Ancient horror game rules pdf. Review of the board game Eldritch Horror. When the Time of the Myths Comes

Immerse yourself in the incredible world of Howard Lovecraft. Learn stories unique characters, study the map and its secret places, save the world from the raging forces of darkness. Become one team in the fight against the awakening Ancient Horror .

To become the hero who liberates mankind from an otherworldly deity, find compromises, build a strategy and use all your detective skills.

The game is a modified successor (UA). For all that, the sets are very different in terms of game mechanics.

Game features

Board game Ancient Horror attracted the attention of boardgamers around the world with the following features:

The embodiment of the mystical world of one of the best fantasy writers.

The cooperative nature of the game turns all participants into a team united by a common goal.

Ancient Horror has additions that expand the boundaries of the frightening world and bring new adventures.

The excellent design of the cards and the playing field allows you to plunge into what is happening with your head and imagine that everything that happens is real, and you really are a fighter against terrifying creatures from other worlds.

Dark, gripping atmosphere and unexpected plot.

Excellent design provides a deep immersion in the plot

Description and plot

A group of people travels the world, chasing creepy creatures from the Other Worlds. Each of the twelve unique characters has their own game features, skills and personal history. In the process of fighting monsters, you will learn all the nuances about your hero: what goals he pursues, what he is looking for, what he hopes for and how fate will decide in his journey and quest.

The adventure begins in the year 1926, when the Ancient Deity unexpectedly decides to awaken. Sinister Portals begin to open on Earth. Unseen creatures are crawling out into the world, striving to destroy the planet. Like true heroes, you travel to all corners of the earth and drive monsters back home.

As you can see, the game is indeed a modified, more global version.

Heroes of battles with the world of evil spirits

How to play - rules and victory

The board game Ancient Horror is designed for a team of up to eight people. It will take a lot of space to fight the world of evil, so find a plane around which it will be convenient for a large number of people to sit so that everyone has access to maps and playing field.

Rules

1. At the beginning of the game, you need to sort the tokens. The evidence is sent to the evidence bank, the gates are stacked near the field. The remaining tokens are distributed by type and form separate piles.

playing field

2. Determine the leading player. You can choose it at random or by throwing dice. It is the first representative who will go first in each phase.

3. All participants choose sheets of detectives. After reading them, you will learn how the property is necessary to start the game and starting location. The primary set includes assets and spells. The detective's sanity and health are also shown on the map.

4. You must select the Ancient One who is trying to awaken. You can determine it blindly or by weighed decision. Each Ancient has its own characteristics and some are considered weaker than others. On the sheet you will see instructions for preparing for the game in the round with this otherworldly deity.

5. Take all monster tokens, except for the epic ones (you can identify them by the red background), and put them in an opaque vessel and mix.

6. Sort the cards. Remove everything from the deck. Which cards will be used in this battle is indicated on the sheet of the Ancient One. The resulting pile is placed next to the playing field.

7. Place the initial effects. Next to the Myths, you need to place reminders for the current number of players. Doom is placed on the scale indicated in the description of the evil of this party. The Omen token is assigned to a special circle with a comet. From the deck of assets, 4 cards must be placed in the reserve in an open form. The number of open gates at the start is also indicated in the memo. The expedition token is placed on the part of the Ancient Horror board indicated on the sheet. The number of initial clues is also spelled out. One secret is located next to the horror of this horse.

Main phases

In total, there are three stages in the battle with supernatural beings: Action, Contact and Myth. In each of them, players perform certain actions that can only be performed in the corresponding phase.

During Action:

Players move around the map and make transitions between locations

Resting

Exchange artifacts and spells with other participants in the battle

Getting ready for the next trip

Replenish your stock of assets

Perform special actions.

In the contact phase

Players draw the corresponding cards and read aloud the text written on them. Each plot has a certain impact on the game atmosphere and can be both positive and negative.

If the character is in a location where there is one otherworldly creature or more, he must enter into combat contact with everyone. When a player is in zone one, he interacts with the terrain or draws the appropriate token at his discretion. Each location has its own contact cards.

When the Time of the Myths Comes

Participants take the cards of the same name and read them. Each sheet lists specific Elder Horror actions that players must perform. Among them, you may get:

Sign change. Move the token one space clockwise. Doom increases in proportion to the number of open gates that have the same symbol as the omen.

Payback effect. Participants must play all the effects that the symbol of reckoning is drawn with. This sign can be found in the lower right corner of the map. Performing them start with monsters. Then follow: the sheet of the Ancient, processes, property and the state of the detectives.

