Fantasy Flight Games

Horrors for Days

Published 8 October 2021 | Arkham Horror Third Edition

Horrors for Days

Announcing the Schedule for Arkham Nights 2021

Be wary, investigators, for something dark approaches…

Last year, we had a week of horrors that formed the Arkham Nights 2020 event. This year, we find ourselves faced with yet another terrifying event, but this time on an even grander scale. Arkham Nights 2021 is right around the corner, and this year it’s larger than ever.

This event will take place from Friday, October 22^nd through Sunday, October 31^st. We will talk about the two weekends in this time period (the 22^nd through 24^th and the 29^th through 31^st) in a moment, but for now, let’s focus on the tantalizing online events that happen between them, during the week we’d like to call the Week of Arkham.

To kick off the Week of Arkham on Monday, October 25^th, we will have a Share the Terror Prize Pack Giveaway. Simply share a photo of you playing any of the games in the Arkham Horror Files universe with the hashtag #ArkhamNights2021 for a chance to win an Arkham Horror Files-themed prize pack. As for what’s in that prize pack, we will reveal that at a later date, so stay tuned!

Next, on Tuesday, October 26^th, join your fellow investigators around the globe to tackle a special Cooperative Trivia Challenge. For this event, we will be livestreaming trivia questions starting at 6:00 PM CDT. All viewers will have just a short moment to answer each question, and every correct answer will contribute to a global score. If the global score gets high enough, you will unlock a number of prizes for all Arkham fans to enjoy!

On Thursday, October 28^th, tune in for a special broadcast on Facebook Live with MJ Newman, the lead designer of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. In this broadcast, MJ will take everyone through a whirlwind tour of the Edge of the Earth Campaign Expansion, with a focus on the characters and scenarios that can be found within. For anyone looking forward to Arkham LCG’s Antarctic adventure, you won’t want to miss this tantalizing preview!

Then, on Friday, October 29^th, a new batch of recipes from Arkham, Massachusetts will hit our website, expanding the culinary collection that we began as part of last year’s Arkham Nights festivities. Be sure to check out (and try out) these recipes when we unleash them on the world! (Note: If you haven’t seen the recipes from last year, you can still find them here!)

The Week of Arkham will have much more happening on each day as well! Be sure to check in regularly for a plethora of Arkham Horror Files-themed content scattered across our website and social media accounts, including puzzles, quizzes, memes, and more.

Arkham Nights In-Person

Last year was difficult for a number of reasons, and unfortunately we were unable to host any sort of Arkham Nights event in person. Thankfully, this year is different, and we are excited to announce that Arkham Nights is coming back not only to just Roseville, Minnesota, but in stores around the world as well!

In Roseville, folks can look forward to the Gamezenter hosting its Arkham Nights event from October 22^nd through October 24^th. Those of us from FFG will be there to collaborate with the Gamezenter on their activities and events. If you can make it, join us for things like epic multiplayer games for both the Arkham Horror board game and card game, a pick-and-play game library where you and your friends can play any game from the Arkham Horror Files universe (including the upcoming Unfathomable), and a late-night pub trivia event with some awesome prizes on the line! Be sure to check out the Gamezenter’s website for details and times.

For those of you who don’t live in the Roseville area, do not fret! For the first time ever, other game stores will be able to host their own versions of Arkham Nights as well! In the weeks leading up to the 22^nd, be sure to ask your local game store if they plan to host an Arkham Nights event. Each participating store will host the event in their own way, and they can hold it anytime between October 22^nd and October 31^st. Some stores may even have some official Arkham Nights 2021 swag to give out! Just keep in mind that FFG will not be participating in the events of stores other than the Gamezenter, even though we wish we could.

A Week to Remember

Mark your calendars, Arkham fans. With something happening every day between October 22^nd and October 31^st—whether it’s online or in-person—you won’t want to miss out on this year’s Arkham Nights event. Join us, and brave the horrors of the Week of Arkham—the world depends on it!

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Arkham Nights 2019

Published 13 September 2019 | Arkham Horror Third Edition

Arkham Nights 2019

Three Days of Madness and Terror from October 11–13

*Edit: We have added a full schedule of events near the bottom of this article. We have also added details for Arkham Nights 2019 events in Europe.

“I have looked upon all the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

It is a chill evening. You are walking past the graveyard when, out of the corner of your eye, you spot something dart by. Turning for a better look, you see nothing behind you, but you can’t shake that feeling that makes you walk just a little faster and the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Even when you reach the safety of home, you know that something in the air has shifted.

The time of monsters is upon you.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Arkham Nights 2019, the ultimate annual celebration of Lovecraftian horror and gaming, which will be held at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, Minnesota, on October 11–13! Tickets are now available here!

And for Arkham fans outside the U.S., don't worry! We will be hosting a variety of Arkham Nights events across Europe on various dates. On October 11-12, Denmark will be having an Arkham Nights event at Viking-Con and Sweden will have one at Science Fiction Bokhandeln. From October 30- November 3, Italy will have their Arkham Nights event at the Lucca Comic and Games Festival. Then on November 17, Spain will have their event at Game On Madrid. There will also be events in the UK, Netherlands, France, and Belgium. Keep an eye on our website for more information! We will post more details as they become available!

Madness Takes Hold

As in years past, you will be able to participate in demos and playthroughs of FFG’s Lovecraft game library during Arkham Nights, including Arkham Horror: Final Hour, Arkham Horror Third Edition, Mansions of Madness, Eldritch Horror, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Elder Sign, and more! Throughout the event, we'll be running a casual leaderboard for Elder Sign and Eldritch Horror. All your team has to do is grab a scoresheet from HQ, play through the game, and return your sheet. High scores will be posted live throughout the event, and each member of your team will also receive a prize ticket just for participating. Be sure to hold onto your tickets! We will be doing prize drawings throughout the event and results will be posted at our event HQ.

Not only will Arkham Nights 2019 feature playthroughs and demos of your favorite Lovecraftian games, the event will also offer you the chance to meet some of their designers! Returning special guest Richard Launius will be playing games with participants throughout the weekend, running the gamut from his original version of Arkham Horror to a brand new, exclusive scenario for Arkham Horror Third Edition, Gates from Beyond! There will also be opportunities to play with developers throughout the event, including Mansions of Madness with Amudha Venugopalan and Grace Holdinghaus, and Arkham Horror Third Edition with Phil Henry!

On Friday, you will also have the chance to participate in The Blob that Ate Everything, the thrilling Arkham Horror LCG scenario that swept through Gen Con earlier this year! Team up with investigators from around the globe to take on an otherworldly monstrosity that devours anything and everything in its path—and we mean anything! In this love letter to the B horror movie of the 1930s through the 1950s, the Arkham community comes together like never before, standing united to face Subject 8L-08 regardless of whether the team has four investigator, twelve, or even 96! Bring your favorite investigator deck and get ready for a mission unlike anything you’ve ever seen!

An Event to Remember

The fun and terror of Arkham Nights 2019 stretches beyond the games themselves to include a host of events that can only be found at this eldritch gathering. On Friday night, in accordance with Arkham Nights tradition, a drawing will be held for the chance to participate in a Card Council to create a card for the Arkham Horror LCG with designers Jeremy Zwirn and Matt Newman, which will then be printed and distributed before the event’s end. But this year, Matt may have something else up his sleeve for those who dare to attend the event… the only way to find out is to be there! Then on Saturday, you are invited to take on the role of your favorite investigator, eldritch monstrosity, or other character of the Mythos for our costume contest! Earn amazing prizes and show off your cosplay skills as you dive into the Arkham Horror Files universe with gaming all weekend long!

Beyond the chance to engage with the Arkham community and unite over bone-chilling games and events, attendees of Arkham Nights 2019 will also receive an exclusive bag of eldritch goodies as a thank you for making the journey to defend Arkham. This year, the Lovecraftian loot includes your own copy of the thrilling The Blob That Everything scenario, a satin Chaos Bag, a wanted poster for the ex-con "Skids" O'Toole who has skipped out on parole, two sets of Arkham dice, a newly-designed Arkham Nights 2019 deck box, an exclusive Elder Sign pin, and a set of acrylic tokens for Arkham Horror: Final Hour, which was just announced earlier this year at Gen Con 2019! With these mementos to remember your time at Arkham Nights, you will be ready to take on any horrors you may encounter in your future gaming adventures once you return to the world of the light once more.

So Much Madness, So Little Time

Check out the full schedule of events below!

Claim Your Place

The time for Arkham Nights is fast approaching. Secure your place and mark your calendars for October 11–13. Doors open at 5 P.M. Friday and the horror continues until 2 P.M. on Sunday. Study your Necronomicon, put on your favorite jazz record, and prepare to stand against the forces of the Mythos alongside bravest investigators from across the globe! We’ll see you there!

To attend Arkham Nights 2019, you can purchase your ticket for the event here!

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Gods and Monsters

Published 12 October 2018 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Gods and Monsters

Arkham Nights 2018 Begins Next Week

The sun’s light grows weaker with each new day as the shadows begin to lengthen, reaching to catch an unwary traveler in their grasp. A creeping mist rises from the ground and curls around your ankles, waiting for the time when it can tighten its grip and pull you to the realm of nightmares. The creatures that dwell just out of sight have been waiting patiently, and soon their moment will arise.

In one week, Arkham Nights 2018 will be held from October 19 – 20 at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, MN! We invite you to join in the revelries and unite with investigators from across the mythos during the ultimate celebration of Lovecraftian horror. Even if you missed pre-registration, you can still attend the event and register onsite!

Terrors Untold

At Arkham Nights 2018, you will have a chance to play demos, receive exclusive gifts, and meet the designers who bring your favorite Lovecraftian games to life. The highly anticipated Arkham Horror Third Edition will be featured, as well as Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Elder Sign, Eldritch Horror, End of the World: Wrath of the Gods, and Mansions of Madness.

The maddening event begins on Friday, October 19 at 4:00 P.M. To open the event, on Friday night, Kevin Wilson will be there to meet with investigators and sign autographs. Richard Launius will also be in attendance, along with his original prototype for Arkham Horror. You will have a chance to peer into the past, looking at where it all began, and then play a game of Arkham Horror First Edition with Launius himself on a giant game board!

There will be other play-with-designer opportunities throughout the event, as well as chances to demo and play through beloved games with investigators from across the globe. During the event, investigators of Arkham Horror: The Card Game will have the chance to play through The Night’s Usurper, the conclusion of the story that began at Gen Con 2018 with The Eternal Slumber. (To see how the investigation at Gen Con will affect Arkham Nights 2018, you can check out Matt Newman’s debrief here!)

The results that players obtain at Arkham Nights 2018 will affect all players of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, adding one of three possible basic weaknesses to a future scenario. Participating investigators will also receive a brand-new extended art promo card!

To kick off the event on Friday night, 24 lucky attendees will have the chance to participate in one of two Card Councils with developers Matt Newman and Daniel Schaefer where they will work together to design a brand-new weakness and player card for Arkham Horror: The Card Game! These cards will then be printed at Fantasy Flight Games’s print-on-demand factory and handed out to every attendee on Saturday. Also on Saturday, the hour arrives for you to don your flapper dresses, trenchcoats, cloaks, and pallid masks for the Arkham costume contest, beginning at 7:00 P.M.!

For those who cannot attend Arkham Nights this year, we will also be livestreaming several of the events, including Arkham Horror Third Edition, Mansions of Madness, and Arkham Horror: The Card Game, so even if you cannot attend in person, you can still be part of the madness! Follow us on Twitch to catch all of the livestreaming action.

In addition to the cards created at the council, each attendee will receive a gift bag filled with macabre mementos of madness, and just for Arkham Nights 2018, we have included two brand new items! As mentioned in our announcement article, you will gain an exclusive velvet bag with an eldritch emblem emblazoned on it, a collection of acrylic health and sanity tokens, a promotional character for Arkham Horror Third Edition and one for Elder Sign, and The Night’s Usurper scenario pack for the Arkham Horror: The Card Game. But beyond these implements, you will also receive an exclusive poster and playmat!

Investigators familiar with The Investigators of Arkham Horror may recognize the promotional poster for the haunting play The King in Yellow, director Nigel Engram’s greatest triumph. Investigator Lola Hayes is set to star as the regal and tragic Cassilda, but as the production seems cursed by tragedy and misfortune, it remains to be seen whether the play will ever reach the stage for its one-night engagement.

Then, in the spirit of The Night’s Usurper, the playmat included in your collection of arcane implements features gorgeous artwork reminiscent of the mysteries in Cairo. The 24” x 14” mat provides a high-quality, slip-resistant rubber base to display your cards in style, whether you're participating in a tense Invocation Event or summoning eldritch monstrosities from the comfort of your own home.

Pass Through the Veil

Are you ready for Arkham Nights 2018? October 19 is quickly approaching, so mark your calendars, brush up on your arcane texts, and steel your nerves to stand against the power of the mythos!

