Can't wait for that !    :)

i only read a few posts, but many people said 1p games become easy when you get used to them. primary strategy: fight the GOO. but - how to survive until then??? [if i write Xp-game, then i assume X investigators, not caring about the number of physical players]

i tried yesterday twice and both times i got overrun without any chances, and the second time i even had great equipment at the beginning.

my problem is the following: each round a new portal opens up, bringing one monster. which by itself is not a problem. however, to close 1 you need three 3 rounds (at least! with shopping, collecting clues if you want to seal the portals, getting caught by monsters - causing delay due to fights - and regenerating stamina/sanity i would rather say that 4-5 is the minimum). you soon will thus encounter monster surges that fill up your outskirts. pretty fast. and since all the monsters are all over the map you can't just kill them to get rid of them, because even if you could kill them all in one round (that would be at most 4 of them), a single monster surge during a time of 4 open portals brings them all back, the only chance i see is to seal portals fast (without elder signs, as these work against your goal of advancing the doom track; which needs plenty of clues again) and hope for mythos cards to show sealed locations often enough to win some time….

i also see problems for too many players. 8 of them and 2 consecutive monster surges (not unlikely) will let your terror track explode. i miss some experience here, but i really assume that 3-5 players is ideal. in 1p games a monster surge usually is as terrible as in a 5p game, except that the terror counter advances faster in the latter; but splitting tasks is much easier.

anyway…. seems to be a nice game, i just think that the rules for monster limits, outskirts and maybe monster surges have a huge potential for balancing…. (e.g. let monster surges be (#portals + #players) / 2).

oh, i just re-read the rules on that part….. if the city is over-run, then the game is not over, the ancient one awakens. that changes a lot….

i also misinterpreted the outskirts rule SLIGHTLY: if there are 6 in the outskirts and 6 new ones would be released due to a monster surge, then i would have added 1, removed them all, increased the terror counter by one, and added 5=6-1. according to the FAQ the limit must be exceeded (not hit) and the monster that causes the excess will be removed as well. in the example above a total of 12 monsters would be in the outskirts, so (limit+1)=8 monsters are removed. 4 remain. doesn't change much, but a bit :)

unfortunately monsters in the outskirts can only be removed via gate closing, you can't hunt them down :) (something you CAN do in the city; at least with couple of investigators)

There are actually two spells which allow you to defeat monsters from the Outskirts.  Greater Banishment removes monsters from across the entire board, while The Yellow Mist specifically targets the Outskirts.

Greater Banishment (Dunwich Horror Expansion)

Upkeep Phase: You may cast and discard to choose one dimensional symbol other than the moon. All monsters with that symbol are returned to the monster cup.

The Yellow Mist (The King in Yellow Expansion)

Effect: You may cast and exhaust. For each success on your Spell check, you may return one monster from the Outskirts to the monster cup.

those would surely help, but atm i only have the base game.

yesterday i tried again and made it solo, with dr fern. against azathoth, i.e., i could seal enough portals. doom level: 12, terror level: 9
i must confess, though, that i did redraw rumor cards. those are …horrible, at least in single player games!

 Personally I think 2 or 3 players is best for learning, 1 is jus to boring wen ur learnin. make sure u read all instructions b4 tryin to convince anyone to play lol.  But ud be surprised, once u get the hang Of it, it's pretty addicting. N once u do get the hang of it ur game time will lower as well. Wat I like to do is introduce ppl with practice sessions, 1-2 hr games I Play with no intent of finishing jus to get a feel for it. Which included my first game attempt.  Anyways as far as one Player games, u might jus need more players 2 urself or a rule change like playin every other mythos turn. I've played with only one character and almost beat the easiest boss yig, but it feels like it definatly needs a rule change, it is very difficult, usin 2 isn't that bad thou, but trust me, if u can get someone to try it once, dispute the bored expression ppl get wen learnin the game, u will likely create a gamin buddy for life. It's like a real good rpg video game except u don't need multiple tvs for multiplayer. But even if it's jus u, buy urself this game, u won't regret it

My first game of Arkham Horror was on my own with two characters, I lost badly due to a rumor. Looking forward to trying it again soon with 3 characters instead, and hopefully a better understanding of the rules.

Greetings :) My first post and I am very new to the game

I have attempted the game on my own with one investigator and no I can't see how you can play the game out of the box.  I did discard a couple of cards which clearly finished the game for me because I simply couldn't do it alone, and I managed ok but the game took some time to play

I've played with a family member, one investigatorm each and it's still extremely hard.  Next time I'll suggest 2 investigators each and I think it might be more interesting :)

So yes, as long as you play multiple investigators then I don't see any problem with single player, as it's a co-operative game not competitive

That's new player talk, once you get used to the game and how it work's, the game always feels like you are going to lose but very rarely does it happen. One of the main reasons I liked the game initially was that sense of hopeless, foreboding doom, but soon enough you will be trying to find ways to up the difficulty. IMO; if you get a few games out of this, single or multi those games will 1) make you want to play more 2) make you feel certain that this was money well spent. I would put this on my best board games of all time list easly. Though fair warning a lot of those games are  FFG  and/or co-op.  

Surprised no one came up with this simple variant that allows a single investigator to take on Arkham with all expansions:

You have 8 turns before a mythos card is drawn. Easy, elegant, simple.
Rules: You set gate/monster/outskirts limit and monsters drawn per gate as if there were 8 investigators in the game (with more than one expansion board it counts as less, etc.)
Gate surges: Spawn monsters equal to the number of open gates+2.
Rumors: 1 investigator.
Relationships: Disables.
Close win: Disabled.
Final battle: 1 investigator and 1 turn before AO attack.

I've playtested it several times with all expansions and it feels quite balanced. 

anonymous said:

I'm still fairly new to the game--what exactly do you mean by this? I, thankfully, haven't come across many Rumors in-game.

Some Rumors require you to "place 3 Clue tokens" or "place three Sanity" for each Investigator.  In this Variant, you would reduce the amount to one Investigator.  When I play, my variant always reduces the number by as many expansion boards (instead of the standard, "reduce after the first board'), as I'm an "all-in" player, having started a scenario recently with every expansion.

The Professor said:

Joe,

this was clarified in the FAQ (pag 24):

This modified number of players […] does not apply to various card effects (such as Rumor mythos cards), to the number of successes needed to remove a doom token in the Final Battle, nor to the number of gate trophies the investigators must have for a victory by closing all the gates on the board.

Ah, thanks for clarifying! I hate Rumors and wish there was maybe one magic card or--something to knock a rumor out instantly, even if it's a one-time deal. Mostly because, while I have good luck with most every kind of check, Rumors always seem immune to my typical good fortune…especially that one where you've got Monsters in the Miskatonic U. streets and you have to kill them all before they reach a total of 8. Trying to solo THAT rumor was grueling, especially since I got The Beast and Wilbur Whateley as two of the monsters in question.

Aye, the Terrible Experiment is probably the worst rumor from the base game. Don't worry, as soon as you start adding expansions, you'll find many other nightmarish challenges