Open a portal. The number of gates for this is indicated in the memo of the players.

An influx of monsters. Monsters are placed on all gates that have a symbol identical to doom. How much wickedness escaped from the Other World is determined by the memo. If none of the portals have the same sign as the one indicated, another gate appears on the map instead.

Evidence. Place on the field the number of tokens prescribed by the memo.

Rumors. Place the corresponding figure on the card.

Ancient. It is necessary to put the specified amount of evil spirits on the Myth sheet.

Description. If you got special card, perform this effect, and discard the card.

Victory

In the table game Eldritch Horror, there can only be a collective win and players will not be able to take first or last place. To emerge victorious from the fight with the ancient, participants must solve three mysteries. If this is not done before the monster awakens, a fourth secret appears in the game, which the investigators must solve.

Finally, we got around to writing a full review of the tabletop cooperative game "Ancient Horror" ().

The first information about Eldritch Horror unexpectedly appeared on the eve of the Gen Con 2013 exhibition. When I just glanced at the news, I didn’t even read it, because I decided that we were waiting for the 100500th add-on for Arkham Horror, to which I had very much, and left. But soon it became clear that it would be a completely new project, also in the Lovecraft universe, but modified and more modern.I wanted to give the game a chance, especially since it went with a bang.

In fact, this is also an adventure game interspersed with detective and mysticism with Cthulhu, zombies and travel to parallel universes. Players take on the role of detectives who are trying to stop an ancient evil that wants to destroy our world. The key difference from Arkham here is that the arena of action is no longer a small North American town with an incomprehensible name, but the whole world from Siberia to Antarctica. The heroes have to investigate a series of mysterious events taking place in different parts of the world, and collect from them a common conspiracy puzzle. On their travels, detectives will visit mysterious tombs, abandoned temples, the headquarters of cultists and other strange places, including other worlds. Throughout the adventure, they will be confronted by insane fanatics, mafiosi, corrupt government officials, as well as all sorts of monsters and strange creatures from other universes, including an ancient deity, the great Ancient One. The seed is promising.

As for the traditional description of the components, it will be difficult to add something to the note about with a bunch of photos, so let's not put it off and go straight to the description of the gameplay.

Preparing for the battle with the Ancient - desktop everyday life

In the rule book, the stages of preparation for a game in Eldritch Horror perfectly painted (unlike the same "Arkham Horror"), so it's hard to make a mistake here. First, players must decide on their alter egos: there are 12 different ones to choose from, each with their own history, abilities, skills and weaknesses for every taste. Then you need to choose the main enemy - the Ancient One. There are 4 in total in the box, and the batch is very different depending on the choice at this stage. After that, for the most part, you have a lot, a lot, to interfere with all sorts of cards, select the ones you need, interfere again, put them in piles and so on. You will also need to spread out all the numerous tokens (hello Fantasy Flight Games) on the playing field, on tracks, on cards - be prepared for a very monotonous process. In total, the whole preparation takes 15-20 minutes, but in the end you will get such an impressive setup (I hope you have already got a table of the right size):

Gameplay - draw cards, throw cubes

Most of gameplay Eldritch Horror is based on passing all sorts of tests of the characters' skills, for example, in combat or when solving puzzles. Each hero has his own base indicators of strength, knowledge, observation, etc. (from 1 to 4), which can still be upgraded during the game and modified with item or ally cards. These numbers are the number of dice the player will roll in the corresponding check, and a result of 5+ on the die is a success. In general, you will be able to leave the cubes pretty well.

Each turn consists of 3 phases.

1) Action phase

This is the only phase where players can consciously make some decisions, act and prepare for future adventures. You can rest, exchange equipment, activate special card effects, and so on.

At this stage, players also move between key points on the map, which is implemented quite interestingly. By default, movement always occurs in an adjacent zone, whether it be a neighboring city, uncharted wilderness, or, for example, the open ocean. But, while in the city, you can spend an action to buy a ticket for a train or a ship (the authors forgot about the planes, which, of course, creates some obstacles). These tickets can be discarded to increase your movement by the corresponding number of adjacent zones (up to a maximum of 2) by moving around railway or by water.

