Darrell Simmons and Joe Diamond found themselves entrapped in the fight for Arkham as they faced the dreaded Cthulhu. Gates opened, monsters flooded into the streets, and by the skin of their teeth, the last gate was closed.

***

The game started out rather rocky. Cthulhu lowered our max sanity and stamina by one, so we started off with 3 sanity and 5 stamina. I started off with an elder sign, which was lucky, so we sealed our first two gates rather easily, but it was a long time before we got the chance to seal another. And after losing Darrell's retainer after the first Upkeep roll, AS USUAL, I lost that opportunity.

Early in the game while we were both in the Otherworlds, the rumor "Southside Strangler" was drawn. I had one ally, but we couldn't get to the Southside streets to resolve any of it, obvious because we were in the Other Worlds. We consented that it was pretty much an automatic fail. We both had our max stamina reduced by one. Now we only have 3 sanity and 4 stamina the entire game.

This proved rather sticky. Darrell Simmons went through most of the game without a weapon. The Terror Track increased rather rapidly due to two players, and monster surges in the Unnamable. The common shop was closed.

I managed to draw a weapon during an encounter, but I didn't do much fighting.

The second rumor we drew was about mid game. "Disturbing the Dead" required two gate trophies, and luckily I was just exiting the Otherworlds, so I had the opportunity to resolve it without the terror track rising. However, the resident Gug that didn't move for most of the game, (or if it did, it would always move back...) sent me to the hospital. I lost my motorcycle and my +1 luck skill, so getting up there to resolve the rumor was difficult.

Every Activity throughout the game was passed up. We didn't seem to have the sanity/stamina cost sometimes, or we were preoccupied by trying to close gates/kill monsters.

Joe managed to slaughter most of the monsters though, and he received a blessing. as he had amazing stats and weapons, but also managed to close some gates. Keeping the gates from spawning over the limit was tough! We reached 7 our of the 8 gates, but managed to keep it at a stable 5 for most of the time.

My cat Liam Neesons sat up on the chair and watched us play, expressing that he wanted to join the game as Liam Neeson from Taken with 10 maximum stamina and 1 max sanity. We told him next time. Three was a crowd, for this game at least.

We ran out of clue tokens, so Joe traded in monster trophies to get clue tokens at the University, and met me at the last gate I was coming out of. We sealed the last gate.

Cthulhu's doom track reached 8, and the Terror track reached 7, begrudgingly as I had planned to farm for the last elder sign! But the shop closed. Our total score for the game, a measly 8. It was necessary, as we had a hard time keeping a hold of our trophies and items.

Game time was about 2 hours. I get my dice and King in Yellow expansion tomorrow.

Hi! Glad you're havin fun with the game! Some observations on some tricky points:

- Darrell loses his Retainer on the first Upkeep roll, not on the first Upkeep, right? He doesn't have to roll during the Upkeep of the first turn of the game, since you don't roll for Blessings / Curses / Retainers the Upkeep following the turn you acquired them, and turn one is the turn after the setup

- no idea of what you meant with the Southside Strangler Strikes. The rumor forces you to return Allies in the Ally deck (not those in play, that already joined the investigators) at the pace of one Ally / turn, and to pass it you need to discard 5 clues. So, the Ally Darrell had was ininfluent on the rumor; and in any case never consider anything an auto-fail, Rumors stay in play for as long as they are not resolved or failed, and protect you from other rumors (if you pull another one and Southside Strangler Strikes - or any else - is in play, you resolve only the gate opening / clues appear / monster move part of the card and discard the rest)

- you cannot lose Skills upon being knocked unconscious / driven insane. You lose half of your clues and your items, which means Common Items, Unique Items, and Spells, plus some of the stuff related to the Deputy (cross-check the rules on pag 16 for this). Retainers, Blessings, Curses and Skills do not count against the total of your items and are not discarded due to said reasons

- not so sure about the total score either: it's 2 (the investigators) + 13 (Cthulhu's doom track) - 7 (terror level) + trophies - Elder Sign. Possibly you didn't consider the trophies earned during the game?

Hope this helps! Sorry for being over-pedantic with rules, but was done with the idea of helping having all the rules down correctly so that you can enjoy the game always more!

I did roll a one on the upkeep roll my first "REAL" turn (like I always seem to :B), so no, I didn't lose it when I started but the turn after.

For Southside Strangler, I guess I misread as allies that we had in our 'hands'. So pretty much we were in the Other Worlds, you have to get to Ma's Boarding house, so after I got rid of Darrell's ally, In my understanding we failed because we ran out. But from the "deck to the box" thing, I overlooked. So next time I will do that one right!

And alright about the Skills thing. That makes a lot of sense. I would never have given up a Retainer, Blessing, or Curse or membership, but I guess I thought skills were 'item-y' somehow.

And I did the math right, sadly :c Like I said we didn't really 'succeed' in the game. 13-7 = 6 - 2 elder signs = 4 + 1 gate trophy, 3 monster trophies and 2 sane players. (we had to spend them on clue tokens, blessings, rumor satisfaction, and we didn't do a ton of monster killing. We had a lot of gates open so they kept gobbling up our clue tokens most the time).

And thank you for helping anytime. Its important to me. The Southside Strangler rumor I didn't understand how anyone could deal with it the way I had thought it was asking, so THAT helps. We DID have some success with the game, because it was the first time I played the ENTIRE game with someone else, as in NO handicaps. For new players I was really nice so they wouldn't get frustrated, but I have to say it was A LOT more fun this way.

Good Sorry for the false positives, but happy I helped with the rumor Keep up the good work, Arkham's always in danger (seriously, I wonder why people keep on living there ) and we need talented investigators

I super appreciate all the feedback! I now know how to explain things better, and I definitely needed some help with the rumors. They can be so tough!

I forgot to mention that we got our real kicks when my Dad went to the Science Building.

A chemical brew bubbles on a nearby Bunsen burner. It smells delicious. If you drink it, make a Luck (+0) check. If you pass, the strange liquid fortifies you. Roll a die and gain that many points, split between your Stamina and Sanity however you like. If you fail, the liquid turns out to be coffee. Gain 1 Stamina.

...

it was coffee. :B

I had that card on Sundays play through, it couldn't of come at a better time.

Did it save someone's life? Haha C:

They were pretty beat up 2 stamina 1 sanity, so saved a time wasting trip and I rolled a 4