Hello all,

First off, thank you for your time. I figure these forums might be inundated with new players, like myself, asking for rule clarification where it could easily be found elsewhere. That said, I'm asking only those things that remained unclear after browsing the FAQ's, reading the manual through and watching a few tutorials before doing a trial run in my first game. I am playing with the revised, vanilla Arkham Horror, no expansions.

1) When the manual uses the term "players", does this mean the number of real person(s) playing the game, or the number of investigators that are in play. Perhaps a stupid question, but the tutorials I've watched each used this figure differently when the same number of real people were involved.

2) How are the investigators' personal stories involved in gameplay? Each is read like there is an objective involved, and I've seen posts where players talk about completing some part of a story. However, I cannot find any information on this.

3) What's the inner sanctum at the Silver Twilight Lodge? How do you implement it? During my trial run, a investigator acquired membership and was at the lodge when the encounter phase came around The location ability says a regular encounter can be skipped by instead doing something with the inner sanctum. Again, I couldn't find anything about this in the manual.

4) The FAQ's mention which items can and cannot be traded among investigators, but skills are not mentioned. Can these be give/traded?

5) If an evade check is failed and combat damage is taken, can the investigator attempt another evade, or must he/she always enter combat afterwards?

6) The train station allows for movement to other rail locations. Can the train station's ability be used at any rail location to move around, or is this ability limited to only the train station location?

7) In regards to monster surges, the FAQ reads: " If there are more monsters to be placed than allowed by the monster limit, the players should decide where monsters will be placed." Does this mean it is up to the players to say where they are placed in Arkham, or whether they go to the outskirts vs. staying in Arkham at all? Further, do monsters generated by a surge even count towards the limit? I could not find this in the manual, and a player tutorial indicated that they do not.

1) When the manual uses the term "players", does this mean the number of real person(s) playing the game, or the number of investigators that are in play. Perhaps a stupid question, but the tutorials I've watched each used this figure differently when the same number of real people were involved.

Typically, the manual will refer to the amount of investigators. I'm not sure the amount of players is relevant. I know rules can refer to "player on your right", in which case I think it is alright to infer "investigator to your right".

2) How are the investigators' personal stories involved in gameplay? Each is read like there is an objective involved, and I've seen posts where players talk about completing some part of a story. However, I cannot find any information on this.

Personal objectives arrive with expansions. Specifically Innsmouth Horror. You also get relationships with Miskatonic Horror.

3) What's the inner sanctum at the Silver Twilight Lodge? How do you implement it? During my trial run, a investigator acquired membership and was at the lodge when the encounter phase came around The location ability says a regular encounter can be skipped by instead doing something with the inner sanctum. Again, I couldn't find anything about this in the manual.

The Inner Sanctum is an alternative location for members only at the Silver Twilight Lodge. To have an encounter at the Inner Sanctum, go to the Silver Twilight Lodge and draw a blue encounter card as normal during the encounter phase but read the part with the Inner Sanctum heading instead.

4) The FAQ's mention which items can and cannot be traded among investigators, but skills are not mentioned. Can these be give/traded?

No. Skills are not items and cannot be traded.

5) If an evade check is failed and combat damage is taken, can the investigator attempt another evade, or must he/she always enter combat afterwards?

You can attempt as many evades as you like, provided you are not knocked unconscious. Each new round of combat, you decide whether to fight or flee. If you fail your check, receive damage and let a new round commence. If you succeed, combat is over.

6) The train station allows for movement to other rail locations. Can the train station's ability be used at any rail location to move around, or is this ability limited to only the train station location?

Every rail location has the ability to let the investigator move to another rail location. You will find there is only ever one rail location on each board, thus playing only with the Arkham board you will find no other rail locations.

7) In regards to monster surges, the FAQ reads: " If there are more monsters to be placed than allowed by the monster limit, the players should decide where monsters will be placed." Does this mean it is up to the players to say where they are placed in Arkham, or whether they go to the outskirts vs. staying in Arkham at all? Further, do monsters generated by a surge even count towards the limit? I could not find this in the manual, and a player tutorial indicated that they do not.

Haven't read the wording in the FAQ but I think what they mean is that during a surge, the first player decides at which gates to place new monsters. The monster limit must stlll be respected and monsters within the limit should be placed as evenly as possible across the gates. Monsters in excess of the limit still go to the outskirts, until the outskirts, in turn, are full; at which point the terror level goes up and the outskirts are cleared.

Hope this helps you somewhat. I have a history of confusing rules so hopefully someone else will add their weight as well!

Implementing a little the previous answer (sorry for nitpcking):

2. Relationship cards are introduced with the Lurker at the Threshold expansion, and further expanded wth Miskatonic Horror; they are not however introduced with MH

3. In order to have an Inner Sanctum encounter at the STL you need two things:

a) to go to the lodge

b) to have a Silver Twilight membership.

