Hi all.

I've been playing AGoT LCG for a couple of years, and LoTR LCg since its release, but am fairly new to Cthulu etc.

I was wondering how playable this game is straight out of the box- is it similar to the other games in that you can get a flavour for the mechanics, but can't actually put together a full-size deck, or anything like that?

Given that I'm not in a position to catch up on dozens on monthly packs (not sure what the Cthulu term is) would this be a sensible purchase for me, or mgiht I be better off with elder Sign /Arkham Horror etc?

thanks

The Core Set includes 20 cards of each of the original seven factions and 15 neutral cards, and there's no duplicates.

By combining two factions and adding half the neutral cards to one deck you can create decks with 47 cards each, so they're slightly smaller than the tournament minimum of 50 cards.

I liked it a lot since it allows for a very high number of different decks and gives you a good idea what the different factions are about.

You should be aware though that you're playing with highlander decks, so the luck factor is high, and the factions aren't equally strong, so you can end up with two-faction combos that don't work well. If you don't mind either you'll definitely get your money's worth.

My recommendation would be based on the typical number of players you have available, e.g. CoC is most often played with two players and has no single-player option.

Arkham Horror works well with any number of players (1-7), particularly since it's easy to play several investigators at once. However, games can take a long time to finish (2-5 hours).

I haven't played Elder Sign yet, but judging by what I've read about it, it's 'Arkham Horror LITE'. It supports a similar number of players, but play time is a lot shorter (though probably not as short as a game of CoC).

One of the great strengths of the Call of Cthulhu game is the freedom in mixing factions (as far as I'm aware I don't think you can do this in AGoT). Typically most decks are dual faction, particularly when drawing from a limited card pool, and this is how the Core set can offer a variety of decks with such a small number of cards.

Basically, the system works with just a Core but it's mainly just going to let you try out the system. If you want to customize your decks even a little (beyond picking your 2-faction combinations) then you're not going to have that without at least a few more cards. I would suggest trying a Core set plus the Secrets of Arkham expansion for a richer taste of the game while still keeping the budget down.

I haven't played Arkham Horror, but my understanding is as jhaelen describes. It's a fairly long and complex game. There are cards and bits EVERYWHERE. You really need one person who's familiar with the game to run things, so if you don't have someone to teach you you'll probably need to spend some effort learning it and maybe play part of a trial game before trying to introduce it to others - plus the first run will last longer as you're getting used to things. A lot of people love the game and it's well regarded, but it's more of a whole evening's *experience* than a game in the sense of a fairly quick contest between players.

Elder Sign is also a co-op game, but much shorter than Arkham Horror, much less fidldly, and much less immersive. However, you may find it is also too easy to beat the game - some people put into place house rules to stiffen it up a bit. If you have an iPhone/iPad you can try it out there for cheap before buying the boardgame version. Essentially it's a dice game. Your characters take on various challenges which require certain dice combinations to beat. Each character has a special ability, plus you start with and can earn items which are single use things that can help you beat the challenges. These may let you turn one die into another, reroll something, automatically pass part of a challenge, gain extra rewards, etc... So, it's a game of knowing the odds and making good decisions about what your character can reasonably expect to accomplish, risk & reward stuff. The game is on a timer, you have to acquire a certain number of Elder Signs before the Great Old One shows up to seal them away and stop them from killing everyone. Personally, I find the iOS version a fun diversion once in a while but I suspect that playing the boardgame would be sort of a popcorn thing - not really deep enough to be satisfying on its own but useful as a filler between bigger games or to close the night when you're all kind of worn out mentally and don't want to take on something meatier.

Another alternative is Mansions of Madness. Haven't played it myself, but it's supposed to be sort of an Arkham Horror Lite. It does require one player to be the GM though which may be an issue for some people.

dboeren said:

There is a fanmade 'mod' for Arkham Horror which turns it into something similar to MoM: arkhaminvestigations.barkingdoginteractive.com/

It's quite possible that this 'mod' served as an inspiration for MoM.