Introduction to Elder Sign

Welcome to our blog. This is Part 2 of our article series for Arkham Horror Board Games, and we are now reviewing Elder Sign.

Here’s the guide to Part 1 about Arkham Horror 3rd Edition and lovecraftian games in general if you wish to read that Arkham Horror Board Games Part 1.

The amazon affiliate link to buy Elder Sign is here: https://geni.us/RXXeIoz. I get a commission if you use this link.

Elder Sign is an exciting game in that it has the feel of an Arkham Horror board game, but it’s a much more simplified game which is great because this one is way more accessible than the other games, but it still has its intricacies.

So basically, it revolves around undertaking adventures on the board to collect Elder Signs to seal the Ancient one. I think the most complicated thing about this game is how the dice work.

At its core Elder Sign is a dice-rolling game in that your characters only starting stats are their health and sanity and their abilities, and that’s it. This makes the game more accessible to people than explaining five stats. There are only two.

Glyphs and Adventures for this Arkham Horror Board Game

Now the dice in this game are called glyphs, and there are three types:

The green glyphs
The yellow glyph
The red glyph

Now the glyphs are dice, but instead of having 1 to 6, the green glyphs have 1,2,3, terror, peril, and lore results. Now at each adventure that an investigator can undertake, there will be one or more tasks that one can only be completed at a time (for most characters)

Now the glyphs relate to tasks that you must complete, and the way you do that is by rolling the glyphs you have (which are the six green glyphs you almost always have) and matching the glyphs to the requirement for the task so in a way it’s kind of like Yahtzee in your roll dice and make the best of them.

Adventures in Elder Sign

Arkham Horror Board Games Elder Sign Adventure

In the adventure above, we see a few things. We know the adventure is called “The Hand of Solace”, and just for explanation purposes, I have added the numbers 1^st and 2^nd to the right of the two tasks on this card.

So, on this particular adventure, there are two tasks, the first requiring 2 investigation and one lore and the second requiring two peril glyphs (dice).

So if we were to have an investigator take this adventure, we would roll the dice (6 green glyphs) and see what we get. So let’s say we got a 2, 2 lore (represented by the scroll), two 1s and peril (represented by the skull).

Now the numbers can be added together so I have enough dice to complete the first task, which I could complete with the 2 and one of the lore die, or I could finish it with the two 1s and the lore.

In most cases, it’s always worth using fewer dice to complete a task than more. So let’s say we decide to use the two and lore. Now we can roll the remaining glyphs (4 dice remain as two dice have been used).

And we end up with a 1, 3, and two peril (skulls) dice. In this case, we can’t use the one and three, but we can use the two terror results to complete this task and thus finish the adventure.

But let’s say we had rolled three 2s and a peril. In this case, we wouldn’t have enough dice to complete the task, so we would have to discard one die of our choice and then roll again with the remaining three die.

And that is pretty much the bulk of the game. You take an adventure to get more items to power you up for more demanding adventures, or you take harder adventures to get those crucial Elder Signs to win the game

Now the good thing about this game is you get to see what you have to get to pass the adventure before taking it on, so you must have a look at which adventure you want to take and know what you have to roll before you decide to undertake the adventure.

Yellow and Red Glyphs

The following two glyphs(dice) we will discuss are the yellow and red glyphs. So, these are special because you have to use an item to get these dice.

Now you can only have one yellow glyph(die) and one red glyph(die). The yellow dice is like the green dice, except it replaces the terror side with a 4 investigation.

The red dice is like the green, except it has a 2,3,4 investigation, lore, peril and wild symbol. The wild symbol is potent as it can count as any other result, including terror.

Items, Spells and Clues

So one way this game vastly differs from other Arkham Horror board games like Arkham Horror 2^nd and 3^rd Edition and Eldritch Horror is that all items and spells are one use.

Items

There are two types of items which are common and unique items and spells. Now while there are a lot of item cards, most common items are going to give you the ability to use the yellow dice for one adventure, and most unique items are going to allow you to use the red glyph,

As a result, you will often want to have common and unique items when attempting an adventure to give you the best chance of succeeding, as there are penalties for failing an adventure and rewards for passing.

