Arkham Horror: The Card Game

To begin Arkham Horror: The Card Game, each player selects an investigator character and takes their corresponding pre-made or custom player deck. Separate the chaos tokens and place the designated ones into the chaos bag based on your chosen difficulty level. Set out the damage, horror, resource, and clue token pools, giving each player five resource tokens and a starting hand of five cards. The lead investigator is chosen and given the lead token. Next, assemble the scenario setup using the campaign guide: lay out the starting locations with their revealed clue values, set aside specific cards, and construct the encounter deck, agenda deck, and act deck with their number-one cards active.

Players must cooperate to unravel a dark mystery, survive attacks from terrifying monsters, and overcome ominous events. The primary goal is to advance through the story by gathering clues at various locations and using them to flip and complete act cards before the escalating doom on the agenda deck spells your doom.

The game is played over a series of rounds, each divided into four phases. First, the mythos phase adds doom to the agenda and prompts players to draw encounter cards (skipped in round one). Second, during the investigator phase, each player takes a turn performing up to three actions, such as drawing cards, gaining resources, playing assets or events, moving between connected locations, investigating for clues, or fighting and evading enemies. Third, the enemy phase activates hunter enemies and resolves attacks against engaged investigators. Finally, the upkeep phase readies exhausted cards, grants resources, and draws new cards.

There is no traditional point scoring in a single scenario. Instead, success is evaluated by reaching a positive resolution (marked by an R value) on the act cards, which dictates how your story continues.

A scenario ends either when all investigators are eliminated through excessive damage, horror, or defeat, or when the players reach a scenario resolution or successfully resign.