Saturday, November 16, 2013

Headline:  "Goat Game."

Ancient One

Shub-Niggurath

Investigators

Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Susan
Roland Banks, the Fed - Rob
Carolyn "Tell Me About Your Mother" Fern, the Psychologist - Justin 

Marie Lambeau, the Entertainer - Rachelle

End of Game

We tried to seal gates, only got 5 (we were one turn away), and Shub woke up.  
We fought hard and lost good men and women along the way.  
Roland Banks was the first to go, being tired after single-handedly defeating the Dunwich Horror.
Ursula followed, screaming "Take Me Instead!"
The only memory remaining of Carolyn Fern were patrons of Hibb's Roadhouse who complained she was a sore loser, having threatened them with a flamethrower rather than paying up at a card game.
Marie saved the day, with one final possible dice throw that had the one necessary success.

House Rules/Game Setup
Rob specifically chose Shub-Niggurath and the corresponding Herald, Black Goat of the Woods.
Based on that, Justin and Rob chose Hypnos as Guardian and The Bureau of Investigations as Institution.

We each chose a character from four dealt at random.  Then we determined relationships:

Ursula and Roland – Take Me Instead

Carolyn and Marie – Hunted

Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow
Kingsport Horror
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror
The Lurker at the Threshold

Heralds, Guardians, and Institutions

Black Goat of the Woods
Hypnos
The Bureau of Investigations

Highlights

It was a tough game, with lots of twists and turns.  It looked bleak for a while, but there was always a glimmer of hope, as Rob reminded us.

Saturday, January 28, 2012 ...later

Headline: "How 'Bout Nyarlathotep?  He's Always Fun." - Rob

Ancient One

Nyarlathotep

Investigators
Roland Banks, the Fed - Susan
Lola Hayes, the Actress - Rob
Hank Samson, the Farmhand - Robbilee
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Denis


End of Game
We won!

I'm pretty sure we ended up fighting the A.O.  We assumed that with a short doom track, we'd have to fight him, and then the game ended up giving us Mythos cards that didn't add doom tokens.

House Rules/Game Setup
See the post headline for how we chose the A.O.

We were dealt random investigators and chose one from the 4 we were dealt, since we chose the A.O. specifically.  We found it amusing how we went from a "smartypants" theme (see the game we played before this) to the ones we were dealt.  It seemed that there was a theme to the 4 we each got, and that each set of characters would make an interesting movie:

Susan got an action movie:  Fed, Private Eye, Gangster, Bounty Hunter

Rob got a romantic comedy:  Bootlegger, Dilettante, Actress, Scientist

Robbi got a documentary, or possibly gay porn:  Farmhand, Astronomer, Doctor, Magician

Denis got a Russian Soviet-era independent film:  Gravedigger, Handyman, Dreamer, Spy

Expansions in play

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow (we use the new cards from this, but we never have actually had the 'play' enter play)
Kingsport Horror - we left out Heralds and Guardians
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror

Highlights

* Roland couldn't get past a warlock.

* Roland's encounter in The Dreamlands:  Space 1 - gained 2 sanity, space 2 - went to the Hospital and gained 4 stamina.

* Roland escapes devouring several times, two of which were in a row.

* We constantly got Mythos cards that had a gate opening at the Unnameable and a clue appearing at the Woods.  Again, several times in a row.

* Hank's encounter in the Other World:  "You inadvertently summon the Haunter of the Dark to carry you through the void.  You must lose sanity equal to your current stamina, or stamina equal to your current sanity, but gain 2 clue tokens for each monster in the sky."

* With 2 doom tokens needed to fill the doom track, we assumed the game would be over any time.  "There's no time to seal gates!" ...2 hours and at least 10 turns later, we won.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Headline: "Exciting new adventurers make many delicious friends"

Ancient One
Atlach-Nacha

Investigators
Anges Baker, the Waitress - Susan (chosen for being a badass)
Silas Marsh, the Sailor - Rob (chosen to travel easily between boards, what with 3 board expansions and all)
William Yorick, the Gravedigger - Denis
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Robbilee (¡cluez!)
...latecomers:
Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Justin
Roland Banks, the Fed - Rachelle (Rach asked Susan to choose for her - never running out of clues or $)


End of Game
We successfully defeated Atlach-Nacha, and no investigators were sacrificed.
However, all allies were sacrificed. We would like to observe a moment of silence for:

...Tom "Mountain" Murphy...
...Erica Carlyle...
...Professor Armitage...
...Terrible Old Man...
...Professor Rice...
...Ruby Standish...

House Rules/Game Setup - We just bought the Innsmouth Horror expansion
Ancient One chosen randomly, after the new AOs from Innsmouth Horror were added [Rob shuffled the deck of AOs, Susan drew Glaaki, but we had him last time, so our second card was Atlach-Nacha]
Investigators chosen from 4 possible randomly dealt NEW (Innsmouth) investigators, after finding out the Ancient One's abilities and discussing winning tactics.
Rachelle and Justin entered the game around the 7th doom token.

Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow (we use the new cards from this, but we never have actually had the 'play' enter play)
Kingsport Horror - we left out Heralds and Guardians this time, so we could learn the additional IH rules
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror

Highlights
* Silas became both the Captain of the White Ship and the Deputy. Fitting, since he's a sailor and wins for "well-traveled."
* Denis optimistically took his character to the Woods first, like Justin had done a few times recently, and had a bad encounter, like Justin always does there.
* Patricia ROCKED, and was very Inspiring throughout the game.
* Patricia was also often sent to the streets to busk after being kicked out of locations due to band encounters. 4 times in a row!
* Agnes had 3 Wither spells!
* Ursula cleaned up the rift openings in Kingsport with the tommy gun but didn't get to use it!
* We all earned skills right at the end, thanks to defeating the rumor The Terrible Experiment. Agnes, Silas, and William went to Misk U, kicked @$$ and took names - I mean, monster trophies. In particular, Silas took out a Leng Spider with a toughness of 4 due to Atlach-Nacha, Agnes took out a Ghost and a Dark Young, and William took out another Dark Young and a Deep One. Rockin'!