Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game

Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game (formerly the Call

of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game) is a card game produced and marketed by Fantasy Flight Games. It is based
on the ction of the Cthulhu Mythos, primarily the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and Chaosiums Call of Cthulhu
role-playing game. In 2008, Fantasy Flight moved the
game over to its Living Card Game (LCG) format,[1]
which retains the deck-building aspect of collectible card
games, but without the random distribution.[2]

run out of cards to draw from loses the game, making

deck destruction another potentially eective strategy.

2.1 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
It shares art and characters with FFGs other Cthulhu
subtypes (such as investigator, tome, or location).
Mythos products Arkham Horror and Elder Sign.

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 eect 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 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" (after a story written in collaboration by H.P.
Lovecraft and four of his correspondents), and has
the opposite eect: it cannot be won like a normal
story, but players may draw extra cards by scoring
successes at it.

Overview

Chaosium had previously been involved in the collectible

card game (CCG) business in the mid-1990s, printing
Mythos, its Cthulhu mythos CCG. Chaosium discontinued the game in 1997 after poor sales. In 2004, Chaosium
instead licensed the property to Fantasy Flight Games
(FFG), allowing FFG to produce the ocial 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.

Character cards are a players 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 cards abilities during the
icon struggle phase of play.

FFG staer Darrell Hardy developed the background for

the game. Most of the storyline text (including card
names and avor 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 games current developer Damon Stone.

Event cards have one-time eects and do not remain

in play.
Support cards have persistent eects, incurring
lasting benets or hindrances.

The game

Conspiracies are introduced in Conspiracies of

Players attach resources (taken from the cards in their
Chaos. These function similar as Story cards but
hand) onto blank placeholder cards known as domains,
are played from the players decks.
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 2.2 The factions
wins a story; three stories wins the game. Players typically assign character cards to stories, to win struggles and There are eight factions in Call of Cthulhu, as well as
gain these success tokens. Additionally, the rst player to neutral cards (light grey in color) that are not part of
1

AVAILABILITY

any faction. A card may only be played if a domain with 3 Availability

that faction attached is drained (neutral cards can be paid
for using any faction).
The Call of Cthulhu card game is currently produced in
the form of a core set, featuring cards from 7 factions,
The Agency: This investigator faction comprises neutral cards, story cards, success/wound tokens, a fullthe Blackwood Detective Agency, law enforcement colour manual, a game board, and Cthulhu-shaped doagencies, and others involved in criminal justice. Its main markers. (The 8th faction, Order of the Silver Twilight, does not appear in the core set.) The game is ready
symbol is a badge, and its color is blue.
to play and decks can be made quickly by combining
Miskatonic University: This investigator faction cards from two of the factions along with several neutral
represents the academic prowess of Lovecrafts c- cards.
tional Miskatonic University, as well as other academic groups. Its symbol is a scroll, and its color is
3.1 Collectible Card Game
gold.
The Syndicate: This investigator faction represents the underworld element of human society, including mobsters, killers and journalists. It mainly
focuses on Danny O'Bannions gang and its contacts.
Its symbol is a dollar sign in a triangle and its color
is dark brown.

Older products may still be available from retailers,

though these cards have black borders and dierent
backs. Ocial 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 dierent backs.

