Call of Cthulhu
Designer:
Nate French
Eric M. Lang

The first thing I must say is that I am a fan of the literature of H.P. Lovecraft. So much so that being in New England I have visited the sites of several of his stories. I think every student of literature should read the opening paragraphs of the Call of Cthulhu. I don't agree with his outlook on reality, but his ability to write prose is genius.

I am also a gamer, there are many CCG products with a good theme, but horrible game mechanics. On top of this many CCG products are money pits which keep card store owners smiling, but are limited in who you can play with.

THE CONCEPT OF COC LCG:

As a former fan of the COC CCG I remember the lack of attention given to this game. If you go on You Tube you can still see the "Demonstration Game" played with someone with a black robe and another guy. Not only was this of little help understanding the game, it was almost spoofing the game itself.

When Fantasy Flight released three games in the LCG format, they made the best core sets I've seen. The directions are no longer little inserts folded into a pack of cards. There is a mounted play board, neat Cthulhu tokens to use to drain your resources. Excellent video tutorials, and individual web pages and support.

You truly can buy the Core set, organize interesting decks and play some balanced games from the start.

The mechanics of the game are well done, but they require some getting used to. You must build resources,sacrificing some of your cards and battle for "Story" cards. At the same time play tactics and special abilities. Characters from Lovecraft's stories and quotes from the stories themselves add to the excellent artwork on the cards.

The rulebook does a good job in explaining this. Deckbuilding is made simple by asking newbies to shuffle two factions together and add some neutral cards. As you gain experience you can go online for tips.

My beginning question was regarding if this game made sense to buy in these times. If you were thinking of getting into a customizable card game genre, the LCG are really the way to go.

I have played Warhammer: Invasion, it's a lot of fun. If you are familiar with the Warhammer universe, that might be your first choice. I have not played the Game of Thrones LCG so I can't give a yeah or neah on it. The Call of Cthulhu is a great game which can make the genre affordable. (You can still go nuts and get every expansion pack under the sun if you want to die a pauper like Lovecraft himself, but it isn't required.)

Now I'll let you know my devious plot. The hardest thing in CCG is getting someone to play outside the confines of the FLGS. Well, I gave the core game to some family members as gifts. I have a good supply of partners who without intervention by a van of deprogrammers have been bit by the Cthulhu Mythos and are a phone call away.

This is a fun and challenging game you should consider.