounter deck: 2
What it does: The player has to choose between three outcomes, all of which would impact every other player as well. Either everyone has to lose 2 resources, 1 health or one of their assets. The Peril keyword makes sure that only the player who drew the card gets a say in the decision.
My take: Due to the player choice, this card has fairly low impact. Taking the damage is often going to be the preferred choice, unless the scenario is in its last couple turns and resources became expendable.
Threat level: Low. While it does hit all players at the same time, it can often be mitigated very well by carefully choosing which option to take. Obviously, it gets slightly more threatening in multiplayer with three or four players, but not in a way that’s too oppressive.
Dealing with it: For a choice on this card to be valid, it must change the game state in some way. That means not everyone needs to be able to fulfill the effects for the choice to be valid, it’s enough if one player does. For example, if one player has a resource and the others have none, choosing the first option is allowed. If no player had any resources, they would need to pick one of the other two options. In the absence of exploitable situations like that, making everyone lose one health is often the correct call, as it can be mitigated by soak from assets and doesn’t have immediate impact on tempo and board state.
Return to The Forgotten Age: Doomed Expedition
Set Size
5
Number of unique Cards
2
Role
Horror, Vengeance
Threat Level
Mid
My take on this set: Just like the original set of cards, the ones in Doomed Expedition aren’t super exciting, but they do their job well enough. Resentful Wilds is a bit of an odd card with its Vengeance that is added if the players do what they are supposed to. Some groups will care about that card a lot more than others, personally i think adding the occasional Resentful Wilds (or Ancestral Fear, for that matter) to the victory display is perfectly fine as long as you don’t go on a snake murder spree. Best-Laid Plans is a very interesting card that i liked during play a lot more than i anticipated. The decision is not as obvious as i thought at first and that’s always a great thing. Since i like the original and the replacement set equally well, i can see myself mixing the sets in the future, maybe only replacing one of the Low on Supplies and one or two of the Lost in Wilds.
Number in the encounter deck: 3
What it does: Best-Laid Plans lets you pick your poison: Either shuffle a card from the top of the encounter deck into the exploration deck or lose two actions right away.
My take: My first reaction to this card was wondering why i would ever choose to shuffle something in, but after playing with the card for a bit i came around on it. If i can justify it, i will still take the immediate loss of two actions if i can. If i end up drawing the card added to the exploration deck, it will not only cost me whatever that card requires but also another action from the failed exploration, so that will usually be more costly than the two actions in the end. But for one it’s just not feasible to do at every point in time because you might just have some pressing matters to attend to like some Hunters breathing down your neck or already being engaged with an enemy. Also, if you have the appropriate supply to manipulate the exploration deck, like the map in Untamed Wilds, you can use that to mitigate Best-Laid Plan’s second option really well.
Threat level: Mid. I would rather draw this card than Lost in the Wilds most of the time. Being unable to move or explore can set you back a lot. While losing two actions can do so as well, this card here at least gives you an option to act right now if it’s important and deal with the fallout later.
Dealing with it: As outlined above, both option on the card are relevant and depending on the situation you might consider one over the other. If in doubt, go for the immediate loss of two actions so you don’t have to lose even more later on.
Number in the encounter deck: 2
What it does: Resentful Wilds attaches to the nearest location that doesn’t already have a copy of this. Usually that’ll be the investigator’s location itself, of course. The player who drew it also has to take a horror once on revelation. Resentful Wilds has Vengeance 1 and will go into the victory display after a successful exploration at its location.
My take: So how much do you care about the Vengeance? The answer to that question will define how much of a pain this card can become for you. If you are on some sort of challenge run where you want to get zero Vengeance, you better pack an Alter Fate now or you may see yourself taking a huge detour to find another way to where you need to go. It might also cut you off locations that you’d want to clear for victory points. At least this cards is pretty much a freebie during Depths of Yoth because the big payoff for the Wrath of Yig already happened. Anyone less worried about a point of Vengeance here and there would also be able to ignore this card in some cases.
Threat level: High, if you care about every point of Vengeance. Low otherwise. The card can be a reason to take a huge detour around the map, translating into many lost actions.
Dealing with it: There are only few way to interact this card. Aside from the usual Wards, you can use Alter Fate to discard the card from play without sending it to the victory display. Otherworld Codex can do that as well, but at only two copies in the deck (well one, once the other is attached) it’s an unreliable solution at best.
