How to Play Elder Sign: Gates of Arkham

Game Objective

In Elder Sign: Gates of Arkham, investigators venture through the streets of Arkham, which have been overrun by unimaginable terrors after evil escaped from the museum. The veil between our world and others has become dangerously thin, allowing new Ancient Ones to emerge through eldritch portals, bringing deadly monsters and powerful Mythos effects. Players must seek new allies, spells, and items, and learn new skills to combat the growing threat. Time is short for humanity, as the clock relentlessly ticks towards Arkham's doom.

The game is a race against time to prevent an Ancient One from awakening. The victory condition is not explicitly detailed in the provided context, but the general objective is to survive and combat the growing threat.

Setup

When playing in Streets of Arkham game mode, follow the normal game setup, but with the following modifications:

1. New Adventure Cards: Replace the Adventure deck with the new deck composed only of the new Arkham Adventure Cards provided in this expansion.
2. New Mythos Cards: Replace the Mythos deck with the new Mythos deck, composed only of the Mythos Cards provided in this expansion.
3. Event Cards: Shuffle the Event Cards and place the Event deck near the Mythos deck.
4. Skill Cards: Shuffle the Skill Cards and place the Skill deck near the Item and Ally decks.
5. Membership Cards: Place the Membership Cards near the Item, Ally, and Skill decks.
6. Portal Markers: Fit each portal marker into a plastic stand and place them next to the Clock.
7. Entrance Token: Replace the entrance token with the Streets of Arkham card.
8. Modify Setup: Replace Step 4 of the base game setup with the following:

   4. Prepare Adventures: Shuffle the Arkham Adventure deck face down and deal three cards face up below the entrance token in a single row. Then, deal three cards face down below the face-up cards, so you have two rows of three cards. If an Arkham Adventure card shows a locked die icon, place the appropriate die on that card. Finally, shuffle the Other World deck. Place both decks face down near the Arkham Adventures rows.

The Gates of Arkham expansion components are marked with a specific icon to distinguish them from base game components. Some components are only used in Streets of Arkham game mode and are marked with a restriction icon, and should be removed if you are not playing in this mode.

Game Flow

The provided context does not detail the complete game flow (turn, round, or phase structure) beyond the investigator's Movement Phase and some Midnight effects. However, some interactions are mentioned:

• Investigator Movement Phase: During an investigator's Movement Phase, they may remain on their current card, move to any other Arkham Adventure card or Other World card in the play area, or move to the Streets of Arkham card.
• Resolving Adventures: When an Adventure card or Other World card is successfully resolved, or discarded for another reason, all investigators on that card return to the Streets of Arkham card.
• Streets of Arkham Card Ability: If an investigator is on the Streets of Arkham card at the end of their Movement Phase, they may resolve the card's ability.
• "At Midnight" Effects: "At Midnight" effects on the back of Arkham Adventures are not triggered immediately upon flipping the card, but rather if the card is face down when Midnight arrives.
• Multiple Midnights: In Streets of Arkham mode, the Clock can advance past Midnight multiple times in one turn. Each time the Clock strikes Midnight beyond the first time in the same turn, add a doom token to the doom track. Do not draw an additional Mythos card and do not resolve "At Midnight" effects again.
• Investigator Resolution Phase: At the beginning of an investigator's Resolution Phase, if they are on an Adventure card or Other World card with an event icon, they must draw an Event card and resolve it before resolving their Adventure card.

Actions and How to Play

The game features several mechanics and actions:

Movement

• An investigator may remain on their current card, move to any other Arkham Adventure card or Other World card in the play area, or move to the Streets of Arkham card.
• Investigators cannot move to Arkham Adventure cards that contain a portal marker, but they can move to Other World cards with a portal marker.

Streets of Arkham Card

The Streets of Arkham card replaces the base game's entrance card. Investigators begin the game on this card. If an investigator is on the Streets of Arkham card at the end of their Movement Phase, they may resolve the card's ability. If a game effect refers to "entrance," it refers to the Streets of Arkham card.

On the Streets of Arkham card, you can spend 2 trophies to perform one of the following actions and move to an Arkham Adventure of your choice:

• Flip 1 face-down Arkham Adventure face up.
• Discard 1 Arkham Adventure without a portal, monster, locked die, or investigator and replace it with a new face-down Arkham Adventure.
• Recover 1 stamina and 1 sanity.

