James Austin
United Kingdom
Birmingham
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Hi,
I'm a new AH player. That new I haven't actually played a game yet. I've been reading the rules and trying to get to grips with it before we both decend on the board. (There's only two of us that will play it).
The only niggle I've got is that there isn't much co-op going on. There's the odd bit of trading when you meet up, and you fight the big monster at the end together, but that's about it.
I read somewhere that this expansion apparently has more of a co-op feel to it, with a more of a stress on buffing and helping out one another. But from reading the reviews, I'm not getting a similar sense....
What doe you guys think. Does this expansion bring in any further co-op elements?
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A little - more so than the other expansions.
The relationship cards give you interesting - long-distance - interactions with other investigators.
A lot of the new spells are most useful for assisting other investigators, rather than cast on yourself.
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Jim Kiefer
United States
Fremont
California
It's all about the theme!
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The relationship cards is what this expansion bills as increased cooperation. Also several of the spells allow casting on nearby investigators.
We sometimes play that the investigators can choose which investigator is the First Player. That way the street sweeper is more effective. Of course, this will make the game easier.
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DoomTurtle
United States
Redford
Michigan
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This expansion introduces the relationship cards. Say you have 4 players, you will share a relationship card with the player to your right and to your left. Some of the cards give a benefit to you you or your partner if the other gets something (you get some money if they get some through an encounter, or spells or an ally if they find one, etc.). Some of the cards give you bonuses to certain skill checks, which you can only use once per turn so you have to decide which of you will use it. Some cards give you a bonus to any check if the two of you are in the same neighborhood, or if one is in another world. The card with the greatest co-op feel will let one cast a spell and the partner can pay the sanity cost.
The new items and spells also have some effects that will only affect others, so you have to coordinate your efforts to get the most out of them.
This expansion helps quite a bit with the co-op feel (especially the relationship cards), but it is still mostly a game where you work on your own for the team goal. The main game still has some work together moments, like when one investigator has to fight some monsters to clear the path for another. So you mileage may vary with this game depending on how team-oriented you want your co-ops to be.
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it's pronounced "em cee crispy"
United Kingdom
Basingstoke
Hampshire
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I don't see how the Relationship cards add any degree of cooperative play to the mix. They are there, but they only grant a shared benefit - sometimes one Investigator gets a result because their "relative" does, sometimes one of the pair gets some kind of bonus because of the relationship - and this means that the other can't have the bonus. Sure, that means that occasionally I might say to my partner "do you need the +1 Fight this turn, or may I use it?". But that's not really adding a great deal of "co-op" to the mix.
I think that we're confusing richness or depth of theme with degree of "co-op". I feel that Relationships grant the former, but not so much the latter. Speaking as a co-op game player myself, I can't think of a more co-op game that I play than Arkham Horror. There's never any "co-op bully" element in our games - a common complaint about other co-ops. But it's not a democracy either: we allow people to pursue their own path through the game and accomodate that within our overall strategy asking only that they consider the overall aim of the game and that they contribute. Maybe that makes it more collaborative than cooperative, but that's even better in my opinion.
I'd suggest that if you don't find AH to be a strongly collaborative game, then you might like to think about a different approach to playing it.
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The Grouch
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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Once you've actually played the game, you'll understand how it's cooperative. It may SEEM every man for himself just reading the rules, but if you play that way you will lose. If every player trys to grab clue tokens to seal gates, none of them will end up with enough to do so. If every player focuses on gates, the streets will quickly become too clogged with monsters to make any head way and the terror level will rachet up. You need to coordinate who's grabbing clues and gate-diving, who's beating monsters out of the way of the gate-diver, who's going shopping to provide the monster-beater with enough firepower to take on the toughest monsters, etc.
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That's not cooperation, that's interaction what you are talking about. And most of the interaction is that you can look at each others cards and discuss strategy even when your characters are kilometers apart.
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Eðvarð Hilmarsson
Iceland
Reykjavik
Reykjavik
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The expansion does not really add anything to make an already co-op game more co-op.
The Relationship cards add a small mechanic where the players have a decision among themselves (and thats two people, not the team).
Even in the base game a team that wants to win will share money, weapons and come to the rescue of stranded team mates (by clearing monsters out of the way so they can move). It is common to drop what you are doing to go assist someone else.
With a two player game its actually less co-op since you will be forced to follow diffrent objectives and thus be more isolated from the team( basicly each other), I would recomend running 2 characters each (for this and also due to game balance and fun factor). If your heart is set on a 2 investigator game, then I do think the Relationship cards spice things up a bit (since they then affect the whole team) and in that case getting Lurker is a pretty good idea.
I would recomend Dunwich (for the madness/injury) cards more though and I prefer the personal story cards over the relationship cards for character customization though (more fun even if they just affect one, and often more Co-op oddly, since you often try to help another investigator finish his or at least not fail it).
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