Elder Sign
Sep. 20th, 2013 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfinblazeI've been playing my newest board game, Elder Sign, which I got a couple of days ago. It was a toss up between buying this game and Pandemic. In the end I decided it would be more fun getting eaten by Cthulhu than dying of a terminal disease. But I will also get Pandemic eventually.
I think I had waaay too much fun playing this. XD
It's based on H. P. Lovecraft's short horror stories/novellas about creatures from other dimensions, known as Ancient Ones, who like to devour people. You don't need to have read Lovecraft to enjoy the game, but it adds familiarity if you have because of all the names and places you recognise. I for one quite enjoy the stories. Perfect bedtime reading. (And if you do want to read Lovecraft's stories, his works are all in the public domain so you can find them easily online.)
The big door at the middle top of the picture represents the entrance to Miskatonic University Museum, which is where the game takes place. The Museum is being invaded by Ancient Ones, with their minions and followers leading the way. Why this museum? I don't know. Maybe some university students had a séance and summoned the Ancient Ones. However it happened, strange events and monsters are popping up in the museum.
The six large cards in the middle of the picture represent six rooms of the museum. I don't know what kind of museum has six rooms, but there you go. The four large cards across the bottom of the picture were my characters trying to save the world. Ispilt myself into played a doctor, a scientist, an author, and a nun.
I decided I wanted to get eaten by Yog-Sothoth, who I first met in Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror." Well, I didn't want to get eaten, but I didn't want to tackle Cthulhu or Azathoth on my first go either, so old hundred-eyes it was.
The goal is to collect tokens called Elder Signs (the blue stars) by facing the rooms of the museum. Each time you vanquish a room the card is replaced and you get a new challenge to face. Mostly it's just rolling dice and hopefully getting the same symbols on the dice as show up on the cards, so there's a lot of luck involved and that makes it harder than it sounds. If you don't get the right symbols you lose health or sanity tokens, or you lose time.
Because while you're trying to win Elder Signs, the game ticks down a clock with each turn, and every so often a "doom token" is added to the Ancient One's card. When the card is full, the Ancient One wakes up, breaks into our dimension, and you're basically dead meat. If you manage to win and collect enough Elder Signs before the doom finishes counting down, you manage to save reality and the Ancient One is locked away for good. Or until next game.
Regi vs Yog-Sothoth:
In my game, the doctor was basically useless. He hardly beat any cards (rooms), but at least he helped heal the other characters because they needed it. The author went half mad (so what else is new?), but she was quite successful, as was the scientist, knocking over challenge after challenge.
The public lavatory got overrun by monsters early on, so no one went near it for the rest of the game. They were too busy trying to keep Yog-Sothoth at bay to worry about the ghoul, warlock, and cultist partying away in there.
The author ended up having to travel all the way to R'lyeh, in another dimension, and she nearly died there three times. My heroes were ONE doom token away from Yog-Sothoth waking up, and still needed THREE Elder Signs to stop him, so they all threw themselves at R'lyeh at once. It was the luckiest nun in the world with all her clues, who managed to win R'lyeh and seal Yog-Sothoth away before he could take over the world, but it was a near thing. Too close for comfort.
This is going to be a tough game to beat, I can tell. But it suits the mythos.
Wil Wheaton (Star Trek) did an episode of Table Top (the web series) where Elder Sign was played if you want to watch a bunch of actors and creatives playing it.
I think I had waaay too much fun playing this. XD
It's based on H. P. Lovecraft's short horror stories/novellas about creatures from other dimensions, known as Ancient Ones, who like to devour people. You don't need to have read Lovecraft to enjoy the game, but it adds familiarity if you have because of all the names and places you recognise. I for one quite enjoy the stories. Perfect bedtime reading. (And if you do want to read Lovecraft's stories, his works are all in the public domain so you can find them easily online.)
The big door at the middle top of the picture represents the entrance to Miskatonic University Museum, which is where the game takes place. The Museum is being invaded by Ancient Ones, with their minions and followers leading the way. Why this museum? I don't know. Maybe some university students had a séance and summoned the Ancient Ones. However it happened, strange events and monsters are popping up in the museum.
The six large cards in the middle of the picture represent six rooms of the museum. I don't know what kind of museum has six rooms, but there you go. The four large cards across the bottom of the picture were my characters trying to save the world. I
I decided I wanted to get eaten by Yog-Sothoth, who I first met in Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror." Well, I didn't want to get eaten, but I didn't want to tackle Cthulhu or Azathoth on my first go either, so old hundred-eyes it was.
The goal is to collect tokens called Elder Signs (the blue stars) by facing the rooms of the museum. Each time you vanquish a room the card is replaced and you get a new challenge to face. Mostly it's just rolling dice and hopefully getting the same symbols on the dice as show up on the cards, so there's a lot of luck involved and that makes it harder than it sounds. If you don't get the right symbols you lose health or sanity tokens, or you lose time.
Because while you're trying to win Elder Signs, the game ticks down a clock with each turn, and every so often a "doom token" is added to the Ancient One's card. When the card is full, the Ancient One wakes up, breaks into our dimension, and you're basically dead meat. If you manage to win and collect enough Elder Signs before the doom finishes counting down, you manage to save reality and the Ancient One is locked away for good. Or until next game.
Regi vs Yog-Sothoth:
In my game, the doctor was basically useless. He hardly beat any cards (rooms), but at least he helped heal the other characters because they needed it. The author went half mad (so what else is new?), but she was quite successful, as was the scientist, knocking over challenge after challenge.
The public lavatory got overrun by monsters early on, so no one went near it for the rest of the game. They were too busy trying to keep Yog-Sothoth at bay to worry about the ghoul, warlock, and cultist partying away in there.
The author ended up having to travel all the way to R'lyeh, in another dimension, and she nearly died there three times. My heroes were ONE doom token away from Yog-Sothoth waking up, and still needed THREE Elder Signs to stop him, so they all threw themselves at R'lyeh at once. It was the luckiest nun in the world with all her clues, who managed to win R'lyeh and seal Yog-Sothoth away before he could take over the world, but it was a near thing. Too close for comfort.
This is going to be a tough game to beat, I can tell. But it suits the mythos.
Wil Wheaton (Star Trek) did an episode of Table Top (the web series) where Elder Sign was played if you want to watch a bunch of actors and creatives playing it.
