ARKHAM HORROR- THE DICE GAME?

Homebrewing... Arkham Horror nut.... Jesus, Alex, are you trying to get me in bed or something?

Elder Sign looks interesting, but I don't think I'm going to bite right off. I picked up Mansions of Madness last spring, and though there's plenty to like about it... compared with AH, there's just not enough there there. And I don't just mean it's lacking the frustrating fiddly bits; it's very constrained by its own design, leading to fairly formulaic play. It can be fun -- and it's adversarial, not co-op, if that's the mood -- but if I'm going to talk friends into a big ass board game that takes a half hour to set up, almost as long to explain, and a couple hours to play (some MoM scenarios can be quicker), I'd rather make it an AH night. So, I have a little buyer's remorse with MoM. These games ain't cheap. If Elder Sign is simply a more quick and dirty version of AH, but taking up nowhere near the same table real estate, that might be fun. I'll wait to hear some player reviews.

Now then, Arkham Horror. I've gone and sprung for the Revised Curse of the Dark Pharoah expansion, and I very much like the improvements. And, the big-box expansion-of-all-the-other-expansions -- Miskatonic Horror -- is en route to my doorstep, hopefully by this weekend. Yep, I'll have every single bloody expansion now. My AH fever's been rekindled the past month in a fierce way.

Hah! "Come over my place, I'll feed you beer and entice you with dorky board games." should be my motto.

I'm very curious about Mansions of Madness, but am a bit wary cause of the reasons you gave. A mere five stories doesn't seem like it would give anywhere near the replay of a game like Arkham. Not that it has to, but when you're dropping 60-80 bucks on a giant game like this... Still, the storytelling aspect of the game looks amazing, and I like the idea of creating the narrative as you go. Not sure how well it works out in theory but it's definitely on my wish list.

I just picked up the revised Curse of the Dark Pharoah myself and am going to finally try it out Friday. I also have Dunwich on the way. These are my first expansions, and I'm really excited for it. It's always been easier to get people playing simpler games (Werewolf, Pandemic, Ravenloft, hell, even the Game of Thrones LCG) than Arkham but now I've got a few folks that I'm going to try to get regular games going. It's really the worst part of the game- rounding everyone up for it. Can only imagine how crazy an eight player game must be.
 

You'll have to let me know how Miskatonic is. I know I'm going to get them all eventually and really, the thing I'm most scared of? Trying to organize it all. What's it, 2,500 cards or so?

Organize it all? HA! My way is Shelf Space and Quiet Drudgery. Kept all the boxes, and when a game night's all over I sigh, pour another beer, and start separating all the decks. Everything goes back in their original boxes, which all get stacked up on the closet shelf, about two feet high (and rising). When it's time for another game, I let folks choose which box(es) gets opened.

To be fair to MoM, there's 5 scenarios (and I think they just released a print-on-demand 6th), but each has 3-5 plots to choose from, and each plot has 3-5 set-up decisions by the Keeper player, so when you do the math there's not much of a chance of it getting dull just because everyone's got the board memorized. And the concept of "discovering the plot as you play it" is pretty well done in execution. And, if they release expansions that eventually provide miniatures for all the AH investigators... well, I'm their huckleberry. (Way too many monsters to hope for, though. Right? cause even unpainted the figures are cooler than AH's cardboard tabs)

Your mileage with MoM probably depends a lot on whether or how many of your friends are into the flavor of it -- embracing the Lovecraft nerd -- or are the gaming type to cut through all the text and just work out the Math On How To Win. There's more puzzle-solving (which are very simple) and less over-arching strategy/tactics to keep the latter type of player's interest once they've gotten the hang of it (my friends roughly split down the middle), whereas AH seems to keep hitting that supersweet spot that drives everyone up a tree.

Curse of the Dark Pharoah adds some great elements, but the Dark Pharoah Herald's a bit of a drag in that it makes getting exhibits fairly undesirable, kind of nullifying the major aspect of the expansion. Still, always good to make Nyarlathotep a little tougher. But like all the small-box expansions, you can incorporate everything else, and save the herald for once-in-a-while, and it's still a worthy addition. More danger's always the way to go with AH, and making exhibits almost a punishment rather than super-items can be a great change-up.

