Game Report: Cthulhu: Death May Die - "Top of the Mourning"

The layout on my two foot by four foot table.

I don't normally do game reports on the blog, but with this month's flurry of Cthulhu: Death May Die painting, I thought it appropriate to make a brief mention of how playing the game for the first time actually went.

I solo-played the first episode that was included, Season 3 - Episode 1: "Top of the Mourning." In it, cultists are using a witch's ghost to bring an elder god to Earth. Specifically, they're bringing it to somewhere in Massachusetts because witches. Since the game lets you mix-and-match episodes with elder gods, I picked The Black Goat of the Woods (shown off in the last post). You can see the starting layout in the first picture. This setup required quite a bit of space, two and a half feet deep by almost three feet wide, so I needed to skew it to fit on my little folding table. The board and other bits took a long time to set up, not even including all of the cardboard-token-punching, card sleeving, and organization that I did before.

The All-American, outnumbered in a burning room!

Mr. Whisper deals the killing blow!

My chosen investigators were two of my painted mystery men: Mr. Whisper and the All-American. (In the game, they're the much less intimidating Saito and Steve.) Mr. Whisper got the "Impulsive Aggression" psychosis, which hurt him if he went a little crazy when there were no enemies in his space, and the All-American got Bloodlust, which required him to get at least two kills between psychotic breaks or he'd take stress. As it worked out, Steve only ever benefited from his bloodlust, since he always had at least two kills when it came up.

I was playing on a bit of an easy mode by having each character get one relic, but things went relatively smoothly. There are a bunch of rules to keep track of, but things started moving pretty quickly after I caught on. I managed to complete the ritual to make the Black Goat of the Woods spawn in while vulnerable, and despite a few close calls, I worked through the three stages of its health and Mr. Whisper managed to cut it down. Despite the many physical pieces and lengthy setup, the game was fun and felt pretty balanced. Playing with nice miniatures always feels good, too.

★★★★☆