Interestingly, the authors decided to implement and purchase new equipment, weapons and allies. On the playing field there is a replenishable pool of available purchases of 4 cards. On their turn, any investigator in the city may try to buy something from this pool by passing an influence test. In case of failure, you can always borrow from some more influential people in order to still get the coveted improvement. The very fact of "debt" is marked by a special state map, on reverse side which indicates the consequences of this rash act, which we have yet to learn. You can, for example, end up in the hospital after meeting with a gangster collector or go to jail. No money tokens, no unnecessary movement in search of the right things, no wasted actions. The only pity is that the rest of the checks are not so supportive of the detectives.

2) Interaction phase

After all players have done all their conscious actions, all they have to do is draw event cards according to the place where they ended their turn. Usually in big cities you will find some kind of bonuses, free spells or skill upgrades. If there are open gates in your city, you can try to close them by going to another world. In separate corners the globe you can join an expedition for relics (hello) or deal with sinister rumors (hello). In the wild lands and on the sea, anything can be expected of you. In 99% of cases, you will have to pass a test of some kind of skill and either receive a reward or suffer heavy losses. Heroes lose health and sanity, catch curses, frenzy and other unpleasant conditions, some of which can take the character out of the game forever. Not that there are no modifiers, but the game is quite harsh and unpredictable. Of course, you can always discard a clue to re-roll 1 die, but getting this clue is its own story and a new chain of challenges that may not end in anything good. In addition, these tokens, like nothing else, are important for the successful completion of the game.

3) Myth phase

Let's just say that this is such a "technical" stage, when, at the behest of a single card, another stream of troubles falls on the players. New gates open, unknown aggressive creatures climb out of them, track markers move, bringing the end of the game closer, negative effects of cards in the game are activated (exacerbations of schizophrenia, payment of debts, etc.), rumors appear somewhere (about a fatal illness or some some crazy sorcerer) and so on and so forth. The only good thing is that not all at once. At the same moment, new clues appear on the playing field, which, in general, is not bad, but finding the time to study them can be extremely problematic. Finally, some event unrelated to the general plot may occur, due to which someone can easily die or, on the contrary, restore health or receive some kind of bonus.

The game continues until the Elder card either wins or loses completely. Usually, this requires completing 3 tasks on the Mystery cards, for example, closing a certain number of gates or accumulating clue tokens. The result is very dependent on luck and the speed of the Darkness track, which is quite non-linear. Expect that you will need from 3 hours per game, and at first, most likely, even more.

Impression

Wouldn't say that Eldritch Horror made some kind of revolution in terms of mechanics or gameplay. All in all, I can say that this is Arkham Horror 2.0, or what Arkham should (and still can) be after its many re-releases.

The developers did their best to ensure that during the game the game told us a story, and did not turn into a series of drawing cards of unrelated events and impersonal dice rolls. Of course, it didn’t work out to get to the level of Mansions of Madness, which is quite expected, but a qualitative step forward is obvious. Ancient is not just a sheet with the amount of health, attack power and victory conditions. Each of them has its own deck of mysteries that players need to solve in order to successfully complete the adventure, and a unique set of clues that are directly related to the plot. The suspense has grown, the immersion has appeared.

In conclusion, I can say that Eldritch Horror- one of the brightest representatives of board games in the adventure genre in recent years. Fans of Arkham Horror will definitely be delighted, because, what is there, this is a new round of development from Fantasy Flight Games.

Simple and clear rules;
Deep dive into history;
"Arkham Horror" without piling up unnecessary components and mechanics;
Gorgeous design (even though we have already seen these pictures in other desktops);
Sane party time;
Accessibility for beginners;
You can fight Cthulhu one on one 🙂

Without immersion in the atmosphere, the party turns into a dice-throwing competition;
Not enough Ancients and secret cards for them in the database;
There are 4 cheap dice in total, although some checks may require all 10.

The end of the world is getting closer!

The year 1926 has come, and the world is on the brink of disaster. Somewhere beyond known reality, an ancient and incredibly powerful being awakens, threatening to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth. On all continents, portals to other worlds open, terrible monsters roam and disgusting cults spread. Only a handful of brave detectives understand what is really going on. These staunch defenders of humanity must join forces in the fight against the Ancient One. They were destined to visit the most remote corners of the globe, fight nightmarish creatures and uncover the terrible secrets of the "Ancient Horror"!

Ancient Horror is a 1-8 player team adventure game based on the world famous Arkham Horror. Each player chooses one of twelve investigators, which differ in health, sanity, and five skills: knowledge, communication, attention, strength, and will.

Investigators travel around the world to solve mysteries, fall into traps, and fight monsters. Also during the game, players will receive various useful items, find allies, artifacts and spells. Each round of the game takes place in three phases:

1. The Action Phase, in which players move around the game board, buy necessary items, allies and various services, as well as tickets for ships and trains, in order to move around the world faster.

