Welcome to the Arkham horror.  Solving the mysteries of the mythos is incredibly difficult and dangerous to your sanity, but figuring out the rules of the game isn't.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Basic Mechanics:</strong><br/><br/>The basic mechanic of Arkham is that periodically, you'll be asked to make die rolls, to determine the effect of chance on the outcome of the story.  If this happens, you'll roll a number of standard six sided dice equal to your relevant stat, plus any modifier on the roll.  If any of the dice show a five or six, the roll usually succeeds, although certain stressful situations (like combat) require more successes.  So for example, if you were rolling a will -2 check to resist recoiling in horror at a deep one, and you had a will of 4, you would roll 2 dice, and if either of those dice roll a 5 or 6, you don't recoil in horror.  To defeat the deep one, you would need to roll a combat check.  Supposing you had a fight of 3 and a tommy gun to give you a +6 bonus on a combat check, you would roll nine dice, -1 for the combat ability of the deep one.  Therefore, you would end up rolling eight dice.  However, to defeat a deep one, you'll need to have 2 dice showing a 5 or 6, since deep ones are somewhat tough monsters.<br/><br/>Don't worry too much about the actual numbers in play, because you'll be given a great deal of warning about that.<br/><br/><br/><strong>The Ancient One:</strong><br/><br/>In Arkham Horror, you're trying to defeat an ancient Cthonic monstrosity which threatens to destroy Arkham and the world.  Nearly every ancient one tries awaken by exploiting the dimensional instability around Arkham to weaken the fabric of reality by opening gates to other worlds.  To keep the ancient one from awakening, you'll need to close these gates, and possibly defeat the monsters that pour out of them.<br/><br/>Each time a gate opens (usually at the end of each turn) a doom token is added to the great old one's doom track.  Typically, a great old one can bear ten to fifteen tokens on the track, but if six or more gates are open at once, the Great Old One immediately awakens, spelling great danger for the entire world.  (though it's not certain defeat for the investigators)<br/><br/>While a great old one stirs in its slumber, it'll have major effects on the entire world, as well as changing the statistics of certain classes of monsters (usually cultists).  At the start of each scenario, you won't usually know who the great old one is, although as you pick up clues and defeat enemies, you'll gradually get a more and more complete picture.<br/><br/><br/><strong>The Turn:</strong><br/><br/>Play in Arkham Horror is divided into turns, each with five seperate phases of investigation.  The phases are fairly simple and transparent, although they may seem slightly intimidating at first.  Most of the time, the Upkeep and Movement phases will be handled all at once in a single post by you, while a brief exchange of posts will handle the Arkham Encounters and Other World Encounters phases.  The Mythos phase will almost universally be a single long post by me.  (in which gates to other worlds open up and I inform you of the general status of Arkham.)<br/><br/>Upkeep: During the upkeep phase, players get to fiddle with their stats, use upkeep abilities, and refresh exhausted assets.  Many items and other assets can give you a special bonus by being exhausted, which prevents you from using them until the next upkeep phase.<br/><br/>Movement: During the movement phase, investigators move around Arkham and fight or sneak past monsters, determining where they'll end up by the encounter phase.  If you fight during the movement phase, your movement is over, unless you're traveling in a vehicle of some kind.<br/><br/>Arkham Encounters: During the Arkham encounter phase, investigators deal with their encounters in Arkham.  If you're having a location special encounter (such as healing up at the hospital) you can usually simply resolve all of your activity for the turn in a single post.<br/><br/>Other World Encounters: During the Other Worlds encounter phase, investigators deal with their encounters in Other Worlds.  These encounters are dangerous, and always offer a slight possibility of having to fight a Great Old One.<br/><br/>Mythos: During the Mythos phase, the Ancient One grows in strength, opening gates, while monsters move and various random events shake the whole of Arkham.  Every mythos phase, the pressure will increase, as the Arkham Horror reveals itself.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Closing and Sealing Gates:</strong><br/><br/>The main thing you're going to want to do to save Arkham is to close gates.  To close a gate, you'll first have to get through it, by walking to the location of the gate during the movement phase, then defeating or evading any monsters at the location of the gate.  (or on the way)  Once inside the gate, you travel to the other world the gate is connected to, having your risky other world encounters.  After spending two turns navigating the other world, you'll be returned to Arkham, and next turn will have a chance to close the gate by making a fight or lore check, assuming no monsters get in your way.  When a gate is closed, all monsters with the same dimensional symbol are removed from play, quite possibly making your life considerably easier.<br/><br/>To make your life even easier, you'll want to seal a gate by spending five clue tokens or an elder sign while closing it.  This prevents the gate from ever opening again, barring various unfortunate events.  If there are six sealed gates on the board, the ancient one is thwarted.  Also, if all the gates are closed at the end of the Arkham encounters phase, the investigators win, so long as a number of gates equal to the number of investigators have been closed.<br/><br/>