Spatial Anomaly

My take on this set: Cool cards, i like how Beyond the Pale and Splintered Space work on a mechanical level. That being said, i don’t really think this set is used all that well in the campaign. On Thin Ice is a scenario where the players need to be fairly mobile and cross a decent amount of locations in short time. As a result, there is not much danger of these Hexes stacking on top of each other to do their thing. I suppose they work as another motivation to stay on the move, but they are rather meek draws from that particular encounter deck. For Congress of the Keys, Spatial Anomaly is only used for version 1, in the “fake-out” first encounter deck that is only used for the first one or two turns before you find the Red-Gloved Man and move on to The Outside. In my not always very humble opinion having to assemble that encounter deck only to discard it almost immediately is already a waste of time, but an encounter set that thrives on collecting multiples from the same set and stacking their effects is particularly pointless in that context.
That leaves Dogs of War and that is the one scenario where this set gets to shine. Most of what’s happening in that scenario is concentrated in the four locations with the Key Loci and often just on one or two specific ones that are under attack (by either the Crimson Beast or you). This leads to players tending to stick to the same location for an extended period, giving them time to draw into stacking Hexes. Dogs of War is also the only set that has more Hexes in it than the three from this set, with two copies of the scenario specific Locus Pulse (which deals more damage and horror).
So in conclusion, i do like the set and Dogs of War gives it at least one place to be relevant. But i do wish this was used better elsewhere. I believe this would’ve fit pretty well into the Havana scenario for example. Or Riddles and Rain.

What it does: Beyond the Pale attaches to the location of the investigator. Following a failed willpower test, the investigator is dealt 1 horror for each Hex at their location, including this copy of Beyond the Pale. The treachery attaches to the location no matter the outcome of the willpower test. Once all 3 copies of Beyond the Pale are in play, they are discarded.

My take: This is a cute iteration on the Rotting Remains formula. Outside of Dogs of War, it isn’t all that threatening though. There’s an element of player count scaling with these, as bigger groups are more likely to draw into multiple Hexes when they stick together. But unless you spend a long time at the same location, these are unlikely to stack up.

Threat level: Low. Mid in Dogs of War.

Dealing with it: To avoid pulling multiple Hex treacheries in the same mythos phase, you can consider splitting up the team over multiple locations. Not ending your turn on locations that already have Hexes attached will also help you spread these around, making both their initial impact weaker and also helping to make future draws of either Beyond the Pale or Splintered Space more manageable.

What it does: Splintered Space attaches to the location of the investigator. Following a failed agility test, the investigator is dealt 1 damage for each Hex at their location, including this copy of Splintered Space. The treachery attaches to the location no matter the outcome of the agility test. Once all 3 copies of Splintered Space are in play, they are discarded.

My take: Since this is pretty much a mirror version of Beyond the Pale, i am just going to refer you to the above and ask you to replace every mention of willpower with agility, horror with damage and Rotting Remains with Grasping Hands 🙂

Threat level: see above

Dealing with it: see above

What it does: Warped Reality attaches to the investigator’s location and stays there until someone uses an double action to discard it. Any player ending their turn at Warped Reality’s location has to hollow one of the non-weakness cards from their hand.

My take: This is fine. You get to choose the card you set aside which makes it a reasonable cost to pay. I actually find the fact that this is another Hex for Splintered Space and Beyond the Pale to scale from more relevant than its own effect of eating up a card.

Threat level: Low. Not a particularly threatening effect, mostly notable for being a persistent Hex treachery.

Dealing with it: Many times you will be able to just avoid ending your turn on its location. Doing so will also prevent it from stacking up with Splintered Space and Beyond the Pale. When that is not possible, it will usually be preferable to just finish your business at that location as soon as possible and moving on instead of wasting your precious actions on the discard ability of Warped Reality.