Arkham Nights 2018 will be held from 4:00 P.M. on October 19 to 11:59 P.M. on October 20 at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, Minnesota! Tickets are available onsite.

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Arkham Nights 2018

Published 20 September 2018 | Arkham Horror Third Edition

Arkham Nights 2018

Two Days of Horror and Madness on October 19 – 20

The heat and light of summer have passed away once again. In its place, the ghosts of autumn take to the streets, haunting the smoke that curls from chimneys and lonely fields ready to be reaped for the harvest. You cannot help but feel a tinge of sadness as the trees drop their leaves in a vibrant death throe of red and gold, and there is something else in the air… something sinister that you can’t quite put your finger on.

The wind has turned from a playful friend to a prowling imp, snatching scarves and cutting through warm flesh to the bones beneath. In the evenings, the shadows stretch to catch your ankles as you hurry for home. You can tell yourself that it’s just the season, that you’re being silly and there’s nothing waiting in the dark. But you know the truth. You know that the divide between worlds weakens with each day, and once the cold sunlight dips beneath the horizon, the creatures of nightmares will arrive.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that the ultimate celebration of Lovecraftian Horror returns with Arkham Nights 2018, which will be held at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, Minnesota on October 19 – 20! You can purchase your tickets for the event here, and read on to learn about the horrors and thrills that await!

Embrace the Madness

This bone-chilling two-day event is the ultimate destination for seekers after horror, offering participants the chance to play demos, receive exclusive gifts, and meet the masters of madness who bring the Arkham Horror Files games to life. At Arkham Nights 2018, you can celebrate Lovecraftian horror in all its forms, as the event will feature both classic games and new adventures. Here, you’ll have the chance to experience demos and playthroughs of Eldritch Horror, Elder Sign, Mansions of Madness, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, End of the World: Wrath of the Gods, and have a chance to look beyond the veil with previews of the highly anticipated Arkham Horror Third Edition!

You will also have a chance to experience the thrilling final chapter of a two-part scenario for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. This scenario, which began with The Eternal Slumber at Gen Con Indy earlier this year, has already been shaped by the results of the previous investigation, and Arkham Nights 2018 is your chance to leave your mark on the game. While The Night’s Usurper will have a wide release at a later date as part of Guardians of the Abyss, this event holds a special weight, as the final outcome will shape the future of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Based on the results of this event, one of three possible basic weaknesses will be added to a future product. Will you be able to lessen the blow for your fellow investigators, or will your actions doom the world to a terrible fate?

Dark Memories

Beyond the games themselves, Arkham Nights 2018 will also feature special guests Richard Launius (the original designer of Arkham Horror), the designers of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Matt Newman and Nate French, and more! But that’s not all—some designers will be leading “Play with the Designer” sessions and other special events. You will have the rare chance to play some of your favorite Arkham Horror Files games with those who created them, like the first edition of Arkham Horror with Richard Launius on a giant board.

Then, on Friday night, seats will be raffled off to design a card for Arkham Horror: The Card Game in a Card Council with Matt Newman and Nate French, granting you a rare glimpse into the deranged minds behind the Arkham Horror: The Card Game. The cards designed at Arkham Nights 2018 will be printed and distributed to all attendees before the end of the event, so that even if you aren't chosen for the Card Council, you can still bring a small totem of remembrance when you are relinquished to the cold and cruel world.

To commemorate your journey into the unknown, all Arkham Nights 2018 attendees will also receive a gift bag filled with Lovecraftian loot. You will gain an exclusive 6” by 9” black velveteen bag, emblazoned with an eldritch emblem, as well as a collection of acrylic health and sanity tokens, a set of Arkham-themed dice, a preview character from Arkham Horror Third Edition and one from Elder Sign, along with a deck box and a copy of The Night’s Usurper Scenario Pack for Arkham Horror: The Card Game before its wide release. These mementos may be all you have to prove that what you witnessed at this horrifying event truly happened—be sure to keep them safe.

The Portal is Open

Mark your calendars! The nightmare begins when the doors open at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, October 19, and continues until the final stroke of midnight on Saturday, October 20. Steel your nerves and prepare to stand against dark forces unlike anything you have ever seen! We’ll be waiting.

To attend Arkham Nights 2018, you can purchase your ticket for the event here!

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Nephren-Ka Is Born Anew!

Published 8 February 2018 | Elder Sign

Nephren-Ka Is Born Anew!

Omens of the Pharaoh Is Now Available for Elder Sign

“A fiendish and ululant corpse-gurgle or death-rattle now split the very atmosphere—the charnel atmosphere poisonous with naphtha and bitumen blasts—in one concerted chorus from the ghoulish legion of hybrid blasphemies. My eyes, perversely shaken open, gazed for an instant upon a sight which no human creature could even imagine without panic, fear, and physical exhaustion.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, Under the Pyramids

You’ve heard that the desert’s heat can play some terrible tricks on the mind. You desperately hope that the scene in front of you is one of those tricks, an illusion you can simply deny and forget. The air swims and shimmers all about the edges of your vision, as the sands before you bulge with the subterranean passage of innumerable slithering abominations. Spindly horrors with dozens of chirping, chittering mouths skitter between the yawning crypts that line your path on either side.

The entrance to the Lightless Pyramid is swarming with the awful minions of Nephren-Ka, but thankfully their attention is elsewhere. A booming howl, equal parts triumph and pain, abruptly bursts from every gaping passageway that leads deep within the ruins, and the gathered throng of monstrosities rushes underground. They vanish beneath the sand, and, in the strained and uncomfortable silence that follows, you almost convince yourself that it had been a trick of the heat. Almost, but not quite. You brace yourself for the descent even though you fear that you are too late, and Nephren-Ka has truly returned to Egypt...

The time has come to set out into the land of Egypt and attempt to stop the rise of the dreaded Nephren-Ka, the Dark Pharaoh from an age long since passed from the memory and recorded history of mankind. Omens of the Pharaoh, an expansion for the cooperative dice game Elder Sign, is now available at your local retailer or online through our webstore!

The Forgotten Seal Weakens

Banished from our world in ages past, an ill-fated expedition has accidentally begun to weaken the forces that once sealed away the otherworldly and brutal Dark Pharaoh. Based on the Dark Pharaoh expansion for the Elder Sign: Omens app, the investigators must find a way to stop the return of the horrifically cruel Nephren-Ka. Centuries ago, the people who suffered under this monstrous despot have wiped nearly all knowledge of his reign from the annals of human history, and now Nephren-Ka seeks to once more inflict his foul and unnatural tortures upon the land of Egypt and beyond.

Nephren-Ka strains against the bonds that once sealed him away, and the pressure of his presence is a palpable force on the investigators. As the Doom Track fills, Dark Pharaoh special adventures must be completed to keep the Ancient One at bay. The investigators will need to work quickly and carefully to gather the supplies they need from the streets of Cairo. Once they’re well-armed and prepared, the investigators will want to seek out the powerful Elder Signs locked away in Hidden Chambers deep within the bowels of the ruins surrounding Dashur. The investigators will need to risk their sanity and delve deep into Dashur in order to gain the means to stop Nephren-Ka, but they must balance that with the need to retreat to Cairo when the ruins prove to be too taxing on both body and soul. Traveling between these two locales will be crucial to the fight against the Dark Pharaoh’s return.

Ancient Power Buried in Ruins

While the expedition into the ruins may have caused the Ancient One to stir after centuries of sleep, there is still much to be gained by examining the clues buried within the archaeological site. The Expedition scenario card allows investigators to gain advantages by placing tokens won from their encounters. Researching the Dark Pharaoh through these ancient clues will perhaps uncover more about the source of his foul and unnatural power.

The original site of the dig isn’t the only place where the investigators can look for help. Powerful Relics can be found in the bustling streets of Cairo and the ruins beneath Dashur. These artifacts can increase the investigators’ chances when facing the creatures that have managed to slither into the streets and sands of Egypt. Relics can commonly be used to refresh your pool of available dice when attempting to complete a task or destroy a monster, and some of these mysterious items can be paired to unlock an even greater advantage in the fight against Nephren-Ka.

If you've already explored the dusty streets of Cairo and the foreboding ruins of Dashur, you can bring the power of Relics and the presence of Dark Pharaoh to your other Elder Sign adventures by using the Exhibit side of the Expedition scenario card when the investigators have returned to the streets of Arkham. The Omens of the Pharaoh expansion also features its own new Mythos deck, six new investigators, four new Ally cards, and three new Ancient Ones.

The Dark Pharaoh Rises

The people of Cairo speak in hushed and hurried whispers, the land surrounding the necropolis of Dashur feels ripe with foul eldritch energies, and the investigators must once more stop the looming threat of a horror thought long-dead! Are you up to the challenge of facing this ancient evil?

Pick up Omens of the Pharaoh (SL20) at your local retailer or from our webstore today, and see if you can stop the rise of Nephren-Ka!

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The copyrightable portions of Elder Sign are © 2011-2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Elder Sign, Arkham Horror and Fantasy Flight Supply are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc.

Wield Ancient Artifacts

Published 16 January 2018 | Elder Sign

Wield Ancient Artifacts

Relics Are Unearthed in Elder Sign: Omens of the Pharaoh

"He could scarcely tear his eyes from it, and as he looked at its glistening surfaces he almost fancied it was transparent, with half-formed worlds of wonder within. Into his mind floated pictures of alien orbs with great stone towers, and other orbs with titan mountains and no mark of life, and still remoter spaces where only a stirring in vague blacknesses told of the presence of consciousness and will."
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark

You had a good feeling about this jewel-encrusted piece of a scarab statuette when you bought it last night in Cairo. You had simply trusted that the merchant’s exorbitant price had been an honest indication of the artifact’s value. Now, you feel like a fool in the bright light of day at the abandoned dig site. The “jewels” look more like cheap, colorful glass, and doubt creeps in. Searching the ruined altar, you find the single brick with the stylized scarab carved into its corner, carefully break it open, and smile with satisfaction as an ornately enameled half-scarab tumbles to the ground. Gingerly, you take a deep breath and bring the two scarab pieces together. Instantly, with a thunderous crack and a burst of heat, the two pieces shatter outwards from your grasp. The air before you shimmers, and a circular hole now hangs like a window in midair. Bracing yourself, you step towards the portal, forcing your feet forward with the knowledge that this may be the only way to stop Nephren-Ka from rising again.

In Omens of the Pharaoh, an expansion for Elder Sign, the ancient despot, Nephren-Ka, seeks to return to his terrible reign over the land of Egypt and beyond. The Dark Pharaoh’s past deeds were so unspeakably horrendous that the survivors of his regime have tried to purge human history of any records of his rule. Mysterious Relics filled with eldritch power are among the only clues that the investigators have found in their search to stop Nephren-Ka. Will these artifacts be enough to keep these otherworldly threats at bay?

You can join in the fight against Nephren-Ka soon—make sure to pre-order your copy at your local retailer or online through our website today!

Power from Long Past

Though the expedition around Dashur has unearthed some truly horrible creatures, the means to defeat these denizens of another time may also lie within those very ruins. You might find Relics—powerful items that can give your investigators the edge to push back against the darkness that heralds the return of Nephren-Ka. Relics in Omens of the Pharaoh feature refresh icons that allow you to discard the Relic in order to add dice to your pool before you roll. For example, an unlucky player may find themselves faced with desperately trying to complete the Book of the Dead adventure with only two green dice remaining and The Dark Demon standing in the way of their success.

A player in possession of the powerful Sphinx Idol could discard that Relic to pull their two discarded green dice back into the pool. If they also happen to have unearthed the Pharaonic Mask, you could spend its power to pull the red and yellow dice into your pool.

Some of these Relics must be combined to unleash their full potential. Bring the Eye of Light and the Eye of Darkness together, and investigators can spend trophies to use these two Relics instead of discarding the cards, lending them extraordinary power as they take on the forces of the Dark Pharaoh.

Whatever Relics your team has at their disposal, you must make sure that you're taking full advantage of their power to battle against the Dark Pharaoh’s ancient menace. The strength of the Relics may have aided those who stood against Nephren-Ka in the past, and now they may mean the difference between life or death for the world.

Other Threats Among the Ruins

Though these Relics possess great power, the investigators will need to draw upon every resource at their disposal if they have any hope of defeating Nephren-Ka and the horrific creatures that herald his return. As Nephren-Ka readies himself for his bloody reign, other fell beings have managed to force their way into our world as the fabric of reality wears thin. The Dark Pharaoh will not be the only threat to slither up from the depths of the dusty ruins.

Alongside Nephren-Ka, the Haunter of the Dark, another of the terrible Aspects of Nyarlathotep, has emerged from some long sealed sepulcher amongst the sands of Dashur. In order to ward off the Haunter’s push to spread the influence of Nyarlathotep in our world, the investigators will need to give up one of their precious Relics each night at midnight… or face the consequences. With Relics being discarded in an attempt to buy time, the investigators will need to leverage the strength of new Allies like Professor Ezra Graves and Olive McBride in their battle against this particular threat.

