Weekly Trash - Arkham Horror

I haven't read everything Lovecraft wrote, but I've read the more popular stuff. I never played the Call of Cthulhu RPG and only dabbled in the CCG/LCG.

Pretty much every month this game gets added to a shopping cart only to be removed before purchasing because I know it'll never get played enough to justify the cost. I'm not really into solitaire playing myself and have a lot of other games to play with my few non-Eurofied friends already. Maybe this thread will finally push me over the edge though, forcing me to buy it to keep my sanity.

So do you like this game? What are your thoughts on the expansions? Do you feel it does Lovecraft justice? Preferred number of players? Too many cards? How long do your games usually take?

I absolutely love this game. The base game is very good, though flaws become apparent with frequent play. Once you start adding in expansions, the game gets better and better.

No, the game doesn't do justice to Lovecraft, but that was actually never the point. For one thing, Lovecraft himself didn't like games. For another thing, the modern Arkham Horror game is clearly inspired by the original Arkham Horror game from 1987 or so, and that original game was published by Chaosium to be the boardgame version of their Call of Cthulhu rpg. And furthermore, given that many Lovecraft stories ended in the death or insanity of the narrator, it would probably be undesirable to play a game that truly did justice to Lovecraft. Really, the game kind of falls somewhere between a Lovecraft story and a typical Call of Cthulhu campaign, both in scope and in playstyle. Lovecraft tended to write about solitary intellectuals who encounter the creatures of the Cthulhu mythos and are destroyed by it. Call of Cthulhu campaigns tend to feature groups of investigators, some of which are more physical, and they team up to sometimes triumph over the mythos threats. In Arkham Horror, characters generally spend most of the game alone, but are coordinating their efforts for an overall chance at winning.

Generally, I prefer big chaotic games with as many players as a game can reasonably accomodate. But I will reluctantly admit that Arkham Horror probably plays better with 4-5 players than 8. Yes, there are lots and lots of cards, but they give the game a lot of replay value.

Our games have gradually been taking longer, regardless of number of players, probably because the sheer number of choices to make each turn has grown with each board expansion (meaning Dunwich and Innsmouth, not the smaller card-only expansions). So once we got familiar with AH, the base game was taking an average of 2.5 hours to play. With all the expansions, including Kingsport, games are averaging more like 3.5 hours.

In general, Arkham Horror is my absolute favorite board game now, with nothing else even coming close. The game takes up a lot space and takes a while both to set up and take down, but it's worth it. The production values are high, the replay value was very good to start with and keeps improving with every expansion. There are some really neat mechanics, like how the flying monsters move and the whole concept of the Injury and Madness cards.

The last time that I played Arkham Horror was one of the best. It was at a local convention, and we played with all of the expansions. We started with four players, but as more people showed up to play, we just kept adding them in, handing out more character sheets until we got to 8 players. The game scales so well that it remained just as challenging with 8 players as it was with 4.

Due to the distractions of the convention environment, some turnover in players (as people left, new people took over their characters), and the fact that we had a few new players in the game, this particular game took nearly 6 hours to play. But it was great fun, and nobody got bored. People who left for con events came back to see if we won, and there was often a small crowd gathered around to watch. In the end, I delivered the final blow against Glaaki even though he had just destroyed my tommy gun. We were less than one turn from complete defeat when I made the decisive roll. My character survived with no money, no clues, no equipment... just a sprained ankle and some mental problems. It was great.

I adore it, and I'd call it one of my absolute favorite games. I think it's the best adventure game ever made, if only because it's so unbelievably variable and the narrative each game creates is really unparalleled. Somebody (I think it was Ubarose) said that there's so many combinations of things that can happen that when something does, it's amazing and awe-inspiring because it did. That may be the best comment I've ever heard about the game.

There are some caveats though...I am very, very particular about who I'll play the game with. I've played with Eurogamers who do not read the cards out loud and just look at them and roll dice, giving you an OK after they're done. I've played with groups that take FOREVER to do anything. I like 3-4 player games with professional-level players that I know. No strangers.

Another is that this is a very particular take on Lovecraft- Launius is more interested in the pulpy, actiony, monster-smashing Lovecraft and not so much the atmospheric, nihilistic, dreadful one. If you think the concept of going toe-to-toe against Big C with a shotgun is a travesty...well, I don't know what to tell you.

Something that I think gets routinely overlooked about AH is that it really is just a paragraph game...but the paragraphs are scattered over thousands of cards.

As for the expansions...get 'em all. There's no reason not to. I like to just play with everything together. Yeah, it makes it harder...but it creates a sense of vast improbability and uncertainty that enhances the game. DUNWICH is probably the strongest expansion overall, but KINGSPORT is looking pretty great so far. The small box ones are good, but I don't think CURSE OF THE DARK PHARAOH is really implemented as well as it should be. (edited that- I said KITY but meant COTDP)

The one thing I don't like is the gate burst rule...where sealed gates can burst. That doesn't really add anything to the game to me other than length.

