Cthulhu: The Horror in Dunwich
Cthulhu: The Horror in Dunwich Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
A Stand-Alone Expansion
The Horror in Dunwich is a stand-alone expansion to the original Cthulhu: A Deck Building Game. These games can be played independently or combined for greater chaos!
In the top left corner of the cards in this Horror in Dunwich expansion you will find a note symbol. This is there so you can easily separate cards back into their stand-alone versions after being combined. On the 2nd edition printing of Cthulhu: A Deck Building Game, you will find a different symbol on all the cards for this same purpose.
The rules in this version of the Investigator Handbook include the rules for the base game with the additional rules for the expansion. Expansion rules have been marked with the note symbol to stand out to players already familiar with the base game.
If you are new to Cthulhu, everything you must know to play is here. Prepare yourself Investigators because your sanity, your life, and all of humanity is at stake!
Objective
Using your Moxie, work together with your fellow Investigators to research cards at Miskatonic University. Utilizing the results of your research, banish the Elder Gods to prevent them from spreading their vile influence across Dunwich and then the world!
If you manage to banish all the awakened Elder Gods, you will have won the day... even, perhaps, with a bit of your sanity still intact.
However, if you and your fellow Investigators either die or lose your grip on reality, well then... we're all doomed, aren't we?
Components
- 13 Elder Gods Cards
- 19 Investigator Cards
- 13 Unique Minions, 121 total
- 47 Unique Mythos Cards, 107 total
- 89 Unique Library Cards, 193 total cards
- 13 Mythos Locations
- 10 Derangement Cards
- 60 Starter Cards
- 10 Logbooks
- 24 Health/Sanity Pointers
- 1 Cthulhu Six Sided Die
- 1 Card Trays
- 1 Investigator Handbook (which you are now holding)
- 10 Card Dividers
Setup
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Each player receives an Investigator Card either by choice or random dealing. Place a Health Slide Pointer at the top and a Sanity Slide Pointer at the bottom over each stat's maximum value. Return any remaining Investigators to the game box.
Your Investigator card is your character in the game. You are now the Investigator. Included on the card is your backstory, details about your special ability, and what happens to you after death.
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Give each Investigator a Starter Deck consisting of 7 Sleuth cards and 3 unique Stagger cards. Shuffle these cards together to form your Personal Library deck and place it facedown in front of you. Return any remaining Starter cards to the gamebox.
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Shuffle the Elder God, Derangement, Library, and Mythos decks separately. Place each deck facedown in easy reach of all Investigators.
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Shuffle the Mythos Locations. Draw 1 and place it face-up in easy view of all Investigators. It will be in effect for the whole game, unless Investigators find a way to remove it. Place the rest of the Mythos Locations back in the game box, they will not be used this game.
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Before your first game, separate the Minions by type and organize them in the game box with the provided dividers. They remain in the box and will be summoned/spawned into play from there.
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Reveal the top 5 cards of the Library deck and place them face-up in clear view of all Investigators. This is the Public Library of Miskatonic University where you will be doing all your research.
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Choose a difficulty level according to the following chart:
Investigators 1 2 3 4 5 6 Normal — Elder Gods 1 1 1 2 2 2 Normal — Mythos Cards 1 1 1 1 1 1 Cthulhu Mode — Elder Gods 2 2 2 3 3 3 Cthulhu Mode — Mythos Cards 2 2 2 3 3 3 This chart determines, based on the number of Investigators, how many Elder Gods you will face and the number of Mythos cards the Elder Gods will inflict on you each round.
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From the Elder God deck, draw the number of Elder Gods from the chart and place them face-up in order from lowest to highest. The Elder God's Health number indicates their placement (see Symbols). Give each Elder God a Log Book to track their Health. Place Slide Pointers on the Elder God's maximum health.
A Comment on Chaos: Know this going in — there are cards and card combinations that will appear to break the game. These cards are rare and part of the chaos wrought by Cthulhu and his fellow Elder Gods. Cards/combos like this will come up at unexpected times to either save or ruin the day. Have fun!
