Cthulhu Realms
Cthulhu Realms Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components and Setup
4 Player Mats: Give one to each player and return the remainder to the box. These are used to track your Sanity level, and should be placed in front of you, visible to everyone.
4 Sanity Markers: Give one to each player and return the remainder to the box. Place your marker on the number "50" on your player mat to indicate that you start with 50 Sanity. When you gain or lose Sanity throughout the game, this marker will be adjusted to indicate your current level. If you ever drop to zero Sanity or less, you lose immediately and are eliminated from the game.
10 Initiate, 24 Follower, and 8 Goon Cards: Give each player 2 Initiates, 2 Goons, and 6 Followers, which they shuffle to form their starting personal deck of 10 cards. Return any remaining Goons or Followers to the box. Place the remaining initiates to one side of the playing area.
66 General Cards: Shuffle these together to form a general deck, then deal 5 of them in a line face-up in the center of the table. These 5, as well as the remaining Initiate cards, are the "Available cards" at the start of the game. Place the rest of the general deck face up next to the Available cards, so that the top card is visible.
Gameplay
The player who has most recently gone insane will be the Start Player and will take the first turn. Then play will proceed clockwise around the table. If you are the Start Player, draw 3 cards from your deck to begin the game, otherwise draw 5 cards from your deck.
On your turn, you will put cards from your hand into play and activate abilities on your cards that are in play. At the end of your turn, you will discard any Entity and Artifact cards from play (place them in a face-up discard pile next to your deck), as well as any cards left in your hand that you chose not to play. Do not discard Locations, they stay in play until removed. Then draw back up to 5 cards in hand. If you need to draw a card and there are no cards remaining in your deck, shuffle your discard pile and place it face-down as your new personal deck. If at any point you are reduced to zero Sanity or less, you are eliminated from the game. If you are the last player remaining, you win!
There are additional rules at the end of these instructions for playing with more than 2 players.
Card Breakdown
Each card is illustrated with the following elements:
- Ability and another ability: the ability icons, along the left side of the card.
- Conjuring cost: located in the upper right corner of the card.
- Totally cool illustration: the card's artwork.
- Color and type icon / location sanity value: located in the bottom left corner of the card (Locations also show their Sanity value here).
Example: This ability has two prerequisites:
- You must have a green card already in play, and
- a card must have been discarded sometime this turn.
If you meet both prerequisites, you can activate this ability.
How the Cards Work
Cards are one of 4 COLORS (yellow, purple, green, or black) and can have one of three TYPES (Entity, Artifact, or Location); these are both indicated in the bottom left corner of the card. If the card is a Location, it also has a Sanity value listed on the color/type icon in the bottom left. The conjuring cost is located in the upper right corner of the card. Each card will have one or more different abilities, which are along the left side of the card.
When you put a card from your hand into play, put it face up in front of you. Each time you play a card, you may use each of its abilities once. If you have a Location in play from a prior turn, you may also use each of its abilities once per turn. As you use abilities on cards, you may want to slide the cards to one side to indicate you've used some or all of the abilities on them.
Playing cards and activating abilities on cards can be done in any order — you may even play a card, activate one ability on it, play other cards and activate abilities on them, and then go back to the first card and activate remaining abilities on it.
You do not have to activate every ability on the cards you play. In fact many abilities have one or two prerequisites — which means in order to activate the ability you need to either have another card with the indicated color/type in play, or the indicated thing needs to have happened at least once during your current turn.
A card never satisfies its own prerequisites (for example, an ability may require you to have a yellow card in play. This means you would need a yellow card in play other than the one the ability is printed on). It is possible for one card to satisfy the prerequisites for multiple other cards.
Some cards have a double-sided arrow, pointing at two different abilities. This means you may activate one ability or the other (if you meet any prerequisites it may have), but not both.
Some abilities have an Abjure symbol with an arrow below the ability icon. This means that if you activate that ability, it also immediately Abjures the card that it is printed on (return it to the box).
Some Locations have a shield over the Location icon. This means that while that Location is in play, opponents are prevented from applying loss of Sanity to something specific, as indicated by the symbol in the shield:
A Location with this icon is a Sanctuary. Opponents may not apply loss of Sanity to you while you have a Location with this symbol in play. They must destroy all your Sanctuaries before they can apply Sanity loss to you.
A Location with this icon is a Nexus. Opponents may not apply loss of Sanity to your Locations that don't have this symbol while you have a Location with this symbol in play. They must destroy all your Nexuses before they can apply Sanity loss to your other Locations. However, they may still use the "Destroy a Location" ability on your other Locations.
Prerequisites
A card icon indicates that you must have another card of this color in play to activate this ability.
A type icon indicates that you must have another card with the specified type (regardless of color) in play to activate this ability.
A discard icon means that if any player has discarded a card from their hand this turn, you may activate this ability.
An Abjure icon used as a prerequisite means that if a card was Abjured from anywhere this turn, you may activate this ability.
Card Abilities
There are 6 different kinds of abilities.
Draw/Discard Cards: If this has a positive value in it, choose a player to draw that many cards from their personal deck. If it has a negative value in it, choose a player to discard that many cards from their hand. If it has both a positive and a negative value in it, choose a player to do both; draw then discard. If you need to draw a card and have none left in your personal deck, shuffle your discard pile and place it face-down as your new personal deck.
