Month: April 2023

Encounter sets in this scenario: Agents of the Outside, Cleanup Crew, Crimson Conspiracy, Secret War, Shadow of a Doubt
Available experience: 4 (locations) + 1 (Desi) = 5XP

Location: Havana
Involved Coterie Members and Keys: Desiderio Delgado Alvarez, The Mirroring Blade
Time spent: 2 time on a a successful finish, otherwise 1 time. Actually acquiring the Blade afterwards requires 6 more time, during which you are free to pursue other things.
Nearest other scenarios: Anchorage, Buenos Aires, Marrakesh (2 time)

Synopsis: The investigators gather in Havana’s hot spot location Cafe Luna to meet Desiderio Delgado Alvarez, nicknamed “The Man in the Blood-Soaked Suit”, that everyone just calls Desi because nobody has time for either of those full names. Also, he only wears a red tie with his black suit, so nobody is quite sure where the fancy nickname comes from in the first place. In any case, the investigators strike a deal with Desi: His key, “The Mirrored Blade”, in exchange for assistance with clearing up the disappearance of many of Desi’s men. As soon becomes obvious, the Outsiders have been kidnapping members of Desi’s “operation” and taking their place… and as it turns out, the investigators come just in time to witness the Outsider’s attempt to replace Desi himself. Hijinks ensue.

My take on this scenario: There are two versions of this scenario, one where Desi strikes a deal with the investigators in earnest and one where he betrays them and leads them into an ambush. This changes the first act of the scenario, but those two storylines converge soon, so we can mostly look at these two versions at the same time.
This scenario is special in that it strikes a good balance between the two main mechanisms of The Scarlet Keys, concealment and hollows. Most scenarios are focused on either of these, but Dancing Mad is the one that is best at striking a balance that keeps both of them relevant. Looking at the numbers above we can see that there are only two cards that don’t belong to either concealment or hollows support. And that one is Matter Inversion from Agents of the Outside, so it still supports the Outsider theme. Concealment does have a bigger presence here than the Outsiders, but thanks to the many sources for hollowing cards the hollowing mechanic is still relevant. The other scenario that tries to do both mechanics at the same time, On Thin Ice, does not manage this as well as Dancing Mad does.
This is one of the better scenarios from The Scarlet Keys that keeps being challenging but not overbearing. The small location grid in this one works well with the concealment and the abilities on the enemies that do stuff from the shadows. There’s also a good balance between the usual challenges, with willpower tests and agility tests around, some necessary clueing, a good amount of fighting. Just good old Arkham that incorporates the new mechanics instead of being overshadowed by them.
The climax with the two Desi’s is a bit too gimmicky for my tastes and the logistics of having to keep one of the cards stored away until the final scenario without looking at its back are awkward. It’s still fine, but i would’ve preferred a more immediate resolution to whether the group helped the real Desi or the fake one.

Scenario specific encounter sets: Two copies of Body Snatched go into the encounter deck, otherwise the Dancing Mad set only has the usual scenario trappings of acts, agendas, locations, etc. Body Snatched is quite a relevant card. Not only does it act as a variant of Crypt Chill that comes for your assets after failing a difficult willpower test, it also feeds into getting more cards removed as hollows. To top things off, this even has a clause to deal substantial horror if there’s no asset to remove. It’s just a better Crypt Chill all around and nobody ever complained about Crypt Chill being too mild.

Chaos Tokens: In the context of Scarlet Keys, Dancing Mad uses a relatively mild collection of token modifiers. They are still going to be quite relevant, though. The skull scales with the number of enemies in the shadows, capped at -3 on Easy/Normal and -5 on Hard/Expert. This can be troublesome in the variant of Dancing Mad that starts with an ambush and several enemies in the shadows right away, but can otherwise be handled fairly well. The Cultist is a -4 (-6 on Hard) and will put a decoy into play on failing the test. The extra decoy can be annoying, but the high negative modifiers are the more relevant part here. Overly trusting folks have it more difficult here than deceptive ones, as the Tablet token is much worse than the Elder Thing. Tablets are set at -3 and on failing, any cards committed to the test are hollowed. On Hard, this even happens on succeeding. This can remove a large amount of cards from the game and can screw hard with investigators depending on commits, like Silas, Wini or Amanda. The Elder Thing on the other hand is set at just a -1, but will creep up to -3 (-5 on Hard) if there’s a concealed mini-card on your location. The investigator can take 1 damage (2 damage on Hard) to push the Elder Thing back to a -1. Incoming damage is something that players are going to have to tech for in Scarlet Keys anyways and Dancing Mad doesn’t have a whole lot of it otherwise. So handling the Elder Thing here is a lot easier than the Tablet which just eats your cards. On Normal, you can at least make sure that you beat the -3 whenever you commit cards, but on Hard this no longer saves you from the hollowing effect.

