Let's Play Arkham Horror Already!

ewwwww.. I'm sorry.

We just took all the missions out of the deck since none of them are worth the effort.

The unvisited isle where you can get two clues!

What does Join The Winning Team do?

It's a really, really hard Mission that results in you summoning the Elder God and screwing over your teammates so you win and they don't. Not really normal play and not really an idea that makes sense when playing solo like I am. At least with Wave of Destruction there's a chance I might do it.

Technically, Elder God refers to a very small subset of Outer Gods that are not usually so antagonistic towards humanity. The best known are Nodens, Hypnos, and Bast. Generally, Outer Gods and Great Old Ones are the cosmic evils imperiling humanity in Lovecraft's works and in this game.

Great Old Ones are less powerful, have a physical form (typically on Earth), and are more likely to be aware of and interested in humanity. Outer Gods are true cosmic deities that tend to be indifferent towards mankind, though Nyarlathotep is an exception.

Great Old Ones: Cthulhu, Glaaki, Hastur, Ithaqua, Shudde M'ell, Tsathoggua, Yig
Outer Gods: Abhoth, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth

FUN FACT: Cthulhu is the high priest of Yog-Sothoth!

The address the dame had written down for me turned out to be in a back alley behind a museum. I'm not a big fan of museums, or alleys besides, but what could I do? The money was already spent. I had a job to do.
The light bulb above the door flickered as knocked.
"Who's there?" came a voice from inside.
"Diamond. Here for the package." I said.
"Oh, r-right." The door opened to reveal a young guy. He was nicely dressed, but obviously nervous. He was sweating buckets as he surveyed the alley, then looked to me.
"The package." I reminded.
"Oh... h-here. Take it. Take it and go." The boy drops something wrapped in brown paper into my hand and slams the door like it's a life or death situation. Who knows, maybe it is.
The thing's heavy, whatever it is, and it's not square. The paper bends over odd edges. Must be some sort of historical something, but it ain't none of my business. Or at least, it wasn't then. I just had to get the job done. I headed back towards the street, making my way back to the office. I'd stash the thing there, and make the delivery in the morning. I jangled the keys in out of my coat pocket as I reached the door, fumbling with them in one hand as the other holds the thing. I manage to get the door open and take a step inside before there's a loud thump, and all goes black.

I woke up the next morning in a daze. Package was gone, nowhere to be seen. All I had was an odd necklace I'd seen somewhere before, clenched in my fist. I was holding onto it so tight it was making a mark in my palm. Must have grabbed at it when I went down.
There was only one thing I could do. Track down the owner of this piece of jewelry before Miss Fae and her employer get angry about me losing their trinket. I picked up my hat and headed back out. Nothing is ever easy.

---

There are five phases to a turn of Arkham Horror: Upkeep, Movement, Arkham Encounter, Otherworldly Encounter, and Mythos. We choose a first player by giving them a first player token. I'm going to chose Monterey Jack purely because of how I have the cards set up in my room. The first player does all their actions in a phase first, and then around the table clockwise for each phase. At the end of the turn, the token gets passed to the left, and the next person gets to be the First Player.

Before we get started, here's our crack team's statistics and locations.

Monterey Jack (J): 3 Sanity, 7 Stamina
Speed: 4
Sneak: 0
Fight: 2
Will: 3
Lore: 1
Luck: 5
Cash: $7
Clues: 1
Items: Bullwhip, .38 Revolver, Alien Device, Wave of Destruction, Stealth

Marie Lambeau (M): 5 Sanity, 4 Stamina
Speed: 4
Sneak: 1
Fight: 1
Will: 4
Lore: 4
Luck: 1
Cash: $4
Clues: 2
Items: Enchanted Knife, Voice of Ra, Cloud Memory, Vision Quest, Mythos Lore

Amanda Sharpe (A): 5 Sanity, 5 Stamina
Speed: 4
Sneak: 1
Fight: 2
Will: 3 (+1)
Lore: 3
Luck: 2
Cash: $1
Clues: 1
Items: .18 Derringer, Enchanted Cane, Wrack, Will +1, Expert Occultist

Joe Diamond (D): 4 Sanity, 6 Stamina
Speed: 6
Sneak: 1
Fight: 4
Will: 1
Lore: 0
Luck: 3
Cash: $8
Clues: 3
Items: .45 Automatic, Knife, Ancient Tome, Spot Hidden

Turn 1: Upkeep
Upkeep is boring. Basically, we untap cards that tap so we can use them again this turn, do any checks that are required of us, and get to use our Focus to adjust our stats. Since this is the first turn and none of our investigators have any effects that need to be checked, we don't have that to do, and since I set the stats to decent levels in the beginning, there's no reason to adjust them. So let's just move on, hm?

Turn 1: Movement
When this phase begins, each Investigator gets movement points equal to their speed. There may be other items that give them extra movement points, but we don't have any of those. Following the lines on the board to a new space takes a movement point. The first few turns of this game are really more about obtaining equipment than monster-slaying or gate-sealing, so we're mostly going to go after Clues.

Monterey Jack is close to the Unvisited Isle, a place which has seen a lot of activity lately, so he's going to visit it and nab himself two clue tokens as he ends his turn.

Marie moves to the Historical Society, to see if they have any records that might pertain to these strange occurrences, snagging a clue token.

Amanda Sharpe leaves her job at the Bank of Arkham to see what all the commotion is about in nearby Independence Square, gaining another clue.
Meanwhile, Joe Diamond decides to see if he can't shake some clues out of the seedy characters at Hibb's Roadhouse, getting him a clue as well.

