The Door to Saturn (fan expansion for Arkham Horror)
The Door to Saturn (fan expansion for Arkham Horror) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Expansion Components
- 4 Expedition boards* — Antarctica, Arabia, Oceania, Mars.
- 64 Expedition encounters* — one 16-card deck for each Expedition board.
- 1 Travel Office marker* — to mark the Expedition departure location in Arkham.
- 4 Ancient Ones sheets — Rlim Shaikorth; Vulthoom; Zoorth-Chaurid; Ubbo-Sathla.
- 12 Sinister Plot cards — three for each new Ancient One. These are only used when playing with the Epic Battle variant from Kingsport Horror.
- 35 monsters — all of which can be added to the monster cup during game setup. (But keep the eight Protoplasm monsters separate.)
- 8 Protoplasm monsters* — which are only used when Ubbo-Sathla is the Ancient One, and are never added to the monster cup.
- 2 Proboscis markers* — which are only used when Zoorth-Chaurid is the Ancient One.
- 48 Poison tokens* — used by poisonous monsters and a few other cards. (These tokens have no rules on them, so you can just use beads/counters to stand in for them if you want.)
- 10 Mythos cards — shuffle into Mythos deck during game setup.
- 40 Scientific items* — (pictured). See the rules for Scientific items below.
- 20 Unique items — to add to the Unique item deck during game setup, as normal.
New Item Type: Scientific Items
Shuffle the Scientific items and place them beside the board during game setup; then treat them like any other item deck.
Scientific weapons — a new weapon type, equivalent to "Magical" / "Physical" weapon. Physical/Magical resistances will NOT affect the bonus from a Scientific Weapon, and of course Scientific resistance has no effect on Physical/Magical weapons.
New Keywords on Items
Lantern — this keyword means that the card counts as a lantern card for the purposes of any encounters, Mythos cards, and so on.
Radio, Air Supply, and Fragment — keywords which don't do anything themselves, but which may be referred to by other cards.
Science Checks
A Science check is a sub-type of Luck check, just like Combat is a subtype of Fight, Spell is a subtype of Lore, etc. A bonus to Science checks will not give a bonus to Luck checks, but a bonus to Luck will give a bonus to Science checks.
New Rules on Monsters
Unnameable — You cannot use Clue tokens to add dice to Horror or Fight checks against an 'unnameable' monster. (You can still use Clues on Evade checks, as normal.)
Scientific resistance / immunity — bonuses to Combat checks from Scientific weapons are halved or reduced to zero, respectively, against monsters with these abilities.
Weapon resistance / immunity — bonuses to Combat checks from weapons of any type are halved or reduced to zero, respectively. This includes Physical weapons, Magical weapons and Scientific weapons. Spells are not affected.
Poisonous — A monster with this ability doesn't deal Stamina damage. Instead, when an investigator fails a Combat check against the monster, he or she gains 1 poison token. If an investigator ever has poison tokens equal to his or her maximum Stamina, he or she is devoured. (N.B. If you like, you could also "retcon" some of the game's existing monsters to be poisonous: I suggest adding the rule to Leng Spiders, Serpent People, Spectral Hunters and Tcho-Tchos.)
The Expedition Variant
During Game Setup
- Place one of the four Expedition boards beside the main board.
- Shuffle the corresponding Expedition encounter deck and put it beside the Expedition board.
- Shuffle the Scientific item deck and put it beside the board.
- Place the three new special reward cards beside the board.
- Put the Travel Office marker on the River Docks in Arkham.
New Rule: Lost Clue Tokens
Whenever a Clue token is spent, discarded, or removed from the board or removed from a card, it is not returned to the supply. Instead, put the token on the 'Lost Clues' area of the Expedition board.
This rule represents the limits of what can be discovered in Arkham: to defeat the Ancient One, the investigators have to open up new sources of ancient knowledge and lore.
- If there are NO Clue tokens left in the supply, investigators can't gain Clues, and Clues can't be placed on the board or on cards. This changes a game rule. Normally, you can use spare tokens or beads as extra Clue tokens. In the Expedition variant, you cannot do this.
- If ALL Clue tokens are in the Lost Clues area, the Ancient One awakens! This only occurs if literally every single clue token in the game is lost — i.e. the Investigators don't have any and there are none left on the board or on cards.
Encounters, items and location abilities can "restore" some/all Lost Clue tokens, returning them to the supply. Restoring lost Clue tokens is the players' main reason for visiting the Expedition board. Apart from for the sheer thrill of adventure, of course.
The Expedition Board
- Travelling to the Expedition board — An Investigator at the River Docks in Arkham can spend 1 movement point to move to the 'Travel Office' location on the Expedition board. He/she must then stop moving (see below).
- Moving on the Expedition board — When an Investigator enters an Expedition board location, he or she must stop moving. (Remaining movement points can't be spent on movement. They can still be spent on reading Tomes etc.)
- Encounters on the Expedition board — During the Arkham Encounter phase, each Investigator in an Expedition location draws an Expedition encounter card, just as in Arkham — or, of course, uses a location special ability.
- Returning to Arkham — An Investigator who began the movement phase at the 'Travel Office' location on the Expedition board can spend 1 movement point to move to the 'Travel Office' location in Arkham. He/she can then continue movement.
- Insane/unconscious on Expedition board — An Investigator reduced to zero Sanity or Stamina on an Expedition board is invalided home to Arkham and sent straight to Arkham Asylum or St Mary's Hospital, as normal.
- Where am I? — The Expedition board is not part of 'Arkham', nor of the 'Other Worlds'. (But it is part of 'the board').
Uncharted Locations
Some Expedition board locations have a yellow diamond at the top (instead of the usual red or green). These locations are 'uncharted'. Some cards have different effects if you're in an 'uncharted' location. Uncharted locations don't count as 'stable' OR as 'unstable'.
'Replacement Location' Cards
These encounter cards have no encounters on them — just a location marker. When drawn, these cards replace a location on the board.
- Replacing a location — just put the replacement card on the board! Everything underneath is transferred to the new location — including all markers, tokens, monsters, and investigators.
- Uncharted only — A replacement location can only ever replace an uncharted location. If a replacement location card is drawn as an encounter for a stable or unstable location, discard the replacement location card and draw again.
- Movement to/from replacement locations — Replacement locations retain the movement routes of the location they replace. This applies to monster movement as well as investigators' movement. When determining monster movement to or from a replacement location, refer to the movement arrows of the original location underneath.
- Replacements disappearing — Occasionally, a card or effect may cause a replacement location to be discarded from the board. If this happens, everything on the replacement is transferred back to the location underneath.
Monsters on Expedition Boards
- ...do NOT count towards the monster limit.
- ...do move due to movement patterns on Mythos cards.
- ...do return to the cup if a gate is closed which matches their dimension symbol.
- ...can move to the sky. (If Arkham is at the monster limit, this can cause a flying monster to fly into the Outskirts.)
- Special monster movement (such as that of Hound of Tindalos) is measured through the 'Travel Office' locations link.
Gates on Expedition Boards
- ...do towards the gate limit
- ...do produce a monster whenever a monster surge occurs
- ...can be sealed; and seals on the Expedition board do count towards the number needed for a sealing victory.