I've thought about playing this game by myself, I just don't know if I can do it. I almost prefer the other players opinions and the table chatter on top of the excitement of the game. I just don't know if the game would be as fun by myself. Plus I'm not sure how much more difficult it would be by myself, since the game doesn't scale in anyway until 5 players. The game gets exponentially easier with each player you add, suffice it to say the reverse would also be true. A friend an I played a two player game and we couldn't eve complete that, it came down to a single clue token in the final battle. Let me know if you all think diferent.

greenlantern92 said:

I'm not sure if you have expansions, but if you have any extra boards, go for a 3-4 investigator game (I'd say 3 unless you're playing Kingsport's Board too).

greenlantern92,

     Of the 30+ games I've played, 90% have been solo games with 4 Investigators.  As a role-playe for many years, I agree with you that there's a bit of excitment around the table with mulitple players sharing ideas, kabitzing about this or that, and ultimately trying to defeat the bad guy/solve the riddle.  But this game is completely different, in that you can truly enjoy AH in solo mode.  Find some really good music to accompany the evening ~ jazz works well, and some of the more eerie sounding stuff fits the bill; pour yourself a strong drink (if necessary), and run the game (adventure) with 4 Investigators.  When you're done let us know what you think.  Also, don't forget to record your games on Tibs' spreadsheet ~ see other post.

The Professor

I like playing Arkham solo quite a bit, and prefer 2 - 3 investigators at once. With 4 I find I'm forgetting to use specific investigators' special abilities, but just one is way too hard (with the potential of 2+ gates opening while you're in the other worlds).

Playing it solo reminds me of the gamebooks I loved as a kid; sure they're not the same as a bout of D&D with a group of people, but the adventure is still a lot of fun.

If you play with base game only, 2-3 investigators are enough.

Base game+1 exapnsion town=3 investigators

Base game+2 exapnsion towns=3-4 investigators

Base game+3 exapnsion towns=4 investigators

Ofcours, playing with more than 4 would be best, but 4 is as much micromanaging I'm willing to suffer

I was considering about picking this game up just because I saw that you can play by yourself. But then I started to think is it lame, or maybe pathetic. Seeing all your posts here how great can one player experience be made me to finally decide about picking it up this week. Can someone give me a few pointers about set up or how to generally learn rules a bit quicker? Thanks.

The best advice I have is always follow the phase orders in each turn, and keep the rules open next to you while you learn the game. I had this great worksheet someone put together when I was first learning it, let me see if I can track it down.

You can download it here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/22286/universal-head-arkham-horror-rules-summary-refere

It includes the expansions, but they're color coded so you can ignore those sections and just use the information for the base game.

Thank you very much :)

Can someone answer what do symbols in lower left and right corners on the board locations mean? For example magnifying glass or a book. Thanks.

Those let you know what you can typically expect to get from encounters there, if I remember correctly.

So far I've played alone, first to learn the rules and second because I'm moving soon. I hope to have a big table in my new house and to find a few people to play with :P It's still a lot of fun, but I can't handle any more than 3 investigators at once (and that happened against Azathoth, who makes for an easy game). With two I usually get whooped :P Wait...actually with two investigators I've always lost, so far :P Might be that one investigator makes for an easier game than two, if you have the means to last a couple of rounds in the final combat.

herself said:

Then I hope you are already aware of this: http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home    :)

 Hey there, 

on wednesday I ordered the game after having enjoyed it the evening before with a couple of friends. Before this I had joined in the game for three times during the last nearly three years. And finally I decided to hold it in my hands. 

Today I received the package. 

It feels so... different ... and ... exciting to hold your own "copy" of it in your hands. First thing I realized: There is a lot more to it then it looked like when I played the game with friends days before ... ANd I need some kind of special toolbox with nice little "spaces" for all the different items.

So I decided to play a solo game - and just like this Gruduzla-thing-guy from youtube (with his really incredible tutorials for this game) I decided to play it with three characters (Dexter Drake, Mandy Thompson and Michael McGlen (random pick)); and "we" fought the almighty Shub-Niggurath (randomly picked). 

When I outfitted the characters I had plenty of luck when drawing stuff - powerfull spells, guns, toys and useful skills a lot. 