You are gonna LOVE Dunwich, it really is a must-have. If only for the Injury/Madness cards. Once you play with those, you'll never play without em, whether you use the Dunwich board or not. Not to mention the new Ancient Ones and Investigators. I hope you got one of the recent reprints, cause just a few months ago copies of Dunwich were going for ridiculous amounts on eBay.

Tough call as to which expansions to grab next. Going by budget, if you go small box I'd say The King In Yellow. The Act cards add a whole 'nother level of Oh Shit every time the Mythos gets flipped over, and the herald's still hands-down one of the best. The other two, Black Goat in the Woods and Lurker at the Threshold, add some great stuff that make them worth getting (cult membership/corruption, all-new gate markers with new effects, slew of new small and large cards), but also have some issues that supposedly Miskatonic helps out with. (FYI, my friends all agree that the still-undefeated Black Goat herald can eat our asses. Christ she's a tough bitch, especially paired with Shub-Niggurath. Nothing is gonna change that.)

ETA: (Christ, really?) One of the best parts of all the small boxes is their beefing up of the Arkham locations decks, which are so thin with just the base game. That's where flavor country is.

Of the big boxes, I'd suggest saving Miskatonic for the very last, otherwise you'll be paying for a bunch of stuff you can't use until you get all the others. Innsmouth is flat-out great. The new town's dangerous as hell, there's a buttload of new Ancient Ones and Investigators (as many again as the base game), and the Personal Stories mechanic is as great as Injury/Madness. They're like individual mini-rumors. Kingsport's quite good, too, though the new board itself is kind of its weakest feature (someone always seems to get stuck there just wandering around without much action, and there's a few locations you will practically never bother with). The best thing it brings to the table are the Epic Battle cards, which make the final battle with the Ancient One soooo much more interesting. Plus a ton of new cards for every deck (and more Ancient Ones and Investigators...).

Wow, I am one obsessed dork for this game. I can only imagine the puzzled looks and slowly shaking heads of the poor people trying to figure this thread out. So, Elder Sign. Dice game, huh?

Trav, you given Betrayal at House on the Hill a shot?  You seem to know your horror themed board games rather well, wondering if you have an opinion on it.  I just got Arkham myself, haven't had a chance to play it yet.  But did enjoy uncorking everything and just bugging out my eyes at it all.  I'll definitely keep your expansionness in mind for when I'm looking to upgrade.

Friday night is starting to sound mighty enticing, Riviello!

You know it, brother. I just kegged my latest beer (a hoppy brown ale) yesterday, too, so we're all set on that front.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trav McGee 

Organize it all? HA! My way is Shelf Space and Quiet Drudgery. Kept all the boxes, and when a game night's all over I sigh, pour another beer, and start separating all the decks. Everything goes back in their original boxes, which all get stacked up on the closet shelf, about two feet high (and rising). When it's time for another game, I let folks choose which box(es) gets opened.

 

To be fair to MoM, there's 5 scenarios (and I think they just released a print-on-demand 6th), but each has 3-5 plots to choose from, and each plot has 3-5 set-up decisions by the Keeper player, so when you do the math there's not much of a chance of it getting dull just because everyone's got the board memorized. And the concept of "discovering the plot as you play it" is pretty well done in execution. And, if they release expansions that eventually provide miniatures for all the AH investigators... well, I'm their huckleberry. (Way too many monsters to hope for, though. Right? cause even unpainted the figures are cooler than AH's cardboard tabs)

 

Your mileage with MoM probably depends a lot on whether or how many of your friends are into the flavor of it -- embracing the Lovecraft nerd -- or are the gaming type to cut through all the text and just work out the Math On How To Win. There's more puzzle-solving (which are very simple) and less over-arching strategy/tactics to keep the latter type of player's interest once they've gotten the hang of it (my friends roughly split down the middle), whereas AH seems to keep hitting that supersweet spot that drives everyone up a tree.

