Cultists of Cthulhu
Cultists of Cthulhu Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Cultists of Cthulhu is a game of mystery and intrigue, cooperation and betrayal, action and adventure, for 1-6 players.
The 1 and 2 player modes are substantially different; see part 5 and part 6 for details.
First, setup. At the end of setup, you'll have chosen a scenario, built the map, each player will have a character and a role card (telling them whether they're an Academic or the Cultist), everyone will have their standee on the board, and you'll be ready to begin. Play proceeds in rounds.
In a round, each player will take one turn, and then the Starting Player will play a Stars Card, pass the Starting Player token to the next player, and a new round will begin.
On their turn, a player will draw an Event card appropriate to their location (Indoor or Outdoor), resolve it, and then take up to two actions.
The Star Chart will advance over time due to players doing poorly on Events, the Stars Card that is played each round, and various other possibilities. When the Star Chart reaches a certain point (which only the Cultist knows) the Cultist may reveal themself and summon some terrifying monster, or transform into a monster themself, or some other horrible event will occur that aids them in their quest to kill the Academics. This puts the time pressure on the Academics to accomplish their goal quickly, before they all get killed!
There will be times when the rulebook is contradicted by specific cards. If that is the case, follow the rules on the specific cards.
In-Depth Part 1: Setup
Take everything out of the box and place it within easy reach of all players. Decks of cards should be separated by back, and each deck should be shuffled. Place the Wound tokens face down in a pile. Put the Elder Sign tokens in a bag. It is important that the remaining steps of the setup be done in the following order:
- As a group, all players should decide what scenario to play.
- Each player should pick a character they wish to play, and take their Character Sheet and token.
- Find the double-sized Main Entrance map tile. (It is labeled on the back with large black letters on a white background.) Put it in the middle of the table. This tile has five interior doors and an entrance on it.
- In real time (not taking turns) players may pick up map tiles and put them down, adding to the map of Miskatonic University.
All tiles are squares. All tiles have one, two, three, or four connection points, with either one or zero on any given side. Connection points are either interior doors, entrances, or outdoor connections. Any tile edge which does not have a connection point is a wall.
Newly placed tiles must obey these rules:
- The new tile must be reachable from any other tile that is already in play, using the standard movement rules (see below).
- Interior doors may only connect to other interior doors. Interior doors have a white chevron.
- Entrances may only connect to the outside tiles. Entrances have a blue chevron.
- Walls may only connect to outside tiles or other walls.
- Outdoor tiles may touch other outdoor tiles and walls.
(The page shows a sample set of map tiles, including Observatory, Bar, Hallway 3, Entrance 3, Star Trees, Statue, Chapel, Gymnasium, Main Entrance, Dinosaur Gallery, Hallway 1, Reading Room, Outdoor 4, Outdoor 6 and Vault.)
After the map is completed, one Cultist Role Card for the chosen Scenario should be selected at random without anyone seeing which one has been chosen.
Additional Academic Role Cards should be chosen, also at random, so that there are a number of Role Cards equal to the number of players. They should be shuffled and dealt out to each player secretly. Each player should look at their card, making sure not to accidentally show it to the other players.
If your card reads "Academic", then you are on the team with the other Academics, and you win if, as a team, you successfully complete the Scenario Goal (even if you die, your team can still win if your goals are completed).
If your card reads "Cultist", you are opposed to the Academic players, and you win if all the other characters die (even if you die, you can still win; if a monster kills the last of the characters, for example).
Each player should put their character standee on the tile that their character sheet indicates as their starting location.
Whichever player has had the worst nightmare is the first player. They take the Starting Player token and begin the first round.
The Starting Player has several abilities and responsibilities that they must attend to. They decide which Star Card to play at the end of the round. If the Cultist has not been revealed, they execute the algorithm which controls the monsters.
If there is ever a tie between two options (such as a monster being equidistant from two players and having to decide which one to move towards and attack) they decide which option occurs. Therefore it is very important not to forget that the Starting Player changes each round (see below).
In-Depth Part 2: Rounds and Turns
The Starting Player takes the first turn. After everyone has taken a turn, the Starting Player takes a University Turn and then passes the Starting Player token to the player on their left, and a new round begins.
Anatomy of a Turn
The first thing you do on your turn is draw an Event Card. If you are inside of a building, you draw an Indoor Event; if you are outdoors or on an Entrance, you draw an Outdoor Event. The card tells you what ability check to make, the difficulty, and the consequences of the check (see Ability Checks, below). After resolving the Event, you have two actions you may take, from the following list (you may pick the same action twice): Move, Attack, Steal, Use a Room, Use an Item, and Scenario Actions.
