This is a personal, largely spoiler free (or spoiler-vague) review of the The Phantom of the Opera fan-made scenario by The Beard for Arkham Horror the Card Game.
Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera has the investigators seeking out the mysterious phantom in the Paris opera house, and chasing him down and dealing with his traps. The scenario uses the Concealed mechanic from The Scarlet Keys campaign, exploring them in new ways.
The primary focus in The Phantom of the Opera is exploring the concealed mechanic in depth, finding new ways to use it that weren't available in The Scarlet Keys campaign. Throughout it, the Phantom remains ever elusive, constantly running back to the shadows - but requiring you to find him to progress the scenario every time. The locations are constantly changing, with each new set providing new abilities to help you try to find the Phantom from among his many decoys. This is made trickier by the encounter cards - many of which can punish you for using a specific stat or type of ability to reveal concealed cards.
These mechanics build on the concealed mechanic in a new, interesting way - often giving a choice between using a better stat or risking some penalty, or forcing different characters to focus on handling exposing decoys. While the mechanics of what you're doing to progress don't change through the scenario, the things you can do to progress faster - or the things you have to avoid - constantly encourage you to change your plan, adapting the strategy to the goal that otherwise remains the same. It's an interesting take on the concealed mechanics that leads to a great scenario - it's design is fresh, and it's great to see a new twist on an already existing campaign mechanic.
With a 19 XP party, I found The Phantom of the Opera of a good difficulty level. Having characters with an especially high stat, good soak, or a way to repeatably expose concealed cards (like with Beat Cop, or Working a Hunch) certainly helps, as well as if you can shift between multiple types of effects to do so.
Overall, The Phantom of the Opera is a great side scenario that explores the concealed mechanic in ways that gets the entire team planning together.
Rewards
Scenario Cost: 2 XP
Potential XP Gain: 3 (locations) +1 (The Phantom or Christine Daae)= 4 XP, or 2 XP after its cost
In addition, on a success, one investigator may choose to add The Persian to their deck. In addition, if you defeated the Phantom, one investigator may add The Grasshopper to their deck. If you parleyed with him instead, one investigator may add The Grasshopper to their deck.