2. Contact Phase - in this phase, players enter into one of three contacts: combat, location, and token contact. Most often, a card is drawn for a certain type of contact, on which events are described, positive or negative.

3. The Mythos Phase, in which the lead player draws a Mythos card and resolves the effects of that card in the order listed. Each effect affects your part in a different way.

In order to win, a group of explorers must solve three riddles that are unique to each Ancient One. However, if the doom token reaches zero, the Ancient Evil wakes up and the investigators must fight it in open confrontation. If the players could not win, then the world is covered with darkness and all of humanity loses.

Box dimensions: 296x296x67 mm.
Card size: 189 cards 57x89 mm., 114 cards 41x63 mm.

▼ Equipment

playing field;
rules of the game;
directory;
4 cubes;
12 coasters;
12 sheets of detectives;
12 detective tokens;
4 sheets of the Ancients.
Cards:
51 Myth cards;
36 contact cards in locations;
32 search contacts cards;
24 contact cards in Other Worlds;
18 maps of expeditionary contacts;
16 mystery cards;
12 special contact cards;
40 asset cards;
36 state cards;
20 spell cards;
14 artifact cards;
4 memory cards.
Tokens:
78 health and sanity tokens;
43 monster tokens;
36 evidence tokens;
30 upgrade tokens;
20 ticket tokens;
20 Ancient tokens;
9 gate tokens;
4 rumor tokens;
1 current expedition token;
1 doom token;
1 omen token;
1 lead investigator token;
1 secret token.

Inspired by the atmosphere and grandeur of Arkham Horror, the developers have created the Elder Horror board game set in the same universe. Ancient Horror is a unique, addictive adventure board game designed specifically for intrepid adventurers who are ready to defy fate and the gods.

The year is 1926 and the world is on the verge of extinction... An ancient and powerful creature is ready to wake up and cover the world we know with darkness. Portals open all over the world, from which various monsters crawl out, and ancient cults rise from their knees. But there is a group of heroes who are ready to risk everything to prevent the impending horror. From the snowy peaks of the Himalayas to the bustling streets of San Francisco, intrepid travelers set out on a journey to collect clues, solve mysteries, destroy monsters, and protect the world from an otherworldly threat. Are you ready to join them and put everything that is dear to you on the line for the sake of saving this world?

How to play

"Ancient Horror" cooperative game for 1-8 persons. Each player chooses one of twelve investigators, which differ in health, sanity, and five skills: knowledge, communication, attention, strength, and will. Investigators travel around the world to solve mysteries, fall into traps, and fight monsters. Also during the game, players will receive various useful items, find allies, artifacts and spells. Each round of the game takes place in three phases:

The Action Phase, in which players move around the game board, buy necessary items, allies and various services, as well as tickets for ships and trains, in order to move around the world faster
Encounter Phase - In this phase, players enter into one of three encounters: Combat, Location, and Token Encounter. Most often, a card is drawn for a certain type of contact, on which events are described, positive or negative.
Mythus Phase - In which the lead player draws a Mythos card and resolves the effects of that card in the order listed. Each of the effects affects your part in a different way.

Who has won?

Game features

The epic board game "Ancient Horror" was created specifically for fans of the Arkham Horror series, as well as fans of mysticism and Lovecraft's works. The game will plunge you into a gloomy atmosphere, where every step you take affects the future of the whole world. You will be able to travel around the globe, try to decipher secret messages and defeat otherworldly creatures. The game has several levels of difficulty and is suitable for both interested beginners and seasoned detectives. And each of the Ancients has a unique deck with riddles and its own characteristics. Will you now be able to sleep peacefully at night, knowing that the Ancient Horror is almost awake?

Ancient Horror is another addition to the big desktop family Arkham Horror. According to a fairly common opinion, this game is a kind of Arkham Horror 2.0, that is, the game that is designed to replace the classics. What is this tabletop? The setting of the game is still the same, you have to lead a group of detectives who investigate and try to prevent the awakening of another ancient. The scale of the game has grown from the small town of Arkham to the entire globe. The board game field has become horizontal.

New "old" detectives

The next moment that immediately catches your eye is that the Ancient Horror board game finally has new basic investigators. Of course, many are accustomed to them, but they are already somehow fed up. Of course, we were all mentally prepared to see them again, but we were pleasantly surprised. In fairness, there are still no completely new characters here, they are all heroes of additions to Arkham. The authors decided to take the path of simplifying and speeding up the game, but not as radical as with.

