Hi all. I reasently got AH and have now played it twice, and im having some mixed motions right now.

First game was with 2 friends (3 players all in all). We played against Azathoth. Long story short, we lost because Azathoth woke up. Main thing was just that the game took almost 6 hours to play. (it did include one pizza-run and ofcourse some manual-reading for it being the first game to us all). It was fun however but it started to feel pretty tiresome at the end.

Just now I decided to playtest it solo. I chose to draw 2 random investigators (Private investigator / Dilettante) and a rangom AO (Nyarthalotep). Again long story short, game took 3 hours to start from finish. Nearly no downtime at all. Gates kept popping up and at some point I realised, that I was not going to be able to seal them. So I collected the last clue-tokens and just waited for the AO to wake up. After a whole lot of gate bursts it finally did, and I blasted it right back quite easily. Other investigator used shotgun and the other one had .45 and both had enough clue-tokens to survive his attacs. Neither investigator got knocked out during the game.

Afterfeeling being: I like the game. Atm im not just liking it as much as Id want to. On both plays the theme has been the same: run on gates, try to close them and run to the next one. Theres nothing wrong with the theme, just I have this feeling that something is missing. Theres a constant pressure of "keeping the game moving", or it again takes ages to finish. And it just feels that theres not that much to do around Arkham, lack of variation so to speak.

My questions being:

1) How long does your games usually last and how do you minimize the downtime? Do you guys take actions at the same time? (that on the other hand starts to feel pretty "mechanical" pretty fast, insted of involved playing). Or do you all just spend 4-8 hours on each session?

2) Id like to make the game more immersive and fun to play. Iv been reading about dunwich horror and I know its a great expansion. I just like to know that does it actually make the basegame more fun to play or is it just "more of the same greatness"?. As I said, Id like to get more variation/feeling to the game, and in that sence does DH add anything else worth mentioning than the injury/madness cards? even with all these cards, the basegame feels a bit too simplified to me when it comes to things to do. =p

3) Does the expansions (mainly DH) make the game much longer?

As I said, I like this game. I just want to make it even more fun and enjoyable so that my gaming-group also finds the enthusiasm to play it.

Most expansions adds more "tasks" to the game:

Base game: Seal gates

Dunwich: Prevent monsters from entering vortexes, and if that fails kill the Dunwich Horror, stat

Kingsport: Deal with the rifts

King in Yellow: Choose wisely how to deal with the act cards

Also, Kingsport/King in Yellow/Black Goat of the Woods add Heralds, which make the game harder, and Kingsport also adds Guaridans, which makes it easier. Kingsport also adds Epic Battle and Plot card, which make the final battle much harder and more fun.

Regarding time, well I think we all took it slowly in our first games. I currently play with all expansions except King in Yellow, I play with my brother (he controls 3 investigators and I control 2) and a gate takes about 2 hours to play, give or take.

Anyway, welcome aboard.

Welcome!

1) My games using all expansions (because that's what I'm into) are usually between 2 and 3 hours.

2) As Kroen said, each expansion adds a new threat to the game, among other dangers. Dunwich is considered best because it brings the most new game elements to the table:

• New unstable locations: you'll never be safe again!
• Gate burst cards (your seals are also not safe)
• Vortexes shoot up the terror level
• The Dunwich Horror itself is bad to have around
• Injury and Madness cards (essential for any Arkham game!)
• Tasks and Missions
• Condition cards
• New Other Worlds
• New Investigators
• New Ancient Ones
• New monsters
• A new monster movement: stalker!
• A new monster type: spawn!
• Rail passes and Sheldon Gang memberships
• New cards of all types, including Skills and Allies
• An official Print-n-Play herald that makes the Dunwich Horror awaken almost 3 times as often

So it's similar to the base game play...but considerably harder. Players won't have as much time to goof off. As far as making the game immersive, maybe you can hide the outcome of random encounters. I read up until a skill check is shown, then I read to the end of that sentence. Sometimes the penalty/reward is in the sentence. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes there's a hidden penalty/reward after the sentence. Don't I don't read on until the player passes or fails the check (they have to choose to use clues or not before I continue). It makes encounters much more risky. Besides, the unknown is fun. None of us would be playing this game if we didn't have a thirst for the unknown.

If you want players to have more to do, and feel less pressured to run around and seal all the time, then play with more investigators. Three is the minimum to stand a good chance of winning by seals. But with four or more investigators, sometimes you have some breathing room to go around and check those stable locations. For my first year I played with only 2 investigators, so we rarely got to see stable locations.

Lastly, in the interest of time, just play more solo games so you can get used to the mechanics of the game. Part of why my games don't take too long is that I never have to look at the rules for anything. Once you're familiarized with the game's mechanics, it'll take less time to play.