The Order of the Silver Twilight : This investigator faction is a later addition to the game and CCG sets
centers a secret cabal of leading politicians, charis Arkham Edition (1st base set)
matic socialites, persuasive civic leaders, and successful businessmen who must pass through succes Unspeakable Tales (1st expansion)
sive ranks of occult initiation and ritual to emerge
into the inner sanctum of the Order, there to pur Forbidden Relics (2nd expansion)
sue their quest for ultimate earthly - and unearthly
Eldritch Edition (2nd base set)
- power. Its symbol is a trident in a cross, and its
color is silver grey. Their name may be a play on
Masks of Nyarlathotep (3rd expansion)
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Forgotten Cities (4th expansion)
Cthulhu: This mythos faction includes Cthulhu
himself, as well as his associated cultists and mon- Arkham Edition and Eldritch Edition also included Presters (such as deep ones and shoggoths). Its symbol mium Starter Sets that contain two playable decks, priis a squid, and its color is green.
marily consisting of reprints from the normal sets, and
a series of promo cards given as attendance awards for
Hastur: This mythos faction centers on Hastur, participating in ocial tournaments.
especially his King in Yellow aspect, as well
as his worshippers and minions, largely human Each booster pack contains 11 cards (including 3 'uncompsychopaths and monstrous Byakhees, as well as mon' and 1 'rare'). In addition, the Arkham and Eldritch
werewolves. Its symbol is the Yellow Sign, and its base sets oered starter sets with xed contents, designed
to introduce players to the game.
color is yellow.
In May 2006, Fantasy Flight Games announced their de Yog-Sothoth: This mythos faction centers on cision to cease releasing cards in a CCG format, and to inYog-Sothoth, and the scholars who worship it, as stead begin releasing smaller sets of cards as single decks
well as various trans-dimensional beings including with xed contents in the LCG format. These AsyNightgaunts and Star vampires; it also hosts several lum Packs would be released once-a-month, and were
undead monsters. Its symbol is a key, and its color initially designed to be compatible with the CCG cards.
is purple.
Released approximately once a month, these expansions
were designed to increase the players card pool in a bal Shub-Niggurath: This mythos faction centers anced and aordable way. Three copies of twenty new
on Shub-Niggurath and the many, many monsters cards are introduced in each pack, for a total of 60 cards.
she is responsible for creating (notably Dark Young, The initial printings of the sets included varying quantighouls, and Dholes). Its symbol is a goats head, and ties of each card to echo the rare, uncommon, and comits color is red.
mon rarities of the original game, and this distribution

3.2

Asylum Packs

may still be found in some out-of-print packs. Casual Forgotten Lore

gamers can play using a single core set and have the option of using supplemental packs if they want to.
Spawn of Madness
Original Asylum Packs

Kingsport Dreams
Conspiracies of Chaos

Spawn of Madness (rst pack)

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

Asylum Pack III - Conspiracies of Chaos cover.

Sleep of the Dead

Journey to Unknown Kadath

Kingsport Dreams (second pack)

The Yuggoth Contract

Conspiracies of Chaos (third pack)

Dunwich Denizens (fourth pack)

3.2

Asylum Packs

Whispers in the Dark

Murmurs of Evil
The Spoken Covenant

The Wailer Below

The Asylum Packs proved to be very popular, encouraging Fantasy Flight to convert the entire game into the
Screams from Within
LCG format. On February 5, 2008, Fantasy Flight an The Cacophony
nounced 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 Rituals of the Order
The Mountains of Madness and Ancient Horrors, would be
published to follow the existing Asylum Packs and com The Twilight Beckons
plete the rst cycle, Forgotten Lore"; all six packs were
Perilous Trials
reprinted in 2011 as pieces of a unied set, with a single set icon and continuous numbering. Fantasy Flight
Initiations of the Favored
continued printing monthly Asylum Packs, arranged into
Aspirations of Ascension
six-piece cycles, for several years.

4 GAMING MILESTONES
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

4 Gaming Milestones
4.1 Yithian Deck
In May 2006, as a special promotion, copies of the
Yithian 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 rst-place nisher challenges the Yithian deck,
as played by the tournament organizer.
If the rst-place nisher is defeated, the secondplace nisher takes his spot, and so on.
All challengers must use the same deck they played
in the tourney.
The rst player to defeat the Yithian deck takes a
copy of the deck home.

