Friday, February 21, 2014

Headline:  "lots of people got injured and devoured."  or "it's good to have a plan at the beginning."

Ancient One

Ghatanothoa

Investigators

Trish Scarborough, the Spy - Susan (new person!)
Charlie Kane, the Politician - Susan (new person!)
Wilson Richards, the Handyman - Rachelle

Carolyn Fern, the Psychologist - Rachelle
Lola Hayes, the Actress - Rob
Silas Marsh, the Sailor - Rob
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Rob

End of Game

We beat him!  (sorta)

House Rules/Game Setup
Rachelle randomly selected 3 Ancient Ones, and Susan selected Ghatanothoa from those three.  We had not played against him yet.

We elected not to use Heralds, Guardians, or Institutions.

We each chose two characters from all of them.

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

  *  Silas got devoured by Ghatanothoa!  He picked up 3 clues when going to Devil Reef.
  *  Luke never made it out of the Dreamlands...
  *  Rob went to bed at 8 or 9 doom tokens.  It was a long and rough game for him, full of bad luck.
  *  Lola, Charlie, and Wilson made it to the end.  They fought hard.  They would not have lasted one more AO attack.
  *  Unfortunately, we didn't exactly read the AO's card carefully:  "Each investigator's attack against G deals one less success than normal."  We probably should have lost.

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, 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.

Friday-Saturday, October 4-5, 2013

Headline:  "The Lurker at Susan’s Birthday”

Ancient One

Cthugha

Investigators

Mandy Thompson, the Researcher – Rob

Minh Thi Phan, the Secretary – Rob

Lily Chen, the Martial Artist – Susan

Rita Young, the Athlete - Susan

End of Game

We closed and sealed 6 gates.  The next Mythos card would have burst open a sealed gate and added the final doom token.  We sealed them just in the nick of time!

House Rules/Game Setup
Susan received The Lurker at the Threshold from Rachelle and Justin for a birthday present and we took it out for a spin.  We each chose two characters from eight drawn at random and then drew one relationship card each for the characters that we played.

Mandy and Minh Thi – Friendly Rivals

Lily and Rita – Fellow Travelers

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

Nodens
Organized Crime
Lurker at the Threshold (not too bad, as long as you don't accept Power)

Highlights

·        Minh Thi took Foolish the Cat as a Bound Ally due to the first Reckoning card.

·        Rita defeated the Dunwich Horror with the Flute of the Outer Gods.  Cool!

·        On the establishing Mythos card, 2 rumors were initially drawn and discarded.  Thanks, rules!

·        We dispelled a rumor:  Virulent Disease.  No one fell victim to the illness.

·        Minh Thi completed her Personal Story and chose Young Zoog, the Otter, which got rid of Foolish, the Bound Ally.  [Cheating?]

·        Lily Chen, famous for lots of sanity and stamina, as well as restoring both to herself during upkeep, has two Allies:  Sir William Brinton and Duke, each of whom extend her maximum sanity and stamina.  Since the Allies were not really of any use, she ended up discarding them both to get her maximum sanity and stamina restored.

·        Minh Thi used the new card, Key Of Something-Or-Other, to enter a gate.  Neat card!

·        Lily Chen used the new spell Plumb of Something to get Mandy back from an Other World.  Neat card!

·        Rita ended up as Deputy with Necrophobia, Cracked Ribs, and was Despondent.  BUT she had 2 kerosene weapons and 2 Molitov cocktails.  Don’t mess with crazy!  She’ll burn your house down.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Headline:  "Rubble Rubble"  [ala Hamburgler]

Ancient One
Shudde M'ell

Investigators
Luke Robinson, the Dreamer - Susan
Vincent Lee, the Physician - Rob
Jacqueline Fine, the Psychic - Justin
Mandy Thompson, the Researcher - Rachelle

End of Game
We fought and defeated Shudde M'ell

House Rules/Game Setup
Rachelle randomly chose 3 AOs, and we picked Shudde M'ell, since we hadn't played him in a while.

We chose Investigators out of 4 random ones 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. 

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
Rachelle chose these at random:
Tulzscha, The Freen Flame
Hypnos, Lord of Sleep
Miskatonic University, Academic Institution

Highlights
*  Rob's character's story required him to discard 5 clues.  He started with the spell "Vision Quest," which allows him to pick up clues from an entire neighborhood, which sped up the process of passing the personal story!

*  Rob's guy's special ability is to restore stamina.  However, he constantly won items, etc., that allowed him to get MORE stamina.
*  Susan's guy was about to sacrifice the ally Basil Elton to the AO to skip an attack, but she didn't need to.  The investigators beat Shudde.  Basil!  It's summertime currently, with really great basil.  ;)

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)

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).