Without membership you must resolve a normal encounter (sorry, the membership was quoted in the initial query but not in the answer so that actually the post could be misread(

5. Sorry, wrong. After taking combat damage for a failed Evade check, you enter combat with that monster. Hence you test Horror. Then you're allowed to flee from the combat again

As for the last question, let's say you have 3 gates open, 3 monsters to spawn but only 2 monsters are eligible for placement before reaching the limit.
Hence:

1. You draw and place the first monster on the surging gate

2. You decide on which of the other two gates is the second monster to be placed, you draw the monster and you place it on the designed gate

3. You draw the third monster and you place it in the Outskirts

Hope this helps

J

I think I misunderstood the combat question: I was supposing the OP had already entered combat and done the horror check. Now that I re-read it, I realise it was meant differently.

(I think I got away with it this time, but I really should try the game sometime if I'm going to hang about on this forum. Julia and Tibs might be on to me.)

So, um, yeah. Guess I'm off to play some At the Gates of Horror Madness Horror with my friends. We'll be sure to yell "Cthulhu moose moose" every time we get three monster trophies in a row, and I expect they will end up on my hotel on Arkham Asylum, just like last time.

Thank you, both of you!!

I was kind of hairbrained posting that, I've tried several solo runs to help learn the rules and each time I find myself near-cheating because I don't understand what's going on. I realized I could have answered some of my questions by looking at the board/encounter cards, thank you for enlightening me anyhow. I've been in the middle of a move for the past few days, it's been killing me not being able to play.

@Borealian - I purchased mine on eBay. Used once, cheaper than the tabletop store was pricing it, and all the pieces were there. I looked yesterday and there were bids for even cheaper than I bought it for.

Also, for Julia and other AH vets, what was the first expasion you purchased, if any? I understand that Dunwich Horror adds more in terms of new content, but as a Lovecraft fan I'm awfully inclined towards The King in Yellow, Miskatonic Horror and the like.

Thanks again!

I don't know what you are talking about! I've had this game for ages! *nervously looking around* Oh yes! Ever since Fight or Flight Guys released it! Can't get enough of Father Dragon and Mother Udder and all their little tents! Off to save the Coward King!

Don't worry about the initial confusion, there's quite a lot of stuff to keep track of at the beginning of every Arkham experience.

As for the expansions: here my comments on what to get from an old post I made at BGG:

First of all, we have 4 big box expansions and 4 small box expansions, and we need to make a first distinction here.

Big box expansions
After some plays with vanilla Arkham, it's clear the core game is too easy to beat. First of all because you have 11 unstable locations and all AOs but two have a longer Doom Track, so, if you seal every time you enter, you can't wake up the AO. Additionally, you have only 4 high freq locations, so sealing those allows you several turns of respite for Mythos bouncing on seals. So, you need more space, more unstable locations, more threat. Remember this in the following analysis.

- Dunwich Horror : this is the usual "must have expansion". First of all, it adds 5 new unstable locations (hence, you have enough unstable locations to wake up every AO in the game), and an extra board to control. It introduces also vortex dynamics, which are cool and important in Arkham. It has a marvellous Mythos deck, with gates opening both in Dunwich and in Arkham (and it's the only expansion board doing so! So, important!) and introduces gate bursts: Mythos card able to remove seals you already put on the board. The 4 new AOs rock: they are difficult and cleverly designed. The new investigators are good, but the thing that is fundamental coming with this expansion are the two Madnesses and Injuries decks. They should have really been part of the core set, and alone are a reason to get Dunwich. They to revise the complete Insane / Unconscious rules, allowing you to keep items and clues for a lingering effect that in someway penalizes you character (not too much, unless you have really bad luck).

- Kingsport Horror : it's a wonderful expansion, with the rift mechanics that never dilutes and it's always a constant threat. Many say it's a boring expansion because there are no unstable locations in Kingsport. BS. Eventhough you don't have gates opening there, you have encounters giving items, allies (and what allies!!), clues, and so on. A great theme. Item that rocks, wonderful characters and 4 new AOs that, even though they are not Dunwich level, are interesting and fun to play. And the Mythos deck... is nasty. The difficulty increses again with this one in play. Additionally, it comes with Epic Battle cards to make final battle more challenging (base game AOs needed a sort of revision, and here we go!). BUT. Since there are no unstable locations, Kingsport doesn't work very well as a stand alone expansion board. It's a magnificent second expansion board, that works briliiantly when paired up with Dunwich or Innsmouth. So, I'd not get this one as first expansion.

