There are places on Earth where everything you fear and cannot explain is gathered. Places ruled by inhuman terror and ancient knowledge. Places where the unknown doesn’t just send shivers down your spine but lodges pure dread in your throat, choking off even the chance to scream. One such place is the small town of Arkham in the American state of Massachusetts.

Elder Sign

This is an adventure game set in the world of the genius and madman Howard Lovecraft. It can confidently be called a simplified version of Arkham Horror, yet it retains a beautiful and grim artistic flair. The game takes place in the Arkham Museum, where there’s no traditional game board—instead, it’s shaped by “museum entrance” cards, “task” cards, and “other worlds” cards. Players will navigate between task-based exhibits and face horrifying, sometimes bloody events.

Gameplay

To complete a task, players must pass a dice check (nothing surprising there), but these aren’t ordinary dice. They feature symbols: evidence (a magnifying glass with numbers 1 to 4), terror (Cthulhu’s tentacles), death (a skull, naturally), and knowledge (a scroll). Each task on the game field has corresponding markers in various combinations, and it’s these you’ll need to roll on the dice. For example, to explore the Hall of the Dead, you’ll need to complete two tasks: knowledge + terror + death, and two knowledge. It’s simple: give the dice a good shake, roll them, and see what comes up.

Game cards—whether unique or common items, spells, or allies—function in special ways. Items allow you to use additional dice (yellow and red) for a task, increasing your chances of success. Spells let you save dice you’ll need later but aren’t useful now, while allies either boost your stats or grant bonuses during checks.

Another key component is a large cardboard antique clock. It tracks each player’s turn, with every move taking three hours. Don’t worry—this is a symbolic figure; players just need to know when midnight strikes, as that’s when the forces of evil make their move. When the clock’s hand hits 12, the first player must add a doom token to the appropriate track, release a monster into the museum if required, and read a Mythos card.

By completing tasks, players must collect elder signs to seal the gates that have opened in the museum to other worlds, preventing Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, or others from entering ours. Each Ancient One has a doom track limit—fill it completely, and the monster enters our world, forcing investigators to fight it—and a specific number of elder signs needed to stop this. It’s straightforward: if you don’t want to pluck Cthulhu’s wings (or have him pluck you), complete as many tasks with elder signs as possible.