MOVE: Move up to your speed, as listed on your Character Sheet. Moving between adjacent tiles takes 1 point of movement. Tiles are adjacent if they have touching edges and neither edge is a wall (outdoor connections, an exterior door and an outdoor tile, or two interior doors).
ATTACK: Select a character or monster on the same tile as your character. Your character attacks them and they defend. Draw a Combat card. The attacker and the defender both make ability checks, using the ability and difficulty indicated on the card (the Defender first). See Ability Checks, below. The card specifies the result if two Weirds are rolled (on the Combat Cards, "you" refers to the person rolling, be they Defender or Attacker). You deal damage to your opponent equal to the number of Goods you roll plus the number of Bads they roll, minus their Defense. The Attacker and Defender deal damage simultaneously, so it is possible for two combatants to kill each other in a combat.
STEAL: Select a character or monster sharing a tile with your character holding an Item, Artefact, or pieces of the Elder Sign. Make a Finesse check, difficulty Red. If you get a number of successes equal to your target's Defense, you may take one Item, one Artefact, or all of their Elder Sign pieces from them.
USE A ROOM: You may use an ability listed on a room. For instance, the Gymnasium may let you permanently add one Green to your Brawn. Each room may be used once by each player. If the room says "Items" on it, this is called Searching, and allows you to draw an Item card.
USE AN ITEM: Some Items have actions listed on them. Those cards explain their effect and what ability check, if any, you must make to use them.
SCENARIO ACTIONS: Each Scenario has unique actions that are explained on the Scenario Sheet. Some require you to be in specific rooms to do them, others may require that you have specific items.
Once your event has been resolved and you've performed two actions, it becomes the next player's turn. Play passes to the left. After each player has a turn in a round, the Starting Player takes a University Turn, then passes the Starting Player token to their left. A new round begins with the new Starting Player.
University Turns
University Turns are when much of the bad stuff happens. First, the Starting Player draws two Star Cards. They pick one to play and shuffle the other card back into the Stars deck without revealing it to the other players. All Star Cards advance the Star Chart, and all but one also do something else bad for the Academics.
There are three durations of Star Cards: instantaneous, one round, and Weather. Instantaneous cards resolve immediately and are then discarded. One round cards remain in play until the beginning of the next University Turn, at which point they are discarded. Weather cards remain in play until a new Weather card is played, and affect all Outdoor tiles. Regardless of the card's duration, the Star Chart immediately advances the amount shown on the card.
After playing a Star Card, check to see if there are any monsters in play. If the Cultist is not yet revealed, each monster moves their speed towards the closest character, and if they end up in the same square as a character, they attack that character (see Attack, above). The first time a particular character enters a tile with a specific monster type, or vice versa, that character suffers Horror equal to the amount listed on the Monster card. The Starting Player acts as the monster, rolling for its attacks.
Once the Cultist has been revealed: The Cultist determines where the monsters move instead of the Starting Player. Cultists no longer draw Event cards and Academics may choose whether or not to draw an Event card on their turn.
Play continues in this fashion until either the Academic Goals have been completed, in which case the Academics win, or the Academics are all dead, in which case the Cultist wins.
In-Depth Part 3: Ability Scores and Ability Checks
Ability checks are the primary mechanic of the game, and are always done by rolling five dice. Ability checks are usually prompted by a specific card or are part of an action a player chooses to take. In either case, an ability check has these components: what ability score is used for the check, the difficulty of the check, and the possible results of the check.
Characters have four ability scores: Brawn, Finesse, Reason, and Focus. At the beginning of the game, these consist of two dice, such as Green Green, or Green Blue, etc. As the game progresses they may improve (add Green dice) or worsen (add Red dice). Green dice are the best, blue dice are mediocre, and red dice are the worst.
Ability checks tell you what ability score to use and what the difficulty of the check is. To perform the check, take dice equal to your ability score, then take additional dice of the color of the difficulty, until you have five dice in hand. For instance, a character with a Brawn of Green Blue performing a difficulty Red Brawn check would grab Green, Blue, and Red, Red, Red. A character with a Brawn of Green Green Red (which might come about from being wounded) performing a Blue Brawn check would grab Green, Green, Red, and Blue, Blue.
