Our Brutally Honest Review of Arkham Horror The Roleplaying Game: Dreamland or Nightmare Fuel?

[@TheCharacterSheet]

Are you interested in picking up the Arkham Horror RPG Starter Set? Does the new dicepool system sound interesting, or do you prefer a d20 or d100 based system? Let us know!

[@gabemamede5793]

So for a new to ttrpg person, well not new but dnd 2.0 was a long time ago would you say its more of a formatting issue in terms of scenario interaction and resolution that's the biggest issue, or do you feel like it's not quite crunchy enough?

[@wolfrine5674]

I'm excited for this I love Arkham Horror setting and can't wait to get the full rules hopefully their easier to understand

[@garylane6227]

To be fair, the narrative issue wouldn't have been an issue if the GM had read the whole scenario before running the adventure.

[@keithrigby2645]

Doesn't the rulebook tell the gm to read thru at least once? You give a full review based on two scenes, really? Seems like you've rushed thru just to be the first to review. Hmm

[@bencecserkuti7110]

Brutally honest review of your brutally honest review: Read the thing before reviewing it. It is not that hard.

[@vitore.sanches7712]

7:35 I'm absolutely not defending this game, but... Were you guys reading the rulebook as you played the scenarios? I'm not trying to say what you and your group should or shouldn't do but I can't imagine this working out, specially in an investigation game.

[@midnightalleypodcast]

45 mins solving a coded letter sounds like stand ttrpgs lol! Thus supplement is definitely a gateway for Arkham horror board game players.

[@TheWhokulele]

I hear what you're saying but your gripe sounds like user error - read the full book before sitting down to run a new game.

[@TATOOINETABLEFLIP]

This was my thought as well. I’d never run a game without going through the whole thing.

[@arcubal]

As boardgames everywhere seem to be incorporating RPG elements, i find it acrually rather refreshing to see an RPG come out with board game elements. The tactile aspect in gaming cannot be overstated. Of course it needs to be done well, and apparently AH has not yet cracked that nut. But, hey, its a step in the right direction, surely?

[@-Markus-]

I dunno, there are many roleplaying games out there that have tried this and afaik none of them have been praised for their attempts. WFRP3 is the first one I remember and it wasnt well received. Old fans mostly hated it and it doesnt seem to have attracted a lot of new ones either. Free League does a bit of this with many of their games, offering cards and tokens and such but my experience is that most people dont use those elements. The X-Horror line of games has such a big community though and I think this can work really well as intro or gateway into roleplaying, helping people feel comfortable when trying out something completely new to them. Personally I have zero interest in making my roleplaying feel like boardgaming (and vice verse) but thats my opinion.

[@dezopenguin9649]

So ultimately, my question is, given that Arkham Horror started out as "Call of Cthulhu, but as a board game instead of a TTRPG!" is there something that the Arkham Horror TTRPG does significantly better than CoC (or Pulp Cthulhu, which seems to better suit the mood AH is going for). Is it strictly a "I like dice pools better/worse than I like D100 systems" question, or is there something more going on?

[@TheCharacterSheet]

The one answer we have to that is that Arkham horror is definitely easier to pick up and more approachable, but Call of Cthulhu does offer more crunch and more variety of options for sure

[@b.lloydreese2030]

​@@TheCharacterSheetwhat the hell does crunch mean?

[@captaindudeman3613]

​@@b.lloydreese2030crunch is rpg slang for deeper more complex mechanics often involving more calculations i.e. crunching the numbers.

[@moes80]

I haven't played the AHRPG yet, but after reading the rules, it appears that CoC is way more deadly. There is a fair chance in CoC that a single attack, especially from a firearm, will kill you in one attack. 3 gunshot wounds will almost certainly kill your character. We once had a character die from falling down a flight of stairs! But AH looks much less deadly. Most attacks deal 2 damage, so you need to be hit 3 times to force you to take a single injury. It's impossible to die until you suffer your 5th injury, and even then, you'll have to roll a 6 on the injury table to die. Many injuries can also be healed with a skill check after a scene. I'm hoping that the core game will be more deadly. Often, introductory box sets make characters more resilient, or even impossible to kill, as it's a learning experience. I how this is the case as I enjoy rolling pools of d6 more than percentile dice, but I also want my cosmic horror game to be scary and that can only happen if character death is always just a bad roll or two away from happening.