A Few Symbols
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Firearm symbol — This symbol indicates a Firearm. Some Investigators, Library, or other cards may use this symbol in reference to each other.
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Bladed Weapon symbol — This symbol indicates a Bladed Weapon. Some Investigators, Library, or other cards may use this symbol in reference to each other.
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Die symbol — This symbol indicates that you must roll the included 6-sided die. The card will indicate what to do with the result of the die roll.
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Numbered circle — This circle with a number inside can be found in the top right corner of Library, Elder God, and Minion cards.
- Library — this is the cost in Moxie required to Research this card from the Public Library of Miskatonic University. This is not the amount of Moxie gained when activating a Library card.
- Elder God — this is the amount of Health for the Elder God. Investigators must do this much damage over the course of several Rounds in order to defeat and banish the Elder God from play.
- Minion — this is the amount of Health for the Minion. Investigators must do this much damage over the course of several Rounds in order to defeat and banish the Minion from play.
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Investigator Count symbol — On various types of cards you will see the Investigator Count symbol. This symbol is equal to the number of Investigators in the game, including any dead Investigators.
With this symbol there is the Minimum of 1 rule.
Example: Hastur summons 3x Investigator Count Incorporeal Daemons. There are only 2 Investigators, so Hastur will summon the minimum of 1 Daemon.
Investigators
Investigators are all that stand between an unsuspecting world and the cosmic horrors that threaten to consume it.
- Health — How much physical punishment an investigator can take before they physically die.
- Backstory — A short explanation of how the Investigator first came into contact with the supernatural.
- Sanity — How much mental strain an investigator can endure before they are driven completely and irrevocably into madness.
- Special Ability — Each Investigator possesses a special skill to help them combat the horrors they face. A description of this skill, and rules for its use, are found here.
- After Death — When fighting the Elder Gods, death and insanity are very real possibilities. However, even after an Investigator succumbs, they still have some influence left.
Card Types
Starter Cards
Sleuth Cards: These provide Moxie.
Stagger Cards: These cards in The Horror in Dunwich can be punishing. Each Investigator will have 3 unique Stagger cards in their starting Personal Library.
Investigators do NOT have to play their Stagger cards and take the negative effects. They can simply be put into the discard pile during the Clean Up Phase. However, there will be times where a Minion, Mythos card, or Elder God will force you to play those Stagger cards.
Library
There are now 6 types of Library cards. Some Investigators are better at using certain types. You'll want to work together to make sure the right Investigator gets the right cards.
Library cards are your only weapon and defense against the onslaught of the Elder Gods.
Each Library card shows its Card Type, its Moxie Cost to Research, the Name of the card, and its Card Effect.
Actions: Something physical that an Investigator does to further their cause.
Equipment: These are physical items that can be used to battle the Mythos and aid in Research.
Spells: Magic almost always has a cost. Spells typically have positive and negative effects.
Locations: These are always in effect for all Investigators once played. Locations stay active even at the end of each round.
Allies: Allies function similarly to Locations. Once they are Researched and Activated from your hand they stay in play, even through the Clean Up Phase, until a Mythos card or something else specifically causes their removal.
Only one copy of a specific Ally may be in play at one time. For example, you cannot have two Warren Rice cards in play at the same time. You can have multiple unique Allies in play, with no limit.
Gear: Investigators can equip Gear on themselves for extra power. The effect that Gear has is a constant effect, unless otherwise stated by the Gear card. Gear is only in effect for the Investigator who is wearing it. Gear cannot be shared with other Investigators.
Every Investigator has two Gear slots, unless otherwise stated. Once an Investigator has two pieces of Gear, they may replace a piece of Gear by destroying one of their existing pieces of Gear and replacing it with a new piece of Gear.
The Encroaching Darkness
Elder Gods — Your ancient and inhuman foes. These aeons-old beings command powers and intelligence beyond human comprehension. Their desires and motivations are just as unfathomable. Each Elder God card shows its Health, its Name, and its Elder God Action.
