Board Game Cthulhu. Death May Die

Cthulhu: Summon and Destroy

The plot involves mad detective heroes trying to summon the Ancient One to give him a dose of the Old One. Before the game starts, players choose one Ancient One set (the base game features Cthulhu and Hastur) and one of six basic episodes.

The Ancient One box contains a figurine of the most terrifying deity, miniatures of his allies, tokens, minion cards, levels, and Myths. The episode box contains a map of the playing field, a description of the ritual, and monster abilities. The various combinations of Ancient Ones and episodes provide very good replayability. But there will be more!

Episode Sets

Episode cards indicate special actions of investigators in the current scenario, ways to interrupt the ritual, and events that occur as the Ancient One advances along the summoning track. Each set contains 15 discovery cards - items, allies, and states. Having fulfilled the conditions on the discovery card, the player receives a discovery and slides the card under the left or right side of his tablet. In addition, episode sets contain Mythos cards and tokens necessary for the scenario.

Investigator Tablets

Each detective has his own unique tablet. The tablet has tracks for fatigue, health, and sanity. Having increased fatigue, the player can roll one die. When wounded or losing their minds, the player advances tentacle tokens along the corresponding tracks - and dies when those tokens reach the skulls at the end.

When a tentacle reaches a division on the mind track marked as the madness threshold, the player plays a madness card and increases the level of any skill. In some cases, the player receives a green bonus die. By increasing skill levels, the player unlocks new bonus abilities or activates permanent effects.

Gameplay

A player`s turn consists of four stages:

1. Actions

The player can perform three actions. There are always 4 standard actions available. There are also two special actions, which are described on the map of the selected episode.

• Run. The hero moves a distance of up to three areas. Enemies from the areas passed are chased, and as many fire tokens from the reserve as there are in the area passed are added to the explorer`s board.
• Attack. The hero attacks one enemy in the current area, rolling three black dice and possibly bonus green dice. Each success symbol (exclamation mark) that falls out inflicts one wound on the enemy. The enemy dies when the number of wounds equals its health. The Ancient One cannot be attacked until the ritual is interrupted. For each tentacle symbol dropped, the investigator loses one unit of sanity.
• Rest. Only in an area where there are no enemies. The player can heal his shocks (fatigue) and wounds for a maximum of 3 points in total.
• Exchange. The player can exchange any number of item cards and/or allies with detectives in the same area.

2. Myth Card

The player plays the top Myth card, then discards it. The Myth card may have symbols that affect the Ancient One`s awakening. Card effects activate enemies and add new ones to the area with the gate.

3. Exploration / combat

If there are no enemies in the current area, the player explores it by revealing the top card from the discovery deck. Otherwise, each enemy attacks the explorer. The dice indicated on the enemy`s card are rolled for the enemy. Success is a wound, a tentacle is a loss of sanity. You can reroll the enemy`s dice, increasing your own fatigue.

4. End-of-turn effects

The player plays fire tokens on the board by rolling the same number of dice. Each success inflicts one wound, each tentacle causes the loss of one sanity unit. The dice can be re-rolled, increasing fatigue.

If there are three cards with the Ancient One`s summoning symbols in the discard pile, his figure (or the dead end token) moves one space along the summoning track. After that, all Myth cards are shuffled from the discard pile back into the deck.

The Ancient One appears on the field when his figure reaches the red space of the summoning track OR the players manage to interrupt the ritual. A dead end token is placed on the summoning track, on the space that the Ancient One occupied. Now this token will move along the track instead of the Ancient One. Players must defeat the Ancient One before the dead end token reaches the end of the track.

Game Over

The players lose if one of them dies or goes mad, and the Ancient One has not yet awakened. If the Ancient One is already on the field, the remaining players continue the game.

The Ancient One can only be attacked after the ritual has been interrupted. Otherwise, players will not be able to do anything to him, even if he is on the field, in the same location. To defeat the Ancient One, you must sequentially destroy all cards of his levels.