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Credits

Game DesignPhil Loyer

ArtistGraham Sisk

Graphic DesignRebecca Burk Ellis

3D ArtistBrandon Beren

Wyvren GamingBrad Ellis, Phil Loyer, Westley Walker

Cthulhu: the Old One

Introduction The Elder Gods greet you and invite you to participate in trying to save your wretched existence. The stars are aligning soon and only those who have dared to piece together the clues from the Mythos even know what's coming. Do you and your fellow investigators have what it takes to save everything? I think not...

Objective Work together with fellow players as Investigators to banish the Elder Gods and their Minions by using Moxie to research cards at Miskatonic University and reduc-ing their Health to zero. If you banish the Elder Gods before they reduce all of the Investigators’ Health to zero you win the game. Moxie is used as your currency to purchase cards for your personal library AND your power to harm Elder Gods and Minions. Building your personal library makes you stronger and is your only hope against the Elders. Keep in mind, all Moxie used to research is a bit not used to fi ght off the Mythos. It is a balance you must solve to defeat the Elder Gods. Typically the team either dies, goes crazy or succeeds at a rate of one Elder God per hour.

Card TypesINVESTIGATORSThis represents your character for the game. It includes a health indicator at thetop and a sanity indicator at the bottom. Use the provided slide pointersto indicate the Investigators’ current status. You will also fi nd a backstory for the character, his/her special ability and what happens to you after death.

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STARTER Your personal library starts here. When you start the game these are the only tools you have to defeat the Mythos. There are three types of Starter cards; Stagger, Sleuth and Logbook. STAGGER: Oops! This card does little to help you. Perhaps you can fi nd inventive

ways to put them to use. SLEUTH: You investigate the Mythos and use this to gain Moxie. LOGBOOK: This is used to track the Health of Elder Gods and Minions using the provided slide pointers. It also has a convenient game phase reminder to keep everyone on track.

LIBRARY Build your deck by

buying cards with Moxie from the

Miskatonic University. There are four types of Library cards; Action, Equipment, Spell and Location. The number in the top right of the Library card is its cost in Moxie to research/purchase for your personal library. ACTION: The process of doing something physical, typically to achieve an aim. EQUIPMENT: These are physical items that can be used to battle the Mythos and aid in research. SPELL: Magic almost always has a cost. Spells typically have positive and negative effects. LOCATION: These are always in effect for all Investigators once played. Locations stay ac- tive even at the end of each round.

MYTHOS The Mythos cards are evil deeds the Elder Gods perform to the universe around the Investigators in order to destroy the fabric of reality. Permanent Mythos cards that stay active even at the end of each round.

Moxie : force of character, nerve, or determination.

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ELDER GODS The Great Old Ones. Your antagonist in the game; this card describes his/her/its special ability. The number in the top right corner is the damage in Moxie that must be done to banish the Elder God.

MINIONS The number in the top right corner is the damage in Moxie that must be done to defeat the Minion.

Setup1. Each player randomly chooses an Investigator card.2. Deal out the Starter cards; seven Sleuth cards and three Stagger cards to each Investigator. This is your personal Library deck. Shuffl e this deck and put it face down in front of each Investigator.3. Remove the remaining Starter cards from play.4. Shuffl e and place the Library, Elder God and Mythos decks in reach of all players’ face down.5. Reveal the Elder Gods, placing the cards face up. The number of Elder Gods you face depends on the number of Investigators and diffi culty of play you use.

If you run out of cards in your personal Library deck, reshuffl e your personal Library discard pile to make a new personal Library deck.

Any Investigator has the ability

to heal one point of Health or

Sanity by spending two Moxie.