Turn 1: Arkham Encounters
Monterey Jack explores the Isle on foot, walking through the trees there. We draw an encounter card from the green deck, since that is where the Unvisited Isle is located, and read what it says under that location.
An incredibly difficult encounter from the get-go! How these checks work is that we get one six-sided die to roll for each point we have in this check. This is a Will roll, and Monterey has 3 will, so we get 3 dice. However, this check is at a difficulty of -2, so we remove two dice from this pool, giving us a measly 1 die to make this check. To succeed with a die, you need to roll a five or a six on it. So basically we have a 1 in 3 chance of passing this, and if we fail, Monterey is going to lose all his Sanity, since he only has three, and be on an express train to Arkham Asylum.

Damn, a 4. That's a failure. However, Monterey has 3 clue tokens right now. Using this knowledge of the occult, he can gain an advantage in this roll by spending one. There's no way I want him going insane on the first turn, so I use up one of this clues to roll a second die.

A 5! Monterey manages to stand back up and resist the tree's evil presence with his sanity intact. You only need one success to pass any stat check like this, and now we've got it, though we're down a clue. That's the end of Monterey's encounter phase.

Meanwhile, Marie questions the members of the Historical Society, wondering if any of them can point her towards something to help her fight this evil. We draw the appropriate encounter card.
Well, nothing gained without some serious research, right? And with Marie's Mythos Lore, I'm almost assured to get a skill, and hopefully a good selection to choose from. After thanking him, Marie stays to pour through the man's manuscript, and makes a Will check. Note that the modifier is +0, so she's just rolling 4 die, for her Will rating. Since Marie will be doing nothing else this turn, I go ahead and use her Mythos Lore skill to add a fifth die, and...

Two successes! I draw the top two cards off the skill deck, and they're crazy useful: Fight +1 and Marksman. Marksman lets me re-roll one Combat check a turn, which will obviously be a huge help if Marie messes up a fight. However, without the dice to fight with to begin with, re-rolling die doesn't really help. Marie is a spellcaster without any combat spells, and thus needs all the stat boosts she can get, so I take the Fight +1.

I also turn her piece on its side on the board, to indicate that she is Delayed, pouring through pages of manuscript. Next turn, during her movement phase, I'll stand her back up, indicating she can move come the third turn.

Meanwhile, Amanda Sharpe is poking around in Independence Square. She leaves no stone unturned in her search, and decides to explore an area of the park marked "Off-Limits."
Unfortunately, the authorities notice her sneaking about and attempt to force her out of the park. With only one dice at her disposal, Amanda rolls a 3 and fails spectacularly. She's not a very intimidating figure and thus gets pushed out to Downtown Streets.

This is far from a big deal at this point in the game, so no worries.

Meanwhile, Joe Diamond is questioning the patrons of Hibb's Roadhouse. Most don't take too kindly to him bothering them as they're drinking their beer, but he manages to get a few leads before a strange man enters the bar. Joe sits down across from him to question him.
This is a really beneficial opportunity, however, our resident private eye has 0 in his Lore stat, and thus has no die to roll, failing immediately. He could use a clue token to get one die to try his luck, but Joe already has two hands worth of common weapons and a decent amount of cash. The man shakes his head at Diamond's futile efforts to bluff knowing the Yellow sign, and leaves the bar.

Thus ends the Arkham Encounters phase.


Turn 1: Otherworldly Encounters
None of our investigators are in another dimension, so we just skip right over this.

Turn 1: Mythos
And now we reach the end of the turn. We draw a new Mythos card to set the stage for the next turn. The card will tell us where to open more gates or spawn more enemies, as well as how to move the enemies on the board. We draw a card...
If any of our investigators were foolish enough to have Bank Loans out, this would be very bad news for them, for they would have to repay them immediately, selling off items if they have to, otherwise they would be arrested. Luckily, none of our team is in debt, so this does nothing.
However, a new clue appears at Independence Square, and...

And a new gate opens in the Woods. This means we add a Doom counter, bringing Shubby one step closer to being summoned. We also get to meet the new monster on the board, a Hound of Tindalos. Oh my, what have I done. Hounds of Tindalos are real bad news. When they move, they teleport to the nearest investigator instead of moving by normal rules, and they have 5 toughness, thanks to Shub-Niggarath's power. That means it takes five successes on a combat roll to kill it. Luckily, it's not too hard to sneak past, but this could prove a problem down the line.

Thus ends turn 1. Monterey gives the first player token to Marie.

Turn 2: Upkeep
Marie refreshes her Mythos Lore.

Turn 2: Movement
Marie sets herself back upright, finishing her research in the old man's diary. She'll be having another Historical Society encounter, it seems.

Meanwhile, nobody else has enough clues to do any sealing of gates (it costs 5, remember), so they keep up their investigations. Amanda is sure she missed something vital in Independence Square that the cops kept her from, so she moves back there, pocking the newly-placed clue token. Joe Diamond, following a lead from his conversations in the bar, decides to head to the graveyard to see what he can dig up, pocketing a clue token of his own. Monterey Jack decides he's had enough of trees and the outdoors in general after his horrible encounter, and ducks into a nearby house, known only as The Unnamable. This nets him a clue token as well.

Turn 2: Arkham Encounters
Marie thanks the old man for the use of his diary, and is about to head on her way when the janitor pulls her over with a proposition.
A normally attractive offer, but with a gate to another world open and a Hound of Tindalos running free in the Woods, it's unlikely the Society members are doing much bird watching in reality. They may not even be alive. Marie can't seal that gate yet or have a chance fighting the Hound, and so she decides to decline the janitor's offer.