- Innsmouth Horror : this is the most difficult expansion board ever designed for Arkham. Especially because of some locations very difficult to reach and very dangerous (pouring monsters directly into vortices). It introduces a new way of waking up the AO (the Deep One Rising Track), and 8 new (IIRC) AOs. Some of these are superb (Bokrug above all), some others are simply nightmarish but not so fun (Rhan Tegoth). Still, again, it's not a good first big box expansion, for the following reasons: a) the difficulty rampages a lot, so you pass from an easy game to a game it's likely you'll lose 70% of the times you play (later on the win-loss ratio improves a lot, but you need practice in between. It's like you're moving from hiking on the hills surrounding your house to hike in Nepal. You need practice and training in between). Then, the Mythos deck is structured so that Innsmouth Mythos open gates only in Innsmouth. So, nothing changes on the core board, hence the game is biased: extremely difficult on the expansion board, easy peasy on the core board. Finally, there are no small cards coming with the expansion (apart from the personal Stories, which are awesome, but still), so that decks of Unique Items, Common Items and so on are really thin.

- Miskatonic Horror : this is an expansion-expansion, enhancing everything already published for Arkham, so, the more expansions you have, the more you could enjoy this one. Additionally, playing at Miskatonic Horror level is *really* difficult, because the Mythos deck is a nightmare. Period. Tons of cards producing the most nefarious effects ever seen, spawning tons of monsters, slowing down your movement, forcing players to instantly move to OW and lose other turns and so on. So, if you're arriving from the core game, you won't enjoy this one as first (or second) expansion.

So, for big boxes: following the realease order is the best way to go. First Dunwich, then Kingsport (so that you have the most cards and options and the difficulty raises quite consistently). The get Innsmouth. Finally get Misktonic.

Small box expansions:
I'll cover this quickly because they are easier: all small box expansions add some variety to the game, adding many cards and a Herald (a powerful creature trying to accelerate the plans to wake up the AO). Remember that they do not rampage the difficulty of the core game that much, though, so, in order to enjoy a better Arkham experience, you should start with a big box

- Curse of the Dark Pharaoh : a badly designed Herald, a great Egyptian theme, nasty Mythos, and Exhibit items, which are a cool addition to the game but for some reasons they rarely enter play (not only gaming related, but I'll cover this in detail only if interested)

- King in Yellow : the best small box ever released. The Herald is magnificent, the Blight cards are terrific yet terrible, and the theme... I stil have goose bumps when I draw cards like Mirages of Lakes . Wonderful theme. Wicked, evil, threatening. Arkham flavour at its best

- Black goat of the Woods : this expansion sucks. No other way to say this. Some nice additions, spells and stuff, but it's mainly focused on infiltrating the Cult of the Thousands (devoted to Shub, free goat cheese for everyone?) and there is no reason to actually do this. By infiltrating you have access to special encounters that has no positive effects on the game, they give you just penalties and problems, so that they are 100% useless. And the Herald - I like it, but I'm an Arkhamasochist and it's another story - is brutal, penalizing the game too much (every time you have a gate surge, add a doom token to the doom track). Additionally, the Corruption mechanics is cool, but it never enters play unless you play with the Herald (anyway, there are fixes for this, some of them designed by me, some others by Avi; if you go with this one, just ask and I'll post here the files)

- Lurker at the Threshold : that's another great small box expansion, adding new gate markers and cool items and Mythos. Problems: the Herald is more a Guardian (benefical entity) because it ws designed well, let's say "without really understanding how the game works"), and the theme is lacking. It's like they created some encounters just focusing on the dice to roll, but without adding flavor or consistency with the "Lurker at the Threshold" short story. Again, several fixes made by fan saved the expansion (again, me, Avi, Amikezor designed excellent stuff to have everything working again)

Man oh man, that was precisely what I was looking for. Brilliant. There's all sorts I could ask you about AO's and whether or not you think the Researcher is overpowered, but I'm more tha satisfied with what you've given me. Again, thank you.

Julia,

You seem to have a lot of time in the hotel room...hahahahaha!

Ciao,

Joe

I also have a question about the Outskirts. If for example I just exceeded the monster limit in Arkham, and just sent "X" monsters to the Ourskirts, but during the next turn i (we) kill 2, 3, or more monsters. Whenever a situation (excluding encounter monsters) like a monster surge, or a gate and a monster appearing, can I draw the monsters from the outskirts? or do I take directly from the monster cup?

There are a few effects in the game allowing you to mess up with monsters in the Outskirts (spells, one corruption card and very few others), but basically once monsters enter the Outskirts, they stay there until the Outskirts are emptied due to too many monsters there, and terror is consequently increased, or they are removed from there by closing matching dimensional symbol gates. So, if you reduce the number of monsters on the board, new monsters are drawn from the cup, not from the Outskirts.

Thank you! I'm getting every following game a bit more flawless thanks to the forum! You've got some excellent explanations!

Always happy to help! Enjoy the game, and if you have further questions, just ask