Week 18 (3rd - 9th March 2014): Arkham Investigator - Futilely Tugging My Tentacle

Not an auspicious start to the month of Lovecraft. I've some choice items lined up, but decided to start with another as-yet unplayed item: the free online print-and-play game Arkham Investigator. Based on the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective game engine (another unplayed game I own), Arkham Investigator is a (seemingly) free-form game of Cthulhu mythos investigation which I was very much anticipating. Not so much a game in and of itself, but rather a system supported by multiple scenarios, the Arkham Investigator sets up a situation, and then allows the players relative free reign to discover a solution by following up clues - provided by the initial set up and various other documents supplied at the beginning of the game - to said mystery. In this case, the attack upon a young woman in Arkham. To this end, one is provided with a map of Arkham detailing the city's environs, a list of helpful contacts, and a directory of the city which includes links to locations in the scenario book. By following up these leads (i.e. checking their locations in the scenario book), players are able to to tie together the various elements of the plot and arrive at a satisfactory solution. Having done so, players answer a series of questions at the back of the scenario book, and assess their success according to how accurately they are able to respond.

All in all, this seems to be the ideal format for Lovecraftian game playing, which is not dependent on the artificiality of a combat system (largely irrelevant where the Lovecraft Mythos is involved, as inevitably you will die) and a sanity system (also largely irrelevant where the Lovecraft Mythos is involved, as inevitably you will be sent mad); as such, the relatively free-form investigative nature of the game very much suits the Lovecraftian oeuvre.

In practice, however, things took anotherr turn during my play session: everything was progressing nicely during the first three quarters of the game, until suddenly I encountered a metaphoric brick wall. In brief, many of the clues I had encountered were directing me to the Miskatonic University Exhibition Hall, but I could find no reference to this anywhere in the directory, or any hint as to which page number to which I needed to turn in the scenario book. Looking in the city directory, I did discover that the said Exhibition Hall did have an entry both on the map and in the scenario  book, but I was not able to explicitly find the numbered location in any of the documents available. Ultimately, the only way I could solve the scenario was to 'cheat' by turning to the relevant entry in the scenario book.

With no other options seemingly available, this was a disappointing end to the game. Whilst intriguing, Arkham Investigator thus proved to be ultimately frustrating due to what seem to be inherent design problems. That said, a second edition of this has been put online - hopefully one that resolves the seeming mistake in this iteration which prevented me from a staisfatory conculsion. Overall, this has the potential to be an outstanding game, but needs further development.

6/10 on the Gaming Self-Abuse Gauge (tm).