Once again poking around in Independence Square, Amanda stumbles upon a fortune teller. Thinking she might have some information, she asks the fortune teller for help.
Sweet. By seeing her future, Amanda is going to make sure the next turn isn't too painful for us. For clarification, though, "The Story Continues" is a mythos card that reads "Shuffle the Mythos deck, then draw a new card." Anyway, let's see what's on the top of the deck...

It seems there's a sandstorm in our future. I'll get into the details of what this does when we actually draw it, but although this is going to slow the movement of our investigators down, it gives ample chance to collect Exhibit items for free, something that could make our investigations much easier. The trade-off, though, is that a portal to another world is going to open in Independence Square, right on top of Amanda, and pull her in! She's just going to have to brace herself for a trip to another world, though, because the benefits of this mythos card are quite good. We'll leave it atop the deck.

Meanwhile, following a tip given by one of the patrons in the bar, Joe Diamond wanders through the gravestones of the Graveyard, looking for clues. Suddenly, there's a rustle behind him. He whips around. Nothing. Another rustle. Another turn. Nothing. Then, suddenly, he's knocked to the ground. He looks up only to spy a grotesque figure in front of him!

I draw a random monster from the bag...

This Spectral Hunter is not pretty. This is going to be a tough combat. Let's go over monster stats really quick. On the front, in the corner, is the Sneaking difficulty. Sneaking by this thing is at a -4 penalty. There's no way Joe is going to sneak past it with his pitiful 1 Sneak. He's going to have to fight it. So let's look at the stats on the back. (And sorry about the weird redness of this picture.)

As you can see, the Hunter has a special ability called Ambush. This means after we start fighting this enemy, we no longer have the option of running away. Joe doesn't have this option anyway, of course. His sneak is too low. Below that, we see the special rules of this monster. Normally, when you kill a monster, you get to keep his tile as a "Monster Trophy." These can be turned in at various places on the board for money, allies, clues, and perks. However, we don't get to keep this one as a trophy, but get $5 for killing it instead.
On the bottom left is the Horror check modifier. Before kicking the ass of any monster, our investigators must deal with the horrific sights they're seeing and try not to go insane. They do this by making a horror check, which uses that investigator's Will. Succeed, and they are unaffected by such sights. Fail, and they lose sanity equal to the number of blue circles shown. If Joe fails this, he'll lose two sanity. Unfortunately, his Will is only 1, so he automatically fails due to the difficulty of -2. We could spend clue tokens to get dice for this, but the horror check only happens once, the first time you engage the monster, so Joe is in no danger of going insane even with taking the damage. We'll take two points off of his Sanity, reducing it to 2.
In the middle of the monster is a number of blood drops. These are the number of successes it takes to kill this monster. Unfortunately, you have to get all your successes in one roll. If you don't get enough the first time, you don't get to keep the one or two successes you made when you try again. The Spectral Hunter has 3 hits, normally, but thanks to that mean ol' Shub-Niggurath, it actually has 4 this game.
Finally, on the right is the monster's combat stats. It works similar to the Horror side. Fight checks are at a -2 penalty, and if Joe fails to kill the monster, it will deal him 2 damage to his Stamina. So let's fight this bitch! Joe's fight is 4, so he gets 2 dice after his penalty. That's not enough! However, since this is combat, we get to use 2 hands worth of weapons as well. We'll use his .45 Automatic, which gives us 4 extra dice, and his Knife, which gives us 1. That means we have 7 dice to make 4 successes. Tough, but doable. Let's see how it goes...

Ouch, only 2 successes. We could spend some clue tokens here, but since one more success isn't going to result in a kill and Joe can take a hit, we'll let him fail. The Spectral Hunter pounces back atop him, landing with a hard thud, dealing Joe 2 Stamina of damage as he cries out in pain. He takes aim, though, and tries again.

Three successes! So close! Now is the time to use a clue token. Joe's Hunches special ability gives us two extra dice for the price of one, which is nice, but momentarily forgetting that, I start by just rolling one die. But hey!

One was all we needed!
Slashing wildly with his knife, Joe manages to throw the creature off of him, he rolls over, and fires two shots from his .45, hitting the monster with the second shot. The monster cries out in pain, and is defeated. Joe gets his five dollars pay for a hard combat.

Meanwhile, seeking protection from the harsh spirits of the trees, Monterey Jack rushes into an abandoned house known only as The Unnamable. He takes a moment to explore the inside of the house.
Being Cursed is a very, very bad thing. If you're cursed, you only succeed on a roll of 6. Luckily, Monterey has 3 clue tokens, meaning we can look without too much worry and boost that number to 6. Monterey takes careful note of the vision, working in over in his mind and realizing several key links between the strange goings-on in Arkham and the traveling Egyptian exhibit. He vows to use this knowledge wisely.
Turn 2: Otherworldly Encounters
Everyone is still in Arkham, though that's about to change...

Turn 2: Mythos
Environments are ongoing effects in Arkham. Each stays in play until another of its type is drawn to replace it. This one makes moving to a location with a green diamond cost two additional movement points, which really slows down our investigators. However...
Hanging around in the street means we can build up our arsenal of magical items. Sounds useful to me.

However, Amanda Sharpe will likely not be taking part in this, because a new gate opens on top of her, along with its guardian, a Cultist. She doesn't have time to deal with the Cultist, however, before the gate sucks her in! We flip over the gate token to reveal her destination...

Uh oh. Looks like she's going to the Abyss. Even though she knew it was coming, the horrible shock of being sucked through is too much for her, and she's Delayed. She's not going to be able to move next turn.
Another clue also appears at the Woods, trying to sweeten the pot for anyone crazy enough to fight that Hound of Tindalos.

Thus ends turn 2.

Let's see how everyone is doing after two turns.

