How to Play Arkham Horror: Dunwich Horror Expansion

Game Objective

Once again, terror has come to New England, spreading to the small town of Dunwich, a few miles from Arkham. The area is rife with mountains, mysterious stone circles, and dilapidated houses of reclusive people. Dark pacts are made with occult forces, and people disappear without a trace. The players are investigators who desperately need to help the people of Dunwich against the Horror that has manifested at the Whateley farm. The Dunwich Horror expansion increases the dimensional instability that infests Arkham to the nearby town of Dunwich. The overall goal of the game is to defeat the awakening Ancient One or seal enough gates to prevent it from awakening.

Setup

To play Arkham Horror with the Dunwich Horror expansion, follow the setup steps for the Arkham Horror base game with the following additions and changes:

1. Prepare the Play Area: Place the Dunwich board next to the Arkham board, above the Downtown area. Align the expansion board with the Arkham board so that the Other Worlds are all on the same side. Place the Dunwich Horror monster token and the three Dunwich Horror Tokens in a stack near the Dunwich board.
2. Place Initial Clues: Place Clue tokens on the unstable locations (those marked with a red diamond) in both Dunwich and Arkham.
3. Separate the Decks:
   • Shuffle the new Common Items, Unique Items, Spells, Skills, Allies, Arkham Locations, Mythos, and Gate cards into their respective decks. Remember to remove the old "Flesh Ward," "Lantern," and "Healing Stone" cards from the base game and replace them with the revised ones included in the expansion.
   • The three new Dunwich Location decks are placed near the Dunwich board.
   • The Dunwich Horror Cards form a deck that is placed next to the Dunwich Horror board.
   • The four Condition Cards should be placed face down in a row near the other investigators' cards.
   • Shuffle the appropriate expansion cards into the following investigator decks: Unique Item, Common Item, Ally, Skill, Spell.
   • There are two entirely new investigator decks: the Damage deck and the Madness deck.
   • There are two new special investigator decks: the Train Pass deck and the Sheldon Gang Societies deck.
4. Determine Allies: Only 11 Allies are used each game. Shuffle the Ally deck and deal 11 cards face up, returning the remaining cards to the game box. Players may examine the chosen allies. Then, flip the Ally cards face down and shuffle them again. If a specific Ally is part of an investigator's fixed possessions, then that Ally must be one of the 11 Ally cards used.
5. Create the Monster Cup: Do not place Spawn monsters (indicated by a red circle in the bottom left corner) and "Mask" monsters in the monster cup, unless the Ancient One sheet states otherwise. Shuffle the new monster tokens (except Spawn and "Mask") with the Arkham Horror base game monster tokens that are not "Mask."
6. Prepare Gate Markers: Shuffle the new gate markers with the existing gate markers. The new Other Worlds (Another Time and Lost Carcosa) shown on the gate markers are found on the Dunwich Horror board.
7. Boulder Markers: These markers are only used when Shudde M'ell is the Ancient One, and they indicate locations that have been destroyed by earthquakes.
8. Investigator Sheets and Markers: The new sheets and markers introduce eight new investigators to the game. Place the eight investigator markers in the plastic stands.
9. Ancient One Sheets: The new sheets introduce four new Ancient Ones to the game.
10. Draw and Resolve the Mythos Card (Game Setup Step 14): If you draw a Rumor card, discard it and draw again until you draw a card that is not a Rumor. With five or more players, place two monsters at the gate indicated by the mythos card instead of just one.

Game Flow

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Actions and How to Play

The Dunwich Board

The Dunwich board is composed of street areas and locations, divided into three neighborhoods. On top of the Dunwich board is the Dunwich Horror track, used to mark the progress of the Dunwich Horror. There are three vortices on the Dunwich board. The Dunwich board adds two new Other Worlds: Another Time and Lost Carcosa. * The Phrase "in Arkham" on Cards: Cards that refer to "Arkham" also apply to locations and areas in Dunwich. * The Monster Limit and the Outskirts: Monsters on the Dunwich board do not count towards the monster limit and do not go to the Outskirts. The number of monsters in Dunwich is controlled by vortices. * The Sky: Flying monsters in Dunwich can move to the Sky normally. The streets of Dunwich are considered adjacent to the Sky. * Returning from Lost in Time and Space: Investigators lost in time and space can return to a street area or location in Dunwich, just as they could return to Arkham. * Traveling Between Cities: To move between Arkham and Dunwich, an investigator must be at the Train Station in Arkham or at a depot location indicated by a train icon in Dunwich. The investigator spends $1 and one movement point to move from their current location to the Train Station or to any depot location in the other city. This movement does not interrupt the investigator's normal movement.

Tasks and Quests

Tasks are a type of item found in the Common Items deck, while Quests are items found in the Unique Items deck. Both consist of a list of locations and/or street areas that must be visited in the listed order. * The investigator must end their movement in each listed area and then perform the appropriate action, placing a Clue token on the card to indicate that a step has been completed. * There is no time limit to complete a Task/Quest. If the card is discarded or given to another player, all Clue tokens are removed from the card. * Once all steps are completed, the investigator receives the Payment (for a Task) or the Effects occur (in the case of a Quest), and the card is returned to the box, and the Clue tokens are discarded. * For Tasks, performing an Arkham Encounter Phase in the listed areas is sufficient to complete each step. * For Quests, the investigator must also discard or spend the listed sacrifice at each location at the beginning of the Upkeep Phase. The investigator can only do this if they are still in the listed area during the Upkeep Phase. * Important: If a gate is open at a location, an investigator cannot visit that location. The gate must be closed before the location can be visited for a Task/Quest.

