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.



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.



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.


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:


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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