I thoroughly enjoyed Hobbit Tales when it hit (you can check out my review here) and now designers Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi have turned their attentions to the Cthulhu Mythos. Cthulhu Tales, to be released through Cubicle 7, is another storytelling game but of a much darker tone than the previous release as each player regales the others with adventures of monsters and madness. Cthulhu Tales is almost at its funding goal and you can reserve a copy at the $30 pledge level.
From Cubicle 7:
Cthulhu Tales is a storytelling card game for people who enjoy the weird tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, love games and have a sense of humour with a touch of darkness to it…
Incarcerated in a sanatorium, you must convince the staff that you are sane by telling the story of the terrifying events that led you there. The other players try to disrupt your tale to make themselves look more sane in comparison, and the success of your tale determines which misguided therapies and medication are administered by the terrifying medical staff. These treatments are the way the game is scored, the player ending with the least amount of treatment is the winner, and is free to go.
Cthulhu Tales is very much a game, rather than simply a guided storytelling activity – it features structured and elegant rules for the telling of the tale, and for Hazard card interruptions. Players use the symbols on the cards to determine whether a card can be played, and its effect on the Narrator’s tale. The die introduces an element of luck into the proceedings – perhaps that Viscous Black Slime was merely a passing detail, or perhaps its arrival was the precursor to something far more sinister and madness inducing…
The game contains:
115 beautifully sinister and disquieting, large-format playing cards with artwork from the C7 art team Scott Purdy, Jon Hodgson and Sam Manley
A board to guide your tale-telling
A 16-page full colour rulebook (which you can download for free now).
A 12 sided die, or perhaps if the stars are right, a unique Cthulhu Tales 12-sided die
A set of Treatment tokens
Cthulhu Tales brings horrifying and darkly humorous story telling to your gaming table.
Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...