Spells and Focus

Spells are fascinating but not as powerful as items, but they have their uses. So something I haven’t touched on in this game is how focus works which are relevant to understanding spells.

So the focus mechanic works as such. If you fail a task in an adventure, you have to discard one die, but you also have the opportunity to keep one die so that when you roll again you can retain that result.

You can use the focus to keep the one peril die, discard a die and roll again. This is useful if you got one of the die results you needed but didn’t get the rest. So from the previous adventure, let’s say you required two perils and only rolled one.

So now I can explain what most spells do. They allow you to retain one die (or two in some cases) without having to fail an adventure or keep an additional die in conjunction with the dice you get from the focus mechanic when you fail a task.

Clues

Clues allow you to reroll as many dice as you want once per clue. So these are powerful in conjunction with the red and yellow die.

Which items should I go for in this Arkham Horror Board Game?

Well, in terms of priority, they are:

Unique Items
Common Items
Clues
Spells

Be aware, though, that there are some unique items and spells that have other effects than what most of them do, like the unique item Necronomicon gives you the red die and a clue, and there are spells that kill monsters or open other worlds adventures (adventures with better rewards)

Rewards and Penalties

So if we look at the adventure below, we will see at the bottom left a red section with symbols and at the bottom right a white area with symbols:

The red section indicates what happens to the investigator if they fail the adventure, and the white area indicates what happens if the investigator succeeds.

In this case, if the investigator fails the adventure, he loses two sanity points. If they succeed, a monster gets summoned(basically makes one other adventure on the board harder). They get a spell (indicated by the book icon), a common item (shown by the pistol) and an elder sign (indicated by the star.

What else should I know about Elder Sign?

Well, there’s a lot more to the game, including terror effects, locked glyphs and tasks that must be completed in order, but that’s the gist of the game.

Now of all the Arkham Horror Board Games I have played, I have played this one the most because of the video game version, but the thing that makes this game fun is the replayability.

The game indeed has a level of complexity to it, and I know that this is a very commonly used phrase, but once you understand it, it is simple to learn and hard to master.

The reason is that deciding which adventure to take at what time is essential because when you look at the board, you have to consider a few things.

What items do each of your investigators have
What skills do they have
Which adventures do you think your investigators have a good chance of completing
Which are the more significant priorities to go after
Which adventures offer the best reward for each investigator
Can I afford to fail this adventure with this investigator

So every turn in this game will give you analysis paralysis, but that is the game’s fun. You have a lot more control over what’s going on than you do in other Arkham Horror board games because you know what happens if you complete or fail an adventure.

The other thing that makes this game a bit tenser than Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is that because all your items are single-use, it’s possible to have an investigator use up their inventory in an adventure and still fail it and come out of the adventure with nothing.

Taking that investigator out of the game, they won’t have a good chance of beating adventures even if they are alive. Luckily, the designers have accounted for this as there are some easier adventures, but still, it can be frustrating when that happens.

How do I win, and what makes me lose?

In this Arkham Horror board game, it’s pretty simple. You lose if all your investigators are killed(lose their sanity or stamina) or the doom track for the Ancient One you’re playing against fills up.

How is Elder Sign simpler than the other Arkham Horror Board Games?

Well, it has significantly less upkeep as it only has the doom track and adventures and monsters stay where they are, making a specific adventure harder.

And as a result, this game is simpler to understand, but if you’re trying to get people in gaming with the game, I suggest you give them a more powerful investigator, so they don’t get trashed too easily.

Does Elder Sign capture the Lovecraftian feel found in other Arkham Horror Board Games?

While it certainly doesn’t have the same aesthetic feeling as the other Arkham Horror Board Games it gets close.

The first thing is the difficulty in that this game can be quite punishing especially if you can’t roll good dice to save your life which will happen.

Second, it has all the things that make it an Arkham Horror board game like monsters, magic items, investigators with special powers and adventures so while it’s not quite the same thing it’s pretty close for an accessible game.

Conclusion of this Arkham Horror Board Game.

In conclusion, Elder Sign is a great intro to the Arkham Horror Board Game collection that is simple enough to be able to get anyone into it but complex enough to keep people coming back.

Also, there are a ton of expansions so we might cover those at a later date. Once again thank you for reading my blog post and stay tuned for the next part on Eldritch Horror.