Arkham Horror

Arkham Horror is a board game based on the popular Call of Cthulhu Mythos written by H.P. Lovecraft in the 1920s and 1930s. The Arkham Horror Board Game is one of the most highly-rated boardgames you'll find on most games websites online. The players take on the roles of investigators in the fictional town of Arkham, trying to learn about the truth about cosmic entities and the local madmen who have formed cults of worship to them. The game is a race against time, as a collection of detectives, professors and journalists seek to battle powers far beyond their abilities or even comprehension.

H.P. Lovecraft

Herbert Philip Lovecraft was one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft wanted to write about supernatural forces and cultist activity outside of the confines of the traditional Judeo-Christian tradition, so he based his horror on alien, incomprehensible monsters which had existed on Earth long before mankind appeared. To learn the truth about these creatures was to become mad, for the human mind simply could not comprehend the nature of these mysteries.

Though writing in a style that was anachronistic even for his times, H.P. Lovecraft's fiction was very much a product of his age. The nature of the elder horrors he wrote played with the strange new physics of the Twenties, when Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity made the universe seem a great deal stranger and less certain than humans had imagined before. The Cthulhoid terrors might sometimes be described as resembling exotic Earth animals like squids, frogs, insects and octopi, but they were just as often described as having an alien geometry that mankind had trouble comprehending. Often, H.P. Lovecraft's narrators would describe the monsters or artwork depicting them as so macabre that the characters knew they were "somehow alien".

Lovecraft included a great deal of bogus racial theories in his works, which smack of the early 20th century. It was no coincidence that the sunken city of R'yleh is found in the South Pacific and worshipped by what Lovecraft described as "degenerate races". In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the people of the city have prospered for generations by breeding with a race of frogmen known as the Deep Ones. Whole passages of this short story describe the racial traits known as "the Innsmouth Look".

The Cthulhu Mythos

Despite his works' racist shortcomings, Lovecraftian horror has gained a wide and influential cult following. Movies like the Evil Dead Series have invoked Lovecraft's Necronomicon, while pop culture from the cosmic squid of the first Hellboy movie to the squid-faced villains of The Pirates of the Caribbean movies to episodes of South Park have referenced Lovecraftian horror. Lovecraft's imaginative world of horror has influenced generations of authors, directors and game designers. In fact, the stories of the outer gods did not end with the early death of H.P. Lovecraft in 1937. Fans, friends and readers of his fiction began to write their own stories based on Lovecraft's creations. Because the earliest tale of an elder horror described the cult of Cthulhu, this expended pantheon of alien beings became popularly known as the Cthulhu Mythos. Since the Cthulhu stories are in the public domain, they are a popular source for games of all types.

Call of Cthulhu Games

The Call of Cthulhu Role-Playing Game was one of the early examples of Lovecraft-inspired gaming. In the CoC RPG, you take on the role of an investigator, journalist, detective or dilettante in the 1920s, who happens to stumble across the Cthulhu cults. With a high lethality factor and a mechanic for your character's slide into insanity, the Call of Cthulhu RPG has been a fan favorite for more than 25 years.

Call of Cthulhu card games and boardgames have also come and gone. The 1987 Arkham Horror board game is considered a classic, while the 2005 Arkham Horror board game is an update with new art and a few new elements, but which leaves a great deal of the original rules intact.

Other games based on H.P. Lovecraft creations include Call of Cthulhu CCG, Creatures & Cultists, Cthulhu 500, Cthulhu Mash, Cults Across America, Dark Cults, Munchkin Cthulhu and Mythos. One of the eight possible factions you can play in the Illuminati Card Game by Steve Jackson is the "Servants of Cthulhu", while the game The Hills Rise Wild and The Necronomicon center around the players gaining possession of H.P. Lovecraft most famous fictional magical tome.

Arkham Horror Board Game 2005

The latest edition of Arkham Horror is for 1 to 8 players, but is recommended for 1-6 players. The playing time is roughly 3 hours and the suggested playing age is 12 and up, though Arkham Horror owners consider the appropriate age more like "14 and up". The game requires cooperation among the players to play, though the players will race one another to acquire resources. The ultimate goal is to find a way to track down the cultists and stop them before they can bring forth a sleeping deity into the world.

Arkham Horror combines elements of adventure, horror and fighting board games to create a rich, 3-dimensional gaming experience. The players move their characters, each with their own ability card, around the board in point-to-point movement, with most conflict resolved by dice rolling. When you and your friends decide you want additional gaming challenges, there are currently four Arkham Horror expansions you can collect.

Arkham Horror Expansions

Arkham Horror Expansion Set Information

Below is a brief description of all six Arkham Horror Board Game Expansion Sets that are available for the 2005 edition of the game. About half of them come with a different game board, while the other half are card expansions. In both cases, these sets expand the number of investigator options, include a few new "Old One" villains and bring new game elements into the fun.

Arkham Horror - Curse of the Dark Pharaoh Expansion

In this expansion, you must learn the secret behind the masks of Nyarlathotep and battle one of the most iconic of all Old Ones.

Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion

The researchers of Miskatonic Univerity want to keep the cultist (Wilbur) from possessing The Necromonicon and calling forth the power of Yog-Sothoth.

Arkham Horror - The King In Yellow Expansion

A card-only expansion adds a new element called the Herald, which ties the Doom Track and Terror Track together in a deadly new way.

Arkham Horror - Kingsport Horror Expansion

Includes a new board, new investigators, new Ancient Ones to fight, the new game element of Dimensional Rifts and a frightening new power for aquatic monsters.

Arkham Horror - Black Goat of the Woods Expansion

A card-only expansion which includes a new game element called Corruption and the ability to customize the game, to make it either harder or easier for the players.

Arkham Horror - Inns mouth Horror Expansion

Battle with the children of the Deep Ones in the backwater New England town of Innsmouth.