Abjure a Card: Choose a card with a conjuring cost of 6 or less from your hand, or your discard pile, or the Available cards in the center. Remove that card from the game, and return it to the box. If you Abjure a card from the Available cards other than an Initiate, replace it with a new card from the top of the general deck.
Acquire an Abjured Card: Choose a card in the box that was Abjured this turn, and place it on top of your deck.
Gain Conjuring Power: Add the number shown to your Conjuring Power for the turn. At any time during your turn, you may spend some or all of your Conjuring Power to acquire any number of cards from the Available cards in the center of the table.
For example, if you activated an ability that provided you with 3 Conjuring Power, and another ability that provided you with 2 Conjuring Power, you would have 5 total Conjuring Power. You could then acquire one or more cards from the available cards with a combined cost equal to or less than 5 (in this example, you could take a card with a conjuring cost of 3 in addition to a card with a conjuring cost of 2, or you might decide to take a single card with a conjuring cost of 4, leaving you with 1 remaining Conjuring Power).
When you acquire a card by spending Conjuring Power, place the acquired card directly into your discard pile, then add a new card to the Available cards from the top of the general deck (There should always be 5 Available cards, in addition to the extra Initiates). You do not have to spend all of your Conjuring Power at the same time, but any Conjuring Power not spent before the end of the turn is lost - it does not carry over to your next turn.
Gain/Lose Sanity: If this has a positive value in it, choose a player to gain that much Sanity.
If it has a negative value in it, choose a player or a Location in play to lose that much Sanity.
When you choose a player, that player adjusts their Sanity cube to indicate their new Sanity level. If this would reduce that player to zero Sanity or less, they are immediately eliminated from the game. If you are the only player who has not been eliminated from the game, you win!
If a Location loses as much Sanity as its Sanity value (in the bottom left corner) in a single turn, the Location descends into bedlam—it is destroyed and placed in its owner's discard pile. If you do not apply enough Sanity loss to a Location to destroy it, the Location will calm down at the end of the turn; the Sanity loss on Locations does not carry over from one turn to the next. You may split up a loss of Sanity and apply some of it to Locations, and some to a player.
It is possible to gain more Sanity than the player mat can indicate. While you have more than 55 Sanity, use the 55+ marker to track your excess Sanity, remembering you have 55 more.
Destroy a Location: Choose a Location in play, belonging to any player. That Location is destroyed and is placed in its owner's discard pile.
Game Over
If you are the only player with Sanity left, you win. If the general deck runs out of cards, the player with the most Sanity remaining wins. Ties go to the player with more cards in their deck. Further ties result in universal loss and suffering.
Games with 3 or 4 Players
When playing with three or four players, there are a few differences.
During setup, instead of a single line of 5 Available cards, deal 3 Available cards in between players who are next to each other. You may spend Conjuring Power only on the 6 cards which are next to you (3 cards between you and the player to your left, and 3 cards between you and the player to your right). The first player will draw 3 cards, the last player will draw 5, and the others will draw 4 to start the game.
A Four-Player Setup: Bobby's Available cards are between Bobby and Abigail, and between Bobby and Charlie. The cards adjacent to Deborah's play area are not Available cards for Bobby.
When you are eliminated, Abjure the Available cards between you and each of your neighbors. Your neighbors are now neighbors with each other—Deal 3 new Available cards between them from the top of the general deck.
Player Elimination: Deborah loses the last of her sanity and is eliminated. All her cards, and the Available cards they have access to, are abjured…
When assigning loss of Sanity, it is applied to both of your neighbors. For instance, if you played a card that caused a loss of 8 Sanity, you could cause each of your neighbors to lose 8 Sanity. In each case, this may be split amongst a player and their Locations, as normal. When there are only two players remaining, they will each have only one neighbor, and 6 total Available cards between them. Other abilities are played as normal.
Player Elimination (cont'd): …and a new line is dealt between the new neighbors, Abigail and Charlie.
When selecting a player or card with an ability, you can only choose from those present amongst your neighbors and yourself. You cannot, for instance, Abjure an Available card that is in a line between two other players.
For a complete reference of all the card abilities, visit http://playtmg.com/cthulhu-realms-card-abilities
Credits
Cthulhu Realms: a jagged and hectic misremembering of a game by Darwin Kastle
Original Game Concept and Design: Darwin Kastle
Lead Game Development: Robert Dougherty
Star Realms Playtesters: Cristie Boone, Alan Comer, Ryan Dougherty, Chad Ellis, Justin Gary, Vito Gesualdi, Andrew Gross, Barbara Gugliuzza, Tan Thor Jen, Danny Mandel, Raymond Mess, CJ Moynihan, Rada Rudyak, Anthony Shaheen, Adrian Sullivan
Additional Development: Michael Mindes
Card Layout Concept: Max Holliday
Art: Rob Lundy
Icons: Adam McIver
Graphic Design: Thomas Deeny
© and ™ 2015 White Wizard Games LLC, used under license by Tasty Minstrel Games LLC