Comparably-themed games include Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, Call of Cthulhu LCG, Fluxx Cthulhu, Smash-Up: The Obligatory Cthulhu Set… this is well-trod material. This game is the board-game equivalent of Kevin Bacon – you can tie just about any game to it in some way or another. I would say this shouldn’t be on a parent’s radar until their child is old enough to read Lovecraft themselves – probably early teens. It can be quite charming if you fully wrap yourself in the 1920s setting, but that’s not going to interest a child. Ignoring the weapons and monsters, it (as well as all Arkham-themed titles) is essentially a period-piece game. This game is just not suitable for children. Their reactions varied between liking and tolerating Elder Sign, but nobody absolutely loved it. I’ve played it with people who like dice games and with others who do not. I have played Elder Sign solitaire and with 1 to 4 other players. This is a simple game wrapped in the cloak of a complex one. And the game can be taught to others in less than 10 minutes. It takes one game to fully understand all of the rules and nuances of Elder Sign… maybe one additional game to understand how to best utilize spells and items. Once comfortable, the game takes me about 10 minutes to set up and under an hour to play, whether that’s alone or with 4 others. That first game was won in under an hour, albeit with a few mismanaged rules. But the rulebook is concise and helpful, so my first game started around 30 minutes after opening the box (this was a solo game, so there was no rules explaining to be handled). And due to time constraints alone I tend to play it more than big sis… these are the impressions it’s made on me:Įven as the “simpler” game, there are tons of small pieces here several pages of cardboard to punch on first opening and several separate decks of cards to wrangle. Elder Sign seems designed to slide comfortably into those one-hour weeknight timeslots where its big sister can’t be considered. As much as I’ve made myself appreciate Arkham Horror, under the best of circumstances I’ll find time to play a complete game once or twice a month. Elder Sign really appealed to me as a means to experience the Arkham Horror theme and atmosphere without the Arkham Horror time commitment and abuse.
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