Of Sphinx and sands campaign

Art style is nice, especially in Scenario 2! Also like the commitment to the map.

Any chance of getting all of these as single images. I want to get these custom printed up on playing cards

The campaign is on artscow Scenario 1, plus a little bit of 2: http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/sphinx-t1ygc1co... Scenario 2: http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/sphinx-3uk2e69n... Scenario 3, plus a little bit of 2: http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/arkham-lcg-sphi...

Hugely enjoyable. Very thematic. I hadn't visited the pyramids before; I have now.

Played the first scenario, and it was ok, but a bit on the easy side. The second scenario had some good ideas, but was a bit clunky. The third scenario was FRIGGIN FANTASTIC. I loved the way the story was integrated with the locations. The fear mechanic was inspired. The difficulty was very well balanced. It was great. Very well done!

Thanks so much!

Ported your campaign to TSS, included it in my AH LCG mod! Will give it a spin soon, the mechanics and theme looks very interesting :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1516223

Thanks! But seems wrong link?

Terrible artwork. Files s01-01,04,08,09,10 cannot even be converted to pdf using png2pdf.com

Sorry the artwork wasn't your style. Others did seem to like it.

As far as file conversion, if converting to PDF is important to you, I had no problem converting Scenario 2s, -1 (which I'm pretty sure what you mean) on https://online2pdf.com/ even though they didn't convert on png2pdf.

I've refreshed Scenario 1. It dragged a little in the first Act so I made a few changes to liven it up. While I was at it I made a few modifications elsewhere including the Chaos bag and some of the art. It is mostly the same but enough changes that if you've played it before you'd still find new things. Enjoy!

Hey Matthew, Dran here from Steam (the guy behind the Arkham mod on TTS), someone gave me a heads up that Im running the old version of your campaign, could you contact me and let me know which cards have changed so I can update the version on the mod?

You can find me on Steam, Reddit (/u/drandran) or @Dran on the MythosBusters Discord.

Cheers!

Great scenario 1! There seems to be an error as the scenario setup and Act 1b cards request adding the same cards to the encounter deck.

Thanks for the feedback! I took a look at the conflict. They shouldn't have been included at setup; I altered the setup card and sent a new set of files to arkhamcentral to load.

Hi everyone!

I have begun a video playthrough of this campaign! The first episode can be found here: https://youtu.be/IIfVEhbNXE4

I just finished the campaign playing 2 player on Hard, and lost on the third scenario. My impressions are:

Scenario I - Fun and interesting. Thematic locations. Requires significant clue gathering but can waylay a team by also requiring significant combat at any given moment. A bit swingy because of how devastating the skulls are in combination with a Hard chaos bag. Some encounter cards are quite mild and some are insanely brutal, so Wards and other cancellation effects are important.

Scenario II - With the optional modules, this one is a treat. I believe Optional Module A makes the scenario easier but B probably makes it harder so together they're a nice inclusion. We were able to get deep into the scenario, but we ran well short of time to earn the best resolution. The setting was vivid though. One funny thing was that I assumed the setting was the 1920s like in all other Arkham scenarios during scenario I, then I suddenly realized it was present day during scenario II. This one was hands-down my favorite of the three.

Scenario III - Truth be told, we had a very negative play experience. It seemed extremely imbalanced; everything hurt and nothing was fun. All our cards were blank. The "Fear" mechanic totally paralyzed us. The "Explore" option seemed a trap as the scenario undid all our work faster than we could do it. Mechanical snafus abound. (x2 Wizards of the Order but there's only 1 in the Core Set. Is it designer intent that the punishment of a badly failed "Fear" test--going backward--initiates another "Fear" test, which if failed cancels the consequence of the original failure? Or that one failed "Fear" test initiates a chain reaction of "Fear" tests that send me down a greased chute all the way back to the starting location?)

I read above that someone really enjoyed scenario III and I'm glad because I think many aspects of this campaign's design are absolutely inspired and the creator deserves all the credit in the world for the good times players in the community are having with this mini-campaign. But I seriously doubt the player who enjoyed Scenario III played it as written. Or maybe he played it on Easy or there are economies of scale that make it manageable for some particular player count. For two players on Hard though, with around 15 experience, I don't believe it's beatable, particularly not with the same pair of decks that had to be so clue-heavy to push through the first two extremely investigation-oriented scenarios. This one is brutal.

