Announcing a New Fan-Made Upgrade Expansion for Arkham Horror LCG
“Behold! It is not over unknown seas but back over well-known years that your quest must go; back to the bright strange things of infancy and the quick sun-drenched glimpses of magic that old scenes brought to wide young eyes.”
– H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”
You thought you’d already seen everything, from the spider infested halls of St. Mary’s over the dazzling landscapes of the Dreamlands to the wastes lit by death-fire. You talked to cats and zoogs and fought off all manner of nightmarish monsters roaming that surreal land. But now that new challenges are presenting themselves, it’s time to return. Return back to the quest for the lost city of Kadath, return to the dark side of the moon and even return to the point of no return.
I am proud to announce The (Unofficial) Return to The Dream-Eaters, a fan-made upgrade expansion adding new supplementary content to the entire The Dream-Eaters 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 Dream-Eaters, to inject new dangers and new objectives into your journey to the Dreamlands. New player cards, representing both upgraded and downgraded versions of cards from The Dream-Eaters give you new tools and options for upgrading your decks. Also returning: Hauke, who once more enhances this fan-product with all the necessary assets and instructions to create your own “Return To” box and dividers! So, do you have what it takes to once more brave both the waking and the dreamer’s side of this campaign and make your way to the horrors that await at the end of the journey?
Venturing beyond your wildest dreams
The Dreamlands are constantly shifting, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a return visit will have moved many things around. Some places look different, others are simply more vast than before. But the thing that really leaves a mark is how the land and its inhabitants react differently to the investigators disturbing their (relative) peace.
The (Unofficial) Return to The Dream-Eaters remixes the entire The Dream-Eaters campaign, with new tricks and turns in every scenario. Since the campaign is split into two mini-campaigns, there is also going to be more interaction between the two halves. On the side of the dreamers, you will need to make sure that you aren’t completely swept away by the Mesmerizing Images of the Dreamlands. The other side will have to make sure that they don’t get buried by the Ravenous Hordes of vermin on four or eight legs. Otherwise they risk that there will be Nothing Left But Bones.
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 rats and spiders (so many spiders!), but also Marauders and a new version of everyone’s favorite treachery, Ancient Evils. As long as you are up for a little bit of arts and crafts, you can also make yourself all the necessary dividers and the box to properly store these new cards using the arts assets that come with this fan-made expansion.
Whatever you can dream of
To brave these new challenges, you can reach into an arsenal of new tools at your disposal. The (Unofficial) Return to The Dream-Eaters has, just like the official Return sets, two new player cards for each class. There’s also two neutral ones and two weaknesses to round out the player card portion of the set. While not available in every class, a small focus is on level zero versions of some hallmark cards that allow players to build into those even before they are able to drop the necessary XP on those build enablers. For example, Guardians might decide they want to start out with a level 0 Empty Vessel in their deck to get an early taste of the power of Wish-Eater. In a similar manner, Seekers can now already during deck creation enlist Abigail Foreman to carry their books around for them. In terms of upgrades, we couldn’t have a Dream-Eaters return without a high-level Miss Doyle! The general even recruited a fourth cat into her highly unusual army. Mystics that were interested in Mind’s Eye before but always found it to be not quite where they want it, might be interested in investing into the level 5 Mind’s Eye which can more easily be the centerpiece of a deck.
The weaknesses are doing something that has not been done in the Arkham Horror LCG up to now. They are locations with player backs that, like all basic weaknesses, get shuffled into their bearers decks, to come out at the most inopportune of times. One of them is the Dream-Maze which locks an investigator down until another player rescues them. And yes, Hauke made a sweet custom frame for location weaknesses.
Finally no upgrade expansion, fan-made or otherwise, would be complete without a list of achievements tempting you to display your mastery. These achievements give you something to strive for again and again, luring you back into the Dreamlands.
Current state of the project
As before when I announced the Unofficial Return to Innsmouth a few months back, the set is still heavily in development at this point. I have only just begun initial playtesting and iterating, so the final release of the set is still going to be a while. We can of course draw from our experiences with the other Return set we did for this one which should bypass some of the technical issues we had and streamline some of the other processes this has to go through. We are also joined from day one by coldtoes, who helps a lot with artwork for the cards and everything concerning print and play… so things should be progressing more smoothly than before.
But even with that… i’d estimate about three months before all is said and done? That being said, don’t hold us to that, ultimately it’s going to be done when it’s done and we will take all the time we need. If it takes five, it takes five.
As before, the set will be available as Print&Play and as a digital release. I expect the digital version to be available earlier than the P&P.
Obviously, as a fan-made product, it is completely free and not monetized in any way.
Note that anything previewed in this announcement, including cards and the box art, is likely going to change over the course of development or possibly even be completely dropped and replaced.
Once I’ve gotten my own early playtests in and adjusted the design based on that, I will make this available for (digital) playtesting for an audience. If you are interested in playtesting and giving me feedback, feel free to drop me a message in Discord (username DerBK).
Anything Arkham Horror: The Card Game, including card art, is copyrighted by Fantasy Flight Games. This website, and by extension this project, is not affiliated with or supported by Fantasy Flight Games in any way.