Our weekly game night in Portland turned into a 6 hour rules debate over Arkham Horror

We started a new campaign last Friday and got stuck on the exact timing of the mythos phase for like 45 minutes. My friend Dave kept quoting a forum post from 2019 that contradicted the latest FAQ. It got so bad we almost called it quits before the first turn. Has anyone else had a game night derailed by a single confusing rule?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly633mo ago

Ugh, that's why we just house-rule it and move on.

emma_hayes803mo ago

Our group spent a whole session stuck on the flanking rule in 5e. We finally just said flanking gives a flat +2 bonus instead of advantage, and it fixed everything. That kind of house rule is the only way to keep the game moving sometimes, @holly63. It feels better to make a quick call at the table than to pause the action for ten minutes. We've been using that fix for two years now and it just works.

nora_campbell661mo ago

Wait, does the flanking rule in 5e actually give advantage by default? I mean, I thought the optional rule in the DMG says flanking gives advantage but lots of groups change it to a +2 bonus instead. It's not really a fix from the original rule, it's more like a different house rule that people use to speed things up. Our group tried both and honestly, the +2 bonus made combat feel way more predictable and less swingy. But yeah, for Arkham Horror, we just take a group vote when the rules get fuzzy and stick with whatever the majority says for that night.