Monterey Jack (J): 3 Sanity, 7 Stamina
Speed: 4
Sneak: 0
Fight: 2
Will: 3
Lore: 1
Luck: 5
Cash: $7
Clues: 6
Items: Bullwhip, .38 Revolver, Alien Device, Wave of Destruction, Stealth

Marie Lambeau (M): 5 Sanity, 4 Stamina
Speed: 4
Sneak: 1
Fight: 1 (+1)
Will: 4
Lore: 4
Luck: 1
Cash: $4
Clues: 3
Items: Enchanted Knife, Voice of Ra, Cloud Memory, Vision Quest, Mythos Lore, Fight +1

Amanda Sharpe (A): 5 Sanity, 5 Stamina
Speed: 4
Sneak: 1
Fight: 2
Will: 3 (+1)
Lore: 3
Luck: 2
Cash: $1
Clues: 3
Items: .18 Derringer, Enchanted Cane, Wrack, Will +1, Expert Occultist

Joe Diamond (D): 2 Sanity, 4 Stamina
Speed: 6
Sneak: 1
Fight: 4
Will: 1
Lore: 0
Luck: 3
Cash: $13
Clues: 4
Items: .45 Automatic, Knife, Ancient Tome, Spot Hidden

Shubby is getting closer to being summoned, and we don't have any gates sealed yet. Not that we could yet, but we aren't even on our way. We need to seal 6 of them to banish Shub-Niggurath for good. So what should our battle plan be? Monterey Jack has enough clue tokens to seal a gate. Which one should he head for? The Woods and the Hound, or the Witch House and the Ghost? Should he stick around and try for some Exhibit items first? What should Joe Diamond spend all that money on? Unique items? Common items? Skills? Medical care for his physical and mental wounds? There's also been talk of attempting to ask the mysterious group at the Silver Twilight Lodge for aid and seeing if we can't get a membership. Who's up to that task?

Also, of course, any feedback of any kind other than tactical advice would be spiffy, as well.

I am loaded with questions:

Do exhibit items count for Monterey Jack's mission?
Can characters exchange items?
How many unique items could Joe Diamond buy?
How tough is the ghost compared to the hound?

This is great, I'm loving this! I'm pretty sure I saw the Arkham Horror game at my local comic book shop, and I really feel like buying it now.

Joe Diamond should buy skills, those are always good. Jack should head for the hound. It's going to jump Marie in the next round anyway, right?

I love to answer questions!
Unfortunately, although Exhibit items do similar things to Unique items, we need actual Unique items to complete Monterey's mission.
Characters can most definitely exchange items, though they have to be in the same space as one another to do so, which hasn't happened yet. They also can't exchange skills or Clue tokens, as those aren't really items, perse. (I guess the spells are on scrolls or in a spell book or something.) The moment Diamond is crossing the path of another character, he's probably going to pass off that Ancient Tome to someone who could actually use a Spell, for example. This also means Diamond could be all philanthropic and go shop for things the other characters need, if that's the way we wanna go.
Diamond can probably buy 1 or 2 Unique items. Let's look at a picture.

Hey, it's Monterey's starting equipment again! Now look to the bottom right corner of his Alien Device. See the price there? If we had bought that at a shop, it would have cost us $5, and it's one of the better Unique items. In general, Unique items are in the range of $4-7 while Common items are in the range of $1-5 or so.
The Ghost is much easier compared to the Hound, but it has Physical Immunity, because, well, it's a Ghost. We'd get no extra dice from guns and whips and the like while fighting it, but things like Marie's Enchanted Knife and Monterey's Alien Device, basically Unique Items, can still give bonuses because they're Magical weapons. There are some monsters who have Immunity to Magical damage as well, as well has Resistances to both these things, which means you only get half the bonus you're entitled.
No, Marie is safe. Well, for turn 3, anyway. I haven't covered Monster movement yet because, well, we've been lucky enough for no monsters to have moved yet, and I'm trying not to dump all the rules at once and, you know, be boring. It'll probably be covered in the next post/entry/whatever you call it, though.

I would just like to give my approval of the noir segments at the start of each post. They're pretty tops.

Joey should probably seek medical and mental help. I don't think he's going to be too useful to anyone if he's clawing at his eyeballs in the loony-bin.

Also, I'd suggest trying to seal off the gate with the ghost, since it seems that it's less dangerous then the dog thing, and you have something which I assume lets you hurt non-corporeal entities with that there device.

I think I would totally love this game but unfortunately I only know like two people in the world who would play it with me. Most of my friends are the Apples 2 Apples-style board gamers.

They're always releasing weird complicated board games on XBLA though so who knows, maybe someday we'll hit the jackpot.

Awesome thread poetfox!

I will add another word of encouragement - I love the story you are adding and you're doing a great job of explaining the rules.

It seems like this game totally relies on its atmosphere, as the gameplay is ridiculously complicated. It's like they took the most inscrutable elements of American and German board games and fused them into one. I have to say that this isn't the type of game I enjoy playing a lot - I'm more of the simple rules with deep strategy kind of guy - but the flavor of the game sounds like it could be fun once in awhile if playing with someone who knows the rules well.

The rules don't sound too terribly complicated to me (at least, no more so than your typical tabletop RPG), but there does seem to be a lot you have to keep in your head at once. That each round is broken into phases makes things a little easier, I would think.

I'm going to talk to my Cthulhu-fanboy buddy this weekend and see if he'd be interested in hunting this down with me and trying to get enough people around a table to play it a couple times. About how long does a typical 4/5-person game take, poetfox?

i had no idea you could play it solitaire. great idea, poetfox!

