The Revised Curse of the Dark Pharaoh is Now Available

Elliott MillerJul 3, 2011

The Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion for Arkham Horror has been revised and is now available. This was the first expansion to Fantasy Flight Games’ Arkham Horror, and thus in serious need of a reboot given the amount of new material that has been published for Arkham Horror over the years. Many who own the original version expressed concern that FFG was “redo’ing” old expansions. Were they just trying to bilk extra money from their customers? Was the original so poor that it required this remake?

FFG CEO Christian T. Petersen responded to these questions in a post on the FFG website. It really clarifies the purpose of the expansion and explains the very good reasons behind this re-release.

“I wanted to address some of the concerns outlined in the comments here.

The “Arkham Horror” (AH) line is among the most important in FFG’s catalog. We take your comments and concerns on this very seriously. To that end, I wanted to address some possible misconceptions on the new revised publication of the “Curse of the Dark Pharaoh” (CotDP).

As mentioned in the release article, the original CotDP was the first expansion for AH. When it was released more than 5 years ago, we could not dream of the impact that AH would have on the global hobby market place, and as such did not have the benefit of the vision and experience we had with the later AH expansions.

Therefore, to this day, CotDP has been the expansion that stands distinctly apart from the other AH products, as it does not share many of the same design principles and provides a diluted experience in the context of the ecosystem as a whole. This is not to say that the original CotDP was, or is, a bad product: Many people have had great fun with the expansion for years, there is absolutely nothing in the act of FFG publishing a revised edition that prevent players from enjoying CotDP to the same level they have since its release.

As we published “Innsmouth Horror” and work began on the massive “Miskatonic Horror” we needed to revisit the CotDP to think of how to integrate it with our future plans. We had two options a) Leave the expansion “as is” on the marketplace, or b) somehow improve the expansion.

The easy thing would have been to simply ignore the expansion and allow it to exist “as is” but apart from the AH ecosystem. However, our firm dedication to the AH line is such that we wanted both existing and new players to have the strongest possible experience, and CotDP had too many great ideas for us not to bring it to the same level of inclusion as the other expansions. We therefore took considerable time, effort, and expense to rebuild this expansion from the ground up, using all of our acquired knowledge from publishing the AH line for so many years.

The work on the revised CotDP has been substantial and has touched nearly every aspect of the product. Here is a rough list of the many material changes (while the game play changes are in many ways as big):

– 69 of 76 Investigator related cards are new
– 56 of 90 Ancient One or Environment cards are new
– 1 Dark Pharaoh Herald Sheet (never previously published)
– 1 Sheet of Punch board 4” x 7” (never previously published) with Ancient Whispers and Patrol Markers (new)
– Rule Sheet (completely rewritten)

While we understand that owners of the older CotDP edition may be frustrated by a revision being published, I hope you understand that what motivates FFG to publish this new edition, is our desire to make the AH experience as great as possible. After 5 years in print, publishing a CotDP revision is certainly not reactionary, and as with most product in the world, having a newer version of a product does not make your older product cease to function, and (other than the fact that something else exist) need diminish your enjoyment of your prior edition.

While we do on occasion publish “upgrade kits” (by “Print on Demand” or otherwise) where necessary, this revision is too extensive for that to be sensible. We don’t currently have plans for similar treatments of the other AH expansions.

While I understand that the publication of the revised CotDP expansion may not be a decision agreed by those who choose to feel their first CotDP edition is somehow damaged, I hope at least that this gives you more information in your assessment of such.”

Considering all of this info, I am looking forward to getting my new version of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, and I’m glad that FFG devotes as much time and effort as they do into the Arkham Horror line to maintain it as one of the best horror games in the gaming industry.