Act/Agenda: The agenda deck is the same for either variant of Dancing Mad, with 17 doom spread evenly across 3 agendas. This doom clock is accelerated by a Forced effect on the agendas that removes hollowed cards completely from the game in exchange for extra doom. The threshold of hollows per created doom decreases as the agenda deck progresses, slowly increasing the pressure from this mechanic.
For the act deck, there are five cards in total. Two each are for act 1 and 2 of the two variants. The fifth card is act 3 which is shared between both variants. Variant 1 is the one where Desi strikes an earnest deal with the investigators. Act 1 is a simple hunt for clues in the locations near the Club Luna, with the Cleanup Crew and Crimson Conspiracy starting out of play. Advancing into act 2 will have the Outsiders attack the players: The real Desi is removed from play and replaced by an imposter who will hide in the shadows together with other (fake) Coterie members. The two encounter sets with the Coterie enemies are shuffled into the deck at that point as well. Act 2 states the players will now need to root out all hiding coterie members and also have a few clues available. After that it’s off to the climax with two Desis.
Variant 2 plays out differently, with just the Club Luna location in play at first and several Coterie members in the shadows. The Outsider enemies start removed from play for this one. The players need to fend off the ambush by collecting clues from the Club while under fire from the enemies. Once they manage that, the rest of the locations enter play and the Outsiders are shuffled into the deck. The coterie members are re-distributed around town and for act 2 the players now have to find out why Desi betrayed them. To do that, they have to first find a considerable amount of clues and then put them onto enemies through a parley option instead of defeating everyone. Succeeding at this moves to act 3, the same as for variant 1.
For act 3, two Desi cards are in play, one with an encounter back and one with a story asset back. They are shuffled among each other so players don’t know who is who and if the group didn’t get the necessary intel from the Moscow safehouse beforehand they won’t be able to tell before it comes to the final scenario of the campaign. The objective is simple: Decide on one of the copies of Desi to support and defeat the other.

Desiderio Delgado Alvarez: Desi fights alongside the other coterie members but there’s not much pressure to get him out of the shadows early on and his stats are fairly tame. As a Hunter that can not die, he can make good use of the small location grid and get attacks in if players aren’t proactive about evading him. His impactful attacks for 2 damage and 1 horror are further enhanced by Retaliate and Alert which both act as sources of additional free attacks. While he isn’t as oppressive as some of the other big Elite coterie members we encounter in this campaign, he also shouldn’t be underestimated.
At least he doesn’t have a key with him (as it turns out, the Mirroring Blade is tucked away in a safehouse in Ybor City), so that’s one fewer thing to worry about during Dancing Mad.

The Coterie: Most of the enemies in this scenario are concealed Coterie members. They aren’t all that imposing in a fight, but especially in higher playercounts they can add up and put some pressure on the players. With how small the map is, there is little in the way of staying out of their way, so it should be a priority to keep the number of these down to a manageable level. Coterie Enforcer sticks out among these as a rather action intensive enemy to defeat, as you will not only need to expose him, but he also brings decent stats so that at 3 health and 4 fight that will usually take another two actions to stop him.

The Outsiders: The outsider theme is supported with two encounter sets here. This leads to a somewhat spotty support in low player counts, but the things that are here are impactful. Effacer is a solid enemy on its own even when it doesn’t get backed up by more hollow effects. The Mimic can sometimes fall flat a bit though.

