Punching Elder Gods in the Face!

Cthulhu Death May Die is absurd. The notion is that you're taking a few deranged investigators, complete with their own psychosis eval, on a mission to disrupt a ritual in order to actually bring a giant Elder God onto your map so you can punch him in the face. And it's oh so wonderful. 

It took me a long time to get this game. I'm not sure why, honestly. I love horror themes in my cardboard. I've always loved the Cthulhu mythos, and I admire a game that doesn't take itself too seriously. Check, check, check. Yet I didn't get this gem until very recently. And boy do I wish I had gotten into it earlier. 

You see, CDMD is a CMON game. They are notorious for over producing their games and having Kickstarters that include stretch goals out the buttox. This one's no different. I recently backed the newest campaign, which I believe is Season 5. The amount of extra content I'm going to get for cheaper than I bought my retail copy of Season 1 is insane. If you've never participated in a CMON kickstarter, it's like a dopamine hit every few hours as you get emailed updates of the newest unlocked goal. I think there were something like 57 for the newest campaign? And the stretch goals are even more absurd than the normal game. I know I saw Hitchcock, Teslsa, and other real-world investigators you'll be able to use. 

Sorry, got a bit giddy there. I should probably talk about the game itself. 

For those of you, like myself, who waited on this game for far too long, CDMD is somewhat like a game of Pandemic in that you're constantly having to deal with incoming issues. In this case, it's giant horrifying abominations instead of viruses. There is an Elder God who will definitely enter your world. Instead of what most Cthulhu games do where you're trying to prevent that, in this game you welcome it. There are six episodes in each main box, and all of the episodes are quite different from one another. Combine that with the many various Elder Gods you can play against, and you've got replay-ability out the wazoo. 

Episodes could have you trying to destroy laboratories that cultists are using while trying not to catch on fire, or figuring out who the cultists are amongst a sea of masked party goers. The episodes create an incredible narrative every time you play, which just puts a smile on your face while playing. And the extra content from the stretch goals usually includes some episodes that are way more out there, making them more humorous and insane. 

The investigators you use each have a set of three different ability tracks. One of those tracks is specific to only that character, while the other two are common skills that other characters have. For instance, one of your abilities might be Marksman, where you can shoot at the enormous, menacing monsters or cultists from a space away. But if you level that skill up, you can add some additional dice to your rolls, making you more powerful. Level up again and you're shooting from 2 spaces away, which can be absolutely essential when fighting against an Elder One. 

Leveling up is also a very smart mechanic in this game. You see, as you roll dice against monsters and such, you'll often roll a symbol that makes you advance your sanity meter. Now, the cool thing is, there are markers on your sanity meter that represent leveling up. That's right, you get more and more powerful the more insane you become. But there's a catch. If you get all the way to the end of the meter, you go completely bonkers and you're out of the game. So it's a wonderful balancing act you have to play of getting powerful enough to truly kick some Elder God ass, while being careful not to go too far too quickly and eliminate yourself from the table. 

There's another aspect of leveling up that makes things tricky as well. Before the game begins, each investigator is given a random 'mental condition' they must deal with. That's not the exact term, but you get it. These mental conditions only trigger when you level up, and can range from being a pyro that sets fire to his/her space, to a condition that has you stealing items from someone in your space as a clepto. Not only do these conditions make things spicier and more varied from play to play, they also create different strategies to apply while playing in order to maximize the ability or prevent harming other investigators...or even yourself. 

The last thing I'll mention is that every episode has its own deck of Discovery cards. These will usually offer a choice of two things. They could both be good, both be bad, or a mix. The good choice most often requires spending some precious Stress, which is also used to alter die rolls. So it's a good idea to keep a couple of stress available if possible so you can afford the good choice on that Discovery card. Otherwise you might end up cursed, or some other terrible thing. One amazing design of these Discovery cards that took me a few plays to realize is that they often have their own self-contained stories within them. I won't get into spoilers here, but it's such a wonderful touch that the designers implemented, and just makes my smile grow wider while playing. 

Despite the fact that the formula for every game is the same - disrupt a ritual of some type and then pummel an Elder God - the narratives that come out while playing are amazing. This game has created some of the most memorable gaming moments I've ever experienced. One night we were facing what looked like certain doom. We knew we only had one round to kill the Elder God, or we were going to lose. Our best attacker had already taken their turn, but the Elder God still had something like 12 hit points left, and we couldn't even get to him to attack because of all the enemies in between. I knew the only path to victory was sacrifice, so I ran through the corridors, taking what felt like hundreds of cultists and other monsters with me (when you move in this game, if you move through a space with an enemy, that enemy follows you). I took them all the way to the Elder God's space. They soon destroyed me, as I knew would happen. Then, on the last turn, the next player threw a grenade he had found in a Discovery and chunked it in there, killing every monster except the Elder God. That allowed him to get two final hits in, and we won the game on the last possible action. It was terrifically satisfying, and just one example of a multitude of very similar moments I've had while playing. 

I should mention that I've played this many times solo as well as multiplayer. While I enjoy playing with other people a bit more, solo is so darn fun as well. You just have to take control of more than one investigator, which is not hard to do in this game. The puzzle it creates though is extremely satisfying, which is why it's become a staple of my solo gaming as of late. 

Cthulhu Death May Die is an incredible experience that I wish I had gotten into before I did. Part of the barrier for me was price (retail is around 120 for a core box), but board games these days have gotten much more expensive, and thus this sticker shot has certainly deadened. If you're into the Cthulhu realm, or have wanted to get into it, and you enjoy a game that doesn't take itself too seriously - go grab it. You absolutely will not regret that decision.