Learn to Play: Arcs!

Join us at Pandemonium for a special, 4-hour, demoed session to learn and play Arcs, the new game from Cole Wehrle, creator of Root! You’re especially welcome if you’ve never before played hobby board games (and are curious about where to start). This event will be intended for those who have never played Arcs, but if you’ve already had a few games, feel free to attend as well!

WHAT IS ARCS?

Foremost, Arcs is an aggressive game about galactic hegemony and conquest. To succeed, you have to outcompete players, sometimes with cunning and other times with brute force; ambitious and bold plays – with a dash of necessary adaptability – drive this game, rather than mastery of the mechanics. Nevertheless (!), there is a distinction between aggression and being a jerk, so remember: we’re playing to learn (and to make friends!). Be competitive, but not mean.

But how does the game work? Fundamentally, it’s a card game – although more akin to poker than ones with trading cards. Arcs takes the uncertainty and tension of moving tiny fleets of miniatures typical to the space opera genre and abstracts it to a trick-taking game. Every player knows what cards are in the deck and can see what other people play, so it becomes a matter of guessing what folks will do and holding on to your trump card for just the right moment to take the actions you want. Furthermore, instead of having predetermined public objectives or overall paths to victory, Arcs asks each player to choose what conditions will earn points each round and then bet (indirectly) on whether or not they’ll be able to take the victory. The problem is that choosing that round’s objective tips one’s hand, and every other player has an equal chance of claiming what you hope to make your own.

So there’s a lot to this title, but the game has received buzz and praise, so we want to give folks a chance to learn it and play it for themselves. And if we find people like the space-empire genre, we’ll be happy to bring out our demo copies of Eclipse and Twilight Imperium in the new year!

LOGISTICS:

Because of the small player count for the game, we’ll be running two sessions this weekend, both from 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.. And if you really enjoy the game after Saturday, you can sign up again for Sunday (space permitting). Note that the Saturday event will be in Pandemonium’s private back-room space (ask the staff for help); Sunday will be in the primary event space.

Be prepared: for those who have never played the game, the instructions indicate it could be 45 minutes per player (so for a full game, 3 hours plus teaching ). Nevertheless, what you will get is a full and thoughtful experience of a somewhat experimental game from one of the rising stars in the hobby board game space. This game will challenge all of us – the demonstrator and players alike – but we’ll still aim to have a good time.

So if you ever wanted to learn this game or just want to spend time with others who want to play it, come on out! And if you’d rather wait for our next demoed event, stay tuned to our Events Calendar for future announcements. Even though the year is coming to an end*, we’ll be posting our January events soon!

*As a side note, if you’ll be around in December, we will still have our Open Table sessions on Sundays, and we will keep Arcs on our Demo Library Shelf along with the campaign version of the game, Arcs: The Blighted Reach. Therefore, if you’re curious about how that works, coordinate with the players during your session, and see if anyone wants to tackle it between now and our next demoed event!

RULES FOR ATTENDING: 

• Proof of COVID vaccination is required at EVERY EVENT. Either the presentation of the physical card or a clear picture will suffice. Pandemonium does not keep any records, written or otherwise, of vaccination status.
• Advance online registration is required.
• Anyone not registered in an ongoing event will not be allowed in the event space to maintain capacity limits.
• No food will be allowed in our event space for the time being. Drinking is allowed.