Chants for the Old Ones
Chants for the Old Ones Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 reversible main board (front: multiplayer mode; back: solo-player mode)
- 36 cultist cards
- 16 creature cards
- 12 Old Ones cards
- 7 reference cards
- 1 raid card (expansion)
- 16 threat tokens (expansion)
- 24 draw tokens, values -2, -1, 1, 2, 3, 4
- 12 regular investigator cards
- 12 cultist infiltrators and/or 3/4 player cards
- 10 special investigator cards (expansion)
- 16 temple miniatures (4 per player)
- 8 cultist figures / pawns (2 per player)
- 5 player boards (1 for solo-player only)
- 44 power tokens, values 1, 5 & 10
- 44 knowledge tokens, values 1, 5 & 10
- 24 sacrifice tokens, values 1 & 5
- 24 wooden sacrifice tokens
- 8 stealth tokens (2 per player)
- 24 starting cultist cards (6 per player)
Overview
Cultists
The Cultists' ultimate goal is to summon an Old One. To do so, they form a cult which consists primarily of the cultist cards you gain throughout the game.
Cultists may act in different areas of the board, as indicated. In some cases, they also have additional abilities that may help you fulfil your mission.
Throughout the game, you form and expand a cult with the sacred mission to summon an Old One. Your cult consists of the cards you hold in your draw deck, your hand, and your discard pile (including the cards you are playing at any given moment).
Your cult may be made up of cultists, some creatures you are capable of summoning, and those pesky investigators who infiltrate your cult causing you various kinds of trouble.
Creatures
Creatures are kept in a deck at the centre of the main board. You may summon them to use in your cult.
Unlike the Old Ones, they are lesser creatures, and you may manipulate them if you possess sufficient arcane knowledge and, depending on the creature's preferences, offer them a sacrifice. You may summon them to devour those pesky investigators.
Old Ones
The Old Ones are superior entities of unfathomable antiquity that completely ignore the insignificant human race and its foolish world. The cults are nevertheless determined to summon them to demonstrate their absolute devotion - even if it means bringing an end to the world as we know it.
Old Ones cards are not part of your hand. They are the ultimate aim to win the game - provided that you have what it takes to perform the necessary chants to summon them (by meeting the requirements shown on your Old Ones card).
Chants
Chants are ancient rituals performed by the cults to summon an Old One. These chants have endured the ages as hidden knowledge in forbidden books. Your cult will strive to be the first to summon an Old One, and, in doing so, win the game and bring chaos to this dull old world. To perform the chants, you need to meet the requirements shown on your Old Ones card.
Arcane Knowledge
Arcane knowledge tokens represent your arcane knowledge. They are essential for summoning creatures. Gain tokens by taking actions in cities, by taking certain actions by using cultists, and by establishing temples in the cities.
Cities
The main action takes place in the three cities of Arkham, Innsmouth, and Kingsport, each represented by the three outer areas of the main board.
In these cities, you will encounter powerful and influential individuals, or those, discreetly infiltrated in society, who are drawn to the ancient cults and are susceptible to being recruited by your cult. To recruit new cultists, you need to exert your power of influence in the right place.
The cities are also perfect hubs for establishing temples and to enhance the abilities of your cult.
Temples
In each city, there are dedicated spaces to establish temples by placing a permanent temple token on any one of them. Temples represent your ability to continuously gain power and knowledge, as well as other resources that will help you summon an Old One. To establish a temple, you need to dispatch one of your cultists by removing that card from the game.
Investigators
Meddlesome busybodies! Investigators are upright individuals who seek to uncover and dismantle your cult from within. Whenever you Act within a city or perform any action, you attract their attention, and they will try to infiltrate your cult.
Having investigator cards in hand reduces your gameplay options, so it is always a good idea to summon a creature to devour them. Some cunning cultists are also able to uncover them and offer them as sacrifice.
Stealth, on the other hand, represents the ability of some cultists to avoid detection by potential investigators. Stealth comes in several guises: as a character's special ability, as stealth tokens, and as a special area on the main board where you place your pawns when using stealth.
Power
Power tokens represent your ability to influence certain spheres of society and attract the attention of specific individuals to recruit and make them part of your cult.
