This topic was originally posted at www.rpg.net, but I figured maybe this would be a better forum for the question. Aaand... hello everybody!

I got Arkham Horror for Christmas this year and apart from disastrous play-attempts with my parents, I've played it twice with my normal gaming group. We've had much fun and I enjoy the game a lot, but both times, we found it was wayy too easy.

First time, we were 4 players and played without any house rules. Thus every gate opening only spawned one monster, and of course that was very easy. The second time we were 5 people and therefore every gate spawned 2 monsters. However, it was still too easy. I mean, we may have had a lucky run but we kicked Shub-Niggurath when she was at doom level 7 I think, terror track 5, and we're even novice players.

Biggest issues I have with the game is

a) endgame gets crippled because as soon as there starts to get some elder signs on the board, portals quite often won't spawn and nothing happens. Endgame should be more hectic and more frightening, not less.

b) maybe we're just not good enough at managing our resources yet but I find the stamina and sanity system a bit tedious. Yes the game should be hard and unforgiving, but I'd prefer it if this was caused by a faster doom track and more monsters on the board, not by having to run to the asylum every 3-6 rounds (especially for mages) and waste a round and money there.

My ideas for solutions:

a)
*the house rule by Richard Launius himself that spawns two gates every time instead of one. However, this seems like it could be too hard instead. Also, we don't really want to increase game time.

*An idea could be to spawn gates at a position even if there's an elder sign there, however without removing it.

*We also considered that if a gate spawns on an elder sign, the elder sign will break but nothing more happens. However, this would just make the game really slow and always end up with fighting the GOO.

*Or finally, one could remove the "seal 6 gates" victory condition, so you'd have to seal to reduce number of simultaneous gates and then close them all at once to win that way instead. But I like having several different ways to win, and also that seems like it would make the gametime much longer.

b)
*We had an idea that every time you're the First Player, you'd get to refresh up to 3 points worth of either Stamina or Sanity or divided between the two.


Sooo.... what do you folks think?

Well, the usual "it's too easy" answer is "are you sure you're playing it right?". There's a list of common beginner rules mistakes somewhere, most of which make the game easier rather than harder. Trading clues (and to a lesser extent trophies, skills, allies) can make things much easier. Not realising that you must buy 1 of the 3 items at the shops, if possible, will make it easier. Etc. So check that you're not making those mistakes. It took me 5 or 6 games to stop making major rules errors.

Nevertheless, base game only with 4 or 5 investigators is fairly easy (especially if you know about relative gate activity - if you already know that, it's very straightforward, but it should take you more than a couple of games to find out what's going on there ... unless you read up on strategy in advance)

So, assuming you've got the rules correct, ways to make the base game harder without buying an expansion.
- try facing Yig, or Yog-Sothoth, or Cthulhu, or perhaps Hastur since the terror level seems to be going up quickly for you
- don't use Mandy Thompson
- definitely don't do any healing like that: the Healing Stone (Unique, $8, heal one sanity or stamina for one investigator a turn) is the most expensive item in the game for a reason, and your suggestion is even more powerful than that. (Spellcasting is supposed to be expensive and rare)
- download the free Dark Pharoah herald from the FFG website. They're designed for use with Nyarlathotep and the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion, but a couple of their powers (sanity loss on gaining Unique items, stamina loss while cursed) will make the game a little harder anyway
- start the terror level off at 3 (or even 6) and remove allies and close shops appropriately
- add a doom token every time there's a monster surge
- search the Mythos deck for the "Great Ritual" rumour card and return it to the box. Then play the entire game as if you'd failed that rumour.

Well, as I look back, I realize that of course you're right about a lot of things we did:

*Yep, we've been trading clue tokens. Didn't even reflect upon that although I even checked the trading rules while playing, it just slipped away. No trading of tokens etc though.

*We do know that an items must be bought at the stores, though

*We had Mandy in play and yeah, she's very powerful. She was randomly chosen though.

*We faced Shub-Niggurath, so I guess things could've been worse there too.

*We also forgot to remove allies with the terror level. (whichs speed of increase was rather uncommon for this game, we had some serious misfortunes in the beginning with two surges with only one gate in play, spawning 5 monsters each time. :-P

*About the sanity loss, I guess you're right that it's basically a "lern2play noobz" matter. More careful spellcasting will be adapted. :-)

Adding doom tokens on surges sounds like a pretty good idea, however, wouldn't that risk to ruin the tension in endgame when you're desperately hoping to avoid new gate openings, to keep the GOO asleep..?

