# Elder Sign: Omens of the Pharaoh ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2018 - **BGG Rating**: 8.0 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 1-8 (Best with: 1) - **Duration**: 60-120 min - **Weight**: 3.18 / 5 - **Designers**: Dane Beltrami - **Artists**: Grzegorz Bobrowski - **Publishers**: ADC Blackfire Entertainment, Edge Entertainment, Fantasy Flight Games, Galakta, Heidelberger Spieleverlag - **Categories**: Dice, Expansion for Base-game, Horror - **Mechanics**: Cooperative Game, Dice Rolling ## Verdict If you enjoy Elder Sign and want more Lovecraftian mystery with an Egyptian twist, this expansion is for you! Get ready to face a zombie pharaoh and roll a lot of dice.More cosmic horror and Egypt!Engaging thematic expansionCooperative with extra challengeGreat for Elder Sign fansRequires the base game Elder SignModerate language dependencyMore dice rollingRECOMMENDED ## Description Get your dice and amulets ready, folks! Elder Sign: Omens of the Pharaoh is that expansion that makes us dive deep into the mysteries of ancient Egypt, straight into the dark universe of H.P. Lovecraft. The deal here is that a wicked pharaoh, Nephren-Ka, is trying to return from the afterlife to spread terror again. And guess what? We, as a team of brave (or not so brave!) investigators, need to go to Cairo to sort this out before it's too late. The mission is clear: prevent the resurrection of this ancient tyrant who has been preserved by sinister forces in the scorching sands. It's a cooperative game, so unity is strength! You'll be rolling a lot of dice to get the right symbols, face dangers, and try to unravel how to stop this cosmic threat. The atmosphere is heavy, with that Lovecraftian horror touch we love, mixing exploration, mystery, and the constant feeling that something terrible is about to happen. If you already enjoy Elder Sign and want more challenge and an engaging story, this expansion brings an epic new chapter to your collection. Prepare yourself for a tense adventure where every dice roll can mean salvation or doom! ## How to Play Game Objective In Elder Sign: Omens of the Pharaoh, investigators are drawn to the deserts of Egypt to confront an ancient evil threatening to reawaken. In the hidden chambers of the Pyramid of Lightless, the Dark Pharaoh (Nephren-Ka) is stirring, seeking to return to his former glory. The primary objective is to defeat the Dark Pharaoh and prevent him from returning to his reign of blood. Setup When playing the Pyramid of Lightless game mode, follow the setup for a normal game of Elder Sign, with the following modifications: Entrance: Replace the entrance sheet with the Omens of the Pharaoh entrance card. Place it with the "Cairo" side face up. The Expedition: Place the "The Expedition" scenario sheet near the play area. Then, place the eight expedition tokens near the "The Expedition" scenario sheet. Ancient One Selection: Choose any Ancient One to challenge. For your first game in the Pyramid of Lightless, it is recommended to play with one of the new Ancient Ones included in Omens of the Pharaoh. New Cards: Combine the Omens of the Pharaoh Ally cards with the Elder Sign Ally deck and any other expansions in play. Shuffle the new Relic cards and place them near the other cards. Add Monsters: Add the new standard monster token to the monster cup. Then, add all mask monsters, including those from the Elder Sign base game and any other expansions in play, to the monster cup. Important Note: If playing against the Nyarlathotep version from Omens of the Pharaoh, follow the instructions for mask monsters on Nyarlathotep's Ancient One card. New Adventure Cards: Separate the new Egyptian Adventure cards by stage and shuffle each stage separately to form a Stage I "Cairo" deck and a Stage II "Dashur" deck. Then, replace the Elder Sign Adventure deck with the two new decks composed only of the new Egyptian Adventure cards provided in this expansion. Be sure to include the Hidden Chamber special adventures in the Stage II "Dashur" deck. Modify Setup: Replace Step 4 of the base game setup with the following: Prepare Adventures: Set the Stage II deck aside and shuffle the Stage I deck under the table. Then, deal three face-up Stage I cards below the entrance card in a single row and three face-down cards below the face-up cards, so you have two rows of three cards. Finally, shuffle the Other World deck and place it and the Stage I deck near the two rows of adventures. If an Adventure card shows a locked die icon, place the appropriate die on that card. Dark Pharaoh Special Adventures: Shuffle the four Dark Pharaoh Special Adventure cards together and place them near the Adventure decks. New Mythos Cards: Replace the Mythos Card deck with a new deck composed only of the Omens of the Pharaoh Mythos Cards. Game Flow Refer to the manual for details on this section. Actions and How to Play The Pyramid of Lightless game mode introduces new rules and mechanics: Cairo and Dashur The new "Cairo/Dashur" entrance card replaces all other entrance cards. The game begins with the "Cairo" side face up. An investigator who starts their Clock phase on the entrance card can spend trophies for various