RF Generation.  The Classic and Modern Gaming Databases.RF Generation.  The Classic and Modern Gaming Databases.

Posted on May 19th 2015 at 12:00:00 PM by (wildbil52)
Posted under Tabletop, games


RFGeneration has long been a place where both retro and nowtro video game players and collectors can come together and share their love of the games.  However, there has always been a little bit of overlap into action figures, toys, comics, beer (I'm lookin at you nupoile), and Table Top games.  I thought it would be fun to talk about one of my favorites that I am always trying to get people to play with me.



Arkham Horror is a cooperative tabletop game based on HP Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos.  In a nutshell, very bad things are happening in the (fictional) town of Arkham, Massachusetts.  One of the Old Ancient Ones stirs in his slumber and people are starting to go insane.  If something isn't done soon, the town could be swallowed into one of the many portals that are tearing the fabric between our world and the world of Cthulu.

Arkham Horror is a great, big, long game.  While not as long as some of the other heavy hitters like Twilight Imperium and Eclipse, if you are learning the game with a group, expect the game to take all afternoon or all evening.  Arkham Horror can be played with 1-8 players (that's right, you can solo this game if you want to).  There are numerous difficulty tweaks based on the number of players, so the game should always feel the same.  The goal of the game is to investigate the streets of Arkham for potential clues as to what could be happening and to stop the ancient evil that has appeared.


The game board consists of all of the area in the town of Arkham, as well as portals to the Other Worlds that you, no doubt, will visit

Each player is dealt a player card, or two player cards and they can pick between the characters they were dealt.  Each character has unique stats, perks, and a starting inventory.  Once the players all have their characters assigned, they choose starting stats with the red and blue stat markers on the player card.  These can be changed once per round once the game starts.  Raising one stat always lowers another.

Ashcan Pete, a crowd favorite, has a trusty companion as a starting perk.  A dog named Duke who will be his friend along the way

The game includes small cardboard player tokens with plastic stands, but miniatures are available as well.  I bought Ashcan Pete for my buddy who always has to be Ashcan Pete.  He lets me hang onto him so he's always ready

The basic flow of the game is this:

1-Upkeep
2-Movement
3-Arkham Encounters
4-Other World Encounters
5-Mythos

In the Upkeep Phase, exhausted cards are refreshed, upkeep actions are taken, and skills can be adjusted.  This is when everyone is preparing for the next round, not a whole lot to talk about, this phase passes very quickly.

In the Movement Phase, Investigators spend their Movement points to search the streets of Arkham for clues.  Remember those skills that we adjusted in the Upkeep phase?  This is where they matter.  The higher your speed, the lower your sneak rating, which makes it harder for you to avoid enemies if you don't want to get into a fight. 

In the Arkham Encounters Phase, each investigator who ends their turn in a location (not a street) draws a card from the deck of the location they are in and resolves the Encounter.  Spoiler alert: Encounters are almost always bad and sometimes very bad.  The game teaches you, very early on, that Arkham is a very bad place where very bad things are happening.

All of these things are bad, even the one that has something good is peppered with bad

The Other World Encounters are the same as Arkham Encounters, they just take place after all of the events in Arkham have been resolved.

And finally, there is the Mythos phase, where even more bad things happen.  The player who started the round draws a Mythos card to either (1) open a gate and spawn a monster, (2) start a Monster Surge releasing a monster from EVERY open gate on the board, or (3) nothing happens because you have already sealed the area.  Yay!

That's the game in a nutshell, but there really is a lot to it.  Every phase has sub phases and there is banter between investigators, trading and fighting together and against each other, and a constant feeling of unease, like you could lose at any time. 

Couple other things worth mentioning...

If you are going to make the plunge, the game retails for about $50 and can be found for under $35.  I highly recommend a small Plano box to hold all of the tokens.  It makes cleanup way faster and you won't have to struggle with ziploc bags every few minutes.


Also, dice.  This game uses lots of dice, but the dice it comes with aren't that great.  Behold, Chessex dice:

Beautiful and thematically appropriate

Thanks for letting me ramble on about a tabletop game for a bit.  If you've ever been curious about Cthulu, this may be a good way to get familiar.  See you at the tables.


