As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Arkham Horror- The game of Lovecraftian Adventure! - Worth it?
No-Quarter
Nothing To FearBut Fear ItselfRegistered User regular
Nothing To FearBut Fear ItselfRegistered User regular
Hello lads and ladies!
Today I'd like to talk about a little game from Fantasy Flight Games, Richard Launius, and Kevin Wilson. The game which is based on H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulu" series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulu_mythos is called Arkham Horror, and is apparently pretty awesome.
Overview stolen from Wikipedia:
Several expansions have been made which add more features, or even new areas to the town, that Lovecraft fans will recognize such as Dunwich and Kingsport.
I'd done a few searches on the forum and found cursory mentions- all positive, and wanted to hear a few in-depth opinions from other forumers about the game. Gameplay experiences are welcomes and encouraged. I've read the Rulebooks provided on the Arkham Horror website, as well as looked at the reviews and artwork (which is all awesome) and I have to say I'm pretty enthused about picking this up when I receive some extra coin.
Provided are links to the Wikipedia page, and the Arkham Horror website. There you can find overviews of the game, a few reviews, and even the manuals for the Core game and it's expansions!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham_horror
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/arkhamhorror.html
So without further ado, Penny Arcade DISCUSS!
Today I'd like to talk about a little game from Fantasy Flight Games, Richard Launius, and Kevin Wilson. The game which is based on H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulu" series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulu_mythos is called Arkham Horror, and is apparently pretty awesome.
Overview stolen from Wikipedia:
The game board is made up of locations in Lovecraft's fictional city of Arkham during 1926. Street, building and outdoor locations are featured, as well as otherworldly locations that investigators can venture into. Players each have an investigator, represented by a character card, several attributes, and cards representing rare and common items, spells, and other things. As game play progresses, gates to these other worlds open and are represented by tokens placed on the board. Monsters from the other worlds enter through the gates and wander the city. The investigators travel through the city, avoiding or fighting the monsters, visiting city locations to acquire tools, and ultimately entering the gates. After traveling through the other world and returning, the investigator can try to close and seal the gate. While exploring city locations or other worlds, the investigators face random challenges and benefits. As gates open, a "Doom Track" advances; if it reaches the end, a powerful alien creature breaks through into Arkham. In the 1987 edition of the game, this ends the game in failure for the players. In the 2005 edition, this (in most cases) begins an endgame in which the players have a small chance to defeat the creature and win; otherwise they lose.
Several expansions have been made which add more features, or even new areas to the town, that Lovecraft fans will recognize such as Dunwich and Kingsport.
I'd done a few searches on the forum and found cursory mentions- all positive, and wanted to hear a few in-depth opinions from other forumers about the game. Gameplay experiences are welcomes and encouraged. I've read the Rulebooks provided on the Arkham Horror website, as well as looked at the reviews and artwork (which is all awesome) and I have to say I'm pretty enthused about picking this up when I receive some extra coin.
Provided are links to the Wikipedia page, and the Arkham Horror website. There you can find overviews of the game, a few reviews, and even the manuals for the Core game and it's expansions!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham_horror
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/arkhamhorror.html
So without further ado, Penny Arcade DISCUSS!
No-Quarter on
0
Posts
mmm
I think they did!
Arkham Horror is an amazing co-op game with a few glaring flaws. First of all, the rules aren't simple. Your first few games are going to have a lot of errors.
Probably the biggest thing you'll notice is that there are a LOT of components. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to set up when demoing for newbies. Also, the game itself takes a while to play, but once you get into the swing of things it moves quite quickly.
The game can be played with 1-8 players(yes, you can do it solo) but it balances best with between three and six players, and can be very very very hard with fewer, or a walk in the park with more.
So, getting down to brass tacks, the goal of the game is to defeat the Ancient One(Cthulhu or one of his buddies) by sealing gates that appear on the board at the end of every turn. Random events happen as you go from location to location searching for clues and gear to stop the Mythos threat, and monsters pour out of the gates and invade peaceful Arkham.
Players take the roles of Investigators(16 in the core game, each with different stats, 8 in Dunwich, and I believe another 8 in Kingsport) who each have their own set of Ability sliders, equipment, and Stamina/Sanity.
Players take turns moving around the board, yadda yadda yadda. Fun stuff about mechanics:
Abilities aren't fixed, there's three sets of two skills, each with a slider, one increasing while the other decreases. You can change around your skills each turn before you move, to better prepare yourself for the challenges in the turn ahead.