Arkham Adventures

• The Adventure cards in this expansion are called Arkham Adventure cards. Game effects that refer to "Adventure cards" can affect Arkham Adventures, but game effects that refer to "Arkham Adventures" only affect Arkham Adventure cards.
• When a player is instructed to place an Arkham Adventure card during the game, they place it face down.
• The back of the top card of the Arkham Adventure deck is always open information. The color at the top of the back of each Arkham Adventure card (green, yellow, red) indicates the estimated difficulty (easy, normal, hard).
• When an investigator moves to a face-down Arkham Adventure card, they immediately resolve the effect printed on the back of the card. Then, they flip the card face up and end their Movement Phase.
• When a monster appears, it can be placed on any face-up or face-down Adventure card, following normal rules. When a face-down Adventure card with a monster is flipped face up, that monster is placed on any monster task on that adventure. If the adventure has no monster tasks or there are more monsters than available monster tasks, the monsters that cannot be placed on a monster task are placed below the bottom task of the card normally.

Portals

• During the game, certain effects, such as penalties, doom icons, or Mythos cards, open portals on Arkham adventures.
• Portal tokens connect the Arkham Adventure cards where they are to Other World cards with the corresponding tokens.
• Opening Portals: When an effect opens a portal or places an Other World card, take the top card of the Other World deck and place it face down below the six Arkham Adventure cards. Then, take two matching colored portal markers, place one portal marker on the Other World card and place the other on an Arkham adventure that does not contain another portal or a seal marker. Any investigators on that Arkham adventure are moved to Streets of Arkham. If players are instructed to open a portal, but no portal markers are available, a monster appears instead. If an effect opens a portal and there are unused portal markers, but all Arkham adventures have a portal or seal marker, remove all seal markers from the Arkham Adventure cards, add 1 doom token to the doom track, and place the portal using the normal rules for opening a portal.
• Closing Portals: When an investigator successfully resolves an Other World card with a portal marker, they close that portal. When a portal is closed, place a seal marker on the Arkham adventure with the corresponding portal marker. Seal markers prevent additional portals from opening on that Adventure. Then, return both corresponding portal markers to the supply. Sometimes, other effects will close a portal without resolving the Other World card the portal is on. In these cases, the Other World card is also discarded without effect and a seal marker is placed on the corresponding Arkham Adventure card.

Events

At the beginning of an investigator's Resolution Phase, if they are on an Adventure card or Other World card with an event icon, they must draw an Event card and resolve it before resolving their Adventure card.

Memberships

• Investigators can become members of organizations such as the Silver Twilight Lodge or the Sheldon Gang, usually by visiting specific locations.
• An investigator can only have one Membership card at a time. If they gain a second, they must choose which one to keep.
• Membership Benefits: If an investigator is a member of an organization that matches a membership task on an Adventure they are attempting, they consider that task completed without needing to assign dice or complete its requirements. If an Adventure is successfully resolved and a membership task includes a monster token, the player ignores the monster and returns it to the monster cup. If an investigator successfully completes an adventure with a Membership reward and is a member of that organization, they receive that reward in addition to the other rewards shown.

Skills

• Skill cards represent knowledge and experience. When a player draws a Skill card, they immediately place it face up in their play area.
• Skills remain in play until their effects expire, as indicated in the individual card text. Only the player who owns the Skill card can use its ability.
• Example: Scientific Training - Once during your turn, you may flip a die showing an investigation result to the next highest investigation result on that die.

Entrance Effects

• Some Arkham Adventure cards and Other World cards have Entrance effects. Immediately after an investigator moves to a card with an entrance effect, they must resolve it.
• Additionally, if an investigator flips an Arkham Adventure card or Other World card while on that adventure, they immediately resolve its entrance effect.
• If an investigator fails an adventure with an entrance effect and remains there on their next turn, they do not resolve the entrance effect again. However, if a different investigator moves to the adventure, resolve the entrance effect again for that investigator.

Split Rewards and Penalties

• Some rewards and penalties are divided into two groups by a diagonal line. When receiving split rewards or suffering split penalties, an investigator must choose which group of rewards or penalties to receive or suffer.
• An investigator cannot choose to suffer a penalty they cannot fulfill. For example, an investigator cannot choose a penalty that makes them lose a common item if they have zero common items.
• Some split rewards and penalties include a blessing or a curse. If not playing with the Hidden Forces expansion, players must choose the reward or penalty that does not include a blessing or curse.

New Task Symbols

• Portal: After all die result requirements for this task are met, a portal opens, following the normal rules for opening portals.
• Doom: After all die result requirements for this task are met, the player adds a doom token to the doom track.

New Rewards and Penalties

When a player receives rewards or suffers penalties, they resolve the following effects (if possible) for each icon that appears on the card:

• Skill: Draw 1 card from the Skill deck.
• Heal: Any investigator recovers 1 stamina.
• Rest: Any investigator recovers 1 sanity.
• Expeditious: Do not advance the Clock during the Clock phase this turn.
• Reprieve: Remove 1 doom token from the Ancient One's doom track.
• Clock: Advance the Clock once.
• Portal: Open a portal (instead of adding an Other World card).
• Remove Monster: Return 1 monster on an Adventure to the monster cup.
• Lost Common Item: Discard 1 item