Our group loves AH. It fills the niche of a kickass adventure game and it's co-op. After a night of beating the shit out of each other it's a nice change of pace to work together. The narritive the game generates is also tremendous. When your group skirts the edge of disaster to pull out a win it is truly satisfying. And with some of the expansions you have to earn that win.

I would say that 4-5 players is the sweet spot for challenge and minimizing downtime. The game can suffer from the wrong group as Barnes pointed out, so choose wisely. My biggest pet peeve is a dominant player that tries to tell all the other players the "optimal" move. If you have one of those types around you need to tell them to piss off.

Dunwich Horror is the strongest expansion as far as the depth of added content and challenge. Also the madness and injury rules in DH are excellent. KiY and CotDP are also good but don't add as much content to the game. If you use their "Herald" variants they can be a lot of fun. To increase the amount of influence/flavor the expansions have over the game, we like to play the base game + 1 expansion at a time. Otherwise we feel the story gets too "diluted". This is purely a stylistic choice, ymmv. I haven't bought Kingsport yet but it will be in the cart the next time I place an order.

Overall I would highly recommned AH to any AmeriTrash fan.

-Will

Bulwyf wrote:

To increase the amount of influence/flavor the expansions have over the game, we like to play the base game + 1 expansion at a time. Otherwise we feel the story gets too "diluted".

Are the expansions hard to separate out afterwards? Like do you mix expansion cards in with base set cards and such? And if so, are they marked to show which set they belong to?

Are the expansions hard to separate out afterwards? Like do you mix expansion cards in with base set cards and such? And if so, are they marked to show which set they belong to?

Yes, you do mix the expansion cards in with the base set cards, and yes they are marked so that you can tell which set they belong to. It does take a while to separate just because of the sheer amount of cards.

My group actually owns two copies of the base game and the expansions, one that we keep mixed as our "go to" game, and another set that we keep separated for when we only want to play base game or base game + 1 expansion.

The way we always play is that the person to your left reads the event cards to you, and (where it makes sense) they don't read all of the consequences until you have succeeded or failed at the action.

You do get silly instances where somebody spends 4 clue tokens on re-rolls only to get $5 that was buried under a tree or something, but those are more than balanced out (in our opinion) by the times where you roll one die blindly and get a success thinking you're going to get some junk reward only to find out that if you had failed you would be lost in time and space or devoured. Good times.

I want to hop in and sow more love for this game. There is not a better game on my shelf, and I envy the folks that get to play this thing weekly. The rules are (ahem) OPAQUE, but once you have the gist down and can just play there is not much better on the gaming table.

Ubarose explained her teaching methods for this game elsewhere on the site: "Shit happens, roll some dice, don't die." (I'm paraphrasing a bit). That's it. I taught someone the game just like this and he totally understood--by game's end we were having Ithaqua Burgers.

Dunwich is the only must-have addition to the game. Injury and Madness cards add a new level of choices for players and make things more intense. And should the Dunwich Horror appear, well, you have your hands full. KiY and CotDP (the card-only expansions) are nice for one-off additions to vanilla AH, but hardly required. More of a smoke 'em if you got 'em.

I love the idea of having cards read to you--I'm going to try that out. Thanks, Spinrad.

The game rocks socks, folks. Just pony up the dough or find someone nearby that has it.

I'm hanging on every word you guys are typing here - I finally may get to play this tomorrow night depending on how many people show up (we have 3 confirmed so fingers are acrossed). I have had playing numbers for AT games severely wind down over the last six months and have trouble getting anything other than 2-player games played recently.

Keep up the good vibes ... I've posted a link to this thread in our club forum to try and get people keen.

Southernman wrote:

I'm hanging on every word you guys are typing here - I finally may get to play this tomorrow night depending on how many people show up (we have 3 confirmed so fingers are acrossed). I have had playing numbers for AT games severely wind down over the last six months and have trouble getting anything other than 2-player games played recently.

Keep up the good vibes ... I've posted a link to this thread in our club forum to try and get people keen.

If you ever play AH with just two-players, I recommend that you play with two characters each. The game does scale down to 2 or even just 1 investigator, but realistically you will only be able to win in Final Battle, so you would logically ignore the gates and just focus on getting money and equipment for Final Battle. Likewise, instead of just playing solitaire, I recommend playing solitaire with 3 characters.

The base game of AH becomes too easy for an experienced group of players, because sealing 6 gates becomes the logical and generally easiest way to win. Once you add in at least one expansion, the game remains challenging. And there seems to be a power curve to the expansions, in that the later expansions add both more powerful challenges and more powerful assistance.