[@b.lloydreese2030]

​@@captaindudeman3613i see, yeah, i dont like crunch. The simpler the better

[@Mcleody9]

All the answers to all your questions will be in the core book, pre-order now!! 😂😅😂 how very asmodee

[@unspeakableoaf]

You could say it's Edgy…

[@midnightalleypodcast]

Mist complaints here seem like they could easily have been intuited by an experienced GM(AKA preparatio) If you open an rpg and play it like a board game... well thus is what will happen! Sounds awesome!

[@b.lloydreese2030]

So i got it. It looks decent quality, and it's not nearly as overwhelming with inserts and tokens as I thought it would be. The maps are nice and work well with my mansions of madness minis, BUT once I open it and started looking at the characters I noticed that some of them were the same characters from Mansions of Madness. I don't necessarily have a problem with this because I think it's kind of cool that they're taking their existing characters and allowing them to be used in another situation or whatever BUT they are using the same exact artwork for those characters! I bought Mansions of Madness 2E like maybe in 2019 early 2020 and the exact same character art on my Mansions of Madness box are exactly the same as what's in this Arkham Horror RPG. That is the height of laziness. You might argue that it's for consistency but I think it's just a way for them to just slap the same picture on something else and sell it All that aside I think this might definitely be a better version of mansions of Madness because at least you get hard copy stuff here and I only wish that there was some good Miniatures I could use for this besides my Mansions of Madness ones because those do not have nearly enough creatures from my liking. I do not like playing Mansions of Madness solo because or even probably with a bunch of people because you have to use this app they got and if we can move that game off of the app and into a book I think that would be a huge Improvement so I'm kind of interested to see what else they do with this RPG but I hope they step up their game with art and give us something new as well as try giving us some good Miniatures in the 28 to 32 mm scale

[@tazmokhan7614]

The mechanics are not that novel, its D6 dice pool mechanics, very similar to Shadowrun, nothing wrong with that, just it can get crazy with large amount of D6s, which is the same problem Shadowrun has always had in their system. i just want the box for the props and map for my Call of Cthulhu RPG. Am still getting it, but just for the goodies.

[@TheCharacterSheet]

Yeah, the dice mechanics are different from Shadowrun, but not wildly so, but the props are pretty amazing

[@coachski74]

Loot Studios has also teamed up with asmodee to design a line of miniatures, tokens, and terrain for the new TTRPG if you do 3D printing. They have some very cool statues and props within their deal as well.

[@tazmokhan7614]

@@TheCharacterSheet yep love my props!

[@laurentbourgault2764]

I GM the first part of the adventure. There is a lot in there I like a lot. It is not a variant of D&D. I will buy the ruleboon (release date?) and hope my players will enjoy it like me and agree to keep playing it. I will make my adventures and use some Chaosium books too for the stories and the lore.

[@jacquesm5013]

It may not be our typical ttrpg, but looks like a nice mix of a mansions of madness ttrpg and arkham horror LCG lore and campaigns. I assume more tokens, maps, pregens, handouts and linear short adventures than your typical rpg, to help GMs run easy fun pre written adventures. A bit like PF2 AP on foundryVTT where everything is ready for the GM and players but in a physical format. They will release them every quarter like Arkham Horror LCG, and you will only have the full campaign if you buy all of them. You will slowly build maps, token, puzzles to create your own adventures with available content. I think it’s niche but I love both mansions of madness and Arkham horror LCG so I can see them succeed !

[@OGNoNameNobody]

I will wait for full rules, thanks.

[@shocknawe]

Great vid! Any tips for running it smoothly then? I'm really curious about this game and having it figured out before buying would be great!

[@kevoreilly6557]

Yeah - actually read it before running it

[@jameskyle7943]

Sorry to be a grognard but just get and old CoC 5th Edition book and go. It has not been improved on.

[@lexicornfell7361]

Also, Arkham Horror didn’t start as a board game. It started as a TTRPG, called Call of Cthulhu. I watched the original designer basically admitting as much. So, you know, thanks for the video, but…..wrong.

