Hello there all you geeks, arkham- and tentacle-fans! This is my second review and this time it will be the King in Yellow, introducing the spectral tradegy to Arkham's town people. This expansion is actually my personal favourite, 'cos it's my first expansion bought for the game, so it's kind of special, you know what I mean

[The Review]

It' a yellow box

Let's pick up the game box, it's nice, sturdy and - oh, yellow. Matches with the title, just as the cover art which probably portrays the Tattered King himself; Hastur. Is there something missing? Nope, the tentacles too are there, pouring from inside Hastur's cloak, presenting the perfect Arkham theme, by which I of course mean tentacles.

Again, the artwork and components are the very top-highest quality as you would expect from FFG. Shiny cards, big and small and some yellow sign tokens and three riot monster chips. It seems pretty pricey, but then again, you get pretty much with it, many more hours of Arkham fun in my case.

What is it like, tell me! - Well it's yellow

The King in Yellow is the first expansion to introduce the nice herald mechanic. It comes with the herald sheet, presenting the tattered king, has a pretty cool picture even though it looks more like a mummy to me. It doesn't have as much game-altering rules as those that come with the newer ones, but boy - the blight cards are nasty, they are what change the game - and I like them a very lot!

The blighted persons have totally seen the Yellow Sign, now passing it to everyone else (or just doing suicide stuff), I like the Dean especially. The blight cards really do their precious job making the games in some parts real difficult. And hell, the riots when they're out! An angry mob running freely around the town just to stop in front of the St. Mary's hospital exactly when you're visiting it! Damn!

The big cards, well they are the basic, mythos cards are just evil (I mean very), and very interesting when it comes to theme, I'll talk about them a bit later. Then there are the small cards, unique items, common items, and spells. The common items include some nice items like the sedanette, athame, press pass and director's diary, which will come in hand when playing with the herald. The time bomb is fun, but usually won't do much, it might sometimes be a good way to get rid of one riot chip.
Also the unique items are mostly good, there's a few of some neat magical weapons, some really weird stuff and tomes and shit; like the carcosan page, that's pretty cool, being in other world you might need your friend toss you a tommy gun or magic sword (or the knife in some cases).
Then there are spells, with low sanity costs, some having high casting modifier. I've only find it useless that some of them use the magical effect cards which could have been explained in the rules and maybe being replaced with a few extra cards, blight maybe.

Yellow to the very insides

I've always liked the small expansions being more thematic than the big ones and the King in Yellow is no exception; it hits the very spot with it's theme, and it's strong I tell you. The King in Yellow is being played in the town and for that there are the three card act-deck and the 'next act begins!' -mythos cards. Originally the King in Yellow is supposed to have only two acts, but this was obviously changed to better match the gameplay. To get all the juice from the act threat, I would recommend always playing either with the Touring Performance style or throwing out about half or more of the base game's mythos cards and then shuffle with the expansion mythos cards, also same with the gate cards.

In the gate, mythos and location card can be found tens of hints and links to the original book by Robert W. Chambers, which I myself am reading and have searched a lot about on the internet. The guys at FFG must have read the book pretty well; there are good links with the original book all around, some of them being actually hidden. Heck, there's even a mythos card which actually said something about the original publisher of the book.

I've found the yellow sign!

The King in Yellow is a good expansion, there are few things that trouble me, yet holds it the place as my favourite expansion. Though it doesn't actually contain many new mechanics, it gives tons of fun, can sometimes greatly alter the difficult, is thematically strong and is also well converted to fit with the original Arkham Horror theme and gameplay.
If the idea of maddening book/theatre play appeals to you I'd consider it. If you just want something new for the base game I'd still recommend it. And for an Arkham Horror fanatic like me, it's of course a must buy, though at the time of writing I think it's out of print. When it's back to print it can be well worth of checking out.

I like the King in Yellow and I give it 8.5, I think I've fallen to the hands of a living god....