Arkham Horror

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Arkham Horror is an adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, most recently published in 2005 by Fantasy Flight Games. A previous, different, edition was published in 1987 by Chaosium. Players take on the role of investigators in H.P. Lovecraft's Massachusetts town of Arkham. They must work together to hold back the horrors of the Great Old Ones, lest these outside forces destroy the world.

Arkham Horror

Players	1 to 8
Age range	12 and up
Setup time	30-60 minutes
Playing time	120-240 minutes
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Cooperative gaming

1 Overview
2 Gameplay
3 History
- 3.1 Expansions
- 3.2 Awards
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The game board is made up of locations in Lovecraft's fictional city of Arkham during the 1920's. Street, building and outdoor locations are featured, as well as otherworldly locations that investigators can venture into. As game play progresses, gates to these other worlds open and are represented by tokens placed on the board. Typically, this also involves special conditions occurring (weather or supernatural events) which affect die rolls or abilities, as well as causing monster tokens to be put into play. The eventual goal is to close these gates before a set event occurs, usually meaning that one of Lovecraft's fictional Great Old Ones has awakened to destroy the world. If the Old One awakens, investigators must defeat it directly or lose the game as they are each devoured.

[edit] Gameplay

Each player selects an investigator character that is provided with the game. These characters have several statistics to represent their strengths and weaknesses, as well as starting inventory and special abilities. Most importantly, the stats include Sanity and Stamina. These respectively measure the character's mental stability and physical health. The back of each card includes a brief history for the character, in case players wish to add an element of roleplaying to the game.

Each player's character is placed on the game board at the location specified on their card. They are given any items specified as well as their starting Sanity and Stamina tokens. At this time, the players should also pick which Great Old One they will be attempting to defeat. This is usually done by randomly drawing the Old One's card, but can also be selected intentionally if the players want.

The basic resolution mechanic is to roll a number of six-sided dice equal to the statistic, plus any modifiers. Results of a five or a six on a die is considered a success. For instance, a card may require a Lore -1 roll. If the character has a Lore stat of 4, they would roll three dice and any die that lands on a five or six counts as a success.

Characters may also become Blessed, which allows them to succeed on a four or higher; or Cursed, which means they can only succeed on a roll of six. Most checks only require a single success, with the general exception of Sanity and Combat rolls when fighting monsters.

Each turn, the players move their characters on the board and either have Encounters at a location (by drawing cards specific to that board location) or fight monsters. They may also purchase items at some locations, or take advantage of other special features. For example, characters who spend a turn at Arkham Asylum will regain a point to their sanity score, or they may spend $2 in-game to regain their maximum sanity. Either way, it takes the place of their normal Encounter card draw for that turn.

Characters who combat monsters have the option to sneak past them or fight them. Fighting a monster first involves a Sanity check, needing only a single success but losing Sanity tokens indicated on the monster if the roll fails. After that check, the character may cast spells or use weapons to affect the combat. If the monster is not immediately destroyed or removed from the board, they then roll Fight plus any bonuses from weapons, items or spells. Some monsters only require a single success, while others may require several to destroy.

At the end of each turn, the first player draws a card from the Mythos deck. This causes a gate to another world to open, as well as releasing new monsters onto the board, causing existing monsters to move on the board and often adding a new effect to gameplay. Weather may make it more difficult to move through the streets or a rumor might require investigators to complete an action in a certain number of turns to prevent even worse effects from happening. After the Mythos card is resolved, play passes clockwise to the next player to start a new turn.

Certain events add tokens to the Great Old One's card, representing how close it is to awakening. Typically, when a new gate opens a token goes onto the Old One. Gates may be closed by investigators through a die roll. Alternately, a gate may be sealed by spending Clue tokens, or with an Elder Sign item. Sealing a gate prevents another gate from opening in that location again, and using an Elder Sign removes a token from the Old One.

If the Old One's card reaches a specified number, it awakens and investigators must immediately deal with the threat. Combat against an Old One varies, but typically involves making rolls to remove tokens from it, while the Old One lowers their stats each turn or takes certain tokens from them. Investigators who lose all of that token type are immediately devoured and removed from the game. If the Old One is defeated, the players win; otherwise, the game is over and they have lost.

[edit] History

Arkham Horror was originally submitted to Chaosium Inc. as Call of Cthulhu: The Board Game, a new strategic game based on their Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. It was edited in house by Chaosium, who added such features as the Doom Track, a method to track progress toward the total failure of the players, and was published in 1987 as Arkham Horror.

Arkham Horror was one of several Lovecraft-based board games submitted by Richard Launius, with other designs from the same period including 'The Trail of the Brotherhood', 'DreamQuests', and 'Imprisoned with the Pharaohs'. Arkham Horror was the only of these games to see professional publication.

At the time Arkham Horror was one of the first cooperative board games - a game in which the players were working together to defeat the system (a genre which has since expanded to include Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings and Shadows over Camelot). It was also a rare board game which did a good job of adapting roleplaying gameplay. As a result of these two elements, it quickly became a cult classic.

The original printing of Arkham Horror soon sold out, and throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s it was one of the most-wanted out-of-print American board games. Chaosium announced reprints several times, but they never occurred.

In 2004 online game company Skotos acquired the rights to Arkham Horror from Richard Launius, and later arranged publication with Fantasy Flight Games. The game underwent several revisions in this process. Skotos reorganized many of the elements in the game for improved cohesion and arranged for it to more carefully follow the maps of Arkham created by Chaosium and used in their own Lovecraft Country: Arkham by Night online game. Richard added several new elements, including clue tokens and some rearrangements to the decks of cards. Finally, Kevin Wilson at Fantasy Flight massively revamped the game, throwing out a roll-and-move system as well as a few other outdated ideas and also expanding a lot of the gameplay.

The new edition was released in July, 2005 and sold out, with a second reprinting also being released in 2005.

[edit] Expansions

An expansion entitled Curse of the Dark Pharaoh was released in June, 2006. This expansion added many new cards to the game, including items and encounters. The theme was that a travelling museum exhibit from Egypt has arrived in Arkham, bringing with it accursed artifacts and strange happenings. Heavy emphasis is placed on Nyarlathotep, one of Lovecraft's iconic Old Ones. If Nyarlathotep is the chosen Old One for the game, new effects are in place when using this expansion.

The second expansion entitled Dunwich Horror was released during Gen Con 2006. Based on Lovecraft's short story The Dunwich Horror, it includes a new board that is placed against the original Arkham Horror board. This new board features locations in the town of Dunwich. Investigators may visit Dunwich by travelling through the Train Station in Arkham or using certain vehicle items. In addition, the game includes new Encounter, Mythos and item cards as well as new mechanics & new Great Old Ones. When a character loses their last point of Sanity, they may take a Madness card which imposes restrictions on the character and restores their maximum Sanity, instead of being sent to Arkham Asylum. A similar Injury deck is provided for investigators who reach zero Stamina. Plus, a new monster, the Dunwich Horror itself, is provided as a special monster whose powers vary from combat to combat.

A third expansion, The King in Yellow, was confirmed in October 2006. It is expected to be released in April 2007. Like Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, it is a card-only expansion, which this time focuses on a mysterious play that is being performed in Arkham. Based on the Robert W. Chambers story The King in Yellow, this expansion is believed to focus on Hastur.