Saturday, December 31, 2016

Headline:  "I've never had this much money in this game" or "Amanda Sharpe, anime folk hero!"

Ancient One

Atlach-Nacha - looks the most like Trump!

Investigators 

Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Suz (In honor of Rachelle, who is too sick to play :(  )
Amanda Sharpe "The Co-ed", the Student - Rob
Joe Diamond, the Private Investigator ("And in this one, he's a little crooked") - Justin

End of Game

We beat the AO!  It took a very long time for him to awaken.  We only attacked twice, and he attacked us only once, taking an Ally.

House Rules/Game Setup
New setup on the table!  I'll try to post a picture.

AO specifically chosen because he looks like Trump.
Herald, Guardian, and Institution all chosen to suit the President-Elect.

We chose any investigator we wanted, out of all investigators.  
We think we'll end up fighting him, since sealing gates will be too difficult.  Justin holds out hope that we can close all of the gates.

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

Chosen to align most closely with the impending Trump administration:

Herald:  Father Dagon (fishy, untrustworthy, and has "plans in motion" - "the Putin of the spirit world," according to Justin)
Institution:  Organized Crime (duh)
Guardian:  Hypnos (is this all a bad dream?)

Highlights

  *  Roll to see who'd go first:  1-Rob, 2-Suz, 3-Justin
  *  Patrice and Amanda go shopping at the Curiositie Shoppe because their personal stories both require them to draw Unique Items (Patrice - 2, Amanda - 3)
  *  We are all doing very well with money (thank you, Organized Crime)
  *  Patrice ends the game with 27 clue tokens.  She gives them all to Amanda, who grapples the AO and empties her shotgun into it.
  *  We were in Other Worlds at the same time often, even benefiting from not being in Arkham for a negative Mythos effect.
  *  A rumor came and went, thanks to our Egyptian artifacts.
  *  MANY (3-4?) Mythos cards came out that only caused monster surges and no gates/doom tokens being added.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Headline:  "A Midwinter's Night Dream" or "We whipped it, we whipped it good"

Ancient One

Zhar

Investigators

Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Susan
Amanda Sharpe, the Student - Rob
Joe Diamond, the Private Eye - Justin 

Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Rachelle
Mandy Thompson, the Researcher - Robbilee
Gloria Goldberg, the Author - "Young" James

End of Game

We closed and sealed 6 gates, with 10/11 doom tokens on the track.  That was a close one!

House Rules/Game Setup
Robbi randomly selected 3 Ancient Ones, and James selected Zhar from those three.  

Since this is James's first Arkham Horror game, and some of us are very tired (we're starting at 9pm), we elected not to use Heralds, Guardians, or Institutions.

We each chose a character of our choice, once we realized how tough Zhar was going to be (why do the new players always choose such tough AOs?).  Then we determined relationships:

Luke and Amanda:  Business Associates
Patrice and Mandy:  Socially Connected
Joe and Gloria:  Collectors

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 game started with Justin and James dropping all of the little tokens on the floor.
*  Then Justin spent ~1 hour describing every aspect of the game to James in great detail.
*  Due to the rumor drawn on the 2nd turn, the 1st player ends up having to draw Innsmouth Look cards.  When it's Rob's turn, he has to draw THREE of them.
*  Rachelle's and Robbi's relationship comes in really handy - they end up getting a lot of Allies. It's pretty cool to be Socially Connected.  Rachelle had 3 allies in the end:  Anna, Ruby, and some other dude.
*  Rob exclaims "I'm just a sexy student, all I have is a professor!" in reference to how much money someone had during a play. All he has is professor Morgan.
*  For an extended period of time, we had the Environment (Mystic) Mythos card "Noden's Favor," which made it cost 2 fewer clue tokens to seal gates.  Woohoo!
*  Robbi wins the game as she rolls to close and seal the final gate.  Patrice gave Mandy a few clues to help out at the end.  Also of note, Robbi allowed Greta to sit on her lap for the final roll.  :)
*  While waiting around for the last few investigators to return to Arkham and close and seal the final gates, Luke and Gloria blessed a few other investigators.
*  Susan actually went insane from her bad luck, consistently missing horror check rolls.
*  "It was a wonderful experience," notes James.
*  "I'm sleepy," notes Rob.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Headline:  "Epic Adventure Begins!"