Treacheries: Like with the enemies, the rest of the encounter deck is mostly split between support for concealment and for hollowing cards. The two treacheries from Secret War (Memory Variant and Secrets Lost) are among the most powerful cards that hollow multiple player cards. How impacted you are by them is not only going to decide how bad the Effacer and Mimic enemies are going to be for you, but also if you get additional doom from the effect on the agenda (which trades hollows for doom).
Between the Coterie Agents and Conspiracy in Red, there’s also just enough doom effects in the deck to be worth paying attention to as they will potentially stack up with the extra doom from hollowed cards.

Locations: There is a total of 6 locations, the Cafe Luna and five others. These are honestly nothing too special by themselves except for the fact that 4 Victory are spread across them. So cleaning up the town from clues is certainly rewarded here. Shroud values range all the way from 1 to 5, but shroud counts are only 1 per investigator at every location. This shouldn’t be a huge problem for any competent clue handler.

Reward and Failure: There’s 5XP up for grabs here and they are fairly easy to get. Desi’s VP can’t be missed (as long as you finish the scenario successfully, of course). And the other four are all on locations with low clue counts. Unlike in most other scenarios, finishing successfully doesn’t just hand a key to you, there is one more hoop you have to jump through to get it. Instead, you get the passphrase to a warehouse in Ybor City where you will have to travel to get the key. While Ybor City is directly next to Havana, it will take 6 time before your password will actually be accepted there though. So you’ll have to spend some time in the surrounding locations, come back for the key later or just pass on it. Personally, i like combining this time that i have to wait with the search for the stolen key that happens at the 20 time mark. Quito and San Juan, two of the possible locations where you can recover your key, are right next to Havana. Alternatively, you could visit Buenos Aires or Anchorage and do the scenario there before you advanced the time far enough to pick up the Mirroring Blade in Ybor City.
The Mirroring Blade is a rather useful key that can be used to kill off a wide range of enemies with its 2 damage ability. It can also be used to expose a mini-card without an action which comes in handy. Flipping it back deals damage to every player which depending on the scenario can be painful, but it’s one of the more reasonable keys to use multiple times in a scenario.
Failing the scenario, either through resign/defeat or through having the agenda run out, will pit Desi against you and you will “not have seen the last of him”. He’s a rather chunky elite enemy at 5 health that also dishes out a decent amount of damage. His ability to protect other coterie in his space is less useful (as those usually hang out in the shadows) but just his raw stats make him a considerable threat to just randomly come down from the encounter deck.
Failing the scenario through having the agenda run out has another potentially steep side effect: All hollowed cards are removed from the game, then each investigator has to exile their removed card with the highest experience cost so it is permanently removed from their deck. They even have to note the names of those cards in the campaign log and all players are unable to acquire that card from that point on. This can be a huge blow for decks that are built around a high XP cards like Chuck Fergus or Holy Spear and if such a card is currently among the hollows during the scenario, the players should consider a mass resign (or even defeat) to force an end to the scenario before the last doom is put on agenda 3.

My take on this set: Yet another source of damage and horror raining down on the investigators while playing this campaign. Both enemies have ways of attacking players from the shadows while the treachery also at least triggers an extra attack.
All of this wouldn’t be particularly bad in most other contexts, but these cards just stack up exceptionally well with the rest of the encounter deck. For example, Dancing Mad can have you face Enforcers in the shadows while having Knives in the Dark from the Shadows of a Doubt set in your threat area. Suddenly, you are hit for 2 damage when exposing decoys and for 1 horror when exposing enemies other than Enforcer. One version of Dancing Mad even starts with several concealed enemies in one location with the players, making the Assassins a huge immediate problem.
What this set does very well is provide yet another layer to the concealment mechanic. Weirdly, it’s the one set that benefits most from having a certain threshold of mini-cards in play, however it is not used in either of the two scenarios most centered on concealment. Maybe that is for the best, both the Assassin and the Enforcer would be absolutely terrifying in Buenos Aires or Istanbul…

What it does: When revealed, Coterie Assassin enters the shadows concealed behind one decoy. While in the shadows, they will attack any investigator at a location with a mini-card at the end of the enemy phase. Their attack deals one damage.
Their stats are fairly low, with just 2 fight and health they will usually go down in one swing once exposed.