Yeah, when I sit down to play a board game, I don't really want to be playing an RPG. Just my usual style. Like I said, I could see playing this every so often, probably when I'm in more of an RPG mood.

I'll second sealing the Ghost gate; Hounds are a bitch kitty to deal with (and you'll spend the rest of your life plastering over all the corners in your house.)

Arkham Horror is so much fun. If my buddy who has a copy is in town, I'm putting a game together ASAP.

so complicated! so esoteric! I can't wait for my copy to arrive, and torture my friends with this eldritch horror of a game! Thanks so much for doing this LP! I second the question "how long does a typical game last?"

I also think we should start closing a gate ASAP, maybe the one in Indy sqaure as the cultist looks like the easiest to beat. Also maybe some story plot points (the little blurbs at the beginning) from some other characters point of view (especially Amanda in the abyss!)

Awesome thread!

It really depends on the number of people you have and what Great Old One or whatnot you're facing. If you take on Yig, games are normally pretty short. 2 Hours or so? But for some of the slower, meaner gods... well, I've had games take up to five hours. Heh.
And yeah, it really is an RPG for people who don't like RPGs but secretly like them. I can't get my friends to play a pencil and paper tabletop RPG to save their lives, but I can almost always get them to sit down for this. I take what I can get.
In any case, there is a lot of rules talk when we play, scheming, planning, etc. That's half the fun. Although I do sort of suggest being really flexible about letting people go back in time and do things you normally do during your upkeep later during the turn. Forgetting to up your Sneak stat before a critical turn is no fun, and since it's a co-operative game, why not be nice, you know?

I'm going to process these pictures and then post this next section, and then the next installment should be late Wednesday night... like... so late that it's really Thursday morning late. Just so you all know.

The back of the box claims that the game can take 2-4 hours, and I believe that's a reasonable estimate. The only time a game will be significantly shorter than that will be if the Ancient One happens to wake up very quickly (Yig is the most prone to this). On the other hand, the game has a built in doomsday counter that more or less ensures a game can't take too long.

When you work in nightclubs, night after night, you tend to get a different perspective on things. You wake with the setting sun and curl up to sleep when the sun comes up. You see shady deals going on in front of you every night as you sing: Guys cheating on their girls, mobsters dealing and flashing their cash... you get to the point where you think you've seen everything, especially living in a big ol' city like New Orleans. When I think back to before, I was so sure I knew everything, even more than most. It's kinda funny to think how wrong I was.
It all started a few days ago. I had just finished another set and wowed them all. They call me "the Smoky Velvet" for my voice and, well, if you'll let me brag, it 's deserved. When I get up there, really get belting it out, it's... well, it's like I have a lasso, and when I start singing, I catch 'em good in that loop, and with each note, I pull them closer, trap them further. When I hit those high notes, really bring them home? They're mine.
Managing to sneak out past the crowds, I headed home, back to my little apartment. When I got there and opened up the door, I noticed someone had slid a telegram underneath it. Picking it up, I was in for some sad news. My grandma has passed away. We were close, back when she used to live here in New Orleans with me. She was the one that taught me to sing. We'd grown apart though, unfortunately, when she got the crazy idea to move up to some town in Massachusetts. Never talked much after that. No matter, though. It was still a sad occasion. The telegram didn't say anything about how she had died, just that her funeral was in a couple days, and that she had something for me in her will.
After the sun came up and I had gotten a little sleep, I left to book me a ticket to Arkham.

---

Unfortunately, evil is inconsiderate and will not defeat itself, so it's time to jump back into the fray.

Turn 3: Upkeep
It's time to actually utilize our focus. Amanda is in the Abyss, and thus does not need much if any speed for movement. Investigators move forward automatically one space during their movement phase. As such, I'm using her focus to max out her Sneak at 4 to hopefully keep her out of trouble. Similarly, it's time for Monterey Jack to kick some ass and take names. I use his focus to kick up his Fight 2 notches, increasing it to 4. This, however, makes his Will 1, meaning that just about anything is going to cause him Sanity damage. This is bad, because he only has three Sanity, but we aren't going to get gates sealed without taking risks, and he's unlikely to take out the Ghost without the extra Fight dice.
Marie is going to lower her Speed to 3 for the extra point of Sneakiness, because her goal this turn is only three spaces away and unhindered by the Sandstorm. She also casts Voice of Ra. Why? Well, if we're going to get into the Silver Twilight Lodge, there are tough stat tests. Marie is making sure she has all the advantages she can, so she centers herself by singing a little song to calm her nerves. Marie's lore is 4, and Voice of Ra has a difficulty of -1, meaning she has 3 dice. She also has to expend a point of Sanity to attempt the spell. Even if we fail, that's lost for good. I roll the die...

And the spell is cast. Marie now gets a +1 bonus to all stat checks this turn, preparing her for what might lie ahead.

Turn 3: Movement
Amanda wakes up, disoriented, in a horrible, dark world she has never seen before. She uses this turn to stand back up after being Delayed and prepare for her journey through The Abyss.

Joe Diamond, our favorite private eye, is shaken from his intense battle with the Spectral Hunter. Something is going on here! He stumbles back towards Arkham Asylum, hoping to get some therapy to help him deal with what he's seen. It also gives him a potential opportunity to question some of the patients there. Perhaps their insane ramblings aren't so insane after all. However, due to the Sandstorm currently ravaging Arkham, he doesn't have enough movement to make it all the way to the Asylum, so he stops in the Downtown Streets.

