So, I'm one of those people who's motto is "never less than three".

I remember playing solo once, just to test if it would work (that's a lie: I was supposed to study English Litterature at University, and wasn't really in the mood :PPP ), and I used 3 investigators.

I played 2 players games sometimes (me and my fiancée or some other friend), but we always picked 2 investigators each: it used to work, but was slightly messy. But had we used only 1 investigator each, the game would have been impossibile to beat (unless you just play to stock up on guns and blast the GOO away- which is not the funniest playstyle in the world).

We needed to fix things so that a 2 player game would work fine and quick.

So, here's Gott's simple rule for two players:

Each turn, the first player plays twice. Period. It seems crude, but works.

Example: two players are using Joe Diamond and Leo Anderson.

Joe is the first player.

So, after the Upkeep phase, Joe plays his turn (Movement, Encounter Phase and Other World encounters). Then Leo does the same, and after him Joe plays again. Then follows the Mythos Phase, and the Upkeep again.

I know it sounds odd, but it works fine.

It's NOT THE BEST way to play a game though: there's a "bug", you know: if the first player has a Find gate spell, he may enter a gate on his first turn, then cast Find gate on his second, and immediatly close/seal the Gate (if able-and lucky enough).

Unless you really want to allow that possibility, you can simply rule that casting Find gate spells make you losing the rest of your turn.

Again, let me repeat: the above rule is just meant to play 2 players games where players do not fancvy picking 2 investigators each.

Most of my games have been with only 2 Investigators struggling against all expansions (minus black goat and Innsmouth - haven't had the chance yet), I don't really see how the game is impossible. Hard certainly. But impossible? nah.

...but for less hardcore people, your variant may be useful - it does sound workable. What you could also do is add the black goat difficulty cards which make the game easier (which would be an official modification) or adopt the player and gate modification rules from multiple board games from Kingsport Horror/Innsmouth Horror.

It's easy if you do your stuff right, I played a 2 player - 2 investigator and actually won by gate closing. We just play 1 investigator all the time.

PS: My other player was a beginner, and we still won

Easy with 2 Investigators and all expansions, or easy with just the Arkham board? The former I severely doubt, the latter I'll grant: that's my experience as well.

...a gate closing victory usually ends up being an easy win in a 2 investigator game, as it normally happens early on. But those are exceptional circumstances.

I often play two player, four investigator games. I'll give your varient a try. It is more difficult with only two on the Arkham board, but not impossible. But adding Kingsport, Dunwhich (or, god forbid, both) is just rediculous. You're going to have the dunwhich horror up, rifts everywhere and likely an embarrasing awakening by too many portals with only the slightest string of bad luck.

It's fun though. Or, it is for me, anyway.

Gott said:

Is it on purpose that each investigator completes the first 4 phases before the next investigator can act, or did you misread something? Just in case the latter is true, this is what the rules say:

"A turn in Arkham Horror is divided into five phases.
During each phase, every player, starting with the
first player and continuing clockwise, performs the
actions that take place during that phase. Once all
players have completed a phase, the next phase begins."

(page 5 - The Game Turn)