The year is 1926, and it is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers dance till dawn in smoke-filled speakeasies drinking alcohol supplied by rum runners and the mob. It’s a celebration to end all celebrations in the aftermath of the war to end all wars.
Yet a dark shadow grows in the city of Arkham. Alien entities known as Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness beyond space and time, writhing at the gates between worlds. These gates have begun to open and must be closed before the Ancient Ones make our world their ruined domination.
Only a handful of investigators stand against the Arkham Horror. Will they Prevail?

Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure game themed around H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Players choose from 16 Investigators and take to the streets of Arkham. Before the game, one of the eight Ancient Ones is chosen and it’s up to the Investigators to prevent it from breaking into our world. During the course of the game, players will upgrade their characters by acquiring skills, allies, items, weapons, and spells. It’s up to the players to clean out the streets of Arkham by fighting many different types of monsters, but their main goal is to close gates to other dimensions that are opening up around town. With too many gates open the Ancient One awakens and the players only have one last chance to save the world – defeat the Ancient One in combat!

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time:  1-2 Hours
Complexity to learn: 7/10
From: Fantasy Flight Games

You arrived too late to stop the loathsome rite, and a monstrous, transdimensional Ancient One tears through reality. An iridescent rift slashes across the darkened skies, heralding the nightmarish creatures that pour into the hallowed buildings of Miskatonic University. As howls and screams cut through the night, there is only one path left for your fearless investigators—hold back the horde long enough to somehow reverse the summoning.

Arkham Horror: Final Hour is a fully co-operative, fast-paced board game for one to four players. An endless tide of monsters sweeps across the Miskatonic University campus, and you must hold them back, all while searching desperately for the ritual components you need to put an end to this insanity. Playable in under 60 minutes, your fate depends on cooperation between you and your fellow investigators. The odds against you are astronomical, but if you don’t succeed, this will indeed be the final hour for Arkham…and the world.

Target Ages: 12+
Expected Time: 60 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 5/10
From: Fantasy Flight Games

Something evil stirs in Arkham, and only you can stop it. Blurring the traditional lines between role-playing and card game experiences, Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a Living Card Game of Lovecraftian mystery, monsters, and madness!

In the game, you and your friend (or up to three friends with two Core Sets) become characters within the quiet New England town of Arkham. You have your talents, sure, but you also have your flaws. Perhaps you’ve dabbled a little too much in the writings of the Necronomicon, and its words continue to haunt you. Perhaps you feel compelled to cover up any signs of otherworldly evils, hampering your own investigations in order to protect the quiet confidence of the greater population. Perhaps you’ll be scarred by your encounters with a ghoulish cult.

No matter what compels you, no matter what haunts you, you’ll find both your strengths and weaknesses reflected in your custom deck of cards, and these cards will be your resources as you work with your friends to unravel the world’s most terrifying mysteries.

Each of your adventures in Arkham Horror LCG carries you deeper into mystery. You’ll find cultists and foul rituals. You’ll find haunted houses and strange creatures. And you may find signs of the Ancient Ones straining against the barriers to our world…

The basic mode of play in Arkham LCG is not the adventure, but the campaign. You might be scarred by your adventures, your sanity may be strained, and you may alter Arkham’s landscape, burning buildings to the ground. All your choices and actions have consequences that reach far beyond the immediate resolution of the scenario at hand—and your actions may earn you valuable experience with which you can better prepare yourself for the adventures that still lie before you.

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 1 – 2 Hours
Complexity to learn: 7/10
From: Fantasy Flight Games

Cthulhu Tales is a storytelling card game for people who enjoy the weird tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, love games and have a sense of humour with a touch of darkness to it…

Incarcerated in a sanatorium, you must convince the staff that you are sane by telling the story of the terrifying events that led you there. The other players try to disrupt your tale to make themselves look more sane in comparison, and the success of your tale determines which misguided therapies and medication are administered by the terrifying medical staff. These treatments are the way the game is scored, the player ending with the least amount of treatment is the winner, and is free to go.