Power of Invocation
This is the cultists' power to summon creatures and Old Ones. Cultists may gather together in groups and even use creatures to enhance their power of invocation.
Sacrifices
Sacrifices are offerings made to summon certain creatures or Old Ones. You may sacrifice investigators, but also cultists - everything for the cause! Some individuals might no longer be useful to your cult after all. When making a sacrifice you gain sacrifice tokens (you may use either cardboard or wooden tokens interchangeably). Using creatures is the fastest way to gain them.
Setup
3- and 4-player games
Place the main board at the centre of the playing area. Assemble the board by joining all the pieces with the multiplayer side facing up, i.e. the side not showing the solo-player icon.
Place all arcane knowledge tokens, power tokens, and sacrifice tokens in a common reserve next to the board. You may use the removable tray to keep them organised.
Remove all 24 initial cultist cards from the deck, place them to the side. This leaves you with a cultist deck of 38 or 48 cards (depending on whether you include infiltrators or not).
Shuffle the cultist deck and divide it at random into 3 decks of equal size. Place each deck at random on the cultist space of each city on the main board and turn over the top card of each deck.
Shuffle all 16 creature cards to form a deck and place it in the creature space on the main board and turn the top card face up.
Prepare the investigator deck. Add 3 cards for every player in the game. Place them face up on one side of the main board (or in the removable tray) to form the investigator deck.
Refer to the Investigator and Raid expansions to choose the appropriate cards, depending on whether you want to play a regular game or include the mini expansion.
Shuffle the Old Ones deck. Each player receives 2 Old Ones cards and secretly chooses one, placing it face down in front of them. Discard the other to the box without revealing it. The rest of the Old Ones cards are removed from the game. The card you selected shows your individual winning conditions.
2-player games
Remove all cards with the 3 or more-player icon. Then, set up the game following the instructions for 3- and 4-player games.
Solo game
See the "Solo Mode" section at the end of this rulebook.
Initial difficulty
Adjust the initial difficulty by distributing stealth tokens. You may have a maximum of 2 stealth tokens each at any one time, regardless of the number of tokens you start the game with. Follow the beginner / intermediate / expert scheme for the initial distribution of power and knowledge tokens in turn order, beginning with the starting player.
Each player receives
- A player board to place in front of them. The board displaying the solo-player symbol in the corner may only be used for solo-player games.
- 6 initial cultist cards of their colour, shuffled and placed in the draw deck space of their player board.
- 2 stealth tokens placed in their respective space on the player board (according to your desired level of difficulty).
- 4 temple tokens of their colour to be placed on their player board.
- 2 cultist figures of their colour (pawns) to be placed on their player board.
The player who last heard the whispers of Cthulhu in their dreams begins the game. In the unlikely event that no one comes forward, determine the starting player at random.
Distribute power and knowledge tokens to each player in turn order, following the distribution scheme (above).
Each player makes up their initial hand by drawing the top 5 cards from their draw deck.
Playing the Game
Object of the Game
The first player to perform the invocation chants of their Old One wins the game. To perform the "invocation chants", you must meet the requirements shown on your Old Ones card. For more information, see "Ending the Game".
Game Turn Overview
Players take turns clockwise, starting with the starting player until an Old One is invoked.
During your turn you perform one of the actions below:
- Act - Play a card to place a pawn onto the main board and perform the corresponding action.
- Return - Retrieve your pawn(s) from the board, resolve investigators and refill your hand.
- Rest - If you have not played any pawn, refresh your hand.
Act
Play a card from your hand to place one of your pawns or your personal board on an empty space on the main board. The space must match the position icon on the card played.
After placing your pawn, you immediately perform the action indicated by that space on the board.
If the card played has an ability, you may perform it before or after activating the action on the board. Discard the played card by placing it on top of your discard pile.
To Act, play a card from your hand to place a pawn onto an empty space of the main board. For example, playing the card of Lavinia Whateley allows you to play in different zones of Arkham (spaces marked with the same city icon). If you place the pawn in the free space next to the deck of cards, the space action allows you to take the top card of the deck, paying its cost. Both the card played, and the card gained, go to the discard pile. In doing so, you apply the card's ability to gain 4 power points.
