I don't know where I read that Elder Sign is a Cooperative Deck Building game (you build your deck during the game) but reading the game's description on FFG website I fail to see anything mentioning deck building.

Is this going to be a pre-constructed deck cooperative game? if so... do we really need a third one? (Death Angel and LOTR).

From what I can deduce, this game looks close to 'Lord of the Rings', being cooperative and sending Investigators (Heroes) out to overcome whatever the game throws at you. The main differences will be 'Theme' - Lovecraft has been well tried and tested - and the use of 'Dice' - this mechanic has replaced cards before and worked. Wether another co-op game is needed, is a matter of conjecture. It seems to be the 'flavour of the year' at the moment. It is the trend. D&D spawned hundreds of role-play games - Magic did the same for ccgs - Dominion led the way in deck building. History teaches us that once a 'new' concept is born, there will be countless clones. Some will improve, some will fail, but imitations will continue until the next big inovation comes along to start the next trend. Probably like you, I will want to know a lot more about 'Eldar Sign' before commiting to it. Cheers!

Hello Rashley!

It's a shame because I was hoping that FFG would tackle the other trend going on (Deck Building Games) like Thunderstone, Dominion, Nightfall, Heroes of Grexia, Ascension and others.. FFG, as far as I know, never ventured through this road and I was guessing maybe Elder Sign would be their first but I guess it will be another coop card game but with some dice mechanic and different theme.

Cheers

yewsef said:

Rune Age is FFG's deck-building game.

What is confusing me at the moment is the fact that this game is in the 'Stand Alone' section. That implies a one off game with no expansions, but it has all the hallmarks of following 'Lord of the Rings' as an alternative co-op game with the prospect of additional 'adventures' later on. With all the delays on the extras for current games, there is obviously plenty of time to learn more about this before it comes out. Let us have one of those great 'Tutorial Videos' that FFG produce so well - and soon! I predict the speculation will go on for ages yet. I have plenty going on in my gameing scene at the moment, so I will patiently wait and see. Cheers!

I don't think that "standalone" means no expansions... Death Angel already has one expansion (albeit "print on demand") and Rune Age is very likely to have some. Presumably, Elder Sign can have all kinds of expansions with new characters/GOOs, etc., to go along with the Arkham Horror line. They may end up being POD expansions, but still...

Perhaps they will coin a new phrase like LDG - living dice game. Although there are cards to gain to explain the 'Quests' or whatever, I expect the expansions will feature new dice. Not easy to print on demand. Unless you print off stickers to put on blank dice. Not that keen on POD as things never 'look' right unless published to the originals standard. Look at NinjaDog's excellantly printed out scenarios and cards for LOTR, Ravenloft etc. They look magnificent, but I couldn't print them off and really make them look and feel like originals. The scenarios are OK as you don't shuffle those in with original stuff. By the time I have upgraded my equipment to get professionally looking, laminated cards etc., I might as well wait for proper expansions. I do appreciate the efforts of course! Cheers!

Print on demand means they print it as you order it. It's printed to a pretty high quality as close to original as they can get it. Just had the new MoM POD come through and it looks great on the same materials and quality of the box game itself.

This is a standalone card game with the emphasis on dice management with some card options. Definitely not a deck-building game. Figuring the odds of dice outcomes when combined with card play is key.

Grudunza said:

As is Arcana .

(Which has been under FFG's roof for over a year now)