Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game
Encyclopedia
The Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game or Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game is a collectible card game
(CCG) marketed by Fantasy Flight Games
. It is based on the fiction of the Cthulhu Mythos
, primarily the writings of H. P. Lovecraft
and Chaosium's
Call of Cthulhu
role-playing game
. The Call of Cthulhu CCG is the successor to an earlier CCG, Chaosium's Mythos
, also based on the Cthulhu Mythos.
It shares art and characters with FFG's other Cthulhu Mythos product Arkham Horror
.
had previously been involved in the collectible card game
(CCG) business in the mid-1990s, printing Mythos
, its Cthulhu mythos CCG. However, 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 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 storyline background for the game. Most of the storyline text (including card names and flavor text) is written by creative developer Pat Harrigan. In the Living Card Game format, the story line is penned by Nate French, with the help of Dan Clark
.
The games current developer is Nate French.
), 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.
Every month, FFG releases "Asylum Packs", which are small expansions with fixed contents, designed to increase the users card pool in a balanced and affordable way. 20 new cards are introduced in each pack, supplied in playsets of 3 cards for a total of 60 cards (originally the Asylum Packs were 10 cards appearing once in the pack and 10 cards as a playset of 3, for 40 cards total). Casual gamers can play using a single core set and have the option of using supplemental packs if they want to.
Here are the Asylum Packs fitting the LCG format (white bordered):
Madness and Horror: (stand alone asylum packs which do not fit into a cycle)
Summons of the Deep:
Dreamlands:
The Yuggoth Contract:
The Rituals of the Order:
Deluxe Expansions:
Older products may still be available from Fantasy Flight Games and other 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.
Here is a list of the older CCG-format products:
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.
The decision to cease producing the game in a collectible format came in May 2006. Newer products were released in the current Asylum Pack form, though the first four are not part of the new LCG format and contain black-bordered cards.
These are the original four Asylum Packs:
The Asylum Packs were very successful and are the reason for the conversion of the game to the LCG format. The announcement came on February 5, 2008, that the LCG would be launched in October 2008 with a brand new core set. To bridge the gap, two more Asylum Decks were announced. These were The Mountains of Madness and Ancient Horrors (see above).
The Yithian Deck consists out of the following promo cards:
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
(CCG) marketed by Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product in 1997, the company has been doing...
. It is based on the fiction of the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
, primarily the writings of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
and Chaosium's
Chaosium
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence. Founded by Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame, White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into Dragon Pass and its sequel, Nomad Gods...
Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. The Call of Cthulhu CCG is the successor to an earlier CCG, Chaosium's Mythos
Mythos (card game)
Mythos is a collectible card game published by Chaosium. It is based on the Cthulhu Mythos stories of the horror author H. P. Lovecraft, as well as on Chaosium's own Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.-Overview:...
, also based on the Cthulhu Mythos.
It shares art and characters with FFG's other Cthulhu Mythos product Arkham Horror
Arkham Horror
Arkham Horror is an adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium and most recently published in 2005 and revised in 2007 by Fantasy Flight Games. In both editions, players take on the role of investigators in H. P. Lovecraft's Massachusetts town of...
.
Overview
ChaosiumChaosium
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence. Founded by Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame, White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into Dragon Pass and its sequel, Nomad Gods...
had previously been involved in the collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
(CCG) business in the mid-1990s, printing Mythos
Mythos (card game)
Mythos is a collectible card game published by Chaosium. It is based on the Cthulhu Mythos stories of the horror author H. P. Lovecraft, as well as on Chaosium's own Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.-Overview:...
, its Cthulhu mythos CCG. However, Chaosium discontinued the game in 1997 after poor sales. In 2004, Chaosium instead licensed the property to Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product in 1997, the company has been doing...
(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
Darrell Hardy
Darrell Hardy is a former American basketball player.Hardy played college basketball at Baylor University. He was selected in the third round of the 1967 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons and in the 1967 ABA Draft by the Anaheim Amigos....
developed the storyline background for the game. Most of the storyline text (including card names and flavor text) is written by creative developer Pat Harrigan. In the Living Card Game format, the story line is penned by Nate French, with the help of Dan Clark
Dan Clark
Dan Clark is an English actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter and television director.-Television:He is best known for playing the character of Don Danbury in BBC Three series How Not to Live Your Life which he wrote and starred in...
.
The games current developer is Nate French.
The game
Players attach resources (taken from the cards in their hand) onto domains (similar to the lands of Magic: The GatheringMagic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
), 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, get 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 CityThe Nameless City"The Nameless City" is a horror story written by H. P. Lovecraft in January 1921 and first published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal The Wolverine...
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 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 AgencyBlackwood Detective AgencyThe Blackwood Detective Agency is a fictional organization from the Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game.It was presumably founded by Norman Harvey Blackwood Sr. in the beginning of the 20th century as a reaction to the rise of activity around the Cthulhu Mythos in Arkham...