You cannot place a pawn on a space already occupied by another pawn, regardless of whether it is yours or that of another player. Nor is it possible to place it on a space if you cannot perform the space action. In this case, you cannot use the ability of the card in play either.
Return
Mandatory Return
Retrieve your pawns from the main board and put them on your player board (this is your only possible action if you start your turn with both your pawns on the main board). An investigator will infiltrate your cult for each pawn that returns from the main board to your player board (unless you resolve the encounter by avoiding the investigator; see Investigator below).
Then, you may discard a card from your hand (investigators may not be discarded in this manner) onto the discard pile on your player board. Now, draw cards from your deck until you have 5 cards on your hand, or the number indicated by your hand size (for more information see Hand size below).
Tactical Return
If there is only one pawn left on your player board, you may place it in the tactical return zone instead of performing Act. Add a +1-draw token above your draw deck. Then retrieve the pawn from the main board using Return, as specified above. Finally, return your pawn from the tactical return zone to its initial position.
Whenever your deck runs out while drawing cards, shuffle your discard pile, form a new deck with these cards, and continue drawing cards until your hand is complete.
Your player board: The return zone is at the top right. Pawns occupy these positions during mandatory return. The tactical return zone is below it, to the left. Placing a pawn here will increase your hand size, as indicated. The rest zone is to its right. Sometimes your hand may be compromised, and you may prefer to Rest on your turn, allowing you to refresh your hand and maybe even recover an initial cultist that has been eliminated from the game.
Rest
You may only perform this action if you start your turn with both your pawns on your player board.
Place both pawns in the rest zone of your player board, then follow these steps:
- Discard all cards from your hand (of any type) to the discard pile on your player board.
- Then, draw cards from your deck to refill your hand.
- Return your pawns to their initial positions.
- Additionally, you may recover a cultist you have previously removed from the game (only initial cultists). If you choose to do so, exchange it for any cultist currently in your cult, and place the recovered cultist into your hand.
Temples
At the beginning of the game, you have 4 temple miniatures on your player board. When you play a card on a temple space within a city, you may place a temple on one of its empty spaces by sending a cultist card from your hand, deck, or discard pile (remove the card from the game). This is how you establish a temple, which will immediately activate, generating power, arcane knowledge, and other resources, as indicated on the board next to your temple.
The more temples you possess in the same city, the more resources you may generate during the same action. You may have temples in different cities, and you may even move them between cities or exchange temples with other players if your cultists possess the necessary abilities.
Board Actions
Whenever you play a card from your hand, you may Act by placing a pawn on any available space on the main board. The space indicates which action or actions you may take. Some cards, such as city cards, allow you to play in different spaces within the same city. Additionally, in some locations, you may perform multiple actions simultaneously (for example, gaining power and knowledge). The board actions are as follows:
- Recruit - Gain a cultist card (from the top of the deck). Place a pawn on the corresponding space, and pay the cost indicated on the card you wish to acquire. Place the card on your discard pile.
- Summon Creature - Gain a creature card, paying the cost indicated on the card. Place the card on your discard pile.
- Sacrifice - Remove a cultist from your cult to gain 1 sacrifice token. Remove the sacrificed card from the game.
- Sacrifice in danger zone - If you perform sacrifice in the danger zone, place a -1-draw token above your draw deck.
- Devour - Return an investigator card from your cult to the bottom of the investigator deck and gain 1 sacrifice token.
- Devour in danger zone - After performing devour in the danger zone, an investigator will immediately infiltrate your cult without any possibility of stopping them.
- Increase hand size - Increase your hand size to draw more cards on your next turn. This action may be found on some city spaces and in temples.
- Power - Gain as many power tokens as indicated on the board.
- Arcane Knowledge - Gain as many arcane knowledge tokens as indicated on the board.
- Stealth training - Gain as many stealth tokens as indicated (you may have a maximum of 2 at any one time) and place them on your player board.
- Drive them mad - Remove an investigator from your cult and place it onto the investigator deck. In some cases, you may have to pay knowledge tokens to do so.
- Degrade - Remove one of your cultist cards from the game.
- Council - You may perform this action with any cultist or creature card. Councils represent exchanges of power. You may do one of the following: exchange 1 sacrifice token for 2 power tokens, or for 2 knowledge tokens; exchange 2 power tokens for 2 knowledge tokens, or vice versa. When performing this action, send your pawn to the stealth zone.
