Description

Cards of Cthulhu a deck building game is centered around the Lovecraft genre which Cthulhu is famously known by.

In the game you will compete to build a better deck than the other investigators, defeat Ancient Ones, all the while not going insane.

Cards of Cthulhu is a deckbuilding game where you and up to 4 other players each strive to build the best deck, called your library and score as many victory points in order to win the game. Each player starts the game with the same library, 7 Strengths and 3 Fears. Players shuffle the library and deal themselves 5 cards. Each Strength is worth 1 power. Fears are worth nothing. The opening hand can have from 2 to 5 points of power. The main deck of cards is then dealt 5 cards out to the Storyboard. If any events happen, do what the card says, otherwise, check for card's with surprise effects (which usually add to your insanity). Now the first player takes their turn. They can use their hand of cards to buy items from the storyboard based on their cost (and, in the case of Horrors, the insanity level to banish them). Non-horror cards are placed in that player's graveyard, Horror cards are banished to the banished stack. At the end of the turn, the player draws their five cards again, if the library lacks sufficient cards, shuffle the graveyard back in to the library and complete the rest of the five card draw. The play is passed on to the next player, who then refills the storyboard from the main deck of any cards that were purchased or banished by the prior player. Resolves and event and surprise effects and then their turn starts.

Insanity rules - In the game, it is very important to track just how insane you are! Everyone starts out totally normal - with zero insanity - event, surprise effects and using certain arcane or artifacts will increase or decrease your insanity. If you reach 13 insanity, you have crossed over and succumbed to insanity. At this point, the only way to reduce your insanity is playing cards that reduce your insanity or discarding cards to reduce your insanity by the Victory Point value of the card. You'll need to do this as soon as possible because if your reach 20, you've completely lost your mind and are a vassal for the Ancient Ones (or, in game terms, you just lost and are out of the game).

Ancient Ones - Before the game is started, you separate the Ancient Ones, Azathoth, Hastur and Cthulhu are shuffled and put on the bottom of the stack. Yig is taken out and the rest are shuffled and put on top of the stack. Then Yig is placed face up on the stack. While the Ancient Ones are face up on the stack, they have an effect, called The Haunting - which impacts the game. Yig, for example, cost 8 points to defeat, however, his haunting effect is that, for each two banished Horrors, Yig costs 1 more point to defeat. If three Horrors are banished, Yig would cost 9 points to defeat. When a new ancient one is revealed from the stack, which happens after one has been defeated, they have a one time "awakening" attack - this is an effect that happens immediately when they are turned face up and the attack is against each player. If the player has a defense, they can defend against the attack - if allowed. For example, Ithaqua's Awakening Attack is that each player puts all Allies from their graveyard back in to the story.

Psychic Blast - These cards are put in a stack outside of the main deck or the Ancient One's. They cost three points and can be purchased at anytime during your turn. Sometimes the storyboard will contain cards you don't want or can't buy and you can always buy a Psychic Blast if you would like. When a Psychic Blast is destroyed, it is placed in the destroyed pile. If the stack is empty, no more Psychic blasts can be purchased.

Corruption - These cards are put in a stack outside of the main deck or the Ancient One's. Card effects that say you gain a corruption are from this stack of cards. Corruptions are have a -1 victory point, which, costs you points at the end of the game if they are in your library. When a Corruption is destroyed, it is returned to the corruption stack. If the corruption stack is empty, no more corruptions can be handed out to players.

Investigators - Each player represents an investigator, a Gangster, Law Enforcement, Nun, Priest, Private Investigator, Professor or Psychic. Each investigator has a special ability that allows them to do their special thing during their turns. The Psychic's ability allow that player - at the beginning of their turn, to look at the top two cards of their deck and then put one of those cards in the graveyard. Most of the time, this will help the player select the best of the two cards, possibly discarding a card they would rather not draw, sometimes both cards would work very well, but they still have to discard one. Other abilities affect the cards drawn, power of cards, the storyboard and so on.