Arkham Horror: RPG – ‘Hungering Abyss’ Starter Box Review
Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game has a new starter box out and it’s a pitch perfect introduction to this horror franchise.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Arkham Horror franchise. The LCG in particular is one of my favorite games and systems of all time. I’ve always loved the blend of deck building, roleplaying, and story telling that you get within that game. There’s just something nice about building a deck around a particular investigator and playing a scenario/campaign. It’s a RPG-lite experience but more board game elements if that makes sense.
That said, I’ve always wondered why Arkham Horror with it’s impressive world building, art, characters, and just overall vibes wasn’t a full blown Roleplaying Game* system. Heck, if you’ve played any of the board games it sure seems like the investigator stats could be easily transferred over to an RPG system. I’ve had that thought for a while now. Turns out I wasn’t alone.
Edge Studio has created the new Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game and sent us a copy of the new starter box: Hungering Abyss. I am thrilled to bust this out and go over this product.
Dynamic Pool System
Before we get into the product proper I want talk about the actual mechanics of the game system. As this is an introductory product this isn’t just built for fans or veteran RPG players to dive into. Anyone can pick-up this box and with a group of friends you can start playing. The core mechanical system that makes this game function is the Dynamic Pool System (or DPS).
Each one of the core stats has a number associated with it (typically between 2 to 6). DPS uses a D6 die for all your checks. So you’ll want to get a pool of dice for each player as well. These dice pools represent the player’s health status and also their action economy (we’ll get to that later).
To perform a check, you simply use one of the dice from your pool and roll it vs your stat number. If you meet or beat it you’ve succeeded in the check. There are ways to add more dice to the roll but that’s the basic mechanic you need to know.
Scenes and Actions
The game system is also divided into two types of scenes. There are Narrative scenes and there are Structured scenes. Narrative scenes are “lower stakes” scenes. Typically, there aren’t any enemies in the scene putting pressure on the players. Structured scenes might be for combat or just more intense moments of game play. During both types of scenes players will be able to do basic or complex actions. During a Narrative scene basic actions won’t cost players dice to perform but complex actions will. For Structured scenes all actions will require dice from the pool. These aren’t dice checks per se — although if you’re performing a complex action you will be making a dice check.
As players take damage and gain horror, they will find their available dice pool will change. Without getting too much into the mechanical weeds, there are ways to heal both damage and horror. But just know that the more psychical damage you take the smaller your dice pool is. The more horror you have the more horror dice you’ll have to roll — and you don’t want to roll 1s on those dice…
All of this is explained fully in the book that’s included. There’s also handy reference sheets for the GM inside the GM screen provided, too.
Now, I’m not going to delve too deep into this boxed set. I want to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. Unfortunately, to show off what makes this so good, I will have to spoil a few things. So, consider this your spoiler warning.
Arkham Horror: Hungering Abyss
The Ghouls are back in Arkham and it’s going to be your job to deal with them.
If you’ve played the Arkham Horror: LCG and played Night of the Zealot this should be very familiar to you. If you’re a super Arkham Horror lore nerd and read Devourer Below, this should also be familiar. While it’s not a 1:1 recreation of those stories, it’s got some of the same characters that you might have encountered. But these are really more like Easter Eggs for veterans of the series. For brand new players this story feels like a rite of passage.
Now, even with the spoiler warning I’m not going to get into the story much more than that. The entire point of this product is that it’s an intro adventure to the system and world. I will say the adventure is solid. You don’t need to be a veteran GM to run this (although that won’t hurt either). There’s loads of info for the GM to make running the game as smooth as possible. That does mean they will have to do some reading ahead to prep for the game. But that’s about it. Everything else is provided for the GM. The adventure is broken down in a tutorial style setup so that teaching/learning the game is super easy, too.
Inside The Box
The packaging of this box is well done. I wanted to call out the box design in particular. The sides have this nice wedge so you can actually take the contents out with dumping the entire box or bending things. This might seem dumb to callout but it’s very thoughtful on their part. It’s the little things, ya know?
There are five playable investigators in the box. Fans of Arkham Horror should recognize most of these investigators. One player will want to play as Joe Diamond as he’s kind of the “lead” investigator for this whole adventure. Each investigator has their own folio with backstory and player sheet to use in game. It’s all very well done.
The box also comes with these 3 double-sided maps to use for your game. While the box doesn’t have miniatures, these are 1″x 1″ squares and the tokens provided are perfect for them.
And of course there are tokens — it wouldn’t be an Arkham Horror game without them. This box also has some actual puzzles for your players to use, too. The remind me of the type of puzzles from Mansions of Madness (if you’ve played that game).
There’s also a bunch of great clues, extras, and hand outs for your players. I love this stuff. A couple players start with these clues. Other clues have to be found by the team.
The box also comes with two sets of dice for you to use. There’s also large NPC cards as well as another deck of useful cards. I won’t get into who all the NPCs or cards are — but I will say they are also well done. It tickles my Arkham Horror funny bone that Lita Chantler is also a key NPC in this adventure.
And for the GMs there’s also the inside of the GM screen to help you keep track of all the rules and basic steps. This is super handy (as most GM screens are).
The Abyss Hungers
Look, I’m biased on this one: I was already a huge Arkham Horror fan. I was probably going to pick this up regardless. We just happened to get a review copy and I jumped on it. Heck, JR is the RPG guy and he knew I was going to want to take this one. If Edge Studios is doing a Core Rule Book for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game, I’ll probably snag one on my own, too. But taking a step back this is objectively a good introductory product. It checks all the boxes you need for learning this game — it’s even got dice for Umôrdhoth’s sake! The extras, the clues, and the adventure itself are constructed to be fun and useful. It’s as good as any other RPG starter box I’ve ever seen and I’ve messed with a lot of starter boxes.
For me, what makes this product stand out is the pure ease of use. You don’t have to be like me, a fan of Arkham and an experienced GM, to use this product. If you’re at all interested in Arkham Horror and want to get your RPG fix this boxed set is for you. So grab some friends and try to stop those Ghouls from summoning their god. Arkham needs you!
The starter set for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game has a release date of August 2, 2024.
*Yes, I know about Call of Cthulhu. I’ve played that one, too.
