Elder Sign

If you’re a fan of the cosmic horror genre looking for a fun, quick-to-set-up, moderate-length game with excellent replayability & extra options in the form of two decent, mechanics enriching expansions then this should hit the spot, center target. The game play is what I like to describe as “complex farkle” - for those familiar with that classic dice rolling game - in the sense that your main action to complete quests or challenges, defeat enemies, etc. involves rolling specialized dice in an attempt to acquire the right symbols (etched on the dice faces) in the right combinations & amounts, with game mechanics that allow you to store or “bank” certain rolls & re-roll misses. This all happens against the back drop of earthly locations with attached quests goals - represented by cards arrayed in a grid- and where monsters may spawn to increase the challenge at that locale. Additionally, cosmic locations - so called “other worlds” - are also flory introduced & present their own challenges & rewards. All of this is, of course, leading up to either the summoning of an elder god or the heroes prevention of the summoning ritual … or their deaths. The base game has a satisfying roster of ancient ones to choose among, and additional options for increasing the difficulty of challenging them in replay. The two expansions (which I also purchased) add to this roster, as well as introducing new mechanics, new locations, monsters, etc. This is a game that’s perfect for one of those game nights where you want a decent challenge, but also want to maybe have some “hang time” & maybe casually play things out while eating, laughing, & talking. In other words, it’s not going to be the kind of all nighter or beat-over-three-days type of session, but a good tone will be had & you’ll be able to enjoy another game if you’d like or plan other activities without feeling like you missed out on any one kind of thing that evening, if you get my drift. Highly recommended :-)

My wife and I love this game! There are a lot of piece that we keep in small zip locks, but that does not hinder the fun. It did take us a while to read through the instructions in order to get started, and we had to reference them a few times as we played, but it is a relatively simple game to learn. My wife and I are very much into playing co-operative games with each other when we can. The game seems a bit intimidating to set up at first, but the game play itself is very easy: 1. Move your character (or stay put) to any adventure card or the starting card. 2. Attempt to complete an adventure card by rolling the necessary dice combinations. and 3. turn the clock forward. Try to collect as many Elder Signs needed to keep the monster from emerging. If you do, you win, if not, then you have to battle the monster. This would make a great starter RPG-type of game that probably wont scare off newcomers. The first round we played, we won almost too easily. This was partly because we did not follow some of the rules we should have, such as the rule for focusing a roll. We were focusing a die even if we completed an item, which you are not supposed to do. When we played the second time, the monster appeared... very quickly thanks to my lame rolls. The game was much more intense and difficult this time around. There are 16 different characters to play as, and eight ancient monsters to try and keep locked away, which makes for great replay-ability. The art work is beautiful, and the cardboard pieces included with the game a very high quality, and pretty thick. The adventure cards a very large and easy to read. The item cards are small like in Ticket to Ride, or Timeline which are not my favorite size, but there usually is not a lot of information to read, so it works fine. I have not played any other games in the Arkham Horror series, but I look forward to purchasing expansion packs as we go.

I initially saw this played on Wil Wheaton's "TableTop" web series on YouTube and thought "Huh, that looks kinda fun." A friend bought it and three of us have played it 10 times now and LOVE IT. The rules are a tiny bit arcane at first, but once you play through the game once, it becomes second-nature. There's a LOT of strategy concerning which adventures to attempt when, whether to use your items to get the extra red or yellow dice, whether to hold symbols on spells for your friends to use, etc. Warning: the game, much like Arkham Horror, is designed to beat you. Our current split is 4/6 win/loss and in all but one of those wins we were really close to losing. My favorite part of the game is not only the challenge you have beating it, but that it's a cooperative game like Pandemic or Castle Panic; that is, the players vs. the game. Some of my friends aren't very competitive-minded, so playing an adversarial game isn't always fun for them. With Elder Sign, there's no competition between players, which they like. The game plays fairly quickly when you're familiar with the rules; around 40 minutes per game. The materials are very high quality, with cards printed on heavy stock and laminated like playing cards. The tokens are all thick paperboard and also laminated. This game should last a long time with normal care. And since there's no game board to worry about, you could consolidate everything into a box 1/4 of the size of the game box and play it pretty much anywhere. Overall, a great game that has a ton of replay value. This is one that I'll be sure to keep in our regular game-night rotation!

