Don't Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe: Review

Don't Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe: Review 

Information:

Mechanics: Bluffing, Social Deduction
Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 4 - 8 Players

Time to Play: 1 - 30 Minutes 
Game Designer: Yusuke Sato

Game Artists: Luis Francisco, Stephanie Gustafsson, Brandt Peters

Publisher: Indie Boards and Cards

Year Published: 2018

BGG Weight: 1.33

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

Over the course of four rounds investigators will try to discover all elder signs in order to stop Cthulhu from walking the earth. The cultists, however, are trying to outlast the four rounds without discovering the elder signs or have the investigators stumble onto Cthulhu.

Game Setup:

- Place the investigators and cultists (based on the player count) into a deck.

 - Shuffle and deal one character card to each player. There will be one card left over. This character card will be a player’s identity for the rest of the game. 

- Randomly select a starting player and give them the torch marker.

- Follow the chart to create the deck, then shuffle and deal these cards face down to each player. This will create a pile of five cards in front of each player. 

How to Play:

If you are a cultist then you want the game to be played out without the investigators winning, or you want a player to reveal Cthulhu to the world.

As an investigator you want every elder sign to be revealed to put a stop to the cultist’s plans.

At the start of each round every player will look at all their cards that they have been dealt. They will then shuffle the cards and place them face down in front of them in a line. Players are now allowed to discuss and say what they have in front of them. This is where you can throw off other players to help your goal. When the first player (owner of the torch marker) is ready they will shine the light on a card in front of another player to be revealed. If cthulhu or the final elder sign is revealed the game will end and the respective team will win. If this is not the case then the player that revealed a card will now be the active player and will do the same thing until the amount of cards revealed this round equals the player count.

The next round will begin, and all unrevealed cards will be shuffled together and dealt out amongst each player. If four rounds have been played without the last elder sign being revealed then the game will end with the cultist will successfully raise Cthulhu.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:

- The cultists don’t know who are on their team.

- In the deluxe edition there are two expansions included to help the cultists. 

- The declarations create a great atmosphere of distrust.

Cons:

- Some people may dislike that it is mostly a conversational social deduction game.

- Without the expansion the first two rounds are not as interesting.

'Don't mess with Cthulhu' uses a very simple formula of social deduction, although they do this extremely well. There is not much to explain to players since they are either aiming to reveal elder signs or hide elder signs/reveal Cthulhu. In this dynamic though players have a lot of issues with what to tell other players. If you reveal that you have Cthulhu then the cultist as the active player may reveal the card and win the game for themselves. When the fourth round has come it turns into a tense display of who to trust. This goes for the cultist and the investigators as there could be only one cultist or multiple. If there are multiple then they want to work together but they won't know who that is. If you like social deduction games and have no issue with the conversational ones, then this is a game to add to your social deduction rotation. It will certainly be staying in mine.

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