Oh, the Horror: A look at Arkham Horror Board game

First of all, do yourself a favor and don’t go around thinking you’re an expert at this game just because you read through the rule book. Certainly this is a feat for the ages, but it’s hardly something to be proud of.

I went into our first family game having done this, finding all of the mechanics very intriguing, and the game itself sounding really really fun, only to be hit with the rude awakening of my complete lack of knowledge of the structure the game.

“What’s the little brain piece for?”
“No idea.”
“Well, how do you fight the monster at the end of the game?”
“Let’s worry about that when we get there.”
“But what about…
Eyes closed and hands over ears. “Enough with all of the questions?!!”

The main thing I learned from this exercise was truly how incompetent I was at explaining a board game to my family.

I fumbled over even the basic concept: “So, you open these portals, see, and these investigators have to close them or the Ancient one will awake and devour you.”

Intriguing stuff to be sure, however, not deep enough to dive into without breaking one’s neck.

Dumb thought #2: The “Let’s just play and see how it goes” rule.

Bad idea.

Turns out I completely came away from the rule book with a bunch of idiotic notions in my head.

Using the power of logic, I first had each player go through all five of the steps in turn: Upkeep, movement, the things you do in the town, otherworlds, mythos… All of it.

Moron.

Also, I had wrongly remembered how portals were opened. I can’t even tell you who many Mythos cards we went through finding no mention of such events in the text.

“Well, this is a little boring,” I said. “Does anything ever happen in this game?”
“Yeah, you idiot,” says the rule book (although not in so many words). “Look at the little picture in the lower left corner, you dolt!”

So, that having been said, what IS the best way, one might wonder, to learn how to play this game — especially if one doesn’t now anyone else who knows how to play this game?

I would suggest playing through in a solo capacity to familiarize yourself with the game, or at the very least have the board and pieces out while reading the book. Or better yet, get your wife to grab the rule book out of your hand and take charge.

Either way, if you have a LOT of time on your hands, and apparently a surface much larger than a normal card table, this is a very fun and involving game.