Let me preface with a couple games my wife and I enjoy playing together. Pandemic. Pandemic: On the Brink. These games are hard, and you can make them harder. Even with just the two of us (benefiting from fewer players) we lose about half the time on 'Hard' mode - and there's two difficulties higher than that. They are challenging coop games. Elder Sign is not so challenging. We've played 5 games thus far - 3 with the standard rules (we even randomly selected GOOs and Investigators so we couldn't benefit from deliberate syngery) which we beat very handily (less than half of the doom tokens on the track - no risk of losing), one where we each played two invetigators, added doom tokens at midnight, everytime we failed to complete an adventure and inflicted all Terror effects whenever it inflicted (regardless of a terror effect being present on the adventure card) - this one ended up being impossible with the way things progressed and one where we each only played one investigator, added doom tokens at midnight and when we failed an adventure without a doom symbol on it - this one we beat, but I wouldn't describe it as a handy beating, more of a "we're going to win, it'll just look close" kind of a deal. I start out with this because cooperative board games MUST be challening or they lose some appeal. Traditional games pit player against player so there's always a thrill of beating other people even if it's easy (it's why the USA still competes in the Olympics). But when you're working together, a win must be earned or it loses it's savor. While we have managed to make the game more difficult, it's unfortunate that it must be through variant play rather than a built in 'hard mode'. Gameplay itself is enjoyable - it involves selecting a task to complete and then essentially playing progressive Yahtzee to do so, but with ways to modify roll outcomes and whatnot. I should note that my wife and I are both statisticians so any games that involve random variables get us excited because we can model probabilities and make strategic choices based on that (which may contribute to the overall easiness of the game for us, but there are many complaints about difficult on BGG that you can read). The artwork is breathtaking - any more real and it would literally steal your breath away just to watch you suffer. The flavor text is divine - it's so much fun to read the adventure cards when you complete them - or read the flavor text of a monster after defeating it, it's immersive and really does a lot to help set a Lovecraftian tone for the game. The investiagtors to play as are many and varied - there's clearly lots of room there for custom investigators and potentially even GOOs. I was disappointed with the material of the box itself - I've gotten rather used to the thicker style of games that take after the European persuation (like Pandemic), but it's not a big deal. The most disappointing bit about craftmanship had to do with the pieces. There are dozens of little pieces and they all come in a prestamped board, so you have to pop them out. For the most part, this was easy to do, but a few were stamped all the way through and the surface paper tore off a little, or separated from the cardboard core a little bit. It's not the end of the world, but it did sadden me that my brand new, beautiful game was damaged simply during setup. On the plus side though, all the pieces are double sided, so that was great. Is this game right for you? Well, if you're new to coop boardgames or if you're new to this style of pseudo-roleplaying game, this is a great place to start because the rules are very direct, very easy to understand (only needed to reference the rule book before and during the first game), the game isn't punishing and you'll want to come back again and again. Now all I need to do is get my non-nerd friends over to play an 8 player game...

I bought this game after seeing an episode of Tabletop on the Geek & Sundry youtube channel featuring it. I knew from the beginning that I had to have this game. This is a great, fun game. I have a roommate who loves Cthulu and my boyfriend and I love board games. Pros: - You can play by yourself or with up to 8 players. So far I've played it with 2 players and 4 players and the results were wonderfully varied. I haven't played by myself, but I think it's safe to assume that it's a lot more fun with others. - The artwork is beautiful and really sets the feel for this game. - It is a cooperative game, so you can even play it with friends who are a little too competitive. - It's pretty quick for a game of this genre. - Lots of characters, items/abilities and monsters give the game high replay value. - Price is pretty reasonable for this type of game. - It's essentially a game of chance, so it can be pretty suspenseful. Always fun. Cons: - There are a lot of pieces and cards to keep track of. - The rules (including set-up) can be a bit complex the first time you play. - As with any game of chance, sometimes you just don't get the rolls you need. There are items and abilities that can help you reroll, add dice or boost your rolls, but in the end sometimes you just don't get what you want which can be frustrating. In conclusion, I'm definitely happy with my purchase and foresee myself playing a lot more in the future. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys cooperative games, likes H.P. Lovecraft or collects board games. I'm happy to have this one as part of my collection.