One more thing: relative gate activity? Huh, no idea. Are some locations more gate-prone that others? Thinking back, it sure seems that way, though it never struck us.

What do you think of the house rule not to let the players know which world a gate leads to, putting them on the board upside down? I quite like the thought of it.

Thanks for your time!

Other common beginner mistakes: not playing the phase order right; not realising that fighting a monster drops your movement points to zero. Check through http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/587435/most-common-rulegameplay-mistakes-and-their-game-i/ for a bigger list. (If trading clues was the mistake, you might find that you don't need anything else to make the game challenging again, at least for a while)

Upside-down gates will certainly make things a little harder, but might be fun. (I tend to play 2-investigator games, which are hard enough without house rules, so I've never tried it)

Yeah, most likely it boils down to a lucky run (got Mandy, someone got the healing stone, quite fortuous item findings etc), trading clues (most of all) and yes, we did not know that fighting drops the movement points. I guess I'll have to go through the rules again, although I thought I read them quite carefully a couple of times.

I think I'll try upside down gates, seems interesting. Thanks a lot for the help!

Yes while you may get an easy run one time you may get spanked next time, it can be fairly random that way. However once you get the hang of things the base game alone does tend to be pretty easy. There are almost countless ways of fixing that problem without delving into the pool of expansions though.

If you don't mind using custom content you can check out the Fan Creation forum here on this site for a lot of good new ancient ones and heralds that boost the game many of which are not dependent on expansions. Many of us also have links to our own creations in our signatures.

Another favorite of mine when just using base game is to soften the seals. The first time a gate is prevented from opening flip the seal over to its doom side, the second time remove it completely and you have to re-seal the location when another gate opens.

Just a few extra ideas that hadn't been mentioned.

Veet said:

That is good advice too. I'm thinking of picking up The Dunwich Horror expansion. Is that a good first exp?

Dunwitch is a great expansion, ramps the difficulty has some good new Ancient Ones and monsters, and adds injury and madness which creates a cool new dimension to play. It is a hard to find expansion these days though.

So have we officially deterred you from people auto-gaining health/sanity yet? If so, good! Because that would obviously make the game really easy. I don't think you've realized this quite yet, but Time is also a resource in this game It's more important than money, sanity/stamina, and some say clue tokens (or at least on par)! Giving health out like candy makes you not worry about biting your nails, whether you should go in Independence Square's gate to Yuggoth, or if you should hop into the Asylum first...

The 2 spawning monsters rule might be a good idea for you, especially with 4 players. If you play with less, you may run into some truble. But AH is great with customization potential. At least, until you find yourself a copy of DH! Oh! Also, you can download the Dark Pharaoh Herald. He's not as effective if you don't have the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion, but he still ramps up the difficulty a nice amount. I didn't lose a single game with just the base game until I added him.

And real quick, you were adding 1 extra toughness to the monsters with Shub, right? That makes him pretty rough, especially if you had monsters pouring out of gates at the beginning!

TheGoose said:

There isn't really such thing as a mage... Spellcasting is supposed to be expensive and rare for most investigators (a few of them can pull it off successfully, and in the base game really only Carolyn can do it, or a character with the Healing Stone).

Flipped over gates will not add enough to the game difficulty. What it will do however is detract a significant strategic element from the game. Not that it's not fun (I designed a herald— Kerathimel— to enhance gate randomness, you could actually use it without an expansion, but it wouldn't significantly boost game difficulty unless you played him with Yog-Sothoth, you'd still be stuck with the 11 gates problem though).

The others have said many of the problems with the base game. Once its mechanics are understood, it's *very* possible to win (by sealing) on it with one investigator, and easy to do so with two.

Dunwich Horror is a great first expansion... If you can find it. It's sold out almost everywhere. Quite a few of the still existing copies online are foreign language copies, so watch out.

Here is a link to a game modifying variant I designed to fix this problem :'D Just print out a few copies and distribute one to each player so everyone knows the mod being used (it's reply number 730) It will boost the game difficulty considerably :

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efpag=48&efid=113&efcid=1&efidt=22867

This Nyarlathotep variant was designed with all large boxes in mind, but I also thought about how it would work with only the base game (it does). You may need to look up a few terms at http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Main_Page (weapon immunity and stalker come to mind).

