Аркам Хоррор: 1926 жылғы қорқынышты оқиғалар

American adventure board game, first published 1987
the card game

Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium. The game is based on Chaosium's roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, which is set in the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft and other horror writers. The game's second edition was released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005, with a third edition in 2018.

The game board is set in Lovecraft's fictional Massachusetts town of Arkham in 1926. Street, building and outdoor locations are featured. Gates to other planes open throughout the town (represented by tokens placed on the board.) Players take on the role of investigators, represented by a character card. Each investigator has several attributes (such as "sanity"), and cards representing items, spells, and other things. The investigators travel through the city, avoiding or fighting the monsters that enter through the gates, visiting city locations to acquire tools, and ultimately entering the gates. After traveling to the other world and returning, the investigator can try to close the gate. While exploring city locations or other worlds, the investigators face random events which may benefit or harm them. As gates open, a "Doom Track" advances; if the track reaches its end, a powerful horrific creature known as the Ancient One breaks through into Arkham. In the 1987 edition of the game, this ends the game, and all players lose. In the second edition, when the doom track fills, this typically begins a final opportunity for the players to directly defeat the creature and win; otherwise, they lose.

Arkham Horror was originally submitted to Chaosium Inc. by Richard Launius as Call of Cthulhu: The Board Game, a new strategic game based on their Call of Cthulhu role playing game. It was edited in house by Chaosium, who added such features as the Doom Track, a method to track progress toward the total failure of the players, and was published in 1987 as Arkham Horror. The game won the "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1987" award in the Origins Awards, becoming the first Lovecraft themed board game to achieve significant popularity. Arkham Horror was one of several Lovecraft based board games submitted by Launius, with other designs from the same period including 'The Trail of the Brotherhood', 'DreamQuests', and 'Imprisoned with the Pharaohs'. Arkham Horror was the only of these games to see professional publication. The original printing of Arkham Horror sold out. Chaosium announced reprints several times, but they never occurred, and Chaosium discontinued production of the game in 1991. In November 2019, Aconyte Books announced a tie in novels based on the world of Arkham Horror, titled Arkham Horror: Wrath of N’Kai. The novel is set to be published in May 2020. A video game adaptation, Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace, was released in March 2021.

The 1987 version of Arkham Horror has the following game components: a board map of the town of Arkham; 99 playing cards with various events; 50 monster counters; two 4 page investigator rules sheets; eight investigator cards; eight pawns; and markers. The cards and tokens are illustrated with black and white drawings and silhouettes. The map of Arkham consists of a set of intertwined routes with a large number of spaces. There are several locations off the routes, such as Miskatonic University or Dark's Carnival, where a player's investigator may have encounters, or where a gate to another world may appear. The other worlds themselves are in a row at the top of the game board. Encounter events in Arkham are determined by rolling a die and consulting a table for that location. Investigators usually move a random number of spaces based on the roll of two six sided dice. The investigator cards are pre made, with four fixed attributes: Fast Talk, Fight, Knowledge, and Sneak. To successfully use an attribute, the player rolls one six sided die to get a value equal or below the attribute's value. Paperclips are used to track two numbers that frequently change: Sanity and Strength. The turns of the investigators are preceded by the "Mythos Phase", where a gate and monsters may appear. Monsters that appear move throughout the town, attacking any investigators they happen upon; seeing some monsters results in a sanity loss. In true Lovecraft fashion, if an investigator in the town loses all Sanity or Strength, they are ignored by the monsters. The collapsed investigator is transported to the Sanitarium or Hospital, as appropriate, for treatment. Such vital losses in the other worlds result in the death of the investigator, and the player must start a new one. For each new gate that opens, the Doom Counter increases by one; the "Doom of Arkham" occurs if the Doom Counter reaches 14. If this happens, all players lose. Victory is achieved by closing all of the gates that have opened. Closing a gate requires passing into it to another world, and taking two encounters there; upon return to Arkham, the investigator must attack the gate successfully to close it. Closing a gate reduces the Doom Counter by one.

