Pathfinder Strange Aeons

ive added this scenario to TableTopSimulator https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1322098817

Looks great. I am keen to try this out =)

love AH lcg…..love the pathfinder stuff too.. its a no brainer!!..so,much stuff to dig into in PF too.[wrath of the righteous especially]

great job!!

Pathfinder Strange Aeons for the Arkham Horror LCG fan-made expansion is an awesome adaptation of the first two adventures in the RPG adventure path of the same name. I really have to praise Iain Reid overall for this expansion. It essentially is an offical deluxe box experience in scope. With plenty of its own unique ideas, art, and fun scenarios. I have a few particular good things, and a few little nitpicks I will highlight below but overall this is worth the time to download and give a try.

As this is quite an extensive product I am going to go through each part roughly in the order that one would experience it. I would like to note that I have only played this solo so far but I am trying to get this in front of my group the next time one person is unable to show for our normal weekly campaign. If the group play is significantly different I will post an update to my review.

First the campaign guide included is quite well done for the most part, it is laid out just like an official one with plenty of art all credited mostly from the pathfinder adventures. It starts off by introducing the contents of the rest of the expansion and then launching into some of the custom rules of this campaign. These include rules for drafting a deck during play of a scenario, rules and restrictions to card choices to create more of a medieval fantasy setting tone, treasure locations/assets, personal victory points, and cards that care about whether a number is odd or even. I will touch on the scenarios a little later but I want to highlight a small yet potentially my favorite part in the whole campaign guide. In-between scenarios 1 and 2 there is a designers note talking about the encounter sets in this expansion and what each selection of cards sets out to do. With the intent that you could easily use these sets or adapt them for your own custom scenarios. This is wonderful and I wish the official product line also went into this sort of detail. It makes me want to compile my own brief summary list of encounter sets I own for design purposes.

The six included custom investigators all seem like a lot of fun. I have only tried out one of them in actual play so far. Like most custom investigators they are probably over-tuned a bit but I still don't think any of them approach non-taboo Rex Murphy level shenanigans. I especially like that each of the characters starts with the Amnesia basic weakness that ties into the campaign story. The past life custom weaknesses in particular do a really great job of hinting at how their past still haunts them even with amnesia. Overall I enjoyed my solo time with Lord Todd and am looking forward to see how the others fair in a multiplayer experience.

The player cards do a fairly good job of filling in some gaps left by the campaign card restrictions. They all have nice art and evocative names that tie into their abilities. Also good to see artists properly credited on all of these as well. I particularly liked the Survivor card Nemesis and the Rogue card "In it for the Money" giving the player a way to earn extra exp by completing a miniature side-quest for personal exp.

The treasure cards and mechanic was a mixed bag for me. It tests your action economy to take the time to earn an extra EXP and the equivalent to a random story asset from the official campaigns. This is thematically really nice and it was fun to push my luck to see if I could get just one more treasure before the mythos phase punished me. Yet the items themselves vary wildly in usefulness depending on the investigator and deck. In solo play none of the treasures I picked up ended up really working in my deck and were instead left out. I think in multiplayer this wouldn't be an issue as even with one other person likely we could distribute them where they would do the most good.

Now to talk about the scenarios a bit, there will be minor spoilers so you may want to skip the rest of this review.The prologue ends with you in a strange asylum. "In Search of Sanity" was a fun scenario with a good use of theme. Trying to find answers in a place while a persistent enemy is chasing you and finding survivors and doppelgangers all trying to get to the sanctuary you need to escape from at the end was an interesting twist. Otherwise it plays out as a fairly standard Arkham scenario which I think is perfectly fine when trying to come to grips with new cards, and investigators. I do feel that the Tatterman was a bit weak as in my first play-through I was able to take him out the first time he appeared with a lucky pair of combat actions and then didn't have to worry about him the rest of the scenario. I think if he simply had a bit more health maybe a base health of 3 before adding extra health per investigator would have made him a much deadlier and scarier foe. Or perhaps if he granted a victory point each time he was defeated but kept reappearing each agenda. Also in my play through I found laying out and adding the locations to be harder then in most scenarios. I think a sample layout in the scenario guide would of helped a lot.The second scenario "The Thrushmoor Terror" was an interesting town based scenario with four main mechanics. First their are these unique Star Stele assets at 3 locations in town that will build up power over time and then release it by adding a doom to an agenda and doing something bad to the investigators. While it took a few key reminders and a sticky note for myself to remember to book keep these properly at the end of the mythos phase I ended up really like the tension these caused and the decision making that forced upon me. Several times I had to decide if I was going to delay advancing the act deck in order to slow down the progress of the Star Stele's. The other three mechanics are all similar and play into a theme of duality. Their are two agenda decks, two encounter decks, and two different revealed sides for each location. You see the town is under attack by two rival cults representing Cthulhu and Hastur respectively. Whenever you add a doom to an agenda you place it on one of the two agendas and doom on enemies and locations in play count for both. The encounter deck you draw from depends on whether you are on a location currently in control by the Cthulhu cult or the Hastur cult. Throughout the Scenario a location may flip from one side to the other. Note: if you flip a location you refresh the clues on it as if it was a new location as normal. On the positive side this scenario was difficult but I never felt it was unfair, and I liked the agency it gave me over how to deal with the many elements going on and in what order. On the other hand their is a lot more bookkeeping and special things to remind yourself of during this scenario compared to most. I ended up having to restart the scenario once and try it again on a separate day as partway through I realized that I had missed a Star Stele location advancing that would of completely changed the game state. Also in the scenario you fight two different cult leaders that also much like the first scenario's tatterman just felt too weak in solo play. Once again I think just adding a little base health or maybe as cult leaders having them spawn in a cultist or two to help them fight would of done wonders. Overall these scenarios, characters, and cards were all fun to play with. I look forward to trying these again and I hope Ian Reid produces more and finishes this campaign at some point in the future. My only general nitpick was there was several minor spelling errors or mislabeling of certain cards. The biggest one I found was act 4 of the second scenario being labelled as another act 1a. I think if Ian Reid comes back to these scenarios and gives them a few tweaks and another proof read this already great product will become absolutely stupendous.

where are the

• player cards backs
• treasure card backs
• encounter card backs