Arkham Horror LCG - In the Know - A Beginner's Guide to Timing & Player Windows Part 1

the stars are right and that means it's time for another episode of the Whisperer in darkness I'm your host the man from Lange thank you very much for joining me today on this episode I am absolutely thrilled to bring you another installment of in the know a series of videos for new players who are just beginning to explore what the Arkham Horror LCG has to offer today's topic is timing and player windows I received a lot of requests for a video about this topic which it doesn't surprise me in the least whether you're new to trading card games or a seasoned veteran it can be a challenge to get a handle on timing and player windows in the Arkham Horror LCG many players uh myself included have struggled to wrap their heads around the timing rules at one time or another other players have argued that the Arkham Horror lcg's timing rules are confusing or even counterintuitive I'm hoping this video will help dispel some of that confusion and let players spend more time delving into the horrors of the mythos and less time delving into the horrors of the rule book or in the case of the Arkham Horror LCG rule books I have divided this video into three parts to make it easier for players to digest part one provides an overview of rounds phases steps and player windows it concludes with a detailed look at the steps and player windows that make up a skill test part two we'll examine the steps in player windows of the investigation phase while step three we'll explore the steps and phases of the enemy upkeep and mythos phases part three will conclude with a look at a few tips and tricks you can use to exploit player windows in your game so stay tuned for that as with previous episodes up in the note I have tried to keep spoilers to a minimum however this episode does feature examples from the scenarios in the core set campaign the night of the zealot if you enjoy what you hear remember to like comment and subscribe timing is of the essence so let's get started let's start off by answering a basic question what is timing timing is a the particular point or a period of time when something should be done it provides structure helps you resolve conflicts and ensures the game flows smoothly when you get right down to it timing answers to basic questions that all players have when they sit down to play with friends on game night when can my investigator take actions and when can i play my cards the Arkham Horror lcg's timing structure is divided into five parts rounds phases framework a framework events which are also known as steps player windows and skill tests if you've read the learn to play book or played the introductory scenario in the night of the zealot campaign you're probably already familiar with rounds phases and skill tests however you may not have heard the terms framework event or player window before and there's a good reason for that neither term is used in the learn to play book to find out more about them you need to refer to appendix two timing and gameplay of the rules reference for the purpose of this video I will be referring almost exclusively to appendix to the learn to play book does a great job of quickly immersing you in the world of the Arkham Horror LCG so you can break out the starter decks and start gathering clues about the nature of the mythos right away however appendix two provides a much more detailed and I would argue better explanation of the game's phases and steps which is really really vital if you wanted to discuss some of the trickier timing questions that can emerge during play the naming convention for the phrases in for the phases and steps independence two is as follows the mythos investigation enemy and upkeep phases are numbered one to four respectively while each step is also numbered sequentially for example the first step of the mythos phase is 1.1 while the first step of the investigation investigation phase is 2.1 and so on and so forth with that in mind let's take a look at how rounds phases steps player windows and skill tests create structure for the Arkham Horror LCG around is the overarching structure that binds all of the other parts together as they learn to play book states the Arkham or LCD is played over multiple rounds during which players place doom on the agenda draw encounter cards take actions confront dangerous enemies and gather resources in preparation for coming battles rounds have a well-defined beginning and an end there are many cards that have effects that trigger at these times the relentless dark young for example has a forced effect that triggers at the end of the round there are also many cards such as roland banks that impose a limit on how many times he may trigger an ability in Roland's case he may trigger his responsibility once per round each round is divided into four phases mythos investigation enemy and upkeep players advance from one phase to the next sequentially the only exception to this rule is on the first round of the game when you skip the mythos phase and begin with the investigation phase much like rounds each phase has a well-defined beginning and end there are some cards such as Mindwipe that trigger at the beginning of a phase there are also cards such as wizard the order with abilities that trigger at the end of a phase finally there are many cards such as Agnes Baker that impose a limit on how many times you may trigger a card effect in the case of Agnes Baker you may trigger her responsibility once per phase phases are divided into two parts framework events and player windows as I mentioned earlier