Ancient One
Abhoth

Investigators
Joe Diamond, the Private Eye - Susan
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Susan
Tony Morgan, the Bounty Hunter - Rob
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Rob

End of Game
Our first strategy:  Complete "Personal Stories" and just have a good time.
Our second strategy:  "Oh look! We have closed almost all of the gates!"  Close all gates.
Our final strategy:  Beat up Abhoth.  Many gates opened, making our second strategy futile.

We won!  We only needed to get rid of all of our clues, a few gate and monster trophies, and very few items.  Patrice had the "Changed" card in the end, which allowed for her to gain more clues.

House Rules/Game Setup
We chose Investigators based on their anticipated balancing of abilities and skills, and based on their "Personal Stories," which we were using for the first time this game.  

Rob selected Abhoth as AO at random.  Susan's reaction:  Patrice will come in handy for the Attack ("Each investigator must discard a total of 3 Clue tokens, monster trophies, gate trophies, and/or Items or be devoured.")

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 and Guardians
Nodens
Tulzscha (but with Abhoth, there are no Cultists!  ha!)

Highlights
*  On the first turn, Patrice and Joe meet up in the Graveyard to exchange stuff, and they both have encounters that would give them Allies, but they don't qualify.
*  There was a monster surge, followed by "Manhunt in Arkham" (Mythos card), which sent all monsters 'in locations' back to the cup.
*  Not a "highlight," more like a lowlight:  Patrice constantly made bad rolls.  So much for an abundance of extra clues.
*  Luke is usually pretty lame, but even though he failed his "Personal Story," he became pretty badass in the end.
*  "The Great Ritual" rumor was dispelled, giving everyone 2 clues - very helpful in defending against Abhoth.
*  There were very few monsters out, in general, until the end, when we decided to stop trying to close gates and just get ready to fight.  There were a few monster surges then, and that brought out a few Children of Aboth, but they were always avoided by evade checks, by gates being closed with their symbol, or by encounters or Mythos cards that returned monsters in certain areas to the cup.

Continuing the Game...
If we choose to keep playing with these characters, this is what they had when they won:

Joe
Skills:  Sneak
Allies:  Ryan Dean
Injury/Madness:  Anxiety
Common Items:  Axe, Cross, Shotgun
Unique Items:  The Light of Reason, Golden Sword of Y'ha-Talla
Spells:  Dread Curse of Azathoth x2
Other:  5 toughness of monster trophies, 1 gate trophy
Clues:  none
$:  none
Stamina/Sanity:  3/3
Personal Story:  not passed or failed
Speed: 4
Fight: 5
Lore: 2
Location: River Docks

Patrice
Skills:  Bravery, Painter
Allies:  David Packard
Injury/Madness:  -
Common Items:  Flamethrower, Dark Cloak
Unique Items:  Soul Gem, Sacrifices To Make
Spells:  -
Other:  1 gate trophy, Blessing, Blessing of Noden (+1 Horror), Changed, The Great Seal
Clues:  none
$:  1
Stamina/Sanity:  5/2
Personal Story:  passed
Speed: 2
Fight: 4
Lore: 5
Location: Gardner's Place

Tony
Skills:  Expert Occultist
Allies:  -
Injury/Madness:  Jinxed
Common Items:  Axe, .45 Automatic, Athame
Unique Items:  -
Spells:  -
Other:  Blessing, Blessing of Noden (+1 Combat)
Clues:  none
$:  4
Stamina/Sanity:  2/7
Personal Story:  passed
Speed: 4
Fight: 4
Lore: 0
Location: South Church


Luke
Skills:  Run
Allies:  -
Injury/Madness:  -
Common Items:  Shotgun, Bullwhip, Understudy's Script, 
Unique Items:  Gladius of Carcosa, Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, Gate Box
Spells:  Arcane Insight, Find Gate, Dread Curse of Azathoth
Other:  1 gate trophy
Clues:  none
$:  1
Stamina/Sanity:  5/1
Personal Story:  failed
Speed: 1
Fight: 4
Lore: 4
Location: Rivertown Streets


Rules for continuing game:
Investigators stay in the last location from previous game.
All Investigator cards remain (items, abilities, Personal Stories, injuries/madnesses).
All board changes are reset, since the AO left - including clues, gates, monsters, rifts, terror track, etc.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Headline: "This is the game that never ends, yes it goes on and on, my friends..."

