Reign of Cthulhu

2016

Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu is an exciting twist on the classic game. Unite with fellow investigators to seal portals, stop cults and save the world from Old Ones!

40
minutes

2 - 4
player(s)

14+

Medium

About the game

Welcome to the spine-chilling universe of Reign of Cthulhu, a dynamic board game that plunges players into an immersive world inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. This game is set in a suspenseful era where mysterious forces are threatening the fabric of reality and only your team of investigators can prevent the awakening of the great ancient one – Cthulhu.

The ominous atmosphere envelops every part of the game, from the beautifully illustrated game pieces to the narrative-driven mechanics. In Reign of Cthulhu, you’re not just playing a game; you’re stepping into a gripping story of cosmic horror and suspense.

Game components Unboxing the fun!

Reign of Cthulhu is a cooperative board game where players work together to seal gates to the alternate dimensions before monsters of unspeakable horror destroy our world. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the components:

1. Game Board: This represents four different locations: Arkham, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Dunwich, each with its own set of locations and a dimensional gate. Players move around these locations throughout the game.

2. Player Cards: These are divided into several categories:

Item Cards: Items can be used by players to perform different actions, such as sealing gates or fighting monsters.
Clue Cards: Clues are used to seal the gates and prevent monsters from entering our world.
Relic Cards: Powerful items that provide players with special abilities but can potentially cause insanity.

3. Player Pieces: Each player is represented on the game board by a unique pawn. These are moved around the board to perform actions at locations.

4. Monster Figures: These figures represent the monsters that enter our world through the dimensional gates. Players must avoid or fight these monsters during their turn.

5. Sanity Tokens: These tokens represent the mental health of the players. Players lose sanity when they encounter monsters or when certain events occur. If a player loses all of their sanity, they are driven insane and their actions become limited.

6. Gate Tokens: These tokens represent the dimensional gates that monsters use to enter our world. Players must seal these gates using clues to win the game.

7. Elder God Cards: These cards represent the ancient cosmic entities that the players are trying to prevent from entering our world. Each Elder God has a unique effect on the game.

8. Investigator Cards: These cards represent the characters that the players play as. Each investigator has a unique ability and starting items.

9. Progression Tokens: These are used to track the progression of the game. When certain conditions are met, the game progresses and the difficulty increases.

10. Mythos Cards: These cards are drawn at the end of each player’s turn and dictate the actions of the monsters and the progression of the game.

Game setup Lay it out, line it up, let’s go

‘Reign of Cthulhu’ is a strategic board game where players collaborate to prevent the awakening of the ancient cosmic entity, Cthulhu. The game setup is as follows:

Step 1: Setup the Game Board

Place the game board in the center of the table. The board represents four different colored zones: blue, green, red, and yellow. Each zone contains five locations: a town, a street, a church, a hospital, and a graveyard.
Place a clue token, face down, on each location on the board.
Put the sanity tokens and relic cards nearby, forming the supply. The sanity tokens represent the mental health of the investigators, and the relic cards are powerful tools for the investigators.

Step 2: Setup the Player Roles

Each player chooses an investigator to play, represented by a character card. Each investigator has a unique ability that can be used during the game.
Give each player sanity tokens equal to the sanity level of their chosen investigator. The sanity level is indicated on the investigator card.

Step 3: Setup the Cultist and Shoggoth Tokens

Shuffle the cultist tokens and place them face down next to the board. These represent the followers of Cthulhu who are trying to awaken him.
Draw and place three cultist tokens face up in each of the four zones on the board.
Draw and place one Shoggoth token in each zone. The Shoggoths are powerful monsters that the investigators must defeat.

Step 4: Setup the Player Deck

Shuffle the player cards and deal a hand to each player. The number of cards each player gets depends on the number of players. In a 2-player game, each player gets 4 cards. In a 3-player game, each player gets 3 cards. In a 4-player game, each player gets 2 cards.
Place the rest of the player cards face down to form a draw deck.

Step 5: Setup the Old One Cards

Shuffle the Old One cards and place them face down next to the board. These represent the ancient cosmic entities that are trying to awaken Cthulhu.
Draw and reveal the top card of the Old One deck. The effect of the Old One card takes place immediately.

After completing these steps, the game setup is finished and you’re ready to begin playing ‘Reign of Cthulhu’. Good luck, investigators!

Game flow Round and round we go

‘Reign of Cthulhu’ is a cooperative strategy game where players take the role of investigators trying to prevent the awakening of the ancient cosmic entity, Cthulhu. The game is played in rounds, each consisting of the following phases: Player Phase, Summoning Phase, and Awakening Phase.

