The Darkness Over Arkham

YOU become caught up in a murder when you find a professor’s notebook carelessly left at a diner. When you bring it to the Miskatonic University to return it, you find the professor dead and are usually accused of the murder. A prophecy-poem and a trail of other professors missing, drives you to keep investigating. What killed the professor? What’s at the creepy house on French Hill? What sort of new god will arise at the death of the moon? What was that faceless winged shape on the roof top?

Chances are good that you won’t find out, because this book is really hard. But brace yourself for terror and dive into the mystery.

Review and Opinion

I love the Cthulhu Mythos and the Arkham Horror series of board games. I was perusing the Aconyte website, having recently become aware of there being AH fan fic, and look at that – Jonathan Green wrote one, and it’s a game book! I dig his ACE gamebooks so of course I mashed that Pre-Order Now button.

First off, there are some neat innovations: a game system that smells like AH games with resources and clues and doom, as well as the promise of more character sheets on the website. The game play is pretty simple, clearly borrowing from the Marvel Multiverse Missions for the combat and skill checks system. And the atmosphere is really nicely done; JG is a pretty good writer, really lays it on thick.

The game system is heavily influenced by the Marvel Multiverse Missions (JG’s other very recent game book was Moon Knight Age of Anubis), with non-combat tests being “roll a die, add this skill, is it X or more?” and combat being much the same. The game system brings in the flavor of the Arkham Horror franchise in the forms of clues and resources, which may be spent to roll a second die for a better chance. And it uses characters from AH, which feels very nice (it’s Agnes Baker!).

It is also influenced by the MMMs, in that it has a spiral of success or failure. If you pass the test, get +1 to the stat; if you fail, get -1 to that stat. Obviously, future tests will follow the same pattern – if I couldn’t get a 8 or more when my Willpower was 4, then I likely won’t get it with a 3 either, and now that it’s a 2, well… you see where this is going. I didn’t like this part of the MMMs, and actually it’s my largest criticism of Elder Sign, the first Arkham Horror board game I every played, so long ago.

The first few plays, I thought it was glitchy because there are multiple “do you know where to go? no? game over” blocks. But, that’s not in fact bad – a lot of Fighting Fantasy books let you get all the way to the boss fight before they ask if you have some random word or item, and damn that’s irritating. So this is more like Freeway Fighter that at least stops you, and you know that you missed something pretty recently.

There are a few plot holes. If you find Blaine’s body, make it off the roof at Miskatonic University, and avoid the cops, you go to the Magick Shoppe (unless you’re Police, which nobody is, or get arrested). Leaving the Magick Shoppe you head right back to M.U. where the murder investigation is underway. Why the heck would I return to M.U. having just escaped it? Come to think of it, when you’re at M.U. and find Blaine’s body and take too long in the office, and the cops show up on 215… there isn’t a break for being Police or Detective and you end up jailed anyway. That doesn’t make sense at all.

But these quirks aside, it was quite enjoyable. As I said, the atmosphere is thick and the scenarios are rich in horror and the writing is engaging. The overall depth of the universe is not on par with the ACE series, but then again the ACE books often take JG over a year to create. But, the plot moves quickly, and there are so many secret places to explore. In fact, another mechanic borrowed from MMM is the list of secrets at the end, which is great for re-playability because now I know I missed something.

All told, I had many evenings of eldritch horror investigation.

I am hopeful that there could be more of these books in the future, that this is the start of a new series. The idea was that new character sheets are added on Aconyte’s website (see the link below) which for some reason didn’t make it into the published book. This accounts for a “almost error” that several abilities are mentioned in the book which do not exist: Studious, Police, Detective, Quick Witted. In fact, there’s a whole branch of investigation that can only happen if you have Police or Detective, which is not a thing in any of the character sheets included in the book nor available on the website at the moment. I initially classified this as an error, but I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say it’s for future characters that somehow were play-tested but not included in the book, Conversely, several abilities and weaknesses that do exist on the character sheets are not used in the book at all: Fighter, Survivor, Guardian, Criminal, Civic. Why are they on the character sheets if the serve no purpose? Maybe it’s just a goof… but I’m hopeful that it means that more books are on the way, with characters that can be played in any of the books. Now that would be awesome.

Hints and Tips

From page 140 you’re supposed to enter the name of a place. Turns out there are nine different places you can go, corresponding to the nine “Location” secrets. Most of them give you some doom unless you spend a clue or resource, on account of taking time. Some are worth it, some are not.

“ABADDAN HOUSE” and “FRENCH HILL” = 95 = This is the next chapter of the plot.
“HISTORICAL SOCIETY” = 210 = Garden plan number 9. Goes with the blueprint from the Orne Library.
“ORNE LIBRARY” = 137 = Blueprint of Abaddan House / French Hill numbered 108. Goes with the garden plans from the historical society.
“POLICE STATION” = 158 = If you have Detective Harden’s card, you can get the flick knife and cure the paranoia condition.
“MAGICK SHOPPE” = 123 = Nothing but wasted time.
“MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY” = 276 = Nothing but wasted time.
“WARREN OBSERVATORY” = 239 = Attacked by ethereal creatures. Not good.
“VELMAS DINER” = 122 = Gain +1 health for a good meal and rest.
“SAINT MARYS HOSPITAL” = 139 = Actually adds up to 239 (WARREN OBSERVATORY) and I think a bug. Nothing but wasted time.

There are seven Hidden pages as well:

Hidden One =87 = In the morgue, a missing body. Gives paranoia.
Hidden Two = 30 = From the morgue, the storage shelves measure 5 x 6. This gives some bandages (which are not an item) and +resources.
Hidden Three = 211 = At the Magick Shoppe, the poem says “one from three” and “one” and “one”. This simply gives you the poem in plain text (which you already had to find this) and a bonux clue.
Hidden Four =6 = This is when you decipher the poem, and is required in order to advance the plot.
Hidden Five =60 = Waugh’s office when you get the key from the telescope platform.
Hidden Six = 79 = Abbadan House library (185) the astronomy book has VII on it, and there are 10 volumes. If you add them up… you get 55. So I’m not sure how this 79 happens. It gives +clue.
Hidden Seven = 12 = Returning to Abaddan House with the blueprint and the garden plans, a secret passage.

Errors

From page 140 where you’re adding up numbers for possible destinations per the listing above, SAINT MARY’S HOSPITAL adds up to 239 same as WARREN OBSERVATORY. But page 139 is Saint Mary’s Hospital and Location Five.

A few small typos here and there: “leech” instead of “leach” and “pouring” instead of “poring.”And one of the secrets is misnamed: it’s called “Secrets of the Old Ones” on the list, but is called “Secrets of the Ancient Ones” when it’s awarded in the text.

On 144 if you fight the cultists it goes to 138. 138 mentions “your hostage” which is true only if you grabbed one of them before starting the fight. Harmless, but a goof.

A few items exist that don’t do anything at all. The pistol just gets taken away when you’re arrested and isn’t used anyway. The flick knife clears your paranoia if you had it, but never comes up again. The DB handkerchief on your way to Blaine’s office has no use at all, but see my plot hole theory above.