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Ancient Terrible Things box art

Ancient Terrible Things

Game ID: GID0023987
Game Info
Year
2014
Collection
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Description

In Ancient Terrible Things, a pulp horror adventure game for 2-4 players, you play the role of an intrepid adventurer, exploring a dark jungle river. Each turn you must travel to a Fateful Location, face an Ominous Encounter, and attempt to unlock its Ancient Secrets. If you succeed (using a combination of dice, tokens and cards), you add the Secrets to your score; if you fail, you unleash a Terrible Thing, which counts against your score at the end of the game. The object of the game is to be the player with the most Ancient Secrets when the game ends at the Unspeakable Event.

Game play involves rolling dice to achieve combinations: runs, pairs, three or more of a kind, and single die showing a particular number or higher. Dice combos are used to overcome Encounter cards that are worth points at the end of the game, and/or to acquire the four resource tokens in the game: Focus, Courage, Treasure and Feat.

Focus tokens are used to re-roll individual dice.
Courage tokens are spent to overcome an Encounter, before rolling your dice.
Treasure tokens are spent to purchase Swag cards from the Trading Post, which give you a permanent game effect.
Feat tokens are spent to play Feat cards from your hand, which activate one-shot effects.

Description

In Ancient Terrible Things, a pulp horror adventure game for 2-4 players, you play the role of an intrepid adventurer, exploring a dark jungle river. Each turn you must travel to a Fateful Location, face an Ominous Encounter, and attempt to unlock its Ancient Secrets. If you succeed (using a combination of dice, tokens and cards), you add the Secrets to your score; if you fail, you unleash a Terrible Thing, which counts against your score at the end of the game. The object of the game is to be the player with the most Ancient Secrets when the game ends at the Unspeakable Event.

Game play involves rolling dice to achieve combinations: runs, pairs, three or more of a kind, and single die showing a particular number or higher. Dice combos are used to overcome Encounter cards that are worth points at the end of the game, and/or to acquire the four resource tokens in the game: Focus, Courage, Treasure and Feat.

Focus tokens are used to re-roll individual dice.
Courage tokens are spent to overcome an Encounter, before rolling your dice.
Treasure tokens are spent to purchase Swag cards from the Trading Post, which give you a permanent game effect.
Feat tokens are spent to play Feat cards from your hand, which activate one-shot effects.

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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 1
This page: 1
Sentiment: pos 1 · mix 0 · neu 0 · neg 0
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Video lQQmhV8ueDk Rahdo Runs Through Top 12 List at 31:02 sentiment: positive
video_pk 81750 · mention_pk 204274
Rahdo Runs Through - Ancient Terrible Things video thumbnail
Click to watch at 31:02 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • moody, atmospheric theme
  • high-tension decisions
  • strong dice mechanic with meaningful choices
Cons
none
Thematic elements
  • Yahtzee-style dice survival with eldritch threats
  • a cursed river voyage with Lovecraftian vibes
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • dice manipulation and resource spending — Convert dice results into powers and tools for survival.
  • entwined drafting — Choose encounters and bonuses that affect later rounds.
  • Yahtzee-style dice rolling — Roll dice to meet target numbers to defeat threats.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • I think dogs are better than cats.
References (from this video)
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