Suggestions for Organized Play

By originterminus, in Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Hello fine folks!

I am attempting to get a playgroup or event organized at my LGS, and I’m hoping to solicit some ideas from the forum for organized play structure/rewards. FFG releases an OP kit for invocation in the fall, but I’m looking to run one-off summertime events and/or campaigns with prize support of some kind. Obviously a co-op game doesn’t generally lend itself to rewards for competitive play, so does anyone have any suggestions for how to incentivize such an event?

Some initial ideas to get the ball rolling:

- Points associated with certain Resolution objectives

- Points for highest Total victory points

- Participation prize

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It’s difficult, I guess the key thing is participation prizes, if you reward particular achievements (most enemies killed, most VP’s, most clues hoovered, etc.) it encourages certain styles of play, and discourages others.

The best thing to do, in my opinion, is have a couple of awards for each group of 4, and let them vote on it. Maybe ‘most fun player’, or ‘arcane tutor’ for an experienced player who’s deliberately helping out newer people, or the ‘Watch This’ award, for most crazy card combo. Loads of ideas! But I’d get each table to nominate one or two of their number to get some form of recognition, which rewards behaviours you’d like to see.

I can see use of superlatives being a fantastic way to encourage different styles of play as well as all levels of experience. Not only would that tact lend itself to establishing an inclusive environment, but could be used in conjunction with one or more “acheivement” based rewards.

Try thinking outside the box with ultimatums. I pitched this in response to the question: "What are we gonna do with 4 daisy promos?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/arkhamhorrorlcg/comments/7kgwwe/ultimatum_idea/

I think resolutions are a great way to score points. But competitive play would need to see more scorable senarios like midnight masks, undimensioned and unseen, or the last king.

You could also establish impossible scenarios to be scored like a version of dim carcosa where the old one can't die. Team that lays down the most damage wins

While I don't like the idea of making this game competitive, this is how I would go about it.

Teams of two. When FFG first announced the idea of a LotR tournament, that was one of the guidelines, teans could not consist of 3 or 4 players. If there are not enough players to have even teams, then a solo style.

No campaigns. Either do a stand alone scenario from any of the cycle, and/or do a pod scenario.

Victory condition based on performance. The winner is the investigator(s) who succeeds in the fewest number of rounds. If no one was successful, then the investigator(s) who lasted the most amounts of rounds before defeat. If there is a tie, whoever has the most Victory Points.

If you want to make this game competitive, you will need to have all the scenarios played on expert IMO. Using the Invocations would help as well.

I am adamantly opposed to attempts to turn AHLCG competitive. It contradicts the entire premise of the game--all of humanity clueless or not, vs. the malevolent unknown. If Cnidathqua is beaten, the whole world feels the benefit. YOU aren't the victor over your fellow investigators. I'm okay with participation rewards, but they belong to everyone, not to those who master any specific style of play. Arkham Horror is, at its core, is saving the world together.

If there's any element that they attempt to give away as prizes, I will shun them in this format and then just get them somewhere in the secondary market like ebay.

I did this with my friends. I played as a cultist and tried to advance doom all game. It was a riot.

Since its not a competitive game, this is kind of a square peg in a round hole type situation.

It would probably best to give a smaller prize to everyone that attends (kind of what they do for the Invocation event)

Personally, I find the playing of the game incentive enough.