Monterey Jack has had enough, and decides it's time to take action. He heads to the Witch House, searching for the cause of the disturbance there. He soon locates what seems to be a rip in reality, a portal to another world! He moves forward to investigate when a wispy figure passes in front of him. The sight of it chills Jack to the bone. He's going to have to kill or evade this Ghost if he's going to get to the gate! However, with Monterey's impressive 0 Sneak and the fact that it's a -3 penalty to sneak past the Ghost, evasion seems unlikely. It's time to throw down.

As you can see, the Ghost is Undead, which just means certain items, such as the Cross, affect it more than a normal monster. More importantly, though, it is Physical Immune. That means that Monterey's physical weapons, his Gun and Bullwhip, can't give him a bonus against it. He just has his dice from his Fight stat, along with the two extra dice from his Alien Device. With the -3 penalty to fight checks, though, that leaves Monterey with a mere 3 dice to attack with. Ghosts normally only take one hit, but thanks once again to Shubby's special ability, it takes two this game. That doesn't seem like good odds, but luckily, even though we can't use it to get us extra die, we can still use the Bullwhip's special ability to re-roll one die in a combat check to help us win, so we have a chance.
First, though, the Horror check. Monterey can't deal with anything due to his pitiful 1 Will, and so he loses two Sanity. Then, he attacks, the humming of the Alien Device adding power to his fists as he swings wildly at the ghostly image...

I'm a lucky bastard, I didn't even have to use the Bullwhip's ability! Monterey soundly defeats the Ghost, and gets to take it as a Monster Trophy. The ghastly image is dispelled, and Monterey is free to enter the portal, but only after collecting the Clue token on the Witch House.

It looks like Monterey Jack is headed to the City of the Great Race. He appears in the new dimension to a roaring crowd, creatures running past him left and right! Something taps him on the shoulder and points to a finish line far away, barely in his field of vision. Monterey then knows what he must do, and takes off in a sprint! He's going to win this race!
Wait, it's not that kind of Great Race?

Meanwhile, Marie, working from a tip from one of the members of the Historical Society, decides to check out the Silver Twilight Lodge. They've a reputation for having secret meetings and dealings with the Occult. She stops by the Lodge, picking up a clue token.

Turn 3: Arkham Encounters
Since Amanda and Monterey are no longer in Arkham, they do nothing this phase, and just wait around for the next one.

Diamond would normally not have an encounter, being in the boring streets. However, thanks to this mysterious Sandstorm, he can use this phase to have a chance at drawing an Exhibit item. His 3 luck means he has 2 dice to hit a success on this Luck (-1) check. He searches through the piles of sand...

I am on fire today! Too bad I'm probably wasting all this luck for when I really need it. Joe's hand bumps into something hard! He pulls it out of the sand, brushing it off, revealing...

A Tablet of Bast! Not the best item, but potentially useful. This lets Joe skip having encounters in Arkham 3 times. Useful if he's trapped and low on health. Also, I know from experience that there are mythos cards and encounters that do really nasty things to you if you don't have an exhibit item of some sort, so just having one of any kind is a benefit. He pockets the tablet.

Meanwhile, Marie pokes around the Silver Twilight Lodge, asking too many questions and generally making a nuisance of herself in her search for the truth. Finally, Carl Sandford gives in with an evil grin.
Woah, now this is seriously a tough decision. Having a Lodge Membership lets us have encounters in the Inner Sanctum, which can get us all kinds of goodies and do all kinds of things, if we're willing to risk playing with those dark magics. However, if Marie gets devoured, that's it. She's gone, and I have to start a new investigator to replace her. She only has 1 Luck, too. However, I tend to play this game really aggressively. Want to risk it? Cause I'm going to.
Still, I'm no dummy. I know what sort of Encounters can result in getting a membership, and Marie had prepared herself for such an occurrence earlier, when she casted Voice of Ra. This gives her an extra die to play with. Add that to the fact that since this is a life or death situation, we're going to be willing to pop Clue tokens like they were orange Tic-Tacs, we might have a chance at this. I roll the dice.

Damn, I am a lucky bastard, aren't I? I mean, I suppose you have no way if knowing if I'm making up these rolls, but I'm not. I'm just that lucky today. Marie gains 2 Clue tokens, giving her enough to seal a gate, but more importantly,

She gets herself a Silver Twilight Lodge Membership. We can have lots of fun with this, and get her into all kind of horrible occult rituals. Exciting!

Turn 3: Otherworldly Encounters
Marie and Joe won't be doing anything this round, because they're not in another world.

The Otherworldly encounter deck works a bit differently than the Arkham encounter deck. Instead of there being a separate deck for each area, there is one huge deck with color-coded cards. Each dimension has a couple of colors associated with it. You draw until you get a card of one of those colors, then you either read the encounter under that area or, if there isn't one, you read the encounter marked "Other."

Amanda's in the Abyss, and it's encounter colors are Red and Blue, so I start drawing, and the first card I hit of that color is... woah.

These cards are BAD NEWS. If Amanda had been in R'lyeh instead of the Abyss, she would have to fight Cthulhu, by herself, right now, due to some mistake she made. Even outside of R'lyeh, it's still bad, because
Wandering about aimlessly in the dark depths of the Abyss, Amanda nearly lets out a scream. Ahead of her, she spots a Flying Polyp.

Luckily, it doesn't seem to have noticed her yet. The Polyp has a difficulty to sneak past it of +0, meaning it's not very observant. He's not a monster you want to mess with lightly, and we were smart enough to up Amanda's Sneak skill before we started, so we're going to try to avoid combat this time. Amanda crouches down in the shadows and attempts to slide by...

