Sunday, August 23, 2015

Headline:  "Gates or Death?"

Ancient One

Tsathoggua

Investigators

Wendy Adams, the Urchin - Susan
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Rachelle
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Rob
Diana Stanley, the Reformed Occultist - Justin ("Or so she claims!")

End of Game

6 gates sealed, 9/13 doom tokens

House Rules/Game Setup
Rachelle selected Nyogtha because we had never played him before.We randomly selected the AO and decided to keep it.

Each player chose his/her own character.

Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow
Kingsport Horror
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror
The Lurker at the Threshold

Heralds, Guardians, and Institutions

[none]

Highlights

  *  The Hound of Tindolos is ridiculous!  Don't mess with that.
  *  Patrice had a lot of friends riding on the motorcycle with her.
  *  Diana had 9 monster trophies (monsters, not toughness) by the end of game.
  *  Wendy had 4 gate trophies by the end of game.
  *  We discarded a second rumor, and the first never was activated.
  *  There's a really sucky card that gets rid of all of the clue tokens on the board.
  *  There's a really cool card that would let you summon the AO and lower the number of doom tokens on its track.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Headline:  "Ellie's First Arkham Horror Game"

Ancient One

Nyogtha, Tendrils from Below

Investigators

Akachi Onyele, the Shaman - Susan
Darrell Simmons, the Photographer - Robbi (left after several turns)
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Rachelle (did you have to ask? ;) )
Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Young James (started on 3rd turn)
Wendy Adams, the Urchin - Rob
Silas Marsh, the Sailor - Justin (started on 4th turn)

End of Game

1.  Silas Marsh passes his personal story, seals the last gate, and is devoured.
If we kept playing...
2.  Ursula comes back from The Underworld and closes and seals the gate.

House Rules/Game Setup
Rachelle selected Nyogtha because we had never played him before.

Each player was given 4 investigators to choose from.

Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow
Kingsport Horror
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror
The Lurker at the Threshold

Heralds, Guardians, and Institutions

[none]

Highlights

  *  Susan was the first player on the first turn.  She encountered a Leng Spider, used all of her skills and cards, and couldn't beat it (needed 2 successes, had many dice, used Patrice's clues, ultimately did not succeed).  Got injured.  An auspicious beginning...
  *  Rob, to Robbi:  "Injuries are fun!  Just ask Susan..."
     Susan:  "What?  I can't hear you."  (Hearing Loss Injury)
  *  Silas Marsh, monster curbstomper extraordinaire, made a very lovely fingerpainting while recovering at the Asylum. It inspires children to this day.
  *  Ursula learned from being lost in Atlantic City of the Great Race and found Find Gate!
  *  Wendy Adams hung out in the Woods a lot and finally achieved their goal of becoming a bona fide gang member
  *  Committing an act of benevolent terrorism, Wendy Adams' bomb spectacularly failed to explode. At all. Due to the other investigators totally stealing the glory
  *  Wendy placed her time bomb, called a cultist to get killed by it, and gave Ursula the Elder Sign on her way into The Underworld (Ursula was on her way out).  They had a touching interaction, discussing female badassery, and Wendy stole a bunch of Ursula's shit (derringer and kerosene).
  *  4 hour game

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Headline:  "I've got a raging clue right now."

Ancient One
Quachil Uttaus

Investigators
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Susan
Akachi Onyele, the Shaman - Susan  (artistic and spiritual ladies!)
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Rob
Wendy Adams, the Urchin - Rob  (losers.  on purpose.)
Norman Withers, the Astronomer - Robbi
Kate Winthrop, the Scientist - Robbi  (sciency theme! )

End of Game
We sealed 6 gates!  (1 Elder Sign, otherwise, Patrice's clues)
9/12 doom tokens

House Rules/Game Setup
We chose Investigators based on their anticipated balancing of abilities and skills, and based on their "Personal Stories."  We're using both the Personal Stories and the "Relationship" cards this time. 

Robbi randomly selected the AO, guardian, herald, and institution.

Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow
Kingsport Horror
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror

Heralds, Guardians, and Institutions
The Dunwich Horror
Nodens
Bureau of Investigations

Highlights
*  A couple of Other World encounters that give/could give lots of $.
*  Norman was the first player 3 times in a row!  (Due to the AO's Dust Deck.)
*  Kate failed her personal story, which made her unable to seal gates with clues.  However, she had an encounter that gave her a unique item:  an Elder Sign!
*  We ran out of clue tokens (=none more in the box) a couple of times, largely due to Akachi passing her personal story and getting all of the unstable locations loaded with clues.  Also, an encounter or Mythos card caused all of the adjacent areas to a rift to be filled with 2 clues each!
*  Rob and Suz have been watching a lot of "Arrested Development," to catch up and watch the new shows.  Suz's character Patrice got Eric Colt as an Ally - "ERIC COLT!!"  [get it?  "STEVE HOLT!"]
*  This AO would have been terrible to fight (attack = devouring the first player).  It's a good thing we went for sealing the gates.
*  This was the first time we used the new dice!  (red & purple with gold pips)

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Headline:  "You're drunk, Cthulhu, go home."

Ancient One
Cthulhu

Investigators
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Susan
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Rachelle

Silas Marsh, the Sailor - Rob
Rex Murphy, the Reporter - Denis

Tony Morgan, the Bounty Hunter - Justin

Dexter Drake, the Magician - Heather

Wendy Adams, the Urchin - Chris

Akachi Onyele, the Shaman - Robbi

End of Game
We sealed 6 gates, and Cthulhu's doom track was filled 9/13

House Rules/Game Setup
Chris specifically chose Cthulhu, since he is new to the game. Seeing as we'd probably lose, we each picked our own Investigator out of the whole lot.  Our strategy: close and seal gates.  Use Patrice's ability to give clues to others and Wendy's starting Elder Sign to that end.

Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow (we use the new cards from this, but we never have actually had the 'play' enter play)
Kingsport Horror (we left out Heralds and Guardians)
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror

Miskatonic Horror

Highlights
* During the first turn, we missed out on getting 3 allies through Arkham encounters!  (Rob, Denis, Chris)  Finally, Rachelle got an ally through an encounter a little bit later on (her first ever ally).

*  Silas had a dream that he went to the administration building and tried to sell them a photograph.  (a Kingsport encounter sent him to the Dreamlands for 1 encounter, which sent him to the Administration Building for an encounter)

*  Denis:  "Dexter doesn't suck as much as expected."  Dexter kicked some monster butt!

*  Patrice had been giving Akachi clues to avoid losing all of her stamina, and after 2 fails in a row exclaimed "Roll better!"  Immediately afterward, Akachi got a success.

*  Rob draws 5 Innsmouth Looks cards and comes out Blessed!
*  Denis tries to get Rex un-Cursed by hanging out at the church, which doesn't end up working out (Luke un-Curses him with a gate trophy).  Later on, Rex gets Blessed, but he loses the Blessing soon afterwards.
*  We voted on whether or not to let a rumor trip - "World Torn Asunder" (again?!).  We decided as a group to solve it, even though it meant that no one would become Deputy of Arkham in the end.  In hindsight, it was a good decision. (Rob says, as he reads what , "I think we would have been okay the other way, too... We would have had more trophies and more bad-ass people.")
*  Patrice gave people lots of clues - very helpful/"inspiring".
*  Silas kept Kingsport's rifts and Innsmouth's monsters under control - very important, and enabled other investigators to focus on closing and sealing gates.  He also had a few special moments with Gladys Pickman of Kingsport.
*  Dexter kicked monster booty.
*  Luke sealed 2/6 gates.
*  The street rat and magician proved helpful additions to the game.  Who knew?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Headline:  "World Saved by Daring and Affluent Adventurers!"

Ancient One
Yibb-Tstll [specifically chosen, never played before]

Investigators
Wendy Adams, the Urchin - Susan [chosen for Elder Sign]
Monterey Jack, the Archaeologist - Rob [chosen for "archaeology"]
Jim Culver, the Musician - Justin [chosen for "strange luck"]
Darrell Simmons, the Photographer - Robbilee

End of Game
6 gates were sealed
Doom Track only reached 7

House Rules/Game Setup
Ancient One chosen specifically, because we hadn't played it before.
Investigators chosen from all possible investigators, after finding out the Ancient One's abilities and discussing winning tactics.
Expansions in play:
Dunwich Horror
Kingsport Horror
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
The King in Yellow
Black Goat of the Woods

Highlights
*  Darrell's retainer lasted almost to the end of game.
*  Wendy, the Urchin, became Deputy.
*  "The Great Ritual" Rumor was easily dispelled.
*  Another Rumor passed while "The Great Ritual" was still out.