I am currently waiting for my copy of arkham horror to arrive in the mail, been doing some reading about gameplay and can't wait to give it a try. I figured I would start out playing solo till i have my head around the rules and involve friends. Was wondering if this is a good idea, and if I should start solo playing as 1 investigator, or 2,3, or 4?

Any recomendations or advice on solo learning would be greatly appreciated.

Try it with 1 or 2 first. 1 isn't a very good game, but it'll teach you what you need to know.

It shouldn't take you too long to be ready for a 2-investigator game, and it's much better.

My advice is: get four or five people straight away. Much more fun.

If you mean four or five people , then I don't advise it: it's better to be familiar with the game before you try to play it with even one other person.

If you mean investigators , then I don't advise it: it's way too much to keep track of by yourself.

I'd go for a solo play with three investigators; you'll have much more to think about, but also you'll face a wider spectrum of situation, and you have a decent chance of sealing some gates while practicing the basics.

I won't definitely play one investigator; too many things to do with only one character in play. The risk is, at the end of the game, you have a greater mess in your head than at the beginning.

But yeah, 4 or 5 can be tough indeed

Julia said:

I'd also recommend starting with Azathoth as the AO - less rules to worry about and a slower clock.

2 investigator game, don't worry too much about winning - just see how all the various rules work.

Fairly soon though I'd suggest moving to a 4 or 5 person game. All you need to be sure of is how the game rules work so you can make the calls needed as the game progresses for the new players. If you already know someone who plays - I wouldn't even bother with the solo games and just dive straight in with them.

Once you've got a few games under your belt in a variety of investigator numbers, AOs and investigators you can then start to think about how to beat the game consistently.

(and running ten investigator games either solo or with friends, which are a barrel of laughs but not for the unprepared)

Thanks for all the advice, guess i'll start it with one or two investigators (see how confident I feel after reading the rule book) and go from there. I don't know anyone else who plays unfortunately, so I'll be figuring it out by myself. Can't wait to give it a try.

Read the FAQ and the thread "answers from Kevin Wilson."

Look for ColtFan69 messages on the forum, he already answered tough questions you will ask to yourself too.

And look for Tibs answers too. Sorry Tibs.

Don't look to me for answers from April 29 to mid-July. I'll be in a national radio-quiet zone and will be without a cell phone and probably without internet.

Tibs said:

It seems like Paradise on Earth...

Tibs said:

You're going to Alabama?

Woops, I meant May 29. Durr.

No, I'll be at NRAO's Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia. I'm told that summer weather there is in the 20s (60 to 80F). Typical mountain weather.

Tibs said:

Hey, we's in Amerikuh so no metric temperatures here...

Hi there!

What really helped me through my first plays was the Headless Hollow Game Sheets Arkham Horror Rules Summary.

The rules' complexity did't let me appreciate the game at first, but now it's definitely my favorite BG and I have to admit that I kinda like it better when playing solo!!!

That's all, see you in some Other World!

I realize that the OP seems to have already gotten the answer that he/she needs, but I'll chime in anyway; I find the game easiest to learn as you go along, as opposed to trying to read all of the rules and keep everything straight. I learned by playing with a few friends who were all excited about learning the game. The major problem that you face is that your friends get bored while you look up exactly how combat works for the third time. The advantage of having friends who are also curious is that they don't feel like they're sitting around twiddling their thumbs; they actually want to know how it works too.

You did mention that you don't have any other friends who play, but if you can find a couple of friends who like more rules-y games like MTG, D&D, GURPS, other FFG boardgames, CoC, etc., they will probably be likely to give it a shot.

GLHF!

00000100 said:

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but after several games, a guy in my group gave one of my favorite assessments of AH. "It's basically a way to trick your friends into playing a role-playing game with you"

(My other favorite assessment, when I explained the premise (y'know...team of investigators who are trying to stop interdimensional gates from opening and releasing monsters, and if enough gates open an ancient god will wake up and destroy you) was "So...it's kind of like Ghostbusters?")

subochre said:

::laughter::

the only fun fact I can add is one of my friends that, instead of saying "Ancient Ones" says "Elderly Ones"...

subochre said:

Julia said:

There's no +1 or post-liking system, so this will have to do.

subochre said:

I used that for years! Ghostbusters remains the best contemporary parallel for an Arkham Horror game, and a most useful reference when I was trying to introduce it to my friends, since between Lovecraft and Venkman, I knew ALL of them knew Venkman!