(Photo credit to CMON games)
Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer
Cthulhu Death May Die
1-5 Players
90-120 min
Dice rolling, miniatures, map tiles, horror theme, HP Lovecraft
First the ritual then the thing from beyond: Game overviewÂ
It’s time to end this! The cultists and their rituals are just the beginning, it’s time to kill these things from beyond once and for all! In Cthulhu Death May Die (CDMD) you play an investigator that is ready to take the fight to them; more than just exploring, you and your team are hunting down these so-called Elder Gods and their minions. You’re not just killing the cultists and their minions, you have to weaken the ancient one so that you can kill it and end its threat to humanity permanently.
You may go insane but that only strengthens you. While you take on the madness don’t take too much or you’re overwhelmed and out of the fight. Do you have the resolve to do whatever is necessary to end these threats once and for all?
Madness is our secret weapon! Game Set up
CDMD is set up as a “plug and play” system. The base game comes with 2 elder gods and 6 episodes. Choose an elder God and an episode. Select your investigator and gather the 6 tentacle markers matching your miniatures base, your miniature, and one insanity card. Place one marker at the first level of each of your skills, and at the starting point for your Stress, health, and insanity. Each investigator card has 3 skills; one totally unique for their character. Take the storyboard, place the episode card, elder one’s stage cards, elder one’s minions, and the episode minion’s cards. Place the elder one miniature at the starting space of the summoning track. Shuffle the 8 mythos cards from the episode and the elder one together to make the mythos deck. Shuffle the discovery cards to make the discovery deck. Place the tokens, minion’s, and monsters on the tiles according to the episode. Set the dice nearby and choose your first player.
Disrupting the ritual will weaken the elder one: How to playÂ
The game is played in rounds where each player takes their turn in 4 phases: Take actions, Draw a mythos card, Investigate or fight, and End of turn effects. Each player can take 3 actions on their turn; run, attack, rest, trade, or an episode action. To run, move your miniature 3 spaces; spaces are connected when two arrows are adjoining them. If you run into any space with an enemy it will follow you. If you are in a space with fire and leave, you will take one wound for each fire token you have on your player board.
To make an attack action on an enemy, roll 3 black dice and add any bonus green die from any skills, allies, or equipment. A success is an exclamation point, a tentacle increases your insanity and an elder sign only triggers with a skill, ally, or, equipment. You may reroll one die by spending one point of stress and can do this up to your stress limit. If you deal enough wounds to your target, they are defeated and removed from the game. If not, each success deals one wound to the enemy.
YOU WILL lose sanity in this game, On the insanity track there are threshold markers. When you advance on one, you stop even if you lost more. At every marker, your insanity goes off, and you follow the instructions on your sanity card. In addition, you level up one of your skills.
At the beginning of the game, the elder one is invulnerable; still outside of time and space. As the game progresses, the elder advances on the summoning track. When the elder one reaches the first red space, the ritual is a success and the elder one is summoned, but still invulnerable! The ritual must be broken first before he can be attacked! Once he is vulnerable he has 3 stages that have to be completed before he is finally destroyed. When vulnerable an elder one can take damage from an attack action. When the elder one takes enough damage, a stage is complete and the next stage is revealed. All of the abilities from the previous stage are added, making it stronger each stage until it is defeated and finally dies on the last stage.
If an investigator is in the same space as another investigator they can trade items and allies. A rest action can heal any combination of 3 wounds or stress. You can only take this action if you are in a safe space
Each episode has actions that can disrupt the ritual. Follow the instructions on the episode card to take that action. If the ritual is disrupted before the elder one advances on the summoning track, it comes into the world vulnerable and can be attacked like any other enemy.
Once a player takes their 3 actions, they draw a mythos card. Follow the instructions. If the card has a summoning symbol set it aside. Once 3 summoning symbols are in the discard pile, advance the elder one along the summoning track. Once the elder one is in the world, take the summoning token and place it on the track instead. If it ever reaches the last space, the investigators lose.
Next, depending on if the investigator is in a safe space or not, they either investigate or fight. If there are enemies in their space, they are attacked. Each enemy rolls dice indicated on their card. Results are applied just like an attack action. Stress can be used to reroll any results as well. Every success deals one wound to an investigator. If the investigator can take no more wounds, they are killed. If the elder one is still invulnerable when an investigator dies, the game is lost.
If an investigator is in a safe space; a space with no enemies, they can investigate. They draw the top card of the discovery deck. Each discovery card has two options to choose from. Some have a cost and some are free. Select what side you want to use, and slide it under your investigator card. If you can’t pay the cost, you cannot take the card.
Finally, check for any end turn effects and play goes to the next player. The game continues until either all investigators die, go fully insane or kill the elder one.
In Madness, do we live: Final Thoughts
This is an incredible, well-designed game. CMON always delivers components-wise, the details on the miniatures are fantastic and I am sure when painted, they are just horrifyingly gorgeous. The tiles, cards, and, tokens are good and sturdy. The tiles are detailed and colorful like every game from CMON. I really like the plug and play design; this provides tons of replayability. It is a dice game, so it is very luck-driven. Stress can mitigate some, but not always. Since stress is needed for re-rolls when being attacked as well as attacking, it requires management. I like the dual option on the investigation cards and as with all CMON games, there are expansions offering more content and even some new mechanics. One reviewer mentioned that it has almost too much content. With over 80 investigators available from all the additional content, it’s like too much to ever get through with all of the combinations available. So pick and choose depending on your flavor of Elder one. The base game comes with Cthulhu and Hastur. Season 3 Fear of the Unknown is a stand-alone expansion and has been called the 2.0 version of the base game and comes with Aztatoth. Season 4 brings Nyarthrolep front and center. Season 2 offers more investigators and minions, but NO new elder one. Season 5 is just wrapping up on Gamefound and one word: Godzilla! Yes, the king of all monsters joins the CDMD universe.
This is another hit out of the park from CMON in my opinion. It plays fast; much more focused objectives than Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness. In this game,the objective is clear; disrupt the ritual and kill the Elder one. There is less time searching for clues, that happens along the way. The path to disrupting the ritual is clear and the final objective is obvious. The challenge lies in completing it in time.
If you like dice-driven games, are a fan of Lovecraft, or want a game with lots of replayability and a good value, then you may enjoy Cthulhu Death May Die.
Until next time, keep moving those meeples and happy gaming!