Bring the power of the arcane Relics to bear in the desperate struggle to seal away this invasion by pre-ordering your copy of Omens of the Pharaoh (SL20) at your local retailer or on our website today!

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Hidden Chambers and Lost Knowledge

Published 2 January 2018 | Elder Sign

Hidden Chambers and Lost Knowledge

Unseal the Secrets of Dashur in Omens of the Pharaoh for Elder Sign

“On one side I could view the entire city as it sloped from the plaza down to the old river-bank; on the other side, in startling proximity, I was confronted by the richly ornate and perfectly preserved facade of a great building, evidently a temple, hollowed from the solid rock. Of the original workmanship of this titanic thing I can only make conjectures.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Temple

Flexing your fingers and cracking your knuckles, you desperately try to steady your trembling hands. From the little that you’ve learned, you know that the last sigil must be precisely placed on the door at just the right time, or all that you’ve endured this night will be for nothing. Blinking the sweat from your eyes, you try to ignore the sounds you hear emanating from other tunnels that stretch off into the dizzying darkness around you. A thin shaft of light travels at an agonizingly slow pace across the stone relief of the door. Finally, the thin moonbeam aligns with the single eye of the intricate carving, and you quickly jam the artifact into place. Immediately, you hear the inner workings of the mechanism begin to whir to life as the door swings quietly inward. A pale green light strikes your face and spills into the hallway. You take a deep breath and steel your nerves as you cross the threshold—this night’s work is far from over.

In Omens of the Pharaoh, the newest expansion for Elder Sign, the investigators must work to stop the rise of despotic and otherworldly Nephren-Ka as he seeks to break free from his eldritch prison. In our last preview, we discussed how the investigators can race back and forth from Cairo to Dashur in an effort to build up supplies and then take on the horrors that consume the area around the ill-fated archaeological expedition. As the investigators seek out any advantage against the encroaching darkness, their ignorance of their enemy may be their undoing. Though the expedition surrounding Dashur is what led to this disaster in the first place, the secrets that can be gleaned from the dig site could be used to seal away the Dark Pharaoh once and for all.

To pre-order your copy of Omens of the Pharaoh, head over to your local retailer or to our webstore and put your order in today!

Dig Up Powerful Secrets

One of Nephren-Ka’s greatest weapons is the world’s ignorance of the threat that he poses. The history of the Dark Pharaoh’s reign was purposefully destroyed in an effort to seal his horrific rule in the past. Now, the investigators would do well to try and recover some of that lost knowledge in hopes of finding some key to stopping, or at least slowing, this advancing doom. The investigators can use what they find in the ill-fated excavation to fight back by winning expedition tokens when they complete adventures. These valuable tokens can be used to unlock advantages in the game by placing them on The Expedition scenario card.

Perhaps you’d like to crush the masked monsters that torment you once and for all. By allotting an expedition token to the correct place on The Expedition scenario card, you can gain these pests as trophies instead of letting them terrorize your team over and over again. Conversely, the investigators could make midnight a little less ominous by using expedition tokens to let investigators gain stamina or sanity as the clock strikes twelve. Should the Ancient One wake into this world, the team could gain a brief respite from the onslaught by discarding a token dedicated to negating its attack.

The quest for knowledge has led to the very madness which you now must face, but gaining careful access to a bit more more information about the lost history of Nephren-Ka may be worth the cost. The expedition tokens that can prove so valuable can only be purchased or gained from adventures undertaken during your time in Cairo or from the occasional mythos card. Taking the time to retreat and study your enemy can help you gain an edge before you plunge back into the horrors that swarm the ruins of Dashur.

Power Sealed in Sepulchers

Once you’ve learned more about the secrets hidden in Dashur, the investigators will have to bring themselves to return to the ruins that now teem with otherworldly creatures. With the little information that the investigators have been able to cobble together from artifacts and hastily scrawled notes, they know that the key to sealing away Nephren-Ka lies in the Elder Signs that can be found around the dig site.

The greatest fonts of this particular power sit in specific chambers secreted about the seat of the Dark Pharaoh’s prison. There are four Hidden Chamber special adventures that can be unlocked to give the investigators a chance to gain a large number of Elder Signs.

In order to win these sigils of power from these sealed sites, the investigators will need to be especially resourceful. Where most locations are entered by simply moving an investigator to an adventure, Hidden Chambers must be unlocked before the investigators can enter and face the challenges within. Upon failing the test to unlock the adventure, players cannot simply discard and reroll their remaining dice. If an investigator fails to pass the test, they must simply wait for another chance to open the hidden chamber on their turn as the clock ticks ever closer to another midnight!

Entry to the chamber is only the first step on your path to reclaiming the powerful Elder Signs within. Upon successfully besting the lock, Chamber effects allow the beleaguered investigators to sacrifice relics and more to wield long-dormant arcane forces in their fight to stop Nephren-Ka. For example, upon entering the Chamber of the Sun, the investigator that has gained entry may actively push Nephren-Ka’s presence back to the other side of the veil by giving up a relic in order to remove a doom token from the doom track. You must complete the Hidden Chambers' tasks to gather the Elder Signs that you need to seal away the Dark Pharaoh, but beware the terrible price of failure in these long-sealed spaces.

The Faithful and the Fallen

There are not many who would tread lightly in these spaces that are somewhere between this world and whatever may lie beyond, but a few have learned to live with what they’ve seen on the other side of the veil.

Father Mateo has always been a devoted man of the cloth. Mateo felt called to serve a higher power at a young age, and followed his divine inspiration by enrolling in the small, but devoted, local seminary that had been a central fixture in his town for as long as anyone could remember. As Mateo grew into his calling and settled into his role within the church, he gradually felt some force had warped the faith of his peers into unholy worship. Praying for a sign, Father Mateo remembered that a missionary had sent along a particularly ancient text from his assignment in Cairo roughly one year prior.

The small voice that Father Mateo has always trusted has now brought him to Egypt, and he has faith that he will find the source of that which has corrupted his parishoners. Father Mateo’s unwavering devotion allows him to walk unscathed in even the most unholy of locations. Once per day, Father Mateo can ignore an Entry effect or discard three trophies to ignore the effects on the back of an adventure. Father Mateo is a perfect choice to take point on exploring the dangers of Cairo or Dashur.

While Father Mateo has followed his faith to Egypt, Calvin Wright has been driven to the desert by a darker purpose. Everything Calvin loved was taken from him, and in a moment of desperate madness, he made a bargain with a force he didn’t fully comprehend in order to have a chance at vengeance. Little did Calvin know, he was now in league with the very horrors that had taken his life from him. As the fog of rage and madness cleared, Calvin learned the truth behind his terrible deal. Now, he seeks some way to strike back at the things that have both damned and saved him.

Calvin has felt a stirring of the very darkness he knows too well in the heart of Egypt, and he has followed the wrongness to its source. Finding the other investigators trying to stop the Dark Pharaoh, Calvin now throws himself into the fight with little regard for his own safety. Calvin Wright can sacrifice any amount of sanity and/or stamina to restore another investigator. After all, what more can Calvin do than die fighting the darkness? As far as Calvin is concerned, he’s already dead.

Into the Tomb

Study the scraps of arcane knowledge recovered from the expedition and prepare yourself for the mysteries of the Hidden Chambers in Dashur. Gather the tools the investigators so desperately need by unlocking Hidden Chambers and using these long sealed seats of eldritch strength to strike back at Nephren-Ka.

Can you stand against the Dark Pharaoh? Pre-order Elder Sign: Omens of the Pharaoh (SL20) from your local retailer or from our webstore here!

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Cairo, Dashur, and the Threat of Nephren-Ka

Published 26 December 2017 | Elder Sign

Cairo, Dashur, and the Threat of Nephren-Ka

Nowhere Is Safe in Omens of the Pharaoh

“The moon was gleaming vividly over the primeval ruins, lighting a dense cloud of sand that seemed blown by a strong but decreasing wind from some point along the cliff ahead of me. [...] Soon it grew fainter and the sand grew more and more still, till finally all was at rest again; but a presence seemed stalking among the spectral stones of the city…”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City

You listen carefully, huddled behind some shipping containers in a dark alley. Whatever else the thing following you may be, it isn’t stealthy. You can hear it slithering along the broken pavement, dragging itself along the dusty streets. Whatever creature drove you from the ruins at Dashur seems to have followed you to Cairo. At least there were so many people around that you wouldn’t be alone in facing this grotesquery for long. You freeze as the familiar scraping comes to you from the mouth of the alley, and you hear the monstrosity pause for a moment before it continues past your hiding spot. You’ve scarcely caught a breath before you hear the sound of footsteps coming from the direction the creature had gone. Relieved, you step out from behind the crates… and freeze. Whatever is walking toward you is doing a very good job of pretending to be human, except for the face. Human mouths simply cannot stretch that way. As you turn to run, the slithering sound reaches your ears again, accompanied by what you can only assume is the creature’s perverse excuse for laughter.

An expedition into the lands surrounding Dashur has unearthed that which should have remained forever entombed in Omens of the Pharaoh, an expansion for the cooperative dice game Elder Sign. An ancient evil named Nephren-Ka, also known as the Dark Pharaoh, is straining against the bonds that cast him from our world, and it's up to a few stalwart investigators to stop this terrible presence from returning to Egypt.

You can pre-order your copy of Omens of the Pharaoh at your local retailer or online through our webstore today; then, read on for more information!

Shelter in Cairo, Danger in Dashur

During his reign, Nephren-Ka performed unspeakable acts that brought the entire land of Egypt to its knees. This monstrous ruler channeled otherworldly forces that should never have been brought to bear on the fabric of our reality. As Nephren-Ka once again gathers strength in Egypt, you and your fellow investigators would be wise to prepare yourselves before venturing into the heart of the Dark Pharaoh’s power and attempting to force him from the world once more.

In Omens of the Pharaoh, your team of investigators can travel back and forth between two locations in Egypt: the relative safety of Cairo and the terrifying lands surrounding Dashur, where the Dark Pharaoh stirs. Each location has its own set of Egyptian Adventure Cards with different rewards and levels of difficulty.

Cairo is by no means completely safe from the threat of Nephren-Ka, but it is far enough from the dig site that the Dark Pharaoh’s presence is somewhat diminished. Investigators can complete adventures in Cairo to stock up on clues found among the creatures that have begun to stalk the darker corners of the city. The Cairo entrance sheet also provides a wealth of options that may assist your investigators in the expedition or in regaining their strength.

The sepulchral excavations at Dashur have unearthed spectral horrors that grow in numbers and strength with every passing moment. Unfortunately for the investigators, the keys to defeating the Dark Pharaoh are secreted within these ruins. Elder Signs and powerful Relics are much more abundant in Dashur’s adventures, and your team will need to risk spending time among the ruins to stop Nephren-Ka’s return.

The investigators can always retreat to Cairo if Dashur is getting the better of them, but time is of the essence as the Dark Pharaoh draws ever closer to our world. The cost of the trip between locations ticks the clock one step closer to midnight, so plot your travels with care.

The Hand of Nephren-Ka

As the clock strikes midnight and the moment of the Dark Pharaoh’s return draws nearer, Nephren-Ka’s touch on the land will be felt through the barrier between worlds. These threats will loom over the investigators in the form of Dark Pharaoh special adventures. These tasks can be brought into play by a new icon on the Doom Track, or they could be called into play by a card from the Mythos deck.

Dark Pharaoh special adventures are a direct threat from Nephren-Ka himself, and they cannot be allowed to gain a firm foothold in reality. There are only four of these special adventures in the game, but they will always return, even after being defeated. If all four of the Dark Pharaoh special adventure cards find their way into play at the same time, the Dark Pharaoh immediately breaks free, and the beleaguered team of investigators must battle the awakened Ancient One! Savvy investigators will work to stave off the battle as long as possible by striking down the Dark Pharaoh’s forces whenever they rear their heads.

The Millionaire and the Butler

To help battle this overpowering evil, new faces are making their way to Egypt to stand against Nephren-Ka. One of the backers of this dangerous expedition is Preston Fairmont, a millionaire born into his money. After adding a particularly lovely piece of Egyptian origin to his own personal collection of antiques, terrible nightmares have kept Preston from sleeping. During his waking hours, Fairmont is consumed by the idea of traveling to Egypt and seeing the pyramids for himself. The only discomfort that Preston Fairmont has ever known is that peculiar boredom of the obscenely wealthy, so when the request to sponsor an archeological dig in Egypt surfaced, he saw a perfect opportunity to set his mind at ease while spending lavish sums of money to travel in style.

Even among the wealthy elite, few are able to truly enjoy being rich with the flair and abandon that Preston brings to the simple act of spending enormous sums of money. After all, money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy everything else, so that’s where Preston Fairmont focuses his energy. Preston can regain sanity or stamina once per turn when he gains a common or unique item. After all, nothing soothes Preston Fairmont’s soul like a good purchase.