3) When you're first getting used to any expansion, it'll take a bit longer as you check the rulebook (Kingsport and particularly Dunwich have the most new stuff, so they'll promise the most new rules). But once you're used to that, you'll notice that the games last about the same, sometimes less even—a popular way that the designers express "danger" is to make the Ancient One awaken faster somehow; therefore, a shorter game overall.

Before you go getting any expansions, make sure you've at least familiarized yourself with the base game, and have had a crack at each of the AOs once or twice. And work your gamer friends into it slowly, adding one expansion at a time. I've turned off so many players by showing them the game with one or two expansions in it. But showing them from the base game up works like a charm. It's a great, great game—it just has a slightly daunting learning curve.

Tomyrgon said:

When we play it usually take 4-6 hours. This is generally a limitation of most FFG games in my experience. They're all great games, but most of them take a good long time to play.

Tomyrgon said:

DH hasn't made our games any longer. Hasn't made them any shorter either. As far as differences go, Dunwich is definitely a different city. By which I mean monsters function differently there. Instead of wandering around aimlessly through the streets like in Arkham, in Dunwich they tend to pop up and fairly quickly get sucked into a vortex, thus feeding the Horror's eventual arrival. I haven't had opportunity to play with Kingsport yet, but I gather it adds its own unique elements (rifts, I think?)

In short, the expansions add flavour. Some it is "more of the same greatness" and some of it is new mechanics that bring things at you from new directions. Doesn't really change play time in my experience though.

i totally get your complaint, do what i do and see how you like it. Mythos phase roll a die, on a 456 have a mythos phase 123 skip it. This allows you to explore more and not be pressured by gates, i think it makes it more fun. Get it a try and tell me what u think!

pittplayer said:

Or for less tedium and less randomness (opportunity to get no mythos or a flood of them) just do one every other turn. You can have a doom token off to the side that you flip over every turn; if it's eyeball-side up you draw a mythos, and elder-sign up you don't. Not like you actually need all 20 of those tokens anyhow.

Tomyrgon said:

#1: What downtime? Granted, the most I play with is myself + 1 friend (both running 2 investigators), but still. We do actions as per rules, one at a time. 2.5h is pretty much the max, 2h is the norm.

#2: Gate Bursts. Once you've experienced them, you won't want to ever play without them. Unless you're a total wuss, in which case AH isn't a game for you anyway .

Tomyrgon said:

Gate-bursts? You did not possess Dunwich right? Maybe you are talking about regular gates appearing because gate-bursts are not a part of the original rules.

Tomyrgon , if you are playing with friends you should share the responsibility. Here is how I do it:

1) One player reads Mythos cards and places portals. When moving monsters show the card for everyone so everyone can move the monsters.

2) One player controls Monster Cup adding monsters on the board/outskirts. He also counts the number of the monsters.

3) One player looks after Doom Track and Ancient One's special abilities.

Some extra tips how to shorten time:

1) Don't shuffle cards before drawing them and always put the latest card in the bottom of the deck. This results more different encounters and really saves time.

2) Always give all encounter cards at once to everyone so everyone can read them ahead and only roll a dice when their turn comes.

"Dunwich Horror "-expansion adds Injury - and Madness -cards which I really like because firstly they save time (investigators dont have to spend time in hospital/asylum) and secondly they feel so lovecraftian. I recommend this expansions.

Dam said:

Dam vs. Damclone :')

Svavelvinter said:

Yeah sorry my bad, I was talking about monster surges.

Anyway, thanks for all the info. I have to play a few more games before I start using house-rules, as I normally dont like using them. On the other hand the one about drawing less Mythos cards does sound pretty tempting to test. Sometimes it now feels that players dont have enough time to just wonder around and go shopping etc, if you try to seal gates. And I think its pretty boring to just skip the gates alltogether and just prepare yourself to the final combat.

Im pretty tempted now to grab the Dunwich Horror. If it truly gives the game more variation/color and adds new mechanics without making the game much longer.

Nice to see that AH has a friendly and active community. Thx all.

Ps: When those Gate Bursts happen in DH, do they always destroy all the seals on board or just from one specified location?

Tomyrgon said:

My advise is to wait a while before bying Dunwich. Enjoy the basic game a while longer so that you start to feel you are mastering the game. Dunwich will make the game even harder so make sure you know the basics before adding even more stuff.

Gate Bursts are location-specific. The cards look just like normal mythos-cards with the exception that the name of the location of the gate has a red background. If you draw one of these that seal is removed and a new gate appears along with a monster, without a now doom token though.

If the locations does not contain a seal treat it like a normal gate.

I would play base game 4 investigators (I would not play solo 4 unless you have too)... try that a few times to get a feel for the rules and make sure to read them a few times before you start to play... when you have free time read a few pages.

Four investigators alone is a lot to remember. I do 4 investigators solo and I've been playing since the game is released—I still have trouble remembering upkeep actions for everyone. Try 3 investigators.

And I backup the other comments where you should play a while without expansions. That way you can truly appreciate what each expansion adds to the game.