Old Arkham Horror

 "Arkham Horror" 2005 is a reimagining of ideas from the original "Arkham Horror" of 1987: different mechanics, better components and more RPG elements. The action of the game takes place in the 1920s. Players take on the roles of ordinary people, each of whom encountered the Lovecraftian mythos in one form or another, learned the terrible truth about the existence of the afterlife and came to the city of Arkham in Massachusetts to investigate. In the course of the investigation, self-proclaimed detectives come across a conspiracy of cultists who want to let one of the Ancients into this world - otherworldly entities of enormous power, who are often mistaken for gods. Portals to other dimensions are opening all over the city, from which strange and scary creatures are coming out. In addition, otherworldly influence is gradually driving the townspeople out of their minds. Players must work together to close the portals and prevent the Ancient One from entering our world, and if that doesn't work, then emerge victorious from the final battle with him.

 In the plan, the "Arkham Horror" mechanic is a cross between an RPG and a regular board. While dice play a very important role, thinking ahead is just as important, aided by the ability to move sliders at the start of each turn, increasing one of your parameters at the cost of another. Should you sacrifice stealth to run around the field quickly? Should I increase Will to survive a monster's psychic attack, or Strength to deal more damage to it? These dilemmas, along with a variety of investigator abilities, encourage player planning and cooperation. Each turn, all investigators take certain actions: move around Arkham, engage in battle or hide from monsters roaming its streets, or draw a contact card corresponding to the location they are in and read what happened to them. Events consist of an artistic description of the investigator's adventures, and also require a certain skill to be tested or a choice to be made. The consequences can be both positive and negative. Well, then comes the phase of myths, in which global (usually unpleasant) events take place, and monsters move around the city.

 Of course, winning in "Arkham Horror", to put it mildly, is not easy, as befits a game of Lovecraft. Many investigators will not make it to the end, as they become more and more difficult over time. By default, only 5-6 results on a six-sided die are considered successes in combat and when checking skills, so although the number of dice rolled depends on the corresponding parameter of the detective, at the start the schedule is clearly not in your favor. To successfully pass checks, you need to stock up on spells and equipment. However, rolling dice and passing checks are not always the most important part of the game.

 Arkham Dread feels like the Dungeons & Dragons games I used to play in high school, only with a lower entry threshold and no gamemaster. It's easy to get players involved in Arkham Horror, but the feeling is pretty much the same: you have fun discussing around the table (over beer and snacks) what your group is going to do next. What I like the most is that each party has its own mini-stories. "Arkham Horror" adheres to the philosophy: "The main thing is not the goal, but the way to it." During the games, such interesting situations arose, which we then remembered for many months. For example: "Remember the time when a goog cornered us in a diner and wouldn't let us out, but we were saved by a nun on a motorcycle with a shotgun in her hands and a psychiatric assistant behind her?" Or: "Remember that fight to the death: the magician with two enchanted tommy guns against the Ancient One?" Or, “Remember that time we came up short from victory because our strongest detective failed a critical check and got lost in time and space trying to close the last portal? The whole table was intently following his every throw of the dice." Ask any Arkham Horror fan and they're sure to have some interesting stories to share with you from their games. But, most likely, he will not remember whether the detectives won that game, or lost, and how close they were to victory.

 It is thanks to the generated adventures that the game became unique for its time and encouraged fans to create a lot of self-made content: more beautiful components, thematic scenarios and even whole add-ons. We can say that a whole game culture has formed around "Arkham Horror"; I don't remember this happening to even one other crowd. The only thing that can spoil the narrative is the lack of a logical connection between some events. Your character may be kicked off the antiquities bench indignantly during a contact, but greeted warmly and offered a discount during a new contact on the next turn. Although, given the physical limitations of board games, it is unrealistic to correct this shortcoming. One can attribute the illogicalities to the city's gradually encroaching madness.

 Like most FFG products at the time, Arkham Horror received a ton of official additions, both small story-focused ones and large ones with new fields, detectives, and mechanics. They are all based on certain stories or characters from the Cthulhu mythos. Personally, I find small additions to be the most successful, especially in terms of shaping the narrative I mentioned above. My favorite is The King in Yellow, which weaves elements of the play and character of the same name into the horrors of Arkham. Large additions are also interesting in their own way, but our group decided that messing around with additional fields is boring; they are not worth it. Still, the big expansions make sense to buy for the sake of new detectives and mechanics — especially the injury and insanity cards from Dunwich, which we now default to every game.

 "Ancient Horror" is its spiritual or even direct descendant; he redesigned and licked the mechanics and changed the setting from Arkham to global adventures across the globe.

 Bound by dice rolls and manipulation, Mark of the Ancients provides a fairly similar feel (especially with additions that bring more story into the game), but requires less space and time.

 Arkham Asylum: The Card Game is an RPG with a campaign and a much more cohesive plot than the original Arkham Asylum.

 Plus Mansions of Madness 2nd edition: thanks to the program, they have become one of the most atmospheric gothic horror adventures to be found in the tabletop world. There are various scenarios for every taste — from meat grinders to solving mysteries. If Arkham Horror wasn't an established classic by now, and if The Ancient Horror hadn't replaced it as the flagship of FFG's horror line, I'd assume they'd be getting a remastered version soon. Here's to hoping that FFG will at least release a more user-friendly app for them. On iOS, there is now a helper application that allows you not to clutter the table with so many components, but in general it does not perform enough functions and looks archaic against the background of modern push-button applications from FFG. A full-fledged app could also fix the problems with the lack of logical connection between events, or even introduce a full-fledged plot to the game... or at least track the events, the relations of the detectives with the locals, etc.

 While Arkham Horror is far from perfect, it holds a special place in my collection, my memories, and my heart. I recommend this game to all fans of Lovecraftian mythos, gothic horror, and themed co-op who don't already have it on their shelves.