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

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Headline:  "Goat Game."

Ancient One

Shub-Niggurath

Investigators

Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Susan
Roland Banks, the Fed - Rob
Carolyn "Tell Me About Your Mother" Fern, the Psychologist - Justin 

Marie Lambeau, the Entertainer - Rachelle

End of Game

We tried to seal gates, only got 5 (we were one turn away), and Shub woke up.  
We fought hard and lost good men and women along the way.  
Roland Banks was the first to go, being tired after single-handedly defeating the Dunwich Horror.
Ursula followed, screaming "Take Me Instead!"
The only memory remaining of Carolyn Fern were patrons of Hibb's Roadhouse who complained she was a sore loser, having threatened them with a flamethrower rather than paying up at a card game.
Marie saved the day, with one final possible dice throw that had the one necessary success.

House Rules/Game Setup
Rob specifically chose Shub-Niggurath and the corresponding Herald, Black Goat of the Woods.
Based on that, Justin and Rob chose Hypnos as Guardian and The Bureau of Investigations as Institution.

We each chose a character from four dealt at random.  Then we determined relationships:

Ursula and Roland – Take Me Instead

Carolyn and Marie – Hunted

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

Black Goat of the Woods
Hypnos
The Bureau of Investigations

Highlights

It was a tough game, with lots of twists and turns.  It looked bleak for a while, but there was always a glimmer of hope, as Rob reminded us.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Headline:  "We won!  APRIL FOOLS!"

Ancient One
Cthugha

Investigators
Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Susan
Monterey Jack, the Archaeologist - Susan  (exciting people doing exciting things!)
Anges Baker, the Waitress - Rob
Daisy Walker, the Librarian - Rob  (both strong, magical people)
Norman Withers, the Astronomer - Justin
Minh Thi Phan - Justin  (academic theme!  Norman's special skill is sweet, and Minh is his secretary )

End of Game
We lost the final battle.

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. 

Justin selected Cthugha as AO at random.

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
Father Dagon
Bast
Bureau of Investigations

Highlights
*  Minh's synergy is doubled with the VOICE OF RA.
*  Norman and Minh got pulled through a gate during a mythos phase.  Norman came back due to his other world encounter and Minh then used find gate to follow him back.  They closed and sealed the gate the turn after they were pulled through.
*  We were only able to get rid of 8/13 doom tokens, even with Norman's special Personal Story removing 2 of them at the start of battle.
*  Agnes and Daisy were Book Club members (relationship card), making it possible for Agnes to read anything Daisy read, and Daisy could read tomes without losing sanity (librarian).

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Headline: "i think we did alright..." - suz, 7 months later

Ancient One
Bokrug & his beings of IB

Investigators
Skids O'Toole, the Ex-Con - Susan
Silas Marsh, the Sailor - Rob
Tommy Muldoon, the Rookie Cop - Bryan
Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Robbilee
Rita Young, the Athlete - Rachelle
Lola Hayes, the Actress - Justin

End of Game
This is being posted significantly after-the-fact, and I don't remember. Maybe Justin remembers and will comment.

House Rules/Game Setup
Again, I do not recall, but I vaguely remember that we played because "hey! Halloween is tomorrow! we should totally play Arkham Horror!"

So we might have gone through and chosen an Ancient One that we had not used very often. There were a bunch of them that were new from the latest expansion that we hadn't used yet. If someone remembers better, please let me know.

Investigators were most likely chosen from 4 possible randomly dealt investigators, after finding out the Ancient One's abilities and discussing winning tactics.

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

Highlights
This is all that I wrote:
"Robbi bought lots of stuff. That's pretty exciting." - Rob

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Headline: "Exciting new adventurers make many delicious friends"

Ancient One
Atlach-Nacha

Investigators
Anges Baker, the Waitress - Susan (chosen for being a badass)
Silas Marsh, the Sailor - Rob (chosen to travel easily between boards, what with 3 board expansions and all)
William Yorick, the Gravedigger - Denis
Patrice Hathaway, the Violinist - Robbilee (¡cluez!)
...latecomers:
Ursula Downs, the Explorer - Justin
Roland Banks, the Fed - Rachelle (Rach asked Susan to choose for her - never running out of clues or $)


End of Game
We successfully defeated Atlach-Nacha, and no investigators were sacrificed.
However, all allies were sacrificed. We would like to observe a moment of silence for:

...Tom "Mountain" Murphy...
...Erica Carlyle...
...Professor Armitage...
...Terrible Old Man...
...Professor Rice...
...Ruby Standish...

House Rules/Game Setup - We just bought the Innsmouth Horror expansion
Ancient One chosen randomly, after the new AOs from Innsmouth Horror were added [Rob shuffled the deck of AOs, Susan drew Glaaki, but we had him last time, so our second card was Atlach-Nacha]
Investigators chosen from 4 possible randomly dealt NEW (Innsmouth) investigators, after finding out the Ancient One's abilities and discussing winning tactics.
Rachelle and Justin entered the game around the 7th doom token.

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 this time, so we could learn the additional IH rules
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror

Highlights
* Silas became both the Captain of the White Ship and the Deputy. Fitting, since he's a sailor and wins for "well-traveled."
* Denis optimistically took his character to the Woods first, like Justin had done a few times recently, and had a bad encounter, like Justin always does there.
* Patricia ROCKED, and was very Inspiring throughout the game.
* Patricia was also often sent to the streets to busk after being kicked out of locations due to band encounters. 4 times in a row!
* Agnes had 3 Wither spells!
* Ursula cleaned up the rift openings in Kingsport with the tommy gun but didn't get to use it!
* We all earned skills right at the end, thanks to defeating the rumor The Terrible Experiment. Agnes, Silas, and William went to Misk U, kicked @$$ and took names - I mean, monster trophies. In particular, Silas took out a Leng Spider with a toughness of 4 due to Atlach-Nacha, Agnes took out a Ghost and a Dark Young, and William took out another Dark Young and a Deep One. Rockin'!