Aduleon

One house rule I have found to add a bit of intrigue and tension to the game is to reveal the top quest on quest deck in addition to the four available at the Cliffwatch Inn. This ensures that resetting the quest isn’t just a gamble in hopes of getting something you may need vs. junk. This also adds tension when the top quest is a 40 point Undermountain quest, making it a rather stressful situation deciding whether or not to take that 25 point face up quest that you know you can complete next turn vs. that extra 15 points that may or not come to fruition.

One thing that always bothered me about Lords of Waterdeep was that your faction was merely just a place to hide your lord and keep your agents and completed quests tidy. I’ve sought to change this by allowing each faction a corresponding starting bonus that goes as follows:

Harpers: 1 wizard
City Guard: 2 fighters
Red Sashes: 2 rogues
Knights of the Shield: 4 gold
Silverstars: 1 cleric
Gray Hands: 1 intriuge card + 2 gold

Factions are chosen BEFORE lords and quests are passed out.

One thing that always bothered me about Lords of Waterdeep was that your faction was merely just a place to hid your lord and keep your agents and completed quests tidy. I’ve sought to change this by allowing each faction a corresponding starting bonus that goes as follows:

Harpers: 1 wizard
City Guard: 2 fighters
Red Sashes: 2 rogues
Knights of the Shield: 4 gold
Silverstars: 1 cleric
Gray Hands: 1 intriuge + 2 gold

Factions are chosen BEFORE lords and quests are passed out.

When playing the Specialist variant listed in the rulebook consider switching it up a bit with this variant. To do this, give each player their designated cards:

-Gabriel Correa Santiago: “Disrupter Laser” and “Remote Drone”
-Hugo Cash: “Call for Backup” and “Sledehammer”
-John “Animal” McEvoy: “Diesel” and “Gauss Pistol”
-”Marilyn” 7Y3T9D: “Slider” and “Qianju PT”
-Monica Singh: “Flechette Pistol” and “Movement Tracker”
-Mr. White: “Informant” and “Secretaries”

Next have each player choose only ONE of these cards to keep and put the other face down in the middle of the table.

Once all extra cards have been added to the pool they are shuffled and added to the item deck and shuffled once more.

Deal 3 cards to each operative and proceed to start the game as normal.

*Deal 2 operative cards to each player.

*Deal each operative their designated specialists card
-Gabriel Correa Santiago: “Disrupter Laser” and “Remote Drone”
-Hugo Cash: “Call for Backup” and “Sledehammer”
-John “Animal” McEvoy: “Diesel” and “Gauss Pistol”
-“Marilyn” 7Y3T9D: “Slider” and “Qianju PT”
-Monica Singh: “Flechette Pistol” and “Movement Tracker”
-Mr. White: “Informant” and “Secretaries”

*Shuffle the remaining items and deal 2 to each operative.

*Give each operative one “Action deck” each (1 of each card: “Advance”, “Download”, “Interface”, and “Retreat”)

*Selection phase plays per operative per player. That is to say, each of your operatives selects one card from each of their respective hands. Cards resolve in order of the first player. Each operative that player controls flips over their cards one at a time, in whichever order he/she chooses.

*At the end of the game DF totals are tallied based on that player’s operatives combined total (providing of course any of their operatives escaped successfully).

One thing I have found playing against Shub-Niggurath (at least in 1 player) is that I am constantly bombarded by creatures. And with Shub-Niggurath’s ability in place, killing monsters becomes an utter chore. Too often I have found myself fighting Shub-Niggurath 1-on-1, and then I realized that that is not a bad thing -at all.

In fact this is my strategy to win against this particular Old One.

The trick is spending your time focusing on specifically killing monsters or completing adventures that you know you can handle. You want trophies, because if you don’t have a trophy to sacrifice when Shun-Niggurath attacks, you are devoured. Also, if you are going to fight monsters on the board, you should, if at all possible fight the ones on adventure cards where if you fail, you get a Doom Token.

Now I’m sure you are probably thinking, “why on earth would you ever do something that stupid!?”

The reasoning is this. More doom tokens means more monsters on the board, more monsters means more trophies and also with this strategy it would take forever waiting for the doom track to fill up relying on just the Mythos deck.

That being said, do make sure you have at least each player has about 3-4 trophies each (6-8 in a 1 player game) and you should have a very good chance beating Shub-Niggurath when it awakens.

This is yet another variant I started fiddling around with. Like it so far but I haven’t been able to get a group together to playtest it like it needs.

SETUP:
-Each person chooses a character to play as at random.
-Choose a Great Old One at random. Note the amount of Doom Tokens needed for that Great Old One to manifest.
-Shuffle the adventure deck and remove the top 6 cards (or 9 if you are playing against a GOO with a requirement of 10 or more Doom Tokens to manifest). Set those cards aside.
-Place Adventure Cards face down in two rows of three (if you are playing against a GOO with a requirement of 10 or more Doom Tokens to manifest, place 9 cards down [making 3 rows of 3]). Keep placing an additional card on each of these until you run out. Each pile should have an even amount of cards to one another.

