There’s a game that has occupied my brain unlike anything before it. Arkham Horror: The Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games.
It’s a living card game, not a collectible card game where there is no randomness to the cards — instead, you buy a set and it always contains all the cards that are necessary.
The Dream-Eaters
The game is based in a fictional Lovecraft universe set in the 1920s, centering around the city of Arkham, Massachusetts. Players start by picking an investigator (your character), and then build a deck around that investigator in order to take on different adventures. Each investigator has different abilities and different deck building options, broken down into the following 5 classes:
Guardian (Blue — Combat Heavy)
Seeker (Yellow — Focuses on Investigating for Clues)
Mystic (Purple — Heavy Spell Use)
Rogue (Green — Typically Strong with Agility and More Illicit Type Solutions Plus High Resources)
Survivor (Red — Scrappy, Turns Failure Into Success)
Investigator Roland Banks
Each class fills a certain kind of role and you can play anywhere from 1-4 players. I primarily play true solo which is 1 player, 1 investigator. Some players choose to play 2 investigators by themselves but I like the role-playing aspect you get with true solo.
Once you build your deck you go on an adventure in the form of a campaign, made up of multiple chapters or scenarios. The goal? Complete the necessary conditions before dying or going insane by collecting clues, and defeating monsters.
Each scenario has a different map that’s set out on the table in front of you which often changes throughout the course of the scenario. Instead of dice you have the Chaos Bag containing tokens with different values or symbols that give different results based on the scenario and investigator. Each scenario can take an hour or two based on its complexity. Players also earn experience points to upgrade their deck with stronger cards between scenarios.
Night of the Zealot Campaign
That’s the game in a summary!
Why has it captured my attention so much? I think it comes down to the theme, tone, atmosphere, art, fiction and the collectible aspect to it. I get completely absorbed by the world and love every second of it, even when I’m not playing.
Putting on thematic music is magical too, there’s one track in particular on YouTube that I love and almost know by heart. Sometimes playing songs from the 20s works well too, depending on the scenario.
With each expansion there are additional player cards, adding additional deck building options along with the necessary campaign cards. I’ve gone off the deep end with collecting and have most of the player cards and campaigns. I’ve gone so far as to sleeve all my cards and have purchased and assembled storage boxes for the campaigns from a store on Etsy. The tokens from the Chaos Bag are in coin capsules. I also have a couple of books that dive deeper into investigator history and game art.
The Dunwich Legacy
Here’s the weird thing, I like what surrounds the game more than the game itself. Setup for each scenario can take a relatively long time, building the scenario deck and following all the setup instructions. There have been times when I passed on playing the next scenario of a campaign purely because of the setup time required. Plus, it takes time to put the previous scenario away. It’s not fast.
I also still focus so much of my attention on the actual mechanics of the game while playing. The rules aren’t second nature to me yet so that piece ends up occupying my mind, so I don’t get a chance to really let it all wash over me the way I’d like.
The Path to Carcosa
An additional plus that I haven’t mentioned yet is the community. There’s an app to track your decks and scenarios, voiceover options where campaign information is performed for you and arkhamdb.com where players can share deck creations. Add to that multiple YouTube channels and you have something pretty special.
So what would help get over these small hurdles I have? To be honest, playing more should do it. I haven’t played most of what I own, yet I’m still tempted to buy more if you can believe it. It’s addicting. Be advised though, if you get into Arkham Horror: The Card Game too, your wallet may hate you.