Arkham Horror - 1987 Edition

1987 Edition

The 1987 version of Arkham Horror has relatively simple rules in comparison with the 2005 edition. 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. For each new gate that opens, the Doom Counter increases by one; the "Doom of Arkham" occurs when there are more than 13 open gates, and all players lose. Monsters 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.

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.