Preston has also brought along his relatively new butler, Carson Sinclair. Unbeknownst to his new master, the piece that Preston purchased at the estate sale, which has now driven him into the desert, once belonged to Carson Sinclair’s former master. When the same bejeweled item made its way into the possession of Carson’s former employer, Carson watched as his young master slowly lost his mind, eventually chartering a ship to Egypt and vanishing alone into the desert. A faithful servant even after death, Carson has followed the relic and its new owner into the desert in the hopes of unraveling the mystery that killed his friend and benefactor.

Few millionaires remain wealthy for long without the help of a frugal and resourceful hand at some level in their household. Carson Sinclair is excellent at saving a bit of money here and there, and he reduces the cost of all of his purchases made with trophies, making him a valuable addition to the investigators as they gather supplies in Cairo and search for relics in Dashur.

The investigators must carefully judge where to spend their time while forcing the Dark Pharaoh’s presence from this world over and over again. Will the sanity of investigators old and new be enough to force Nephren-Ka from the world once more? Or will the Dark Pharaoh succeed in pulling Egypt and the earth into an age of darkness?

Explore the ruins, stop the Ancient One, and save the land of Egypt in Omens of the Pharaoh (SL20), a new expansion for Elder Sign! Pre-order your copy today at your local retailer or online through our website.

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Omens of the Pharaoh

Published 10 October 2017 | Elder Sign

Omens of the Pharaoh

Announcing the Omens of the Pharaoh Expansion for Elder Sign

“The Pharaoh Nephren-Ka built around it a temple with a windowless crypt, and did that which caused his name to be stricken from all monuments and records. Then it slept in the ruins of that evil fane which the priests and the new Pharaoh destroyed, till the delver’s spade once more brought it forth to curse mankind.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark

Despite the nagging doubts that plague you now, there is little chance that you could have possibly been better prepared for this dig. You had participated in many exciting and contentious scholarly debates centered around this area of Dashur and the relic known as the “Eye of Light and Darkness.” This was your area of expertise, and you knew that there was little evidence to support the hoarse ravings of the crazed old man who burst into your office following one such debate. He had rambled on about “Nephren-Ka,” chambers sealed in eternal darkness, and ancient faceted stones that whispered into one’s mind. Who would have believed such things? Now, huddled in the dark, you hear voices speaking in long-dead languages behind walls that have been unopened for untold centuries, and you wish you had considered the wisdom the madman had offered. For the first time in your scholarly career, you truly dread what you may learn.

An eternal tyrant struggles to return to life from beneath the scorching sands of Egypt in Omens of the Pharaoh, the newest expansion for Elder Sign, a cooperative dice game that takes a team of investigators into the dark corners of H.P. Lovecraft’s terrifying mythos. Based on the Dark Pharaoh expansion for the Elder Sign: Omens app, a team of investigators must travel to Cairo and join an expedition to stop the rise of the Dark Pharaoh Nephren-Ka. This dread ruler seeks to return from beyond the grave and continue his blood-soaked reign of terror. What otherworldly forces have preserved Nephren-Ka for all this time, and how can such a being be stopped?

You can pre-order Omens of the Pharaoh on our website here, and read on for more information!

Secrets Beneath the Sands of Dashur

Even with all the precautions that were taken to seal away both the memory and the man himself, the shadow of Nephren-Ka still lingers in the ruins near Dashur. Unbeknownst to the archaeologists, they have begun to uncover chambers that, for the safety of mankind, should have remained sealed and hidden for all time. Now, the Dark Pharaoh himself begins to stir, and the investigators have no choice but to continue to explore the ruins with great care, in hopes of finding the key to stopping the full return of Nephren-Ka.

As alien creatures emerge and prowl the ruins, your team of investigators will need to prepare themselves for the horrors that await them in Dashur. Omens of the Pharaoh not only includes this new terror, but a brand-new mode of play. The new Lightless Pyramid mode allows the investigators to travel back and forth between the relative safety of Cairo and the darker dangers of Dashur. Savvy investigators will learn the value of gathering supplies and performing some valuable research before venturing out, but shouldn't be afraid to beat a hasty retreat when needed.

The rulers that came after the horrific reign of Nephren-Ka decided that his name and deeds should be utterly stricken from the annals of history, lest some fool attempt to seize upon the same wellspring of power that fueled the Dark Pharaoh. Unfortunately, this precaution has left the investigators at a great disadvantage, and your team’s ignorance of the threat that they face may spell certain doom for the world. Furthering the research of the expedition’s archaeological dig will give the investigators a chance to gain some advantages against the encroaching darkness. Adding tokens to "The Expedition" scenario sheet will apply what little you can learn at the dig sites to bolster your chances of survival.

Stop the Dark Pharaoh

The rise of Nephren-Ka is imminent, and the investigators will need to work continuously to stop his return. New to the Omens of the Pharaoh expansion, players can gather powerful relics to aid in their fight. These artifacts will give the investigators a fighting chance against the darkness by providing them with a chance to reroll dice and other advantages.

No matter how well prepared the investigators may be, the pressure will always be mounting. Dark Pharaoh special adventures must be regularly completed in order to stop the Ancient One from waking. While staving off the Dark Pharaoh’s encroaching presence, the investigators can also risk exploring the long-sealed hidden chambers in search of elder signs. Even with new and powerful relics in hand, will the onslaught of ancient evils be too much for the beleaguered investigators? Will they be able to gather the elder signs they need to stop the return of the menacing Nephren-Ka and seal him away once again?

Uncover the secrets beneath the sand in the Omens of the Pharaoh (SL20) expansion for Elder Sign, available in first quarter of 2018! Pre-order your copy at your local retailer today, or online through our webstore.

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Set Course for the Sunken Shores of R’lyeh

Published 23 February 2017 | Elder Sign

Set Course for the Sunken Shores of R’lyeh

Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep is Now Available

“The Thing cannot be described - there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled. [...] The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident.”
- H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

The ship had arrived in the harbor on schedule, and, despite your concerns about this voyage, you are finally, decisively, making your way to the dock. You possess a healthy fear of the dangers that await, but you feel that there is much more at stake than Doctor Mason Phillips lets on. Amid your ponderings, you soon come upon The Ultima Thule rising sharply from the calm waters at the dockside. You can’t help but think of the huge steel wall floating in the water before you as a massive, petulant testament to humanity’s fragility. An enormous metal conveyance to take a small team into uncharted waters to combat an ancient and terrible threat that is barely understood. You fight the urge to turn back and remind yourself that every ounce of courage and cunning will be needed to stop whatever awaits for you in the watery depths of the uncharted waters of the specific. After all, there will be nowhere left to run if the crew of The Ultima Thule fails.

Embark on a journey to seal away an ancient evil that stirs in the remotest regions of the Pacific Ocean in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep, an expansion for the cooperative dice game Elder Sign. This expansion features eight new investigators, three new Ancient Ones, and a slew of new cards to help you navigate the tumultuous sea.

Deep Waters Hide Dark Perils

Based on the popular The Call of Cthulhu adventure for the Elder Sign: Omens app, your team of adventurers will board The Ultima Thule and have to rely on their wits, will, and the strange hum of an amulet said to have come from the lost city of R’lyeh.

After embarking on this mission, The Ultima Thule will be the team’s only safe haven, and the investigators will need to defend it from the constant onslaught of the Deep One Legion. You'll only be able to bring your party to the shores of the ancient city in one piece by advancing the Dark Waters track or by completing Special Adventure cards. Using these paths to arrive at the gates of R’lyeh will give your investigators the added advantage of The Ultima Thule as a sanctuary to recover from the horrors encased within the walls of the mildewed metropolis.

Your team must follow the amulet’s pulse with all due haste! If you linger too long and cannot beat back the slippery denizens of the Deep One Legion, The Ultima Thule will be overridden, and your beleaguered team will arrive in the muck and mire of R’lyeh with nothing but the wreckage of your once-proud ship. Check out our previews for more on the dangers of the Deep One Legion and navigating the Dark Waters Track.

The Amulet Awakens and R’lyeh Rises

Whether you arrive under your ship’s own power or your party is driven ashore, the amulet’s slow and steady pulse builds to a nauseating and insistent rhythm upon landing at R’lyeh. The artifact’s power will truly wake as it comes home to the unearthly forces in which it was forged. Once the city of R’lyeh has truly risen from the depths of the Pacific, the second phase of the game begins, and the Dark Waters Track is replaced with the Amulet of R’lyeh. As the amulet calls out for its missing pieces, a surge of arcane power will sap some of the investigator’s resources, locking the yellow, red, and one green die out of play.

Only by recovering and reassembling the missing pieces of the amulet will the investigators be able to regain the use of these vital items. The adventures that await in the second stage are more challenging, and the investigators will need all they help that they can get in order acquire the powerful Elder Signs that will allow them to seal away whatever horrors now threaten the world of man. Read more about the challenges that await within R’lyeh in our preview of the second stage of Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep.

The amulet’s call beckons, and new threats stir deep within the Pacific Ocean. Find your way to the shores of R’lyeh and stop the ancient evil housed within the city from invading and devouring this world in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep, available now at your local retailer!

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R’lyeh At Last!

Published 1 February 2017 | Elder Sign

R’lyeh At Last!

The City Is Risen in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep

“They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Twisted spires rise to dizzying heights, lit by an unknown source with an eerie green glow. The Ultima Thule is a mere shell of its former self, wrecked on the muck and mire of shores that sank beneath the waves aeons ago. The amulet is nearly whole again, but its maddening pulse calls out for its missing pieces.

Certainly the goal of the investigators throughout their journey has been to follow the amulet and their other clues to the lost city of R’lyeh, but once they’ve arrived, what then? On the shores of the risen metropolis, your investigators will face even greater challenges in Omens of the Deep, an expansion for the cooperative dice game, Elder Sign. In this preview, we’ll explore the second stage of the R’lyeh Rising mode, and we’ll see how returning home affects the Amulet of R’lyeh. Perhaps we will even get a glimpse at what ancient horror threatens to devour the world.

The Amulet’s Purpose

The strange force that pulses in the broken amulet has grown stronger since arriving on the outskirts of where it had first been assembled. When the investigators advance to the second stage of the R’lyeh Rising mode, the scenario card is flipped from the Dark Waters track to the Amulet of R’lyeh track. The amulet’s surge in power can both help and hinder the beleaguered investigators as they face a power completely beyond their comprehension.

When the omen token would advance, a member of the Deep One Legion is repelled by the amulet’s power, removing it from the game. If the omen token would retreat, then the amulet calls out to the city’s inhabitants, and a monster appears. Savvy investigators will quickly learn to choose their adventures wisely, wielding the amulet with skill to keep the Deep One Legion at bay.

At the outset of the game, the investigators are granted one broken amulet token. When the Amulet of R’lyeh track is first revealed, it will not only lock one green die, but also the powerful red and yellow dice.The only way to regain their poweris to acquire the extremely rare broken amulet tokens and use them to free your dice.And if that weren’t enough motivation for the investigators to pursue the remaining fragments of the amulet with all due haste, if they tarry too long and the Ancient One wakes, any of the amulet’s locked dice will be removed from the game.

The amulet’s fragments are scattered throughout the fallen city, and reassembling them will be no easy task. However, there are ways to mitigate this extensive search. If the investigators travel to R’lyeh in the second stage of the game by completing the Echoes of the Dream Special Adventure card, they’ll gain a major advantage by starting the second phase of their mission with an additional fragment in hand. If they arrive at R’lyeh by any other means, they’ll need to hunt down any remaining fragments in the second stage’s more difficult Pacific Adventures, get a lucky break with a Mythos card, or perhaps require a brave investigator from their team to sacrifice themselves at The Citadel to gain one of the precious fragments.

Even with the mounting threats in the risen city, R’lyeh also holds the investigator’s only hope of sealing away the threat: Elder Signs! Elder Signs appear with much greater frequency in the second stage of the game, giving your bold investigators a fighting chance against the might of the Ancient One.

Of Dreams and Nightmares

As The Ultima Thule nears its launch, Doctor Mason Phillips, the sponsor of the search for R’lyeh, makes an alarming discovery while he continues to enlist a crew:

“It is as I feared. The very worst of my theories appears to be the very threat that the expedition will face. I am working as hard as I can to equip these brave souls with information and equipment before they are sent out into the Pacific. The only way that I have been able to keep my sanity intact is with the assistance of my secretary, Miss Minh Thi Phan. She has been absolutely indispensable. I am amazed on a regular basis that she is able to locate people, places, and bits of my own research that would otherwise be lost to me.

