Book of the Dead is a fast-paced co-operative card game for 2-6 players that takes 9 minutes (or less) to play. Players must work together to collect the scattered pages, place them back into the book by matching arcane symbols and close the covers in time to prevent the return of Great Cthulhu. At the start of each player's turn, they must roll the die of the dead, and then follow the instructions of the icon rolled before they take their action. The Skull may force players to discard cards from their hand, and the Book may eject pages from the book, back to the vortex. In the basic game, the Vortex icon is not used, and represents a brief respite for the players. Each page of the book of the dead is represented by a double sided poker-sized card (with rounded corners) that feature 1-6 arcane icons. To bring two pages together, the icons must match. On your turn, after you have rolled the dice, you have one action, such as taking a card from the Vortex (the central pool of cards in the table), adding your 'stack' of cards to the book and finally, if able, to close the book and win the game. —description from the designer