User:Lostdrewid/LD League 01/Scenario 01

First scenario for my first league; for now, this is merely a work in progress. The Ancient One will be Nyarlathotep. One face of Nyarlathotep, the Dark Pharaoh, acts as his own Herald.

The story of this scenario is, at its most basic, the beginning of the fight against the Ancient Ones by the Investigators in Arkham, Massachusetts. At the start of the game, only the Arkham City board will be in play. Thus all cards which reference Dunwich, Kingsport and Innsmouth locations must be removed from play. All unstable locations are marked with Doom tokens, and are considered sealed. As such, the Arkham board will not be populated by clue tokens at the start of the game. Gate bursts are the only means by which Gates may begin to open in Arkham.

Until gate bursts open up, each Mythos card will still spawn a monster - albeit only human ones, as well as the Masks of Nyarlathotep. Because the Dark Pharaoh is in play, defeating any Mask will up the doom track; and the relatively small cup will ensure that Masks are a likely occurrence. Ultimately the doom track will still rise very slowly in this first game, allowing players to take their time setting the stage for later games, including pursuing conditions and other special statuses.

All human monsters - Cultists, Witches, Warlocks and so on - are part of the cult of Nyarlathotep, and are thus Endless. As such, only certain cards will allow any to be claimed as trophies; it will not be until the first burst gate that other monsters will join the cup. Even then, human monsters will continue to spawn at sealed locations. The players will simply continue to draw from the cup until a human or Mask monster is drawn.

Arkham has been singled out by the Dark Pharaoh because of the arrival of the Legacy of the Pharaohs exhibit. Artifacts rightfully belonging to the Ancient One - or so He believes, at any rate - have been stolen from Him and He will destroy Arkham to get them back.

Throughout the campaign, some rules will persist. Gate bursts will open sealed locations as usual; however they will not add to the doom track if the location had been sealed - subsequent gates at that location will of course add to the doom track as normal. This softens the gate burst blow, so to speak, allowing for a slightly more predictable pace. This is important when players must not only prepare for the boss at hand - who is bound to be worse than a normal boss fight - but also to prepare for future games.

Furthermore, using an Elder Sign, or Elder Sign-like effects, will add two Elder Sign tokens to the game board, requiring two gate bursts to fully shake off the effects of the potent item. However, once an Elder Sign is removed from game, it is gone for all subsequent games. Its use will thus be much more tactical - do you save it for later, more fast-paced games; or will you come across a time when you absolutely must lower the doom track to buy yourself vital time?