Arkham Horror: The Card Game is rewriting its first campaign in its latest expansion

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is going back to the beginning with a new expansion that rewrites the first chapter in the story-driven living card game.

Return to Night of the Zealot is touted as a so-called ‘upgrade expansion’ for the Night of the Zealot campaign included in the core box of the two-player co-op hit, which begins with the players hearing strange noises in their home before encountering some of the horrors of the Lovecraftian universe.

The upcoming set adds in a host of new monsters and events to the mix of encounter cards – including replacing normal ghouls with the more terrifying ghouls of Umôrdhoth and aligning cultists with The Devourer’s Cult – but also goes one step further to refreshing the core story, introducing alternate acts for all three of the Night of the Zealot scenarios: now called Return to The Gathering, Return to The Midnight Masks and Return to The Devourer Below.

You’ll only need the (rather fantastic) core set to play, meaning new players can jump straight into the revised campaign, but it’s framed as a revisit for characters that have gone on to take on some of the game’s tougher storylines, with players gaining more powerful abilities and a greater array of items and weaponry.

It’s a big box, too, as the set includes a storage box to fit the whole of the Night of the Zealot campaign, along with divider cards to keep things in order. In total, there’ll be 66 cards in the box, divided between scenario, encounter and player cards.

We particularly like the introduction of blabby next-door neighbour Jeremiah Pierce, who forces a will test among the players once he arrives – and adds doom to the agenda for each failure as he passes the info along to the forces of evil. Oh, Jeremiah, how could you?

The collection comes with a list of achievements to ramp up the challenge of replaying the campaign, rewarding feats such as defeating a certain number of enemies with the baseball bat or staying in the besieged house for three rounds.

Return to Night of the Zealot is due out in the second quarter of 2018.