Each player is trying to persuade the sanatorium staff that they are sane and can be released. As well as giving a convincing account of their own story, players can improve their chances of being freed by casting doubt on the other players’ tales – making themselves seem sane by comparison.

Target Ages: 15+
Expected Time: 20-60 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 3/10
From: Cubicle 7 Entertainment

Cthulhu Wars is a strategy boardgame in which the players take the part of alien races and gods taken from the Cthulhu mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft. The game is physically large, and includes sixty-four figurines of the cultists, monsters, aliens, and Great Old Ones that range in height from approximately 20 mm to nearly 180 mm.

The game takes place on a map of Earth. Each player takes the part of one of four factions included in the base game. At the start of a turn, players Gather Power, then, during a series of Action Rounds, they spend this Power to accomplish various tasks, such as recruiting Cultists, moving units, engaging in battle, summoning monsters, building Gates, casting spells, and Awakening their Great Old One. When all players run out of Power, the Action phase ends and the next turn begins. Victory is determined by accumulating points on the Doom Track. The first player to 30 is the lone victor *if* he has unlocked all six of spell books.

Driving the strategy are a player’s wish to expand his power base, and his need to accomplish six tasks to acquire his faction’s spell books. Each faction has a unique set of monsters, spell books, and special abilities, and has different requirements to acquire its spell books. All factions have multiple strategies open to them.

The base game supports 2-4 players (the map supports 5 players), but with new factions and maps released as expansions it can support up to 8 players.

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 90-120 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 6/10
From: Petersen Games

In Cthulhu: Death May Die, inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, you and your fellow players represent investigators in the 1920s who instead of trying to stop the coming of Elder Gods, want to summon those otherworldly beings so that you can put a stop to them permanently. You start the game insane, and while your long-term goal is to shoot Cthulhu in the face, so to speak, at some point during the game you’ll probably fail to mitigate your dice rolls properly and your insanity will cause you to do something terrible — or maybe advantageous. Hard to know for sure.

The game has multiple episodes, and each of them has a similar structure of two acts, those being before and after you summon whatever it is you happen to be summoning. If any character dies prior to the summoning, then the game ends and you lose; once the Elder One is on the board, as long as one of you is still alive, you still have a chance to win.

Season 2

The Season 2 expansion brings a lot of content to expand your experience with Death May Die. From a whole roster of unique Investigators, to 6 brand new Episodes, introducing all manner of new rules and elements to the game, utilizing a new set of game tiles, and pitting a host of terrifying new monsters in all shapes and sizes against the players!

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 90-120 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 5/10
From: CMON Global Limited

Across the globe, ancient evil is stirring. Now, you and your trusted circle of colleagues must travel around the world, working against all odds to hold back the approaching horror. Foul monsters, brutal encounters, and obscure mysteries will take you to your limit and beyond. All the while, you and your fellow investigators must unravel the otherworldy mysteries scattered around the globe in order to push back the gathering mayhem that threatens to overwhelm humanity. The end draws near! Do you have the courage to prevent global destruction?

Eldritch Horror is a co-operative game of terror and adventure in which one to eight players take the roles of globetrotting investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One – that is, an elder being intent on destroying our world. Each Ancient One comes with its own unique decks of Mystery and Research cards, which draw you deeper into the lore surrounding each loathsome creature. Discover the true name of Azathoth or battle Cthulhu on the high seas.

While the tasks on these Mystery cards (along with the locations of otherworldly gates, menacing monsters, and helpful clues) will often inform both your travel plans and the dangers you confront, you can find adventure anywhere in the world…even where you least expect it. It is during the Encounter Phase of each turn that players resolve combat or, alternatively, build their investigators’ personal stories by reading an encounter narrative from one of several types of Encounter cards. You might go head to head with a monster in Istanbul or find yourself in a tough spot with the crime syndicate in a major city. Maybe you will embark on an expedition to the Pyramids or research a clue you uncover in the unnamed wilderness. You may even find your way through a gate and explore a dimension beyond time and space.

