Cultists of Cthulhu

Better know a scenario: the Cult of Cthulhu
over 8 years ago – Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 11:18:42 PM

This is the eponymous scenario for the game, so I put in a lot of effort to make sure it's both a really great, fun, well balanced scenario, and that it's really unique and shows off what the game is about.

In the Cult of Cthulhu scenario, the Academics are trying to find the Cthulhu Idol that the cult is trying to steal, and smash it. The Cultist is trying to kill the Academics, and having the Idol will greatly enhance their ability to do that, so they're desperate to get their hands on it.

The Academics need to find the Idol, reassemble the Elder Sign, get them in the same room, and then destroy the Idol. The Cultist needs to stop that from happening, and kill the Academics while they're at it.

One thing that I really like about this design is the Tentacle Tokens. They started out as just a generic monster that can be in any scenario, but then during playtesting they ended up evolving into pretty separate beasts in each of the scenarios. In the Fungi from Yuggoth they're weak but fast, while in the Esoteric Order of Dagon they're stronger but slower. In the Coming of Nyarlathotep they're not monsters at all, but immobile rifts in space, and in the Cult of Cthulhu they're not even on the map, they're counters used to build up the power of the monster summoned when the Cultist reveals themself.

As in all the scenarios, there are three possible role cards for the Cultist in the Cult of Cthulhu. In one, the Cultist is joined by a horde of dagger wielding fellow cultists, who swarm the university and try to sacrifice the Academics to their Dread Lord Cthulhu. In the second, a dreaded Star Spawn of Cthulhu arrives, massively powerful and able to move in non-Euclidean ways. And in my absolute favorite, a single, immobile portal opens, and out of it reaches a vast, indestructible, enormous tentacle, that is one tile long for each Tentacle Token summoned in the game. You end up with a 40 foot tentacle throwing Academics around while they desperately scramble to rebuild the Elder Sign. It's fantastic fun. I played a game with it just a few nights ago at Good Games here in Melbourne, and it was great, and I can't wait to get it to the rest of you.

I'll be sending out more descriptions of the scenarios like this in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

This is the official thread for nominating ideas for the collaboratively designed scenario (READ ME)
over 8 years ago – Wed, Sep 09, 2015 at 01:17:59 AM

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We did it!
over 8 years ago – Thu, Sep 03, 2015 at 02:13:29 PM

515 of you contributed $57,248 and made Cultists of Cthulhu a reality! And now for me to sleep for a million years.

I'll post more about Cultists and our other upcoming projects in the next few weeks. Thank you all so much. I'll talk to you soon.

30 hours to go and we've made the "You Design a Scenario" stretch goal! Time for one last push!
over 8 years ago – Wed, Sep 02, 2015 at 12:58:38 AM

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I've landed in Melbourne
over 8 years ago – Tue, Sep 01, 2015 at 04:26:54 PM

I'm on a boat! Well, okay, right now I'm in the library near where the boat is docked, since the boat doesn't have wifi.

I'm going to meet up with Joshua soon and we'll go over our plans for the art for Cultists and maybe even get in a game or two. I'll post some pictures once we do.

We're also over $48,000 and we haven't even hit the 48 hour mark yet! I am super excited to see if we make it to $50,000. I really hope we do, I want that last stretch goal as much as anyone!