I 'd like to keep this game as simple as possible. Old, slow mind, love board games, but used to drink alot and killed alot of brain cells back in the 80's, you get the idea. If this game didn't have the spells, it seams to me it would be easier to play, but i'm new to this game and i don't have the expansions so i'm just wondering if anyone has used this game , without the spells, and maybe added more common items, or am i just trying to make it harder in doing that.

Maybe i just need to play it more ,...as it is. ADVICE TO THE SINGLE CELLED BRAIN BOY>...please and thanks...Dave W..A.K.A...The Sarge.

Personally I feel that if you can handle everything else going on in Arkham Horror, spells shouldn't be that much of a jump... you ought to be able to get the hang of them, they're not really all that confusing.

But... if you would still prefer not to, it's certainly possible. Just restrict yourself to playing non-spell characters, there are plenty of characters who aren't much for magic but are great at other things. Let somebody else play a spellcaster. Heck, you don't even have to have one, we've been through plenty of games with nobody with a lore above 3-4 and no spells between us. It would be easy to take out all the characters who you think are "magic-y" and put them in one pile, and just draw randomly from the other pile.

If you desperately wanted to play someone like Harvey Walters without spells (though I'm not exactly sure why you would), I suppose you could house-rule that you simply will trade their starting spells for an equal number of unique items. I believe this keeps their starting equipment at roughly equal level. Personally I'd advise against this route, and just go with the "pick a character that doesn't have to worry about spells" thing, but I though I'd mention it if you really wanted to.

In my opinion, spells can be avoided, but it's not a great deal. Such spells like Find gate or Wither can help you a lot during your games, not to mention that, when you'll be playing with Innsmouth Horror, you can fight monsters with a Weapon immunity, which requires you to fight them with spells or with just your fight skill. And learning how to work with spells can make some characters - Daisy the librarian, for example - really able to make you win even the toughest matches. So, you can certainly play without spells, but if you lern how to play with them, you'll have tons of possibilities more.

So my suggestion. Remember that there are some spells which are pretty easy to use, since they're quite similar to weapons (Dreaded curse of Azathoth, Wither, Shrivelling) and maybe they are easier for learning the base mechanic. Cast and exhaust, and use them in fight, until you get familiar with this action. You can try a game with Dexter Drake, a mage with Shrivelling in his starting equipment. And maybe you can use a limited pool of spells at the beginning, mostly combat spells. Then try something different, widening the pool (can I say this in English? ha! mistery of a different language...).

If there is something obscure in the mechanics of casting (lore check, sanity cost, duration of spells, whatever) feel free to ask!

Hope this helps

Thanks to you both. It makes more sense to me now.