Should you fail an encounter, the cost is steep. If you are fortunate, you will merely incur physical or mental trauma. However, you might also be compelled to take a Condition card, which represents a specific injury or restriction gained throughout your journey, such as a Leg Injury or Amnesia. You could find yourself getting in over your head to acquire assets and receive a Debt condition – or maybe you’ll owe a favor to something far more insidious than a debt collector, and enter into a Dark Pact! Whatever your condition, you would be wise to find a resolution with haste; many conditions have a “reckoning effect” which, if triggered, ensure a much more sinister fate.

All the while, the arrival of the Ancient One approaches. Its malign influence is manifested in Eldritch Horror as you draw Mythos Cards, which govern the appearance of otherworldly gates, fearsome monsters, and other ominous elements. Mythos cards keep your investigators under pressure, introducing new threats, even as the arrival of the Great Old One draws nearer! Since the investigators draw a new Mythos card each round, they’re certain to have their hands full battling foul creatures and following up on strange rumors, even as they work to solve their three all-important mysteries.

With twelve unique investigators, two hundred-fifty tokens, and over three hundred cards, Eldritch Horror presents an epic, world-spanning adventure with each and every game.

Mountains of Madness Expansion

Explore the farthest reaches of Antarctica in Mountains of Madness, the second expansion for Eldritch Horror. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, this expansion allows you to trace the path of a doomed expedition and enter the immense City of the Elder Things. What happens in Antarctica has worldwide repercussions as freshly-awakened horrors spread across the globe.

Eight investigators offer new roles to play as you confront these chilling, inhuman threats. Numerous additional Assets, Spells, Artifacts and Conditions may help investigators or harm them, and for the first time, Adventures and Prelude cards shape the international struggle against the Ancient Ones. Do you have the strength to survive Antarctica’s frozen wastes, encounter the Mountains of Madness, and stave off the end of human civilization?

Under the Pyramids Expansion

Ancient secrets, sandblasted ruins, and unprecedented horrors await in Under the Pyramids! This side board expansion opens up six new locations throughout Egypt, including bustling Cairo, ancient Tel El-Amarna, and the shining, snaking, Nile River. Yet the Egypt of the 1920s is hardly a safe tourist destination. Amid the cultural tumult and political instability of this modernizing African nation, countless Cultists are working to bring about the return of an ancient and powerful evil known as the Dark Pharaoh. If he should rise up to rule Egypt once more with his iron will, he would doom all humankind to wretched, cruel slavery.

Fighting this battle against terrible evil are eight more investigators, aided by invaluable Relics, powerful Glamour spells, and legendary allies. The Museum Heist Adventure cards lead you on a hunt for stolen antiquities, and six more preludes that can transform your games of Eldritch Horror in innovative and thematic ways.

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 120-240 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 7/10
From: Fantasy Flight Games

 

Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is a fully co-operative, app-driven board game of horror and mystery for one to five players that takes place in the same universe as Eldritch Horror and Elder Sign. Let the immersive app guide you through the veiled streets of Innsmouth and the haunted corridors of Arkham’s cursed mansions as you search for answers and respite. Eight brave investigators stand ready to confront four scenarios of fear and mystery, collecting weapons, tools, and information, solving complex puzzles, and fighting monsters, insanity, and death. Open the door and step inside these hair-raising Mansions of Madness: Second Edition. It will take more than just survival to conquer the evils terrorizing this town.

Beyond the Threshold: Expansion

The frightening creatures of Mansions of Madness Second Edition have haunted your dreams for weeks now. Mysterious disappearances brought you to the Vanderbilt mansion, and your stay in Innsmouth was disturbed by darkness and despair. You’ve encountered devoted cultists and disgruntled spirits, bound to the mortal world by their evil task. Terror has overcome you and grievous injuries have put your mortality on display. Every choice you’ve made has led you somewhere, but even the strongest in mind or body will crack eventually.