- Temples - Activate all your temples in the city where you perform the action, performing all actions indicated on each of them. Before activating, you may establish a new temple. To do so, remove a cultist card from your cult. This is the cultist you send to establish the temple (remove this card from the game). Place one of your temple tokens on an empty temple space of the city where you perform the action.
Recruit or Summon with Contacts
When you are about to Recruit or Summon, you may pay 1 power or knowledge token (as indicated) to expand the offering to two cards. Place the top card of the deck in the designated position next to it and reveal the next card.
At this point, you may either buy one or both cards, or none of them if you cannot afford them (in this case move your pawn to the stealth zone). If you do not purchase the card placed in the new position, it will remain there until another player buys it. You may continue contacts in future turns, stacking more cards in the secondary position.
Some cards have a number next to the icon, indicating the number of times the same action may be performed. For example, with the Yig card, you may devour 2 investigators. To perform this action, the space where the pawn is placed must be empty. If the card also has stealth, send your pawn to the stealth zone after completing the action.
The card icons used to Act indicate the position where a pawn may be placed on the main board; some spaces may only be occupied by a creature (in this case, it would allow the action to be performed twice). After performing the board action, move your pawn to the stealth zone whenever you play a card with a stealth icon (first perform the board action and then move the pawn to the stealth zone).
Cards with a stealth icon are the only ones that are not played on the main board. Play them when returning a pawn from the main board, in the same way that a stealth token would be played. If the card has an ability, apply it.
Card Descriptions
Cultists
You mainly use cultist cards to perform actions on the main board. All players start the game with the same set of 6 cultist cards, in their respective colour.
- Position icon: indicates the spaces on the main board where this card may be used
- Power of invocation
- Character ability
- Acquisition cost
- Card type
- Restriction on the number of players for this card or indicator of starting cultist
Character abilities may be performed at any time during your turn (before or after performing the action on the main board).
Creatures
Creatures may devour investigators to cleanse your cult and gain sacrifice tokens. Some creatures may devour several investigators at once.
- Position icon: indicates the spaces on the main board where this card may be used
- Power of invocation
- Creature ability
- Acquisition cost
- Card type
- Concealment icon
The total cost required to take a creature card is shown as, for example, a minimum power of invocation of 9 + x5 arcane knowledge tokens + x5 power tokens. You will need several cultists in your hand to gather all of the power of invocation required (see Increasing power of invocation below).
Increasing Power of Invocation
To Act, you may play additional cards from your hand to increase the power of invocation of your original card (for example, when acquiring a creature card or performing invocation chants). If you add cards to increase power, their abilities do not apply. You only add their power of invocation to the total. Then discard all cards used.
For example, if you play the Nadezha Zukova card and play additional cards to increase its power of invocation, they would add up to a total power of invocation of 10.
Stealth
When playing a card showing a concealment icon, at the end of your action phase, move the pawn you just played to the stealth zone of the main board.
Cultist figures in the stealth zone will not encounter investigators, so no investigators will infiltrate your cult upon their return.
Concealment: When a pawn returns from the stealth zone, no encounter is triggered, despite using Return for your pawn. In this zone your movements are so stealthy that no investigator can detect them.
Investigators
Every time you retrieve a pawn from the main board to your player board (Return), it triggers an encounter.
Resolving an Encounter
Any encounter with an investigator may have one of two possible outcomes:
1. Investigator infiltration
When you retrieve your pawn, you must take the top card from the investigator deck and place it in your discard pile. If there are no more cards left in the investigator deck, you must move the pawn to the stealth zone, where it remains until your next turn.
Some game actions or abilities trigger an investigator infiltration (such as Devour in danger zone, Learn, Raid, etc.). These do not constitute an encounter (which only occurs when using Return) and therefore cannot be avoided.
2. Avoid infiltration
Whenever an encounter is triggered, you may avoid the investigator as follows:
- Stealth token: You may spend a stealth token to prevent an investigator from infiltrating your cult.
- Stealth card: You may discard a card with a stealth icon from your hand to prevent an investigator from infiltrating your cult.