And is successful. Since Amanda used stealth, she doesn't get the keep it as a Trophy, but she no longer has to deal with it, either. We return the Polyp to the Monster Cup.
Meanwhile, in the City of the Great Race, Monterey pauses momentarily by one of those side tables to grab a cup of Gatorade before continuing on in this marathon run...
Okay, fine.
The City's colors are Green and Yellow, so I draw until I hit a green card. Monterey sneaks into one of the huge buildings in the City, luckily undetected. It seems abandoned, and,deciding that this might be a long trip in another world, and scours the place for provisions...

Score! Brass Knuckles! Like the Alien Device, this weapon does not require any hands to use, basically giving Monterey an extra die for free in combat. He pockets it.
Unfortunately, all that time spent searching means that he fell back to 5th place. If Monterey is going to win the race, he's going to have to...
Fine, fine...

Turn 3: Mythos
Well, that kinda sucks. Granted, if we're forced to lose a whole turn, at least we can disrespectfully scavenge some more Exhibit items for ourselves, but with the movement penalties of the Sandstorm, this is unfriendly. Since this is an Urban environment and not another Weather environment, both stay in play.

However, a new portal has appeared at the Black Cave, and with it, a Wraith, a really difficult monster that's luckily easy to Sneak past. A clue also appears at the Unnameable, and we add another Doom token to Shubby's Doom track. No monsters move once again, so I'm going to continue to not tell you the arcane secrets of monster movement until that time. Ooooh, it's a mystery!

The turn ends as Amanda passes the first player token to Joe.

Turn 4: Upkeep
Marie refreshes her spell, Voice of Ra. I don't think we're going to cast it, though. The Inner Sanctum is dangerous, but we've got the hard test completed and got her in the door. Monterey lowers his speed to 2 to up his sneak to 2. This will probably make him lose the race, but will make him be able to survive better with his low Sanity.

Turn 4: Movement
Joe finally moves into the Arkham Asylum to get his head a much-needed shrinking.
Meanwhile, Monterey moves forward to part 2 of his Other World, searching for a way back Arkham.
Marie stays right where she is. It's Inner Sanctum time, baby.
Amanda also stumbles forward in her quest through The Abyss, moving to the second part of the dimension.

Turn 4: Arkham Encounters
Once again, Amanda and Monterey are sitting out this phase.

At Arkham Asylum or St. Mary's Hospital, you can get medical treatment. Instead of having an encounter, you're given two choices. You can waste a turn to heal 1 for free, or you can pay $2 to completely heal yourself in the appropriate stat. With Diamond needing 2 Sanity to be at full again, it's a tough choice whether or not to pay the money, but he's got a lot of it, and we need him back in action ASAP. Diamond pays the therapist two bucks, and has a long, involved session where he talks about how everything he does is just a reaction to the day his father wasn't there. This puts him back up to max Sanity in no time flat.

Meanwhile, new Twilight Lodge Member Marie is about to have her first encounter in the Inner Sanctum. Sandford unlocks the door and leads her into a room covered in arcane markings. Members of the Lodge seem to be gathering for some sort of ceremony.
It's important to note that closing a gate and sealing a gate are completely different things. Closing a gate buys us some time. If too many gates are opened, Shubby will be summoned. However, just closing it doesn't get us to victory. To do that, we have to seal 6 gates so that a portal can never open in that area again. Still, this is a very useful ritual, and one of the reasons why joining the Lodge is such a good idea. Marie is totally going for it. She spends a clue token and a point of sanity, and taps her crazily useful Mythos Lore skill to pay for the other clue, then attempts the ceremony.

Damn. Luck had to run out sometime. However, we've invested a lot in this roll. Let's throw a clue token in there.

There we go! Marie chants with her fellow Lodge members as they stand in a circle around a large, ancient rune drawn into the floor... suddenly, there's a flash of light! Marie is momentarily stunned, but when her head clears, she knows the ritual has been successful.
I decide Marie should close the newly-opened gate at the Black Cave. The Wraith would be easier to sneak past than the equally nasty Hound of Tindlos, sure, but with 2 Clue tokens on the Woods, there's more reward for trying to seal that gate than the one at the Cave. Now, let's look at the Gate token.

See that symbol on the bottom of it? That diamond? Remember seeing those before? Each monster has such a symbol on it. If we seal or close a gate with that symbol, all monsters with that symbol are sucked back through it into their home dimension. Unfortunately, there are no monsters on the board with the diamond symbol. It was hoping it would be a square, so we could get rid of that stupid Hound. Oh well, so it goes. Either way, Marie gets to take it as a Gate Trophy. Gate Trophies are worth 5 toughness of Monster Trophies when trading in for goodies.

Turn 4: Otherworldly Encounters
Once again, since Joe and Marie are in Arkham, they're taking a break for his phase.

Creatures on his tail, Monterey Jack runs through the City of the Great Race. Trying to shake them, he crawls into a crawlspace of some sort in one of the buildings. This manages to shake his pursuers, but, unfortunately, they set up camp in front of the entrance to the space as they figure out how to search for him. Surely they'll leave eventually, but Monterey can't do anything until they do.

Monterey is Delayed, and must face danger in the City for one more turn.

Amanda continues to wander through the darkness of the Abyss when suddenly, her feet get wet. Water? Here? She takes a better look at her surroundings.
A vision of something she recognizes gives Amanda a better understanding of where the hell she is and how she can get out. We knock her luck down a mere notch to 1, but more importantly she gains 1 Clue token. Unfortunately, she's still one Clue token short of being able to seal this gate, but it's certainly a better outcome than most.

Turn 4: Mythos
The third type of Environment, and this one is REALLY bad. The maximum stamina of all Investigators in Arkham is reduced by 1 while this is in play, which takes a hit off of Marie. Horror checks are also made at a -2 penalty while this wind blows, making it that much easier for our team to go insane.
Additionally, the Terror track increases by 1. What is the terror track, you ask?