My take: Their attack is only a single point of damage, so one Assassin on their own is usually not going to be a huge issue. Of course, they can stack up with other damaging effects. More importantly, they do stack up with other concealed enemies (and their mini-cards) which can potentially allow them to cover a large amount of locations. They are also able to hit multiple investigators at once, so while this enemy is rather tame taken on its own, it certainly does have ways of escalating into a bigger problem.

Threat level: Low to Mid. Fairly weak on its own, but can escalate with help from other cards.

Dealing with it: Most situations that involve concealment can be severely defused by not letting many enemies stack up and cover each other with their decoys. The biggest weakness of the Assassins is that they only spawn with a single decoy, so rooting them out when they are on their own isn’t a big deal.

What it does: Coterie Enforcer hides in the shadows, behind a single decoy. Whenever another is exposed by an investigator, the Enforcer will attack that player, even from the shadows. They deal one point of horror. Unlike the Assassin, the Enforcer has decent combat stats, with 4 fight and 3 health they are reasonably resistant to attacks.

My take: I find this guy usually more annoying than the Assassin, purely because it can take a good amount of time to deal with them. Exposing them takes at least an action, possibly two or more. And then they do require two hits if you don’t have a 3 damage attack at hand. On the other hand, Enforcers are even more dependant on stacking up with other enemies because on their own they do nothing.
Note that if you have two Enforcers in the shadows, one will not trigger their attack when the other is exposed because it keys off the name. And while this isn’t explicitly stated anywhere in the rules as written, we can assume that the intent is that “Coterie Enforcer (A)” is the same as “Coterie Enforcer” because otherwise this whole “not named Coterie Enforcer“ thing wouldn’t really work and an Enforcer would trigger that ability even on being exposed themselves.

Threat level: Mid. Mostly notable for being more resilient than most enemies with Concealed.

Dealing with it: They do have low agility, which allows evading them as a way to deal with them semi-permanently. While doing so does defuse their special attack ability from the shadows, it does in turn leave the Enforcer open for interactions with Swift Retreat. So while defeating them requires a reasonably competent fighter, it is usually going to be worth doing.

What it does: After failing an agility test, the nearest Coterie enemy attacks the player and then hides in the shadows, if able. If no Coterie enemies are in play, Swift Retreat surges.

My take: This is fine… until it isn’t. Usually this will cause an extra attack by some dork in the shadows that hits for a damage, a horror or maybe one each. But this might also trigger an extra attack by one of the Coterie Elites. Getting an extra attack from the Beast in Crimson during Dogs of War hurts a lot. If you are really unlucky, you can even get hit by an enemy that usually wouldn’t be in Havana or Alexandria, but that you “didn’t see the last of” … which might even lead to them shifting a key for all sorts of extra nastiness.
Note that enemies in the shadows can still qualify as “nearest Coterie enemy”, but only if none are currently at a location.

Threat level: Low. Mid in Dogs of War. Situational, but can peak rather hard.

Dealing with it: If you expose something, defeat it right away afterwards to remove the possibility of having that enemy retreat to the shadows with Swift Retreat. A possible exception: During Dogs of War, the chance of the Beast in Crimson being the nearest Coterie member is actually pretty high so unless you purposefully keep an exposed enemy around, Swift Retreat can be pretty nasty.

My take on this set: I like this set a whole lot. I think it’s very well balanced, with two cards that are scary and impactful, but at the same time also not overbearing and able to be played around. The decision on whether or not to deal with an aloof Outsider (either from this set or others) that is not an immediate threat gets a new dimension through the threat of Matter Inversion. Just in general, these two cards interact very well with both Secret War and Outsiders, two sets that are often used together with Agents of the Outside.
Thumbs up, great pair of cards.

What it does: As a 3/3/3 that deals 1 damage and 1 horror, Paradigm Effacer has very archetypical stats. Its ability sets it apart, though. It’s an aloof hunter that follows the investigators around. Whenever an investigator ends their turn at the Effacer’s location, they have to hollow the top of their deck. If they have 3 or more hollows already, Effacer gets a free attack out of it as well.