The game led to a couple of interesting situations, in which I realized: these rules, the faqs and even the internet do not really provide all the information about how to deal with THAT kind of situation ... But I think this is the typical outcome when you play the game the very first time alone, on your own, without the different and shouted opinions of others - and all that with becoming fully aware of the span and scope of the rules etc. (Is this damn Flute of the Outer Gods really such a powerful toy? And does it give the user of this device ALL the kills as trophies?). Anyway ..

On the one hand I had pretty much luck on this first game - very often the gates appeared on the same locations (although I really had taken care to shuffle the Mythos cards a lot), so Shub kept going with sleeping, and the monsters turned out to gather outside town for a couple of beers; also it was funny to have a couple of Mythos cards that automatically discarded some of the monsters the very moment they appeared. Finally: This team of a mage, the scientists and the gangster really frightened me a lot - I never ever expected to get so many kills on the monsters. Actually I never saw something "equal" during the four times of gameplay before; and I double-checked the rules a couple of times, and there was no other judgement then this: I played by the rules, the dice kept going the way they should, and I just received the kills. Cool! 

Bad luck happened a lot as well: Really: During the whole course of the game I only managed to close three gates, and only one those was also sealed. Almost anytime one of the investigators was in one of the outer regions something weird happened, and they got banned to the LiTaS many times ... (Again a question: It is correct that the investigator doesn't lose any item when he gets dragged into LiTaS?). 

So by the end of the game things looked pretty well. But then hell broke loose - a series of bad luck in dicing and really just worst draws from the monster cup melted down the resources of my investigators like a flamethrower does on vanilla icecream. And suddenly 7 gates were open simultaneously, and Shubidoo awakened. Bad Luck: Ms. Thompson was in LiTaS by that time, and therefore out of the final deathmatch before it even started. Luckily my remaining two investigators had plenty of kills and trophies ... And we managed to bring Shubidoo down to 1 doom-token (one silly decision less in this final deathmatch and I would have won). But then tGOO ate the last piece of my investigators. 

As an aside: Everything was pretty well shuffled; and there was no thing or person or whatnot that I choose, I only made random picks. And it was nothing else but the core game. 

It was real fun; it was the first time that I grabbed a few concepts of the game; and time flew like crazy. I really look forward to the next match. And I think I will keep it that way that I play the game on solo with three investigators. And maybe, when the stars are right, I will even manage to learn enough of the rules that I do not have to double check everything ... ;) 

Bottomline: Soloing the game is real fun, and I think a lot more then bystanders or "outsiders" might believe ... 

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! 

Mad

 LITAS only causes you to lose items if you were LITAS by being knocked out.

I have found solo Arkham Horror to be absolutely amazing.  I don't have a gaming group at all, in fact this was my first board game.  I saw that it was solo-able and jumped at the possibility.  Believe me, i was not let down.  I never thought that I would be able to play a board game and have as much, or more, fun than playing a video game.  I love the tactile feel of the pieces, the beauty of the Arkham artwork, that complex but exciting rules...etc etc.  Every solo game I've played (around 15) has been exciting, challenging, and has felt complete.  I don't feel like I'm missing anything from playing it with a group.  I have played it a few times with my girlfriend and it is basically equally as enjoyable.  No more and no less.  I believe that playing solo also greatly reduced the length of the game as I am able to finish in less than two hours nearly every time (win or lose).

Arkham Horror 1 player is everything I hoped it would be and more.

Hello.

Yeah, I acknowledge what you describe. During the last couple of weeks I Played the core game without any expansion so far. And I really, really enjoyed it anytime. It is especially striking to win above the "dark side" of gaming (cheating) and to live with whatever result the game delivers you with every new bit of "played story".

In one case things went really pretty cool; and all of sudden bad luck struck my investigators, and the Great Old One wreaked havoc on Arkham. In another case I really dashed along the red line for quite some time with always being one or two gates away from awakening Azathoth, and all of a sudden I was able to close a couple of gates and seal them with the limit of six AND win that way. It is exciting and thrilling. 

Also "learning", "practicing", "enjyoing" and finally as well as hopefully "understanding" it makes it a lot more tense, exciting, thrilling ... just awesome. 

Ia! Ia! 

Mad