u/butcherpaper

Following in the tradition of Return To's, three of the four core encounter sets used in Edge of the Earth have been replaced with sets designed to be more explicitly tied to the campaign's theme and mechanics. The ever-loved Striking Fear core set is only used in the finale (doesn't warrant a replacement) but some combo of Locked Doors, Chilling Cold, and Ancient Evils are present in all scenarios but Forbidden Peaks.

Locked Doors → Territorial Penguins

This set is used in City of the Elder Things (v1 & v3), as well as the following Heart of Madness part 1, making it a mid/late campaign threat. Coincidentally, the Penguins encounter set is used in all the same scenarios as Locked Doors, changing the door into a critter only made sense. Territorial Penguins differs from Locked Door in a handful of ways beyond enemy vs treachery: It begins on you (aloof) instead of immediately on the location with the most clues (implicitly, but not always, a valuable location), it waddles off to the nearest location with clues and is a non-threat if you don't follow, an evade replaces the combat/agility test to discard, and the penguins allow investigates in return for engage/attacks (though even Luke needs to be careful to avoid their ire). City of the Elder Things & Heart of Madness are both massive maps with surplus clues available, making an effective whiff more likely than usual. The "Giant Albino Penguin" name-share makes it a legal Wuk! Wuk! Wuk! target, suddenly turning a whiff into relevance.

Chilling Cold → Freezing Frost

This set is used in Fatal Mirage, City of the Elder Things (v2 & v3), and the finale Heart of Madness part 2, another mid/late campaign set. Chilling Cold is a lopsided set containing the asset-killing Crypt Chill and the far gentler, shroud-increasing Obscuring Fog. Replacing these, I tried to preserve the lopsidedness while altering the card effects to interact with frost tokens. A central goal has been expanding how players can utilize frost beyond addition and removal; whether that be sealing and other temporary reprieves, push-your-luck with a bag full of frost, optional stretch-goal challenges, etc. Give In to the Cold swaps damage for direct horror and changes the will(4) test for a sliding scale. It "rewards" investigators for having at least 3 frost in the bag and failing miserably, creating the temptation for frost to creep in as the expedition's end is in sight. Diamond Dust follows in the footsteps of Obscuring Fog: the effect itself is frost-based and it sticks until all the clues are gone, but like Locked Door there's a chance on these big maps for it to whiff.

Ancient Evils → Awoken Evils

What could be frozen asleep, just beneath our feet? Ancient Evils is used in all 3 parts of Ice & Death and both parts of Heart of Madness; you face this at the beginning and end of the campaign. Ancient Evils is a mechanically important but blunt mallet, the usual method of "fixing" it for a Return To is to make it present a choice. It has a particularly tenuous relationship with Edge of the Earth, being the lone doom mechanic in the scenarios it's present for and exacerbating swingyness due to Edge's tendency to shuffle the encounter discard pile back into the deck mid-scenario. Torpid Evils offers the choice of pain now or pain (and the opportunity to earn XP) later. The alternate choice turns it to an encounter card attached to a location (see my previous post on replacement eidolons) functioning as a future spawn point for a random one of ten Awoken enemies. Placing it on a location removes it from the encounter deck, reducing doom swingyness in return for the threat of an elite enemy if investigators so choose. Awoken Evils is the trigger for the enemy to spawn, or its accelerant, depending on your luck. Throwing itself onto the bottom of deck is intended to balance out out solo vs multiplayer, such that the pressure for the enemy's spawn is greater at higher counts. All these enemies will enter play with 1-2 doom on them, effectively becoming the agenda-doom that was voluntarily put off by the investigators, with the chance to remove the doom before advancement can occur. Many have a value of X, where X is the agenda number. In each scenario this set is present, there are either 2 (Ice & Death part 3, Heart of Madness part 2) or 3 (Ice & Death parts 1-2, Heart of Madness part 1) agenda cards; again meant to increase tension between doom + enemy now or later.

The challenge with the Awoken enemies will be getting their balance right as they appear at either edge of Edge. What are your thoughts? Next post I'll share the full set of Ice & Death changes, which include a full new set of locations, scenario specific encounters, and a discover → excavate → study mechanic change where random locations have areas of interest that persist and evolve through all 3 parts.

Edge of the Earth has been one of my favorite campaigns since its release, and one I had most hoped to see a Return To for. The campaign has a few rough parts that keep it from being great: unbalanced partner allies, dull enemies, make or break scenarios (looking at you, Forbidden Peaks), missed opportunities for player agency, and I straight up think it's too easy. I plan on designing a roughly 100 card, scenario-card only set and discussing why the changes were made, starting with replacement encounter sets.

Currently, five encounter sets have been revamped: Deadly Weather and Creatures in the Ice from Edge; Ancient Evils, Chilling Cold, and Locked Doors from Chapter 1 core set. Here I'll talk about the replacement encounter cards for the two campaign-specific sets.

Deadly Weather → Atmospheric Anomalies
This set is used in all three parts of Ice & Death, as well Forbidden Peaks, frontloading it in the campaign. All three cards follow the same format of attaching to your location and then discarding at the end of the round. They are usually weak (maybe sans Antarctic Wind which prevents playing and drawing cards) and easy to avoid, given the context that player decks prepared for Edge'll bring along additional movement. They also lack any sort of agency, missing out on the opportunity for player decisions.
False Aurora, Malevolent Blizzard, and Williwaw all follow the theme of Hazards that attach to locations, but now ask the player who drew it to weigh the cost of putting it somewhere else. This is coupled by the Peril keyword now on these cards and a wrinkle in the discard trigger for False Aurora and Williwaw, meaning players can't just walk away and forget about them forever (on top of slimming the encounter deck). In Ice & Death, the broad map gives the option to place Hazards in corners to worry about later. In Forbidden Peaks, the decision gets tenser with less locations and tighter grouping.

Creatures in the Ice → Nightmares in the Snow
This set is included in parts 1 and 3 of Ice & Death as well as 2/3 versions of City of the Elder Things. Eidolons, Edge of the Earth's signature enemy type, are kind of dull and lack identity. I've interpreted the eidolons as a tangible mixture of the expedition's inner turmoil with the literal storms. A common theme in Edge is fewer, but chunkier, enemies in the encounter deck, where each of them feels like a hurdle. Manifestation of Madness is functionally a 3/3/3 with a blank text box; a hunter enemy that spawns on your location and only triggers its Tekeli-li effect if it attacks you, something that will rarely happen given the above. Atmospheric Phantasm is more interesting and likely to trigger it's Tekeli-li, but is still a big chunk with diet-hunter that will only matter if you need to evade and bolt. Kindred Mist is basically blank, I don't think I've ever needed to resolve its effect. A personal nitpick, but the art in this set doesn't evoke much for me either.
The replacement eidolons, Incarnation of Insanity and Uncanny Apparition, synergize with encounter cards attached to locations, as another way to complicate where Hazards and their ilk are placed. They remain chunky hunters who deal 1 damage and 1 horror, but are intended to have more ways to interact with them and reward planning. Mind Fog follows the same pattern as the Atmospheric Anomalies set, allowing placement flexibility but with the same stricter discard condition.

I've got some other ideas down the line, including a fundamental revamp of Fatal Mirage and a pathway where investigators and the Elder Things recognize a common enemy. What do you think? Where does Edge of the Earth rank among campaigns for you and what sort of changes would you want to see?