Mythos — The presence of the Elder Gods warps and twists reality, causing horrifying phenomena to manifest as they encroach further into our reality. Each Mythos card shows its Name and its Effect.
Mythos Locations — Mythos Locations are cards representing where the battle between the Investigators and the Elder Gods take place. The stated effects of the Mythos Location cards are always active, unless the Investigators find a way to change that.
Minions — The servants of the Great Old Ones. While most are just as inhuman as their masters, many a foolish would-be sorcerer, or madman, can be counted among them. Each Minion card shows its Health, its Name, and its Minion Actions.
Summoning Minions
When you are directed to summon a particular Minion, search the Minion deck for the summoned Minion and put it into play.
Derangements
Derangements are cards representing the effects of going half mad. The effect of the Derangement is a permanent effect that is always active while you are at half Sanity or lower.
- Losing Half Of Your Sanity: When you have lost half of your total Sanity (rounded down) you must draw a Derangement card and activate it. Any inactive Derangements that you may have previously acquired also become active, turn them face up.
- Regaining Sanity Over Half: If you are able to regain your Sanity so that the value is greater than half of your Sanity you may turn over all active Derangements, thus inactivating them.
- Curing a Derangement: Some Allies and Library cards in the game have the ability to cure a Derangement. When a Derangement is cured, it is discarded and reshuffled into the Derangement card deck.
- Running out of Derangement Cards: If by chance all of the Derangement cards have been dealt out to Investigators, then no further Derangements can be gained until some are cured and a Derangement deck restarted.
Logbooks
Logbooks are used to track your progress towards defeating a particular Minion or Elder God. They also serve as a handy play sequence reference, showing the Tens column and Ones column for tracking Health, along with a Phase Order Reference for the Planning and Combat Phases.
Gameplay
The game plays out over a series of Rounds until either you and the other Investigators defeat the Elder Gods, or they defeat you. Each Round consists of the following Phases:
- Planning Phase
- Combat Phase
- Clean Up Phase
Planning Phase
It's time for you and your cohorts to prepare for the battle to come. Your sole resource in this game is Moxie. Moxie is used both as currency to research cards for your Personal Library AND as damage to defeat the Elder Gods and their Minions. In this Phase you must use your Moxie wisely to learn what you can do to deal damage to your enemies.
On their turn, each Investigator must perform the following actions in order. Investigator turns may be taken in any order.
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Draw 5 cards from your Personal Library deck. You may show your cards to your fellow Investigators.
If at any time you run out of cards in your Personal Library, simply reshuffle your Personal Discard pile to make a new facedown Personal Library.
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Preparation: Play cards from your hand face-up onto the table in front of you. These cards are now activated and immediately provide you with the benefits, or possible disadvantages, on the bottom of the card.
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Research: Cards are available in the Public Library at Miskatonic University to aid you in the fight to come. Use any Moxie gained from the cards you activated during Preparation to research new cards from the Public Library. a. Place the new cards researched directly into your hand, and then discard any activated cards you used into your Personal Discard pile. If an activated card has an ability that lasts beyond the Planning Phase, it may stay in play. b. Library cards may not be used to research other Library cards on the same turn in which they were added to your hand. Investigators may not pool their Moxie together to buy cards.
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Final Preparation: You may now play any additional cards you have researched or drawn this turn to activate them. There are two items important to note here: a. Moxie activated in the Planning Phase does NOT carry forward into the Combat Phase. This means that when your turn in combat arrives, only Moxie you still have IN YOUR HAND may be played. b. Now is a good time to heal your Health and/or Sanity if needed. You may heal ONCE during ANY Phase of the game, but on your turn you may heal as much as you like... as long as you have the Moxie to pay for it.
All Investigators can heal 1 point of Health or Sanity by spending 2 points of Moxie. Cards used to heal are immediately discarded into your Personal Discard pile. You may not heal more than your maximum Health or Sanity.
