Beyond the Veil - Arkham Horror Card Game: The Circle Undone – Disappearance at the Twilight Estate

The Circle Undone brings us back from the jungles of...

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I kind of think this scenario is brilliant narratively. Missing characters have been done in previous campaigns, but this is the first time we are really personally invested in them. We have attachments to Jerome and Gavriella as we remember their final moments, their victories and failures and are eager to find them again.

It's just a shame that the focus of the campaign isn't kept tighter on them. The individual scenarios just kind of follow one another, and it's a struggle to see the connective tissue, the cause and effect between them. This wouldn't be such an issue as I'm more into the game for the game than its story, but there is so much text in this campaign. It draws attention to how it fails to work on the scale of plot.

I don't entirely agree. It takes the game a while to come back to them and it would be nicer if that was earlier in the story. I do really like the Circle Undone as I think there are lots of interesting branching narratives. Now Shellie has got to posting these, I better get on with writing the rest!

That’s kind of my point. The prologue sets up the second scenario beautifully, but then you forget about the disappearances and decide to sleep in a haunted house and spend the night in a graveyard before getting back on the case. The prologue is such a strong hook but ultimately feels more than a little squandered.

I love the branching narrative and feel that’s it’s better implemented than in Forgotten Age, but it almost feels like another lost opportunity. The two approaches to entering the Silver Twilight Lodge are so amazing that I’m disappointed more scenarios don’t go so far. I get it though. I’m sure that took a long time to design and develop.

Yeah I see what you mean. I think it is disappointing that more doesn't happen in the prologue that can change the other scenarios or have more resonance. As it is I know plenty of people who skip the prologue and just assume a result as it isn't that fun to play after the first time through and the consequences are minimal.

I would like to see more in the way of interludes you can play, mini side scenarios that show, rather than tell story. I feel in Dream Eaters especially the amount of text between scenarios is getting increasingly unwieldy.

In general, how do you play through a campaign? Do you retry scenarios or plow through regardless of the outcome?

I generally keep going through the campaign. The two big exceptions are making a rules mistake so enormous it drastically changes a scenario’s difficulty or getting so absolutely hosed by the encounter deck that I’m knocked out in the first two rounds. I’m not spending more time on setup and tear down than playing.

It’s worth noting that you rarely “win” or “lose” a scenario. There are better and worse resolutions, but it’s not often binary. Scenarios like Midnight Masks the best result is incredibly difficult, but that’s the design. Besides, failure can be interesting. The designers have gotten better at weaving different resolutions into the campaigns fabric such that you won’t see everything in the game if you just trounce everyone in your path.

That's great to know, thanks! I finally assembled 5/6 scenario packs for Carcosa, so making the plunge into the campaign now.

Yeah I plow on through barring mechanical mistakes. I love that each time I run through a campaign it is it's own self contained story.