Cthulhu Rising Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Determining the First Player
• Course of the Game
  • Game Round
  • Completing Lines
• Victory and End of the Game
  • End of the Round
• End of the Game
• Additional Rules
• Combinations of Cards Bringing Victory Points
  • 2 Tokens with the Same Value (1 VP)
  • 2 Pairs of Tokens with Equal Values (2 VP)
  • 3 Tokens with the Same Value (3 VP)
  • 5 Tokens of One Colour (3 VP)
  • Pair and Triple of Tokens with Equal Values (4 VP)
  • 4 Tokens with the Same Value (6 VP)
  • 5 Tokens with the Same Value (10 VP)
  • Absence of Combinations (-3 VP)

Setup

1. Place the game board on the table in one of the following ways:
   • In front of the players seated next to each other, with the wide side facing the player.
   • Between the players, with the narrow sides facing them.
2. Place the lighthouse token on 0 on the Victory Points track (VP).
3. Distribute the stacks of blue and red tokens among the players.
4. Shuffle the tokens of your own colour and place them face-side up on the table in several stacks, as shown in the picture below.

Component labels on the setup pictures: the board has a Neptune zone (blue tokens) and a Vesta zone (red tokens); the VP track is marked "Neptune's Victory Points track" on the blue side and "Vesta's Victory Points track" on the red side; the stacks are "30 Neptune gift tokens" and "30 Vesta gift tokens". The side panel with example combinations on pages 2 and 3 is cut off at the page edge of the source and is not fully legible; the examples are transcribed from pages 6 and 7 instead.

Goal of the Game

By collecting combinations of tokens on the board, bring your lighthouse token to space 10 of your colour on the VP track.

Determining the First Player

Each player reveals the top token from their stack and places it face-up on the central space of the board of the corresponding colour. The player with the lowest number on their token starts first. Then the players take turns. If the numbers are equal, set these tokens aside, take and lay out 2 new ones. After the first player has been determined, shuffle the set-aside tokens back into the stacks.

Each player takes 3 gift tokens of their own colour into hand.

Course of the Game

Game Round

The player chooses 1 token from their hand and plays it on any free space in one of the 2 zones. When the play closes a line, they receive VP for the combinations and move the lighthouse token. Then they draw 1 token from their stack into hand, and the turn passes to the second player.

Completing Lines

When the played token closes a line (horizontal or vertical), the player who has more tokens of their colour in that line receives VP for the combinations in it and moves the lighthouse token on the VP track by a number of spaces equal to the VP received.

Players receive VP for the combinations collected (pp. 6-7) in the lines that were closed during the current turn.

Important:

• If a player completes a row and a column at the same time, scoring happens for both completed lines.
• After a line is closed, the tokens are not removed from the game but remain on the board.
• The game board is divided into a red zone and a blue zone; players may place tokens in either zone.

Victory and End of the Game

End of the Round

1. A player who moves the lighthouse token to the value 10 on the VP track instantly wins the round.
2. If all spaces of the board are closed before the lighthouse token reaches 10 on the VP track, the player on whose side of the VP track the lighthouse token is located wins the round.
3. If the lighthouse token is on space 0, the round is won by the player in whose zone there are more tokens of their colour.
4. If the number of tokens is equal, the round is a draw.

End of the Game

• The game is played for 3 rounds or until one player has 2 wins.
• After the 1st round ends and the winner is determined, change the first player and start the 2nd round.
• If the other player won the 2nd round, or one or both of the first two rounds ended in a draw, play a 3rd round.
• If you managed to draw all three rounds of the game, both players are declared winners.

Additional Rules

If you have mastered the basic rules and want to make the game more challenging and varied, you may use the following variants:

1. VP for closing a line are received by the player with the highest value on one of his tokens in the line.

   or

2. VP for closing a line are received by the player with the highest sum of values on the tokens of his colour.

Combinations of Cards Bringing Victory Points

The section header is split across pages 6 and 7 of the source (page 6 shows "Combinations of Cards," page 7 "Bringing Victory Points").

The examples below show the combinations that score in a closed line, with the VP each one awards.

2 Tokens with the Same Value (1 VP)

In this line there are 3 red tokens and 2 blue tokens, forming a combination of two fours: the red player receives 1 VP and moves the lighthouse token one space toward their side.

2 Pairs of Tokens with Equal Values (2 VP)

In this line there are 3 red tokens and 2 blue tokens, forming 2 combinations from pairs of twos and eights: the red player receives 2 VP and moves the lighthouse token two spaces toward their side.

3 Tokens with the Same Value (3 VP)

In this line there is 1 red token and 4 blue tokens, forming a combination of three sixes: the blue player receives 3 VP and moves the lighthouse token three spaces toward their side.

5 Tokens of One Colour (3 VP)

In this line there are 5 blue tokens and no other combinations: the blue player receives 3 VP and moves the lighthouse token three spaces toward their side.

Pair and Triple of Tokens with Equal Values (4 VP)

In this line there are 3 red tokens and 2 blue tokens, forming 2 combinations of three sevens and two fives: the red player receives 4 VP and moves the lighthouse token four spaces toward their side.

4 Tokens with the Same Value (6 VP)

In this line there are 3 blue tokens and 2 red tokens, forming a combination of four ones: the blue player receives 6 VP and moves the lighthouse token six spaces toward their side.

5 Tokens with the Same Value (10 VP)

In this line there are 3 red tokens and 2 blue tokens, forming a combination of five fours: the red player receives 10 VP and moves the lighthouse token ten spaces toward their side.

Absence of Combinations (-3 VP)

In this line there are 3 blue tokens and 2 red tokens, but no combinations are present: the blue player loses 3 VP and moves the lighthouse token three spaces toward the opponent's side.