Alright, I got a good one: how did you discover Arkham Horror and started playing it?! Me? Well, my friend's friend's friend had Descent, so I looked up games by FFG, and voila! Arkham Horror! I tried it out, and I immediately fell in love

Well, the story of how I found Arkham Horror? Found it lying in the corner of a Barnes and Nobles bookshop. My sister and I found it interesting (a group of investigators purging horrible creatures threatening to overwhelm the world? Awesome theme) so I researched Arkham Horror online. I saw it had good reviews, ordered it from Amazon.com, and, yeah, things went well from there!

A friend of mine mentioned the game my senior year of college. I'd heard of Lovecraft before (my older brother had read some of his stuff— I recognized the name from his anthology of Weird Tales). I thought the game sounded like a cool idea since I didn't have any other games I was into at the time. The fact that it was 1-8 players appealed to me even more (since I'd always wanted a good solitaire non-computer game with high replay value).

I still remember the day I got it pretty well, I was tired and was attending an English class in Renaissance literature. The professor decided to "teach" us close reading by reading The Cat in the Hat instead... Apparently some students found this educational. I found it asinine and insulting. So I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, just waiting for class to be over. A few minutes later I was kicked out for "sleeping in class." I told the professor I wasn't sleeping, and asked if I could stay, he said no, so I left, and never returned (I don't remember if I got a B- or a C something in that class, I don't really care enough to check). Walking home, I decided that A)I was never going back to that class, and B)I would take a look at that Arkham Horror game. I saw the box. I talked to the person at the store (who told me about how her group would constantly lose but loved that game anyways). I loved the sound of it. Challenging horror solitaire? Count me in! I bought it (my suitemate's boyfriend paid half the price— a few months later, when we graduated, I paid him back for his half and took it with me). I never regretted it :')

Avi, that story (almost) makes you sound human.

Hence, it smells fishy !

Great question...

The story is quite humorous. Several years ago, friends from Philly described...in not so great detail...the elements of AH. As a long-time wargamer (Axis and Allies, Risk, Panzer Leader) and role-player (D&D [remember the orignal boxed set], Traveller, etc.), I could not get my head around the idea that these guys were playing a board game which seemed utterly absurd and boring. Again, it's all in the story-telling.

Flash-forward a few months, and I'm visiting family in Philly for a few days. In my brother's house, laid out upon his pool table, is the Arkham and Dunwich boards, and all of the 'bits' and stacks of cards almost decorating the perimeter. I picked-up the rules, read through them..and as if I were experienceing an epiphany, exclaimed "Oh, this is Arkham Horror!" I proceeded to play Monterey Jack over the next three hours, blasting away at monsters, sealed a few gates, and feeling quite proud of my accomplishments, until the GOO showed-up and ROCKED OUR WORLD! I had never had so much fun losing a game in my life.

So, on the way back to N. VA, I stopped at the Game Parlor to see if they had this masterpiece of a game. They did; I bought it! While most of my games, I've played solo, my 10-year old daughter has been known from time-to-time to play Amanda or Kate. Also, several months ago, an Air Force coleague, his wife, my wife, and I played a session ~ it was fantastic. Heavy hors d'oeuvres, a few bottles of wine, jazz music, and Arkham!

Suffice it to say, I'm "hooked" by the game. My collection now includes the base game, one 'big box' (Dunwich), and one 'small box' (The King in Yellow) expansion. In the next few weeks I'll pick-up Curse of the Dark Pharaoh. Over the past few months, I've made my way (nearly) through all of the GOOs. Each game consists of four, randomly selected INvestigators (once used, they go into a pile until I've used all of the Investigators) and a GOO. Currently, I've played through 9 of the GOOs. I've also updated Tibs' spreadsheet (outstanding) for all of th games. Finally, to show you how much I love the game, I managed to negotiate over $1,500 in dice sales a few months back when we had the custom dice created/produced by Chessex. In the end, the list of buyers included folks from Australia, France, Germany, England, and Denmark, as well as quite a few Americans. Love the game!

The Professor

I was a fan of the Mythos and happened to spot the game in my sister's favorite game store when I was visiting her. Took a chance and purchased it right then.

Dam said:

Innsmouth fishy? ;')

I was really into DOOM: the board game, so I wanted to see what other games FFG had made. At the time they were promoting this new game called Arkham Horror. Well I wasn't familiar with any Lovecraft concepts, but I read the rulebook and liked what I saw. When the DOOM expansion was finally released, I picked up Arkham along with it.

