I did some thinking after my original analysis of Fantasy Flight's cooperative board game Eldritch Horror. One of the draws of the game seems to be its way of mirroring life. The investigators are presented with a set of unknown challenges that may or may not be solvable in the time allowed. These challenges are revealed one at a time as the game progresses and are of differing complexities and difficulties. Each round, the investigators create a plan for solving the current challenge and attempt to put it into effect. This would be hard enough except that at the end of every round a card is drawn that vastly complicates the situation. These are the Mythos Cards. Mythos cards come in three varieties and three level of difficulty. Each mythos card creates a variety of helps or challenges according to its type as well as adding a new element to the plot. The investigators may be down on their luck and suddenly find themselves presented with a host of clues plus a little aid from the Silver Twilight Lodge. Alternatively, the investigators may have finished a grueling round of battle only to find that the Ancient Ones have revived their defeated foes. And that's how life works. In the end, there is very little that we can actually control. Most of what we can control is in the way we react to outside events. What do we do when our plans are laid asunder? How do we deal with sudden windfalls? These are the choices that make or break us as we set out in an uncertain world.
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