many players are unfamiliar with these parts of the Arkham Horror lcg's lcg's timing structure because neither term appears in the learn to play book however both terms are used extensively in the rules reference which is the book many players refer to when trying to resolve time and conflicts framework events is the technical term Fantasy Flight uses to identify the steps that take place during each phase if you've had a chance to peek at the learn to route play rule book or the reference you may have noticed that Fantasy Flight actually refers to them as framework events framework event steps or simply steps I like simple terms so I'll be using the word step to describe them for the remainder of this video each phase contains a varying number of steps for example the mythos phase has five steps the enemy phase has four steps while the upkeep phase has six the investigation phase is a special case it has three steps and two sub steps which investigators cycle through one at a time many steps simply mark the formal beginning or end of a phase they don't do anything else they just say the phase is beginning or the phases ending others indicate when you should do certain things such as add a doom to the current agenda move enemies or refresh exhausted cards it's worth noting here that in an investigator's turn is actually made up of several steps during the investigation phase now don't worry if you didn't catch all that because I will be reviewing the steps of each phase in more detail in part 2 in part 3 of this video for future reference each step of the phase is listed on page 23 of the rules reference book there are two important things to remember about steps first steps are mandatory you must perform the steps of each phase sequentially they cannot be skipped although it's not unusual for nothing to happen during certain steps if there are no enemies in play for example nothing will happen during the steps of the enemy phase secondly you cannot interrupt a step to play a card or trigger an ability in play unless that card or ability specifically refers to that step let's take a look at an example step 3 point 1 signals the start of the enemy phase at the time of this recording there is only one player card in the corset that is played at the beginning of the phase Mindwipe a mystic event if you have Mindwipe in your hand you play it during this step otherwise you simply acknowledge the start of the enemy phase and move on to the next step when enemies with the hunter key word move keep in mind however that there are a handful of player and encounter cards released after the corset that refer to the start of the enemy phase if one of those cards was in your hand or in play you would trigger it at this time in addition to steps phases contain player windows as the name suggests player windows or openings that give players a chance to react to what is going on during a phase each phase contains a varying number of clear windows the mythos phase has one player window showing here in blue after all players have drawn an encounter card but before the phase officially ends the upkeep phase also has one player window which opens immediately after the phase begins this is your last opportunity to exhaust a card to trigger its effect before cards ready later that phase the enemy phase has at least two player windows the first opens after enemies with the hunter keyword move the second opens after you have resolved all engaged enemy attacks against it an investigator if there are multiple investigators there are multiple player windows which open after each investigator resolves engaged enemy attacks the investigation phase is a special case that we'll look at more in more detail in part two of this video it has at least two player windows and potentially many many more depending on the number of players in the game and the number of actions performed during an investigator's turn which as I mentioned earlier is actually just a series of steps that take place during the investigation phase one of the most important things to remember about player windows is that they unlike steps are completely optional if you have no cards or abilities you can trigger or you don't want to trigger those abilities during a particular player window you may skip that player window and move on to the next step so what can you do during a player window there are three options first you may use free triggered abilities the those are abilities signified by the lightning bolt same Bowl skids O'Toole is a good example of a card every triggered ability in this case you may use the free triggered ability during any player window on your turn to take an additional action the second thing you can do during a player window is play assets and certain events with the fast keyword assets with the fast keyword such as magnifying glass may be played by an investigator during any player window on his or her turn events with the fast keyword usually specify when you play them if you want to play a fast event such as cryptic research which states that you may play it only during your turn it may be played during any player window during that period finally you may advance the app deck as a free triggered ability if the investigators have discovered the appropriate number of clues indicated on the act card this is usually a flat value or a per investigator value for example the first act of the gathering trapped indicates that investigators must discover two clues per investigator before they can advance as a free triggered ability during a player window most of the time you'll advance the act deck during a player