I've had Arkham for about a year and a half now. I have played two games. One with my buddy, and another where we convinced our then Girlfriends, now wives, to play with us. How in the world we convinced them, they played, and they still married to us is a mystery to me. I do wish that I could find more people to play it though, as I'm sure once all the mechanics are second nature it is awesome.

I'd love to but grad school is crushing me until its boot and I know for a fact that I have a test to take Saturday the 13th. Yes, Saturday. D:

I definitely want to know how this turns out though. Any game which ports you to strange eldritch lands has got to be worth some study.

Does BGG have an RSS feed? I can't seem to find it on their site.

A couple tips for players that are just learning the game.

1. The gameplay happens in discrete phases - upkeep, movement, encounters. Just get through one phase at a time. The rule book doesn't do a great job of compartmentalizing these phases so things seem much more complicated than they really are.

2. Don't sweat it if you realize you forgot a die roll modifier or forgot to move a monster (or not move a monster, or whatever). If you're OCD about remembering every detail and modifier you could go kinda nuts. Eventually all that stuff becomes second nature.

3. Since this is a co-op game house rules work out pretty well. We've done a few things to add some options and some things to streamline play --- for example we took out all the rumor cards and some of the monster movement types (particularly those in some of the expansions) because they add a lot of book keeping. Doing so might make the game slightly easier, but really, who cares? It's not like you are playing for money.

One tip I learnt is that when you draw from the card pile that says where the monsters go, what happens etc., work from the bottom upwards.

Another variant was, IIRC, is that if you get a clue token spawning on a warp, put it instead on the nearest green location. That way you get to explore more areas. (At least I think that was the home rule - it was definitely to do with putting the clue tokens on areas that wouldn't normally get visited).

4 turns? So, about two hours in.

Argh - I'm going to have to bow out - turns out I'm busy on the weekends of 6th and 13th, and then my mum's in town for nearly 3 weeks.

Maybe we host the one after at our place in December?

Just got the word from the wife- I'm in!

I figure by now you guys think she's imaginary, but she does actually exist. One of these days she'll be able to come to a game night, or heaven forbid we'll have one at our house.

I'm normally up for boardgames, but Arkham Horror is on my "politely decline" list.

Thanks for hosting.

WE ACTUALLY FINISHED!

What was the verdict on the game? Exquisitely evil automaton or overly complicated behemoth?

The Old Ones stir in their slumber, who will force them back into the Abyss if they wake to start the Apocalypse!