Arkham Horror: Welcome to Arkham!

[Cosmo_ac]

Arkham Horror: Welcome to Arkham




General Theme

   Welcome to Arkham will be the first in a series of Arkham based horror games.  Each game, while being a stand alone, will also be part of a greater whole.  In it, the players will be playing characters which are starting there first year of university at the Miscatonic University in Arkham.  All characters will be out of town, having no family or friends in Arkham and will be living in a co-ed dorm.  As far as they know, they will be starting up a typical year in University.  They will very quickly discover that Arkham is not your typical town, and why there is a curfew at school.


What is Arkham Like?

   The best and easiest way to describe Arkham would be to compare it to Sunnydale, from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”  However, for those not familiar with the setting, I will explain it. Arkham is a hotbed for mystical energies.  Because of this, various creatures, cults, and energies are drawn to the location.  Now, in true traditional Sunnydale style, 80% of the population is fairly oblivious to what is really going on about town.  The other 20% have had encounters with the stranger side of Arkham.  Some of them have been brief encounters, while others are right in the trenches, fighting for one side or the other.  Some of those people are the very people that run Arkham, behind the scenes, and right up front.


How the game will run

   The game will follow the lives of University students in Arkham.  They will be attending school five days a week, with weekends free.  There will probably be holidays they get off as well.  During the days, Monday to Friday, Characters will be spending the days doing classes and studies.  During the evening, they may choose to do one of two activities.  One, work a part time job and earn some coin, and two, after school activities.  The part time job will earn your char money, while the after school activities will allow your characters to increase there stats and learn additional skills to aid them in their mission. 

During the weekends characters will be able to explore the town of Arkham if they choose, experiencing events and gathering clues.  Using the game board, characters will explore Arkham’s various locations, experiencing random events, trying to gain clues.  When enough clues are gathered, a story event will take place, furthering the plot of the game.



The Games System

   This game will be a dice pool game, based on the board games system.  Characters will have six stats.  Speed, Sneak, Fight, Will, Lore and Luck.  Some of these skills are directly related to a corresponding skill.  Ie, Fight = Combat check, Will = Horror check.  Certain items and spells can add to these stats. 


How Checks and Combat works

   Instead of writing my own description, I will let the official board game rule book describe these situations.  The book can be found here:
http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Arkham_Horror/AH_Rules_internat.pdf

   If there are questions, feel free to ask.


How to gain stats?

   This is where, IMO, the game gets really interesting. During the week days, the chars will be confined to the University grounds.  However, during the weekends (And a few special occasions) they will be allowed to explore the town.  During the week days, though, characters will be able to choose 1 after school activity.  These activities can be anything from a group club which will cause a stat to rise over time, to learning a certain skill, to doing work after school and earning some extra money.


Setting

   The more traditional setting for Arkham games tends to be in the late 1920’s to early 1930’s.  However, part of me would prefer that this was set in a modern day setting.  In some ways, it would mean more work for me, as I would have to edit the random encounter events, along with the cost of items, but the other way would mean having to make slight edits to the story events.  If I had to choose between the two, I would give the current time setting the go, granted only grudgingly.


Starting off

   Each character will have 8 points they can spread over there stats.  No stat can be higher then two points.  The stat rating will be listed as so forth.

0 – No skill
1 – Inexperienced
2 – Novice
3 – Experienced
4 – Skilled
5 – Pro
6 – Legendary

The stats that will be used in the game are,

Speed
Sneak
Fight
Will
Lore
Luck

   While characters can increase there stats, they will be limited to the number they can learn per semester.  On top of that, as the game progresses, penalties will be added to the ones already in existence to make sure that there is some challenge in the game.  This will be played by ear, as this is all a new experience.


Skills

   During the game, characters will have the option of spending after school time learning a skill.   Skills can do a variety of things, allowing you to re-roll a die for a skill check, or use a clue token to gain a success, for example.  All in all, handy skills for any Arkham resident to have.


I am currently looking for three dependable players, two females, one male (a second opening for a male might occure) who would be able to post an average of 1-3 decent sized paragraphes and are familiar with Lovecrafts work.  While this will be a mature game, it will not be a sexual game, though players are welcome to start relationships with each other. 

[Cosmo_ac]

Come on!  Nothing?  The other arkham games had plenty of responses.  Grrrr...  Doesn't this game idea interest anybody?