Here's how I rate the expansions:

1. Dunwich Horror is the best. Like Jeb said, it's almost essential. It increases the number of available Great Old Ones and Investigators by 50%. It adds a whole new area to explore. And best of all, there are the Injury and Madness cards, which increase replay value and practically replace the original, less-interesting method of dealing with complete loss of sanity or stamina. And then there is the Dunwich Horror itself, a very badass monster that might show up if there are too many monsters roaming around Dunwich.

2. Kingsport Horror is pretty good. It adds just as many new GOOs and Investigators as Dunwich did, plus another new area to explore. And the Epic Battle cards are a vast improvement over the original Final Battle rules. Our group used to get bored with the Final Battle, because it was mostly just lots and lots of dice-rolling. Epic Battle makes it more fun and somewhat strategic. On the other hand, the new Rift rules that are intrinsic to Kingsport are annoying, but without them, there isn't much reason to even play with the Kingsport board.

3. The King in Yellow deserves more respect. Though diluted by the other expansions, the Act cards are pretty cool and represent a new way to lose the game. Their appearance may be quite random, but the difficult choices that they represent will really engage the players. The Mob monster tokens are a neat idea. And the King in Yellow herald is extremely cool. Basically, with the KiY herald in play, increases in the Terror level cause key NPCs in town to become corrupt. Each corrupt NPC creates a challenging new condition affecting the whole game, and also inflicts a point of sanity or stamina loss during each direct encounter with that NPC.

4. The Curse of the Dark Pharoah is just okay. I had to get it because I love this game, but for more casual AH players, I think this set is strictly optional. There are more encounters for all Arkham locations, but then every expansion includes that. There are some powerful new allies, but you can also get new allies in any other expansion. The one thing that really makes the Dark Pharoah stand out is the deck of Exhibit items, and most of them are of limited utility.

I'd like to add a couple of more points to what's been said here.

AH does have a lot going on mechanically. That is, on each turn there's a good amount of upkeep that has to be taken care of and/or remembered (health and sanity tokens, doom track, mythos deck, all the various decks, monster movement, etc). Our group splits up the labor by giving each player something to take care of. That way no one person is constantly doing game upkeep while still trying to play.

On the other hand if your teaching the game to a group of total/mostly newbies it's helpful if the experienced player takes on a "moderator" role. That is the experienced player dosen't participate by using a character but rather takes care of all the game upkeep. This allows new players to focus on using their characters and learning the game slowly without overloading them. I used this approach with 4 newbie AH players before and its worked quite well.

Good luck with AH. I hope you give it a try.

-Will

I've enjoyed the games I have played. It has great art, from the CCG, and a great theme. The theme is more the Call of Cthulhu RPG than strictly Lovecraftian. You are out kicking Mythos ass. I think a more Lovecraftian game would be very difficult to make as they are so often individuals exploring on their own and going crazy. I think it has taken about 4 or 5 hours each time I have played with 5 or 6 players.

In terms of the game itself, I think it is a great game. Players are independent but working together. There is no reliance on people combining cards that can spoil a lot of cooperative games. I haven't experienced the terrible descent into multiunderling solitaire where one player becomes the self proclaimed director and the other players are relegated to stage hands that blights so many cooperative games. I think this has a lot to do with depth and complexity but also with the fact that it is highly thematic and immersive. It is not abstracted like Lord of the Rings or Pandemic or Shadows over Camelot. You are taking the role of a pulp hero not some coloured pawn.

Arkham Horror is one of my favorite games that I'll never turn down playing.

It's one of the few adventure games that's NOT a medieval fantasy. It just feels so much cooler to be running around fighting monsters with shotguns, dynamite and .45s then the standard broadsword/shield combo found in so many other games.

It feels more like an RPG because of the narrative cards and the feeling that everyone is playing together as a group. You don't get that feeling in Prophecy or Talisman as they are competitive games.

There's a lot going on and you have tons of choices. Do you go hunting monsters or try to seal gates? Then what do you do with the gate tokens/monster trophies? Spend them to become a deputy? Trade them in for clues? Trade them in for money so you can go buy items?

I only have the base game, and have played with the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion 2-3 times, but there's a lot going there if you just pull the game out every once in a while. My only problem is this game doesn't get pulled out often enough.

True story: I decided against buying an Xbox 360 because I felt like playing this game solo more.

Yeah, good game, good game.

The only problem is: I (we) win everytime. Everytime= 2 plays with just the base game and 1 play with Dunwich added in. I want to lose this game next, or at least have an Old One appear!

Favourite character: Rita "the Athlete" ;9 . I had 11 movement with her once.