Something out of this world is coming… from the best four days in gaming to your very own tabletop!
Gen Con 2019 is long past, but the adventures that you had as you battled against the Blob are only beginning. Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce The Blob That Ate Everything is coming to wide release as a standalone scenario pack for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. In fact, you can pre-order the pack at your local retailer and online through our website today!
Just beyond the edge of the town of Blackwater, something unnatural has gone out of control. After a strange meteor made impact, the town was placed under lockdown by a shadowy government agency—no one was allowed to leave, and only a few select investigators were allowed to enter. That is, until the thing hatched. Time is running out for the investigators as all hell breaks loose in Blackwater. Even as the anomaly continues to grow and devour everything in its path, the quarantine is still strictly enforced. The only way you’re getting out alive is if you can find a way to kill it… if such a thing is even possible.
Today, we meet with designer Matt Newman to discuss The Blob That Ate Everything, the massive new scenario that took over Gen Con 2019 and is coming to a retailer near you in just a few months.
Matt Newman on The Blob That Ate Everything
One day, I walked into the Card Game Department’s room and lead KeyForge developer Brad Andres turned to me and said, “Hey Matt, I thought of a great idea for an Arkham scenario.” Brad had previously helped me with the initial design of Curse of the Rougarou and Carnevale of Horrors, both fan-favorite scenarios. Generally speaking, when Brad comes up with a cool idea, it’s usually wise to listen. So, I replied, “Sure, hit me.” Brad said, and I quote:
“It’s just a huge blob that eats everything.” I blinked a few times, mulled it over, and said, “everything?” to which Brad replied, “Yes, everything.” I remember laughing for a while, then sitting at my desk for about an hour before finally realizing it was actually perfect.
You see, at the time, I had been considering what to do for this year’s Arkham Horror: The Card Game events at Gen Con and Arkham Nights. I knew I wanted to do something special, something unique, something that would take as much advantage as possible of the event space and the sheer quantity of players. I had already been tinkering with the idea of a scenario with a shared objective—something which all of the players at the event could contribute towards in some way. An event in which the investigators win or lose together, as one huge group. Surprisingly, Brad’s idea of a gigantic blob actually fit this idea quite perfectly. And thus, The Blob That Ate Everything was born.
The Blob that Ate Everything is a love letter to the B horror films of the 1930s–1950s. We love the over-the-top nature of these films that are often centered around a titular foe of strange origin that threatens life as we know it. In this scenario, the players still split into groups of one to four investigators, each with their own play area and encounter deck. However, there are several elements of the scenario which are shared across all of the groups, each of which are managed by an event organizer. Most important of these elements is the health of the scenario’s boss entity, Subject 8L-08 (The Blob that Ate Everything, 37).
Unlike The Labyrinths of Lunacy, your objective is laid out clearly before you, and you are allowed to communicate fully with the other groups at the event. You aren’t missing pieces of the puzzle which only other groups can provide. You don’t have to wait for other groups to finish a game round or an agenda before proceeding, and you aren’t only interacting with two other groups at a time. Instead, you must rely on each and every other investigator at the event, using teamwork and coordination in order to overcome a creature unlike anything you’ve ever seen in Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Subject 8L-08 isn’t just an enemy; it’s the scenario itself. The treachery cards are things the blob is doing. The enemies are pieces of the blob. The locations are, well, covered in the blob. It’s not just a single card that you are fighting—almost every encounter card represents a facet or a piece of the blob. And when we say it can eat anything, we mean anything. In fact, The Blob That Ate Everything even contains a table listing all of the possible things it can eat.
The table is four pages long.
Subject 8L-08 may eat anything. And we mean anything.
Don’t worry though, the scenario isn’t all fighting all the time! Investigators must still uncover clues in order to research how to defeat Subject 8L-08 to begin with. If you show up toting only bullets, you’re going to find out pretty quickly that the blob does, in fact, eat bullets.
What I love most about this scenario is that it scales easily with almost any number of players, and that all of the players at the event—be it 4, 12, 48, or even 96—are in the same boat together. To emphasize this, we even added a new type of resource, called countermeasures, which are shared between all of the groups at the event. Countermeasures are extremely useful, but if a group spends one, that’s one fewer countermeasure that all of the groups possess. Oh, and the blob itself isn’t the only threat you face in this unique scenario. There’s something else at work here—you’re just part of the experiment.
I’m beyond excited for this scenario. I can’t wait to see all of the Arkham community uniting against a common foe, and I am eager to hear the stories that emerge from this unique and zany scenario. Good luck!