Finding Twilight Imperium was what drew me back into board gaming but finding Arkham is what gained me a ton of people to play with.

A few years ago a co-worker brought Twilight Imperium to work so he could examine the pieces and read the manual (he had just got it and was too excited to leave it at home).

I loved the look of it and the quality of the components (it reminded me of Axis and Allies that I used to play a decade before). I joined in on the first session of the game but since I had conflicting work hours with that co-worker I didnt make it for any further sessions. This did spark my interest in board games again and made me crave my own copy of the game. At the time I didnt have the space (or the time) to really get anything going so I put it on hold for a couple of years.

Much later I had all the essentials for getting board games going: A huge table, sane working hours, a wife to draft into gaming and a spare room to dedicate to hobby stuff. I checked around on the net for info on Twilight but also started browsing around for other games that might be good.

Thats when I found my precious....

I remember saying to my wife that I found this game that might be fun for just the two of us, I talked about the reviews it was getting and talked up how nice it would be to have a bottle of wine and some candle lights and do something different (a board game). To my suprise she agreed and liked the idea (the wine was most likely the deciding factor). I bought both Twilight Imperium and Arkham Horror the next day (quite expensive hence me wanting her on board for the Arkham idea).

What happened next suprised me alot, Arkham got played by both of us, by freinds (several groups) and on occasion by myself when in a solo mood. Casual gamers seemed to love it and quite a few none gamers became converts. It got played so much in fact that I STILL havent managed to play a game of Twilight Imperium (its been sitting on the shelf for 2 years along with its expansion).

I still manage to play other board games on occasion, but so far 75% of all gaming sessions have been Arkham (with Chaos in the Old World and Descent being played with the right groups on occasion).

Even if it devoured Twilight then Arkham remains my most precious board game.

Heh... All consuming Arkham ;')

I had the original (1987) version of the game and enjoyed it greatly, even though it had lots of flaws. Eventually grew tired of it and it sat on the shelf. Then a little over two years ago I was in a game store and saw the current version. Took a chance and put down my money hoping they had done more then just reprint the game (from the picture it certainly looked like they did more). Once I started playing it I realized it was much better than the original and haven't gotten tired of it yet . The fact that I can play it solo and the endless variety (I've got all the expansions) are what keep me playing.

I think I was looking for the 4th edition of "Talisman", since I had been playing the second edition at a friends house when I was a child. So while looking for that on ebay, I stumbled across an auction that had the "Talisman"-name in the title but was really for "Arkham Horror". I was intrigued from the first moment on, however it still took me more than a year to finally get my hands on that game.

Someone posted a link to a list of games over at BGG sorted by 'best with # players'. Arkham Horror scored best for single player games and I've always been a fan of Mythos/Lovecraft.

I hadn't bought a board game in over a decade because they tend to collect dust after a short while (or sometimes even without ever being played). So, I figured I might get a better bang for my buck if I bought a board game that can be played solo.

So Arkham Horror marked my return to buying (and regularly playing) board games!

I don't know where I first heard the name 'Arkham Horror', but since I regularly play D&D, and my group also plays a number of board games (including Settlers of Catan and Axis & Allies), AH dwells in similar circles. Eventually, Settlers became too tame for us, so I decided to look for a more advanced board game. I'd heard of Arkham Horror, so I decided to go and find it. I read reviews, checked it out at the game shop, and decided to go for it.

And now I'm an addict. I couldn't be happier.

OMG SHUBBY (from first post of this thread)!!! How coincidental is this!? It was my birthday on May 23rd and my brother bought me the game Descent. Later I went to the shop to take a look around, and guess what - My friend who went wif me bought the Arkham Horror for my present!

It was a schedule change. Up to the last couple of years I worked primarily six days a week and mostly from 3pm or so in the afternoon to 12 or 1am. That translated into a ton of video game playing by myself since the wife (and eventual kids) were not awake when I got home. The job that moved me to Minnesota is a five day a week basically nine to five thing. Meaning that now I was home when everyone was still up and around. My wife and I quickly fell into a routine where I'd play with the kids while dinner was prepared, we'd eat, kids would go to bed and we'd watch a movie and every so often play a video game. This was EVERY night. It wasn't that it wasn't fun it just wasn't that fun.

