Arkham Horror: The Card Game (AH:TCG) plunges players into a chilling world of Lovecraftian horror, tasking them to investigate unsettling mysteries and confront terrifying entities. To play, you collaboratively build investigator decks, navigate scenarios filled with challenges, and manage resources to survive the escalating cosmic horrors that threaten to consume Arkham.
Embarking on Your Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide
Playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game involves several key phases within each round, working together to achieve the scenario’s objectives while battling sanity-shredding horrors. Before diving into the round structure, understand the preparatory steps:
Setting the Stage: Game Setup
- Choose a Scenario: Select a scenario from a campaign or play a standalone adventure. Carefully read the scenario card, which details the unique setup, objectives, and special rules.
- Select Investigators: Each player chooses an investigator, a unique character with specialized abilities, weaknesses, and starting resources. These investigators define your playstyle and role within the team.
- Build Investigator Decks: This is arguably the most crucial step. Using the deckbuilding guidelines outlined in the rulebook, construct a deck of cards tailored to your investigator’s strengths, consisting of skills, events, assets, and weaknesses. Deckbuilding greatly impacts your success.
- Prepare the Play Area: Assemble the location cards according to the scenario instructions, create the encounter deck, and the act and agenda decks. Place the chaos bag nearby.
Navigating the Round: Core Gameplay Loop
Each round in Arkham Horror: The Card Game follows a structured sequence, ensuring a consistent and immersive experience.
- Mythos Phase: This phase introduces new threats.
- Ready New Locations: Turn over any new location cards indicated by the scenario.
- Increase Doom: The agenda deck often advances the doom tracker, bringing the end closer.
- Draw Encounter Cards: Each player draws an encounter card, which can range from horrifying enemies to crippling treachery cards.
- Investigation Phase: This is where players take actions.
- Each player takes three actions in any order. Common actions include:
- Move: Travel to a connected location.
- Investigate: Attempt to discover clues at your location.
- Fight: Engage and attack enemies.
- Evade: Attempt to break away from enemies.
- Play a Card: Pay the cost to play a card from your hand.
- Draw a Card: Draw a card from your investigator deck.
- Gain Resources: Gather resources needed to play cards.
- Engage: Engage an enemy at your location.
- Parley: Attempt to negotiate with a non-hostile enemy.
- Resign: Remove yourself from the game (used in dire circumstances).
- Each player takes three actions in any order. Common actions include:
- Enemy Phase: The enemies react.
- Ready Enemies: Enemies that are exhausted (tapped) become ready (untapped).
- Move Enemies: Enemies move towards investigators, prioritizing those engaged with them.
- Attack Investigators: Enemies attack investigators engaged with them. Combat involves skill tests against the enemy’s attack value.
- Upkeep Phase: Players reset for the next round.
- Ready Cards: All your cards that are exhausted become ready.
- Draw Cards: Draw back up to your hand size.
- Gain Resources: Gain one resource.
- Check Maximum Hand Size: Discard down to your maximum hand size if necessary.
Overcoming Challenges: Skill Tests and the Chaos Bag
A central mechanic in AH:TCG is the skill test, which determines the success of many actions.
- Declare a Skill Test: Announce which skill you are testing (e.g., Willpower, Intellect, Combat, Agility, Lore).
- Determine Skill Value: Calculate your current skill value by adding your base skill to any modifiers from cards or abilities.
- Draw from the Chaos Bag: Draw a random token from the chaos bag. Each token has a value that modifies your skill value.
- Compare Results: Compare your modified skill value to the difficulty of the test. If your skill value is equal to or higher than the difficulty, you succeed. If it is lower, you fail.
- Apply Consequences: Success or failure often triggers consequences described on the scenario cards, encounter cards, or the card you are using.
The chaos bag is a crucial element of the game, introducing randomness and uncertainty into skill tests. The tokens in the bag represent the influence of the mythos, ranging from relatively harmless +1 or 0 tokens to devastating -4, -5, or even auto-fail tokens. The composition of the chaos bag changes based on the scenario and the difficulty level, making each test a gamble.
Decoding the Lore: Understanding Card Types
Arkham Horror: The Card Game uses various card types, each with a distinct function. Familiarity with these types is crucial for effective gameplay.
- Investigator Cards: These cards represent your investigator’s unique abilities and resources. They include investigator cards, signature assets, and signature weaknesses.