I started a monthly board game day at my house after my local comic book store started a used board game auction. While researching the games up for bid, I watched the TableTop Games youtube episode for Elder Sign. Our game group had always played competitive games in the stand vein (clue and scrabble and trivial pursuit), but this looked like a ton of fun and I had to have it. After losing my bid, I ordered this on Amazon. I am amazingly greatful that I did. This game has come out at every single board game day since and we never get tired of it. We recently even picked up the expansion. The game has the right level of difficulty. We don't often lose, but it is often close enough that we've thought there was a good chance we would lose. The physical elements of the game are fantastic. High quality cardboard throughout, though I do wish the player tokens were a little different, as we often have a hard time differentiating the characters. The box also does not provide a good way to keep all the elements organized. We used our 3d printer to make a nice tray, but if you don't have one, keeping everything straight is a bit rough and you'll want plastic bags to store your bits and pieces. The gameplay is mostly dependent on making good strategic decisions on which challenges to take on and is based soley on dice rolling to determine if you are successful. The goal is to get combos of dice, similar to yahtzee. It takes very little time to learn how to play, and about 3-5 rounds to teach new players the basic mechanics. Very enjoyable and lots of replay value. You don't need to get too into the theme of the game either, if role-playing holds not interest for you (we barely pay attention to the theme). This is a must have game for just about any collection.

This game is intimidating to look at. It has a lot of little pieces, eight different types of cards, and so many tokens that it's genuinely hard to keep track. There's also a pretty daunting 16 page rulebook, but honestly it's faster to learn while playing than it is to figure it all out at the beginning. Game one was all learning. Games two through nine have all been mad Lovecraftian monster-bashing races against the clock- literally- to best an Old God. Games can go pretty quickly by boss rushing, or you can stretch it out by hoarding items and strategizing (to an extent- once the Doom Counter is full, it's time to wrestle Cthulhu). I got this game as a gift for my boyfriend, and we both love it. We've played with groups as large as six and I've played it by myself. It's been a blast either way. It's a challenge, but not impossible. The rules are different every time you play, but you notice patterns. It keeps you on your toes for sure. I highly recommend this game if you are into Lovecraftian horror, tabletop gaming, man-vs-game formatted games, or have a get together coming up and want to do something more involved than taking turns on Mario Party.

Really enjoyed this more than I thought I would. At first glance it appears that fate is the only factor in the game. But after playing quite a few games I can safely say that strategy plays a big part. Some say the game is too easy and I think I can agree with that. However it is very easy to adjust this by choosing only 2 investigators instead of say using 4. Also, the way I play is, once an investigator dies they do not get replaced. I found these things make the game perfectly balanced for my skill level (though ymmv). What I love most about this game is how often it hits the table. The game can be medium in terms of time length (about 1-2 hours), but setup and take down is super quick making you want to bust it out quite often. Slight warning - Even though this game is part of the Silver Line series, it does require the player/s to keep track of many things and it can be overwhelming to new players. It is VERY easy to miss something. For example you have the normal trappings of keeping track of your player options such as items and default abilities, but you also have to keep track of the Ancient One's persistent abilities, mythos cards that have daily affects, and adventure cards that have triggers at midnight and one of my personal favorites, forgetting to advance the clock. A few times when I played I would punish myself by removing an Elder Sign (the tokens needed to win the game), just because I wasn't sure if I accidently gave myself an advantage by forgetting to do something. All in all, this game is very addictive and beautiful to look at. It is also very reasonably priced for how much you get in the box. Easily one of my favorite games.