Roll the dice. The possible results for each die are Good (the star shaped Elder Sign symbol), Weird (the branch shaped symbol), and Bad (the swirly Yellow Sign).
After rolling the dice, you may reroll all of the dice that share a result: either all the Weird, all the Bad, or in rare circumstances, you may wish to reroll all the Good. After this reroll, you must accept the result: you don't get more rerolls.
Most ability checks, such as those prompted by Events, inform you of the results: typically one result occurs if you roll at least three Good, something different happens if you roll at least two Weird, and there's a third result if you roll at least two Bad. More than one of these can occur because of a given check, though the same one cannot occur twice because of a single check. See also Attack, above.
In general, Bad results are bad for the individual making the check, and Weird results are bad for the Academics as a whole.
Monsters, even those under the control of the Cultist, do not get to reroll dice. Note that a transformed player (for instance, a revealed Mi-Go) does get to reroll dice.
Example: Nelson's player is starting inside and so draws an Indoor Event card. The card requires a Focus test, as shown by the icon on the card. Nelson has a Focus of Green Blue. He must add an additional Red Red Red to bring the dice total up to 5.
The roll brings up the results of Good, Weird, Weird, Bad, Bad. This will trigger both the Weird (Weird, Weird) and Bad effects (Bad, Bad). Nelson's player may reroll all the dice of the same facing. Even though the Weird result will advance the Star Chart and spawn a tentacle, Nelson's player decides to reroll two Bad dice, resulting in Bad and Good.
The final result is now Good, Good, Weird, Weird, Bad, triggering only the Weird effects. Nelson's player may now continue with their turn.
(The page also shows the sample character sheet for Nelson Blake, an Indoor Event card, and the "Oh God, it's here!" Event card, which reads: 2 Horror. The Star Chart advances 1. Spawn a tentacle on the Main Entrance. You find a piece of the Elder Sign.)
Part 4: Anatomy of Cards and Tokens
There are 9 types of cards: Scenario Sheets, Character Sheets, Indoor and Outdoor Events, Role Cards, Combat Cards, Items, Artefacts, and Star Cards. There are also a number of tokens, including Wounds and Elder Sign Pieces.
SCENARIO SHEETS: The Prologue tells you the story of the game. The Artefacts section tells you which Artefact(s) you should use during the game.
The Academic Goals section details the goals that the Academics must complete in order to win. These are of the form A1 and A2, B1 and B2, etc. You must complete a part 1 before you can attempt the related part 2, but you can do A or B in any order. So for instance, you might do A1, B1, B2, and then A2, or B1, A1, B2, and then A2, etc. This section also tells you what the Scenario Actions are.
The Tentacles section tells you the statistics for Tentacles in this scenario. The Stars Align section tells you the possibilities for what the Cultist could be: which monster they will summon once they are revealed, and what the Star Chart must reach before they may reveal themselves. Note that there are multiple possibilities for each Scenario, and only the Cultist knows which one of these they really are.
CHARACTER SHEETS: Name, Description, and The Tale Begins...: these sections tell you about the personality and history of your character.
Location: This is where you place your character's standee in Setup.
Wounds: This tells you how many Wounds you can suffer before dying.
Speed: This tells you how many squares you may move during your Move action.
Defense: See Attack, above.
Horror: This tells you at how much Horror you reach before entering stage 2 and 3 of your Madness (see Role cards, below).
Finesse, Brawn, Reason, and Focus: these tell you your ability scores. See Ability Checks, above.
ITEMS: Items are useful cards found by Searching rooms labelled "Items". Some items give passive bonuses, such as the Kukri, which adds 1 to your Damage in all Combats and allows you to reroll one extra die.
Many items say "one handed" or "two handed". You may carry one two-handed item or up to two one-handed items. On your turn, you may drop items (if you don't have any hands left and want to pick up a new item, for example) without needing to spend an action. If you do, your items remain in the square you were in when you dropped them, and any character may use an action to pick as many of them up as they wish. Some items have Actions on them; to understand how they work, see Ability Checks, above.
WEAPONS: There are two types of weapons, melee and ranged. Melee weapons are used in combat, by taking the Attack action or by being attacked, such as by monsters in the University Phase. Ranged weapons are not used in combat, but instead have an action printed on them, which its wielder can use as one of their actions on their turn. To hit a target, you must be at least 1 tile away from them, and no further than the range, and there must be an unobstructed straight line connecting you. Doors and entrances do not block line of sight, but walls do. Make the ability check listed on the card: the number of Good results determines the amount of damage it deals, and in addition there are Weird and Bad results listed on the card. If a weapon runs out of ammo, you must discard it (not drop it in your square).