I hired Miss Phan shortly before I began this project, and I initially had resolved to keep the nature of my research a secret. However, Miss Phan seemed to quite easily deduce my aims based on the materials and contacts to which she had been directed. Once she realized what I was studying, Miss Phan added herself to the list of the individuals going on The Ultima Thule entirely without my knowledge. When I inquired, incredulous, as to why she would wish to undertake such a dangerous journey, Miss Phan indicated that this opportunity would allow her to fulfill some unfinished business with a former employer, and left it at that. I did not feel comfortable pressing the matter further, but I am sure that Miss Phan will utilize her skills to run The Ultima Thule as a very tight ship indeed.

Miss Phan’s contacts strike me as all the more mysterious as she has directed me to a truly remarkable young man who has done more to further my research and stoke my fears than any other single individual: Mr. Luke Robinson. Mr. Robinson, or simply ‘Luke’ as he insists he be called in conversation, describes himself as a dreamer, nothing more. Luke claims to have the capacity to deal with dreams ‘directly.’ Mr. Robinson refuses to elaborate on the particulars of this peculiar skill set, but he has been able to corroborate remarkable information with a level of accuracy that astounds me.

Once Mr. Robinson had convinced me of his abilities, I provided him with questions where my research had left me at an impasse. If I am being honest, I had some inkling of the answers I might receive, but did not want to believe that my conclusions could be correct. Some days later, a wild-eyed Luke Robinson came knocking at my office door with such vigor that he threatened to shatter its glass. Mr. Robinson was breathless and perspiring, and babbled incoherently for the first few minutes of his visit. Abruptly, he regained his senses, gripped my shoulders like a vise, and whispered the one word I had feared to hear: Cthulhu.

Mr. Robinson had used my research and tapped into whatever strange sources to which he is attuned only to confirm the very worst of my fears. Cthulhu, the great priest of ancient beings which defy all attempts at human description, sleeps in the halls of R’lyeh. This great thing stirs, and I fear that our fragile world would not withstand its waking. Our only hope lies in the hands of the crew of The Ultima Thule.”

-From the journal of Doctor Mason Phillips

Cthulhu is just one of the three new Ancient Ones that the investigators will face in the Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep expansion. With a total of eight new investigators, the two-stage Pacific Adventure and Mythos decks, and new Items, Skills, Allies, and Spells, your team will board The Ultima Thule and attempt to seal the great darkness dwelling beneath the waves. Brace yourself for what lurks in the depths, and pre-order Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep at your local retailer today!

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Prelude to Terror

Published 31 January 2017 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Prelude to Terror

How The Investigators of Arkham Horror Can Shape Your Games

"Jim waited for the mourners to file out—all three of them. They were people whom Cassie barely knew […] but they had worked with her at the club on Rue Bourbon for the grand total of three weeks she’d been there. The bartender saw him on the way out and tipped his hat."
–Jim Culver: The Musician

As you may know by now, The Investigators of Arkham Horror is a beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardbound book of 264 pages. It offers you a deeper understanding of the Arkham Horror Files setting over the course of fifty-two short stories, each of which follows a different investigator and their adventures within the twisted dangers of an ancient mythos. And because many of these investigators visit the same haunts or find themselves drawn to the same mysteries, you'll find their stories fleshing each other out—even though they aren't directly connected.

We looked at some of the ways the stories intersect in an earlier preview, "Who Is Carl Sanford?" And we saw how a number of different investigators found themselves concerned by the political influence and strange activities of the Order of the Silver Twilight. In another preview, "Pulp Action and Lovecraftian Horror," we explored how the book's stories offer a clearer picture of what sets the Arkham Horror Files setting apart from other worlds and works inspired by the Lovecraftian Mythos.

But the truth is—despite all the entertainment they provide and work they do—none of these stories depict their investigators in the midst of their most desperate struggles. You know the stakes aren't as high as they could be because the investigators must all survive their adventures. They might be scarred, sure, but they won't be devoured or driven hopelessly insane.

Why? Because those horror stories are reserved for your games.

Setting the Stage

If it's noteworthy that the stories in The Investigators of Arkham Horror are full of pulp action and Lovecraftian horror, it's because they set the stage for the adventures you can enjoy in your games of Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, Elder Sign, Mansions of Madness, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, and our other Arkham Horror Files games.

It's only in these games that you'll guide these investigators through the adventures that could very well prove to be their last. The stories in The Investigators of Arkham Horror just set the stage.

Still, this is a world full of profound mysteries and unfathomable terrors; there's a lot of work to be done. Why would Jim Culver leave the jazz-filled streets of New Orleans for the sleepy, New England neighborhoods of Arkham? What draws Lily Chen all the way from China? Their stories address these questions, allowing you to better understand how they might respond to the cultish activities of Arkham Horror: The Card Game or the global mysteries of Eldritch Horror.

Similarly, understanding how Monterey Jack is already connected to the Mythos may allow you to experience his adventures more deeply when you play as Jack in Arkham Horror or Mansions of Madness. And you might gain more enjoyment from playing your games as Agnes Baker or Zoey Samaras after sharing their visions, as well as their feelings of dread, revulsion, and resolve. Perhaps, the next time you need to close a portal as either of those two investigators, you'll be inspired to greater heights of heroism and self-sacrifice.

This is what The Investigators of Arkham Horror provides—a deeper, and more deeply felt, understanding of the investigators you play in your games. After all, when you play any of our Arkham Horror Files games, you're embarking upon an adventure. That adventure is shaped by its events, of course, but it's also shaped by your perspective.

Investigate the mysteries of Arkham Horror: The Card Game as Federal Agent Roland Banks, and you'll enjoy a wildly different experience than you would as the librarian Daisy Walker. This tends to happen when you rely upon your .38 to get you through your struggles, rather than relying upon the spells and other forbidden knowledge you may have gleaned from The Necronomicon…

Thrust into Action

The men and women thrust into action in our Arkham Horror Files games have seen things they can never unsee. They learned secrets that changed them. And now their lives are full of maddening perils—and unwavering purpose.

If you've played Arkham Horror or Eldritch Horror or any of our other Arkham Horror Files games, you've already seen the maddening perils. You've chased cultists through the rain-slicked streets. You've uncovered foul rituals in the foggy gloom of a wooded hillside. You've uncovered world-spanning conspiracies. And you've dared step through portals to alternate dimensions full of wonder and terror.

But you've not yet traveled back in time to the moments before your investigations began. You haven't walked with Sister Mary during her first encounter with Arkham's supernatural evils. You haven't entered a hotel room alongside Carolyn Fern and startled at the discovery of a blue-black blossom atop her pillow—a flower that you know signifies mystery, darkness, and murder.

You haven't traversed Europe in the company of magician Dexter Drake, looking for the secrets of the spell he saw a street magician begin to cast in the Rhineland. And you haven't yet read the journal of Luke Robinson which recounts many of his adventures within the Dreamlands.

Soon, though, you may. Next Thursday, The Investigators of Arkham Horror becomes available at retailers everywhere, and you will have your chance. Delve into the stories of these fifty-two investigators. Learn what drives them to action. And you will gain a new level of appreciation for your next Arkham Horror Files gaming experience.

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Your Map to Madness

Published 26 January 2017 | Fantasy Flight Supply

Your Map to Madness

The Museum Two-Player Gamemat for Elder Sign Is Now Available

"Jones had casually dropped into the museum one afternoon, and was wandering through the dim corridors whose horrors were now so familiar, when he heard a very peculiar sound…"
–H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald, The Horror in the Museum

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that you can now enhance your games of Elder Sign with the Museum Gamemat, available now via our in-house manufacturing!

In Elder Sign, you and your friends undertake the desperate task of finding enough Elder Signs to forestall the impending arrival of an Ancient One—a dread being of such unfathomable power as to spell the ruin of human civilization. Your games see you thrust into combats with cultists and strange, otherworldly monsters. You'll confront terrors that slowly strip away your sanity, bit by bit. The whole time, you're racing the clock, desperate to gather your Elder Signs before the forces of evil complete their summoning.

And you do it all—or nearly all—in the Arkham Museum.

Hallways Full of Horror

The Arkham Museum curates one of the world's largest and most eclectic assortments of ritualistic and arcane artifacts. From its Koi Pond to its Medusa Exhibit and The Hall of the Dead, the Museum is full of Ancient Relics and Forgotten Knowledge. During your hunt for Elder Signs, you'll find your searches of these exhibits transformed into adventures.

You'll brush up against madness. You'll find Blood on the Floor and hear distant and disconcerting sounds echoing through the halls. And you'll want to make sure you don't get lost—especially since this is a place where if you take one wrong turn, you could end up in an alternate dimension. Due to all the energies it contains, the Museum has become a nexus to realms of nightmare and raw chaos.

(Click on the image above to view a larger version.)

With its detailed map, the Museum Gamemat brings this Museum to life on your tabletop. You'll discover the relative locations of the Gardens, the Great Hall, the Hall of Curiosities, and the Zoology exhibit, among others. You'll even find a hidden passage to a nearby building that's been closed to the public and a note scrawled in… blood?

In addition to its map of the Museum, the 26" by 26" Museum Gamemat inspires you to action with dramatic renditions of two of Arkham's finest investigators. And it reminds you of the dangers that await you; two eerie, crawling monstrosities lurk in the gamemat's corners.

A Ward Against Powerful Evils

The Elder Signs of Elder Sign are powerful wards agains the forces of evil. So is the Museum Gamemat.

Printed on all-natural, no-slip rubber, the Museum Gamemat protects your cards and dice against any imperfections or clutter on your table. You might not be safe IN the Museum, but when you play ON the Museum, your cards and dice will benefit from the sort of protections you only wish you could offer your investigators.

Pick up your copy of the Museum Gamemat today!

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Twilight Imperium, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Arkham Horror, Midnight, and Red November are © and ™ and/or ® Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Lord of the Rings LCG, Call of Cthulhu LCG, A Game of Thrones LCG and DungeonQuest are © Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Living Card Game, LCG and LCG logo are ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. The Lord of the Rings is ™ The Saul Zaentz Co. d/b/a Middle-Earth Enterprises. Call of Cthulhu is ™ Chaosium, Inc. A Game of Thrones is ™ George R.R. Martin. DungeonQuest is ™ Scanditoy AB. Pandemic is ™ Z-Man Games. Warhammer: Invasion LCG is © and ™ and/or ® Games Workshop, Ltd. Star Wars is © and ™ and/or ® Lucasfilm, Ltd. Fantasy Flight Supply is a trademark of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc.

Dark Waters and Darker Threats

Published 18 January 2017 | Elder Sign

Dark Waters and Darker Threats

The Ultima Thule Embarks in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of a black sea of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Another small wave breaks over the bow of The Ultima Thule as the beleaguered investigators gaze at the seemingly innocuous shores of another uncharted island. Silence reigns and tensions rise as the investigators row a much smaller craft towards the sandy beach and away from the relative safety of their ship. Maybe this time, everyone in the boat would return sane… or at least alive.

In Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep, a team of investigators aboard The Ultima Thule will need to think carefully about how they approach their search for the sunken city of R’lyeh. In this preview, we’ll take a closer look at how the first stage of the R’lyeh Rising mode allows the investigators to explore the Pacific Ocean while they gather items, spells, allies, and skills. We’ll also explore the ways that this intrepid team of investigators may make their way to the location of the lost city in the newest expansion for Elder Sign.

Driven or Dragged to the Gates of R’lyeh

After setting out on your adventure, your investigators have few clues beyond some scraps of whispered legend and the strange pull of the amulet. The Deep One Legion stirs in the inky brine, and your crew must take care as they gather equipment and seek out new clues regarding the whereabouts of the sunken city. In the first stage of the game, investigators must navigate the Dark Waters track by carefully managing the progress of the omen token, choose when to move to the next stage of the adventure, and solve the growing mysteries.

Doctor Phillips has sent the investigators on this journey in the hopes of locating the source of the nearly irresistible call with which the strange amulet pulses. One manner in which the investigators can chase down the source of this signal and approach R’lyeh is by completing Special and Pacific Adventure cards.

Special Adventure card are unique to each stage of the R’lyeh Rising mode, and completing these difficult adventures can move The Ultima Thule to the next step of your mission at your own pace. Completing these adventures could also win your party a mysterious fragment that, curiously, appears to fit nicely into the amulet…

These unique adventures are an efficient way to move your ship toward its goal, but there are many unseen threats hidden beneath the waves of the Pacific Ocean. In the Omens of the Deep expansion, Pacific Adventure cards are played facedown, so you won’t know the details of the dangers you face until you commit to exploring each Pacific Adventure card. The back of each card indicates its difficulty and has an effect that is either triggered at midnight or activates upon an investigator moving to that location.

Successfully completing Pacific Adventure cards allows The Ultima Thule to draw closer and closer to whatever resides within the ruins. The Ultima Thule must carefully navigate the Dark Waters track in order to arrive at the sunken city on its own terms in the second stage of the game. The omen token will advance or retreat on the Dark Waters track depending upon your success or failure in the adventures your brave investigators undertake.

