Or maybe a paragraph?

Is there a single definition that applies to all of the tabletop games released so far?

Each of them has you playing a single investigator against the Lovecraftian Mythos.

They are all co-operative games.

In all of them you visit different locations.

Each has damage and horror (right?)

We are interested in finding a taxonomy that you could apply to judging an unknown future game.

And we are just looking at the tabletop games.

Sorry for the duplicate posts but we want to try and reach everyone. We might put your definition in a YouTube video if that’s OK.

Cheers!

To take a quote from Mythos Buster's " Investigating the Mystery, Monsters, and Madness". Investigation is an important action word since all games center around an investigation regardless of the mechanics of the game. They chime in on the three center challenges you need to overcome in the game and I think it cuts to the heart of every Arkham Files game.

Not all of them are cooperative since Call Of Cthulhu the card game was competitive. Clearly the cooperative format is more the focus for the franchise since those types of games greatly outnumber. Though I could certainly see them doing another competitive take on the game, and I would be excited about it since it would feel like a truly different experience from this game. I always wanted them to take their Chaos On The Old World game and reskin it to Arkham Horror. Would have worked well. They never did it, but we did see successor games of that style from other companies. It's interesting just how many of FFG's AH games rarely step very far outside the original box defined in Arkham Horror first edition. I know I passed on AH 3rd ed and Final Hour because to me they just felt redundant to the experience I get with this game and I'm very happy with this game. So any definition we come up with to distill the franchise down to a sentence or paragraph hopefully gives them room to move beyond the walls they seem to have erected around themselves with regards to Arkham Files.

That said even CoC:LCG has a wounding and insanity mechanic for characters so that holds. Overcoming physical damage, horror and madness is a pretty standard theme for the franchise.

CoC:LCG has you take on an entire faction so it's more than a single investigator per player.

MoM is a game centered around one location. So exploring location or locations is a theme, but it's not assumed that there needs to be multiple locations for an Arkham Files game. That said when you have a location in the title of the IP then you kinda wanna make sure there is a location element to the game. Where you are investigating should matter and pretty much in every game where you are during the action does matter mechanically.

I am not much of a wordsmith as my posts can plainly show. That said here is my attempt:

"Investigators explore the mysteries surrounding iconic Arkham Files locations while overcoming the physical dangers, horror and madness caused by the forces aligned with one or more members of the pantheon of mythos deities from the Arkham Files universe."

Big dread; high stakes; much wow.

Jokes, but kind of serious.

On 1/13/2021 at 4:38 AM, ArkhamChronicle said:

Or maybe a paragraph?

Is there a single definition that applies to all of the tabletop games released so far?

Each of them has you playing a single investigator against the Lovecraftian Mythos.

They are all co-operative games.

In all of them you visit different locations.

Each has damage and horror (right?)

We are interested in finding a taxonomy that you could apply to judging an unknown future game.

And we are just looking at the tabletop games.

Sorry for the duplicate posts but we want to try and reach everyone. We might put your definition in a YouTube video if that’s OK.

Cheers!

Ahhh. I can just hear your voice quoting someone on YouTube. Always entertaining!
I have no idea what you are after and limiting myself to a sentence is nigh impossible, but I’d say something like:

They wield terrible power, sowing horror and chaos, fear and treachery, across all climes.
Their foes? The diverse. The unlikely. The mighty. The Investigators of Arkham!
Come join them. (No experience required)

.

OK, maybe we need to supply more detail.

Let’s say someone is designing a new Arkham Files game. What are the design principles that they must obey. (Such a document undoubtedly exists at FFG.)

We are happy with some bullet points

The Mythos Busters quote is actually really accurate if you think about it. And very helpful. Ta.

Investigation is also a key concept.

We think all the games make use of locations. Even mansions of madness has rooms. In each room there is a different puzzle, challenge, objective etc. Can you complete any of the MoM scenarios without leaving your starting tile? Location would be a game mechanic definition rather than a thematic description in our eyes.

We don’t count AH first edition as an “Arkham Files” game as it predates FFG’s interest.

We also don’t count the CoC LCG as an Arkham Files game as it is a Call of Cthulhu game. It says so on the box Yes it is listed under Arkham Files on the website but you can’t really put it under Star Wars right? Although this game is where the bulk of the worldbuilding and art comes from. We see it as one of the parents of the Arkham Files games. The other being AH 1st ed.

“Where you are investigating should matter and pretty much in every game where you are during the action does matter mechanically.”

This is literal fried gold. Cheers!

"Investigators explore the mysteries surrounding iconic Arkham Files locations while overcoming the physical dangers, horror and madness caused by the forces aligned with one or more members of the pantheon of mythos deities from the Arkham Files universe."

This is perfect thanks. Although we would add “…and their human agents.” on the end if you don’t mind.

Keep them coming please!

Sitting here pushing plastic around on cardboard while placing pieces of paper here and there. 😜

Oooo, very meta. And also true. But is sitting down a key part of an Arkham Files game? Plenty of games have sitting down as part of their experience.

"Breaking news: Nun on motorcycle shoots living apocalypse in face with shotgun".

A thousand and one ways to go insane before you die.