Path to Carcosa Review
The Path to Carcosa begins the 2nd campaign cycle of Fantasy Flight’s Arkham Horror The Card Game, an absolute favourite of ours here at Creaking Shelves. A very high standard was set by the Dunwich Legacy cycle, and I must admit, I had my doubts they could keep surprising me with the tricks they can pull with this system. I should have had more conviction.
This review will have a general, spoiler free overview of the set, a discussion of the new investigators and player cards and, in the last section of the review, a spoiler filled discussion of the scenarios themselves. Read the bits you are interested in.
Oh that most terrible and mysterious of plays: The King in Yellow. A play with a dark secret and an unpleasantly bloody history. You know there’s something wrong about it, but the truth may be even more horrifying than you can imagine.
The Path to Carcosa begins with a visit to the theatre to see this play but, as you might expect, things take a rather unpleasant turn in Curtain Call. Lost and confused, you go to the only place you might find answers: the after party. The Last King introduces the cast crew of the King in Yellow in a nightmarish sequence whose outcome is sure to have many long term consequences for the campaign.
These are really good scenarios, embedded in a fantastic campaign system. Path to Carcosa’s main tweak is the Doubt/Conviction mechanic. Story choices may have you mark one doubt or one conviction according to how much you believe in what is happening. Because there’s a very real chance you’re already insane… and you’ve just not realised it yet! The story elements do a magnificent job of making you doubt your own decisions. Just wait until you get to the Interlude after The Last King scenario. That is quite the choice!
The Last King also introduces a new type of card: a story card, featuring one side of text to discover, and another side which is a more recognisable card type, in this case monsters or characters. These allow a much greater amount of story to be delivered than just what’s on the act and agenda cards and are used very effectively in The Last King.
Dunwich Legacy felt like a conventional mystery, with existential horror coming from your personal failures and the brutality that results from those. But here, the madness is so real! With every step forwards you are being drawn further down the slope… and later packs are only taking that further. So far, I have no doubt that Path to Carcosa is an exceptional set in an already exceptional game.
Rating: Encore
Investigators
A new cast of characters awaits, all with their particular specialties. Certain characters can take specific cards from any of the card classes. For instance, the tactical expertise of Mark Harrigan allows him to take any Tactic cards from the collection. Likewise the somewhat stereotypical shaman, Akachi Onyele, can have all the Occult cards, and is quite partial to assets with charges. Unfortunately there is a distinct lack of occult cards outside of the already accessible-to-her mystic cards.
All the other heroes offer some very interesting abilities to play with, or optimise… or deal with. Mark only gets stronger with damage, but go too far and his haunted memories rise up out of the dark to drag him down. A dangerous proposition for a character determined to be in the thick of the action. Sefina comes with much backing, a large starting hand and a series of events in her pocket, but her character event card is permanently lost after use. William Yorick gets to, quite brilliantly, bring back used cards from the grave (discard pile). Minh Thi Phan is a fantastic support character, so long as she stays close to her fellows.
But all of these characters pale in comparison to the undisputable star of the show, Lola Hayes. Lola is our first neutral character, an actress, who can play many roles so convincingly as to be a near expert! She can take cards from any class, and must take some from of at least 3. Then she must choose a role, that is a class, and can only play cards from that class. Switching roles can be done (at least) once per round. It’s so cool, surprising, unique and completely in fitting with the theme. Arkham Horror Card Game at its best!
Player Cards
Guardian
The trusty .32 Colt is a fabulous gun, sacrificing the +1 fight of the .45 automatic but coming in cheaper and with an extra 2 shots. Feel like a cowboy while shooting at the nameless monsters. True Grit, always a clumsy fellow, just gets hit by everything. Poor Grit. “Let me handle this!” you cry as you throw down the card to take a friend’s encounter card, and then feel filled with instant regret as you realise now you have their encounter card! Fortunately, if you’ve planned it right, Ever Vigilant can get you powered up super quickly, so long as you have the assets in hand and a healthy pile of resources.
Seeker
The Seekers once again have mysterious cards to investigate after Dunwich Legacy’s Strange Solution: the Archaic Glyphs. Once again, I took this card and have comprehensively failed to complete its test leaving me wondering whether these are ever sensible to take. Maybe when I’m better at the game! No Stone Unturned is a potentially useful card for helping out your allies, especially those searching for weapons. Fieldwork is a interesting one, generally dependent upon the map but at the same time, quite versatile. The upgrade card, In The Know, is a very nice power, especially in big maps or when annoying monsters/traps appear.
Rogue
The Rogues are very much trying to keep on the down low in this pack. Stealth lets you sneak past a nasty enemy, but its not much use for your hapless friends. Sleight of Hand gives you use of an item for a turn, useful if you can’t afford it just yet. Lockpicks are super helpful for investigating! However, the interestingly spelt Daring Maneuvers do not impress any rogues, giving you a boost to your skill value only after you’ve passed a test? There are a variety of cards that might benefit from that but seems like a rarely useful card.
Mystic
The mystics get the wonders of Alchemical Transmutation! The primary wonder being directed at anyone who would take a card that so inefficiently produces resources. Far better for you, just take Uncage the Soul and get a massive discount off an expensive spell. She’s even screaming at you not to take Alchemical Transmutation. The rather cool Astral Travel makes getting across a big map a breeze but not without its risks. As the card itself says, who can resist the frontiers of time and space? The final card this pack is Spirit Athame which is a big boost on spells but you’re probably already pretty good on them, if you’re looking at upgrading to this card.
