"Skids" (2 Core, 5 Char, pick up and play - See Note)

nice initiative, much welcome ! Good job ! Guess how it could be even better with 3 cs for that.

For now i got two, and i will stay like that ^^ (already such a shame that we do not have the cards in 2 copy in a single core btw..)

Cheers and thanks for those decks

Thank you kindly! yes i personally dont have plans for a third core tbh. You can make 2 complete decks from 2 cores without needing to make compromises so long as the two chars you pick dont share an overlapping faction. If you want a 4p version, you then just need to team up with a friend with 2 cores to plug the other two chars I guess at which point there is no current restriction on what your decks can contain.

Anyway cheers again! Im actually working on a revised set of these now ive played a few more games and have a better feel for game balance. i`ll try to pop a comment up to cross post to them if i get around to publishing them

I'm gonna follow that with pleasure !

I still have to try the Skids.

For now i end the campaign with roland, and i'm on the second quest with daisy.

I also have to try some 2p game in "solo" controlling two decks to see how it goes, looks like even funnier that way.

Any plans on further pick up and plays with the expansion content and new characters? I find this to be the most challenging part of getting new people into arkham horror since the FFG supplied starter decks are so unfoucsed

Sort of... Once i realised I could home print a few extra copies of cards i needed duplicates of (so long as i have opaque backs) I stopped needing to be so picky about what goes into who`s deck. In terms of getting ppl into the game, Ive now set my set up as something of a demo set that i take to local board gaming events and let people try it out. Im still buying a copy of everything so FFG are getting their money ofc please dont worry. If anything theyre getting free advertising. Certainly at least one person has bought in so far.

Anyway back on topic - to that end I have been building a deck for each char that aims to play differently to the other chars without being frankly a bit too pants to play. For example my Melee/spell tank hybrid Jim (https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/507/jim-the-axeman-culver-1.0) was basically accepting that agnes does the "mage" thing better and I have an unpublished seeker/caster daisy (https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/20328 - Which makes more sence once you unlock Encyclopedia to get to 5 will) because, as far as I can see, Rex does the rapid clue hunting better.

Basically i want the players to have a meaningful choice when picking chars so ive tried to differentiate them by theme without overly nerfing them to the point of not being fun. It means some decks i have are stronger than others but i can tell players that upfront if they care (though no one has so far). I have a number of chars to finish off as they arnt performing that great when testin - Namely: Jenny, wendy and sadly to some degree the daisy i linked above (though she does feel like a seeker with a side interest in arcane - its just slow to set up) but most of the rest of them are working fine.

All makes sense! Its not so much having them prepackaged as I'm looking to have really solid starter 'pick up and play' decks that are more generic versus 'how i like to play them' that I can just whip out with character descrips, being that i don't have that much time to playtest things on my own. (love axeman btw).

I wonder, once ive got that set all settled, would it be useful to people if i published them as a set in a similar manner? they arnt top tier like. Theres also still a need to balance the availability of unique allies too (which is a pain since so many decks are better with Milan who needs to be reserved for seeker and to some degree Pete is cross char) which leaves odd off spec choices in some chars. but these are much smaller compromises than the set listed above.

This is definitely the closet set I've seen on here to being accessible - they don't need to be 'top tier' really. I'm definitely comfy building decks for myself and my core group - but this set was the best thing I've seen so far for new player intros so I for one would find it super useful :-D

Perhaps some chars are just more accessable than others with the current card pool. Roland, Zoey, agnes, Pete, Rex, Skids, Daisy (but perhaps not my build) all come to mind. I suppose its not essential that all chars are available for demo. A decent spread should be enough. Maybe i`ll get around to publishing a set thats sort of straight and narrow decks. Ones that do what you might expect from the chars description and people can just build them up to order. Thats broadly what ive got at the moment, Axeman is a little off the wall i guess but i was grasping for straws by that point! Thank you very much for your compliments btw.

Incase your interested I've started to publish the demo set now. arkhamdb.com Still a few to add but there will be a link to each from the text once they're all up.

I've got to say that I for one am very interested in this project. I really like having compatible grab and go type decks laying around for a quick game and for teaching new people!

Love this series. Thanks for the hard work. I was just wondering if you had plans to add the first Dunwich big box cards and investigators to the series?

cheers @JSlattery. I dont have any plans to add more boxes to be honest. When i wrote the series it was really just to help rationalise the core set experience for new players. Im not sure i have the time to keep updating the series as things come out. If i were to re do the exercise I would probably just take the same approach again now i have more experience to draw on.

This is very helpfull! im gonna try those in the upcoming new campaign me and my friends gonna play.

Thanksalot!

Hi, I've built my own pick up and play set of Arkham using your lists. I'd initially planned to make a playset using the FFG suggested decks, but after a few games with these lists I've found that my players have been able to get to know their chosen investigator sooner than they would have done with the default decks. It's been a while since you wrote these lists, but I wanted to send my thanks as they've become my default set to introduce people to the game.

your very welcome @toothball. Glad they are still of some use!