When comparing Elder Sign vs Ghost Stories, the Slant community recommends Ghost Stories for most people. In the question“What are the best scary board games to play around Halloween?” Ghost Stories is ranked 1st while Elder Sign is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Ghost Stories is:
From the start the game feels stacked against your team, which is on purpose as it gives a feeling of impending doom and destruction. The game is a balancing act of what to do each turn as the team tries to fend of the ghosts which leads to never quite feeling like you are winning.
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Pros
Pro Allows for casual play
Elder Sign is a good game to play with newcomers unfamiliar with the rules due to the game not being super difficult (like Ghost Stories). While it does offer a challenge it is not completely stacked against the players like some other titles in the genre.
Pro Good for short bursts of co-op gameplay
Elder Sign is styled as a co-op experience that uses tightly integrated dice mechanics to allow for short and succinct play times of around 90 minutes.
Pro Gives a sense of impending doom
From the start the game feels stacked against your team, which is on purpose as it gives a feeling of impending doom and destruction. The game is a balancing act of what to do each turn as the team tries to fend of the ghosts which leads to never quite feeling like you are winning.
Pro Designed well with beautiful artwork that exemplifies the horror theme
All of the pieces of the game are colorful and have much attention to detail.
Pro Expansions available that extend gameplay
Ghost Stories offers two expansions (there was a third but it was limited and not available anymore) called White Moon and Black Secret that extend the gameplay for users that would like to add more complex elements to the gameplay or are just looking for a different experience within the same theme and world.
Pro Quality construction to the game that feels very solid
All of the cardboard components have a nice weight to them and a glossy finish over the art.
Cons
Con More than 4 or 5 players can lead to a lot of downtime
Elder Sign says it can be played with up to 8 players but playing with that many people can lead to a lot of sitting around, which can be boring.
Con The rule book is really poorly written
Unlike most Anotine Bauza games, the rule book for Ghost Stories is pretty terrible. This means that, unless you're learning the game from somebody already familiar with it, the first few games will probably be a slog of constantly consulting the rules.
A game like this, which uses symbology heavily, should also come with some quick reference sheets.
Con Difficult to win
The game is pretty difficult to beat, especially if played with a group of casual players that are not extremely familiar with the game and its rules of which are difficult to understand and may take a few watches of Youtube videos to really understand all the mechanics of play.