Various mythos cards can increase this track. Additionally, if the investigators don't keep monsters in Arkham in check, this track also starts increasing as monsters over the max monster cap appear. The track only really has an effect on gameplay when it hits 3, 6, 9, and 10. At 3, the General Store closes, meaning investigators can no longer buy Common items. At 6, the Curiosite Shoppe closes, meaning they can no longer buy Unique items. At 9, Ye Olde Magik Shoppe closes, meaning they can no longer buy spells. If it manages to hit ten, then the monster limit is lifted, and any number of monsters can harass the investigators. Needless to say, if you can keep it low, do it.

It looks like a new portal has opened at the Unvisited Isle, still named that even though we visited it earlier. With it, comes its guardian, a Formless Spawn, which pretty clearly has a form in the picture. Huh. In any case, it's a middle of the road monster with Physical Immunity. A clue also appears at the Witch House, which is kind of annoying. Monterey has a million clue tokens right now, and doesn't really need it, yet he's going to get it when he comes back from his trip to the City of the Great Race. If it had shown up in Independence Square, Amanda could have sealed her gate. Oh well, so it goes.

Shubby also gets his 5th doom token. He's almost halfway summoned!

However, for the first time this game, monsters move! Let's look at the bottom of the Mythos card.

See those symbols? Just like before, right? If the symbol of a monster on the board is listed in these boxes, it moves one space, following the arrow of the color of box it is in. Our new friend, the Formless Spawn, is a Circle, and Circles move Black.

We follow the arrow (which is both white and black in this case) and move the Formless Spawn to the streets.

The Hound of Tindlos is a Square, and Squares move White. However, monsters with a green border have special movement rules, listed on the back of the tile. The Hound says that, if it moves, to move it instead of the nearest investigator.

Oh crap. Marie is going to have some trouble come next turn.

With the passing of the first player token back to Monterey, thus ends turn 4.

Let's see the state of the board and how our investigators are doing.

Monterey Jack (J): 1 Sanity, 7 Stamina
Speed: 2
Sneak: 2
Fight: 4
Will: 1
Lore: 1
Luck: 5
Cash: $7
Clues: 7
Items: Bullwhip, .38 Revolver, Alien Device, Wave of Destruction, Stealth, Brass Knuckles
Trophies: Ghost (2 pts)

Marie Lambeau (M): 3 Sanity, 3 Stamina
Speed: 3
Sneak: 2
Fight: 1 (+1)
Will: 4
Lore: 4
Luck: 1
Cash: $4
Clues: 4
Items: Enchanted Knife, Voice of Ra, Cloud Memory, Vision Quest, Mythos Lore, Fight +1
Trophies: Plateau of Leng (5 pts)

Amanda Sharpe (A): 5 Sanity, 5 Stamina
Speed: 1
Sneak: 4
Fight: 2
Will: 3 (+1)
Lore: 4
Luck: 1
Cash: $1
Clues: 4
Items: .18 Derringer, Enchanted Cane, Wrack, Will +1, Expert Occultist

Joe Diamond (D): 4 Sanity, 4 Stamina
Speed: 6
Sneak: 1
Fight: 4
Will: 1
Lore: 0
Luck: 3
Cash: $11
Clues: 4
Items: .45 Automatic, Knife, Ancient Tome, Spot Hidden, Tablet of Bast

Well, our exploits in the Lodge were sort of successful, but now Marie is in for a world of pain. Should she run? Attempt to stay and fight and hope her Fight +1 ability brings her to victory? What about Joe? Now that he's mostly healed, should he go after gates? Look for an Elder Sign? Also, nobody has even went to Dunwich. Should we explore early, or wait until there's trouble? What do you all think I should do?

Also, random question, do you like the pictures of the dice rolls? If it's a nice visualizer, I'll keep taking them, but if you're tired of looking at dice atop those sheets, then I'll stop taking them and speed the process up a bit.

Joe needs to make a beeline for the unguarded Woods gate. Marie won't last long against the Hounds with Fight +1, so she should lay low and try to sneak.

This is great stuff, poetfox.

This is correct. I went to double check the current rules to see if this had changed, but no such luck. See sections V.1.C.2 and V.2 on pages 9-10.

I am enjoying the fiction context to the gameplay though. After having played for a while, sometimes my group will skim the text just to see what the cards does, ignoring the flavor text.

When I saw that you drew that thing, I cringed. Especially with Shub-Niggurath's power boosting it....

Rules I have overlooked make me sad. Well, fine. If I'm not mistaken, the only thing it changes in this run is... Monterey has one less clue token? But that's not enough to stop him since he's got a billion million from that mirror thing. Also, I guess I need to take the clue tokens off the board that are on the Woods and such, but that's a my problem thing. Heh.

I disagree with this. I think the game scales harder with more people. All the sliding values work against you as you get more. With 7 or 8 players, you go to fighting the Big Bad (tm) if you get to 5 open gates (or maybe it's 6). If you get a couple of bad random events (as I did the last time we played), you have no shot at getting the gates under control before you get a one-way ticket to Devouring Ville (tm). I'd guess with 2 it might be nasty, but with 3-5 people who know what they're doing, you'll have a better chance than with more, in my experience.


Pretty true, although the layout of the rules in the original game are god awful. It's a nightmare to get your head around what is going on because things are spread out all over the place. Cheat sheets definitely help as well as somebody that is familiar with the layout of the rulebook.

There are a lot of rules to this game that are easy to lose track of. In our group, forgetting to roll for Retainers and Blessings is the most common oversight. Curiously, rolling to get rid of a Curse is never forgotten...