Board Game Eldritch Horror

Cooperative adventure game in the genre of detective and horror based on the works of G. F. Lovecraft.

Large-scale adventure co-op

The world is threatened by the awakening of one of the Ancient Ones, incredibly powerful beings that inhabited the universe before the beginning of time. Players take on the role of explorers trying to unravel eerie mysteries, protect humanity from unimaginable horrors, and ultimately banish the Ancient One from this world. If the explorers fail to achieve this goal, the Ancient One will awaken and humanity will be doomed.

The scenario and style of the party depends on the choice of one of the four Ancients. The base game has Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and of course bad old Cthulhu. To defeat the Ancient One, players must solve three mysteries. Evidence is needed to solve mysteries. Each player chooses an explorer with unique skills and abilities. After receiving a starting property, creating a monster bowl, a mith deck, and placing other decks, players apply the starting effects.

Game flow

A game in "Ancient Horror" lasts several rounds. Each round consists of three phases, which are played in the following order:

1. Action phase

Explorers move through the playing field and prepare for the challenges ahead. Researchers take turns. During his turn, the researcher can perform up to 2 different actions:

• Travel. The researcher moves his figure to any nearby location. After that, he can spend any number of tickets to move further. A train ticket allows you to move by rail, and a ship ticket - by water. 
• Preparation for the trip. The researcher receives one ticket in the city: for a train, if there is at least one railway leading to the city, or for a ship, if there is at least one waterway leading to the city.
• Rest. In a location without monsters, the researcher recovers 1 health and 1 sanity.
• Exchange A researcher can exchange property with another researcher in his location.
• Receiving assets. In a location without a monster, the player passes an influence check and receives asset cards from the reserve for an amount not exceeding the number of successes discarded.
• Action of the component. A researcher can perform an action specified on one of its components.

2. Meeting phase

Researchers take turns playing 1 encounter. The researcher takes an encounter card depicting his location (if he is in one of the nine cities) or from the general encounter deck. It applies an effect for its type or location name, then discards the card. If the explorer is in a location with one or more monsters, he must play a combat encounter with each monster in that location in random order. Encounter tokens in locations give researchers additional options for encounters - research, expedition, encounters in Other Worlds, etc.

3. Myth phase

In this phase, the lead researcher reveals the top card of the myth deck and follows the instructions in the order indicated on the card - moves the omen token and raises doom, applies payback effects to all game components, places gates, adds monsters from the bowl, Ancient tokens, lays out hearsay, evidence, etc.

Skill Checks

Some effects require the researcher to pass a check. When making a skill check, the researcher rolls the number of dice listed next to the corresponding skill symbol on the researcher sheet, taking into account any effects that increase or decrease the value of that skill. On any check, the researcher rolls at least 1 die. 

If the researcher rolls at least one success ("5" or "6"), they pass the check. If he didn`t roll any successes, he failed the check. The total number of discarded successes is called the check result. After that, the researcher carries out the instructions according to the result of the check.

Immediately after rolling the dice during a check, the investigator may spend one evidence token to reroll one die. He can do this multiple times if he has enough evidence tokens.

Combat encounters

Researchers play combat encounters to defeat monsters and remove them from the playing field. When encountering a monster, the researcher turns over its token and reads the text on the back. To determine the outcome of a combat encounter, he makes two checks: first a Will check and then a Strength check. 

• If, during a Will check, the monster`s horror value exceeds the number of successes rolled ("5" and "6"), the researcher loses an amount of sanity equal to the difference. 
• If, during a Strength check, the monster`s wound value exceeds the number of successes rolled ("5" and "6"), the researcher loses an amount of health equal to the difference.

The monster loses as much health as the number of successes the researcher rolled. Put the appropriate number of health tokens on it from the supply. If the monster`s durability is less than (or equal to) the amount of health lost, the researcher defeats the monster and returns it to the monster bowl.

Victory and defeat

Researchers win as soon as they solve the three mysteries of the Ancient One. If the Ancient One has awakened, the researchers will also have to solve his last secret to win.

Researchers lose if any of these things happen:

• The doom token reaches a division of "0" on the doom track. The Ancient Awakens. The conditions of defeat are indicated on the back of the Ancient One`s letter.
• All researchers are out of the game.
• The text on the card says that the explorers have lost. Most often, this effect occurs on rumor cards.
• Researchers need to open a myth card, but the myth deck has run out.