A few weekends ago, me and my family got together for a board game day. Through our text chat, we were throwing out ideas on what game we wanted to play, and Arkham Horror was brought up. It’s been a hot minute since I have played Arkham Horror. I have written about Arkham Horror before on BizarreBrunette as it’s a game I first played back in college. During our gaming day, we played two different rounds of Arkham Horror where we won once against Cthulhu and then we were decimated by Ithaqua in our second game.

Before getting into Arkham Horror further, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and detail why this game holds such a special place in my heart. I was first introduced to Arkham Horror at my local board game store in my college town. This was the first game I played which was a cooperative board game. I loved how each of the pre-made characters had its specialties and as a group, we could discuss who would play which character. Once playing Arkham Horror, I began my descent into learning and playing more board games. Arguably without Arkham Horror amongst other board games, I wouldn’t be as into them as I am today.

In the first game, I chose Mandy Thompson, the researcher. I played Mandy before in other games. Mandy can cause a re-roll for herself or other players if the roll isn’t a success. It’s such a good ability and I find that in most games of Arkham Horror I play, Mandy is a character that’s chosen frequently. In our second game, I played Sister Mary, the nun. I can’t recall a time I played as Sister Mary and I don’t know why. She starts the game blessed (meaning that she rolls a success on a four, five, or a six, not just a five or a six) which is so good. The trade-off is she starts with no money which can be tough since money is used to buy items including weapons, spells, or other miscellaneous items. This is where it helps to have a variety of different characters at the table since they have their resources and weaknesses.

For those who haven’t read my other Arkham Horror posts, I will describe a bit of the game. The goal of Arkham Horror is to work together to close portals that pop up in the town of Arkham. To win the game, the players have to permanently close six gates before the entity is released. If the players don’t do this, they can fight the entity, but if the entity kills the players, the players lose the game. In our first game, we had an advantage because we started with two elder signs which can help close gates in the place of clue tokens. In our second game, we didn’t have as useful of items, and Ithaqua came out sooner than Cthulhu did. It was the perfect storm that led to us losing the second game.

Arkham Horror is a game I will continue to play and will always be in the mood to play. I like how players have to work together and there’s a dice-rolling element to the game, so it feels like a mix between playing a board game and a table-top roleplaying game. It’s a game that never gets old no matter how many times I get to play.