Each player selects an investigator character that is provided with the game. These characters have three pairs of statistics to represent their strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to "slide" their current focus on each scale towards either extreme or keep it relatively average. For example, Lore and Luck is one pair if the player maximizes their character's Lore, they simultaneously minimize their Luck. Characters are further defined by a starting inventory and special abilities. Most importantly, each character has the stats of Sanity and Stamina. These respectively measure the character's mental stability and physical health (i. e. hit points). The back of each card includes a brief history for the character, in case players wish to add an element of roleplaying to the game. Each player's character is placed on the game board at the location specified on their card. They are given any items specified as well as their starting Sanity and Stamina tokens. At this time, the players should also pick which Ancient One they will be attempting to defeat. This is usually done by randomly drawing the Ancient One's card, but can also be selected intentionally if the players choose to do so. The basic resolution mechanic is to roll a number of six sided dice equal to the statistic, plus any modifiers. Results of a five or a six on a die is considered a success. Most checks only require a single success, with the general exception of Combat rolls when fighting monsters. For instance, a card may require a Lore 1 roll. If the character has a Lore stat of 4, they would roll three dice and if at least one die lands on a five or six the character has passed the roll (and may gain a benefit), otherwise he or she has failed (and may suffer a consequence). Characters may also become Blessed, which allows them to succeed on a four or higher; or Cursed, which means they can only succeed on a roll of six. Throughout the game, characters collect Clue tokens; a Clue token can be spent to get a bonus die during a roll (after the original roll fails to produce enough successes). There are Skill cards that can be acquired, increasing a statistic by one as well as granting an extra bonus die when the player spends a Clue token on that particular type of roll. Each turn, the players move their characters on the board, fight or evade monsters and have Encounters at a location (by drawing cards specific to that board location). They may also purchase items at some locations, or take advantage of other special features. For example, characters who spend a turn at Arkham Asylum will regain a point to their sanity score, or they may spend $2 in game to regain their maximum sanity. Either way, it takes the place of their normal Encounter card draw for that turn. Characters who encounter monsters have the option to sneak past them or fight them. Fighting a monster first involves a Sanity check, needing only a single success but losing Sanity tokens indicated on the monster if the roll fails. After that check, the character may cast spells or use weapons to affect the combat. If the monster is not immediately destroyed or removed from the board, they then roll Fight plus any bonuses from weapons, items or spells. Some monsters only require a single success, while others may require several to destroy. At the end of each turn, the first player draws a card from the Mythos deck. This causes a gate to another world to open, as well as releasing new monsters onto the board, causing existing monsters to move on the board and often adding a new effect to gameplay. If enough monsters appear on the board, they are recycled, and the terror level of Arkham increases, indicating that Arkham is slowly being completely overrun by monsters. If the terror level rises high enough, stores begin to close and potential allies flee, and the Ancient One will awaken even faster once Arkham becomes completely infested. Weather may make it more difficult to move through the streets or a rumor might require investigators to complete an action in a certain number of turns to prevent even worse effects from happening. After the Mythos card is resolved, play passes clockwise to the next player to start a new turn. Certain events add tokens to the Ancient One's card, representing how close it is to awakening. Typically, when a new gate opens a token goes onto the Ancient One's card. Gates may be closed by investigators through a die roll. Alternately, a gate may be sealed by spending Clue tokens, or with an Elder Sign item. Sealing a gate prevents another gate from opening in that location again, and using an Elder Sign removes a token from the Ancient One. If the Ancient One's card reaches a specified number, it awakens and investigators must immediately deal with the threat. Combat against an Ancient One varies, but typically involves making rolls to remove tokens from it, while the Ancient One lowers their stats each turn or takes certain tokens from them. Investigators who lose all of that token type are immediately devoured and removed from the game. If the Ancient One is defeated, the players win; otherwise, the game is over and they have lost.

Ben Kuchera reviewed the game for Ars Technica, and noted that in a game with 700 tokens "brevity is not one of its strengths A short game is still measured in hours, and learning to play the game smoothly takes some time. Even with seasoned players, simply setting everything up can take a while, and once you begin adding expansions, the amount of space you need to enjoy the game is increased." He concluded that this may not be a game for new players, or players not used to complicated rules systems, saying, "it's a big, long, complicated game. It's only fun if you have a regular group of gaming friends who get don't mind learning something that's not immediately intuitive. But if you have the space, the time, and the friends it's worth the investment."

A third edition of Arkham Horror was released by Fantasy Flight Games on November 1, 2018. This version incorporates design elements from Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror: The Card Game. An expansion, Dead of Night, was released on October 8, 2019. A second expansion, Under Dark Waves, re exploring Innsmouth and Kingsport, was released on September 18, 2020. On June 11, 2021, a third expansion titled Secrets of the Order was released, this time taking players to the French Hill neighborhood and the underworld.

In 2011 a series of novels were published under the Arkham Horror banner via Fantasy Flight Games, beginning with Ghouls of the Miskatonic by Graham McNeill. A new series, beginning with Wrath of N'kai by Joshua Reynolds, began publication in 2020 through Aconyte.