window in the investigation phase however sometimes it's better to advance the Attic during another phase of the game especially if you expect in an enemy to spawn as a result so far in this video I have examined four parts of the Arkham Horror lcg's timing structure rounds phases steps and player windows there is one more key element of the timing structure and that is the skill test a skill test is similar to a phase in many ways much like a phase a skill test has a well-defined beginning and end a skill test is also made up of steps and player windows despite these similarities it's important to note that a skill test is not a separate phase rather it is a string of steps and player windows nested within the framework of another phase usually the mythos or investigation phase if you initiate a skill test during the mythos phase for example the steps and player windows associated with that skill test are also taking place during the mythos phase the same is true if you initiate a skill test on your turn during the investigation phase in this case the steps and player windows that occur during the skill test are considered to be happening on your turn this is important for assets and events with the fast keyword such as cryptic research you may play cryptic research during any player window that opens during your turn and that includes player windows that open during a skill test during your turn you're going to be making a lot of skill tests when you play the Arkham Horror LCG so it's worth taking a closer look at the steps and player windows of a skill test which are listed on page 26 of the rules reference a skill test has eight mandatory steps and two optional player windows which are among the most important in the game during step one players determine the type of skill test and that type of skill test then begins for example if Daisy Walker takes an investigate fight or evade action she initiates an intellect combat or agility skill test respectively however if she takes a fight action with a card such as shrivelling a mystic asset you initiate a willpower skill test as per the cards game text after the skill test begins the first player window opens giving the investigators a chance to react to the skill test during step to the investigators performing the skill tests may commit any number of cards from his or her hand to the skill test remember that each card committed to the skill test must have an appropriate skill icon other investigators at the same location may commit one card with an appropriate skill icon to the test for example if you begin a willpower skill test using shrivelling you could commit a card like Holy Rosary to the skill test since it has a willpower skill icon in the top left corner you could not commit a card like vicious blow however since the skill icon does not match the skill test in this case it's a combat skill icon step two is followed by another player window which gives the investigators one last chance to use free triggered abilities or play cards with the fast keyword before the skill test resolves once the second player window closes players resolve the final six steps these steps cannot be interrupted unless you have a card with an ability that specifically triggers during these steps during step three players reveal one chaos token at random from the chaos bag cars that trigger after you reveal the chaos token or when you reveal a chaos token such as grotesque statue do so at this time after players reveal a chaos token they proceed to step four resolve chaos symbol effects nothing happens during this step unless the players draw a skull cultists tablet elder thing or elder signs symbol during step three if they draw a skull cultists tablet or elder thing they refer to the scenario reference card to determine the effect if they draw an elder sign they refer to the elder sign ability on the investigators card which they must initiate for example if you're playing The Gathering and you draw a tablet chaos token your investigator will take one damage if there is a ghoul enemy at your location if you're planning playing an investigator such as Daisy Walker and you draw an elder sign token you must draw one card for each tome you control when all the effects of a successful skill test are resolved during step 7 after players resolve chaos symbol effects if any they advance to step 5 which is when they determine the investigators modified skill value to do this start with the investigators base skill value and apply all modifiers which include card abilities appropriate skill icons on cards committed to the skill test and the modifier on the chaos token or tokens revealed during step 3 let's take a look at a quick example Daisy Walker has a holy rosary and a shriveling in play Daisy decides to take a fight action wish shrivelling to attack an enemy which begins a willpower skill test during step 1 during step 2 of the skill test Daisy commits a copy of guts in her hand to the skill test during step 3 she reveals a - to chaos token Daisy has a base willpower of three holy rosary has an ability that adds - daisies based skill value the - willpower skill icons on guts also add - while the cows token subtracts - for a modified skill value of 4 after determining the modified skill value for the skill test players advance to step 6 when they determine the success or failure of the skill test by comparing the modified skill value to the difficulty of the skill test if the investigators modified skill value is equal to or greater than the difficulty the skill test succeeds otherwise it fails if the investigator automatically succeeded at the