Advance the omen token all the way to the right and The Ultima Thule can bring you near R’lyeh intact and hale. If the omen token retreats too far to the left, a denizen of the Deep One Legion will attack, potentially causing irreparable damage to your ongoing investigation.

As mentioned in our last preview, the Deep One Legion can overrun your vessel if you do not take enough care to force back the slippery horde. When four or more Deep One Legion monsters are in play, The Ultima Thule entrance card must be flipped to Wreckage of The Ultima Thule. Losing your safe haven to these monsters severely restricts your options for spending trophies on recovery and equipment, and, in addition to that loss, your investigators will be drawn to R’lyeh against their will. With The Ultima Thule in disrepair, your team will be forced into the second stage of the R’lyeh Rising mode whether or not they are ready to approach the city.

The Pacific Adventure cards may yield more items for your crew, but completing the Special Adventure cards brings you to R’lyeh more quickly and could grant your investigators a fragment of the amulet. Speed may also be of the essence as the numbers of the Deep One Legion mount and threaten your ship. The waters surrounding R’lyeh are considerably more dangerous in the second stage, so keep the Dark Waters track moving towards calm waters or complete the Special Adventure cards to arrive at the ruins of R’lyeh on your own terms!

Gathering Greater Forces

As the journey to R’lyeh begins to take shape, we once again turn to the journal of Doctor Mason Phillips, the sponsor of this investigation, as he works to gather brave souls for this journey into the unknown:

“The closer that I come to the send-off of The Ultima Thule, the more eager I find myself to part with this amulet. It seems to be working as a veritable magnet for strange occurrences and moments of coincidence that strike me as too convenient for comfort. I am, in this instance, making particular reference to the two individuals that I have most recently hired for the expedition into the Pacific.

Hank Samson was referred to my office for reasons wholly unrelated to my expedition. Mr. Samson was referred to me by a friend at Miskatonic University, and had arrived at the campus in an effort to identify the remains of a particularly bizarre creature that had been mutilating and evidently feeding on his father’s cattle. Mr. Samson curtly informed me that he had dispatched the unidentified predator by way of a few well-placed rounds from his shotgun. Ordinarily, I would have deemed such immediate and violent an action hasty, but, after hearing a brief description of the creature’s stature and features, I am sure I would have fled in terror rather than taking aim.

Evidently, my research into the city of R’lyeh has made me known in some circles as a local expert on the unnatural, and my colleague sent Mr. Samson my way when he could not be of further assistance. Mr. Samson and I talked at some length, and though I could not identify his monstrosity, he took an immediate interest in my expedition. In his mind, the innate strangeness of both my quarry and his are linked somehow, though I do not understand his reasoning. I am glad to have a man of his fortitude joining the crew of The Ultima Thule. Sometimes one must act when danger strikes, and Hank Samson is nothing if not a man of action.

The second of my newest acquaintances was even more a thing of chance than the first. While eating lunch at a cafe adjacent to the theater district, a woman’s constant low muttering at a nearby table drew my attention. Imagine my surprise to find that I was seated near the great Miss Lola Hayes herself! I issued a stammering introduction as I sought to impress upon Miss Hayes just how much I had enjoyed her performances over the past few years. More than any other actress, Miss Hayes seemed to me capable of losing herself in the persona of her performance.

I was so struck by this stroke of luck that it took me a moment to realize that Miss Hayes seemed to be quite upset. She was terrifically pleasant when addressing me directly, but slipped back into distracted muttering if the course of the conversation wavered even for a moment. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to ask Miss Hayes if she were currently involved in any upcoming productions, and, as though she had been waiting for just such a cue, she launched into rather bizarre story. Miss Hayes had recently been hired to perform at a private event held by a reclusive local artist. This artist had written an original piece in a foreign tongue specifically for the occasion, and, since performing the strange work, Miss Hayes had been troubled by horrifying dreams of towering spires and burbled chanting. One line in particular had stuck with her, and this phrase now haunted her waking hours as well as her dreams. ‘R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn,’ she intoned, and my blood felt as if it had turned to ice. In short order, I had informed Miss Hayes of the impending expedition, and she has resolved to seek her answers aboard The Ultima Thule.”

-From the journal of Doctor Mason Phillips

In our next preview, we’ll take a look at the second stage of the Omens of the Deep expansion and stare directly into the horrors that greet our investigators as they arrive at R’lyeh and attempt to seal away the terrifying creatures that rise with the dark city. And make sure to pre-order Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep at your local retailer today!

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Horror Beneath the Waves

Published 11 January 2017 | Elder Sign

Horror Beneath the Waves

Explore the Pacific Ocean in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep

“Never a competent navigator, I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars that I was somewhat south of the equator. [...] The weather kept fair, and for uncounted days I drifted aimlessly beneath the scorching sun; waiting either for some passing ship, or to be cast on the shores of some habitable land. But neither ship nor land appeared, and I began to despair in my solitude upon the heaving vastness of unbroken blue.”
-H.P. Lovecraft, Dagon

Dr. Mason Phillips has been given a mysterious amulet by the sole surviving member of an ill-fated expedition in the Pacific Ocean. The amulet beckons to the doctor’s long obsession with the lost city of R’lyeh, and he has decided to unearth the source of whatever weird forces resonate with the amulet’s jewel. Accordingly, Doctor Phillips has chartered a fine ship, gathered an eclectic team of investigators, and has provided what clues he can in order to help these brave souls face the dark forces that lay across their path.

Join the hunt for the city of R’lyeh in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep, an expansion for the cooperative dice game Elder Sign. In this preview, we’ll be looking at the vessel that will carry your team of investigators into the unexplored reaches of the Pacific Ocean, we’ll get a first look at the creatures that dwell in those waters, and we’ll read what the troubled sponsor of this expedition, Dr. Mason Phillips, has to say about a few of his new compatriots.

All Aboard The Ultima Thule

References to the legendary city of R’lyeh are few and difficult to decipher. However, since coming into possession of the amulet, Doctor Phillips has been utterly committed to the theory that the lost metropolis was engulfed aeons ago by the waters of the Pacific Ocean in a particularly remote and inhospitable region. In seeking the ruins of a sunken world, The Ultima Thule is your only refuge on the ocean waves. Any mission into unknown and unpredictable waters might be doomed from the start without a sturdy vessel underfoot, and while The Ultima Thule doesn’t provide as many comforts as you’ve been accustomed to in Arkham, it is still a vital base of operations for the investigators.

In Omens of the Deep, the museum entrance card is replaced by The Ultima Thule card, changing the manner in which your team will recover when they need a break from the onslaught of their adventures. Spend your trophies here to gather supplies, find allies, or rest your body and mind. However, bear in mind that even the best ship can be capsized by disaster. In order to keep The Ultima Thule afloat, the investigators will need to take extra care in fending off the slimy grip of the Deep One Legion.

Beat Back the Deep One Legion

Whatever evil stirs in the ocean’s depths has begun to rally its forces, and the Deep One Legion will rise up and attempt to overrun The Ultima Thule, robbing the investigators of their safe haven. The Deep One Legion monsters are norotiously difficult to kill. When one of these horrors is defeated, investigators must make an additional sacrifice of resources or the creature will simply slip to another location, awaiting a fresh chance to strike at your team.

The Deep One Legion surges forth from all sides as you move through these inhospitable waters, and it can be summoned by the Ancient One’s doom track, the effects of a Pacific Adventure card, or an an unlucky draw of the Mythos deck. The beleaguered investigators should take care to manage this swarm of creatures as quickly as possible. If four of these slippery denizens of the deep make it into play, The Ultima Thule will be overrun!

When the good ship has run aground, players must turn The Ultima Thule entrance card over to reveal the sad state of the Wreckage of The Ultima Thule. Your options for resupply and recovery become few and quite costly within the limited shelter of your ruined vessel, so ignore the threat of the Deep One Legion at your own peril!

A Harrowing Investigation

The one person who has certainly not ignored the threat of these creatures and the city of R’lyeh is doctor Mason Phillips, the sponsor of this expedition. As Dr. Phillips began to gather a few brave souls to man The Ultima Thule, he took a moment to record his first impressions regarding these new partners in his investigation into the origins of the amulet.

"The more information that I uncover regarding this amulet, the less I feel as though this journey is some mad impulse. In trying to track down more information regarding the inscriptions on this amulet, I have enlisted the help of a particularly resourceful librarian by the name of Daisy Walker.

Miss Walker has been an invaluable resource, unearthing ancient hide-bound tomes filled with subtle hints about the location of the city of R’lyeh, and I suspect she may have been conducting some of the same research that I have been pursuing. She possesses a truly remarkable mind, and I honestly do not think that Miss Walker has ever forgotten a word that has passed before her eyes. Unfortunately, I fear that her enthusiasm may be somewhat fueled by her affinity for works of gothic horror, and that her imagination may get the better of her at times. There are moments when I have witnessed Miss Walker gaze lingering on shadowed corners, as though she suspects something might emerge from the gloom at any moment. Regardless, her resolution to join the expedition is firm, and I am quite fortunate to have a woman of her considerable capacity accompany the crew.

The second member of my party gives me a great deal more pause, but I am hopeful that his intentions are as good as his instincts. In digging through some…let us call them 'restricted' archival materials, I seem to have ruffled a few of the wrong feathers. Deeply engrossed in my research, I looked up from my desk one afternoon and was startled to see a sharply dressed man looming in my doorway. Agent Roland Banks works for the federal government, although I have yet to discern what branch would concern itself with the files I had been referencing.

At first, I feared that Agent Banks had come to deliver some kind of retribution for the manner in which I had accessed those government archives, but I gradually realized that Agent Banks is as caught up in this hunt for the lost city as I am. Over the course of an hour or so, Agent Banks poked and prodded with careful questions, and he somehow maneuvered me into offering him a cabin in The Ultima Thule. I wonder what Roland Banks is hoping to find on this voyage, and whether his intuition is being employed at or against the wishes of the agency which he represents. I am not sure which would trouble me more…”

-From the journal of Dr. Mason Phillips

In our next preview, we’ll take a look at the first stage of the Omens of the Deep expansion and we’ll focus on the dangers that the investigators will undoubtedly face in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean as they chase after the lost city of R’lyeh. Look for Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep to be on sale soon at your local retailer!

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Omens of the Deep

Published 2 November 2016 | Elder Sign

Omens of the Deep

Announcing the Omens of the Deep Expansion for Elder Sign

“But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and earth might once more be ready for Them. But at that time some force from outside must serve to liberate Their bodies.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Scraps of text that tell of a great evil hidden beneath the waves of the Pacific have long fascinated your old friend, Dr. Mason Phillips. For a time, it seemed that he had put his obsession to rest, but, as those immersed in the struggles against the Elder Gods know, that which slumbers may one day awaken anew.

Dr. Phillips has now come into possession of a strangely alluring amulet. It is the sole surviving artifact of a previous expedition into a remote region of the Pacific Ocean that had met with a disastrous end, and Mason has written to you that the odd trinket “calls” him to once again take up his search for the sunken metropolis. The good doctor has enlisted a crew to follow the amulet’s clues, and he has asked you to join him in his mad oceanic quest. Though the legend of R’lyeh has never gripped you as it had Mason, the combination of certainty and intense fear in the tone of his letters has convinced you to join him on this dangerous expedition. Let’s hope you don’t regret leaving the confines of the museum...

The murky waters hide untold horrors in Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep, an expansion for Elder Sign, the cooperative dice game steeped in the lore of H.P. Lovecraft’s terrifying mythos. Omens of the Deep adds the Pacific Adventure decks, new Mythos cards, The Ultima Thule entrance card, eight brave new investigators, and three horrifying Ancient Ones. The addition of mission markers and an array of new spells, skills, allies, and items will help you arm yourself for this voyage into long forsaken waters. Based on the popular The Call of Cthulhu expansion for the Elder Sign: Omens app, players can now venture forth from the within the familiar walls of the museum and board The Ultima Thule to combat the Ancient Ones that have begun to stir in the depths of the Pacific.

The Slumbering City Stirs

As the weird glow of the amulet pulses and shines, resonating with an unknown source, your crew is drawn further and further into the unexplored reaches of the Pacific Ocean. Your steady progress will reveal new challenges as The Ultima Thule chases down the location of the lost city of R’lyeh. The Omens of the Deep expansion explores this through two stages of the R’lyeh Rising mode.

The R’lyeh Rising mode of gameplay features two stages, each with their own risks and rewards. In the first stage, you and your fellow investigators will navigate the Dark Waters track to explore the remote location to which the amulet has drawn The Ultima Thule. In the second phase, your team will assemble the Amulet of R’lyeh and collect Elder Signs to seal away the evils that inhabit the sunken city of R’lyeh, in an attempt to defeat the slumbering Ancient One. However, savvy investigators should beware of lingering too long in the dark waters or plunging too eagerly into the amulet’s mysteries! Each stage is fraught with fresh horrors, so tread with care as you seek out the secrets of the deep.

