Arkham Horror LCG: Game Setup

Since we got into board games we have had a weekly campaign game we play with Jeremy’s brother Daniel. It started with Gloomhaven and since finishing that we have been playing Arkham Horror LCG. Both of those games are heavy, both literally and figuratively. They grow with each game played and require a lot of organization to keep the game flowing. Today I am walking you through how I setup Arkham Horror LCG to minimize setup time and get to the actual fun part: playing the game.

Full disclosure: I have gone through a few iterations of game setup, starting with disorganized chaos that was very stressful to the system I use today which works for me. Everyone is different and what makes sense to me may drive you nuts. That’s ok! One thing I love about board gaming is that everyone can find what works for them and makes playing enjoyable. That’s the whole point, right?
The first thing I do I crack open the new Mythos pack and get everything sleeved. This usually happens the morning after our last play session. I put everything from the night before away and get ready for the next play session. Everything gets sleeved. I am a big believer in the importance of card sleeves, especially on encounter and player cards. We use them over and over again and the sleeves protect them damage and fading that occurs with heavy use.

Once everything is sleeved, I sort all the cards into their own piles: encounter cards, player cards by class, and the agenda deck.

Currently all of our player cards are housed in quarter storage boxes. This is an upgrade from the regular deck boxes we had been using. There were two boxes per class and it was just too much to maintain so when we started The Path to Carcosa we upgraded the boxes. Are they pretty? Absolutely not. Do they get the job done? Very well! We picked them up at our local game store for $1 each.
The cards are divided into 3 sections: Level 0, Level 1+, and new. I put the cards from the current Mythos pack in the front for easy access. After the scenario is complete, they get filed into the other sections where they belong.

After the character cards are complete and moved aside, I move on to the Encounter cards. I use an app to maintain our campaign log and it also gives me the setup info for each scenario. I collect all the Encounter sets from our storage box and keep them separated until all the necessary cards are set aside. I use the setup info to pull out any cards that need to be set aside and then shuffle the remaining Encounter cards together.

I am a firm believer that games are more enjoyable when everyone has a job during gameplay. When we play Arkham Jeremy maintains the agenda, Daniel manages the locations, and I keep all the special set aside cards that come into play after the scenario has begun. That way no one has to keep up with everything and everyone gets to have ownership beyond just playing. Once everything gets sorted, I put our personal deck boxes and the cards associated with our role in each person’s play area.

The whole setup takes about 15 minutes now, including the sleeving and sorting of the Mythos pack that happens in advance.