My take: This is a pretty cool enemy. It certainly is impactful, just the fact that it is Aloof and has 3 health makes it awkward to get rid of… unless you happen to have a Spectral Razor at hand, which is basically the perfect answer to Effacer. Since it triggers on the end of the player turn and not the enemy phase, you can avoid its ability pretty well by just keeping on the move. This can make it tempting to let it stay in play, but that just leaves it on the board as a great target for the eventual Matter Inversion.
I think this enemy hits a lot of sweet spots in terms of how threatening it is. It is impactful, but not in a manner that is overbearing.

Threat level: Mid. Since it just follows you around and takes away the occasional card, it doesn’t have immediate impact. But over time, it can sneak up on you.

Dealing with it: Without a way to engage as a free action or a way to deal 3 damage in one hit, this takes a full turn to defeat. Anything you have to speed that up is going to be helpful of course. How much of a priority this enemy is will depend a bit on how many cards of yours have been hollowed already. If none, then you could trigger its ability twice without it attacking which is generally fine. Otherwise you will probably have to do something about this enemy. Note that its ability fires even if its engaged with you, so should you fail to defeat it in one turn it will both attack you regularly and possibly attack you again from its ability. Just another reason to get to it early while that isn’t a possibility yet.

What it does: Matter Inversion attaches to an Outsider enemy and makes it more difficult to handle. It removes Aloof, lets it gain Retaliate and also gives a bonus to both fight and evade. Notably, no modifications to health, damage or horror are made. Evading the enemy enhanced by Matter Inversion will discard the treachery and allow the player to regain one of their hollows.
Only one Matter Inversion can be attached to an enemy at the same time. If Matter Inversion is drawn without a suitable target, it surges.

My take: In my experience this surges a lot because i am not in a habit of letting enemies stick around for long. Whenever it was allowed to do its thing, it was quite relevant, though. Effacer is already a decent enemy, increasing its fight and evade from 3 to 4 makes it downright dangerous, with Retaliate adding to its already high potential for multiple attacks in one turn. The other notable Outside with Aloof and Hunter that can suddenly come down looking for a fight is the Otherworldly Mimic (from the Secret War set which is often used in conjunction with Agents of the Outside). Mimic likewise has its fight increased from 3 to 4, making Retaliate a decent threat. Actually, the same is true for the Paracausal Entity from Outsiders as well… just without the Aloof interaction.
If you are really unlucky, you could have to attach this to Apocalyptic Presage… or one of the big enemies from Without a Trace. Unless you do find yourself in such an unlucky spot, the “evade to discard” thing is likely not going to be too relevant. It does give the rare opportunity to get back a crucial hollowed card, but especially when you are giving an enemy back its Aloof keyword it will usually not be worth the effort.

Threat level: Low to Mid. This turns up the heat on its possible targets considerably. That being said, it will usually be preferable to drawing another actual enemy.

Dealing with it: The nice thing about enemy attachments is that defeating that enemy will deal with two encounter draws at the same time. Matter Inversion does make the enemy noticeably more difficult and risky to fight, but if you do have ways of either dealing testless damage or just testing with very high modified skill values you can bypass this risk and just enjoy a nice little 2-for-1 here. For example, you could use Blood-Rites on a Mimic with Matter Inversion to kill two cards without a test or use something like Spectral Razor for a skill value that will most likely do the trick.

Announcing a New Fan-Made Upgrade Expansion for Arkham Horror LCG

“She had changed – as those who take to the water change – and told me she had never died. Instead, she had gone to a spot her dead son had learned about, and had leaped to a realm whose wonders – destined for him as well – he had spurned with a smoking pistol. This was to be my realm, too – I could not escape it. I would never die, but would live with those who had lived since before man ever walked the earth.”
– H.P. Lovecraft, “The Shadow over Innsmouth”

You visited the damp caves under the lighthouse, you dealt with the eccentric inhabitants of the coastal village of Innsmouth and you fought off the ever growing force of the tides that threatened to pull you under the waves. While your memories of the place are hazy, you still feel yourself compelled to return there, to Innsmouth. To once more brave the challenges of the sea, the dank places beneath it and the creatures that dwell within…

I am proud to announce The (Unofficial) Return to The Innsmouth Conspiracy, a fan-made upgrade expansion adding new supplementary content to the entire The Innsmouth Conspiracy campaign for Arkham Horror: The Card Game!