[@davewire87]

7th edition CoC is pretty darn good. Also, Arkham Horror did start off as a board game. By Chaosium. In 1987. As a spin off to CoC. After they discontinued it, Fantasy Flight revived in 2002 and turned it into a franchise.

[@unspeakableoaf]

@@davewire87 And wow, do they reuse that art!

[@michaelhill6453]

I can see those tokens drifting off the character sheet quite a bit.

[@hariszark7396]

Starter set. That says all. I would prefer to have the whole rule book and some additional stories to play than just that. To me, a part of the rules and just one story without replayability is just not worth it. I'll wait and see. Also, I want to know how this game can manage a mystery solving story. Not just fighting.

[@Astronaut_Zero]

Fair. I am also anxious to see the complete ruleset, character and monster creators and scenario creation rules.

[@johnberry5296]

Good review. I was going to get this for solo but based on this and other comments it’s a pass

[@Itachi45481]

Looks like growing pains for Arkham doing ttrpg for the first time

[@TheCharacterSheet]

Could be, but it's also just a starter set, so we think the core rules may flesh out a few weaknesses in the starter. But yeah, for a starter, some definite promise, but also a few notable rough spots.

[@Psylove17]

​@@TheCharacterSheetThat's what I hope, that the core rulebook strengthens the game, especially for the long run

[@Itachi45481]

@@TheCharacterSheet starter sets are usually simpler and yeah they’re probably fleshed out in the main rules etc

[@rugiii]

​@@TheCharacterSheetI was wondering about the adventure structure and how "railroady" it is...given the evolution from board game roots. Does it offer enough info to allow player agency or is this starter basically prescribed (I mean the characters are already pregens) and we expect the full rules to allow greater freedom?

[@deepbluesaltsea]

The group that is making it has already been in charge of Fantasy Flight's RPG department for quite a while.

[@pluviaaeternum]

I'm looking to become a professional GM, and lately I feel like most games are either D&D or CoC... So I've been looking for a TTRPG that's CoC in this sense (hope the idea is not that confusing). This AH was one that I was looking forward to taking that slot, but from your review I guess it's kinda awful sadly

[@grungedimi]

Ever played Delta Green? Check it out if you haven't.

[@cybershowdown9078]

It’s not that bad, I think it’s a lot of fun!

[@metalblizzard6024]

So like is there a core rulebook or only this board gameesque ttrpg box?

[@BlueSapphyre]

Core rulebook aren’t out yet, only the starter set.

[@Psylove17]

Not a big fan of random tables, but I guess the DM could assign effects for dramatic effect and not breaking the game As a forever GM I guess I'll have to read the book in its entirety to prep properly and be in the position of actually explaining the game

[@TheCharacterSheet]

Yeah, the core rule book will definitely have more GM guidance than the starter (We hope so at least!)

[@TATOOINETABLEFLIP]

I picked up my copy yesterday and love the components! Not giving some of the mechanics right up front concerns me a little, and I’d never run a game without reading the entire adventure, so knowing they’re in there somewhere is good. I’ll just note it out for my players so we don’t get bogged down at the start. Great review!

[@tangent_mechanic]

This feels inspired by 7th Sea 2nd edition..

[@godofzombi]

You think THIS is a boardgamey RPG? You should have seen FFG's Warhammer fantasy roleplay 3rd edition.

[@dark-folklore]

The Arkham Horror The Card Game already has generic storytelling and stock characters. Good for a board game. Especially from a mechanical standpoint: how the mechanics allow to tell the story. Yet, for a role-playing game that is not good enough.

[@jonmorrison7813]

Looks like Call of Cthulhu doesn’t have to worry.

[@MichaelMichaels-hm2dw]

It's really silly to make a review, especially a negative one deterring people, on something you've barely scratched the surface of.

[@markivatt123]

Dumb. Obviously read the whole book before you start.

[@-Markus-]

I see no reason to play this over CoC if roleplaying in the Lovecraftian setting is what someone is looking for. But maybe it gets new people into the hobby and that is always a win!

[@Nightbreed24]

Arkham Horror sucks too. I played it once, zero horror feeling.