A Fresh Fear of The Unknown

The dark waters of the Pacific Ocean conceal countless mysteries, and these terrifying perils lurk just beneath these frigid waves. Only by balancing calculated risk with careful exploration can the investigators hope to seal away the deeper darkness that stirs in the lost city.

The specific contents of Pacific Adventure cards are hidden until some brave soul ventures into that region, though the cards hint at just how daunting the perils within the region may be. The investigators will encounter a variety of Entry effects that trigger when they reach a new destination, and must contend with difficult choices as they encounter split penalties and rewards for failing or surviving an adventure.

An Army Beneath the Surface

While R’lyeh sleeps, other denizens of the deep have already begun to stir and will stop at nothing to bring the Ancient One back to a waking state. The Deep One Legion is particularly tenacious. Even when defeated, these creatures will just slither to a new adventure and wait for another chance to strike unless extraordinary measures are taken to dispose of them. These formidable foes can also overrun The Ultima Thule, destroying the investigators’ only safe haven.

Though The Ultima Thule’s charted course is perilous and these foes are many, all hope is not lost for the sanity and safety of the those who seek the Elder Signs. Completing the challenges on the new mission tokens provides an additional way to spend trophies for extra rewards. The Omens of the Deep expansion also comes with new items, investigators, allies, and spells to be leveraged against the coming of the Ancient One. The depths of the Pacific are filled with fresh terrors that only the bravest can attempt to seal with the power of the Elder Signs in the Omens of the Deep expansion for Elder Sign!

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The Conspiracy Unfolds

Published 21 October 2016 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Conspiracy Unfolds

The Premiere of Arkham Horror: The Card Game and More from Arkham Nights 2016

"As I turned up the stinking black earth in front of the fireplace, my spade causing a viscous yellow ichor to ooze from the white fungi which it severed, I trembled at the dubious thoughts of what I might uncover."
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Shunned House

Just last weekend it was that hundreds of daring investigators booked their tickets and made their way by train, automobile, and aeroplane to Roseville, Minnesota. There, while the trees were just starting to shed their red and golden leaves and the remaining foliage bloomed like a quiet sunset against the thin northern air, these brave and unwitting dreamers began their journeys into the unknown, unfathomable, and otherworldly realities of Arkham Nights 2016 and the Arkham Horror Files Universe.

The affair was secreted behind the doors of the Fantasy Flight Games Center, the unassuming exterior facade of which scarcely provided any indication that the investigators within were about to uncover the deepest and darkest secrets of the terrible, extra-dimensional beings known as the "Ancient Ones" and their many cultists. But once the investigators made their way inside, they were confronted by an electric atmosphere, charged with games of Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, Elder Sign, Mansions of Madness Second Edition, and the world premiere of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Indeed, there were many leads for the investigators to follow in their pursuit of the arcane, and there were numerous highlights from the weekend's adventures.

The Premiere of Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The world premiere of Arkham Horror: The Card Game was, for many investigators, the weekend's highlight. Every attendee received a special early copy of the Curse of the Rougarou scenario and was afforded the opportunity to purchase an early copy of the Core Set.

This meant that, by Saturday, we had investigators from all corners of Arkham digging their way to the bottom of the mysteries of the Core Set's Night of the Zealot campaign. And this meant that by Sunday, we had already seen dozens of investigators devoured or driven mad by the horrors they had unleashed.

We tracked the results of these investigations throughout our Arkham LCG® Invocation Event, and of the twenty-two teams that dared risk their lives and sanity, seventy-two percent saw Arkham succumb to otherworldly terrors while a mere twenty-one percent found some way to save the city—and humanity—from doom.

We also collected a number of attendees' responses to the game:

FFG: What did you think of your campaign?

"It was nuts! Played through it twice and it was nerve-racking the whole time."
"Incredibly thematic, fun, great storytelling. Felt I was my character."
"Each scenario builds on each other to an interesting conclusion."
"Enjoyed that even if you fail, you still get a resolution."
"The replayability of the campaign is really impressive. Most fun I have had with an LCG core set."
"It really felt like there was a lot of mystery between scenarios. We were very unsure what would happen next."
"I found the campaign incredibly captivating. There were so many moments where someone's weakness was so perfectly appropriate for their character or what was happening. It also had that true Lovecraft feel of feeling like everything was spiraling rapidly out of control."

FFG: What was the coolest, most exciting, most terrifying, or most mind-melting thing you remember from your games?

"When the urchin Wendy took it upon herself to grab a bat and single-handedly bashed in the brains of the Ghoul Priest."
"Skids [O'Toole] becoming a werewolf."
"In the first scenario, Skids threw some dynamite in the Hallway to help kill the Ghoul Priest, but to keep Daisy alive he had to heal her first with some First Aid."
"The alternate methods of closing out the scenarios provided good co-op discussions and debates."
"Constant fear of drawing cards and drawing a weakness that could ruin everything."
"Pulling an auto-fail token and taking five damage and five sanity!"

FFG: What would you tell other gamers about this game?

"Highly recommended!"
"Very enjoyable, narrative card game that draws you in and creates tension."
"Surprised at how much [I] enjoyed it. Not as complicated as it looks."
"Your choices have lasting consequences."
"Think of it as an unfinished novel; as new ideas come out, the player narrative will evolve to encompass new cards and characters."
"Amazing! So much fun. It's tough, but some of the most fun I've had losing!"
"BUY IT!!!"
"If The Lord of the Rings LCG, or any other adventure game, interested you even in the slightest: buy this game. In fact, buy two copies."

The intrepid adventurers who attended Arkham Nights didn't just uncover this unique opportunity to play the game at its release—and with co-designer Matthew Newman—they also unlocked a hidden room in which designers Nate French and Matthew Newman were revealing the secrets of the game's design. Over the course of roughly forty-five minutes, they covered topics ranging from the game's original vision to its aesthetics and the ways in which its elements were developed with the player's point-of-view in mind.

You can now find these rantings and invocations online on our YouTube channel.

More Arkham Madness

While the premiere of Arkham Horror: The Card Game may have been the main draw among cultists and investigators, it certainly wasn't the weekend's only point of intrigue. We also hosted events for all of our other Arkham-themed games, as well as several tables of our The End of the World: Wrath of the Gods Roleplaying Game, which had plenty of Ancient Ones of its own.

Arkham Horror

Richard Launius, the designer of Arkham Horror, was once again able to join us, and he was kind enough to celebrate the game's longevity by playing several sessions at a giant-sized board. One of the teams won the game in three turns, and Richard commemorated their victory by bestowing them with gifts, including tokens and pieces from his original, thirty-year-old copy of the game!

We were reminded, once again, how fortunate and happy we are to have had the opportunity to work with Richard over the years.

The weekend also saw another of our massive To the Barricades sessions of Arkham Horror, with sixteen players joining forces against Azathoth, and designer Kevin Wilson stopped in to hang out, chat, and answer questions.

Eldritch Horror

After the recent announcement of The Dreamlands expansion for Eldritch Horror, we were excited to give attendees the opportunity to pursue the mysteries of the Ancient One across the world… and other worlds. We had preview sessions of The Dreamlands running with beta materials all weekend, and these sessions remained full and enthusiastic (and doomed) the whole time.

Mansions of Madness Second Edition

Finally, we had plenty of action for one of the year's hottest games—Mansions of Madness Second Edition. Developers Kara Centell-Dunk and Grace Holdinghaus joined players for several sessions that used materials from the new expansions, and despite all the different directions our investigators' efforts could lead them, we had no fewer than six tables of Mansions running at any given time.

The Portal Has Closed… For Now

By Sunday, those investigators who had not yet been devoured or driven mad accounted themselves fortunate to have entered the mouth of madness and survived, intact, to tell their tales—whether or not those who heard them would make any sense of their strange and fragmented blatherings. Ancient Ones? Invisible horrors that stalk the night? Cultists working their way into the highest ranks of the university and government? Worlds beyond our own, arranged according to non-Euclidean geometries that assail the senses?

Likely, these investigators travel the world, changed by their investigations, and unable to share them fully with the unknowing masses. As the autumn air grows thin and chill in Roseville, Minnesota, the leaves rattle softly along the streets. A light goes out in the Fantasy Flight Games Center. Arkham Nights 2016 has come and gone. The portal to madness has closed…

…for now.

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'Tis the Season

Published 6 October 2016 | Elder Sign

'Tis the Season

Celebrate All Month Long with the Horror-Filled Dice of Elder Sign

It’s growing colder outside. Darkness falls at an earlier hour. Fire-colored leaves litter the streets. As bats take to the skies in search of prey, spiders and centipedes creep indoors in search of shelter. We gather in cafés, libraries, and homes, enjoying the warmth not only of blankets and walls, but of each others’ company. It is the season of apples, pumpkins, warm drinks, costume parties, and unspeakable horrors.

Elder Sign enables you to enjoy facing those unspeakable horrors together with your friends and family—or on your own. The most accessible of our Lovecraftian offerings, Elder Sign is a fast-paced, cooperative dice game that can accommodate up to eight players. It transports you to the cobwebbed and vaulted corridors of the Miskatonic Museum, the misted New England streets of Arkham itself, and the frozen, uncharted Alaskan wilderness, all without taking up your entire evening.

If you haven’t yet tried to defeat the evils of Elder Sign, but are curious about their nature, or if you have yet to venture into its expansions, read on. What you learn here may help you in the never-ending struggle against eternal evil—and the never-ending struggle to find new tabletop games.

Night at the Museum

Full of ancient and uncanny artifacts from hundreds of cultures and misshapen, prehistoric bones from the farthest reaches of the world, the Miskatonic Museum is unsurprisingly one of the most haunted places in the haunted city of Arkham. It is there that your adventures in Elder Sign begin—and within the confines of that museum you will battle the Ancient Ones: the greatest evils ever known.

On the right of the Ancient One card is the Doom Track. When it is full, the Ancient One awakens at full power and unleashes unfathomable devastation upon us all. Your job is to prevent that from taking place by gathering Elder Signs, found throughout the museum. Unfortunately, your time is limited. Each player’s turn moves the clock forward three hours, and every time the clock strikes midnight, a Mythos card is drawn, which may advance Doom, mysteriously drain your stamina or sanity, or cause a monster to spawn.

You and your fellow players take on the roles of investigators who may not possess clean reputations or supernatural powers, but who are nevertheless capable of defeating Cthulhu, Azathoth, Hastur, and all their kind. You won’t be fighting alone, and you will be well equipped with deadly weapons, useful Allies, arcane Spells, and other strange tools. These tools may enable you to more easily defeat monsters, to regain sanity and stamina or, more critically, alter your dice pool and dice results. For truly, dice are the heart of the game.

To find the Elder Signs that you need to defeat the Ancient One, you explore the museum. On your turn, you place your investigator on one of the cards laid out before you, and roll the green dice, aiming to match the symbols on the card one line at a time. If you succeed, you’ll be rewarded with Items, Allies, or even an all-important Elder Sign. If you fail, your stamina may be drained or your sanity may slip away, or you may even cause Doom to advance, hastening the end of the world.

Of course, there may come a time when you feel that you have seen every exhibit, visited every office, and searched every dusty storage shelf in the Miskatonic Museum. A time when you think you know all the men and women in Arkham willing to undertake the terrifying task of combating the Ancient Ones. It is at this moment that you have only begun to comprehend the darkness that surrounds you.

Blessings and Curses

The Unseen Forces expansion unlocks rooms in the museum you have never encountered before, introducing over forty more Adventure cards, along with Ancient Ones who are only now threatening to awaken and investigators who have just joined the cause. You may learn that within the museum lie the stone idols and tomes of Celtic lore necessary to prevent Glaaki from rising. Or you may open the door of the museum lobby and find singer Marie Lambeau standing there, just come from an evening cabaret performance and ready to spend the night practicing witchcraft.

Unseen Forces introduces to the game two very dangerous dice: one black and cursed, the other white and blessed. If you become Blessed, through an Item or through succeeding in an Adventure, you gain the white die. But if somehow you become Cursed, you must add the Black die to your pool for every roll. It cancels one die result that it matches, causing that die to be removed. Putting the Blessed and Cursed dice into play doesn’t necessarily make Elder Sign easier or harder to win, but it does add another terrifying dimension of risk.

Behind Closed Doors

Despite your best efforts, the world’s festering evils are too great to be contained in the museum. In the Gates of Arkham expansion, they burst out and spread across this New England town, shambling through the streets, swimming up the Miskatonic River, nesting in basements, and even lurking beneath diner counters. In your struggle against the horrors, you’ll have to scour every corner of the city and open quite a few doors that you might prefer to keep closed for the sake of your own health and sanity.

Gates of Arkham does not allow you to glimpse the tasks ahead before embarking on an Adventure. Only when you have arrived at a location can you turn over the Adventure card and discover what awaits you there.

