History TabletopGame / ArkhamHorror

* DropTheHammer: The sledgehammer, natch; it thoroughly crushes enemies by giving both combat and Fight bonuses and reducing their toughness.

* WhipItGood: A whip is available as a weapon.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Averted in "Knocking on the Gates"; whenever investigator gets driven insane, a Blight enters play for the rest of the game, making it significantly harder for everyone.

* MindRape: In "Miscreants and Miscreation", whenever investigators defeats a Child of Abhoth, Abhoth himself speaks in their mind, forcing them to pass a Will check or lost 2 Sanity.

''Arkham Horror'' is an [[AmeritrashGames American-style]] {{Adventure Board Game|s}} based on Creator/HPLovecraft's Franchise/CthulhuMythos and taking place in the [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]]. It was designed by Richard Launius in 1987 for Creator/{{Chaosium}} and was revamped and re-released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005. The players must cooperate as a handful of investigators trying to prevent the awakening of an [[EldritchAbomination Ancient One]] with the fate of the city of Arkham, and sometimes the whole world, in the balance. The investigators will collect ordinary and magical items, explore forgotten or forbidden regions of the town, battle monsters, enter alien worlds, and (per the setting) go gibbering insane in the process.

* BedlamHouse: The infamous Arkham Asylum. The original Arkham, [[Franchise/{{Batman}} not that]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum other one]]. Investigators actually may receive treatment here to restore lost Sanity (and automatically do so if (or when) they are driven insane), or search here for some valuable clues.

** The entire boss fight with Yibb-Tstll is this. When she attacks, each investigator must roll as many dice as they have Focus; if they roll no successes, they die; if they roll at least two, they get Blessed (making it easier to fight her). So, depending on your luck, you may either curb-stomp her, or [[TotalPartyKill be completely slaughtered]] [[RocksFallEveryoneDies on the first round]].

* MiniBoss: The titular Dunwich Horror. If you can't prevent its arrival, then a seemingly normal monster tile is added to the game. One with a laundry list of special rules. The Dunwich Horror has tons of health, can advance the Doom track, and has a deck of cards that randomizes its combat stats, drawn ''after'' you enter combat with it. On one turn, [[StoneWall it takes]] [[DamageReduction half damage]] and [[MooksAteMyEquipment destroys all your gear]]; on the next, [[GlassCannon it has no special resistances]] but [[OneHitKill instantly kills you]]. Defeating it gives you any card you wish as a reward.

*** [[Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu John Legrasse]] [[InvertedTrope also allows you to ignore]] the ''Endless'' effect on monsters (which prevents them from being taken as trophies).

''Arkham Horror'' is an {{Adventure Board Game|s}} based on Creator/HPLovecraft's Franchise/CthulhuMythos and taking place in the [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]]. It was designed by Richard Launius in 1987 for Creator/{{Chaosium}} and was revamped and re-released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005. The players must cooperate as a handful of investigators trying to prevent the awakening of an [[EldritchAbomination Ancient One]] with the fate of the city of Arkham, and sometimes the whole world, in the balance. The investigators will collect ordinary and magical items, explore forgotten or forbidden regions of the town, battle monsters, enter alien worlds, and (per the setting) go gibbering insane in the process.

* HouseRules: The Fantasy Flight site includes semi-official house rules from the game's creator Richard Launius. In addition, there are investigator sheets for Gabe and Tycho from ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures'', with Annarchy as an ally.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: If you kill enough monsters and/or seal enough gates, you can be appointed deputy of Arkham.

* ''Wrath of N'Kai'' by Josh Reynolds
* ''The Last Ritual'' by SA Sidor
* ''Mask of Silver'' by Rosemary Jones
* ''Litany of Dreams'' by Ari Marmell
* ''The Devourer Below'' (anthology)
* ''Cult of the Spider Queen'' by SA Sidor
* ''The Deadly Grimoire'' by Rosemary Jones
* ''Lair of the Crystal Fang'' by SA Sidor

** Jenny Barnes is searching for her sister Isabelle, abducted in Paris by a cult, and will ''always'' find her. The only difference is whether she will be alive and in one piece...[[FingerInTheMail or several]].

** In "It's Good to be the King", several locations gains additional rule: if the clues spawns there for any reason, there also spawns a Yellow Sign token; if investigator gathers those clues, he also gains the Yellow Sign, and has to either put into play a Blight card and suffer from its permanent debuffs, or put that Yellow Sign on the Doom track.

** In "The Beginning of the End", as Walter may potentially move too fast for investigators to catch up, he's not guaranteed to succeed when sacrificing an Ally for the final task; investigators throws certain number of dices (depends on Terror level), and only if none of dices gives success, the game ends in failure.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: Walter Gilman (or whoever passed themselves for him) gets deal with in penultimate scenario. The one after that deals with the fallout of chaos which Walter started.

* InstantWinCondition: In "The Dreams in the Witch House", investigators wins if they either seal 6 Gates, or close the number of Gates equal number of players, plus four (regardless of other factors).

*** He only gains Allies on Terror level increase.

*** Even when Walter Gilman tries to do the final sacrifice, the first player throw a dice certain amount of times, which depends on Terror level (the lower it is, the less dices gets thrown); if at least one gives 5-6 result, it's game over, otherwise, Gilman goes forward.

** In "Welcome, Mr. Whateley", if Abhoth awakes before Walter Gilman gets found in Dunwich, the game ens in failure immediately.
** In "The Three Armies of the King", failing to recover Walter Gilman before Hastur awakes ends the game in failure.

** In "The End of the Beginnings", while defeating Nyarlathotep or Yog-Sothoth if they awakes wouldn't win the game, losing to them in battle still ends the game in failure.

* NonstandardGameOver: In "Twilight in Arkham", allowing Cthulhu to destroy all unstable locations leads to gave over, unless investigators manages to defeat him in one round of battle (as the actual battle happens before the game checks for that condition).

** The seventh scenario makes it that each time the Outskirts gets filled with monsters, Terror level rises by 2 and two monsters moves to Innsmouth Factory District. It's now explained in any way, and has little to do with Eihort (it's one of the three scenarios with fixed Ancient One).