Even more horror awaits you in Beyond the Threshold, the first expansion to Mansions of Madness Second Edition. Introducing two new investigators, one unfamiliar creature, and a variety of additional components, this expansion will extend the possibilities of your journey through each and every unsettling scenario of uncertainty and anxiety. The new spaces to discover, people to encounter, and cards to experience all come together to bring additional scenarios as well, throwing you into the dim unknown of two new mysteries, each with their own unique additions to the world of Mansions of Madness.

Streets of Arkham Expansion

Evil extends its reach and spills into the Streets of Arkham! This expansion for Mansions of Madness: Second Edition places four new investigators in three thrilling digital scenarios that incorporate new elements of gameplay, including elixirs and improvement tokens. Players get hours of exciting gameplay filled with horror and hardships that incorporate the core game and build upon the Arkham Horror canon.

Streets of Arkham is an expansion for Mansions of Madness: Second Edition in which investigators must confront the horrific secrets behind Arkham’s failing facade of normalcy. From the campus of Miskatonic University to the gang-run speakeasies and storefronts, investigators face threats on both the supernatural and worldly fronts. Only with their wits, grit, and the occasional opportunity to unlock hidden potential can they overcome the threats to the city- and their lives.

Sanctum of Twilight Expansion

Within the lavish rooms of the Silver Twilight Lodge, the most influential citizens of Arkham gather to forge business alliances, plan parades, and lobby politicians. In secret, they also meet to enact forbidden rituals with dark consequences. The poor souls who discover this truth often vanish, never to be seen again.

Sanctum of Twilight is an expansion for Mansions of Madness Second Edition that unites two new investigators against the Order of the Silver Twilight in two thrilling scenarios. With new spells, items, mechanics, and a new monster, this expansion immerses players in the Arkham Files universe as they confront the dangers threatening Arkham from within.

Horrific Journeys Expansion

In the skies above the Atlantic, a dirigible’s peaceful journey is interrupted by a bloody act of revenge and an oncoming storm. On the sea far below, a treacherous saboteur plants the explosives that will sink a ship. In the New England countryside, a train billows black smoke, desperately fleeing an unimaginable threat.

Horrific Journeys is a deluxe expansion for Mansions of Madness which unlocks three thrilling scenarios that take four new investigators far from Arkham, solving mysteries aboard a bustling transatlantic airship, a luxury ocean liner, and a scenic countryside train. With new map tiles, puzzles, monsters, and mythos events, these brave men and women must contend with hideous amphibian monstrocities and interdimensional creatures tearing holes in the fabric of reality all with the knowledge that one wrong move can destroy the very vessels they are trying to protect! In order to arrive at their destinations, the investigator of Arkham must first survive their journey!

Path of the Serpent Expansion

Now in Mansions of Madness, you take on the role of Arkham’s bravest investigators who must step into the unexplored wilderness of the Amazon jungle and explore crumbling ruins, discover the secrets of lost civilizations, and stop a serpent’s curse before the world descends into chaos. In three new scenarios, you will battle horrifying serpent creatures, face stone monstrosities that come to life, and beat the ever-present danger of being lost to the jungle forever.

Recurring Nightmares Figure and Tile Collection

The first of the two Figure and Tile Collections, Recurring Nightmares, includes all eight investigator figures, eighteen plastic monster miniatures, and fifteen double-sided map tiles from the Mansions of Madness First Edition core game. Take on the role “Ashcan” Pete, the drifter, and make use of his loyal hound dog, Duke, or assume the attributes of Harvey Walters, the brilliant professor. With Recurring Nightmares in your collection, you may also encounter a host of long-forgotten monsters, such as the fearsome Chthonian or the unpredictable Maniac.

When you include the First Edition core set or Recurring Nightmares pieces in your game, you will also gain access to a brand new scenario. Tasked with solving the mystery of missing bodies from Hangman’s Hill Cemetery, you and your fellow investigators will need to explore the misty and sinister graveyard. You may find the corpses you seek, dead as they ever were, or perhaps some sinister reanimation of their bodies will find you first.