The presence of investigators in your cult reduces your gameplay options, as they take up space in your hand but cannot be used to perform any actions.
Hand Size
Your hand size is 5 cards by default. This means that when you need to draw cards, you will draw cards from the deck until you have a total of 5 cards in your hand. Remember that, before drawing, you may discard a card from your hand.
Some cards and board actions may temporarily modify the size of your hand. Whenever this happens, place tokens above your draw deck on your player board.
For example, if an action indicates that you increase your hand, place a +1-draw token above your draw deck. Then, you gain two more hand size increases by performing another action before it is time to draw. You change your +1-draw token for a +3-draw token (+1 for the first and +2 for the last action). When it is time to draw cards, these modifiers apply. If you are supposed to draw and you have a +3 token above your draw deck, draw cards until you have a hand of 8 cards (5+3), then return all draw tokens to the reserve. Although you now play with 8 cards, the next time you draw cards it will be 5, as usual, unless you gain more draw modifiers during your next turn (increasing or decreasing your hand size).
It may be possible that you need to draw cards, but your hand is already full. Continuing with the previous example, if it is time for you to draw and you already have 6 cards in hand, at a time when your hand size should be 5, you must not draw any additional cards because your hand is already full (you do not have to remove any cards from your hand either, even if you have more than your current hand size). Whenever you deplete your deck while drawing, shuffle your discard pile, form a new deck with these cards, and continue drawing cards until you reach your current hand size.
Abilities
When you perform an action using a cultist or creature card, you may activate its ability before or after performing the action.
- Power - Gain power tokens as indicated.
- Arcane Knowledge - Gain arcane knowledge tokens as indicated.
- Hand increase - Increase your hand size by placing the corresponding tokens above your draw deck.
- Stealth - Gain 1 stealth token. You may not have more than 2 stealth tokens on your board.
- Ascend - Remove 1 sacrifice token to gain power or knowledge tokens.
- Absorb - Other players must give you 1 power or knowledge token of their choice.
- Torment - Return 1 investigator card from your cult to the investigator deck (this does not generate a sacrifice token).
- Ritual - Return an investigator card from your cult to the investigator deck and gain 1 sacrifice token in return.
- Master - Whenever this cultist performs a sacrifice, they may eliminate an investigator or a cultist indiscriminately (as it is a sacrifice, you gain 1 sacrifice token).
- Spread - Pay the power cost to add 1 Temple on any empty space of any city (you do not need to remove a card from the game to do so).
- Contacts - Move one of your temples to any empty space in any city.
- Exchange - Exchange one of your temples for that of another player, regardless of the city each one is in.
- Investigator infiltration - If there are investigators available in the deck, take 1 to infiltrate your cult.
- Learn - Take 1 investigator infiltrator to gain knowledge tokens.
- Creature Call - Search for a creature card of your cult and add it to your hand.
- Stealth Call - Search for a card with a stealth icon of your cult and add it to your hand.
- Sacrifice Call - Search for a card with an invoke/sacrifice icon of your cult and add it to your hand.
- Temple Call - Search for a card with a temple icon of your cult and add it to your hand.
Ending the Game
The first player to perform the invocation chants for their Old One wins the game. To do so, at the beginning of your turn, reveal your Old Ones card as well as all the requirements to meet the winning conditions.
Winning conditions to be met to perform the invocation chants:
- Power of invocation - You must show this amount of power of invocation with cards from your hand to perform the chants (minimum amount, you may exceed it).
- Power of invocation increased by a city - You must show this amount of power of invocation with cards from your hand to perform the chants. If you have cultists from the city indicated in your hand while performing the chants, they provide you with additional invocation points. If, for example, the power of invocation required is 20, you may meet these conditions solely from invocation cards on your hand, or you may have invocation cards to a value of 18 plus a cultist from Kingsport (18+2=20), or a card value of 16 and two cultists from Kingsport (16+2+2=20), etc.
- Arcane knowledge - Minimum amount of arcane knowledge tokens you must possess to perform the chants.
- Power - Minimum amount of power tokens you must possess to perform the chants.
- Sacrifices - Minimum amount of sacrifice tokens you must possess to perform the chants.
