I played with three completely new players today, and one old player, so there were five of us. These three players had NO experience with this sort of game whatsoever, so it was crazy going through the basic rules, and walking them through everything. I've never played with this many people before either.

They complained that there weren't enough clue tokens on the board, as one clue token is placed during the Mythos phase at a time, and all five of us had picked up all of them rather quickly. Still, I think things started getting tougher and more interesting later on as monsters started to move and more gates started to appear.

I guess the game can be slow with 5 people, and some players felt like they couldn't do much...

At least for one full turn (all phases).

Overall I think it went pretty well. We didn't get to finish because they had to take their kids home, but they enjoyed it.

Have you ever had to teach completely new people the foundations of this game? I was almost as overwhelmed as they were.

I have taught this game way to many times to new people as I absolutely love it. If you make it seem complicated they are going to believe that it is complicated. make it simple. Are there lots of small rules? Hell yes there are but those are often hedge cases that most people don't need to know except in a few situations.

Make it very clear that pretty much all numbers represent the NUMBER OF DICE rolled. Break the game down into the 5 separate phases. Explain the character sheet. Briefly go over items. Explain how to win the game (close gates). Go over monster combat.

Let people know that even just having an encounter helps out the team because they can get items/clues/money from them (and it adds to the story, which I really enjoy [oh just washing my face in the unnamable.... aaaaaaaannnnnd it's blood])

They complained that there weren't enough clue tokens on the board, as one clue token is placed during the Mythos phase at a time, and all five of us had picked up all of them rather quickly. Still, I think things started getting tougher and more interesting later on as monsters started to move and more gates started to appear.

In the same way they could have complained there were not enough monsters or gates or whatever; the point about Arkham is cooperation: this means that if there are not enough resources for everyone, then you need to specialize: some guys will go for clues since they are closer to the 5-clue pool required for sealing, some others will do other stuff (trying to get a retainer at the Newspaper, shopping for items, clearing the streets from monsters and so on). It's not a game where every character is supposed to do the exact same things as the other characters in play, but a game where the common sinergy of those involved will result in a common achievement.

This said, playing with core set could result in games being boring after a while: when you know what to do, you always win, and you consume time in non-sensical actions only to grab clues (btw, clues are not only seeded by Mythos, encounters can grant you some as well)., so that, if you feel the game being too limited, it's time to grab Dunwich.

Finally, teaching new players: yeah, it's a tough work, but someone has to do it

sgtkneecaps,

I see by the number of posts you're new to the game and the forum ~ so, first, Welcome to the Carnival!

As to your question, if you've played the game a number of times and feel comfortable with the rules, it has been suggested by me and others that you serve as the Moderator for the game. Thus, with four players, you're not dealing with the pesky changes, such as adding another Monster at each Gate that opens when you have five Investigators and it allows the others to focus on their Investigator . You will maintain control of the Doom and Terror Tracks ; revealing the Mythos cards; and all of the other absolutely essential aspects of the game...outside of running an Investigator .

Try it and let us know how it works for you.

Happy Gaming!

Cheers,

Joe

Well, aren't we early birds...good morning, MadFuhrer and Julia!

Good timing!

this forum is not on my time zone... it is 3am, but morning none the less!

They complained that there weren't enough clue tokens on the board, as one clue token is placed during the Mythos phase at a time, and all five of us had picked up all of them rather quickly.

If you find the game is too hard with too few clue tokens, the expansion Kingsport Horror introduces Guardians to help you along the way, such as Lord Hypnos who will spawn an extra clue token every upkeep phase.

Of course, there are a ton of additons that can be implemented aside from this and each one makes the game slightly more daunting to teach. My gaming group likes to play with all expansions at the same time (although not all boards, that would just be insane but I find that teaching new players remains more or less the same: you use this many dice, you move like this, fight like this and read the cards aloud. Everything else, you deal with as needed. First thing you do in the game is you draw a Mythos card, which gives you an excellent opportunity to explain some of the things that happen during the Mythos-phase.

Teaching rules is something of an art. I am actually really bad at it: I tend to explain everything lengthily and monotonously until I realise everyone's eyes are glazed over (sanity cost of 1 for each investigator). Unfortunately, I'm also the only one enthusiastic enough to learn the rules beforehand. My tip is therefore, naturally, to keep the initial explanation as short as possible, even though this inevitably means the game will be slower as you need to clarify stuff along the way. There are other ways to go about it as well. Such as this !

I was the moderator and I think I explained things very well and concisely. Bits at a time. I walked them through every card and combat by asking "what's your will? Fight?"etc. And then I'd have them add it themselves and told them how many successes they needed. I think they didn't understand the encounter part the most, so I'll have to explain that it has some benefits sometimes.

And good point about the cooperative aspect of the game. It's hard to get that through at first but toward the end they started to realize that they could share things.

Toward the end they really starTed to get into it and want to play again!

Toward the end they really starTed to get into it and want to play again!

That's the really important thing, I'd say