 

Curse of the Dark Pharoah adds some great elements, but the Dark Pharoah Herald's a bit of a drag in that it makes getting exhibits fairly undesirable, kind of nullifying the major aspect of the expansion. Still, always good to make Nyarlathotep a little tougher. But like all the small-box expansions, you can incorporate everything else, and save the herald for once-in-a-while, and it's still a worthy addition. More danger's always the way to go with AH, and making exhibits almost a punishment rather than super-items can be a great change-up.

 

You are gonna LOVE Dunwich, it really is a must-have. If only for the Injury/Madness cards. Once you play with those, you'll never play without em, whether you use the Dunwich board or not. Not to mention the new Ancient Ones and Investigators. I hope you got one of the recent reprints, cause just a few months ago copies of Dunwich were going for ridiculous amounts on eBay.

 

Tough call as to which expansions to grab next. Going by budget, if you go small box I'd say The King In Yellow. The Act cards add a whole 'nother level of Oh Shit every time the Mythos gets flipped over, and the herald's still hands-down one of the best. The other two, Black Goat in the Woods and Lurker at the Threshold, add some great stuff that make them worth getting (cult membership/corruption, all-new gate markers with new effects, slew of new small and large cards), but also have some issues that supposedly Miskatonic helps out with. (FYI, my friends all agree that the still-undefeated Black Goat herald can eat our asses. Christ she's a tough bitch, especially paired with Shub-Niggurath. Nothing is gonna change that.)

 

ETA: (Christ, really?) One of the best parts of all the small boxes is their beefing up of the Arkham locations decks, which are so thin with just the base game. That's where flavor country is.

 

Of the big boxes, I'd suggest saving Miskatonic for the very last, otherwise you'll be paying for a bunch of stuff you can't use until you get all the others. Innsmouth is flat-out great. The new town's dangerous as hell, there's a buttload of new Ancient Ones and Investigators (as many again as the base game), and the Personal Stories mechanic is as great as Injury/Madness. They're like individual mini-rumors. Kingsport's quite good, too, though the new board itself is kind of its weakest feature (someone always seems to get stuck there just wandering around without much action, and there's a few locations you will practically never bother with). The best thing it brings to the table are the Epic Battle cards, which make the final battle with the Ancient One soooo much more interesting. Plus a ton of new cards for every deck (and more Ancient Ones and Investigators...).

 

Wow, I am one obsessed dork for this game. I can only imagine the puzzled looks and slowly shaking heads of the poor people trying to figure this thread out. So, Elder Sign. Dice game, huh?

I forgot about the investigator miniatures for Mansions of Madness- might have to pick it up just for that. Same sculps as those insanely overpriced characters Fantasy Flight sells, after all...

Pretty sure I'm going to play Curse of the Dark Pharoah without the herald, at least first. He does seem like quite a bastard, and I want to at least see what those exhibits have to offer. Definitely going to leave in all the location cards and such- I've run through all the ones in the base game too often already.

And yeah, heard great things about Dunwich and those Injury/Madness cards in particular. Innsmouth I need to get just because Shadow over Innsmouth is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, but I'm holding off for now because I hear it's just brutal. Need more training! Miskatonic will definitely be the last... and I know I'm going to get to it, eventually. The game's just too good.

I'm still waiting to see the rulebook for Elder Sign, but it's probably a must-buy for me. Unlike a lot of board gamers I like the randomness of dice (it's why I like Space Hulk: Death Angel so much) and I generally prefer a quicker game.

But I've got way too much shit I want to pick up! Still want to try Touch of Evil or Invasion From Outer Space from Flying Frog, Dust Tactics, Betrayal at House on the Hill, as well as Bang! and Cards Against Humanity for parties. Ugh. Wish I hadn't rediscovered board games sometimes...

I've never gotten into RPG card-games...is there anyone out there who can convince me of their worth?

I've still got a pristine copy of 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness'...but I just prefer reading the damn thing; than actually getting a cast of charactors together...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mediumdave 

Trav, you given Betrayal at House on the Hill a shot?  You seem to know your horror themed board games rather well, wondering if you have an opinion on it.  I just got Arkham myself, haven't had a chance to play it yet.  But did enjoy uncorking everything and just bugging out my eyes at it all.  I'll definitely keep your expansionness in mind for when I'm looking to upgrade.