The Unspeakable Pages

Touched by the Abyss

3.3

Deluxe Expansions

In July 2012, Fantasy Flight announced that they would

switch to a new distribution model: instead of the nearmonthly Asylum Packs, there would be one 165-card
deluxe expansion every four months, beginning with
Seekers of Knowledge.[3]

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

Seekers of Knowledge

Y6 Library at Pnakotus x8
Secrets of Arkham (110 cards) Fantasy Flight has
announced that the reprint will have 3 copies of each
Y7 Traveller of Aeons x2
player card (i.e. 150 deck cards and 10 story cards),
like the other deluxe expansions. It will be released
early 2014.[4]
4.2 Player Designed Cards
The Order of the Silver Twilight (165 cards)[5]
Seekers of Knowledge (165 cards)
The Key and the Gate (165 cards)
Terror in Venice (165 cards)[6]
Denizens of the Underworld (165 cards)[7]
The Sleeper Below (165 cards)
For The Greater Good (165 cards)
The Thousand Young
The Mark of Madness

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.
At Gen Con Indianapolis 2005, Gregory Gan of
Pittsburgh, PA became the rst Call of Cthulhu
CCG World Champion. His card, Assistant to
Dr. West (bearing his likeness), was printed in the
Forgotten Cities set in the Eldritch Edition block.
The card art bears his likeness as drawn by Patrick
McEvoy.

5
At Gen Con Indianapolis 2006, Christopher Long
of State College, PA became the second Call of
Cthulhu CCG World Champion. Mr. Long has
designed his card, and it is featured in the second
Asylum deck that has been released January 2007.
The card art bears his likeness as drawn by Patrick
McEvoy. It also features Longs name in the text
box.
At Gen Con Indianapolis 2007 James 'Jim' Black
of Pittsburgh, PA became the third Call of Cthulhu
CCG World Champion. In the winning match he
had both Assistant to Dr West and Mentor to Vaughn
in play.

7 See also
Call of Cthulhu role-playing game
Cthulhu Mythos
Mythos, a collectible card game based on the
Cthulhu Mythos universe.
List of collectible card games

8 References
[1] BoardGameGeek. Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game.
Boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2012-09-16.

4.3

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.[8]

Programs

5.1

Servitor Program

Fantasy Flight Games have set up the Servitor program

to help tournament organizers by giving tournament support, like promo cards, Sanity Certicates and access to
special promotional items like the Yithian Deck, to give
away as prizes.

5.2

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 Certicates to hand out to tournament winners. These Sanity
Points could be redeemed until June 30, 2008[9] for items
like promo cards or T-shirts.

[2] Fantasy Flight Games. LCG Players Guide. Fantasy

Flight Games. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
[3] Fantasy Flight Games. Seekers of Knowledge. Fantasy
Flight Games. Retrieved 2012-09-17.
[4] Fantasy Flight Games. Stories of Terror and Dark Discoveries. Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
[5] Fantasy Flight Games (2010-09-16). The Secret Masters
of the World Revealed. Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved
2014-01-07.
[6] Fantasy Flight Games. Terror in Venice Expansion.
Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
[7] Fantasy Flight Games (2013-10-24). A Little Bit of
(Manufactured) Luck. Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved
2014-01-07.
[8] Fantasy Flight Games (2012-12-18). Fantasy Flight
Games https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/
2012/12/18/shattering-old-paradigms/.
Retrieved
2015-05-12. Missing or empty |title= (help)
[9] Fantasy Flight Games. Fantasy Flight Games [Call of
Cthulhu LCG] - Leading publisher of board, card, and
roleplaying games. Cthulhulcg.com. Retrieved 2012-0722.

9 External links
Ocial Website
Call of Cthulhu on BoardGameGeek

Awards
In 2005, Flagship magazine awarded the Call of
Cthulhu CCG the title Best Card Game of 2005.
In 2008, InQuest Gamer magazine voted the Call of
Cthulhu CCG the number 57 ranking Game of All
Time saying that it broke new ground with domainbased resource mechanics and great integration of
the requisite horror and madness themes.

10

10
10.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu%3A_The_Card_Game?oldid=662089524

Contributors: Lowellian, Jason Quinn, Neko-chan, Lectonar, Belarius, Alai, Michael Ward, Mindmatrix, Rjwilmsi, Ladislaus~enwiki,
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