Within this fan-made upgrade expansion, you’ll find new scenario cards and encounter sets that you can insert into every scenario of The Innsmouth Conspiracy, mixing up your investigations with new dangers and new objectives. New player cards, representing upgraded versions of cards from The Innsmouth Conspiracy give you new tools and options for upgrading your decks and for revisiting the bless and curse mechanics in new ways. And thanks to the efforts of Hauke, who some people might know as someone who already helped various other homebrew creators with his skills in the graphical department, this fan-product even comes with all the necessary assets and instructions to create your own Return to Innsmouth box and dividers! Will you once more venture out to stand in the way of the Order of Dagon?

Fishpeople!

While your memories of the places near and beneath the sea are not as reliable as you would like, it is still unmistakable that things changed around Innsmouth since your last visit. Caves aren’t where you remember them, new inhabitants are living in the village and there are things stalking near the shores that you are sure you’ve never seen before…

The (Unofficial) Return to The Innsmouth Conspiracy remixes the entire The Innsmouth Conspiracy campaign, bringing new tricks and turns for every scenario with an assortment of new scenario cards. From the very beginning of the campaign, you may find yourself Stalked by Deep Ones. Or you may find that the eldritch influence on this place starts taking hold on you as well as you feel the Call of the Sea.

Along with bringing changes to every individual scenario, this fan-made upgrade expansion also includes six new encounter sets, designed to swap in throughout the campaign and bringing even more replayability to the table. This does not only include new versions of the Tidal Tunnels, but also things like the Deep One Stalker, one of the many new cards that care about the Deep One trait and how it signifies the influence of the Elder Ones on the investigators. No matter which of these new scenario cards and encounter sets you’re using, this upgrade expansion has the divider cards you need to easily organize the entire campaign— provided you are up for a little bit of an arts and crafts project following the instructions and using the art assets that come with this fan-made expansion.

Count Your Blesses

Of course, nobody expects you to face these fresh horrors without some new tools at your disposal. In fact, due to the unique opportunity of revisiting the Bless and Curse tokens, The (Unofficial) Return to The Innsmouth Conspiracy features an extra player card for each class when compared to the official Return to Campaigns, for a total of 3 cards per class plus a neutral one. You surely remember how the original Innsmouth Conspiracy introduced an asset that changed classes with its upgrade? Now there are five more such cards, like the upgraded Keep Faith which is available for Mystics or this new version of Priest of Two Faiths that can be taken by Survivors. These five cards also subtly introduce payoffs for token types that the class didn’t care about before, providing some new hooks for creative deckbuilding. Of course there are also the usual in-class upgrades, from the obligatory Blessed Blade upgrade to more exotic ones like this exceptional version of Tristan Botley.

And finally, what would an upgrade expansion, fan-made or otherwise, be without a list of achievements tempting you closer to nigh-impossible feats. Whether it’s finding all story allies in Vanishing of Elina Harper, collecting all 16 Flashbacks throughout the campaign, or winning The Innsmouth Conspiracy while being permanently turned into a Deep One, these achievements give you something to strive for again and again.

Current state of the project

By now you might be wondering two things: “When?” and “How?”.
The preliminary design for the cards in this fan-made expansion is completed, what’s going on right now is some extensive playtesting of the proposed changes and filing down any rough edges. While i am doing that, Hauke is working on making sure that the graphical assets are all up to snuff, all the way from encounter icons to the outside of the box. There are also some technical demons to wrangle, but nothing that’s not solvable.
That being said, I am not comfortable giving even an estimated release date. We want this to be great, so we will absolutely take the time we need. Once it’s done it will be available as a print&play and as a digital release. Obviously, as a fan-made product, it is completely free and not monetized in any way.
EDIT: Check out the first release here!
EDIT#2: Check out the full release here!
Note that cards previewed in this announcement likely changed over the course of development.

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