Survivor
The survivors seem to have slipped into the 19th Century with Lantern and Gravedigger’s Shovel but don’t count them out yet. Lantern is a rather nice card, reducing shroud for all your investigations for the rest of the scenario! Or at least until you chuck it at some pesky monster for 1 damage. The gravedigger’s shovel also offers a choice of options, it’s a neat combat boost, but without the extra damage it’s not really selling itself to me. Hiding Spot is an intriguing and wonderfully thematic card! Attach it to a location (for later maybe) and any enemies there gain aloof and won’t engage, but they’ll smash it to pieces at the end of the enemy phase. I’m not sure it’s good, but I do like cards that do interesting things to the locations.
Spoilers ahead!
Let’s go a little bit deeper into these scenarios. Obviously, that’s difficult to do without spoilers, so consider yourself warned.
Curtain Call
Curtain Call raises some very interesting questions for you, the investigators. After falling asleep during The King in Yellow’s interval, you awake to find the theatre in a state of carnage. The remaining audience members are dead and the building appears empty… except for a big screeching nightmare monster and the piercing gaze of the stranger. Yet do the events that transpire here truly happen, or is it all a dream?
It is with a growing sense of unease that you explore the empty theatre. The new ‘hidden’ encounter cards cannot be discussed and are added to your hand, leaving you to doubt the abilities of the other investigators. By the time the agenda advances you should be thoroughly on edge, primed for the reveal of a monstrosity of operatic ambitions, but attainment more akin to the Go Compare song. A truly horrifying experience.
Indeed, the beast will hunt you down and anyone nearby must deal with the horrifying impact of its singing. You’ll want to kill it quickly, not least because it’s a short stumble towards game end if you don’t, especially with all the extra doom tokens coming out of the encounter deck. Yet defeat only, dreamlike, winds back the clock. The beast will be back before too long.
Enter the stranger. This mysterious character with a piercing stare awaits your attention. But defeat is merely the beginning. He will be a constant thorn in your side well beyond this scenario. Your first encounter though only reinforces the dream – a tide of filth, or perhaps raging waters, or simple fire will burst into the room where you’ve encountered the Stranger, and it’s interesting how this random choice of Agenda card will likely impact your degree of doubt or conviction at the end of this scenario. Either effect spreads throughout the level, hampering or even actively harming your progress as you attempt to reach the lobby (dodging Gwyn the Emissary once again) to demand answers from the Stranger.
Perhaps he even gives them to you, as you find yourself outside with no sign of any of the horror you witnessed inside. But that Stranger will be with one of you from now on, being added to to your deck as a weakness. Across the campaign you must now attempt to question him as often as possible. Who knows how much is enough? Can you afford not to? As if Arkham Horror scenarios weren’t challenging enough…
The Last King
With little to go on, a poster to the play’s after party leads you to the house of Constance Dumaine and as you arrive all signs point towards the madness having already struck here too. Bloody smears lead to a broken doorway but inside is far more horrifying than any simple butchery, starting with the butler taking you coat with bloody stumps instead of hands.
Everything is twisted, from strange eyes watching dancers from outside, to dining tables laden with rotten food. And yet no one else seems to care… Your mission though, is simple. Speak to the important members of the play who are spread throughout the mansion. This is a great mechanic making for a great scenario. Each of the character cards get a couple of clues placed on them which must be removed by talking to them. Sadly, this can only be done if certain conditions are met, like the pretentious Ishimaru Haruko only speaking to characters with copious resources.
Successfully clearing the clues rewards you with a story snippet on the rear of the card, a small piece of the mystery surrounding the play. But it’s hardly Arkham without some vicious twist. The first comes innocently enough in the form of Dianne Devine, who has a habit of bustling in and interrupting whatever conversation you’re having, which would make her an annoying socialite if it wasn’t for that symbol on her necklace… you’re convinced you’ve seen it somewhere before. Is she the proof of some greater conspiracy? Her mechanical actions are certainly suspicious! But it’s still far from proof…
It’s a terrifyingly short agenda deck this game and you’ll have barely scratched the surface before it advances. But this is far from the end of the scenario. This marks a point of hideous transformation by one of the guests, all described in gloriously vivid detail on the story cards you’ve stashed to one side. This newly birthed monster will pursue you across the map, tearing you between tough combat and actually talking to the surviving cast before they too morph into monsters.
It’s an incredibly difficult and tense situation. Good fortune will see the ones you’ve already spoken to transforming, but luck never seems to run that smooth. The transformation resets the agenda card, ready to trigger again in 3 short turns. It is easy to get overwhelmed in this scenario but then, there is no way to advance the Act. There is no win condition. And if you do read the back you get a quite brilliant bit of writing from the FFG team.
This scenario is all about set up. For the campaign, for you as players. It’s asking you how far do you want to push, how hard are you going to fight. Because you can leave at any time! Just head to the entrance hall and resign, leave this mad house. But will you have done enough?
Interlude
I couldn’t leave without comment on the final part of Path to Carcosa, your final decision at the end of the campaign book. You’ve made it outside the mansion, you’ve caught your breath and you look back and… everything is normal! No blood. No smashed door. No monsters moving past the windows. Do you go back inside to double check? Do you block the door and run? Or… do you set fire to the mansion and kill them all? Where does your conviction lie now? Just brilliant work.
Our copy of Path to Carcosa was provided for review by Asmodee UK. You can pick up a copy for £29.99 from your local game store.
Next Pack: Echoes of the Past
Previous campaign: Dunwich Legacy
Leave a Reply