, 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 UniversityMiskatonic UniversityMiskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
, as well as other academic groups. Its symbol is a scroll, and its color is gold. - The Syndicate: This "investigator" faction represents the underworldOrganized crimeOrganized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
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 centers a secret cabal of leading politicians, charismatic socialites, persuasive civic leaders, and successful businessmen who 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. Their name may be a joke off of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
- Cthulhu: This "mythos" faction includes CthulhuCthulhuCthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...
himself, as well as his associated cultists and monsters (such as deep ones and shoggoths). Its symbol is a squid, and its color is green. - Hastur: This "mythos" faction centers on HasturHasturHastur is a fictional entity of the Cthulhu Mythos. Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story "Haïta the Shepherd" as a benign god of shepherds. Robert W...
, especially his King in Yellow aspect, as well as his worshippers and minions, largely human psychopaths and monstrous ByakheeByakhee-Summary:There flapped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things ... not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor decomposed human beings, but something I cannot and must not recall.—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Festival"...
s, as well as werewolves. Its symbol is the Yellow SignYellow SignThe Yellow Sign is a fictional symbol or glyph, first described in Robert Chambers' book of horror short stories The King in Yellow .-The King in Yellow:The King in Yellow never fully describes the shape and purpose of the Yellow Sign...
, and its color is yellow. - Yog-Sothoth: This "mythos" faction centers on Yog-SothothYog-SothothYog-Sothoth is a cosmic entity of the fictional Cthulhu Mythos and the Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. Yog-Sothoth's name was first mentioned in his novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward...
, and the scholars who worship it, as well as various trans-dimensional beings including Nightgaunts and Star vampireStar vampireA star vampire is a monster in the Cthulhu Mythos. The being first appeared in Robert Bloch's short story "The Shambler from the Stars", which was originally published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales.-Summary:...
s; it also hosts several undeadUndeadUndead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
monsters. Its symbol is a key, and its color is purple. - Shub-Niggurath: This "mythos" faction centers on Shub-NiggurathShub-NiggurathShub-Niggurath, often associated with the phrase “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young”, is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft...
and the many, many monsters she is responsible for creating (notably Dark Young, ghouls, and Dholes). 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 all 7 factions, neutral cards, story cards, success/wound tokens, a full-colour manual, a game board, and Cthulhu-shaped domain markers. The game is ready to play straight out of the box, and decks can be made quickly by combining cards from two of the factions along with several neutral cards.Every month, FFG releases "Asylum Packs", which are small expansions with fixed contents, designed to increase the users card pool in a balanced and affordable way. 20 new cards are introduced in each pack, supplied in playsets of 3 cards for a total of 60 cards (originally the Asylum Packs were 10 cards appearing once in the pack and 10 cards as a playset of 3, for 40 cards total). Casual gamers can play using a single core set and have the option of using supplemental packs if they want to.
Here are the Asylum Packs fitting the LCG format (white bordered):
Madness and Horror: (stand alone asylum packs which do not fit into a cycle)
- 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
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 (not yet released)
- That Which Consumes (not yet released)
Deluxe Expansions:
- Secrets of Arkham (110-card expansion)
- The Order of the Silver Twilight (155 card expansion)
Older products may still be available from Fantasy Flight Games and other 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.
Here is a list of the older CCG-format products:
- 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)
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.
The decision to cease producing the game in a collectible format came in May 2006. Newer products were released in the current Asylum Pack form, though the first four are not part of the new LCG format and contain black-bordered cards.
These are the original four Asylum Packs:
- Spawn of Madness (first pack)
- Kingsport Dreams (second pack)
- Conspiracies of Chaos (third pack)
- Dunwich Denizens (fourth pack)
The Asylum Packs were very successful and are the reason for the conversion of the game to the LCG format. The announcement came on February 5, 2008, that the LCG would be launched in October 2008 with a brand new core set. To bridge the gap, two more Asylum Decks were announced. These were The Mountains of Madness and Ancient Horrors (see above).
Yithians
Around May, 2006 as a special promotion, copies of the Yithian deck where 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 out 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. |
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- At Gen ConGen ConGen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible...
Indianapolis 2005, Gregory Gan of Pittsburgh, PA became the first 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.
- At Gen ConGen ConGen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible...
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 Long's name in the text box.
- At Gen ConGen ConGen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible...
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.
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 magazineFlagship magazineFlagship Magazine is an independent magazine for gamers . Published in the UK, it started in 1983 for PBM players . Since its hundredth issue in 2002, it has extended its coverage to include boardgames, role-playing games, web games and massively multiplayer online games, along with collectible...
awarded the Call of Cthulhu CCG the title "Best Card Game of 2005."
- In 2008 InQuest GamerInQuest GamerInQuest Gamer is a discontinued monthly magazine for game reviews and news that was published from 1995 to 2007. Originally, the magazine was named InQuest and focused solely on collectible card games ; InQuest, along with its competitor Scrye, were the two major CCG magazines...
magazine voted the Call of Cthulhu CCG the number 57 ranking Game of All Time saying "We ♥ Cthulhu. Cthulhu games are seldom crap, and this baby broke new ground with domain-based resource mechanics and great integration of the requisite horror and madness themes."
See also
- Call of CthulhuCall of Cthulhu (role-playing game)Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...
role-playing game - Cthulhu MythosCthulhu MythosThe Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
- MythosMythos (card game)Mythos is a collectible card game published by Chaosium. It is based on the Cthulhu Mythos stories of the horror author H. P. Lovecraft, as well as on Chaosium's own Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.-Overview:...
, a collectible card game based on the Cthulhu Mythos universe. - List of collectible card games