TDG: Elder Sign unboxing with Ray

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the discriminating gamer. So why are ghosts bad liars? Cuz you can see right through them. Today we're taking a look at Elder Sign from Fantasy Flight Games. Now this is a game that's done by a Richard Launius and who is it Kevin Wilson and Richard Launius is one of my favorite designers.

I love a lot of stuff that he does, okay? And this is basically a dice a Yahtzee-ish style game kind of a push-your-luck type of a game where you're basically just rolling dice trying to close um close up different cards that you're going to have that are in what is it the Miskatonic University and then you're trying to stop basically the old one from taking over.

It's a really cool really unique system. This game has been out for like 15 years. Um very nice. I'm glad to see that it's still around, okay? But this is just the core set and I know there's a bunch of expansions for it as well as well. But what's inside this box? Want to know? Let's go down to the table.

Let's open it up. Let's find out what's on the inside. All right folks, here we go. This is Elder Sign. Now this is the revised printing, all right? I don't know exactly when the revised printing came out, but this is a game by of course Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson. Fantasy Flight Games is your publisher and part of their Arkham Horror file section.

Now this is of course is a game of suspense and supernatural investigation. Now what do we got here? I know somewhere on this box is going to tell me the information I want and there it is right there in little teeny tiny print. This is for uh ages 14 and up. One to I think is that eight players? And one to two hours to play.

Holy moly, that is that is one to eight players. Okay, there you go. One to eight players. And what do we got? Looks like we have stickers that are holding our lid down. >> [snorts] >> Now if we open these up we'll just give these a nice little cutty cut. Oh and that one's got a nice big gap on it. So let's give these a try.

Okay, now as you can see uh look at that. Yeah, look at that. Those suckers come off. Okay, no easy peasy. All right, they're just enough to kind of hold that lid on but they're sticky enough where I can't get it off my finger. All right, so unstick those, peel them off the box, you're going to be fine.

All right. No problems there. So let's get this thing flipped over and if you want to take a look look at how much table presence I mean I love the look of this game on the table. It does take up a little bit of space. It's not as bad as what you think but oh so so good. Now Okay, here's our rules to the game.

And I mean I know I've I've I've played this. I don't know if I've played the revised printing but this is a great great game. All right, what do we have? We're looking at a 20-page rulebook for this guy. All right, let's see what we have. So think we can get all that in there. Yep, close enough. All right, so what do we have right there?

We have the overview, objects of the game, of course your component list and this is a breakdown of all the components, typical Fantasy Flight faction. This looks like a regular regular rulebook from them. Now it's not the split rulebook like what they have. They only need the one for this one. Here's your setup, your setup diagram and where everything is going to go on your table.

Ooh the golden rule in your ancient one card anatomy. Okay, cuz we have to try to go beat those ancient ones. Now you're going to have your card anatomy for all the different cards you're going to have out in play. This is really good on your player turn what you're going to be able to do, okay? All right, it's got your movement phase.

What do we got? Rolling the dice and the whole basis of this game is rolling dice matching symbols, okay? Oh so good. Now we've got our clock phase. We've got our securing dice which you can possibly do. You're focusing. Request assistance from different people. There's going to be characters and all the characters have special abilities as well.

Okay. Investigator card anatomy, your mythos cards. All right. Oh and your monsters. Yeah, adding those monster tokens to the board is oh horrible. Cuz it just makes closing these gates so hard and then awakening the ancient one it gets really really bad. Battling the ancient one has its back section and then of course winning the game.

Now very back is going to have a nice little quick reference. So on your player turn your task symbols that you have, your locked dice symbols. This is really cool too cuz it's going to have your dice sides. And it's important to know that some of these dice like the terror, yellow and red do not have that terror.

You'll never roll that terror. That's important to know and the wild card is only on a red, okay? It's just like the four on the on the search. You'll never see on the green. So it's really good to know this. It's really good information and red also never has the one. And there's your rewards and penalties that you're going to get from your cards.

Very nice rulebook, okay? And if you like this game you have Elder Sign Omens you can download and play it and I will tell you I have this on my tablet and I have played this game so many times. I This is probably one of my favorite games that's on my iPad, okay? I absolutely love this game. So fun.