effects, including flipping the entrance to travel to the other side. During an investigator's Movement phase, they can remain on their current card, move to another Egyptian Adventure card, Other World, or Special Adventure in the play area, or move to the entrance card. When an Adventure card or Other World is successfully resolved or discarded, all investigators on that card return to the face-up side of the entrance card. If a game effect refers to "the entrance," it refers to either side of the entrance card (Cairo or Dashur, whichever is face up). If an investigator is on either side of the entrance card at the end of their Movement phase, they skip their Resolution phase and proceed directly to their Clock phase. Using the Entrance Card Each side of the entrance card is unique. During the Clock phase, an investigator in "Cairo" or "Dashur" can, instead of resolving another option, advance the clock to flip the entrance card to the other side. Each side of the entrance card has different options for spending trophies and also affects which deck Adventure cards are drawn from. When an investigator successfully resolves or discards an Adventure card in play, they replace it with the top card of the Adventure deck that matches the face-up side of the entrance. If the "Cairo" side of the entrance is face up, adventures are drawn from the Stage I "Cairo" Egyptian Adventure deck. If the "Dashur" side of the entrance is face up, adventures are drawn from the Stage II "Dashur" Egyptian Adventure deck. Investigators must gather supplies in Cairo, as supplies in Dashur are scarce. However, investigators cannot ignore Dashur for too long, as the Elder Signs needed to win the game are located in Dashur. Mask Monsters Mask monsters represent various aspects of Nyarlathotep and are often very difficult to defeat. In the Pyramid of Lightless game mode, all mask monsters are always added to the monster cup during setup and can appear when drawn from the cup. Mask monsters can be identified by the mask icon on the right side of the back of the monster token. The Expedition Investigators have the power of the expedition at their disposal through the use of the "The Expedition" scenario sheet. Various game effects and rewards allow investigators to gain expedition tokens. When an investigator gains an expedition token, they choose an empty space on the "The Expedition" scenario sheet and place the expedition token in that space. As long as an expedition token occupies a space, investigators gain access to the effect indicated by that space. Some effects on the "The Expedition" scenario sheet can only be triggered when their corresponding expedition tokens are optionally discarded to trigger the effect. Once an expedition token is discarded, its corresponding effect cannot be used until another expedition token is placed in that space. No more than a single expedition token can exist in each space on the "The Expedition" scenario sheet. Effects and penalties that cause an expedition token to be discarded do not trigger the effects of that space. Egyptian Adventure Cards The Adventure cards in this expansion are called Egyptian Adventure cards. Game effects that refer to "Adventure cards" can affect Egyptian Adventure cards, but game effects that refer to "Egyptian Adventures" only affect Egyptian Adventure cards. When a player is instructed to place an Egyptian Adventure card during the game, they place it face down. (Other World cards are still placed face up.) The back of the top card of the Stage I "Cairo" and Stage II "Dashur" Egyptian Adventure decks is always considered open information. At the top of the back of each Egyptian Adventure card is a colored field with a skull and crossbones. The color indicates the estimated difficulty of the card: green for an easy adventure, yellow for a normal adventure, and red for a difficult adventure. When an investigator moves to a face-down Egyptian Adventure card, they immediately resolve the effect printed on the back of the card. Then, they flip the card face up, resolve all "Entrance" effects on the card, and end their Movement phase. "Midnight" effects on the back of Egyptian Adventures are not triggered at this time, but are triggered if the card is face down when midnight arrives. 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 that adventure has no monster tasks or there are more monsters than available monster tasks, monsters that cannot be placed on a monster task are placed below the bottom task of the card, as normal. Special Adventure Cards Omens of the Pharaoh introduces two new types of Special Adventure cards: Dark Pharaoh Special Adventures and Hidden Chamber. Dark Pharaoh Special Adventures Various game effects, including the new doom icon, can bring Dark Pharaoh special adventures into play face down. They represent the evil machinations of the Dark Pharaoh and his attempts to destroy the expedition. Dark Pharaoh special adventures cannot be taken as trophies. When a Dark Pharaoh special adventure is successfully resolved, it is discarded into a special discard pile next to the other Dark Pharaoh cards. Once all four Dark Pharaoh cards have been drawn or discarded, if