Cardboard Corner: Review of "The Scarlet Keys" expansions for Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Note: “The Scarlet Keys” Investigator and Campaign expansions are combined in this review. Each must be purchased separately but were designed and released simultaneously, and thus will be reviewed together. As with all Arkham Horror reviews on this blog, there will be no spoilers save the bare necessity of setting up story.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is something like the Beatles. Churning out hit after hit, it seems the game can do no wrong. After eight albums/campaigns, including the core box, designers have yet to try new wave jazz, i.e. produce a campaign that intentionally hits off notes in the name of the art. But don't all ideas have a ceiling? Don't all artists eventually need to try new wave jazz in order to feel fresh and invigorated? Let's look at the ninth and latest campaign, “The Scarlet Keys” (2022).

Strange objects are disappearing around Arkham. There is no obvious link and nobody else besides yourself seems to be noticing, that is, until a mysterious letter arrives at your door one day. The sender requests a meeting in London to “share information”. Taking a risk, you agree to meet them, and in turn end up tracking a mysterious Red-Gloved Man who has been seen flitting in and out of the shadows where objects disappear. Aided by a coterie of hooded agents, however, the Man proves elusive. Where is he? Who is he? And finding a suspect, pulling their hood off, and discovering they are just one of the coterie doesn't help. After an encounter with another shadowy group, however, hope reveals itself. Well informed, the shadowy group provide a dossier of info, instructing you and your fellow investigators to scour the globe, find the Red-Gloved Man, and discover just what paradimensional purpose the strange objects are being collected for.

For people who have played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, “The Scarlet Keys” campaign realizes that game in Illuminati fashion (complete with fedora). The campaign takes full advantage of Fantasy Flight Game's new business model for Arkham Horror. Rather than individually released scenario packs that must be purchased and played in order, “The Scarlet Keys” offers a non-linear set of choices stemming from a kickoff scenario in one, big box of content. In fact, the campaign provides a map, so open world is it. Once finishing a location/scenario, players can choose where to continue the investigation—Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Kahtmandu, Alaska, and many other places all over the globe. The clock ticking on the Red-Gloved Man's plans, however, time is a limit players must pay attention to.

As is standard with Arkham Horror, the Investigator expansion comes with five new investigators representing each class. Like “Path to Carcosa”, however, “The Scarlet Keys” comes with a bonus neutral investigator. A support-heavy group overall, three of the investigators are intended to work predominantly as backup. The butler Carson Sinclair is a Guardian who hands out extra actions like candy. Vincent Lee is a Seeker doctor whose special abilities are in healing, meaning he is always on the lookout for others' well being. The third support is the bonus investigator, the politician Charlie Kane. With three additional ally slots and base stats of 1 across the board, he is entirely dependent on friends to succeed. Moving on to the more independent investigators, the first is one of the best cluevers released to date. Darrell Simmons is a Survivor photographer who quickly snaps photos of enemies and treacheries and uses those photos as evidence when investigating. Amina Zidane the Mystic can put assets into play very cheaply but with doom. Her decks playing the dark game, will you and your companions survive an accelerated clock? And lastly is Kymani Jones, the Rogue security consultant who attempts to use a boosted evade ability to eliminate enemies. All in all a decent mix.

It wouldn't be a new Arkham Horror campaign without new mechanisms and keywords, and “The Scarlet Keys” is no exception. Used in almost every scenario is the new mechanism/keyword Concealed. Found on enemies, it forces players to put such enemies in the shadows (to the side of the play area). Players then find the enemy's mini-card, add X decoy mini cards (depending on the Concealed number), shuffle, and place the mini-cards face down at the locations closest to the investigator. Only after investigating and eventually uncovering the enemy's mini-card does the actual enemy move from the shadows into play. In other words, some enemies don't enter play immediately and can only be found through trial and error (aka, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?) While this can be frustrating, it's 100% thematic and captures a wonderful moment in any crime story: you pull the hood off the suspect to reveal they are _____.

While there are other new mechanisms and keywords, some of which veteran players have seen in other campaigns (e.g. Alert, Patrol, etc.), Customizable is the other big, new one. Certain player cards have the keyword, which links to a second card (non-player) that lists different types of effects and bonuses. In the course of the campaign, players spend experience points to check off boxes on the list and in essence boost the powers and capabilities of the player card. For example, the survivor Multi-Tool asset card is Customizable and has a second card listing functionality such as: +1 on skill tests, Fast, usable by other investigators at your location, etc. In other words, instead of using XP to buy new cards and/or replace cards, XP can be spent on customization of cards already in your deck.

I have mixed feelings about Customizable. On one hand it is an interesting new way of using XP, and indeed players can customize assets/skills/events in ways that suit their playstyle. Good. What is not so good is that many of the customizable cards become jack-of-all-trades. You can customize a card to be better at everything. The Hyperphysical Shotcaster weapon, for example, can upgraded to: fight with any skill, investigate with any skill, evade with any skill, etc. It's lazy design, and detracts from the uniqueness of the card. Rather than forcing players to be selective when deck building, and thus producing unique decks, they can just include a Customizable card and eventually do everything with XP. And we all know, when everything is possible nothing is interesting. I have used a couple of Customizable cards in gameplay, and they are relatively fun, but I hope FFG does not expand this Keyword in future content.

One thing that is noticeable in ”The Scarlet Keys”, particularly the investigator side of things, is that the game model is starting to show signs of reaching its natural limits. For example, investigator special abilities are highly specific. In other words, designers had to dig deep given most of the obvious abilities have already been taken. (I would include Customizable in the signs of strain.) To be blunt, such a game does have a ceiling—it's a porous, non-linear ceiling, but at some point in time fresh ideas are going to be few and far between. Super specific investigators and Customizable are examples of developers saying: we literally have thousands of investigator cards at players' disposal and are getting close to what we can achieve within the design limits of the game for them, so let's do this to keep things fresh? While I think the game's ceiling is still above us, it's closer than further. I would encourage developers to take a break from releasing new investigators and player cards, or at least not feel bad about leaning harder into parallel investigators. There are 50+ investigators to choose from now, which is huge compared to the number of campaigns available. The ceiling for campaigns seems much further off.

In the end, “The Scarlet Keys” remains excellent new content in the Arkham Horror: The Card Game universe. Veteran players will find many things to be happy about when jumping back into the game, the best among them the non-linear mystery to solve. For me personally, this is the third-best campaign released to date. It is, however, the most replayable. Not every scenario will be played in a run through, and most scenarios contain at least two versions depending where in the campaign players are. Plenty of content awaits second, third run throughs. Perhaps just the honeymoon phase, but it feels that good. For would-be new players, the campaign offers only a semi-friendly jumping in point. There are six (versus the normal five) new investigators and the breadth of customizable cards means they can play investigator classes in most any style without owning the entire game's card pool. That being said, some of the new investigators are intended to play support roles, and therefore not as good as other investigators at taking the lead, not to mention a couple of the investigators require experience with the game (e.g. Amina and Charlie). Also, I am not entirely enamored by the new Customizable cards. It is an interesting way of spending XP, and undoubtedly there will be players who love the idea, but it's also lazy design. Players can evolve their investigators in essentially any direction, which eliminates some of their uniqueness. But all in all, the Arkham Horror bandwagon keeps on a rollin'. Here's hoping the next campaign is Abbey Road.