Lost in R’lyeh

About this board game

Lost in R’lyeh is a 2016 card game for 2–6 players that plays in about 45 minutes. Trapped inside H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” players face a journey from a profane idol and the whispers of a dark cult to landfall in the cyclopean city of R’lyeh.

R’lyeh has risen from the Pacific under a terrible curse, and Cthulhu lies there both dead and dreaming. As the ancient horror prepares to emerge, players must decide how to use their cards and when to attempt their escape.

On each turn, choose whether to play event cards or horror cards. Build the largest card sets you can to unlock increasingly powerful abilities, then look for the right moment to switch from playing cards in your hand to eliminating cards from your array of escape cards.

• Play event or horror cards each turn.
• Create large card sets to access mightier powers.
• Remove escape cards as you work toward getting rid of your cards.
• Choose whether picking up the entire stack will help your position.

That final decision captures the game’s unsettling tension: although you are trying to get rid of cards, taking the whole stack may still be the best move. No player can truly win, and the last player to escape becomes the ultimate loser, forever lost in R’lyeh.

With its escalating Lovecraftian narrative and sharp hand-management choices, Lost in R’lyeh turns every decision into a gamble against the city, the cards, and Cthulhu’s horrific emergence.