Kudos to the designer of the campaign. It's thematically rich and each scenario has several minor mechanical innovations that make them all feel unique and worth playing even this late into the game's life.

So for my money (and admittedly in stark contrast with a previous commenter), Scenario I seems to me very good, scenario II seems absolutely great, and scenario III seems literally broken. I admire all the hours that went into it, and the cleverness of the overall design. Kudos to the creator and an overall recommendation for any players thinking of giving it a try, despite my reservations about the ending.

Actually, as a point of revision on the previous post--it's not true that I can't think of a way to beat Scenario III. There are a few movement cards that I can think of that trivialize its difficulty--most notably Elusive. Open Gate would be fantastic for a large group. Gate Box would be another, though it opens up a space-time continuum breach that completely shatters the scenario. So while many decks will be useless, a few clutch cards circumvent all of the challenges. Unfortunately, that still amounts to broken in my estimation.

Thanks for the feedback and kind words. The Fear mechanic isn't intended to trigger cascading failures. Being pushed back by Fear shouldn't cause you to take another test. Although I could see how it could be misunderstood.

Thank you for that clarification, Matthew. I will play it as intended going forward. Let me also provide a further update on my experience with the campaign:

I recently introduced the campaign to my regular playgroup in a 4 player campaign on Expert difficulty, and my experience has been:

Although all campaigns become easier with more players, this is extremely pronounced with this campaign, due to the (a) generally mild encounter cards, (b) very large maps, (c) very large clue totals, (d) the final scenario's method of scaling fear tokens and starting gear, (e) extremely swingy chaos bag, (f) scarcity of big bosses or 1/player mini-bosses. The combination of these means the campaign is brutal for solo players and easy for four-player teams. Basically, there's a very great deal of work to be done but nothing is too hard to do. The real fear is failing to finish, not death. Occasionally a bad pull form the chaos bag will ruin an investigator for a turn, which is death in solo but a minor nuisance in four-player. Economies of scale and division of labor let teams ride out the bumps of the deck and bag though, and success breeds success, with resolutions providing cascading advantages for future scenarios.

I think I would revise my statement about the third scenario being impossible. The trick is to play it four-player or even three--any count that gives you the flashlight, which is absolutely vital. The movement cards and abilities that FFG has introduced since the scenario's design might undermine the final scenario's main challenge or create unsolvable glitches (e.g., fear could prevent Luke from leaving his dreamland, which then collapses and he's nowhere).

Our experience with four players on Expert has been good despite the lack of novelty, but it has also been quite different.

The first scenario was quite fun and moderately challenging. The theme of this one shines, with a clear three act structure and a strong impression of location and enemy motivation. (One nitpick: why take out "Echoing Footsteps" when the cult arrives? That one still seems thematically appropriate, albeit the implication slightly changes.)

The second scenario was also fun, but with the optional rules providing bonus rounds at first and preventing the enemies from really attacking (based on how I read Module A, Cultists become much weaker than printed, especially with a group of four), we crushed it with lots of time to spare. This led us to scenario three which, to be honest, we're about to play this afternoon. But I've looked it over to decide if I need to houserule it based on our negative play experience the first time, and I've realized that it will probably be fine.

In short, Scenario 1 was very challenging for 2 players, Hard and medium difficulty for 4 players, Expert. Scenario 2 was even more challenging for 2 players, Hard but very easy for 4 players, Expert. Scenario 3 was impossible for 2 players, Hard, but we anticipate it being a fair challenge for 4 players, Expert. Each scenario gives a strong sense of location and there are mechanical innovations in each that make them all interesting. At times I struggle for thematic explanations of mechanics, but that's true for so many scenarios. All told, I continue to regard this one as a real winner.

Congrats again to the designer and a recommendation for any players thinking of giving it a try.

Thanks again. Good feedback. I'm not sure if there's a place that makes sense for a boss or 1/p mini-boss. It's something to consider. I'm in the final stages of putting everything back into Strange Eons again to clean up ambiguities, address some feedback I've read, and make some minor changes of things that in retrospect I thought could be improved.