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=113&efcid=1&efidt=407250&efpag=0

Consider also using this sub-variant

"11th Doom token (on a 13 doom Nyarlathotep) summons The Dark pharoah at Miskatonic University Streets (instead of a random mask, for that old fashioned feeling of apocalyptic terror)."

Oh hell... I'll just repost the text for the previous variant.

For playing the Base Game only and for enhancing the difficulty of the Base Game Ancient Ones:

I wouldn't play with the modified Doom Tracks if you have other board expansions (particularly Dunwich and Innsmouth), or use the following Elder Sign/Encounter rule.
Doom tokens can not be removed from the doom track by any means prior to final combat (that means no South Church exploit, and no Elder Sign hunting). This makes it so you can't just play out the clock for a guaranteed win. Elder Signs are used as normal, but they don't reduce the doom track.
Optional: ban the use of clues with the fight skill and/or the shotgun during final combat.

Starting Doom Tokens for base game Ancient Ones [with the base board only]:
Yig: 0
Ithaqua: 2
Azathoth: 5 [if you are not just playing the base game, 3]
Cthulhu: 3
Nyarlathotep: 2
Hastur: 3
Yog Sothoth: 2
Shub Niggurath: 3

Yig: Investigators can not be blessed during games against him (Sister Mary is an exception to this rule). Twice as many successes as normal are required to remove a doom token from his doom track.
Cultists are fast.

Ithaqua: gains physical and magical resistance.
Each round of combat with a cultist, roll a die for each weapon or spell you are using, on a failure, it is lost.

Azathoth: Start him with 5 or 3 doom tokens.
Cultists and Maniacs deal four damage to an investigator who defeats them and are stalkers.

Cthulhu: when he reaches 7 doom tokens, his ability reduces all investigators maximum stamina and sanity by 2 instead.
Star Spawn have their toughness increased by two. If they are adjacent to an Elder Sign, they will move onto it if their movement is shown during the mythos phase, ignoring investigators and arrows. If they are still on the Elder Sign during the next mythos phase, remove it from the board. If they defeat an investigator in combat and are permanently on the board, they immediately move one space closer to the nearest Elder Sign (player's choice if there is a tie), following an arrow, or directly (if they are directly adjacent). They can not be taken as monster trophies. If they are defeated, return them to the cup. If they are placed in the outskirts, substitute them with any non-Star Spawn monster on the board that is not in the Sky— if there is a Cultist on the board, a Cultist must be chosen.

Nyarlathotep: is magically and physically immune and requires twice as many successes as normal to remove doom tokens from his doom track.
If you defeat a Cultist, immediately search the monster cup for a random Mask, and fight or evade it as well. If the Cultist was on the board, the Mask remains on the board if undefeated, if not, return it to the cup.

Hastur: raise the terror track to four at the start of the game.
If a Cultist is in the sky, moves, and is unable to leave the sky (due to lack of investigators in the street), raise the terror level by one. When a Cultist is defeated, all investigators lose one clue.

Yog Sothoth: gains physical resistance. Flip all gates against him upside down until investigators enter them, increase their modifiers by -1.
Before investigators in an Other World draw their first encounter they must fight or evade a random monster from the monster cup. If this causes them to be devoured, add a doom token to the doom track.
Shub Niggurath: gains magical resistance. His final combat attack require investigators to lose 3 monster trophies.
Dark Young have their toughness increased an additional one, are Endless, and are not counted against the monster limit. Dhole moves like a Hound of Tindalos, is not counted against the monster limit, and is Endless. Every time a Cultist is defeated, roll a die, on a 1-3 search the cup and place the Dhole on the open gate with the least number of monsters on it (players choice if a tie). The Dhole and Dark Youngs can not be taken as trophies.

I do realize that time is important in this game and while I definitely not want to make the game easier, I just find the trips to the asylum to slow down the pace of the game. I think I may have been using spells too intensively however.

And yesh, we did add extra toughness due to the old black goat; this is one of the reasons the terror track rose rather quickly in the beginning.

Flipping the gates is something I consider not primarily to make it harder but rather because it will make the game scarier and more tense (I hope). I think however that the difficulty will rise sufficiently just from the corrections of our mistakes so far, such as clue trading, forgetting to remove allies, allowing movement after fighting etc.

I'm also grateful for all your fan-made contributions etc; I think we'll take one or two more core games before trying them, though.