Arkham Horror

Earlier this week I played my first game of Arkham Horror, a board game based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Eldritch events are afoot in Lovecraft's imaginary town of Arkham, Massachusetts, namely, gates to other dimensions are opening up around town which deposit creatures of unspeakable appearance onto the streets. And it's up to the intrepid investigators to destroy these affronts unto nature and seal the gates which ultimately saves humanity because this prevents the likes of Cthulhu himself from appearing.

Players start by choosing an identity. We drew ours at random and I was Sister Mary.



I may not have had much stamina but those sanity points came in handy. Players move around the board which is a layout of Arkham and various places in and about town. The characters have abilities and start with a set of possessions and can gather more as the game goes along. I speak from experience when I say that crosses and holy water come in mighty handy. Unlike characters in Lovecraft's stories, characters here must really try if they're gonna get killed. If you lose all of your stamina, you are sent to the hospital to recover. And, if you go insane, you end up in Arkham Asylum where the nice young men in their clean white coats nurse you back to sanity.

Each round begins with players preparing themselves by adjusting their abilities and such. Then there's a movement phase in which one can also use various objects to gain extra skills or items that come in handy against unspeakable horrors. When a player lands at a certain spot, things happen. Sometimes its just a run-in with the local law enforcement while at other times hideous creatures emerge and sanity points are lost in the fight. Plus cards are drawn which describe random events that occur around town and present obstacles for investigators.

I found the game to be quite a bit of fun, especially since I'm familiar with Lovecraft's work and the Cthulhu Mythos. Plus I had a couple fun folks to play the game with and this is a must. Gameplay is a bit like a scaled-down RPG. There's character sheets with ability scores and lots of dice rolling. But there is a board and pieces moving around it which makes it more mechanical than an RPG which is, if you've never played one, basically an interactive story. It took the three of us about four hours to complete the game – and we proved victorious! It can accommodate up to eight players and I'd imagine that, with more investigators, game time would be cut down to the 2-3 hour range.