Monster Surges

When, at the beginning of the Mythos Phase, the first player draws a mythos card that shows a location that already has an open gate (and then a monster is placed at each location with an open gate), this is called a monster surge. * When a monster surge occurs, the number of monsters drawn and placed is equal to the number of open gates or the number of players, whichever is greater. * When placing monsters, they should be divided as evenly as possible among the open gates, with no gate having more monsters placed on it than the gate from which the monster surge occurred this turn. * If there are more monsters to be placed than the monster limit allows, players must decide where the monsters will be placed before the monsters are drawn from the cup. If there is no agreement, the first player decides.

Damage and Madness

* Damage: When an investigator is reduced to 0 Stamina, they can choose to gain a Damage card. If they do, they do not lose any Items or Clue tokens for being knocked out and their Stamina is restored to its maximum value (instead of just 1). However, the investigator must still move to St. Mary's Hospital or Lost in Time and Space, as appropriate, and draw a Damage card. Damage cards cause long-term physical penalties and are difficult to get rid of (there is a small chance of healing at St. Mary's Hospital). They are not items and cannot be discarded or traded. * Madness: When an investigator is reduced to 0 Sanity, they can choose to gain a Madness card. If they do, they do not lose any Items or Clue tokens for going insane and their Sanity is restored to its maximum value (instead of just 1). However, the investigator must still move to the Arkham Asylum or Lost in Time and Space, as appropriate, and draw a Madness card. Madness cards cause long-term mental penalties and are extremely difficult to get rid of (there is a small chance of healing at the Arkham Asylum). They are not items and cannot be discarded or traded. * If an investigator's maximum sanity or maximum stamina is reduced to zero, that investigator is devoured. * If an investigator is reduced to both 0 Sanity and 0 Stamina at the same time, that investigator is devoured.

Retiring Investigators

A player may voluntarily retire an investigator with a total of two or more Damage and/or Madness cards. The player loses their turn, announces the retirement, and draws a new investigator as if the old one had been devoured. However, effects that are triggered when an investigator is devoured (such as Glaaki's ability to increase the terror level) do not happen when an investigator retires.

Condition Cards

Condition cards indicate a long-term situation or benefit. They start the game face down and are usually flipped face up through an encounter at the location shown on the back of the card. * Once active, a Condition remains active unless another encounter or card flips it face down, making it inactive. * A Condition that is exhausted to be used must be turned sideways instead of face down. This means that exhausting a Condition does not make it inactive, but it can only be used once per turn. * An exhausted Condition recovers (returns to normal) during the Upkeep Phase.

Exhausted Allies

An exhausted Ally still grants its bonuses (ability or something else) to the investigator who controls it. However, abilities that require the Ally to be exhausted cannot be used while it is exhausted. Exhausted Allies recover during the Upkeep Phase.

Gate Explodes

Certain mythos cards have their gate location colored red, indicating that a gate explodes. * An exploded gate functions as a normal mythos card, unless the listed gate location has an elder sign token on it. * In that case, the gate explodes, causing the elder sign token to appear with the doom token on the board. A gate opens at that location and a monster appears there as usual. * A doom token is not placed on the Ancient One's doom track when a sealed location is opened due to a gate explosion. This also does not cause a monster surge. * Every time a card with an exploding gate is drawn, all flying monsters move, regardless of their dimension symbol.

Weapons Without Hand Icons

This expansion introduces some weapons that do not require hands to use, indicated by an X in the bottom left corner of the card. These cards can be used along with weapons or spells that require two hands during combat.

Spawn Monsters

Spawn Monsters are indicated by a red circle in the bottom left corner of their movement side, near the dimensional symbol. * Like "Mask" monsters, Spawn monsters are not added to the monster cup. They enter the game through special rules (e.g., the Dunwich Horror enters play when the Dunwich Horror track is complete). * Spawn monsters do not count towards the monster limit, never go to the Outskirts, and cannot be claimed as monster trophies.

Stalker Movement

Stalker movement is indicated by a purple border. * If there are no investigators adjacent to a stalker monster (at a location directly connected to the monster's location by a yellow line), stalker monsters follow the arrows, like a normal monster with a black border. * If there are investigators in more than one adjacent street area or unstable location, a stalker monster moves towards the investigator with the lowest Sneak skill. In case of a tie, the first player decides. * If there is an investigator in an adjacent street area or unstable location (marked with red diamonds), a stalker monster ignores the arrows and moves towards the investigator. * Stalker monsters can move through lines without arrows to reach investigators, but cannot enter stable locations (marked with green diamonds) to reach an investigator.

Vortex Spaces

These special spaces are found on the Dunwich board. * Investigators cannot move into vortices under any circumstances. * Any monster that enters a vortex is immediately returned to the monster cup. * For each monster returned to the cup in this way, increase the terror level by one. * Additionally, if there are fewer than three Dunwich Horror tokens on the Dunwich Horror track, add a token to the track. If this brings the total to three Dunwich Horror tokens, then the Dunwich Horror appears.

The Dunwich Horror

The Dunwich Horror enters play every time the Dunwich Horror track is complete with three Dunwich Horror tokens.