- Exact Cult - Exact number of cultists that you must have in your cult to perform the chants. You may have other cards (such as creatures) but no more cultists than indicated. Check all your cards (hand, draw deck, and discards) to provide them.
- Extended Cult - Number of cultists from the cities indicated that you must have in your cult to perform the chants. Check all your cards (hand, draw deck, and discards) to provide them.
- Powerful Cult - All cultists in your cult must have a power of invocation of 2 or more. Show all your cards (hand, draw deck, and discards) to verify.
- Terror - Number of creatures that you must have in your cult to perform the chants. Check all your cards (hand, draw deck, and discards) to provide them.
NOTE: You may consult your draw deck and discard pile at any time during the game. If you consult your draw deck, you must shuffle it afterward.
References to "your cult" imply the sum of all your cards: those currently in play, as well as those in the discard pile, and in your draw deck.
Raid Expansion
Do you want to up your game? Play this micro-expansion for added difficulty - for expert players only. There are 2 parts: Investigator raid and Cultist infiltrators.
Components: Raid track, Raid effect zone, 1 raid card, 20 threat tokens (4 harassment tokens, 8 surveillance tokens, 8 pursuit tokens), 10 special investigators (4 harassment, 3 surveillance & 3 pursuit), 10 cultist infiltrators.
Investigator Raid
Setup
Place the raid card to the side of the board, along with the raid investigator deck and the threat tokens. Place regular investigators in their usual position. Cultist infiltrators are optional (see below).
Set up the raid investigator deck as follows: for 4 players, all 10 special investigator cards; for 3 players, remove one card of each type from the game, leaving a deck of 7 special investigators; for 2 players, remove two cards of each type from the game, leaving a deck of 4 special investigators.
How to Play
Whenever an encounter results in an investigator infiltration, draw a card from the regular investigator deck and place it in your discard pile as usual, and then follow these steps:
- Reveal 1 special investigator card. There are 3 types of special investigators, each of them has a different effect on the game.
- Harassment: Whenever this investigator appears, place 1 harassment token on the raid track.
- Surveillance: Whenever this investigator appears, place a surveillance token in the raid effect zone.
- Pursuit: Whenever this investigator appears, place a pursuit token in the raid effect zone.
- Once revealed, place the special investigator on a discard pile alongside the special investigator deck (whenever the special investigator deck is depleted, shuffle the discards to form a new deck).
- Additionally, as soon as you place the third harassment token on the raid track and thus complete it, it triggers the Raid effect: each player receives an investigator infiltrator. The next player (following the one who activated the raid) takes 1 token of their choice from the raid effect zone. The player after that does the same. And so on until no tokens remain. Then, remove all tokens from the raid track.
Threat tokens trigger the following effects:
- Surveillance - Cancels the ability of the first ability card you play. Return 1 surveillance token to the reserve whenever this happens.
- Pursuit - Place a -1-draw token above your draw deck for each of your pursuit tokens, then return the pursuit tokens to the reserve.
Notes: If, at any time, the regular investigator deck is depleted while playing with this expansion, draw special investigators instead (apply the effect of the investigator revealed, then place it on your discard pile). If you have a special investigator in your deck and you use an action or ability to remove an investigator from your cult, discard the special investigator first, before discarding a regular investigator. Actions or abilities that directly trigger an infiltration (such as Learn) never trigger the raid deck; instead, draw a regular investigator as usual.
Cultist Infiltrators
Infiltrators are optional in the raid expansion and may only be played in 3 or 4 player games.
At the beginning of the game, shuffle the infiltrators with the rest of the cultists, to distribute them randomly among the cities.
Whenever you use one of the infiltrators, you may apply their ability as follows:
- Cultist with the ability of harassment - You may take a harassment token from the reserve and place it either on the raid track or in the stealth zone. If placed on the raid track, the raid is resolved as usual once the track is complete. If placed in the stealth zone, investigators will now also be lurking in this area. This means that whenever any player returns a pawn from the stealth zone using Return, ALL players who had a pawn in this area receive an investigator infiltrator. Afterwards, remove the harassment token from the stealth zone and return it to the reserve.
- Cultist with the ability of pursuit - You may take a pursuit threat token from the reserve and place it either in the raid effect zone or give it to a player who DOES NOT yet have any threat tokens.
