''Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game'' (formerly the ''Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game'') is an out-of-print

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

produced and marketed by

Fantasy Flight Games Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing game, role-playing, board game, board, card game, card, and dice game, dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of ...

from 2004 to 2015. It is based on Chaosium's '' Call of Cthulhu''

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

, the writings of

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

, and other

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...

fiction. It was launched in 2004 as a

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with ''Magic: The G ...

(CCG). In 2008, Fantasy Flight moved the game over to its

Living Card Game Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of Asmodee North America. History Fantasy Flight Publ ...

(LCG) format, which retains the deck-building aspect of collectible card games, but without the random distribution. The game final expansion was released in 2015. It shares art and characters with FFG's other Cthulhu Mythos products ''

Arkham Horror ''Arkham Horror'' is a cooperative adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium. The game is based on Chaosium's roleplaying game ''Call of Cthulhu'', which is set in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. L ...

'' and '' Elder Sign''.

Overview

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...

had previously been involved in the

(CCG) business in the mid-1990s, printing ''

Mythos Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

'', its Cthulhu mythos CCG. Chaosium discontinued the game in 1997 after poor sales. In 2004, Chaosium instead licensed the property to

(FFG), allowing FFG to produce the official ''Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game''. It was designed by Eric M. Lang as a more accessible introduction to gaming in the Mythos environment and to provide a fast and lively interplay with the usual elements of the mythos (e.g. arcane tomes and secrets, paranormal investigations, the elder gods and their terrible servants, dark sinister plots, inhuman conspiracies, and dangers from beyond the stars). The game is nominally set in 1928. FFG staffer Darrell Hardy developed the background for the game. Most of the storyline text (including card names and flavor text) was written by creative developer Pat Harrigan. In the ''Living Card Game'' format, the original story line was penned by Nate French, with the help of Dan Clark. Since 2010 all story lines have been created by the game's current developer Damon Stone.

The game

Players attach ''resources'' (taken from the cards in their hand) onto blank placeholder cards known as ''domains'', later "draining" them by putting a ''drain counter'' on them to play various cards. Both players compete to complete ''stories'' by winning ''success tokens''. Five success tokens wins a story; three stories wins the game. Players typically assign character cards to stories, to win struggles and gain these success tokens. Additionally, the first player to run out of cards to draw from loses the game, making ''deck destruction'' another potentially effective strategy.

The cards

Five types of card exist in Call of Cthulhu: Story Cards, Character cards, Event cards, Support cards and Conspiracy cards. All cards (except story cards) have a cost and belong to a faction (described below). Various cards have subtypes (such as ''investigator'', ''tome'', or ''location''). *Story cards come from a shared deck, and are the object of the game. Players compete by placing "success tokens" on these story cards. Once a player has placed 5 success tokens they win the story, earning the option to execute (or ignore) the effect written on it. Once a player has 3 story cards they win the game. Standard players use the 10 latest story cards, of which 3 randomly chosen are in play at any time.

The Nameless City "The Nameless City" is a short horror story written by American writer H. P. Lovecraft in January 1921 and first published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal ''The Wolverine''. It is often considered the first story set in ...

is a special promotional Story card that requires 10 success tokens but allows a player to win the game instantly. Another promotional story card is named "

The Challenge From Beyond ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

" (after a story written in collaboration by H.P. Lovecraft and four of his correspondents), and has the opposite effect: it cannot be won like a normal story, but players may draw extra cards by scoring "successes" at it. *Character cards are a player's agents, used to attempt to complete stories. They possess a ''skill'' rating (used to succeed at stories) and may also have ''icons'', which indicate the card's abilities during the ''icon struggle'' phase of play. *Event cards have one-time effects and do not remain in play. *Support cards have persistent effects, incurring lasting benefits or hindrances. * Conspiracies are introduced in "Conspiracies of Chaos." These function similar as Story cards but are played from the players' decks.

The factions

There are eight factions in Call of Cthulhu, as well as "neutral" cards (light grey in color) that are not part of any faction. A card may only be played if a domain with that faction attached is drained (neutral cards can be paid for using any faction). *The Agency: This "investigator" faction comprises the Blackwood Detective Agency, law enforcement agencies, and others involved in criminal justice. Its symbol is a badge, and its color is blue. *Miskatonic University: This "investigator" faction represents the academic prowess of Lovecraft's fictional

Miskatonic University Arkham () is a fictional city situated in Massachusetts, United States. An integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft, Arkham is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers. Arkham ...

