History TabletopGame / EldritchHorror

* EveryoneHasASpecialMove: Every investigator has one ''Action'' and one passive ability, which slightly changes the way they interact with the game and their teammates.

* LuckyRabbitsFoot: Unlike other re-rell items, the rabbit's foot can be used in ''any'' given context, rather than being pre-definied to specific stat or situation. And Lily Chen starts with it.

* TheUnchosenOne: All of the investigators joined by their own volition.

* OneHitKill: Some Mythos cards can instantly kill investigators even if they are at full Health or Sanity.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Mostly averted, unlike in ''Arkham Horror''. If your character is taken out due to Health or Sanity loss, there is no bringing them back. However, another investigator can encounter them where they fell, allowing you to recover their possessions and possibly gain some other benefit such as reducing Doom.[[note]]Granted, the loss of an investigator automatically advances the Doom Track, so the reward is basically undoing the Doom being advanced by said loss.[[/note]] In any case, players can start with a brand new character the next round.

* AmuletOfDependency: Numerous investigators, particularly from expansions, aren't all that great on their own, but they start with specific gear that suits their abilities or is simply highly useful by itself. If they lose that specific asset, they are either significantly weakened or, in more extreme cases, rendered completely useless. For example, Daisy Walker can be a fantastic clue generator... because she starts with Old Journal, rather than anything innate to her abilities. Meanwhile, the entire gameplay loop of Darrell Simmons depends on him having his starting Camera on him at all times - without it, he's worthless. And so on and forth.

* PermaDeath: When an Investigator runs out of Health or Sanity, that is it for them. They don't necessarily die in story terms though, but often get [[CareerEndingInjury crippled]] or become [[DrivenToMadness insane]] depending if they were defeated by Health or Sanity loss. Regardless, they are not capable of finishing their mission, so you'll need to pick someone else to continue playing.

* PermaDeath: When an Investigator runs out of Health or Sanity, that is it for them. They don't necessarily die in story terms though, but often get [[CareerEndingInjury crippled]] or become [[DrivenToMadness insane]]. Regardless, they are not capable of continuing their mission, so you'll need to pick somone else to continue playing.

''Eldritch Horror'' is a board game spinoff of ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' from Creator/FantasyFlightGames. Like ''Arkham Horror'', it is an {{Adventure Board Game|s}} based on the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, and the two games share many mechanics. Set in the 1920s, ''Eldritch Horror'' is a cooperative game in which players take on the roles of investigators and travel the world solving mysteries in an attempt to stop the [[EldritchAbomination Ancient One]] from awakening.

* AmuletOfDependency: Numerous investigators, particularly from expansions, aren't all that great on their own, but they start with specific gear that suits their abilities or is simply highly useful by itself. If they lose that specific asset, they are either significantly weakened or, in more extreme cases, rendered completely useless. For example, Daisy Walker can be a fantastic clue generator... because she starts with Old Journal, rather than anything innate to her abilities.

* {{RNG}}: The basis of all gameplay, since ''everything'' is decided by a combination of randomly drawn cards and rolls of dice pools. You might ''never'' get the asset or spell you need, or you can get all the useful gear right at the game's start. You could have 10 dice in your pool and still fail the roll... or you could roll a 6 on a single die at the crucial moment. And to make things even worse, various spells, conditions and assets have multiple instances, ''but'' backs of their cards are radically different, so you might either draw incredibly useful (or simply harmless) stuff or get the variant where you would rather never use it at all[[labelnote:Explanation]]In each set of four identical conditions and spells, one is always [[BlessedWithSuck openly detrimental]], two are PowerAtAPrice and one even in case of the worst possible outcome is barely harmful, while offering the strongest benefits. Unless some highly specific set of circumstances happens, you are more likely to simply discard any variant but the best one, rather than dealing with consequences of trying to keep them[[/labelnote]].