Investigator List and Ancient Ones

The character sheet in Ancient Horror is now very concise and informative. Gone are the original but tricky skill sliders. Now the parameters are set statically, but they grow very actively as the game progresses. That's what it was not possible to get rid of - this is from a rather long and routine preparation for the game. The process, of course, is already quite faster, but still. This is partly due to the variant cards, depending on the ancient used in the party. On the Ancients, by the way, the authors were stingy. The choice is offered only a fantastic four all long-familiar comrades. Each, again, with only four secret cards, three of which are almost guaranteed to open during each game. Ancient cards have lost their doom track, which is now located on the board.

A few more changes

In the corner of the field, a new element is the circle of a sign. The corresponding token will move along it, provoking an increase in doom depending on the open gate. Gates and clues in the Ancient Horror have been made more specific, appearing at specific locations on the map. simple items and allies united in the so-called assets represented by the common market. BUT unique items retrained as artifacts and became much more complex and interesting. Spells have become more like their counterpart in Mansions of madness, with more variable checks for their effects. An important place in the game is occupied by effect cards, which include everything from blessings and debt obligations to various injuries and mental disorders.

Game phases

According to the rules of the board game Ancient Horror, the number game phases decreased from 5 to 3. At the beginning, players, starting with the first one, spend 2 action points. You can spend them on one of six actions, but the same thing cannot be done twice. While traveling, the player can take one step on any path and then spend tickets for additional steps. Swap allows two investigators in the same location to trade their items. Unlike Arkham, here you can change the evidence. While in a city, an investigator may receive one ticket for vehicles leaving that city. But the next two actions can only be performed if there are no monsters in the current location. Resting allows the player to restore an investigator's health and sanity by 1, while acquiring assets allows a player in a city to purchase items from the market based on success and dice rolls.

Action Phase

Any checks in this board game are very simple. The value of the parameter is the number of dice the player rolls, and the successes are the fives and sixes rolled on the dice.

Contact phase

Once everyone has completed the Action Phase, the Ancient Horror rules begin the Encounter Phase. It also happens in a very similar way to Arkham, but much more varied. First of all, combat contacts are played out. The combat here is also very simple, which by the way can significantly reduce the game time. First, a will check is rolled, the player checks the corresponding parameter, taking into account the monster's modifier. If the monster horror value more number of the rolled dice, the investigator loses one Sanity point for each point of the difference. The player then makes exactly the same check with the strength parameter, but each success inflicts wounds on the monster itself in addition to preventing damage to the investigator. If there are enough successes to kill the monster, it returns to the pool, if not, the fight with this monster ends, and it saves the wounds received.

The Ancient Horror board game also introduces more powerful, epic monsters that do not mix into the pool and appear in the game when certain conditions are met. If there are no monsters in the player's location, or there are none left there as a result of the battle, the player can make one contact. At absolutely any location, an investigator may draw a card from the Common Encounter deck. In a special location, you can contact using the appropriate deck. In a location with evidence, you can use the search contact. Unlike Arkham Horror, this is the only way to get evidence from the field. At the gate, you can take contacts in other worlds, and at the location with the current expedition token, the player draws a special expeditionary contact card. You can also make contact with a defeated investigator by flipping their card and using their unique contact.

Finally, the top myth card is played. The symbols on it indicate what is happening, such as opening a gate, an influx of monsters, changing an omen, the appearance of evidence, etc. Then the text from the myth cards is executed, everything is as usual. As soon as the doom token reaches zero, the Ancient One awakens. Of course, the awakening of the Ancient One does not bode well for the players. The only way win the game - uncover the secrets of the ancient. Mystery cards are shuffled and one of them is revealed at the beginning of the game. It indicates in text form what the detectives have to do to solve the mystery. As soon as one of the mysteries is solved, the next one will open. If the players manage to solve all the secrets before the Ancient One awakens, they will win, and if the Ancient One awakens, he will add additional condition victory.

Outcome

Ancient Horror is a beautiful reimagining and modernizing of Arkham Horror. The game has retained its unique surroundings, while becoming faster, more accessible and easier. All the rules fit into a 16 page book with detailed examples. And for those who find this not enough, there is a fairly handy guide to the game. Also, localization seems to have bypassed the worst curse of the Arkham Horror - errors in translation. The Ancient Horror board game was the panacea that the series needed so badly.