, as well as other academic groups. Its symbol is a scroll, and its color is gold. *The Syndicate: This "investigator" faction represents the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

element of human society, including mobsters, killers and journalists. It mainly focuses on Danny O'Bannion's gang and its contacts. Its symbol is a dollar sign in a triangle and its color is dark brown. *The Order of the Silver Twilight: This "investigator" faction is a later addition to the game and is based on the secret cabal of the same name from the Call of Cthulhu mythos, whose members must pass through successive ranks of occult initiation and ritual to emerge into the inner sanctum of the Order, there to pursue their quest for ultimate earthly - and unearthly - power. Its symbol is a trident in a cross, and its color is silver grey. *Cthulhu: This "mythos" faction includes

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon ...

himself, as well as his associated cultists and monsters (such as

deep ones The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella ''The Shadow over Innsmouth'' (1931), but were already hinted at in the early short story "Dagon". The Deep Ones are a race o ...

and

shoggoths A shoggoth (occasionally shaggoth) is a fictional creature in the Cthulhu Mythos. The beings were mentioned in passing in H. P. Lovecraft's sonnet cycle ''Fungi from Yuggoth'' (1929–30), and later mentioned in other works, before being describ ...

). Its symbol is a squid, and its color is green. *Hastur: This "mythos" faction centers on

Hastur Hastur (known by the epithets The Unspeakable One, The King in Yellow, Him Who Is Not to be Named, Assatur, Xastur, H'aaztre, Fenric, or Kaiwan) is an entity of the Cthulhu Mythos. Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story "Haïta t ...

, especially his King in Yellow aspect, as well as his worshippers and minions, largely human

psychopaths Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity t ...

and monstrous

Byakhee This is a list of fictional creatures from the Cthulhu mythos of American people, American writer H. P. Lovecraft and his collaborators. Byakhee The byakhees or byakhee birds first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Festival (short story), ...

s, as well as

werewolves In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after bei ...

. Its symbol is the Yellow Sign, and its color is yellow. *Yog-Sothoth: This "mythos" faction centers on

Yog-Sothoth Cthulhu Mythos deities are a group of fictional deities created by American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), and later expanded by others in the fictional universe known as the Cthulhu mythos. These entities are usually depicted as immens ...

, and the scholars who worship it, as well as various trans-dimensional beings including

Nightgaunts ''The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'' is a Horror fiction, horror novella by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Begun probably in the autumn of 1926, the draft was completed on January 22, 1927 in literature, 1927, and it remained unrevised and u ...

and

Star vampire Rublood is an Italian industrial metal band from Turin, Italy. Formed in 2010, the group are noted for their dark horror-themed lyrics, pessimistic and misanthropic social commentary, distinctive trademark face paint, dark stage uniforms and p ...

s; it also hosts several

undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if they were alive. A common example of an undead being is a cadaver, corpse reanimated by supernatural forces, by the application of either the deceased's o ...

monsters. Its symbol is a key, and its color is purple. *Shub-Niggurath: This "mythos" faction centers on

Shub-Niggurath Shub-Niggurath is a deity created by H. P. Lovecraft. She is often associated with the phrase "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young". The only other name by which Lovecraft referred to her was "Lord of the Wood" in his story ''The W ...

and the many, many monsters she is responsible for creating (notably

Dark Young Shub-Niggurath is a deity created by H. P. Lovecraft. She is often associated with the phrase "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young". The only other name by which Lovecraft referred to her was "Lord of the Wood" in his story ''The W ...

ghouls In folklore, a ghoul (from , ') is a demon-like being or Monster, monstrous humanoid, often associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. In the legends or tales in which they appear, a ghoul is far more ill-mannered and foul t ...

, and

Dholes The dhole ( ; ''Cuon alpinus'') is a canid native to South, East and Southeast Asia. It is anatomically distinguished from members of the genus ''Canis'' in several aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third ...

