Fantasy Flight Games are like a golden child: they can do no wrong with Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Every expansion released to date hits the sweet spot of fresh, fun, and evolutionary within the game's first principles. They have proven there is heady space to iterate on the original concept without destroying what makes the game singular and enjoyable. Do FFG still have the golden touch with the latest expansion “Edge of the Earth” (2021).
Bringing to the table what some consider Lovecraft's best work, “Edge of the Earth” plays off The Mountains of Madness. Appropriately set in Antarctica, players take on the roll of an investigator who is joining an expedition to investigate the unexplained discoveries in the icy, mountainous land. The ship journey goes smoothly for the investigators, but once arriving on land, things take a a quick turn for the worst. The group's airplane crashing, they are forced to find emergency shelter. Trouble, that is only the beginning of their worries as a creepy miasma starts to spread across the land toward them, threatening to swallow them unless they can discover its origins.
As players have come to expect, “Edge of the Earth” continues to expand upon the original game in original fashion. But it's fair to say that this campaign does so in the most innovative manner yet. Where prior campaign expansions all followed a formula of eight, concatenated scenarios, the “Edge of the Earth” does not follow a fixed number given FFG's new busines model. Abandoning the monthly release of single scenarios, everything is now in one box, meaning the concept of a linear campaign is now a toy. “Edge of the Earth” can be as short as five scenarios (assuming players survive) or as long as ten, depending on the in-story choices players make. Moreover, there is no requirement to move from A to B to C, etc. This is a major breath of fresh air for Arkham Horror, and I imagine is something that will only be explored further in future content. As it stands, it's wind the sails the game didn't need but still feels invigorating.
Gameplay offers several interesting new mechanisms. Foremost are the partner assets. The investigators begin the campaign with a group of additional partner assets—people on the Antarctic trek alongside you. Throughout the course of the campaign, players can pick and choose who to put in their player area for support. Each has their own signature card and are tracked in the campaign log for horror and damage. Like NPCs in horror movies, some of these side characters survive the campaign, and others don't—but all play a role in the story itself. Critical to success, they end up forming a formative aspect of the campaign's identity. Players will build a relationship with them as much as their investigators, and if it happens, mourn their passing—inevitable in Arkham.
Frost tokens are the other major new mechanism. Pull one from the chaos bag and your skill test gets -1, then you draw another token. If the second token drawn is another Frost token, you automatically fail—like drawing the tentacle. Weaknesses in the game have likewise been tweaked. Where players still put the requisite weaknesses in their decks at the beginning of the campaign, there is a separate deck of Tekeli-li weaknesses which are added and subtracted to players decks, depending on campaign effects. And there are other surprise mechanics as well, waiting for players to discover.
As with all campaigns to date, “Edge of the Earth” also offers a selection of new investigators representing each of the classes. Ostensibly a Mystic but playing with Guardian cards, Lily Chen is a martial artist whose selection of disciplines allows the player to build her around any number of skills. Monterrey Jack is a Rogue but who dabbles heavily in Seeker cards. An archeologist, he is good at finding things, has a trusty whip (a la Indiana Jones), but would rather run than fight. Daniela Reyes is a mechanic who puts her wrenches to use not only fixing cars, but bashing monster heads. Damage output high, her skills are needed in “Edge of the Earth”. Norman Withers is a Seeker with Mystic tendencies. His Willpower and Intellect the highest combo the game has offered yet, better hope others kill off the monsters, first. And lastly is Bob Jenkins the salesman. Perhaps the most interactive investigator to date, he works with other investigators to play and pay for assets. Where previously investigators always had to pay their own way, Jenkins makes true teamwork possible.
In the end, “Edge of the Earth” is more superb stuff for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Breaking free from the linear, eight-scenario business model that dominated the game to date is an icy blast of fresh air. Now there is variability not only within individual scenarios but the entire campaign also. The crop of new investigators is solid, and the new mechanisms, primary among them Frost tokens and campaign-oriented ally assets make for immersive storytelling. And the final boss (no spoilers) is unlike anything the game has seen to date. Riffing off Lovecraft while wonderfully contextualizing the campaign's main theme, it has a sense of tension that feels palpable the closer it gets. The golden child delivers again.
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