GOAL:
Players must work to protect the museum against the horror of the Great Old Ones by collecting Elder Signs and sealing off the portals hidden in the depths of the museum.

GAMEPLAY:
-During a player’s turn he/she moves to an Adventure Card and attempts to complete it. If the player successfully completes this adventure he/she takes the rewards on that card. If one of the rewards is an Elder Sign, place that on the complete Adventure Card. This room has now been sealed.
-Not every Adventure cards will have an Elder Sign as a reward. The only other way to obtain an Elder Sign is to collect enough trophies to obtain one from the gift shop.
-When a players purchases an Elder Sign, his/her resolution phase ends.
-Once an Elder Sign is purchased it does not immediately go on an Adventure Card. Players own that Elder Sign once they purchase it and must move to the Adventure Card (portal) they wish to seal and place it on it. Once placed, this ends that player’s resolution phase.

NOTE:
-If a card or effect would allow you to draw an additional Adventure card to be placed in game, instead draw that card from the bottom of any of the piles in play. You may chose to remove that card from the game or instead put it on the top of that pile.

Haven’t play tested this yet, so I’d be interested to get some feedback on this:

Doom Clock Variant
2-8 players

SETUP
-Shuffle the Adventurer cards. Each players pulls 1 Adventurer card at random from the deck. Once all players have received a card, repeat this process, this card is placed face down under the first Adventurer card as a reserve.

-Shuffle the Adventure cards and place 9 cards starting from the top left going clockwise in circle, (into 3 rows of 3) with the last card landing in the middle. Discard this middle card and place it on the bottom of the deck.

-Players then roll to see who plays first (typically rolling two green dice and who ever rolls a Terror die first)

-1st Player chooses any of the 8 cards on the table and designates this card as the Midnight Card.

-Place the Doom Clock in the middle of these cards (where the 9th, discarded card was) with 12 o’clock facing the designated Midnight Card

RULES
Game play follows standard as well as any additional house rules (if applicable) with one exception. Players may only attempt adventures at certain times. This works in the following way:

Cards from 12 to 3 (3 cards total) may only be attempted during 12 o’clock and 3.

Cards from 3 to 6 may only be attempted from 3 to 6.

And so on, and so on.

If the Midnight Card is not completed before the clock strikes midnight then it is discarded and put on the bottom of the Adventure deck and a new card is drawn to replace it.

If a player adventure or an effect would yield a portal to one of the Other World cards that player may put that card at any time on the clock (E.g. if the player wishes to be able to attempt it at 3 then he/she would place the Other World card below/next to the card at 3 o’clock)

Effects (such as defeating the Dimensional Shambler) that advance the clock may either advance the clock or advance the midnight cards ahead by 3 hours.

I have heard from a multitude of people that Elder Sign is just too easy to beat, and that there is often no threat of the Great Old One awakening due to the fact that the Mythos deck or other variables just don’t put enough Doom Tokens out to create that feeling of concern like you expect from Arkham Horror.

In order to fix this I have found that modding the Mythos deck is actually the best way to ensure there is always a threat of the Great Old One awakening.

The following 18 card deck is to be used for optimal difficulty rubric. Depending on the number of players, up to four additional cards MAY be added to the main Mythos Deck from the sideboard at random at this ratio:

1-2 players: 1-2 cards
3-4 players: 2 cards
5-6 players: 3-4 cards
7-8 players: 4 cards

MAIN DECK:
A Heavy Burden / Amid the Stillness
Horrible Monsters / Reveal a Secret
Keep Friends Close / When Memories Fade
Person Possessions / Bring Good Fortune
Strange Sights / In the Lurking Shadows
Strange Sights / Before the Storm
Strange Sights / Of a Poisonous Trap
Sudden Terror / Amid the Stillness
The Arcane Art / Closes the Doors
The Right Tools / Create a Rift
The Stars Align / Above Dark Clouds
The Stars Align / Above an Open Door
The Stars Align / Amid the Stillness (x4)
The Stars Align / Before Reason Fails
The Stars Align / to Bring Forth Horrors
Too High a Price / To Bring Forth Horrors

SIDEBOARD:
A Warning / Of a Conspiracy
A Warning / Of a Curse
A Warning / Of a Dark Prison
A Warning / Of Living Nightmares
A Winding Trail / To Bring Forth Horrors
Be Prepared / for Living Nightmares
Eldritch Knowledge / In a Disturbed Mind
Esoteric Devices / Reveal a False Trail
Madness Takes Hold / To Bring Forth Horrors
Shadowy Entities / Amid the Stillness
Strange Sights / Amid the Stillness (x2)
Weakness Shown / Amid the Stillness