After each Investigator finishes Final Preparations, they will refill the Public Library up to 5 cards.
After ALL Investigators have finished their Final Preparations, it's time to move onto the Combat Phase.
Planning Phase Example
Phil draws 5 cards from his Personal Library deck. He draws 2 Sleuth cards, 1 Stagger card, 1 Craft Weapons card, and 1 Charles' Speargun card.
During Preparation, Phil first decides to activate his Craft Weapons card. It gives a bonus 2 Moxie to any Equipment cards played this Round.
Next, Phil activates 1 of his Sleuth cards. This gives him 1 Moxie.
Moving onto Research, Phil spends the 1 Moxie from his Sleuth card to research a Kick card from the Public Library. He puts the Kick card directly into his hand. Phil decides to save the remaining Moxie in his hand for combat, so he finishes researching by discarding his activated Sleuth card into his Personal Discard pile.
In Final Preparation for combat, Phil holds onto the cards in his hand. Phil has a total of 7 Moxie in his hand for combat and his Craft Weapons card will give a +2 Moxie bonus to his Charles' Speargun!
Combat Phase
During the Combat Phase, the Elder Gods and the horrors they summon get to go before the Investigators will have the opportunity to fight back. This Phase proceeds in the following order:
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Elder Gods
Each Combat Phase, the awakened Elder Gods will activate in order of their current health, from lowest to highest. They will then perform any special ability and/or summon any Minions as indicated on their card.
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Mythos
These are the evil deeds the Elder Gods inflict to destroy the fabric of reality! Reveal the number of Mythos cards from the Setup chart (see Setup). Execute the action and/or spawn a Minion as described on the card. Once completed, discard the Mythos card into the Mythos Discard pile.
Some Mythos cards are marked as Permanent. They will remain active for the rest of the game unless the Investigators can find a way to eliminate it.
When summoning or spawning a Minion, pull them from the game box and place them face-up in easy view of all Investigators. Place a Logbook next to it to track its Health. Place Slide Pointers on the Minion's maximum Health points.
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Minions
Any Minions in play, either summoned/spawned this Round or previously, now take their actions. Like Elder Gods, Minions activate in order of their current Health, from lowest to highest.
There is no maximum number of Minions that can be in play. If you run out of cards for a specific Minion type, you will need to keep track of additional Minions using Logbooks.
An Elder God or Minion may not accumulate more than their maximum Health. Beh'moth the Devourer is the exception to this rule.
Important! If Investigators prepared well during the Planning Phase, they may have activated Library cards in play, that can counter attacks from the Elder Gods and their summoned abominations. Remember to check your cards as the enemy attempts to devour you... mind, body, and soul!
Death: If an Investigator's Health or Sanity reaches zero, they are dead and defeated, but not completely out of the game! They do not draw any cards, but will instead perform the death ability on their Investigator card each turn.
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Investigators
Each Investigator, in any order, may once again activate cards from their hand. They may use the special abilities on their Library cards and/or they can total up their Moxie to do damage against the Elder Gods and/or their Minions. An Investigator may divide up their Moxie between multiple enemies in any way they choose.
Remember: Moxie activated in the Planning Phase does NOT carry forward into the Combat Phase. Only Moxie in your hand at the start of combat may be activated now.
After they have attacked enemies, the Investigator should: a. Check if they dropped any enemies to Zero Health. If so, that enemy is defeated and banished to their respective Discard pile. b. Check if all Elder Gods have been defeated. If yes, then any Minions flee and the Investigators win! c. Discard activated cards into their Personal Discard pile.
Combat Phase Example
This example game is being played by Brad and Westley at the Normal Level. The intrepid Investigators are in their 2nd Round and are battling Ithaqua.
Ithaqua goes first. Out the gate it deals the Minimum of 1 Health damage to each Investigator, and they have nothing in play to negate it. Then Ithaqua summons 1 Gnophkephs.