As far as the Echoing Footsteps, hiding to avoid detection from the guards was the thematic hook. And then once you were safely past the point of, "Don't get caught" the Investigators could be a little less cautious. But fair enough that there's still others to avoid: maybe I'll make that change.

Message me on BGG if you have any other ideas, especially on the scaling. I've been messing around with revising this for a while now and am finally almost done and this will be the last time I ever change it.

Hello Matt, Congratulations for your work ! I’m a member of the french community “Horreur à arkham jce”, we are looking for fanmade scenarios that we could translate to increase the number of adventures available in french. Would you allow us to translate this adventures for french-speaking players ? Thank you in advance for your answer. Mitch

Yes, most certainly.

Great ! Thank you very much ! We will keep you informed of the progress of the translation.

You may want to hold off. I'm finally finishing a last rework of everything. Much will be the same but there will be some changes. Up to you though.

A great campaign, kudos to the author. it's all very thematic, but I think some things were a bit problematic:

a) In general, the way each scenario requiere to search for diferent official cards, and the way after each act you must change the encounter deck is thematic, very it feel clunky.

b) In scenario 2, after some act you have to include a "hunting terror", I didn't find that card. Also, in the same scenario, Module B requieres more explaining imo.

c) Scenario 3 seen to be incomplete, last couple of agendas don't have a back text, the movement between rooms at the end is confusing. Also, the abominations seems like a waste incorporation. And there's a custom spell includaded that I didn't seem to be able to play. And, why the blindfold at the entrance?

d) Some art is really great, some are... childish? too simple?

e) Redaction at some points seems confusing, like a not so good traslation. I'm clearly not an English native, but even I could see that redaction needs a litlte more care.

I think this campaign requiere some little tweaks to be really great . Thanks for your work.

Thank you for the feedback. I'm taking this opportunity, and improved Strange Eons capabilities, to make a real campaign guide which hopefully will make some of these things easier and clearer. Re: the comments on the Third Scenario, not every group will need or access every card. It depends on the number of Investigators and branching plot lines. I believe you mean the blank backs of some of the Acts, that's as there's other cards which point to the Resolutions. They're not incomplete, just not necessary, but I'll take a look at that.

As far as "redaction" I assume you mean the flavor text in the third scenario? If you do that is 98% verbatim quoted Lovecraft from the source material which, to be fair you're right, can be very convoluted. I did try to be very faithful to what's described, with allowances that this still needed to be made into an Arkham scenario. Which is also the source of the Abominations and how they behave.

Now up is a major rework of the campaign. There was some content added. Biggest changes were attempts to clear up any confusion issues, and to supplement the basic mechanics of the last scenario to open it up a little.

Hey,

Just printed scenario 3 and I have Act 4 has the same text / picture of Act 3. Is Act 4 an extra that is not needed?

Only one of them gets used and placed during Setup. Which one depends on what happened in the first 2 scenarios.

I'm blown away. This is the first fanmade campaign I've played and I loved it. I love how you embedded new items at key locations, and how you introduced new locatations as the scenario evolves. I like too, how some of the most evocative encounter cards were simply challenges on might find in 1920's Cairo, the ref to Mafouz, and so on. This literary turn wasn't lost on me. I wish FF would take note. I somehow wound up without a copy of Cairo Alley...wonder if that wasn't overlooked in a certain release? Even so, this is a must play for anyone deep into AH. Thanks! :)

Oops. It's Cairo ALLY. I see. Nice. :)

Great Scenarios, but the Setup and Encounter sets are all over the place and never explained. (1) There are 14 encounter sets across the 3 scenarios but there are few shared cards between scenarios. (2) Scenarios do not have specific icons. For example: Scenario 1 "Eye on the Prize", uses the "Museum" icon instead of it's own icon for the Agenda and Act. The "Museum" set is also used (partially) in Scenario 3, which is quite confusing. (2) There is different art for the "It Moved" encounter card in scenario 1 & 3, but each have the same effect. I'm unsure if the encounter set is suppose to be 2 or 4 copies of that card. (3) I'm not sure how I'm supposed to organize these... I believe you're suppose to keep the decks in the Scenario 1, 2, 3 folders seperated. It took me a long time to figure that out and I'm still not sure I'm playing it correctly.