skill test the difficulty for that test is considered to be zero if the investigator automatically failed the skill tests say because he or she drew the tentacle chaos token the investigators modified skill value for the test is considered to be zero and the skill test fails regardless of the difficulty let's take another look at the previous example we've already determined Daisy's modified skill value is 4 if the difficulty of the skill test is 4 or less the skill test succeeds otherwise Daisy will fail if Daisy drew that the tentacle chaos token instead of the minus 2 the skill test would automatically fail that means Daisy's modified skill value is equal to zero and the skill test fails regardless of the difficulty value and that includes if the difficulty value of the skill test was zero there are there is a very little in the Arkham Horror LCG that trumps automatic failure it's important to note that abilities that trigger after you succeed or after you fail a skill test also triggered during step 6 for example if you have rabbit's foot in play and you fail a skill test you may exhaust it during this step to draw a card you would also play cards such as look what I found at this time if you're uncertain whether a card triggers during this step the key word here is after if a card prompts you to do something after you succeed or after you fail a skill test it happens during step six their tops left before a skill test is complete during step seven players apply skill test results during this step all the effects of the successful skill test are determined and resolved one at a time this include effects of the skillets of the skill test itself such as the clues discovered while investigating damage dealt during an attack or enemies exhausted and disengaged while evading cards with abilities that trigger if this skill test is successful also resolved now the key word here is if cards that tell you to do something if you succeed happen during step 7 it's worth noting that there are if there are multiple multiple effects to resolve the investigator gets to choose the order returning to our previous example if Daisy hua if Daisy's willpower skill test is successful she will deal two damage to an enemy with the shrivelling she will also draw a card for the guts since it has an ability that triggers if a skill test is successful if Daisy drew the elder signed token she would also draw one card for each tome card she controls due to her elder sign ability which also has the if trigger remember Daisy gets to choose the order in which these effects resolve she can draw the cards first then damage the enemy or the other way around it's really up to her once players have applied skill test results they advanced to step eight which signals the end of the skill test players discard all cards that were committed to the skill test and return all chaos tokens to the bag the order of the steps is important here for cars that target the discard pile such as scavenging a survivor asset scavenging lets you just choose an item card in your discard pile and add it to your hand after you successfully investigate by two or more there is that word again after as we know carts that trigger after you succeed do so during step 6 however cards you commit to skill tests don't enter the discard pile until step 8 which means you cannot come a card to a skill test and then return it to your hand with scavenging during that same skill test the reason is simple the card won't be in your discard pile yet when scavenging triggers that's gonna do it for part 1 of my beginner's guide to timing and player windows to sum up each round is divided into four phases mythos investigation enemy and upkeep each phase is subdivided into a varying number of steps and player windows a skill test is similar to a phase and that is made up of steps in player windows however a skill test is not a phase rather it is a sequence of steps and player windows nested in one of the other four phases usually the mythos or investigation phase it's also important to note here that steps are mandatory while player windows are not join me in part two of my beginner's guide to timing and player get Windows when I delve too deep into the steps and player windows of the investigation phase thank you for watching and I will see you there that's gonna do it for me today if you enjoyed this video remember to Like comment and subscribe if you need to contact me I could be reached at man from lang at gmail.com i'm also on twitter at man from lang until the stars are right keep your shotgun closed and your elder sign closer take care out there and happy investigating

Channel: The Whisperer in Darkness

Views: 18,719

Rating: 4.968504 out of 5

Keywords: Arkham Horror LCG, Arkham, Horror, LCG, living, card, game, Cthulhu, Mythos, Lovecraft, Whisperer in Darkness, In the Know, timing, player window, player windows, rules, beginner, guide

Id: E3jQIQtSL3E

Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 29 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/knuppster59]

Thank you for this. Coming over from some other games, trying to understand when the player windows occur is very helpful.

[u/manfromleng]

Are you a new player? Does the thought of timing and player windows keep you awake at night? Manfromleng has the answer! In the Know - A Beginner's Guide to Timing & Player Windows Part 1 examines the phases, steps and player windows that make up the Arkham Horror LCG. It concludes with an in-depth look at the steps and player windows that make up a skill test. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 in the days to come.