"When Dr. Herbert West disappeared a year ago, the Boston police questioned me closely. They suspected that I was holding something back, and perhaps suspected graver things; but I could not tell them the truth because they would not have believed it."

–H.P. Lovecraft, Herbert West—Reanimator

The Arkham Horror: The Card Game FAQ (pdf, 1.4 MB) is now available for download.

In Arkham Horror: The Card Game, you and up to three friends become the unlikely heroes of a series of dark and supernatural mysteries. These adventures may lead you from the sleepy New England town of Arkham, Massachusetts—where the Roaring Twenties are hushed and muted—to points across the United States, around the world… and, perhaps, even to alternate dimensions and alien worlds.

The truth is that we humans are far less important than we'd like to think. The universe we take for granted is only a fraction of the larger reality (and series of realities) that we can't fully fathom. While we bloat our importance in our minds, the universe remains cold and impassive. And alien beings of unfathomable scope and power stir from their eons-long slumber in worlds only thinly separated from our own.

As the powers and influence of these Ancient Ones bleed into our reality—and with the fate of the world seemingly at stake—you'll want to follow every lead that might help you avert their threat. You'll cherish every piece of information that may grant you insight into the larger mystery before you. And that's what you'll find in the Arkham Horror: The Card Game FAQ.

For more about the FAQ, we turn to designer Matt Newman.

Matt Newman Reveals the FAQ's Darkest Secrets

Greetings! Today we release the first edition of the FAQ for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Many of you are long-time LCG players who are familiar with the concept of an FAQ. However, we also realize many of you may be newer to the LCG model, and this may your first experience with an LCG FAQ.

With that in mind, I’d like to briefly introduce the concept of an FAQ before talking about this first edition of the FAQ for Arkham LCG—why it exists and how it will be used moving forward.

What Is an FAQ?

FAQ stands for “Frequently Asked Questions,” but that is just one of the functions this document serves. It also introduces card errata, additional rulings, and other clarifications.

Why do we need an FAQ? It is the nature of Living Card Games that they grow, change, and evolve over time. The card pool expands, the metagame shifts, new concepts are introduced, and other concepts fade away. The FAQ allows us—and you—to keep up with the game’s evolution.

If we discover a unique interaction that leads to concerns, we can use the FAQ to formalize how that interaction should be interpreted under the game’s rules. If a problematic interaction pops up, we can use the FAQ to remedy the situation. Obviously, we work hard to limit these types of situations, but like the investigators of Arkham Horror, we are only human!

Additionally, if one of our “mad scientist” players discovers a deck or combination of abilities that warps the enjoyment of the game, there are tools in the FAQ that we can be use to nudge that deck or combination into a healthier place. In short, the FAQ is a living rules document that can adapt to handle the needs of the game at any given time, and it exists to maintain the highest standards for the core Arkham LCG experience and aid your understanding of the game

What Will You Find in the FAQ?

Within the FAQ, you will find a number of different sections, each of which is introduced below.

Notes and Errata

This section is typically used to correct errors that have been discovered in the cards or rules material.

These changes may be made in the form of “errata,” which change the functional text of different components, or they can be made in the form of notes that clarify any points of ambiguity that apply to a single card. Occasionally, a card may receive errata to correct a game balance concern.

We strive to keep the number of entries in this section to a minimum, but it occasionally becomes necessary to errata a card or a section of the rulebook to maintain an enjoyable game experience.

In this first edition of the Arkham LCG FAQ, we have issued errata to the five investigator-specific cards from the Core Set, which should have no level instead of being level "0." This change helps to clarify the ways they function in deck-building. We also issued errata to two of the weaknesses from The Dunwich Legacy in order to clarify who receives trauma from those weaknesses. Finally, we have issued errata to several rules in the Rules Reference, one of which alters the process of investigator elimination in order to ensure that an investigator’s unique weaknesses always have a direct effect on campaign play.

Definitions and Terms

This section offers definitions of useful new vocabulary for discussing the game, or reinforces terms that are already defined in the existing rules documents.

In this version of the FAQ, we have used this section to define several concepts that are unique to Arkham LCG, including "Signature" cards—cards only one particular investigator may include in his or her deck—and several key phrases that appear commonly during gameplay.

Rulings and Clarifications

This section is essentially an expansion of the Rules Reference, presenting a number of general rulings that apply to specific topics or situations that may emerge in a game.

For this first edition of the FAQ, we have added several rulings and clarifications that serve to fill gaps in the Rules Reference, clarifying who can trigger abilities on which cards, how Reaction opportunities and nested sequences work, and who is referred to by the words “you” and “your” on encounter cards.

Frequently Asked Questions

The section from which the FAQ derives its name, this is a series of direct questions and detailed answers.

Questions come to us through our website rules link and through conversations our team has with players in person and online. In this section, we aim to provide answers to the most common of these questions, as well as some of the reasoning behind our answers.

It is often just as important for players to know why a particular ruling was made as it is to know the answer itself, and we often use this section to provide some of that rationale.

Quick Reference

The final section is a Quick Reference player aid that presents important information from various places in the Rules Reference in a fast and easily comprehensible manner.

There is nothing completely new in this section; it is merely a more accessible presentation of material that was already present in the rules. We simply reformat it in a way that may help prevent it from being overlooked or misunderstood.

Always Keep a Hand Slot Open for the FAQ

It is our hope that this document will aid you in your investigations in Arkham. We will continue to update its content throughout the course of each year, in order to ensure that the game’s rules are able to keep up with its ever-changing card pool and metagame.

–Matt Newman

The Rarest of Tomes

With all the ways it helps you navigate the challenges of Arkham LCG, you might expect the FAQ to reside under lock and key, hidden away in a dark corner of the Orne Library. Instead, it's available to everyone via the Arkham Horror: The Card Game website's support section. Download your copy today, and see if you can't put its forbidden knowledge to good use in the darkest and most dire of situations!