Game preservation/history is a very important topic that isn’t talked about enough. This is a running log of interviews from FFG representatives about Arkham Horror LCG.
If you have an interview to add to this page, contact us at hallofheroescontact(at)gmail.com
Key Arkham Horror LCG staff:
MJ Newman – Lead Designer
Jeremy Zwirn – Designer
Daniel Schaefer – Designer
Nate French – Executive Game Designer
Evan Johnson – Marketing Manager
Mercedes Opheim – Card Game Manager
Brooke Robison – Former Marketing Coordinator
Brad Andres – Former Designer
Andrew Navaro – Former Head of Studio
August 2016:
First FFG news post for Arkham Horror LCG
Arkham Knights including Arkham LCG introductory post
Learning Arkham with Team Covenant with an FFG rep
October 2016:
Arkham Horror LCG Arkham Knights presentation with MJ and Nate
November 2016:
Board Games Reddit AMA with MJ
February 2017:
Mythos Busters interviews MJNewman and Nate French
March 2017:
Designing Cooperative Games Team Covenant interview with MJ
April 2017:
Bad Publicity interview with MJ and Brad
May 2017:
Path to Carcosa Team Covenant stream with MJ
Mythos Busters interview Team Covenant (not developer related)
June 2017:
Arkham Horror LCG Tutorial Video
ArkhamPi interviews MJ on the Core Set
July 2017:
Drawn to the Flame interview with MJ after Dunwich
March 2018:
Calvin Wright introduction from MJ
April 2018:
Drawn to the Flame interview with MJ after Carcosa
June 2018:
The Return of the Designer Journal with Nate
So You Want to be a Game Designer… Designer Journal with Nate
State of the LCG with Nate, Mercedes, Andrew and MJ
Return to the Night of the Zealot Team Covenant playthrough with MJ
July 2018:
Arkhamtypes Designer Journal with MJ
Then it Multiplied Designer Journal with MJ
August 2018:
What’s in a Name, the art of naming cards with Brad
September 2018:
Death Itself Designer Challenge from MJ
November 2018:
Arkham Chronicle interview with Alex Watkins of Organized Play (OP)
December 2018:
Drawn to the Flame interview with MJ after The Forgotten Age
January 2019:
Gaming Resolutions with MJ and Nate
Marie Lambeau introduction from MJ
MJ Newman storytelling Designer Journal
February 2019:
MJ and Brooke talk Joe Diamond with Arkham Chronicle
April 2019:
Arkham Horror Circle Undone stream with MJ, Evan and Brooke Part 1 (Part 2)
July 2019:
Arkham Horror Ghost Hunt with MJ and Nicholas
Deck Building stream with Evan and MJ
August 2019:
FFG Employee Art/Cameos Kotaku piece
September 2019:
Arkham Horror Dream Eaters stream with MJ, Evan and Brooke Part 1 (Part 2)
Lessons of Amateur Game Design from MJ, Jeremy and Nate
Arkham Horror LCG Reddit AMA with MJ
“We don’t design or plan out replacement cards for investigators as we are designing them, since we don’t know which investigators might get novellas in the future and which won’t. That said, there’s definitely a lot of design space open for all of our investigators in terms of replacement cards!” – MJ
“After I graduated from law school in 2012, I was making my own homebrew content for Lord of the Rings: The Card Game when the job posting for an Associate Card Game Developer at FFG went live. By pure happenstance, they were looking for a Lord of the Rings developer, so I applied and thankfully got the job! But I’ve been a part of the tabletop industry pretty much since childhood. My father made board games for a long time as a hobby and my basement was always filled with various widgets and game components. I started making my own games when I was a child and never really stopped.” – MJ
“We playtest at all player counts! We have several groups that test exclusively at solo or 2 player and many that play 3-4 players, so we have a wide range of feedback.” – MJ
Drawn to the Flame interview with MJ after The Circle Undone
November 2019:
Arkham Horror Murder at the Excelsior Hotel stream with MJ
Mythos Busters interview with artist Andreia Ugrai
January 2020:
The Great Old Ones Gaming interview with MJ
February 2020:
Arkham Horror AMA with MJ and Jeremy
“I try not to play too many of them [custom scenarios] so I don’t inadvertently steal any ideas that fans may have had, I have played a handful of them. I think one of the things that’s really cool about Arkham is that it’s very easy for players to make their own scenarios, even if they’re not making their own encounter cards, even an act and agenda can sell the flavor.” – MJ
“We definitely are always keeping apprised of the community, and I try to be on Reddit and the forums, and read what people say all the time. As far as decks…I don’t know…we typically see what people are using in playtesting. Occasionally we are surprised, yeah.” – MJ
“If any investigator in the IP [could work at FFG], and don’t take this as tacit confirmation that she is coming, I would pick Gloria Goldberg. She is a writer. She’s an author. And she has dreams and foresees horrible stuff.” – MJ
“It’s worth noting that this [MJ and Zwirn] isn’t like a brand new arrangement. He’s been [Zwirn] on the Arkham team for…eight months, now? So it’s kind of like the amount of responsibilities Jeremy has had has grown over time? It’s split…pretty evenly? I’m still writing the story, and what we’re doing to do, but as far as the card count, we’re…splitting it.” – MJ
“I can’t give you an estimation [for the end of Arkham Horror LCG] because…we didn’t plan an end. We’re just gonna keep going, until, you know…keep supporting the game and hopefully we’ll keep doing it. The cycle after Dream-eaters is 100% done. Yeah [we’re like two cycles ahead]…the game is doing…really really well. We even have some other surprises.” – MJ
March 2020:
Investigator Starter Decks announcement stream
Team Covenant interview with FFG’s Steve Horvath that touches on LCGs
April 2020:
Innsmouth Horror announcement stream
May 2020:
Play Together While Apart blog
June 2020:
Innsmouth Lore stream with MJ, Katrina and Phil
July 2020:
Drawn to the Flame interview with MJ after The Dream-Eaters
Whisperer in the Darkness interview with Richard Lee Byers (novella author)
August 2020:
GenCon Online 2020: Arkham Horror LCG Design a Card stream
September 2020:
Barkham Horror Scenario Gameplay (Starts at 9:00)
October 2020:
Innsmouth Conspiracy stream with MJ, Evan and Jeremy
November 2020:
Behind the Curtain: Enemies, from MJ Newman
December 2020:
Mythos Busters “meme stream” with MJ Newman
Behind the Curtain: Scenarios, from MJ Newman
January 2021:
