Beyond the Veil - The Arkham Horror Card Game: Forgotten Age - Untamed Wilds

We have faced the Dunwich Legacy, walked the Path to...

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“ Honestly I am not entirely sure that I am comfortable with the first scenario in this campaign. Although the cast of the LCG is very diverse it still feels a little like the white man coming into native territory to grab their stuff. There is a fine line to walk and I am not sure the writing in this scenario gets it right 100% of the time leaving a bad taste in the mouth.”

I remember this coming up in a couple of places when the expansion was announced, but I disagree in that I think it was generally handled well over the entirety of the campaign. This first scenario does lean hard on ‘we don’t belong here’ tropes, but mechanically the Eztli are represented as just wanting to protect their stuff. They are clearly not the aggressors here. Furthermore, the whole plot kicks off because of the investigators and their actions in Mexico. If you hadn’t shown up, the time stream would have been just fine.

But yeah, this might somehow be my favorite campaign. It does include my least favorite scenario of all time and can absolutely feel unfair in ways that you don’t see in other campaigns, but it works for me. It’s nice to get out of Arkham and the city.

I agree that it plays out well over the course of the campaign but I still felt a little uncomfortable, especially as I was playing the Priest which gave it an added 'bring religion to the savages vibe'.

Forgotten Age is my least favourite campaign so far. I think the first half of it is pretty good, pulpy style storytelling. It then falls apart a bit in the second half. It really felt like there was some padding in the latter half. It got me wondering about them making shorter campaigns, maybe with a cheaper core to compensate for the shorter story.

thegiantbrain wrote: I agree that it plays out well over the course of the campaign but I still felt a little uncomfortable, especially as I was playing the Priest which gave it an added 'bring religion to the savages vibe'.

Forgotten Age is my least favourite campaign so far. I think the first half of it is pretty good, pulpy style storytelling. It then falls apart a bit in the second half. It really felt like there was some padding in the latter half. It got me wondering about them making shorter campaigns, maybe with a cheaper core to compensate for the shorter story.

There definitely is padding in the back half. Eliminating City of Archives wouldn't change the story at all, but I enjoy its gimmick too much to want it cut. I absolutely hate Heart of the Elders. It's a straight, repetitive grind, and I can't imagine anything in the Return box changing that. However, because of the more proactive state of the investigators in this campaign, it's necessary to make failure in Boundary Beyond work narratively. In the other campaigns you could always handwave a failed scenario with 'you found a clue' and are back on the trail but not in Forgotten Age.

One of the things I was most excited for with the release of Dream Eaters was the two four-part campaign structure. Sometimes I do want to bang out a campaign over the weekend with my wife or friends, and that's not happening in a traditional campaign. It's been kind of a pain during release because I don't want to keep rebuilding decks in between every pack drop, but I'm confident it'll be worth it in the end. Unfortunately, I can't see Fantasy Flight ever trying a six- or five-part campaign. They're too wedded to the deluxe and six pack release format of LCGs since time immemorial.

And, for what it's worth, I'm fairly sure Father Mateo is canonically Mexican. I'm pretty sure none of the new characters Fantasy Flight has introduced in the LCG and Eldritch Horror have been white. Whether that makes a difference to 'bringing religion to the savages' I don't know.