Ancient One
Glaaki [randomly chosen by Rachelle]

Investigators
Jim Culver, the Musician - Susan (chosen for the "Dead Man's Stomp," to stomp Cultists)
"Ashcan" Pete, the Drifter - Rob (chosen to select from unique items, to find magical weapons for the end fight)
Joe Diamond, the Private Eye - Justin (twice in row... time to branch out ;))
Amanda Sharpe, the Student - Robbilee (¡skillz!)
Mandy "Tits McGee" Thompson, the Researcher - Rachelle (chosen for the re-roll option, of course)
Harvey Walters, the Professor - Denis (¡sanity!)

End of Game
We successfully defeated Glaaki, and no Servants of Glaaki ever entered play (Praise Lovecraft!).

We intended to fight Glaaki from the beginning, rather than trying to control gates. Having 6 players rather than our usual 4, the limits were different from "normal," and this seemed to be the best way to go.

However, the game was dragging on, with many gate surges and no new gates, as well as rumors that diverted our resources and efforts. We were all getting tired, so we decided to just end things in Arkham and the Other Worlds and wake Glaaki up. Yes, this is illegal. There were only 8 out of 12 doom tokens on at the time. We had few magical weapons, but slowly and surely we hacked away at Glaaki, shriveling him, and then attacking him with an Elephant Gun. The Terror Track got pretty high, but we made it with rounds to spare.

House Rules/Game Setup
Ancient One chosen randomly by Rachelle, since she isn't always in town when we play.
Investigators chosen from 3 possible randomly dealt investigators, after finding out the Ancient One's abilities and discussing winning tactics.
I forget how we chose the Guardian and Herald...

Expansions in play
Dunwich Horror
Kingsport Horror - this time we tried out both a Guardian (Bast) and a Herald (Tulzscha)
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
The King in Yellow
Black Goat of the Woods

Highlights
* Due to Glaaki and Tulzscha, Cultists were complicated.
* "Ashcan" Pete was barred from Miskatonic U for burning books. ("Ashcan"! ha!)
* Mandy got sucked through to Another Time and stayed there for a good 4-5 turns. (not exactly a 'highlight,' but something of note..)
* Several of us went to get a Bank Loan to pay off the Mad Bomber, and hoping to have leftover cash for Magical Weapons, and ended up defaulting. There was a lot of meeting up and hastily handing over all items before defaulting.
* No one wants the Milk of Shub-Niggurath. Who would?
* There were a lot of Allies. Not enough weapons, but plenty o friends. Too bad we weren't fighting Atlach-Nacha.
* There were lots of double-entendres. Amanda Sharpe caught John LeGrasse "playing with a bone." She then "pumped Eric Colt for information."
* There were lots of double-encounters. "Go to X location and have another encouter there."

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Headline:  "Dexter Drake's bad luck doesn't hamper Joe Diamond's grappling skillz!"

Ancient One
Yig [specifically chosen, shortest doom track (weeknight)]

Investigators
Amanda Sharpe, the Student - Susan
Leo Anderson, the Expedition Leader - Rob 
Joe Diamond, the Private Eye - Justin 
Dexter Drake, the Magician - Robbilee 

End of Game
successfully defeated Yig, even though 3 out of 4 investigators were cursed.

House Rules/Game Setup
Ancient One chosen specifically, because we wanted a quick game for a weeknight.
Investigators chosen from 3 possible random investigators, after finding out the Ancient One's abilities and discussing winning tactics.
Expansions in play: 
Dunwich Horror
Kingsport Horror - this time we tried out a Guardian for the first time:  Noden
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
The King in Yellow
Black Goat of the Woods


Highlights
*  Noden was a cool Guardian.  We will do a Herald next time.
*  Dexter had a ton of awesome shit, but shitty luck.  He raised the terror level on the first turn and closed the bank on the second turn.
*  We let a lame rumor run its course:  investigators in the streets would have been devoured
*  Leo, the expedition leader, was always "not invited."  (The other 3 investigators were often in one location, and Leo was in the complete opposite direction - by chance, of course.)
*  Joe, cursed, but with grapple, lead the fight against Yig with Dexter's shotgun.  Go Joe!