another Dark Pharaoh card needs to be drawn, shuffle the Dark Pharaoh discard pile and draw from the new pile. If another Dark Pharaoh card needs to be drawn, but all four Dark Pharaoh adventures are already in play, fill the Ancient One's doom track with doom tokens; the Ancient One awakens immediately. Markers and tokens, such as monster tokens, cannot be placed on Dark Pharaoh Special Adventure cards. Hidden Chamber Special Adventures Represent long-lost burial chambers, located deep within the pyramids of Dashur, and are a rich source of Elder Signs. The Hidden Chamber special adventures are part of the Stage II Adventure deck and are shuffled with the rest of the Stage II adventures. Each Hidden Chamber special adventure can be easily identified by a single task at the bottom of the card. To move into a chamber, an investigator must first successfully unlock it by completing the task on its back. To do this, before moving, a special roll must be made. The standard set of dice an investigator can use to make this roll is six green dice. Items, clues, and other effects that manipulate and add dice can be used in these rolls. If the roll is unsuccessful, the investigator must move to a different adventure or remain on their current card. This is only a single roll — do not discard a die and roll again. Cursed and blessed dice from the Unseen Forces expansion are not used when unlocking chambers and cannot be lost or discarded in this way. Whether the chamber is successfully unlocked or not, any dice added to the roll to unlock the chamber are lost. Each Hidden Chamber has a "Chamber" effect listed at the top of the adventure. These effects can only be resolved by the investigator who unlocked the chamber, and only when they first flip the card. Chambers cannot be flipped by game effects unless that game effect specifically states that a chamber is "unlocked," after which the investigator who unlocked it can perform its "Chamber" effect. When a Hidden Chamber special adventure is completed, it is returned to the box. It cannot be claimed as a trophy. Relics Relics are a new type of item. Relics display a die along with an upgrade icon. This icon indicates that relics can be discarded before rolling dice to add the indicated dice to the dice pool, even if those dice have already been removed by a failed roll. This cannot be used to increase the number of dice beyond available components (e.g., you cannot use a relic to have two red dice or seven green dice in a single roll). Some relics have special effects that are triggered after they are used or if another relic with which it is paired is in play. Collecting these relics can dramatically increase the power of investigators. The New Doom Icon A new doom icon appears on each of the three Ancient Ones included in Omens of the Pharaoh. When a doom token is placed on one of these icons, draw a Dark Pharaoh special adventure and place it in play face down. If all four Dark Pharaoh special adventures are already in play when doom hits this icon, fill the Ancient One's doom track with doom tokens; the Ancient One awakens immediately. New Mythos Cards The Omens of the Pharaoh Mythos Cards are only used in the Pyramid of Lightless game mode and should not be combined with other Mythos Cards. When players draw and resolve a Mythos Card, ## FAQ ### Do I need the base game Elder Sign to play this expansion? Yes, absolutely! Omens of the Pharaoh is an expansion, so you need to have the base game Elder Sign to play. ### How many players can participate in this expansion? Elder Sign is a game that can accommodate 1 to 8 players, and this expansion maintains that flexibility, allowing you to play solo or with a large group. ### What changes in the game with this expansion? The expansion adds a new adventure featuring the Dark Pharaoh Nephren-Ka, set in Egypt. It brings new challenges, monsters, and mechanics focused on preventing his resurrection, while maintaining the cooperative and dice-rolling essence of the base game. ### Does the game's complexity increase significantly with Omens of the Pharaoh? The overall complexity remains similar, but the expansion adds new strategic layers and challenges that require good teamwork and planning. The BGG weight is 3.18, indicating a medium level of complexity. ### Do I need to understand English to play? The base game and the expansion have components in English. While the main mechanics rely on symbols, some cards and descriptions might require consulting a translation or the rulebook. It's recommended to have access to a translated version of the cards or rulebook for a smoother experience. ### Is this expansion more focused on combat or exploration? It's a mix! You'll explore Egypt in search of clues and artifacts to stop the Pharaoh, but you'll also face dangers and monsters along the way, requiring both strategy and luck in dice rolling. ## Price Comparison ### Best International Offers - **BoardGamePrices.com**: $ 31.62 (https://boardgameprices.com/item/go?source=A&storeitemid=1661475&utm_source=boardgamesbot.com) - See all on BoardGamePrices: https://boardgameprices.com/item/show/22097/elder-sign-omens-of-the-pharaoh?utm_source=boardgamesbot.com