• Game: Elder Sign
• Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
• Designer: Richard Launius with Kevin Wilson
• Genre: Dice rolling
• Players: 1-8
• Playtime: 45-120 minutes



• What's Hot: Captures most of the Arkham Horror feel; good for solo gamers



• What's Not: Gravely short on narrative or atmosphere; badly written/underdeveloped rules; completely off-balance; somewhat over-complicated

by: Michael Barnes

Fantasy Flight Game’s new title Elder Sign is the Arkham Horror dice game. Original Arkham scribe Richard Launius and the man responsible for the 2005 edition, Kevin Wilson, have managed to micronize most of the features of the beloved board game into a strangely complex, wildly imbalanced, and oddly underdeveloped dice game that looks great both on paper and on the table. Unfortunately, the chief feature of the board game that has made it a modern classic- namely the strong narrative- didn’t make the cut.

Whereas the subject matter of Arkham Horror is sort of an exaggeratedly two-fisted, guns-a-blazin’ take on the Lovecraft school of early 20th century pulp, the subject matter of Elder sign is, recursively, Arkham Horror itself. It almost plays like a précis of the board game, with the same characters, items, monsters, and artwork lending a distinct sense of familiarity. This consistency might be welcoming to some players, but it definitely establishes Elder Sign as a smaller footprint version of a larger and better game.

The process is of course completely different although certain concepts are the same. Each player manages one or more investigators (all familiar faces) rated for sanity and stamina and allotted a couple of pieces of starting equipment. Each also features a special power, some of which are outrageously powerful and others that aren’t quite as useful. Each turn, an investigator is either sent to hang out at an “Entrance” card to do some shopping with monster trophies or they go to one of the face-up adventure cards. Each has a couple of lines of icons, each representing an abstract task. Six dice faced with said icons are rolled, and the investigator attempts to complete each task on the card by matching them. Items, allies, and spells can aid the cause by changing results, storing dice for future use, or other beneficial effects. If the roll does not result in a complete task, a die can be locked in for the next reroll, with each reroll shedding a die. Completing a task results in rewards but failure can incur sanity/stamina loss, doom tokens, or monster appearances.

As in Arkham Horror, a Great Old One card rules over the game, often imparting an overall effect. Each also reprises the doom track from the original game, and just like it a full doom track results in a silly fight with one of the cosmic baddies. Minor antagonists are represented by monster tokens, which add tasks to adventure cards and generally make them harder to complete. The investigators are looking to put a set number of titular Elder Sign tokens on the Great Old One to end the game.

It is impressive how much the game, at least on a surface level, manages to touch on almost every aspect of Arkham Horror. This also means that it is a more complicated entity with far more components than most dice games and a confusing, poorly written rulebook doesn’t help matters. There are several fidgety rules, points that need clarification and a host of issues that practically require house rules or variants to correct. The game does not feel properly tested or developed, and it suffers from a rushed, slapdash feeling.

This is very apparent in the game’s balance. It’s been widely reported that the game is too easy and in many games it is. But since it’s a card flip/die roll game without any kind of gamestate-sensing AI, it can also be brutally, punishingly hard if a couple of bad die rolls and inopportune card flips derail the investigator’s intentions. So some games are woefully unsatisfying, devolving into a process of going through the motions just to beat the boss and win the game. Others are almost spiritually devastating in their hopeless, bad-luck march towards doom.