Four against the Great Old Ones

About this board game

Four against the Great Old Ones is a pen-and-paper horror adventure for 1–4 players, with games lasting about 120 minutes. Drawing on the Four against Darkness system and classic Lovecraftian horror, it supports solo play, cooperative play, or an RPG-lite experience.

Four Investigators and a party of Helpers travel through 1930s America in a desperate search for three clues. These clues gradually narrow down the location of an upcoming great ritual, but the group has only 40 days to uncover and stop it before the world meets an untimely end.

Encounter tables generate terrifying events, useful clues, arcane items, and still more dangers. Dice-based combat is highly tactical, with many choices during both attack and defense phases. Eight Investigator classes and numerous Helper types allow for nuanced customization, although high lethality means no character is safe for long.

• Insanity, curses, and incorporeal enemies add further threats.
• Use spells, arcane items, weapons, and even a flamethrower.
• Face six possible epic final encounters, each presented as its own mini-game.
• Discover side quests, exotic locations, other planets, and the dangerous Dreamlands.

Every investigation can reveal different secrets. An event that seems trivial in one game may have an entirely different meaning in the next, increasing replay value and rewarding careful attention. The game is rooted strictly in Lovecraft, featuring details such as a correctly depicted Elder Sign and an encounter with Ghatanothoa—but not Hastur.

With its ticking clock, lethal challenges, evolving clues, and varied final encounters, Four against the Great Old Ones turns a Lovecraftian investigation into a tense race against catastrophe.