Mike Niederer
Canada
Kitchener
Ontario
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This may be more applicable to Elder Sign (and forgive the cross-post) but one issue we have had with both Arkham and Elder Sign is the nature of the expendable characters; upon being devoured, just dip into the box and pick a different investigator, add starting items, and carry on.
We've found that it really breaks the immersion and makes the game feel somewhat pointless when your 'avatar' in the game is just tossed away and a new one begins. Also, this can really drag out some games much longer than is wanted.
Does anyone have any thoughts for house rules to change this? I was considering having a "3 strikes" type rule (more applicable in Elder Sign where investigator death is more frequent, I think) in that once your investigator goes insane or is knocked out three times, you're out of the game...
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Player elimination makes me a sad panda.
Then I would rather take a page out of Last Night on Earth and set a number of investigator kills that will cause the players to automatically lose the game or something like that.
Or you could simply advance the Terror Track one step every time it happens.
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Mike Niederer
Canada
Kitchener
Ontario
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You have a valid point about player elimination, as we play Arkham Horror as mostly a party game and no one wants to sit out. Advancing the terror track may be a good idea, will try it tonight, thanks
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I have to add that getting devoured happens so rarely in most of my AH games, that it doesn't seem worth it to house rule. No clue about Elder Sign as I haven't tried it.
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Jim Kiefer
United States
Fremont
California
It's all about the theme!
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Advancing the Terror track is next to no penalty. At least add a Doom token. And require an Injury and/or Madness card if you're playing with Dunwich cards. Actual player elimination is a bummer, but not so with mere investigator elimination.
I imagine there are many groups of erstwhile investigators attempting to solve the Old One problem and if one is devoured you simply meet another.
Most games I player no one is devoured, however.
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Jerry Martin
United States
Loveland
Colorado
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I have played close to 100 games of AH. I would say in all that time there have been less than 5 players deaths.
And it isn't like it is nothing. Typically, you are trying hard to collect things. I usually play 2 players and sealing/closing gates is almost impossible so we are always trying to set up to battle the GOO. Having a "restart" is a huge penalty.
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My house rules about this is :
If an investigator is devoured in :
Arkham : Add a doom token or draw a blight
Innsmouth : Add 1 token to uprising track
Dunwich : add 1 token to horror track
Kingsport : Open a rift (hard but being devoured in Kingsport is unlikely.
OW : Add a doom token, no other choice.
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Jason Sherlock
United States
Anaheim Hills
California
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We see very few investigators being devoured. Usually, it is no fault of their own. They may have been presented with a skill check that they couldn't possibly make or just crazy bad dice rolls.
As for a down side, the relationships between them and their two neighbors are forever lost. This isn't game breaking, but it is annoying. We do play that the replacement does not get a personal story card (late in the game it is too likely that they would get a free pass or an auto fail just due to board conditions).
Also, if you look at where Arkham came from, Call of Cthulhu, most campaigns have a much higher death, permanent insanity rate than any game of Ahkham Horror.
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Jack M
United States
Maryland
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Syvanis wrote: I have played close to 100 games of AH. I would say in all that time there have been less than 5 players deaths.
And it isn't like it is nothing. Typically, you are trying hard to collect things. I usually play 2 players and sealing/closing gates is almost impossible so we are always trying to set up to battle the GOO. Having a "restart" is a huge penalty.
Are you serious? I'd say I average one per game in all expansion games. Devouring gate, Shan, Innsmouth Look, ancient one battle in the other world, Ghatanothoa's visage tokens, nasty encounters in other worlds, the ability to voluntarily be devoured in certain encounters...
Heck, one game I was playing as Luke, and my first action of the game was to be devoured in the valley of the dholes.
Can I assume you have between 0 and 2 expansions?
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Jim Kiefer
United States
Fremont
California
It's all about the theme!
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jack21222 wrote: Are you serious? I'd say I average one per game in all expansion games. Devouring gate, Shan, Innsmouth Look, ancient one battle in the other world, Ghatanothoa's visage tokens, nasty encounters in other worlds, the ability to voluntarily be devoured in certain encounters...
Heck, one game I was playing as Luke, and my first action of the game was to be devoured in the valley of the dholes.
Can I assume you have between 0 and 2 expansions?
I don't have much more than that and I have all the expansions. I do only play 2 at a time though. My biggest killer is the Moon-Beast. I've played over 500 games. I'm usually an evader though, too. Don't remember ever being killed by the Shan (evade it), I did take the ancient one battle cards out and they did devour me a lot, Ghat, Look probably only happened once or twice each. Other big killer is Quachil Utteaus (slow death.) My daughter plays the rookie cop a lot but she would NEVER voluntarily be devoured. None of us would never do that except to end the game and probably not even then if there was another way.
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Jack M
United States
Maryland
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mageith wrote: jack21222 wrote: Are you serious? I'd say I average one per game in all expansion games. Devouring gate, Shan, Innsmouth Look, ancient one battle in the other world, Ghatanothoa's visage tokens, nasty encounters in other worlds, the ability to voluntarily be devoured in certain encounters...
Heck, one game I was playing as Luke, and my first action of the game was to be devoured in the valley of the dholes.
Can I assume you have between 0 and 2 expansions? I don't have much more than that and I have all the expansions. I do only play 2 at a time though. My biggest killer is the Moon-Beast. I've played over 500 games. I'm usually an evader though, too. Don't remember ever being killed by the Shan (evade it), I did take the ancient one battle cards out and they did devour me a lot, Ghat, Look probably only happened once or twice each. Other big killer is Quachil Utteaus (slow death.) My daughter plays the rookie cop a lot but she would NEVER voluntarily be devoured. None of us would never do that except to end the game and probably not even then if there was another way.
Perhaps only playing with 2 expansions at a time cuts down on the devourings. And the poster I quoted only plays with 2 investigators, so that's fewer opportunities to be devoured as well.
I also play it such that I don't read the entire encounter card before making any decisions. (Why yes, I'd love to play with that shifting tapestry, OH SH--). So, that probably leads to a few devourings too.
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Jason Sherlock
United States
Anaheim Hills
California
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I can actually be difficult to get yourself devoured. Playing the rookie cop, who has it as the pass condition of his personal story, it was not as easy as you might think to arrange this.
I also think that it is thematic to get devoured and have it be a noble sacrifice. We are trying to stop the end of the world from taking place. This is bigger than any war or disaster that has ever faced mankind. This is a time for selfless sacrifice in the face of seemingly unbeatable odds.
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You could remove the devoured investigators from any later games with your group. That makes it a real loss.
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Jim Kiefer
United States
Fremont
California
It's all about the theme!
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Actually I do that with all investigators that are devoured, even in the final battle. I have two piles: devoured and survivors. I just finished my rounds and the last investigators standing were Trish and Wendy.
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Vernon Evenhuis
United States
Illinois
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I use one or two expansions in my games and I generally lose an investigator at the rate of one every two games or so. I don't use any house rules for this though. There's a pretty good possibility you're losing clues or items when an investigator buys the farm, and that seems like penalty enough to me.
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Adam Steward
United States
Appleton
Wisconsin
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It seems so rare that we have an investigator be devoured before the GOO awakens. Maybe once every 5 games. Usually it is the result of some very unfortunate "Other World" encounter. I've personally never felt the investigators were tossed away like an afterthought, usually it is a big deal because we end up losing something valuable.
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