** That same expansion introduced Focus points. In the core set, the only way to get re-rolls was to either have a specific item or an ally offering such option in just as specific situation or burning a highly-valuable Clue, which are routinely in both short supply and high demand to advance Mysteries. Focus points were introduced specifically to solve this resource issue, as they can be gained freely as an action and used at any time for a re-roll. They also filled the gap that sometimes happens when players don't have any meaningful action to make and thus would have to simply pass their move without any gain.

* CoolPlane: The Charter Flight asset.

* DarkestAfrica: The Heart of Africa is an Expedition location.

* MilitariesAreUseless: Averted in one of the Tokyo encounters. An investigator may be able to convince the Emperor of the threat the world faces, and he responds by deploying the Japanese military to eliminate one monster. Obviously, the players will generally choose the most dangerous monster on the field, which implies that a [[EldritchAbomination star-spawn or dhole]] has a very unpleasant encounter with the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese Navy]].

* ObviousRulePatch: The first expansion for the game, Forsaken Lore, introduced one tiny little rule: before you can encounter a Legendary Monster, you must encounter every non-Legendary monster on the same space. That can seem like a minor change, but some awakened Great Old Ones can and must be fought physically to end the game... and, at least in the case of Shub-Niggurath (who's based on stacking a lot of other monsters in her space), being able to cut straight to the boss could turn an otherwise very difficult encounter almost into a cakewalk.

* PowerAtAPrice: Variety of items, artifacts and especially spells require to shed some of your Sanity (and rarely, Health) when used.

* SadisticChoice: One of the Dark Pacts [[spoiler:forces you to choose another investigator to be devoured]].

* PinataEnemy: [[{{Mooks}} Cultists]], being very easy to defeat, can turn into this with correct items, allowing to easily farm them for spells.

* AxCrazy: The Axe asset allows you to spend two points of sanity to reroll any number of dice in combat. Bonus points for the card's illustration being the same as the one for the Maniac monster from many other Mythos-themed board games!

* NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow: The Lost in Time and Space condition removes the investigator from play and causes them to ignore all game events, including a Mythos card event that would have normally killed them. This can also be played straight if you use an asset or artifact to mitigate an otherwise fatal blow or to recover enough Health or Sanity to avoid death/insanity.

* FateWorseThanDeath: The Dark Pacts that players can get slapped with usually end with either their character dying or (less often) [[SadisticChoice being forced to pick another player's character to die]]). One Dark Pact variant, however, simply gimps all your character's stats to the maximum degree, forcing you to continue with greatly diminished capacity. In this scenario, it's easy to wish your character ''had'' died instead.

* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts[=/=]AllMonksKnowKungFu: The Chinese player character was raised by kung-fu monks.
* ArtifactOfDoom: A staple of the mythos, though the ones in this game typically have benefits as opposed to their literary counterparts.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Mostly averted, unlike in ''Arkham Horror''. If your character is taken out due to Health or Sanity loss, there is no bringing them back. However, another investigator can encounter them where they fell, allowing you to recover their possessions and possibly gain some other benefit such as reducing Doom.[[note]]Granted, the loss of an investigator automatically advances the Doom Track, so the reward is basically undoing the Doom being advanced by said loss.[[/note]]

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Many cards feature this in their artwork. It is also a frequent consequence of failing an encounter.

* InstrumentOfMurder: Played straight with the Bone Pipes artifact, which deals damage to monsters if you pass a lore check, or the Flute of the Outer Gods which can banish all monsters on the investigator’s space, assuming they have the health and sanity to cover the cost.

* NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow: The Lost in Time and Space condition removes the investigator from play and causes them to ignore all game events, including a mythos card event that would have normally killed them. This can also be played straight if you use an asset or artifact to mitigate an otherwise fatal blow or to recover enough health or sanity to avoid death/insanity.

* TotalPartyKill: Some mythos cards can instantly kill investigators even if they are at full health or sanity.

* WalkingShirtlessScene: Just like in other games he appears in, Silas Marsh the sailor does not appear to own any shirts.