Elder Sign

Elder Sign

This isn’t a new to me game, I did play a few times it but it must have been about four years ago now.

So I will have to learn it again, but it also reminds me that there are a ton of other Lovecraft-based games I want to get hold of and now that some games have gone to a game library I do have space for a few more…

It is 1926, and the museum’s exotic curios and occult artifacts open barriers between our world and the elder evils lurking between dimensions. Other Worlds begin to leak through and terrifying creatures of increasing strength steal through them. Animals, the mad, and those of susceptible minds are driven to desperation by the supernatural forces that the portals unleash. In the midst of this chaos, a handful of investigators race against time to locate the eldritch symbols necessary to seal the portals forever and stop evil Ancient Ones from reducing humanity to cinders.

Elder Sign is a fast-paced, cooperative dice game of supernatural intrigue for one to eight players by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, the designers of Arkham Horror. Players take the roles of investigators racing against time to stave off the imminent return of the Ancient Ones. Armed with cards for tools, allies, and occult knowledge, investigators must put their sanity and stamina to the test as they adventure to locate Elder Signs, the eldritch symbols used to seal away the Ancient Ones and win the game.

Included in the box is:

• Clock
• Cardboard Clock Hand
• 1 Plastic Connector (for the clock hand)
• 6 Green Dice
• 1 Yellow Die
• 1 Red Die
• 1 Entrance Reference Sheet
• 80 Oversized Cards consisting of:
  • 16 Investigator Cards
  • 8 Ancient One Cards
  • 48 Adventure Cards
  • 8 Other World Adventure Cards
• 76 Small Cards consisting of:
  • 12 Common Item Cards
  • 12 Unique Item Cards
  • 12 Spell Cards
  • 8 Ally Cards
  • 32 Mythos Cards
• 144 Cardboard Tokens and Markers consisting of:
  • 16 Investigator Markers
  • 30 Sanity Tokens
  • 30 Stamina Tokens
  • 15 Clue Tokens
  • 22 Monster Markers
  • 5 Mask Monster Markers
  • 12 Doom Tokens
  • 17 Elder Sign Tokens

I don’t think I’ll watch any videos for this, just read the rulebook a couple of time to see if it all comes back to me.

I love games that have lots of moving bits and tokens but I love them even more, when like this, they are easy to setup and put away (as long as you have lots of plastic bags!)

I was only a little rusty and in the end had to watch one video as the rule book was as opaque as I remembered it, not really beginner friendly at all.

Once I got it setup though everything started coming back to me, remembering to use the special cards, the clue token, focussing a die, I even remembered how to put out monsters when they were needed.

I thought I was doing quite well until I had several cards that gave me extra yellow dice and got a location that locked that and found it really hard to get rid of it…

That’s when we had to say goodbye to Amanda Sharpe, and along comes Darrell Simpson to pick up so bravely from where she left off.

Though I completely forgot to use his special ability, didn’t use it even once I got onto a roll and was able to get the remaining four Elder sign tokens that were needed to defeat Yig and their minions.

As I said it did all come back to me once I started playing though I did make some mistakes early on, the rule book could have been clearer, maybe a glossary with condensed rules for each token/card style. So I would advise watching a video or two before starting out.

But that’s another from my list started, and a win for the Board Game Challenge 2026!