). Its symbol is a goat's head, and its color is red.

Availability

The Call of Cthulhu card game is currently produced in the form of a core set, featuring cards from 7 factions, neutral cards, story cards, success/wound tokens, a full-colour manual, a game board, and Cthulhu-shaped domain markers. (The 8th faction, Order of the Silver Twilight, does not appear in the core set.) The game is ready to play and decks can be made quickly by combining cards from two of the factions along with several neutral cards.

Collectible Card Game

Older products may still be available from retailers, though these cards have black borders and different backs. Official tournaments so far have been "white border only", so it is not necessary to chase down the older cards. The only reasons to do so are for fun or to complete a collection, though if intended for play, sleeves are required to disguise the different backs. ;CCG sets *Arkham Edition (1st base set) *Unspeakable Tales (1st expansion) *Forbidden Relics (2nd expansion) *Eldritch Edition (2nd base set) *Masks of Nyarlathotep (3rd expansion) *Forgotten Cities (4th expansion) Arkham Edition and Eldritch Edition also included "Premium Starter Sets" that contain two playable decks, primarily consisting of reprints from the normal sets, and a series of promo cards given as attendance awards for participating in official tournaments. Each booster pack contains 11 cards (including 3 'uncommon' and 1 'rare'). In addition, the Arkham and Eldritch base sets offered starter sets with fixed contents, designed to introduce players to the game. In May 2006, Fantasy Flight Games announced their decision to cease releasing cards in a CCG format, and to instead begin releasing smaller sets of cards as single decks with fixed contents in the LCG format. These "Asylum Packs" would be released once-a-month, and were initially designed to be compatible with the CCG cards. Released approximately once a month, these expansions were designed to increase the players' card pool in a balanced and affordable way. Three copies of twenty new cards are introduced in each pack, for a total of 60 cards. The initial printings of the sets included varying quantities of each card to echo the rare, uncommon, and common rarities of the original game, and this distribution may still be found in some out-of-print packs. Casual gamers can play using a single core set and have the option of using supplemental packs if they want to. ;Original Asylum Packs *Spawn of Madness (first pack) *Kingsport Dreams (second pack) *Conspiracies of Chaos (third pack) *Dunwich Denizens (fourth pack)

Asylum Packs

The Asylum Packs proved to be very popular, encouraging Fantasy Flight to convert the entire game into the LCG format. On February 5, 2008, Fantasy Flight announced that they would be publishing a new "Core Set" of cards in October 2008, incompatible with the original CCG cards, and that two additional Asylum Packs, ''The Mountains of Madness'' and ''Ancient Horrors'', would be published to follow the existing Asylum Packs and complete the first cycle, "Forgotten Lore"; all six packs were reprinted in 2011 as pieces of a unified set, with a single set icon and continuous numbering. Fantasy Flight continued printing monthly Asylum Packs, arranged into six-piece cycles, for several years. ;Forgotten Lore *Spawn of Madness *Kingsport Dreams *Conspiracies of Chaos *Dunwich Denizens *At the Mountains of Madness *Ancient Horrors ;Summons of the Deep *The Spawn of the Sleeper *The Horror Beneath the Surface *The Antediluvian Dreams *The Terror of the Tides *The Thing from the Shore *The Path to Y'ha-nthlei ;The Dreamlands *Twilight Horror *In Memory of Day *In the Dread of Night *The Search for the Silver Key *Sleep of the Dead *Journey to Unknown Kadath ;The Yuggoth Contract *Whispers in the Dark *Murmurs of Evil *The Spoken Covenant *The Wailer Below *Screams from Within *The Cacophony ;The Rituals of the Order *The Twilight Beckons *Perilous Trials *Initiations of the Favored *Aspirations of Ascension *The Gleaming Spiral *That Which Consumes ;Ancient Relics *The Shifting Sands *Curse of the Jade Emperor *The Breathing Jungle *Never Night *Into Tartarus *Shadow of the Monolith ;Revelations *Written and Bound *Words of Power *Ebla Restored *Lost Rites *The Unspeakable Pages *Touched by the Abyss