You know, I really don't. I got AH as a left-field Xmas gift a couple years ago, and that's about the extent of it. With all its expansions, I simply haven't had the time to stray. I've heard good things about Betrayal, though. Just not sure when if ever I'll check it out.

For anyone new to AH, I highly recommend reading the living hell out of the poorly organized rulebook and then banging your head against it in a few solo games first, running up to 4 (!) investigators. Just to get used to everything and have a sense of the play, flow, and pace of things, not to mention just where everything is and what everything does. You'll be going back and forth between the board and the rules regularly. When you've got it mostly down, then get your friends involved. And do most of the work for them, explaining what you can as you need to. It's a game that needs at least one expert in the group, cause 3-5 people all trying to learn this beast at once is exasperating, and could scare off folks who'd otherwise enjoy the madness.

Believe it or not, after people get the handle of the thing, the base game without expansions will start to feel way too easy. Win rates above 50% are unacceptable! You'll want the expansions, you'll need the expansions... Plan for this weekend is to crack open Miskatonic and have a big blender game of it and all four small boxes. Not sure which herald (if any). Then for game 2, we'll add a second town...

Another fun feature of Dunwich, Alex, are the Tasks and Missions. Just wait til someone gets "Joining the Winning Team" and starts cackling maniacally.

Elder Sign rules are up. Definitely sounds like a quick and dirty scaled-down AH. Let me know if you bite, and if it's any good.

We went 1-3 playing with Pharoah and both the Dunwich and Innsmouth boards (side table!) last couple weekends, shuffling in the matching Miskatonic cards and giving its new Institutions mode a whirl. Almost split 2-2 but for some horrific dice luck. One dude had to cool off in another room after he went oh-fer with 9 dice on the brink of a win, which started a snowball effect of doom for the next 3 turns. The Dunwich Horror got summoned and the Deep Ones rose. Then Bokrug ate our faces. It was awesome.

Thumbs up for Miskatonic. The problem with blender games using multiple expansions can be dilution, and MH so far does a great job fixing that. Still can't see playing with more than 2 or 3 at a time, though. We had almost too much to keep track of as it was.

Definitely biting. I like what I see!

Gotten two more friends hooked on Arkham Horror and about to introduce it to another this weekend. Tried my first game with the artifacts from Curse of the Dark Pharoah and enjoyed it. We didn't use the herald because he seemed like a son of a bitch and we had a new player, but we managed to almost completely decimate Ithaqua in the final battle thanks to my friend managing to hold onto his best weapons at the end and rolling something like 20 dice.

I'm going to try and pick up Dunwich finally tomorrow in time for the game. We've won the last few games so our luck's probably almost up.

By the way, the rules for the Gears of War: The Board Game are up too and it actually looks pretty incredible. Space Hulk: Death Angel mixed with Doom.

See that Fantasy Flight got the Star Wars license now too? UGH no money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Riviello 

See that Fantasy Flight got the Star Wars license now too? UGH no money.

God, no shit. I'm going to pretend I never saw that.

Let's do a Herald this time, Alex! Bring that shit on!

Ah, Dunwich is really the first expansion that takes AH to the next level. You'll love it. The Dunwich Horror herald was finally included in the Miskatonic box, but it's the exact same as was posted on their support page a while back, so print that sucker out and you're good to go. Not that there won't be enough stuff in the DH box to keep you busy/dead/insane. (The league scenarios on that page that they put out a couple years ago are pretty fun, too, as you start adding x-pacs.)

Enjoy the gate bursts!

Finally got it. http://alexriviello.tumblr.com/post/9294898159/yes-my-first-big-box-expansion-for-arkham

Curse of the Dark Pharoah (the revised edition) has been pretty good to me, although those damn Mythos cards that throw two doom tokens instead of opening up a gate ruined me a couple of times. Think I'm going to try Dunwich by itself first to get a better feel for the flavor, then mix the two together.