Suppressed Memories Figure and Tile Collection

The second Figure and Tile Collection brings pieces to Second Edition from both first edition expansions, Forbidden Alchemy and Call of the Wild. Suppressed Memories includes eight investigators, fifteen plastic monster miniatures, and seventeen double-sided map tiles. You may choose to play as Bob Jenkins, the charismatic salesman from Call of the Wild, or the insightful psychologist Carolyn Fern from Forbidden Alchemy. Consider your investigators carefully, because it will take exceptional strength and will to escape a threatening Byakhee or an unsettling Nightgaunt.

The Suppressed Memories scenario is based on the collection’s Call of the Wild content, meaning those with the original Call of the Wild expansion will be able to play as well. Adding the Forbidden Alchemy expansion as well, however, will increase the number of scenario variants available to you. Fans of the original game may recognize this scenario as a reimagining of a First Edition scenario, featuring the return of Zebulon Whately and an attempt to interrupt a sinister happening in Dunwich. You won’t know exactly when your time is nearly exhausted, though, so tensions are sure to run high as you race to stop your occult enemies from carrying out their task.

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 120-180 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 6/10
From: Fantasy Flight Games

 

Beings of ancient evil, known as Old Ones, are threatening to break out of their cosmic prison and awake into the world. Everything you know and love could be destroyed by chaos and madness. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity.

In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, you’ll experience the classic Pandemic gameplay with an horrific twist that’ll have you face twelve Old Ones, each threatening the world with their unique powers. As players take on the roles of investigators attempting to seal a series of portals before monsters of unspeakable horror pour into our world there is, of course, a high risk of the investigators losing their own minds.

Instead of curing diseases like in the original Pandemic, players seal portals and shut down cults in the classic New England fictional towns of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity and the evil that lurks beneath your feet…

Part of the Pandemic series.

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 40 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 5/10
From:Z-Man Games

The year is 1913. The steamship SS Atlantica is two days out from port on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Its unsuspecting passengers fully anticipated a calm journey to Boston, Massachusetts, with nothing out of the ordinary to look forward to. However, strange nightmares plague the minds of the people aboard the ship every night; rumors circulate of dark shapes following closely behind the ship just beneath the waves; and tensions rise when a body is discovered in the ship’s chapel, signs of a strange ritual littered around the corpse.

Lurking within the depths of the Atlantic Ocean are a swarm of vicious, unspeakable horrors: the Deep Ones, led by Mother Hydra and Father Dagon. For reasons unknown, they have set their sights on the Atlantica, and their minions, taking the form of human-Deep One hybrids, have infiltrated the steamship to help sink it from within. Each game of Unfathomable has one or more players assuming the role of one of these hybrids, and how well they can secretly sabotage the efforts of the other players might mean the difference between a successful voyage and a sunken ship.

If you’re a human, you need to fend off Deep Ones, prevent the Atlantica from taking too much damage, and carefully manage the ship’s four crucial resources if you want any hope of making it to Boston, all while trying to figure out which of your fellow players are friends and which are foes. Everyone shares the same resource pool, but humans will try to preserve them while traitors will strive to subtly deplete them. Being able to tell when someone is purposefully draining the group’s resources is harder than you think, especially when you take crises into account!

At the end of each player’s turn, that player must draw a mythos card. Each of these cards represents a crisis that the whole group must try to resolve together. Some of these crises, such as “Food Rationing”, call for a choice that could potentially put the ship’s passengers or resources at risk, while others, such as “Hull Leak”, call for a skill test in which failure could have disastrous consequences.

During a skill test, each player contributes skill cards from their hand to a face-down pile shared by the group. Once everyone has contributed (or chosen not to), the cards are shuffled, then revealed. If enough of the correct skills were contributed, then the group passes the test! But if the wrong skills were contributed, they can actually hinder the results, leading to failure. Thus, skill tests are dangerous opportunities for traitors to sabotage the humans’ efforts, so you have to stay on your toes at all times.

Target Ages: 14+
Expected Time: 120-240 Minutes
Complexity to learn: 6/10
From: Fantasy Flight Games

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