Each piece of equipment is represented by a card with a nifty picture. They're cool!
The art in the game is fantastic. So is the writing. It's absolutely peppered with references to all of Lovecraft's work, and it's a joy to read the descriptions on the cards and encounters/etc.
The base game is easy once you get the hang of it. If you start getting the expansions, all of a sudden it becomes HARD. It's been a long time since I won a game. It's a great, challenging co-op experience on the tabletop, and if you don't work with your other players you will end up underneath a pile of wet Shoggoth.
Some amazing game experiences I've had?
Well, this one time when we were battling Cthulhu, I was playing the role of Joe Diamond, the private investigator. We got beaten back and didn't manage to close a single gate, and Cthulhu rose at the end of the sixth turn. We all blast away at him in the final battle, but he drives us down. He's HARD to kill. We're all at the end of our ropes, our items almost completely gone, and we still need to do four points of damage to kill him. Joe Diamond's the last hope for everyone. He raises his twin pistols, gets amazingly lucky, and sends the tentacled horror back to R'lyeh. Mass cheers all around.
So many games simply go down to the wire, it's extremely well-balanced and fun. It's expensive, but SO worth it. I could sing praises of this game all day, but really it all boils down to: If you don't already own it, buy it. Get the expansions too, once you're comfortable with the basic rules. They are absolutely worth the price. Well, Curse of the Dark Pharoah maybe not. That one's a bit wonky in a lot of places, but King in Yellow, Dunwich Horror, and Kingsport Horror are all spectacular.
tl;dr Fuckin' buy it, bitches.
So much brilliance in that game!
This sounds even better'n before. I wish I had the monies!
Don't play with a single player/character, though. That changes the game from "Desperately run around closing gates!" to "Collect a few weapons so that you beat the absolute shit out of the GOO (Great Old One)."
If you do play by yourself, and I have done this, it's best to play multiple characters. 3 or 4 is generally the right number.
Join the winning team. The most awesome card ever.
Yep, it does take a lot of space to set up. With both Kingsport AND Dunwich the board is something like five feet long, plus your stacks of decks, although the Encounter decks can be set up on the board itself.
I strongly recommend looking into some of the templates on Boardgamegeek for card/token holders if you're low on space. Those guys do great work.
Mrrrr? I'm on BGG now and I don't see anything like that under AH.
The expansions DO make it a lot harder, especially Dunwich since it adds a new set of gate locations and Gate Bursts(which will go through Sealed locations) Also, choosing random characters can add to the challenge a lot, and the new GOOs in Dunwich are murderonastick.
The game is fun, and for all of the high-quality components and art in the box, it's totally worth the $$$. A co-op boardgame is a pretty unique experience (although, I believe, not the first of it's kind) and if you love anything Lovecraftian, you're sure to really dig it.
My sad little nun did not hold up last night against the might of Cthulhu. I was getting kicked around all over the map. (Trying to survive very long with a maximum of 2 Stamina sucks.)
I don't have any of the expansions -- we're still getting used to the mechanics of the core experience. If you're like my friend and I, you'll basically play the first few hours with the instruction manual glued to your hand, but eventually you'll get it figured out and gameplay will speed up.
I've actually pondered the idea of organizing a Arkham Horror gaming session at PAX this year, as I'd love to play the game with more than two people. Any interest out there?
Sadly, he didn't pick it up (opting for a non-Lovecraftian game), but I didn't realize how awesome it was. I think I'm going to buy it the next time I see it. Excellent review Rainfall (and others!), you've sold me on it
That said, once you've figured everything out, it's good stuff. Especially if you have a group you can play it with frequently, you can work out some division of labor to get the setup done more quickly. The game leads to some great table talk and strategy, and you'll have great stories to tell afterward. Once my group managed to lose to Shub-Niggurath in less than 10 minutes because every single thing went wrong, and then we had a 4 hour game which resulted in Azathoth eating the universe.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Play a few solo sessions by yourself first. Get a hang of all the rules before you start playing so that you aren't amazingly bogged down when you start. Everything is pretty intuitive once you grasp the system, but that grasp can take time.
Also, plastic baggies/a way to sort the counters is a must. Otherwise you will be hopelessly bogged down by the amount of tokens there are.
QFT