An old friend of mine in July of '09 posted on his blog a list of great board games that he loves. One of them was Arkham Horror. The big thing that drew me to it was the co-op nature. Past experiments with competitive games led to the watching movies all the time if you catch my meaning. We got and played it and immediately played it again and again and then started buying all sorts of FFG games. We've even managed to go outside the co-op and have a good collection of Haba games for the kids. Arkham Horror is still the first and arguably the favorite. It's the gateway that opened new and exciting ways for all of us to connect with each other.

The "Dungeon Master" of my old role-playing group introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft through Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu. At the time, I was fascinated with the game system (especially the skills), and Sanity as a character stat was the most inspired RPG concept of my life. (Still is.) With this new world of cosmic nihilistic horror swirling in my head, I began to devour anything Lovecraft I could find. This was around the time that D&D was being crucified in the media, so you can imagine how much my ignorant dominating parents just spurred me on to find EVERYTHING: "Go away, Mom. I don't own a Necronomicon!" >slam< "....................but now it's going on the list! Mwa ha ha!"

During this mass acquisition phase, I learned of the original Arkham Horror Board Game. But I was too young and too poor to have the resources required to track one down and acquire it. It remained a sticking point for a few years, until I grew up and away from CoC players, and had to move on to things like college and career.

The Cthulhu bug finally bit me again when Toy Vault started making official Mythos plushies. ("Dude. You bought stuffed animals." Yes. Yes I did. And the girls I date LOVE the Cthulhu plushies.) Deeply infected with Mythophilia again, I scoured the internet and caught wind of a rumor of a NEW Arkham Horror board game. But even back then, FFG delivery times were exaggerated by months, so I sorta forgot about it.

Post-San Diego International Comic-Con, July 17, 2005. Every year, after the Con is over, there are three stops to be made on Sunday on the way out of San Diego: (1) All-you-can-eat brunch at the 94th Aero Squadron; (2) a retail store with a proprietor who actually remembers us year to year, even though we only visit once a year; and (3) Game Empire. Upon entering GE that year, AH was in a small stack right up front. "Whoa. Here it is. It actually exists." I already wanted to have it, but when I saw "Players 1-8", it all came rushing back to me: "I don't have to compete with my friends when I play this. In fact, I don't actually NEED my friends to play this!" Played my first game solo that night (very badly); I don't think I was even fully unpacked yet.

Five years later, still my favorite game ever.

awesome! so many lovers of arkham! its great that i have so many of my friends to play it with. hey ASHDIAMOND, i never thought that bookstore had arkham horror! and also i never knew someone would actually use Ami Pierce for an avatar! Arkham Horror is and always will be my fav board game!!!!!!! GO ARKHAM!

jgt7771 said:

::Laughter::

Who needs friends AT ALL, IN ANY FORM? Come to think of it, you guys are all jerks!

I'm gonna pack up Tiffany's stuff and put it in the hall before she gets home. Then I'll trash my cell phone's memory card. LATER

Great. Tibs got into the Zahn music again.

That thought did actually occur. I hadn't seen my old CoC buddies in years--we just grew apart--and I really wasn't sure if my current group of friends would enjoy a Lovecraft board game. Unlike 95% of games out there, especially ones with a $50+ pricetag, I could buy Arkham for ME, even if no one else wanted to play. Other great games--Talisman, Descent, any Eurogame, any wargame, any CCG--can RARELY say that.

yes indeed, Arkham Horror is one of the best games ever created. I never knew so many people loved this game until I visited this site. Shows I'm not alone by for being an avid fan of board games! By the way shubby, the reason of choosing Ami Pierce as my avatar is because he's one of the characters in one of my favorite short stories, The Colour out of Space.

My father got me into Mr. Lovecraft's stories at an early age. One day I was youtubing Lovecraft and Cthulhu, and came across reviews for Arkham horror. I loved the fact that it was based one of my favorite author's work and I could play solo. Hearing all the good reviews, I decided to buy the base game and Innsmouth (my favorite story) and King in Yellow with the birthday money my dad gave me. He got me Kingsport for christmas and my fiancee got me Curse and Dark Goat. Just last month she got me Dunwitch. I have played solo a lot, but long to have a big enough table and enough time to play with my friends and family.

sorry ashdiamond, but there are so many cooler guys for avatars. anyhow, my love for arkham will never end, and i hope the same for all of you fans out there!!!

shubby232 said:

grr.... how dare you

But I see what you mean by that statement. Maybe I'll change it...