- Cultist with the ability of surveillance - You may take a surveillance threat token from the reserve and place it either in the raid effect zone or give it to a player who DOES NOT yet have any threat tokens.
Whenever you receive a threat token you must resolve it as soon as possible.
Solo-Player Mode
Setup
Set up the main board with the solo-player side facing up and place the solo-player board in front of you. Set up the remainder of the game as described above for the multiplayer mode. Adapt as described below, depending on the level of difficulty you wish to play:
Beginner
- 12 blockade tokens
- 2 stealth tokens
- 12 regular investigators
Intermediate
- 6 blockade tokens
- 1 stealth token
- 1 raid card
- 3 harassment tokens
- 12 regular investigators
Expert
- 3 blockade tokens
- 0 stealth tokens
- 1 raid card
- 3 harassment tokens
- 2 surveillance tokens
- 2 pursuit tokens
- 2 harassment investigators
- 1 surveillance investigator
- 1 pursuit investigator
- 6 regular investigators
If you are completely new to the game, we recommend you play your first solo-player game at beginner level. If you have already played a multiplayer game, you can start at intermediate level.
At beginner level, blockade tokens come into play: Whenever an investigator infiltrates your cult after an encounter, place 1 blockade token on any area of the main board. This blocks the area and reduces your scope for actions.
At intermediate level, raid comes into play: Whenever you use Return, add 1 harassment token. For every third harassment token, 1 investigator infiltrates your cult.
And, last but not least, at expert level, special investigators come into play. They increase the threat level and the number of raids. They also drastically reduce the amount of blockade tokens. We recommend you only play this level after you have gained extensive experience playing the multiplayer mode.
Playing the Game
Play as described for the multiplayer mode. Adapt as follows:
1. Blockade tokens
Whenever you have an encounter with an investigator and you cannot prevent them from infiltrating your cult, take an investigator card and do the following:
- If you retrieve your pawn from a city, place a blockade token from the reserve on one of the empty spaces in that city.
- If you retrieve your pawn from an area other than a city, place a blockade token from the reserve on any empty space anywhere on the main board.
You may no longer play on blocked spaces unless you unblock them.
2. Player board actions
- Whenever you use tactical return, your pawn performing that action triggers an encounter with an investigator.
- You may only Rest after paying 2 power tokens.
Both events are shown on the solo-player board.
3. Events triggered by Return
Intermediate and expert levels: Whenever you use Return, regardless of whether it is a normal return or a tactical return, add 1 harassment token on the raid track.
A raid occurs as soon as the raid track is complete, as described by the rules of the raid expansion (you receive an investigator infiltrator and all the tokens in the raid effect zone).
4. Unblock actions
These spaces (only in the solo-player mode) allow you to unblock blocked areas on the main board.
Pay the cost indicated on the space (power, knowledge, sacrifice), and perform one or both actions below, as you see fit:
- Gain 1 conspiracy token.
- Remove 1 blockade token from the board and place it in the reserve.
Whenever you remove a blockade token, you may remove whichever one you like, regardless of the city where you perform unblock.
Ending the Game
You win the game if you manage to summon an Old One.
You lose the game if any of the below occurs:
- You are unable to place a blockade token. This situation might occur when there are no more blockade tokens left in the reserve (because all available tokens are already placed on the board).
- You are unable to take an investigator card, because there are no regular investigator cards left in the deck (all available investigators have already infiltrated your cult).
- You are unable to perform any action. You cannot play any of the cards in your hand or you have run out of playable actions.
You may also adjust the level of difficulty to your liking by changing the number of blockade tokens and investigator cards during setup. For an even more comprehensive solo experience, get the Campaign expansion, where you will face new challenges as part of a dangerous adventure, growing your cult with each scenario you master.
Credits
Game designed by Bernat Buxaus. Art by David G. Forés. Produced by Cthulhu Project. Published by Invedars. Developed by Linus Garriga, Alberto Cano. Cultist and temple miniatures designed by Sergi Marcet. 3D-modeling by Elisenda Ferrer. Translations by Stéphane Athimon, Kristin Fischer. Proofreading by Linus Garriga, Marc Maluenda, Thierry, Natacha.