- Asset Cards: These cards represent items, allies, and other resources that you can acquire and use during the game.
- Event Cards: These cards represent one-time actions or effects that you can trigger during the game.
- Skill Cards: These cards boost your skills during skill tests.
- Treachery Cards: These are negative cards that represent threats and obstacles that you must overcome.
- Enemy Cards: These cards represent the monsters and other antagonists that you must fight or evade.
- Location Cards: These cards represent the places that you explore during the game.
- Act Cards: These cards represent the main objectives of the scenario.
- Agenda Cards: These cards represent the escalating doom that threatens to overwhelm you.
- Encounter Cards: This is a broad category encompassing treachery cards and enemy cards.
Master the Art of Deckbuilding: Strategic Card Selection
Effective deckbuilding is the cornerstone of success in AH:TCG. Consider the following factors:
- Investigator Role: Tailor your deck to your investigator’s strengths. Are they a fighter, an investigator, or a support character?
- Scenario Objectives: Consider the challenges posed by the scenario. Does it require strong combat skills, investigation skills, or a balance of both?
- Card Synergy: Choose cards that work well together. Some cards provide bonuses to other cards, creating powerful combinations.
- Resource Management: Ensure that your deck has enough cards that generate resources and mitigate the cost of playing expensive cards.
- Weakness Mitigation: Include cards that can help you deal with your investigator’s weaknesses.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some common questions about playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game:
FAQ 1: What happens if the doom tracker on the agenda deck reaches its limit?
The agenda deck advances, triggering a new, often more challenging, phase in the scenario. This typically results in increased difficulty or devastating consequences for the investigators. It is generally bad, and a race against time to complete the Act.
FAQ 2: Can I help another player during a skill test?
Yes! Players can commit skill cards to another player’s skill test, providing a bonus to their skill value. This is a crucial aspect of collaborative gameplay.
FAQ 3: What is the difference between “engaged” and “at my location”?
An enemy is considered “engaged” when it is specifically attacking an investigator. An enemy can be “at your location” without being engaged, meaning it might attack you or other players at that location if it moves towards you.
FAQ 4: Can I move through a location occupied by an enemy?
Generally, you cannot move through a location occupied by an engaged enemy unless you evade it first. However, some cards or abilities may allow you to ignore this restriction.
FAQ 5: What happens when an investigator runs out of sanity or health?
When an investigator’s sanity or health reaches zero, they are defeated. They are removed from the game and can no longer participate in the scenario. If all investigators are defeated, the game is lost.
FAQ 6: How does experience work in a campaign?
During a campaign, investigators earn experience by completing scenario objectives. This experience can be used to purchase new, more powerful cards to upgrade their decks between scenarios, making them better prepared for future challenges.
FAQ 7: Can I play a card during another player’s turn?
Generally, you can only play cards during your own turn. However, some cards have the “fast” keyword, which allows you to play them at any time, even during another player’s turn.
FAQ 8: What is the “Peril” keyword on encounter cards?
The “Peril” keyword means that the encounter card is revealed only to the affected investigator, and other players cannot help them resolve it. This adds an element of isolation and vulnerability.
FAQ 9: How do I resolve “forced” effects?
“Forced” effects must be resolved immediately when their trigger condition is met. These effects take precedence over other actions and cannot be ignored.
FAQ 10: What does it mean when a card says “discard from play”?
“Discard from play” means to move the card from the play area to its owner’s discard pile. This is different from “discard a card,” which refers to discarding a card from your hand.
FAQ 11: How do I handle multiple skill tests in a single action?
Some actions may require multiple skill tests. In such cases, you must resolve each skill test individually in the order they are presented.
FAQ 12: What is the best way to learn Arkham Horror: The Card Game?
Start with the Core Set and play the introductory scenarios multiple times. Watch gameplay videos online and consult online forums and communities for advice and strategies. Most importantly, be patient and persistent. It’s a complex game, but rewarding.
Concluding the Investigation: Facing the Unknowable
Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a challenging but rewarding experience that combines cooperative gameplay, strategic deckbuilding, and a rich, immersive narrative. By mastering the core mechanics, understanding the card types, and honing your deckbuilding skills, you can lead your investigators to victory against the encroaching darkness and uncover the secrets that lie hidden within the shadows of Arkham. Embrace the unknown, and may your sanity remain intact.