For instance, suppose Makawee Greenwood has the Remington Break-Action Shotgun. She takes an action to use it, grabbing one blue die and four red dice. She targets a square three tiles away which contains a Night Gaunt and a tentacle (if she were using a different gun, she would target only a single individual). She rolls three Bad, one Good, and one Weird. She rerolls the Bad dice, and ends up with a total of three Good and two Weird. She deals 3+2=5 damage to each monster, modified by its defense. The tentacle has a defense of 3, so it takes 2 damage. It has one wound, so it dies. The Night Gaunt also has a defense of 3, so it takes 2 damage. It has 4 wounds, so it survives, with 2 wounds remaining.
OUTDOOR AND INDOOR EVENTS: Events have an Ability Check you must make, and the consequences for that check. See Ability Checks, above. Once the Cultist reveals themself, each player may choose whether or not to draw an Event at the beginning of their turn.
THE STARS: Star cards have a Duration, an amount that the Star Chart advances, and may have additional effects. See University Turns above.
COMBAT: Combat cards have the difficulty of the Brawn Check the Attacker and Defender must make, and a consequence for rolling two Weirds in the combat. See Attack and Ability Checks above.
(Sample Combat and Star cards shown on the page: "Frozen With Fear", Duration 1 Round, "Characters cannot move", Star Chart Advances 2; and the Combat card "Relentless Assault", "Everyone involved in this fight has Defense 0".)
ROLE CARDS: Role Cards say either "You are an Academic" or "You are a Cultist". If you are the Cultist, your Role Card says what the Star Chart must reach before you can reveal yourself and what happens when you do. Revealing yourself does not take an action, and you may be done on any player's turns.
If you are an Academic, your Role Card describes your Madness. This has three stages: stage 1 is simply a flavorful description, but stages 2 and 3 have game mechanics that you must obey. Before the Cultist reveals themself, you may not reveal your Academic card nor read it out loud, though you may claim that your card is forcing you to take certain actions, honestly or dishonestly. Once the Cultist has revealed themself, the Academics may reveal their Madnesses.
(Sample Academic Role Card, "You are an Academic", Madness Effects: Stage 1: All this magic talk gives you the heebie jeebies. Stage 2: If you gain an Elder Sign piece from an Event, you must immediately discard it in your square. Stage 3: You cannot carry Elder Sign pieces.)
MONSTER CARDS:
Power: When this monster first spawns, roll a die of this color. It gets a one time bonus based on which face the die lands on.
Horror: The first time a character ends their turn in the same square as this type of monster, they suffer this much Horror.
Speed: How many squares the Monster may move in a given turn.
Attack: This is used in place of their ability score when a monster is Attacking or Defending. Many monsters also have an ability that is activated if certain results occur while attacking or defending: for instance, the Shoggoth inflicts 2 Horror on anyone attacking it or defending from it when it rolls two or more Weird results. See also University Turns, above.
Defense: This is used in combat, as described in above.
Wounds: How many wounds the monster can take before dying.
(Sample Monster card: Shoggoth, Horror 3, Speed 3, Defense 4, Wounds 8, Attack: three Green dice.)
ARTEFACTS: These are scenario-specific cards that function much like Items, except that you cannot find them by Searching: instead, you must use a Scenario Action.
STAR CHART: The Star Chart is a number that starts at 0 and increases as the game progresses, and never goes down. When it reaches a certain number that only the Cultist knows, the Cultist may reveal themselves (on anyone's turn; this does not take an action) and summon monsters or transform themselves or whatever it is that is listed on their Role Card. The Star Chart needs to reach either 15, 20, or 25, but only the Cultist knows which one of those is pertinent to a particular game.
(The Star Chart is a track numbered 1 to 30 on the board.)
WOUND TOKENS: When a character takes a wound, they draw a Wound token from the facedown pile and reveal it. Some wounds have an additional effect such as -1 Speed, or +Red Brawn. The wound that reads "2 Wounds" on it does not cause an extra wound to be drawn, it simply counts as two wounds when determining a character's remaining health.
