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Last night's new game: Arkham Horror (the Board Game)
Arkham Horror is a game built around the mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. To be honest, the game is a little complicated for a board game, and one game is neither simple nor quick. However, if you like involved games with a roleplaying feel, than this is definitely for you. And you don't need to know the stories to play.
To begin the game you get to pick out characters, each one starts with a special ability. I loved that there were a bunch of female characters to pick from, and they weren't all stereotypes; like the Researcher lady? Hot & Smart. Not that either really matter when you're facing sanity draining monsters. The other thing I really enjoyed about the characters is that everyone has the chance to do something really great, or take out the monsters, or close the portals to other dimensions. I gave the nun character "Sister Mary" a try (which'll be funny to anyone that knows me) and she was one of the people with the most killed monsters at the end of the game.
This isn't a typical board game either, where each player is pitted against each other. Instead, at the beginning of the game, one player draws the opponent (the Great Cthulhu in our case) and all the players (up to 12 people) band together to bring sanity back to the world before the Old One descends and dooms you all. Essentially, the entire game is a race against time.
When the game is over there's a point system where the group can count up to decide how good they were before stopping the Old One. This isn't used to compare one player against another, but to compare one entire game against another. It's a nice system, but can be difficult to count up.
If you've got a few hours to spend exploring this game, I highly recommend it. Especially if you're a fan of Lovecraft stories, the Call of Cthulhu RPG or an older RPG - Chill.