Player Phase: During this phase, each player takes their turn in clockwise order. Each turn consists of four actions that a player can use to move around the board, seal gates, defeat cultists, and use their unique abilities. The possible actions are:

Travel: Move to an adjacent location on the board.
Seal a Gate: Use a clue card matching your location to seal a gate.
Defeat a Cultist: Remove a Cultist from your location.
Use Bus Station: Travel to any location by discarding a clue card.
Trade Cards: Exchange clue cards with another player at your location.

Summoning Phase: After a player has completed their actions, they draw two cards from the Summoning deck. Each card shows a location where a Cultist or Shoggoth is placed. If a location already has three Cultists and another one is added, an Awakening ritual takes place.

Awakening Phase: If an Awakening ritual takes place during the Summoning Phase, the current player draws a card from the Awakening deck. This card could either awaken a dormant Old One or have a game-changing event occur. If Cthulhu is awakened, or too many Old Ones awaken, the game is lost.

The game continues with these three phases until either the players manage to seal all four gates and win, or the conditions for losing the game are met.

Players'turn One turn to rule them all

In Reign of Cthulhu, each player’s turn consists of four main phases. Understanding the order and potential outcomes of these phases is key to formulating your strategy and playing the game effectively. These actions can be taken in any order, but each action can only be taken once per turn.

1. Movement:

The player can move their Investigator up to three unblocked adjacent spaces (i.e., spaces that are not separated by a barrier). This is a crucial part of the game because your Investigator’s location can greatly affect your ability to perform other actions.

2. Exploration:

While on an unsealed Portal, the player may explore it. This requires the player to draw the top card from the Monster deck and place it on the board. If a Monster of the same type is already on the board, both Monsters are moved to the Monster reserve and the Portal is sealed. Sealing Portals is vital for preventing Monster invasions and ultimately winning the game.

3. Battle:

If the player’s Investigator is in the same space as a Monster, they can choose to battle it. This involves rolling the Sanity die. If the roll is successful, the Monster is defeated and removed from the board. However, if the roll is unsuccessful, the Investigator loses one Sanity and the Monster remains on the board. The risk of losing Sanity makes battling a strategic decision.

4. Special Action:

Each Investigator has a unique special action that can be performed once per turn. These special actions can provide significant advantages, such as additional movements, improved battle results, or the ability to seal Portals more easily. Using these special actions effectively is a key part of a winning strategy.

After these four phases, the player’s turn ends and the next player’s turn begins. The game continues in this way until either all Portals are sealed (resulting in the players’ victory) or all Investigators lose their Sanity (resulting in their defeat).

Movement: Use this phase to position your Investigator optimally for future actions. Try to end your movement on an unsealed Portal, if possible.
Exploration: Aim to seal as many Portals as possible. However, be cautious of drawing too many Monsters onto the board.
Battle: Weigh the potential benefits of defeating a Monster against the risk of losing Sanity. Sometimes, it might be wiser to avoid a battle.
Special Action: Use your Investigator’s special action to its full potential. Don’t forget to use it each turn!

End of the game All good games must come to an end

Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu is a thrilling board game where players form a team of investigators to seal off four gateways and prevent the awakening of the ancient one, Cthulhu. The game ends in either victory or defeat based on specific conditions.

Victory Conditions

The game ends in victory for the players when the following condition is met:

Sealing all four gates: The players must successfully seal all four of the gates on the game board. This halts the spread of the cultists and prevents the awakening of Cthulhu. To seal a gate, a player must be in a location with a gate and spend five clue cards of the matching location color.

Upon achieving this victory condition, no further actions are necessary. The game immediately ends and the players win.

Defeat Conditions

The game ends in defeat for the players when any one of the following conditions is met:

Awakening of Cthulhu: This occurs when the summoning track is filled with awakening tokens. It’s typically caused by the drawing of evil stirs cards from the player deck, which can also lead to shuffled cultist or shoggoth cards being placed back on top of the draw pile.
Insanity: If all players go insane before the gates are sealed, the game ends in defeat. A player goes insane when their sanity hits zero, usually due to encounters with shoggoths or when in a location with a revealed Old One.
Out of cultists: If players need to place a cultist on the board and there are none left in the supply, the game ends in defeat. Cultists are added to the board when a cultist symbol is drawn or when a gate is supposed to spawn but cannot because it’s already on the board.
Out of cards: If a player needs to draw a card from the player deck and there are none remaining, the game ends in defeat.

In the event of defeat, players do not need to take any additional actions for final scoring. The game simply ends, and Cthulhu reigns supreme.