All right. Download and play it folks. So let's take a look at what we have here. This is going to be our main board, okay? This is going to be so like you can receive first aid, you can search a lost and found, you can buy a souvenir. This is I believe what is it the is it the museum that you're at here?

I keep saying Miskatonic University but I think you're actually at the museum, okay? But it's going to tell you basically what you can do if you go to these locations opposed to going to one of the card locations. All right, get him out of there. Now we're going to have looks like two boards worth of tokens.

Okay and hey they're taped together. Interesting. I can't say I've seen these things in little bags or something like that but I can't say I've actually ever seen them taped together, so let's go ahead and cut this off right there. All right, open this guy up. And let's give this one just a little little little flick right there.

Now Okay, so we're going to have our big giant clock. Now this is going to punch out. We're going to have a little dial that's going to fit in here. We'll find that a little bit later because this it goes on 15s and when this thing ever hits midnight then bad things always happen. So looks like we're going to have our elders Elder Sign Elder Sign tokens I believe those ones are.

These are going to be all your different monster tokens. Okay. Which those things are just nasty. Looks like you got your hit points. All right, and there is actually the front side. So here you go. We're going to do this real fast. We're going to peel this guy off. Look at that. See? Your tokens are fine.

They're totally fine, okay? But yeah, all the different monsters and stuff. Very nice. Now let's look at this one and I'm like I said I'm going to get this one off here as Now look oh ooh I got lucky on that one. Look at that. So it actually did stick to that but the tokens are fine. Oh did I get lucky there folks?

Holy moly. Wow, you saw it here. That was pure luck. Peel that one off. Now I'm going to go get this one here off real fast too because I usually don't ever see these stickers stick like that, okay? Um usually if they do it's cuz they've been on for a while but let's get this guy off. Okay, all of the stickers are now off.

I will be getting the ones off the box here really really fast. Let's take a look at this one again. So here's going to be our little monsters again. Of course these are the symbols that you have to match when you have to roll when you put them on the cards. You do have your little eye little tokens that you can put for your characters on where you're going.

Okay, we'll look at the back side just to see kind of what some of those backs are. What you're going to get, okay? And there you go. And that's our list of tokens. Woo. Man, look at that. Ah I got lucky. I got lucky folks. All right, you witnessed it. I don't get lucky often. Now All right, Fantasy Flight box.

We love their boxes, don't we? Woo. Their inserts are the favorite in the world. You know what? They get the job done. They do get the job done. So here's the dice. Now the dice for this game are really nice, okay? They feel really good. They're nice and slick. I don't see any imperfections on those dice and they're nice big rounded corners.

Yeah. I love me [snorts] some good dice, okay? Get those closed. But you know what? Let's put this back in there because this is the piece for our little turn dial. And you know what? That's what I don't remember seeing. Where is our little our little turn dial? Oh, here it is. Okay. Yeah, whoops to get put that back in there.

This is the little turn dial right here. I wanted to show you this, okay? So we'll pop this little thing out right here. All right, you get a little more information here but we're going to use that little plastic thing and of course it's just going to fit right on top of there and you'll rotate it after the end of every round.

There you go, okay? All right, let's go to put that in there just to make sure that I don't lose it. Now we're going to have two decks of cards, big and small and let's go ahead and take a peek under here. Sometimes we get stuff under here, sometimes we don't. We're totally fine. Nothing's there. So let's see what we have.

And I'll tell you what, these are all the cards you're going to be going up against and there is a ton of these things. An absolute ton of these things, okay? So what do we have? Here is the back side of this deck. All right, and then what do we have here? These are the portal cards if I remember correctly.

Those are going to be your portal cards. >> [snorts] >> These are going to be your old ones that you're going to be going up against, okay? So we'll put those off to the side and then these are all the different characters that you can play and look at how many you get. This isn't like a three or four characters, man.

You get a ton of them. Okay, in the back so you can actually randomly choose you know deal out a couple, do what you're going to do but all right. So let's take a look at these little guys. Girls in this case. Ashcan Pete, you know? But just take a look at them see what they get. Got their little starting items, you know if they their little special ability.

Pay attention to the special abilities in this game. Man, you have to utilize your special abilities as much as possible to try to win this one cuz it can be very critical. Especially for like me and you roll dice really really poorly, okay? But there you go. Okay, that is going to be all of our characters.

