I'm a fan of Eldritch Horror, though I lose it a lot more often than I do Arkham Horror. There's more variety in the goals and it's less fiddly (no terror level, no outskirts, no skies, etc). It is indeed more lethal, as you noticed. One other big change is that spells are actually very powerful, unlike most of the ones in the base set of Arkham Horror. (Find Gate is a notable exception.)
Rise of the Elder Things I've only played once, but from what little I remember it's specifically designed to show off the Antartica board, so probably more than one person should be there in a five-player game. Depends what horrible Rumors came up, to some extent - those can pull people off to other parts of the world and will need dedicated effort to solve. Some of them end the game if you fail them.
Generally speaking running around the board chasing skill improvements isn't a great idea. Shopping or getting artifacts is more effective, and the improvement encounters aren't all that reliable. They're by no means a bad thing if you stop off at one along your way to a clue encounter or something, but it's not something you can generally afford to prioritize. But then, I don't really know if I'm the best strategist for the game.
Five players is a little tough anyway, I think four investigators is the sweet spot. And Rise of the Elder Things is a specially long scenario - all other Great Old Ones need only three mysteries solved, and have a shorter Doom track. On the other hand, I seem to remember some Elder Thing mysteries seeming a little easier to solve than some others. And the Antartica board, which isn't always used, has encounters that can "Advance the current mystery" - the exact effects vary by which type of mystery is currently active but are always very strong.
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Date: 2015-06-04 05:39 pm (UTC)Rise of the Elder Things I've only played once, but from what little I remember it's specifically designed to show off the Antartica board, so probably more than one person should be there in a five-player game. Depends what horrible Rumors came up, to some extent - those can pull people off to other parts of the world and will need dedicated effort to solve. Some of them end the game if you fail them.
Generally speaking running around the board chasing skill improvements isn't a great idea. Shopping or getting artifacts is more effective, and the improvement encounters aren't all that reliable. They're by no means a bad thing if you stop off at one along your way to a clue encounter or something, but it's not something you can generally afford to prioritize. But then, I don't really know if I'm the best strategist for the game.
Five players is a little tough anyway, I think four investigators is the sweet spot. And Rise of the Elder Things is a specially long scenario - all other Great Old Ones need only three mysteries solved, and have a shorter Doom track. On the other hand, I seem to remember some Elder Thing mysteries seeming a little easier to solve than some others. And the Antartica board, which isn't always used, has encounters that can "Advance the current mystery" - the exact effects vary by which type of mystery is currently active but are always very strong.