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Comments
 
I own and play quite a few board games and they seem to be the preferred entertainment of guests when they come over. I had a friend recommend Arkham Horror to me, but I have yet to play it as I've hoped that someone would bring it over for me to try out before I shell out $50 on a copy.  I like the theme and I'd like to  watch a video or two to see if the could be one that I might enjoy.
 
y'know, thanks to the wonder of Table Top Simulator we actually could play with you!
 
I've played a number of games like this recently, though they've all been sci-fi and/or comic book themed.  My biggest problem is that I don't have enough geeky friends who enjoy this kind of game, and certainly not enough that live close by.  I wanted to buy a DC deck-building game this weekend, but $40 is a lot to spend on a game that requires other people to play with, and only my friend/co-worker who I know is a DC nut would be very interested in it.  Otherwise, I'd have to drive 3 hours to find someone willing to play.  I love the Marvel Legendary set, and would pony up the cash for it if I felt like I could get people to play with me, but small towns aren't rife with nerdy guys like me.  Oh well.  But this does look interesting and fun, so I'm glad someone is enjoying these things Smiley
 
I always like board games like these. This one looks really cool. I've never heard of it before but would definitely want to try to see if I could get my hands on a copy. I don't own hardly any board games. Well besides monopoly, and sorry, but those are really played out to me. This cthulu game looks fun, and the cards/pieces/board all look really detailed and cool. Looks like a game that would be interesting. I'll keep my eyes open for a copy, as I do need a few board games in my life. Thanks for sharing, it was nice to hear about this game.

PS. Those might be the most beautiful dice I've ever seen. Do they come in glitter finish? lol...j/k really nice dice though.
 
I call dibs on Batman!
 
Very fun game, that I have myself. I have played it with my wife, who had fun but doesn't really care for these types of games.  Playing it by yourself is kinda fun, but oh man is it hard. Give it a shot if you have not tried it playing it by yourself.  I want to pick up the expansions, and just have a big night of it, with friends.
 
I like reading about the board games you guys play. Growing up we played as a family a fair amount. Since I've been married though, not as much. It's not that we don't want to play, it's that my wife and I want completely different things out of our board games. That, combined with few people to play with has made this kind of gaming uncommon here. We do have a friend that brings games around every so often, he's really into it, but rarely do both my wife and I like whatever it is we're playing. It's always one or the other.

So far, Flux is the only thing my wife and I like playing together, even though there are lots of games one or the other of us likes.

Oh, and Bil, why am I the beer guy? There's more than just me, you guys just need to post more pictures in that one thread  Tongue
 
So, I just played this game tonight, and then read this blog post right after.

Been playing a bunch of new games, and for the most part, it has been buy first and play later. This obviously can be a very risky gamble of $30-$70, depending on the game. Most games that I buy, I do some kind of research first. This game, I did not buy, and I read almost nothing about it. I have long been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulu mythos, so that is what drew me in.

Bil was not kidding. The learning part of the game will be BRUTALLY long for newbies (which was basically my entire group of 5) They had already sat down and had been trying to figure out the game when I arrived, and I was early. We then spent close to an hour before we really got going, and even then, there were constant pauses throughout the game to consult rules. 5 hours and we only managed to half beat the game, making it the first unfinished game for my Thursday night gaming group.

I haven't played Twilight Imperium or Eclipse, and I am not sure I will ever find a group of people to commit that kind of time, if they are longer than Arkham Horror.

I wish I could say I liked this game, but the truth is after four hours, all I could think about was other games I wished I was playing instead.
 
This one is a lot of fun with the right crowd, for sure.  Great topic and game!

I'm of the ol' FASA Battletech/Shadowrun/MechWarrior/Earthdawn school myself.  Spent the better part of my free time in High School with a few hex-maps, unpainted figures, and a well-worn Battletech rulebook.

I keep planning on setting it up again for a game night, maybe using HeroScape map pieces for that lovely 3D effect... and probably end up playing HeroScape too.
 
That's a common trap in games like this.  If the entire group hasn't played, the constant pauses to learn the mechanics can really bring the flow of the game down.  Just having one player there who has played is a big help.  I encourage you to stick with it because once your group knows the game and a round flows quickly, the experience is completely different.

DO NOT TRY TO PLAY ECLIPSE OR TWILIGHT IMPERIUM WITHOUT SOMEONE WHO HAS PLAYED BEFORE!  Also, play Eclipse first, TI is MUCH more complex

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