Now, the Mythos is executed and an Avalanche occurs. Brad has the highest Sanity, so his sanity is reduced to half of his remaining Sanity. Unfortunately, Brad now has to draw a Derangement card. He now has a Phobia and cannot attack Minions unless he can do 10 damage in a single Combat Phase.
The Gnophkephs will now come out to play. Dealing damage to the Investigator with the highest Sanity, Westley now takes the Minimum of 1 Sanity damage since Brad is mostly insane.
Brad and Westley finally have a chance to fight back. Brad attacks Ithaqua directly since he only has 5 Moxie and can't attack the Gnophkephs. Westley also has 5 Moxie and deals 4 damage to the Gnophkephs, then 1 damage to Ithaqua.
Ithaqua is still going strong, but at least the Gnophkephs is banished. The game continues!
Clean Up Phase
Once all Investigators have completed Combat:
- Discard ALL remaining cards in your hand into your Personal Discard pile.
- Discard ALL activated cards into your Personal Discard pile.
- Investigators may decide together to discard any unwanted cards from the Public Library of Miskatonic University.
- Refill the Public Library of Miskatonic University up to five face-up cards.
After the Clean Up Phase, the Round ends. Start a new Round with the Planning Phase. Continue playing subsequent Rounds until either all the Elder Gods are banished or all Investigators are dead.
Remember, the fate of humanity is in your hands!
Rule Clarifications
Destroy Cards
When directed to Destroy a card, the card is completely removed from play for the current game. Return Destroyed cards to the game box.
Drain
Any damage dealt will be gained as Health to whomever played the card/ability.
Ineffective
The targeted item no longer has the effect as listed on the card. Instead, it has no use.
Multiply Then Add/Subtract
When you have cards that combine to gain Moxie you should always multiply and then add or subtract the values.
Nullified Cards
The card or action that is nullified doesn't happen and is discarded.
Playing Blind
Cards from your Personal Library are drawn face down, so that neither you nor anyone else knows what they are. You can draw from the face down cards activating them immediately but without previously knowing what they are or what they do.
Moxie must be used in the phase it was received.
Rules Resolution
If there is a rule interpretation that is not covered here or at the game's website FAQ, boil the decision down to two choices and flip a coin to let the Mythos decide.
Sleep OR Freeze
No actions will be taken by the specified target for the specified rounds.
Special Ability
An Investigator cannot ever deactivate his or her special ability unless directed to do so by a Mythos card.
Ties
The players choose the order of resolution in the case of ties.
Card Clarifications
Hypnotic Suggestion & Mystic Binding
These cards let you take control of a Minion so they fight for you against the Elder God. As soon as you play the one of them, place it on a currently active Minion of your choice.
Your Minion activates when the Minions normally activate. When resolving how the Minion fights for you, in the text of the Minion you capture replace the word "Investigator" with "Elder God." No matter if the Minion does Health or Sanity damage, treat it as Health damage against the Elder God.
The first time you would take damage after playing Hypnotic Suggestion or Mystic Binding, it instead kills your controlled Minion.
Beh'moth the Devourer
The Beh'moth starts with 10 Health. Minions activate in order of their health from lowest to highest. If there is another Minion in play when the Beh'moth activates, he eats them.
For example, if one Minion had a health of 4 and the Beh'moth eats that Minion, the Beh'moth's health is now 14. He can eat multiple Minions in this fashion, adding their health to his, in one round.
If the Investigators have not reduced the Beh'moth's Health to below his initial Health of 10 and there are no Minions available for him to eat, then in the next round, when the Beh'moth activates, he will turn on the Investigator with the highest health. That Investigator will take damage calculated by the Beh'moth's current Health minus 10.
Continuing the above example, the Investigator would take 4 damage.
If the Beh'moth's Health is less than 10 when he activates with no Minions to eat, he will do NO damage to the Investigators.
You can use the Beh'moth to your advantage but be careful, if he ever runs out of food he can very easily kill an Investigator. If an Investigator is killed by the Beh'moth, the amount of health the Investigator had before they died is added to the Beh'moth's health.