Deluxe Expansions

In July 2012, Fantasy Flight announced that they would switch to a new distribution model: instead of the near-monthly Asylum Packs, there would be one 165-card deluxe expansion every four months, beginning with ''Seekers of Knowledge''. *Secrets of Arkham (110 cards) Fantasy Flight has announced that the reprint will have 3 copies of each player card (i.e. 150 deck cards and 10 story cards), like the other deluxe expansions. It will be released early 2014. *The Order of the Silver Twilight (165 cards) *Seekers of Knowledge (165 cards) *The Key and the Gate (165 cards) *Terror in Venice (165 cards) *Denizens of the Underworld (165 cards) *The Sleeper Below (165 cards) *For The Greater Good (165 cards) *The Thousand Young *The Mark of Madness

Gaming milestones

Yithian Deck

In May 2006, as a special promotion, copies of the

Yithian The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...

deck were handed out to tournament organisers. The Yithian deck was a purposely unbalanced deck, ignoring normal deck-building rules and featuring overpowered cards representing Yithians. Since these cards are so overpowered, they are illegal in normal tournament play. This Yithian Tournament had the following special rules: * The first-place finisher challenges the Yithian deck, as played by the tournament organizer. * If the first-place finisher is defeated, the second-place finisher takes his spot, and so on. * All challengers must use the same deck they played in the tourney. * The first player to defeat the Yithian deck takes a copy of the deck home. The Yithian Deck consists of the following promo cards: *Y1 Pnakotic Elder x6 *Y2 Great Race Scientist x6 *Y3 Yithian Soldier x6 *Y4 Master of Time and Space x8 *Y5 Displaced x4 *Y6 Library at Pnakotus x8 *Y7 Traveller of Aeons x2

Player Designed Cards

The winners of the Call of Cthulhu World Championship are invited to design a card that is released within the other products. These cards usually have a high power level, and the art features the likeness of the person that designed it. A number of these cards depict Tom Capor's character, the Archmage Magnus Arcanis.

Game Night Kit

On December 18, 2012, Fantasy Flight announced retailer-incentive "Game Night Kits", meant to serve as demo kits and encourage new players to get into the series. The kits include alternate art versions of existing cards to be used as prizes, as well as a unique deck box, promotional poster, and two sets of specialized wound tokens.

Programs

Servitor Program

Fantasy Flight Games have set up the ''Servitor'' program to help tournament organizers by giving tournament support, like promo cards, Sanity Certificates and access to special promotional items like the Yithian Deck, to give away as prizes.

Sanity Redemption

Older products in the line come with ''Sanity Points'' on the packaging, which range from 1 Sanity Point on boosters, to 5 on Asylum packs. Servitors are given Sanity Certificates to hand out to tournament winners. These Sanity Points could be redeemed until June 30, 2008 for items like promo cards or T-shirts.

Awards

* In 2005, ''

Flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

'' magazine awarded the Call of Cthulhu CCG the title "Best Card Game of 2005." * In 2008,

InQuest Gamer ''InQuest Gamer'' was a monthly magazine for game reviews and news that was published from 1995 to 2007. The magazine was published by Wizard Entertainment (not to be confused with Wizards of the Coast, which produced its own CCG magazine, '' Th ...

magazine voted the Call of Cthulhu CCG the number 57 ranking Game of All Time saying that it "broke new ground with domain-based resource mechanics and great integration of the requisite horror and madness themes."

Reviews

*''

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

'' *'' Rue Morgue'' #87https://archive.org/details/Rue_Morgue_087_March_2009/page/n65/mode/2up

Discontinuation

On the September 22, 2015, it was announced that Fantasy Flight Games would cease all tournament support and stop developing new expansions after the 2015 World Championship. The Mark of Madness expansion, focusing on

, was the last expansion, completing a cycle of expansions for all 8 factions. In total the game had 10 deluxe box expansions and 7 cycles of 6 asylum packs through the years. Fantasy Flight Games announced that they will keep the ability to reprint already released expansions on demand.

References

External links

* * {{The Call of Cthulhu Fiction set in 1928 Card games introduced in 2004 Card games introduced in 2008 Discontinued collectible card games Cthulhu Mythos card games Discontinued expandable card games Fantasy Flight Games games Eric M. Lang games Horror board games Products and services discontinued in 2015