Introduction

Hello, reader. Welcome to my blog. Arkham Horror is a great game. But you know that already. That's why you're here. You're probably a fan of both the game and the Mythos of Lovecraft.

However, as much as I (we?) like the great fiction the game was based on, what I'm really interested in is to find out more about the characters in the game. I wanted to know more than their backgrounds or their motives. I wanted to flesh them out. I have been playing this game for a few weeks now and, to be honest, I like playing it alone more. It allows me to really immerse and imagine plot lines in my head. It allows my mind to play.

In one game I played with three characters (Bob Jenkins, my favorite, Mandy Thompson, and Monterey Jack), I did a little experiment and tried to make a session report. But as I took notes on what happened where, who moved to what location, and which card I drew when, I started writing dialogue between characters who meet in the same locations.

A story began to form. In one turn, I moved Bob towards a gate in the Independence Square, but just before I engaged the monsters there, I decided to check their stats. I realized that Bob would probably end up in the hospital if I continued the encounter. So, with the rest of his movement, I moved him back to the General Store to buy more equipment. On the same movement phase, I had Mandy go to the General Store and started to think, "What if they were real people and this was the first time they met? How do you start a conversation with someone about 'saving the world'?"

<"Hi. I'm Bob. I'm trying to save the world by sealing gates with Elder Signs. Do you have any with you. Maybe we can work something out? You look like a strong-willed girl, maybe you can jump into the gate that leads to an alien world, while I keep the horrors busy. Do you have enough clues with you, though?"

That's probably not how that conversation would go. It's this curiosity, this interest in the interactions that happen between investigators, and the private thoughts they have in their head that compelled me to write. I enjoyed the plots that developed as I played the game and I hope that you will too.

The first character I decided to write about was Bob. There was something about a regular, middle-class guy thrown into a saving-the-world role that really appealed to me. Unlike other board game personas that usually had special powers, medieval costumes, or alien ancestors, Bob was a regular guy, a salesman. He was someone I could relate to. He's the average Joe. I thought it was a brilliant idea to force a regular 9-to-5 travelling salesman dude to save the world.

What goes on in his head as all this is happening? How do you go, psychologically, from selling wares for a store to killing Hounds of Tindalos? And how come Bob has such a high will? Monterey Jack is a treasure hunter whose father was murdered by a cult. You'd think that he'd be more resilient to strangeness given that he has more experience with history and mystical items, right?

So that's the starting point I selected.

Before I start, I just want to say that this blog is for fans of the game. I know the limits of my storytelling skills and the limits of the material available. These stories will not be as good as standard short stories since I will be incorporating many of the game's elements. You can't buy a gun for $5 in real life from a General Store. But these are some of the things that will happen in the stories I tell because that's how it is in the game.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I hope you enjoy reading my work. Feel free to make comments and suggestions. Cheers!