HORROR SLIDER: These are used to keep track of how much Horror a character has taken in the course of the game, sitting over the current amount of madness on the Horror track. Your Character Sheet says how much Horror you can gather before reaching Stage 2 or Stage 3 of your Madness. When in Stage 3, you experience the consequences of both Stage 2 and Stage 3 of your Madness. If you ever reach the end of your Stage 3, and would take additional Horror, you instead take 1 Wound for each Horror you would have taken.
ELDER SIGN TOKENS: One of the goals in each Scenario is to assemble a complete Elder Sign. A complete Elder Sign consists of a set of six tokens held by a single character: five triangular outer pieces, and one pentagonal center piece. Elder Sign tokens may be traded, dropped, or stolen as though they were items. Once completed, an Elder Sign is considered a single item.
Part 5: Two Player Mode
There are some significant differences when playing two-player, including the way role cards are distributed, how cultists reveal themselves, and even how many characters a player controls. Everything in the game is the same as in the 3-6 player version, except what is described below.
Each player controls two characters. On a player's turn, they can take two actions with each character, in any order, for a total of four actions. If only one of your characters is alive, that character only has two actions. For instance, a player controlling Nelson Blake and Virginia Anson could have Nelson run to the same square Virginia's in, then she could initiate a trade to take the Slate Star Codex from him and hand him the dynamite, then he could throw it, then she could read from the Codex.
There are four role cards, but each player only takes one. After you've chosen a scenario, built the map, and chosen characters, take the Cultist cards which align at 15 and 20 and set them aside facedown. Set the card which aligns at 25 face up where everyone can see it. Take two facedown Academic role cards at random, and shuffle them with the two facedown Cultists role cards. Deal one to each player and discard the other two without revealing them. The card which aligns at 25 remains on the board.
Three situations are now possible:
- Both of the players are Academics.
- Both of the players are Cultists.
- One of the players is a Cultist and one of the players is an Academic. (This will be the case half of the time).
If you are an Academic, then you win if one of the Scenario goals is completed, or if the Cultist has revealed themselves, died, and all monsters on the board are dead.
If you are a Cultist, you win if both the other player's characters are dead. You must reveal yourself when the stars align at the number indicated on your Role Card. When you reveal yourself, select one of your characters to die and one to become the Cultist.
In situation 3, the Academic tries to solve one of the Scenario Goals, while the Cultist may reveal themselves and attack, or may employ subterfuge until they are forced to reveal when the stars align. Once the Cultist reveals themself, the Academic can also win by successfully defeating them.
In situation 2, both Cultists sacrifice one of their characters when they reveal, and they cannot reveal themselves until the stars align for them and they are forced to.
In situation 1, when the Star Chart reaches 20 and no one reveals themselves as the Cultist, the face up 25 Cultist activates. None of the characters are sacrificed, and the Academics must work together to complete a single one of the Academic goals before they're killed by any summoned monsters. Summoned monsters move towards the closest living player and attack them.
Turn Order
The first player takes a turn with each of their characters.
The second player takes a turn with each of their characters. The second player then draws two Star Cards, chooses one to play, and one to shuffle back into the deck facedown.
The first player takes a turn with each of their characters. The first player then draws two Star Cards, chooses one to play, and one to shuffle back into the deck facedown.
The second player takes a turn with each of their characters and then plays a star card as before; turns continue in this fashion.
Part 6: Single Player Mode
Single player plays with the following changes:
SETUP: The player chooses 3 characters to control instead of 1. Each character gets an Academic card. Select one Cultist card (it doesn't matter which) and any two other Madness cards, shuffle them, and lay them one after the other, facedown. Draw a random character: if the Cultist card calls for a character to do something, this character will join the game as a Cultist.
GAMEPLAY: As in the two player mode, each living character may perform two actions per round, in any order. After all the characters have taken a turn, play the top card of the Stars deck. Play continues in this fashion until the Star Chart reaches 15. At that point, reveal the first facedown Role card. If it is a Cultist, then look at the Cultist for this Scenario where the Stars Align at 15 and play its ability. If it summons monsters, they move and attack as described in University Turns above.
If the Cultist card calls for the character to transform, draw an item, gain a power, or do anything other than summon monsters, move the character set aside during setup into the Main Hall. Treat them as a monster, except that in addition to attacking and moving, once on each of their turns, the character can use any of their unique powers.
If the first facedown card is not the Cultist, play continues until the Star Chart reaches 20. At that point, check the second facedown card. If it is the Cultist, follow the above instructions. If not, continue until the Star Chart reaches 25 and reveal the final card, (which must be the Cultist) and follow the above instructions.