Arkham Horror: The Card Game


Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a cooperative living card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games since 2016. It is set in the universe of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game which is itself based on the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft and other cosmic horror writers. The title refers to Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts which is mentioned in many Mythos stories.

Release

News of the game was originally leaked in May 2016, before being officially announced in August of that same year. It made its first limited public release at Arkham Nights 2016 to a sold-out crowd.
In its original release format, as a game in Fantasy Flight Games' Living Card Game line, there was a regular release of non-random deluxe expansions that start a story or campaign with 2 playable scenarios, followed by multiple smaller expansions that continue and conclude each campaign story with 6 additional playable scenarios.
With the announcement of Edge of the Earth in 2021, Fantasy Flight stated future cycles would simply be released in two larger boxes, one containing all of the campaign's scenarios and the other the campaign's player cards. During a Gen Con livestream in September 2021, Fantasy Flight head of studio Chris Gerber announced all previous expansions would be re-released in the new format, too.
Periodically, Fantasy Flight Games has also released "Standalone Adventures" that are unique playable experiences that do not connect to any other campaigns.
As of the release of The Scarlet Keys in 2022, the lead designer MJ Newman has stepped back from her role as the lead developer of the game to become a senior designer at FFG. Designer Josiah "Duke" Harrist was announced as lead designer with Nick Kory, previously of the MythosBusters Podcast, also joining the design team.

Mechanics

Campaign play is the default mode of the game, allowing a player to progress through a series of scenarios. In campaign play, choices made in scenarios have lasting effects, altering the story and how later scenarios play out. Each scenario has multiple paths of divergence offering multiple playthroughs with differing experiences each time.
When players prepare to play, they first choose an investigator, most of them having a primary class of Guardian, Survivor, Rogue, Seeker, or Mystic. Each investigator deck receives cards that represent weaknesses of their investigator, one specific to each investigator, and one "basic" - drawn at random from a general pool. Investigators will also possess one or more unique cards that represent that individual's specific advantages or abilities, often complementing the backstory of that investigator. Each investigator also has different starting statistics which will be tested throughout the game. Players then build their decks from cards in their collection, conforming to the deck-building limits outlined by their investigator.
During the game, the investigators work together to progress their investigation towards a positive outcome by fulfilling the requirements set out by the Act deck. However, there are forces working against the investigators, represented by the Agenda deck and encounter deck. Each turn, a doom counter is added to the Agenda deck, acting as a timer for the investigators to complete their objectives. When the total number of doom in play reaches the doom threshold of the agenda card, the agenda will advance, often to negative consequences.
During the Investigation phase, the investigators each take up to three actions. Among other options, actions include playing cards from hand or activating those already in play, moving to or investigating locations and fighting or evading enemies. Depending on the card, cards played from hand during the investigation phase may enter an investigator's play area as an ongoing bonus or simply provide a powerful one-time effect and be discarded upon use. Many cards have a resource cost which must be paid to play the card. While cards generally require an action to play, some are "fast" and do not require an action to be played.
The Investigation phase is followed by the Enemy, Upkeep, and the Mythos phases, representing the forces working against the investigators each round. Investigators may have to deal with effects or enemies that attack their sanity, health or simply their progression towards their main goal.
Investigators will be eliminated from a scenario if they receive horror or damage equal to their sanity or health respectively. Investigators eliminated in this way will receive permanent mental or physical trauma. This means investigators repeatedly defeated in scenarios can become progressively weaker as the campaign progresses. Investigators will, however, receive experience from scenarios, which can be spent to improve each investigator's deck. At certain points in a campaign, failure may lead to investigators being killed or driven insane, eliminating them from the campaign. Players may choose to replace an eliminated investigator with a new one, however the replacement investigator begins with no experience.

Expansions

The main story expansions are grouped into "cycles" that each constitute a complete player campaign. The first six cycles consist of one Deluxe Expansion followed by six mythos packs. Deluxe expansions contain new investigators, about 60 new player cards and the first two scenarios of a campaign, while mythos packs contain about 24 new player cards and a single scenario of a campaign. These are listed below in order of release date, which is also the order in which they are meant to be played. Later cycles, starting with Edge of the Earth, have abandoned the deluxe/mythos format and are instead split into two releases, an "investigator expansion" and a "campaign expansion". This new format release has since been retroactively adopted for the previous cycles. New players seeking all cards in a particular campaign now need only purchase the two new-format boxes, these two boxes between them collect every card contained in the prior release format.
Standalone scenarios are scenarios that exist outside of a campaign/cycle and are self-contained. As such, a player does not need any other expansions to play them or encounter cards from the core box—only the player cards. Stand-alone scenarios are at times printed in house at Fantasy Flight Games and are referred to as Print on Demand. This means the card quality in that case is lower than the packs shipped from overseas but Fantasy Flight Games can push these packs faster out to players at conventions or for general release.
Upgrade expansions are akin to the "nightmare packs" from the Lord of the Rings LCG. However, instead of just increasing the difficulty, these expansions provide an alternate way to play through the campaign with alternate story effects. They also include a small selection of new player cards.

Introduction of "Environment" concept

On 7 February 2025, Fantasy Flight Games announced the introduction of an "Environment" concept into all of their cooperative LCGs, including Arkham Horror. There are two environments for Arkham Horror: The Current Environment and the Legacy Environment.
The Current Environment consists of "core set, any other evergreen expansions, as well as the newer expansions that have not yet been retired." The Legacy Environment consists of "any product that has ever been printed for the game." Thus, newer products will exist in both environments while retired products will only exist in the Legacy environment.
On 11 July 2025, Fantasy Flight Games announced the beta version of the new "Environment" concept which clarified that the three most recent expansions would be used for the Current format and included a new the Limited environment where player could include "any hree different investigator expansions of your choice". Fantasy Flight Games also indicated that along with the original or revised core set, the starter decks released as of 2025 would be part of all formats.

Cycles

The Scarlet Keys


Novellas

Asmodee's publishing house Aconyte Books released several tie-in novellas for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, each focused around a specific investigator. Each novella comes with 5 promo cards: 1 alternate art investigator card, 1 alternate art mini investigator card, 1 replacement signature card, 1 replacement signature weakness, and 1 rules card for using the replacement cards in the game.
Expansion NameRelease dateInvestigator focusAuthor
Hour of the Huntress13 October 2017Jenny BarnesDave Gross
Ire of the Void7 December 2017Norman WithersRichard Lee Byers
The Dirge of Reason22 February 2018Roland BanksGraeme Davis
To Fight the Black Wind5 April 2018Carolyn FernJennifer Brozek
The Deep Gate7 June 2018Silas MarshChris A. Jackson
The Blood of Baalshandor5 June 2020Dexter DrakeRichard Lee Byers
Dark Revelations6 November 2020Gloria GoldbergAmanda Downum