This would change when Mark R invited some of us over for a game of CMON's Cthulhu: Death May Die, a cooperative board game for 1 to 5 players where you take on the creatures of the Cthulhu mythos. The basic premise is that cultists are summoning one of the Elder Ones and it is up to a ragtag group of investigators to disrupt the ritual long enough to make the Elder One vulnerable allowing it to be killed.
Mark had painted the miniatures over the Christmas break and was keen to show off the game. For the first game we played the 'Tomes of Madness' episode with Hastur as the Elder One that needed to be sent back into the shadows. The Episode provides the map layout, the ritual you are trying to disrupt (and how to disrupt it), as well as the abilities of the monsters in the game. Each Elder One provides the big boss to be defeated, with its own challenges, along with its special minions.
Unfortunately David T and Jono T didn't make it (and I haven't heard from them since...) as David wasn't feeling well.
This meant only Ernest Hemingway (Mark) and Ariele Venturi (myself) were able to stop the cultists and disciples in the catacombs. Below is my character sheet that tracks my character's sanity, stress, health and skills (your skills increase as your insanity increases). During the game you turn over Mythos cards providing new challenges (and acting as tracker for the progression of the ritual) and Discovery cards (providing followers and equipment). Like many games in recent times, these details make a good game great (there's also a QRS on the left hand side).
Our mission was to find tokens (on the bodies of dead cultists) and match pairs up to find a tome. Initially Ernest and Ariele split up, but when the Cthonian passed me, I decided there was safety in numbers.
The whole time I was conscious of my 'Recurring Trauma' that would potentially be triggered as my sanity eroded away. But this was not time for weakness, Ernest was dealing with cultists, disciples and ghouls by himself. Defeating all with some ease, but all the time your balancing your Stress and Health levels - it got close at times.
It was inevitable that Hastur would join us. The tracker means that he jumps around the board. By this time Mark and I were working together and using our skills and equipment to would Hastur as much as possible. The grenades Ernest had helped too.
It's worth pointing out again how nice those miniatures are - absolutely gorgeous. This is however the moment I lost control of my Sanity management and Ariele went insane. Ernest would therefore have to take on Hastur alone in the last stage of the game.
It seemed easy though, and the grenade finished off the room he was in with an absolute plethora of followers.
We that was fun - so we had another game. The episode would be 'Danse Macabre' with The Goat of the Black Woods be the one the cultists were attempting to bring into this world. Following on from the skills I had with Ariele, I decided to take a character that had a slight variation (no Stealth, but Arcane Knowledge) to test what difference this would make - Walter was also a hunter that preferred to attack at range. Mark took Albert Einstein. Yes, that Albert - who apparently loved hunting the evils of the unknown.
Along with the cultists, the Black Goat would be accompanied by Dark Youngs, Hunting Horrors and Deep Ones. From the very beginning we were assaulted by the monsters, and Albert being a lot more skilled in both flipping over the ball goer tokens to find the four Cthulhu worshippers in the crowd and then prodding them to the wharf. Eventually (with the help of picking up the Stealth skill) Walter got into the action.
We picked up a lot of animal companions (Walter got a gorilla with three extra wounds and the apt description of "RAWR" on the card! Albert had a peacock... as you do). We also dealt with the monster and cultists that streamed from upstairs - this assisted in managing them and our Stress and Health.
This time team work was a lot smoother and we defeated the Black Goat, both alive and both sane.
I love this game - it looks beautiful, plays well and is a lot of fun. Definitely one to play again.
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