Arkham Yahtzee: The Seven Gates

Arkham Yahtzee?

Arkham Yahtzee is my pet name for Elder Sign, the dice game from Fantasy Flight Games that shares a setting with the Arkham Horror board game and mechanics, with, well, Yahtzee.

Don't get me wrong though, this isn't a criticism, just an observation.

Having sat down to a game of Arkham Horror once for what became a drawn out and frankly tedious exercise in losing but, not understanding how or why, I was more than happy to trade in my copy of the board game for a copy of Elder Sign.

All-in-all, I probably ended up £10 down on the deal but, I have to say that I have had far more fun with this game than I could ever imagine having with its predecessor.

But what are "The Seven Gates" you may ask?

That's a reference to material contained with the Necronomicon by Simon, where by a person must pass through seven gates in the stars in order to obtain a higher state of being. Not dissimilar to the premise of The Ninth Gate, just more Lovecraftian.

In this instance however, I just thought that it would make for a catchy title for campaign play within this simple dice game and, that's about as deep as it goes in this one.

So, with 16 Investigators and, 8 Elder Gods straight out of the box what I have in mind is a simple serious of two on one matches with, all of the victors going into either a pool to re-drawn or maybe a Slobber Knocker style match up at the end until either all of Elder Gods or, all of the Investigators are defeated (unless of course at any point Azathoth is victorious and the world is devoured, which I think pretty much constitutes an Elder God overall win).

So a quick shuffle and draw later and our match ups look like this:

Michael McGlen, The Gangster & Mandy Thompson, The Researcher

V.S

Hastur

Carolyn Fern, The Psychologist & Kate Winthrop, The Scientist

V.S

Shub-Niggurath

"Ashcan" Pete, The Drifter & Amanda Sharpe, The Student

V.S

Yig

Bob Jenkins, The Salesman & Harvey Walters, The Professor

V.S

Azathoth

Jenny Barnes, The Dilettante & Joe Diamond, The Private Eye

V.S

Nyarlathotep

Monterey Jack, The Archaeologist & Sister Mary, The Nun

V.S

Yog-Sothoth

Vincent Lee, The Doctor & Darrell Simmons, The Photographer

V.S

Ithaqua

Dexter Drake, The Magician & Gloria Goldberg, The Author

V.S

Cthulhu