Arkham Horror: 3rd Edition Will Drive You Insane And Keep You Coming Back For More!

Last night, I was playing Star Trek Attack Wing with a couple of friends of mine and we started talking about games that are, for lack of a better way to say it, hard to play. Arkham Horror came up almost immediately. I love this game. I will admit it’s not a light game.

Now, if you’ve never played Arkham Horror, lemme give you a quick backstory about the game. This is a cooperative game meaning players win or lose as a team. You play a group of detectives on the hunt in the year 1926. Think smoke-filled speakeasies and flappers dancing till dawn to celebrate the end of World War I. It’s a party to end all parties after years of war. In the shadows, alien creatures known as Ancient Ones lurk in the void beyond space and time, twisting the boundaries between dimensions. Occult rituals must be halted and alien lifeforms eradicated before the Ancient Ones establish their ruined kingdom here on Earth.

The game is attractive and has a great storyline to back up the gameplay. Maybe this game isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy coop-style gameplay and are into sci-fi, fantasy and the occult, you will love this game. Read on to learn more about Arkham Horror!

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Arkham Horror…..Do You Dare?

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Number of Players: 1 to 6
Time to Play: 120-180 min

Arkham Horror, as mentioned previously, is not easy to play. Ben Kuchera, writer for Ars Technica, noted, brevity is not one of its strengths… A short game is still measured in hours, and learning to play the game smoothly takes some time. Even with seasoned players, simply setting everything up can take a while, and once you begin adding expansions, the amount of space you need to enjoy the game is increased.

The game system nods towards games like D&D and Call of Cthulhu, but the characters have three pairs of statistics to represent their strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to “slide” their current focus on each scale towards either extreme or keep it relatively average. Lore and Luck are one example – if you improve your character’s Lore, you simultaneously decrease his or her Luck.

Gameplay

Characters are defined by their starting possessions and unique skills. The most crucial aspect is that each character has Sanity and Stamina stats. These represent the mental stability and physical health of the character (i.e. hit points). A brief biography of the character is included on the back of each card, in case players want to add role-playing to the mix.

At the start of the game, each player’s character is positioned on the board at their card’s location. Tokens for stamina, sanity and items are given to characters. The team now chooses which Ancient One they will be attempting to defeat. This can be done either randomly or by picking a specific boss to fight.

Arkham Horror is a dice rolling game at heart. Success is defined as a five or a six on a die (including any stats that modify dice). The vast majority of checks only need one success, with the exception of Combat rolls when fighting monsters. For example, a card may require a Lore -1 roll. If the character has a Lore score of 4 and the roll is successful, three dice are rolled and if at least one die lands on a five or six, the character passes the test (and may gain a bonus), but he or she fails then something bad usually happens.

A character may also become blessed or cursed, with the former making successes easier and the latter making it harder. Clue tokens, which are accrued during the game, may be used to acquire a bonus die during a roll (after the initial roll fails to produce enough successes). Skill cards help boost your stats and provide extra bonus dice when performing checks.

Movement and Monsters

The players move their characters around the board on each turn, either having Encounters at a place (by drawing cards related to that area) or fighting monsters. They may also buy goods at some locations, as well as take advantage of additional special features. Spending time at the asylum, for instance, will help regain some sanity….and believe me, you’ll need it.

The players move their characters around the board on each turn, either having Encounters at a place (by drawing cards related to that area) or fighting monsters. They may also buy goods at some locations, as well as take advantage of additional special features. Spending time at the asylum, for instance, will help regain some sanity….and believe me, you’ll need it. If the monster is not vanquished or removed from the board, they fight back with weapons, items, or spell bonuses. Some monsters need only a single success to be defeated, while others may require several hits to destroy.

At the conclusion of each round, the first player draws a card from the Mythos deck. This allows for the opening of a gateway to another realm, as well as the release of new monsters on the board, which causes current monsters to move around. When enough monsters appear on the board the terror level of Arkham rises. As the terror level rises, the city begins going into lockdown. Stores begin closing and allies go into hiding.

The Final Evil Awaits

At the centre of it all is the Ancient One. Events taking place in the game show the players just how much time they have before it awakens. Generally, what you’re trying to do is close as many dimensional gates as possible. Closing gates will delay the Ancient One from awakening but if you let too many stay open, well, I think you know what’s going to happen.

Once awakened Ancient Ones immediately try to devour your team. Combat generally entails making rolls to remove tokens from the Ancient One (in effect trying to reseal it), while the Ancient One tries to lower the parties stats by sucking their sanity, stamina and so on. Ultimately, your party will be eaten or the Ancient One will be beaten. There, I made a rhyme.

So there it is. Arkham Horror has a fair bit to unpack and does require a few hours to set up and play. But, if you’ve got a group of players who want to dig their teeth into a really meaty game, this is the one for you. There have also been several expansions released which add to the terror and excitement so be sure to check those out as well!