Scoring Did you outsmart your rivals?

In the board game ‘Reign of Cthulhu’, the scoring system is a crucial part of gameplay. This game primarily focuses on cooperative play, thus the scoring system is more about completing the objective than accumulating points. However, there are certain ways players can measure their success.

The primary scoring system:

Primarily, the players win the game by closing all four gates before Cthulhu awakens or any one player is driven insane. There’s no individual scoring as such. The key is to work together to seal the gates and prevent the awakening of Cthulhu. The more swiftly and efficiently the team manages to do this, the better their ‘score’ or success.

Secondary scoring system:

While the game is not explicitly scored, players can implement a scoring system to rank their games. For example:

Speed: The fewer turns it takes to close the gates, the better. If you want to keep score, you could count the number of turns taken.
Sanity: The more sanity points players have left at the end of the game, the better.
Clue Tokens: You could also count the number of clue tokens collected throughout the game.

Tie-breaking rules:

As ‘Reign of Cthulhu’ is a cooperative game, there are no explicit tie-breaking rules. The game ends when either all players are driven insane, Cthulhu awakens, or the team successfully closes all four gates. If players are keeping score based on the secondary scoring system, they can break ties by considering the number of clue tokens collected or the amount of sanity points left.

Particular Cases and Exceptions Wait… is that legal?

‘Reign of Cthulhu’ is a strategic board game where players work together to seal the gates to different dimensions and prevent the awakening of the ancient cosmic entity, Cthulhu. Here are some rare or special rules, exceptions, and rule clarifications:

1. Insanity Rule:

If a player’s investigator becomes insane, that player must flip their character card to the ‘Insane’ side and immediately follows the instructions on the card. An insane investigator has different abilities and limitations.

2. Cultist Figure Rule:

When a new cultist appears and there are none left in the supply, an existing cultist must be moved. This does not trigger any awakening.

3. Shoggoth Movement:

When a ‘Shoggoth Moves’ card is drawn, every Shoggoth on the board moves one location closer to the nearest open gate. If a Shoggoth enters a location with a gate, it disappears into the gate and advances the awakening track by one.

4. Sealing the Gate:

To seal a gate, the player must be on the bus station location and discard five clue cards of the same color as the current dimension. The player replaces the gate token with a sealed gate token. Sealing a gate also removes all cultists from the board of the same color.

Exception: If a ‘Relic’ card is used to seal a gate, it does not remove the cultists of the same color.

5. End of Game:

The game ends immediately in a loss if Cthulhu is awakened, if the player needs to draw a card from the player deck and there are none left, or if a player cannot place a cultist on the board when required.

Exception: If a player can seal the final gate on their turn and the last player card they draw is an ‘Evil Stirs’ card, the players still win the game.

6. Relic Cards:

Relic cards are powerful tools that players can use to their advantage. However, after using a Relic card, the player must draw and resolve the top card of the ‘Madness’ deck, which could potentially drive their investigator insane.

Tips and tricks Play smarter, not harder!

Reign of Cthulhu is a thrilling board game that requires a strategic approach to overcome its challenges. Here are some advanced strategies, beginner tips, common mistakes to avoid, and ways to optimize gameplay.

Advanced Strategies:

Focus on closing portals: As an advanced strategy, players should focus on closing portals instead of dealing with monsters. This prevents the rise of new monsters and reduces the risk of Cthulhu’s awakening.
Utilize character abilities: Each character has unique abilities. Smart utilization of these abilities can greatly improve the chances of success.
Balance risk and reward: Taking risks is part of the game, but players should always weigh the potential rewards against the possible disadvantages.

Beginner Tips:

Cooperate with other players: Reign of Cthulhu is a cooperative game. Effective communication and cooperation with other players is key to winning.
Learn the rules thoroughly: Understanding the game’s rules will help you make better strategic decisions.
Start with easy characters: For beginners, starting with easy characters can help understand the game mechanics better.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

Ignoring other players: In Reign of Cthulhu, each player’s actions affect the group. Ignoring other players’ actions and strategies can lead to failure.
Underutilizing character abilities: Each character has unique abilities that can turn the tide of the game. Neglecting these abilities is a common mistake.
Not planning ahead: The game requires strategic planning. Not thinking ahead can result in difficult situations.

Ways to Optimize Gameplay:

Strategic planning: Plan your moves ahead of time. Consider the potential outcomes and risks of each action.
Effective communication: Keep communication lines open with your teammates. Share your plans and coordinate your actions.
Adapting to situations: The game can change quickly. Be ready to adapt your strategy based on new developments.