Now, who are we going to go up against? We got Azathoth, okay, and his abilities. Anything on the backside? Absolutely not. Hastur. We got the main Cthulhu himself. Y'ha-nthlei. We got Shub-Niggurath. Yig. And then Yaug Sothoth. Sothoth? I don't know what that is. Oh, there we go. And Nyarlathotep. Oh, man.

Lovecraft, how in the world did you come up with these names? All right. Now, these are the portals. Sometimes portals will come out, so these are other locations that you can actually go to. Um now, when you successfully complete them, you get the good stuff. If you fail, you get the bad stuff. Don't fail.

But, they got a little flavor text on them, too, which is awesome. I love the flavor text. So, we'll take a look at all these. Now, if you roll terror, okay, you're going to lose sanity. Don't roll terror on those. So, they got little special abilities. The little white outline is where a monster token can potentially go.

Okay. But, there we go. The Dreamlands is a great hall, and then Yuggoth. There we go. Okay. Put those down. But, these are all the regular locations, and you're always going to have I want to say is there six of these in play? They're just not upside down. But, you're going to have them in play, okay, and then you're going to have to try to roll and match symbols.

And then, of course, this number here, you get X number of those, and then you can do things with those, too. Okay. I think it's for going up to the museum entrance and you spending spending those points. Something like that, if I remember. It's been a really long time since I played this game, but you know what?

Enough of me babbling. Let's just kind of flip through all these cards. All right. Don't need this video to be an hour long just because I'm yapping my gums. So, but like this one here, when you complete it, you have to complete it from top down, so you have to complete that one before you can complete that one, for example.

But, this one you can complete this row, then this row, or whatever order you want. Okay. So, that's that's the cool thing I do like about about these games. That's going to be tough. All right. Oh, look at that. Man, just don't put a monster there. It's not a bad card until you put a monster there.

See, in these ones where it's top down, all right, that those are the ones that get really tough, especially when you have the multiple rows. All right. But, usually the really hard ones like that, the rewards are really good. Like this one, man. This one's easy until you get those monsters in there.

But, when a player draws this card, you got to place one monster in each So, this is already starting with two monsters, but all the rewards are good. The rewards are so good. So, if you get lucky and draw some really cruddy monsters, you're fine. Discard a trophy of your choice. That's bad. Cuz I believe these That's what this is.

This is a trophy. I think I believe that's a trophy number. Okay. All right. Uh but, like I said, there is a ton of locations. And like I said, and and you're rolling dice every turn. And for those of you who have never played this game, I know there's a lot of stuff on this game. But, basically what you're doing is you're rolling and you and then you get a you know, place you know, place a dice.

Okay, and then you roll and you get to place a dice. But, if you can't place a dice, then you have to lose a dice, and you can keep rolling. So, it's actually kind of a really a really cool um Oh, is that more of a Yahtzee mechanic? Cuz it's it's not really a push your luck because well, you have to roll all the time no matter what, as long as you get a symbol.

So, you know, pushing your luck is you Do I want to roll? I don't have to roll. This one here, you have to roll until you complete it. So, All right. So, we're going to have all these cards. We're going to flip these upside down cuz this is going to be like three or four different types of cards. And these ones here, okay, these are Man, what do they call these?

They're not like little event cards, but you're going to be pulling turning them over all the time and then like there's no immediate effect today or the next time the clock strikes midnight, two monsters just appear. Okay, so you know bad stuff's going to happen. So, if you have no cards out that can put a monster, there's nowhere to put them, for example.

Okay. So, you really want to pay attention to these. But, when this comes out, I mean, your locked green dice or something along those lines. Bad things can just happen. As you can see, I I'm really excited about this game cuz this is a really really fun game, okay? Um I don't believe Cody's actually played this game, so I'm really excited to play this one with Cody.

So, and I know this is one of my wife's favorite games. She she loves playing this game. So, all right. A few more of these. But, yeah, these are always coming out. And I can't remember I think these come out at the at midnight. I think is when all of these come out, so that's the the main thing you got to try to watch out for is what's going to happen at midnight when these cards come out.

All right, so let's put those there. Now, you're going to have your different items. So, you're going to have like your common items. You're going to have looks like your spells. Or no, these ones may be your common I I can't remember off top of my head which ones they are. Okay. Um but, you have the four different types that you can actually get.

