Next Wednesday I will be running a game of Arkham Horror for a group, most of which have never played before. They are, however, experienced gamers and so I am confident they will grasp the rules and mechanics easily.

So I am trying to design a game that will be interesting for them. I expect to have 5 or 6 players.

I have the following expansions:

Dark Pharoh V1 (DP)

Black Goat

Innsmouth Horror (IH).

I am considering using IH wit the visiting exhibit variant of DP in order to curb the full horror of Innsmouth.

What do other people suggest I do? Both in terms of components to use and characters to allocate.

I'd just go with the base game for a group of newbies, there's enough stuff in there to take a couple of games to wrap their heads around.

And yes I remember the first few games of Arkham, I didn't like it too much, but then again without an experienced player to take care of the overhead and background stuff it is pretty complicated and long. Nowadays it's a firm favourite and 4-hour games only happen when progress is stalled, not because of players fumbling around slowly learning the rules.

I'd second using only the base game for their first run. There will be plenty of time later to check out the rest if they end up liking it.

My first time was after I'd bought the game for a friend. It was just after Dunwich had just come out, though we still just started with the base set. It wasn't long before I was heading back to get a copy for myself.

As much as I like the expansions, I still play some of the time with only the main game when time is a factor.

Always be gentle your first time. (That's what she said?)

Arkham is a huge, overwhelming game, and some people just won't enjoy it if the game kicks their butt too hard the first time out. Black Goat and Insmouth are literally about the worst expansions you could use.

That said, keeping Madness and Injuries from Dunwich, and throwing in all the Investigators, allies, spells items ect. is never a bad idea. Madness and Injuries are something you should never play without as far as I'm concerned, and most of the Investigators and Items won't cause problems, and may make the game more enjoyable.

For first timers, the base board should be interesting enough. Expansion boards and elements can be added in later.

Definitely start with the base game alone. Injuries and Madness would be great, but if you don't have that expansion, just the base game will do fine.

Thanks for the advice.

I have run Arkham for newbies before and found it just a little too…. easy. I kinda want to set up a game with a decent chance of fighting the AO.

Maybe I just need to run base + one of the harder AO's. I still think this group could handle something more, we have played games such as Battlestar Galactica and Cosmic Encounter. (We have played non FFG games too, those just happen to be examples of games that require players to keep track of lots of stuff at once.) I'm also confident that this group can handle a loss on the first game.

Back to the drawing board!

If you want an extra challenge, then you should play a Shub or a Yog game with just the base board. Anyway, you mentioned the fact that they are experienced players (even if this is their first Arkham game). You could consider adding Dunwich and playing a very easy AO (Azathoth). No final battle, but a lot of time to explore different locations and face different threats. Plus enough time to elaborate some basic strategy. I'd say that if you are playing 5+ investigators, then add a board, otherwise everyone will step into each other's feet

I do not have Dunwich, but agree that the 5+ players I hope will be involved should merit a second board.

I'm leaning towards an 'Innsmouth Lite' game, ignoring stuff like the DOR track and personal stories. Just basically have the board as new locations and dont worry about keeping track of all the fiddly details.