Week in Review
And with that, Dream-Eaters is in the bag. The last encounter set of the cycle was first, Creatures of the Underworld. Not the most exciting set, but it’s not like there’s anything wrong with it either. The rest of the week was dedicated to a whopping three full scenarios: The Search for Kadath, a scenario that is mechanically very sound and interesting, but is bogged down by taking forever and being a bit of a pain with its multiple setups. Thousand Shapes of Horror, a scenario that throws a thousand different little mechanics at the player without committing fully to one. And Point of No Return, a surprisingly “classic” scenario amidst the eccentricities of Dream-Eaters.
Soapbox
Okay, let’s wrap up the scenario ranking stuff from last week and the week before that.
As a reminder, here is the table again that shows what the colors mean:
Also, once more: Whenever i talk about scenarios from NoTZ, Dunwich, Carcosa or TFA, i am assuming the Return To versions. But I want to kick this off today by giving my initial thoughts on Innsmouth first, at least as far as i played it so far.
I did already play Horror in High Gear, but only once so i didn’t include it yet. The first four i played at least 3 times each, so i feel much more firm in commenting on them. And it’s looking pretty great! Innsmouth hits all the right buttons for me, i am digging the large maps and the enemy design in particular. The quality that my two top picks share is replayability. Both Vanishing and Devil Reef employ a lot of randomizing that actually matters a lot and changes the scenario significantly between replays. That’s a huge plus in my book. The lack of this is also what i miss most from In Too Deep, which is otherwise super interesting as well. Pit of Despair is a great first scenario and doesn’t hold back any punches. The Amalgam fell mostly flat for me and didn’t do much in any of the plays i had with the scenario, but otherwise it sets the tone for the campaign right away. Best use of the flood tokens so far as well.
I am seriously blown away by the first half of the campaign. I am not as high on Horror in High Gear, because i thought it wasn’t very … interactive? Like, you are mostly being played by the scenario? Dunno, got to give it another two or three plays before i can say more. In the bottom half of tier 3 as my first impression, i definitely like the somewhat similar Essex Express more.
What you see here is my overall ranking of all the scenarios. To get there, i took the tiers as i put them for the campaigns and then ordered the scenarios within their tier. It’s not an exact science of course, but close enough to represent what i think of the individual scenarios and where i would put them on the ladder.
I don’t think i need to say too much about the scenarios themselves, i already said one or two sentences about each of these over the last two weeks. And if you need more details, i got articles for almost all of them on the site where i often give my own 2 cents somewhere. If i had to plop Horror in High Gear somewhere in there, i would do so right now between 30 (Black Stars) and 31 (House Always Wins).
And that’s it for this little project. Was fun to do and interesting to think about.
Next week i’ll catch up with announcements of the rest of the Mythos packs, i think. Or maybe i’ll talk a bit about my current “Joe and Preston visit Innsmouth” experiment. Or both. We’ll see.
Until then 🙂