And these are basically cards that you can spend these cards to help you with your dice rolls. Okay. So, for example, you know, Duke, you may discard Duke instead of suffering the adventure card's penalty. So, if you fail, just get rid of Duke. But, try not to get rid of Duke. Duke's a good dog. I mean, he's been around.

He's helping you out all the time. But, these are just cards that are going to just give you those special abilities. Now, these ones, okay, the whiskey, you can discard this card instead of losing the sanity. So, you don't have to lose sanity. Yeah, drink some whiskey. You'll forget all about it. You know, the shotgun, you know, this one here, you discard it, you just get a get a yellow dice.

And it looks like there's several cards that are going to do do that. So, the names are different thematic-wise, but they're all basically just going to get you the yellow dice or a yellow and a red dice. Okay. And having those extra dice is sometimes really good. These are really nice, these uh purple spells, because then they're going to help you out in different ways.

Okay. This one here, you can like lock a dice, for example. All right. So, you can put a dice on there and and hold it. So, that way you don't end up, you know, losing it or two dice. After rolling discard to change one dice to, you know, one of those symbols. Stuff like that is really good. Okay. You know, after rolling discard just to defeat a monster.

Wow, that's really good. Card artifacts? Oh my gosh. Those are really That's a really good card. Oh, yeah. And see, and these are the ones that are going to give you most of your red dice. All right. And it looks like there's one in the back that's going to give you, of course, your red and your yellow.

And there you go, folks. That is everything you're going to get inside this box. So, these little teeny tiny cards, I'll tell you what, I'm going to put these back in here because I know those are just going to be flopping around inside this box. The big cards I'm not really worried about as much, but uh you know what?

We'll probably put them back in their bag as well. Because do we want our cards damaged in these games? Absolutely not. We do not want that. But, there you go. That's how the cards usually come. I do like how they come in these little Ziploc bags. Okay, so we're just going to put that right there. We're good to go.

We got our one token. Okay. This I'm going to put on the top, but let's take our dice. Let's shove our dice right back down in here. Let's see if we can get all this stuff back in here. There's no board for this game. We're going to put this guy right back in here. And let's go ahead and take this this other one.

Put him here. All right. And we're going to put Hey, go play that game. Okay, download it. Play it. Let me know what you think. And then we got our rules, and we got our big Ziploc bag if Cody wants that. I'm going to get the stickers off this box as soon as I'm done with this video because they got to come off this box.

But, there you go, folks. That is Elder Sign. Like I said, this is the revised printing. This is a fantastic game, and I cannot wait to get this one to the table um with Cody so he can play it. All right. Let's head up top, and let's close this out. All right, folks. There you go. That is Elder Sign by Fantasy Flight Games.

Now, this game, like I said, it's been out for a really long time, and I've played this, but I haven't played this for a really long time. Okay. Um I know this was one of my wife's favorite games. We used to play it all the time way back in the day. But, I don't believe Cody's ever played this, and I'm really excited to play this with him.

I think it's a really fun, really unique um it's kind of a lighter game, but man, there's a lot to it. Now, there's a lot of luck involved when it comes to rolling them dice. Trust me, I know those dice do not like me. But, you have to do There's different things you have to do to try to help you along the way, you know, try to get some of the items you need or something like that, and utilize some of those uh top action spaces um to try to turn in your trophies into other things that are going to help you.

Super fun game. Can't wait to give this one a play. Well, thank you once again for joining us today. As always, we please ask you like this video on YouTube, BoardGameGeek, Facebook, or X. Leave us a comment on any one of those platforms, and we'll get to those comments as soon as we can. And also, folks, if you like the videos we do here, if you haven't been so already, we humbly ask you click on that subscription button, and even click on the bell to be notified when we drop new videos.

And also, if you like the videos I do here, I also post videos over my own channel. Over there, I'll do some unboxings, play-throughs, and reviews. Just a bunch of stuff out of my personal collection. I'll leave a link to my channel down in the details below. You know, I got fired from the transmission factory.

Turns out, I didn't put on enough shifts. Will somebody help me? I'm on my feet again, and I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, AND I DON'T know where I've been. I'm the head trader. >> [laughter]