‘Arkham Horror’ Wades into the RPG Pool With New Game
Arkham Horror expands in a new direction, with a newly announced RPG bringing yet another venue for Cthulhu to the tabletop.
Yesterday Asmodee announced a new RPG in the works. Coming via Edge Studio, it looks like we’ll soon be getting an Arkham Horror RPG. This is huge news for fans of the Arkham Horror franchise, which for me personally, is the card-based game of exploration, investigation, and eldritch horror. As the name suggests, Arkham Horror uses the Cthulhu Mythos, and in fact, began life as a board game based on the Call of Cthulhu RPG from Chaosium.
It took on a life of its own in the Fantasy Flight “living card game” and other titles in the Arkham Horror series. What’s curious is how this game will differ from the other big eldritch horror fish in the pool, Call of Cthulhu.
But, the announcement is still wet and writhing, bereft of sense, and marked by the pale light of a baleful star. So we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, here’s what we know:
Arkham Horror the RPG
Adapted for the first time as a TTRPG, check out our upcoming release!
Stay tuned for more news!#ttrpg pic.twitter.com/VwlrEJMXQH— Edge Studio (English) (@edge_english) March 6, 2024
The announcement came via Twitter, with a minute-long video teaser that says more about the tone of the game than showing off any actual mechanics. But, the accompanying press release talks about the new mechanics at the heart of the game, a “Dynamic Pool System” that promises to be “easy to learn” while containing “strategic depths that are sure to entertain even expert TTRPG players”:
This box is absolutely brimming with a treasure trove of physical components (poster maps, dice, NPC cards, puzzles, tokens, handouts…) that add to the keystone design focuses of the adventure– narrative immersion and thrilling story moments! Arkham Horror The Roleplaying Game Starter Set – Hungering Abyss will launch worldwide during Gen Con 2024 (see the complete list of countries below) and will be demoed there for the first time at the Arkham Horror booth. In addition, all hobby stores that are part of the Hobby Next Program will offer a free additional set of dice when buying the Starter Set. Because we never have enough dice when playing a TTRPG!
There are a few other details about the game, mostly focused around the contents of the new sarter box. There’ll be all sorts of punchboards with “puzzles and tokens” handouts with evidence like journal entries, letters, and the like. Even a set of double-sided poster maps to draw you into the game. But about the DPS? All we know is that it’ll use d6s.
It will be interesting to see what Arkham Horror the RPG does to stand out from the other Eldritch Horror games out there. But Arkham Horror does have a lot going for it in terms of its previous stories, explored in other tabletop media, to play with. So perhaps it’ll draw from that!
Either way, the game releases at Gen Con this year! So look for more about Arkham Horror the RPG as we approach August.
