Arkham Horror: The King in Yellow
A new play is coming to Miskatonic University, and anyone who's anyone will be there for the opening performance. However, there's something sinister about this play, and the people who see it come back a little...different.
As if the investigators didn't have enough to worry about before, now they must deal with the mind-warping effects of the King in Yellow, a play that tells a tale of madness and horror, opening a door for the Tattered King to enter through.
This expansion introduces a major new mechanic to Arkham Horror - Heralds, who prepare the way for the Ancient One to arrive. In addition, old familiar faces will be turned against the investigators in ways they never expected. Featuring over 160 new cards, the King in Yellow heralds a darker age for Arkham Horror fans.
- 13 Blight cards, old friends gone irretrievably mad.
- 7 Magical Effect cards representing powerful new abilities.
- The new Herald mechanic and the King in Yellow Herald.
- 3 new Monster tokens, more horrible than any before!
- Over 160 new cards, detailing new items, new spells, and new horrible happenings in Arkham and beyond!
User Reviews (6)
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The King In Yellow is third in the excellent line of expansions released for Arkham Horror, and another great addition to the game. As always with the small box expansions for the game, this one centres around a Herald, this time The King in Yellow. In addition to the Herald, the expansion includes an assortment of new cards for the Arkham Horror decks as well as some new elements such as Blight and Magical Effects. It also adds a whole new way to lose the game – The Act cards.
Here’s my take on the different elements in the box:
The Herald: The King in Yellow is fueled by the terror track – every time the terror track goes up, you have to place a Yellow Sign into play. You have two choices, either add it to the doom track (in which case it acts like a doom token) or place it onto the just vacated space on the terror track, at which point you have to put a Blight card into play.
Blight Cards: These represent people from around Arkham, who have been driven insane by the influence of the King in Yellow. Each one has some sort of ill effect on the game when they are introduced (perhaps the most noteworthy being Doyle Jeffries, who when drawn causes three Riots (monsters) to be unleashed into the streets of Arkham). In addition, should investigators draw an encounter that references one of the deranged characters, they ignore the encounter and instead lose a sanity or a stamina due to their encounter with the insane individual.
Act Cards: Perhaps the most influential addition in this expansion, the Act cards represent the King in Yellow play taking place. There are three acts and if the third act enters play the game is over as terror and madness engulf Arkham. Certain Mythos draws (“The Next Act Begins”) cause a new Act card to be played. The rules sheet for the expansion offers two options for integrating these cards into your game, depending if you want the Act to be just part of the game or the King in Yellow to be a focus of the game (I always play with the former option)
(These cards get replaced in Miskatonic Horror with a new set that adjust the mechanics on how they enter play to account for the increased size of the Mythos deck).
Magical Effects: These are some ongoing effects that go with some of the new spell cards that are added with this expansion, such as Third Eye. They represent ongoing effects caused by these spells.
Cards: As always, this expansion includes a selection of new cards to be added to the existing Arkham Horror decks (including “The Next Act Begins!” cards for the Mythos deck, as well as a selection of spells, items and encounter cards).
Summary: All in all, I really enjoyed this expansion (ultimately I enjoyed all the Arkham expansions, truth be told). The Act cards might be a bit frustrating to some players at times, and can certainly add a sense of urgency to the game if they start occurring, but it’s all part of the fun of Arkham Horror.
INTRODUCTION
The King In Yellow (KiY) is the second small box expansion for Arkham Horror. KiY is centered on the mysterious insanity inducing play developed by worshipers of the Great Old One Hasteur. The play has sowed chaos in every town or city it has touched. The investigators must uncover the truth of the play if they are to have a chance at defeating the Great Old One.
COMPONENTS
The quality of the expansion components is on par with the base game and very good. There are thick cardboard playing pieces and fairly durable cards with very good artwork. The expansion rules are 2 pages and pretty straight forward. No complaints about the components.
This expansion includes additional location, Mythos, Gate, Common Item, Unique item and Spell cards to beef up their respective decks.
SET UP
Set-up for Arkham Horror is not made more difficult or longer with the inclusion of the KiY expansion. The KiY expansion offers three different set-up modes to give the game a different dose of the expansion. In the Touring Performance Style all the KiY expansion cards are shuffled and then placed on top of their respective base game deck. Players will get the full flavor of the expansion for most of the game. The KiY expansion cards are shuffled into their respective base game decks for the Permanent Performance Style. The flavor of the expansion is watered down a bit in this mode. The Herald variant shuffles all the expansion cards into their respective deck and also adds the Blight deck. This mode has a healthy dose of the expansion while increasing the difficulty a bit too. The Blight deck is simply shuffled and set aside. That’s it.
GAME MECHANICS
The KiY expansion will change the mechanics of the game slightly only if the Herald Variant is used via the yellow tokens and Blight cards.
The yellow tokens are placed when the Terror Track rises. The tokens either function as a Doom token on the Great Old One’s Doom Track or bring a Blight card into play. The players choose what the yellow token will do.
The Blight cards represent a minor character in Arkham going insane from either seeing or reading about the King In Yellow play. The loss of the character causes a global game effect such as increasing the price of items, closing locations or making it tougher to seal gates to name a few.
THOUGHTS
The KiY expansion is one of the most favorite expansions among Arkham Horror players with good reason. This expansion is easy to incorporate into the base game, was the first expansion to make the Terror Track a viable threat, and is a lot of fun.
There are a ton of common and unique items and spells, many of them very useful. Some of the best items that come to mind are the Sedanette, Press Pass, Safety Deposit Key, and Gladius of Carcosa. Some awesome spells include The Yellow Mist, Storm of Spirits, and Call The Azure Flame.
My favorite part about this expansion is the Herald and the Blight cards. The Terror Track becomes a bit livelier with the KiY expansion. However, the Herald variant makes managing the Terror Track a challenge. It is always fun to flip a Blight card and see the play take its toll on Arkham. All of the Blight card effects seamlessly fit into the game mechanics too.
The King in Yellow Expansion for Arkham Horror is a must for Arkham Horror fans! This expansion is one of my favorites because it is easy to use, is a nice difficulty level and is a lot of fun! I highly recommend the King in Yellow expansion.
The King in Yellow, when compared to other Arkham expansions, is really light on the rules, and adds a new and fun dynamic to the game. In addition to changing the flavor of the game, The King in Yellow, also provides minimal impact to the already lengthy setup and break down of the complete board game.
If you are looking for an expansion to Arkham, The King in Yellow, would b my first recommendation.
The King in Yellow expansion is named after the sanity destroying theatrical play of the same name. Some fool has decided to put on a show in shadow haunted Arkham, and if things aren’t kept under control, the small town will be overrun with madness.
King In Yellow provides a nice “push your luck” mechanism to the game. It’s simple to add in to the base game and has extra cards for all of the decks. An inexpensive, fun add-on.
For all those of you who think Arkham Horror is too easy, here we have the King in Yellow expansion, to add some tension to your game. Not for everyone, or the faint of heart, but I like it.
The addition of Acts of the King in Yellow, combined with Blight cards (sort of ‘Anti-allies’) both add a lot of fun to the game.
One problem though: the Act-mythos card system doesn’t really work unless you have few expansions, or the new Miskatonic University set, as otherwise the cards won’t come up nearly often enough. I like the addition in the new Miskatonic University set which has the act change not only when you come across the appropriate Mythos cards, but also when a particular type of environment card comes out.
All in all, a great addition to the series.
…Kinda summs it all up there. This does make the game much harder for you to win, but I love the king in yellow personally…maybe I just have a thing for the good old king in tatters, going to cosplay as him soon.