Tentacled monsters, wrathful cultists, and vicious rat horrors aren’t the only monsters you’ll encounter out in Arkham. Many of the city’s streets and some of its officials belong to the Sheldon Gang, a prosperous and well-armed bootlegging network. With luck, you can work your way into gaining a membership in the gang, and all the benefits that go along with it. The other major force in the city is the clandestine Order of the Silver Twilight, a mysterious and ancient organization whose members include men and women from all echelons of society.

With so many arcane forces simultaneously at work, it is no wonder that the fabric of time and space in Arkham is coming apart. Gates aren’t more than part of the expansion’s name, they are an important part of how it transforms the gameplay of Elder Sign, opening unpredictably in seemingly mundane locations like the university administration building and transporting whoever wanders there to frightful Other Worlds.

The Last American Frontier

One of the newest expansions for Elder Sign takes you even farther from the Miskatonic Museum, all the way to the last American frontier. In Omens of Ice, three ravenous Ancient Ones threaten the world from their Arctic lairs: Rhan-Tegoth, Rlim-Shaikorth, and Ithaqua. The only way to defeat them is to brave the cold and travel to the territory of Alaska. Your endeavors there take place in two stages. In the first, easier stage, you gather supplies in Anchorage and Fairbanks and perhaps visit an Inuit Village to gain knowledge from the tribal elders. In the more challenging second stage, you leave civilization behind and climb up into the wilderness, where abandoned gold mines fill the taiga and frozen corpses still litter the icy mountain paths. Only in the very heart of darkness will you find what you need to win the game.

Omens of Ice brings to life the harsh environmental and physiological challenges of an Alaskan expedition. You begin the game with a fixed number of supplies, and if you run out in the course of your journey, you and your fellow investigators begin losing stamina very rapidly. Storms can unpredictably arise in the middle of an Adventure, robbing you of supplies or bringing in monsters on their frozen winds. You can choose to undertake your expedition in Summer, when wildflowers bloom and sun shines far into the night, or if you feel that you are hardy and experienced enough, you can undertake it in Winter, when snow and ice cover the vastness, and the darkness barely relents.

Walk Among the Graves

The newest addition to your games of Elder Signs comes in the form of Grave Consequences, our print-on-demand mini-expansion. You won't find any new Ancient Ones threatening to destroy the world or alien landscapes to explore here, no, Grave Consequences challenges you to explore yourself and confront the darkness that lurks there. Fully compatible with just the base game and any of the expansions, Grave Consequences adds three modular decks to your games of Elder Sign, that you can add in any combination you like. The Epic Battle cards will increase the difficulty or grant a bonus when battling the Ancient One, and offer a unique challenge to our Elder Sign veterans. The Phobia cards give investigators lasting negative effects, increasing your investment in your character, as you see what horrors they are forced to face when navigating the great evils found in Elder Sign. Lastly are the Epitaph cards, which are drawn whenever an invesigator is devoured. These headstone-backed cards add extra effects when the unthinkable occurs, and could either be a boon or a bane to the remaining investogators in their efforts to stop the Ancient One.

October Nights

Elder Sign may be a dice game, but it is not for the faint of heart. You'll learn to dread the stroke of midnight and the terrible changes that Mythos cards bring. You'll learn that monsters often appear just when you think you are safe, and that those precious Elder Signs are almost always found in the places you fear most. You may even come to know the grief of losing an Investigator's life. Yet nothing beats the thrill of being able to defeat the Ancient Ones who spell doom for us all. There is no reason why you should not be the person to do it.

The Elder Sign Core Set is available in stores; its expansions are available both at retailers and on our webstore. You can also experience Elder Sign on your phone or computer with Elder Sign: Omens, available for iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. And if you are attending Arkham Nights, there will be plenty of opportunities to savor this game’s dice-rolling terrors.

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Arkham Nights 2016

Published 30 August 2016 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Arkham Nights 2016

A Weekend of Lovecraftian Horror on October 14-15

The days are growing shorter. The sun no longer rises high in the sky, and the relative safety of daylight is vanishing. In the darkening twilight, nameless things flutter and croak, hunting for lonely walkers and open windows. As the harvest moon rises, the walls between worlds draw thin, and eldritch creatures begin to press through the dimensions into our world.

In this spirit of this haunting season, Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Arkham Nights 2016, held this October 14th-15th at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, Minnesota!

If you’re looking for a place to hide from a hunting mi-go or simply hoping to recover some of your shattered sanity, Arkham Nights is the perfect place to be. At this exciting two-day event, you’ll have the chance to meet some of the designers of your favorite Lovecraftian games, play demos, receive chilling gifts, and purchase the brand-new Arkham Horror: The Card Game for the first time!

Two Days of Terror

This year, Arkham Nights will feature plenty of your favorite Lovecraftian games, both old classics and new releases. Arkham Horror: The Card Game will make its debut at Arkham Nights, allowing you to pick up your copy and play through the campaign for the first time at this celebration of all things Lovecraft. You’ll be able to catch a demo if you want to get your first taste of the game, and designers Nate French and Matt Newman will be giving a presentation on Friday night to talk about the design process for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. It’s the perfect chance to peek behind the veil at some forbidden knowledge!

Then, on Saturday, you’ll be able to participate in a thrilling special event for Arkham Horror: The Card Game with other attendees! Keep watching our website for more information about this event and Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

You’ll also have the chance to enter the haunted streets of Arkham through games of Mansions of Madness Second Edition. You’ll have the chance to play the game while taking advantage of the monsters, tiles, and scenarios introduced by the soon-to-be-released Recurring Nightmares and Suppressed Memories Figure and Tile Collections.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game and Mansions of Madness Second Edition may be the newest additions to the Arkham Horror Files, but they are by no means the only way for you to walk through a gateway into another world. Richard Launius, the original creator of Arkham Horror, will be in attendance, inviting you to trace the history of Arkham Horror by playing both editions of Arkham Horror to celebrate the game’s thirtieth anniversary. You can experience massive struggles with eighteen-player scenarios for Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror and even battle a new version of Hastur in Elder Sign that has been created exclusively for Arkham Nights.

Preregister for Arcane Prizes

For those attendees who preregister by October 2nd, you’ll also receive a collection of invaluable artifacts. First, you’ll find a 6” by 9” black velveteen bag, emblazoned with the symbol of the elder sign—making this bag the perfect place to store your chaos tokens for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. This gift bag also contains The Curse of the Rougarou, an exclusive new scenario for Arkham Horror: The Card Game that gives you the chance to experience a horrific new adventure before it’s released to the general public. You’ll also find the new version of Hastur for your own games of Elder Sign, and a collection of sixteen acrylic stamina and sanity tokens that can be used in any of your Arkham Horror Files games to track your dwindling health and sanity! (Please note: The Curse of the Rougarou scenario will be released to the general public through our in-house manufacturing at a later date.)

Only attendees who preregister will receive this arcane gift bag, so be sure to purchase your tickets before October 2nd. Then, mark October 14th-15th on your calendar, and prepare to enter a world of Lovecraftian horror at the Fantasy Flight Games Center!

Keep watching our website in coming weeks for more details about the amazing games that will be featured at Arkham Nights 2016.

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Grave Consequences

Published 14 April 2016 | Elder Sign

Grave Consequences

A New Elder Sign Expansion by Richard Launius Is Now Available

Jenny rounded the corner and entered the Egyptian exhibit. First, she caught sight of the mummies on display and the ankh symbols in their glass cases. Then she saw the nimbus of light glinting off the golden pharaoh's mask. It was as if a dagger had cut through her mind. Something about that golden mask struck her. Suddenly, she was back in front of the dreadful yellow sign and that gibbous, jaundiced creature. She felt her stomach sink. She couldn't see a clear danger, but she knew—somehow, to the core of her being—she was surrounded by the most terrifying of evils. Her mind reeled. Her heart raced. She couldn't breathe…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that Grave Consequences, a new expansion for Elder Sign, is now available. Pick up your copy at your local retailer or through our webstore!

Designed by Richard Launius, the creator of Arkham Horror, Grave Consequences introduces fifty new cards that increase the challenge and drama of your Elder Sign adventures. More than that, though, they immerse you more deeply into the world and allow you to connect more fully with the role of the investigator you're playing.

Phobias, Epitaphs, and Epic Battles

The cards from Grave Consequences are divided into three modular decks: Phobia, Epic Battle, and Epitaph. These decks and their cards can be used together or separately, and they're all fully compatible with the core game, as well as all of its expansions.

Phobia cards give new meaning to the sanity-draining challenges of Elder Sign, eating away at your mental health every time their triggers are met. To the external challenges presented by monsters, cultists, and otherworldly terrors, Phobias add a compelling, new internal dimension.

Epitaph cards ensure that your fallen investigator's contributions will be remembered—whether for good or for ill. Marked by the tombstone on their backs, these cards introduce random effects whenever an investigator is devoured. Your Epitaph may heal the investigators' sanity and stamina, or it may lead monsters onto their trail.

Epic Battle cards greatly amplify the difficulty and danger of your battles with any of the game's Ancient Ones. Each round, they exert the Ancient One's chaotic influence over the battle, warping your reality and altering the rules, changing the order in which you attack, and adding new measures of surprise and horror.

Whether you incorporate one, two, or all three of these modular decks into your games, you'll find the psychological and supernatural aspects of Arkham and Elder Sign brought to life more fully than ever before. You'll feel more of your investigator's angst and anxiety. You'll travel through a world forever changed by the lives of those who perish. And you'll experience the true, awesome power of the elder gods.

An Interview with Richard Launius

To gain a better understanding of how Grave Consequences changes the nature of your Elder Sign experience, we spoke with the expansion's designer, Richard Launius.

FFG: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. Let's start by addressing the ways you hoped Grave Consequences would fit in with your favorite aspects of Elder Sign.

Richard Launius: What I like best about Elder Sign is that it recreates the Arkham adventures in a quicker way. For me, Grave Consequences fits right in because it expands the story and mystery elements of the game.

FFG: In your mind, what makes an Arkham adventure?

Richard Launius: I am talking about the whole experience—the adventures, the characters, the exploration, the mystery, and the ultimate conflict between brave adventurers and the horrors that await. I like how Grave Consequences makes it possible for your characters to take on phobias that play out in the game and your character, and I like the way the game will craft a story around that. I also like how the death of a character will now feel more substantial with the way the Epitaph cards play, and I like how the final battles will shift and flow and become more of a story.

FFG: Of course, they're all your babies, but do you have a favorite among the expansion's new mechanics?

Richard Launius, designer of Arkham Horror and Elder Sign.

Richard Launius: I love the Phobias best. They become something that is purely Lovecraftian and fun to play as well. In reality, though, I love all parts of this expansion because it seamlessly adds story throughout the game and can be used just as easily in the Museum, the Gates of Arkham, and the Omens of Ice. Wherever your adventures take place, these new decks add more story and depth to your play experience.

FFG: It's clear that you really appreciate the story elements of the game. Do you see Grave Consequences almost as a roleplaying-focused expansion to the game?

Richard Launius: To some extent, yes. You gain a greater ownership of your character, and the character develops more as the game goes on… or, at least, as they fall deeper into the insanity of the mythos.

FFG: We have to ask—with all the investigators that have been added to the game through its different expansions, do you have a favorite that you like to play? Or a favorite team of investigators?

Richard Launius: I am really old school. Joe Diamond is the first investigator I created for Arkham Horror, and Jenny Barnes is the second; they forever remain my favorite characters to play.

FFG: Anything else you'd like to share with fans at this time?

Richard Launius: One other thing I really like about this expansion is the Epitaph cards. It is a silly thing really, but I like looking over at the part of the table where the Epitaphs and their tombstone designs sit with the character tokens residing on them. I like how they visualize the sacrifices the different investigators made to keep this world safe from the ever-impending doom of the mythos. It's just another fun aspect this expansion brings to imaginations like mine.

FFG: One last question, then, in summary. Would you say it's fair to look at Grave Consequences in some ways as a counterpart to the larger story driven expansions, like Omens of Ice, where it's not about the shape of the overall journey, but it's more about your personal journey—your investigators' personal experiences in the terrifying Lovecraftian world of Arkham?

Richard Launius: Absolutely. This expansion makes it more personal to the investigators and amplifies the excitement and mystery of the game. Insanity takes on a behavior, death results in consequences, and the final battle becomes epic—the stuff of blockbuster movies.

All the Madness of Your Own Personal Blockbuster

Pyschological thriller? Epic monster flick? Or both? Take your games of Elder Sign to new, deeper dimensions of peril, Paranoia, and immersive gameplay experiences with the Grave Consequences expansion by Richard Launius.

Fully compatible with the Core Set and each expansion, Grave Consequences adds new twists, new trials, and new terrors to the classic Elder Sign experience. Pick up your copy today and lose yourself to the madness!

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FFG: What did you think of your campaign?

FFG: What was the coolest, most exciting, most terrifying, or most mind-melting thing you remember from your games?