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Game PhasesPLANNING During this phase nothing can be done to the Elder God or Minions directly. Each Investiga-tor must perform all actions on their turn. 1. Fill Miskatonic University with fi ve cards from the main Library deck face up.2. Each Investigator draws fi ve cards from their personal Library deck (you may show your hand with everyone else).3. Each Investigator, in an order of the player’s choosing, takes a turn doing prepa- ration, research and fi nal preparation (in that order).Preparation: Play cards from your hand to make them active for that round (for example Body Armor); perform any healing or special Investigator abilities. To ac-tivate a card place it face up just above your Investigator card. Activating a card provides you with the benefi t as listed on the card. To research/purchase cards you must activate a card that gives you Moxie.Research at Miskatonic University: To do so you may use any Moxie gained from the cards you activated in Preparation to purchase new cards from the Misktonic University. • Purchased cards go into your hand but can not be activated to purchase additional cards • After EACH Investigator fi nishes researching, re-fi ll Miskatonic Univer- sity so that it contains fi ve cards face up.Final Preparation: Play any additional cards that you purchased or drew to make them active for that round. These will most likely be defensive cards you activate because any Moxie activated in the Planning phase does NOT carry over to the Combat phase.

• Discard the cards you use to purchase the other cards into your personal library discard pile.4. After each Investigator has fi nished fi nal preparations, they move to the Combat phase.

Keep in mind, all Moxie used to research at the Miskatonic University is a bit not used to fi ght off the Mythos.

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Yidhra: the Dream Witch

CombatELDER GOD Execute any actions called for on the active Elder God card. See chart in Setup on page fi ve for the num-ber of Elder Gods to put in play in the fi rst round.

MYTHOS Reveal the next Mythos card from the Mythos deck. Execute the action as de-scribed. Then discard when done. Mythos cards marked as Permanent stay active for the remainder of the game unless the Investigators can get rid of it somehow.

MINION If there are active Minions, then execute their action as described. Minions are spawned by either the Mythos deck or the Elder God directly. When they are spawned you can fi nd them by name in the game box. Place them face up in play.

INVESTIGATOR Each Investigator, in the order they choose, use activated cards from their hand and use the accumulated Moxie divided up however they wish to do damage against Minions and the Elder God. • Discard the cards you activated into your personal library discard pile. • Once a Minion or Elder God has been damaged the amount indicated in the top right of their card, discard them.

CLEAN UP Once all Investigators have completed combat: • Discard any remaining cards in your hand into your personal library discard pile. • Discard any activated cards, for exam- ple Body Armor, into your personal library discard pile. • Remove unwanted cards from the Miskatonic University (if any).

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Minions activate in order of their current health from lowest to highest.

Special RulesDEATH Once an Investigator’s Health or Sanity reaches zero they are not completely out of the game, but will instead have a single ability they can do each turn as described on their Investigator card. If your deck runs out of cards and you have an empty hand you also die.

DESTROY CARDS When directed to destroy a card it is completely removed from play. It may return to the game box.

MAXIMUM HEALTH/SANITY A creature or investigator may not receive more than their maximum Health or Sanity.

MULTIPLY THEN ADD/SUBTRACT When you have cards that combine to gain moxie you should always multiply and then add or subtract the values

RULE RESOLUTION RULE If there is a questionable rule interpretation that is not covered here or via the game’s website FAQ then boil the decision down to two choices and fl ip a coin to let the Mythos decide.

PERSONAL LIBRARY If at any point you run out of cards in your personal library, shuffl e your personal discard pile, and create a new deck.

INVESTIGATOR COUNT On some of the cards you will see this symbol. This symbol should be substituted with the number of Investigators that are playing the current game. This number would include any deceased or insane Investigators. This number always has a minimum of one.

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HEALING All Investigators have the power to heal both Health or Sanity during the Preparation phase. Investigators may use two Moxie to heal one Health or Sanity.

SPECIAL ABILITY An Investigator cannot ever deactivate his or her special ability, unless directed to do so by a Mythos card.

MOXIE Investigators cannot pool Moxie together to buy a card.

Optional RulesINSANITY Sanity doesn’t kill you, however once an Investigator’s Sanity reaches zero they stare blankly forward until the end of the next round. If their Sanity is still at zero at that point they take their own life (Health goes to zero).

GREATER THAN SIX INVESTIGATORS Greater than six Investigators: This optional rule does require multiple copies of the game. On the fi rst round of combat when it is the Elder Gods’ turn draw the total number of Investigators divided by three (round up) Elder Gods and place them in play.

RETAIL SPONSORS

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PLAY TESTERSJosh BatenJames BellJames Bell Jr. Verble CatDaniel Cavalier Ryan DaltonAaron DandyBrandy DandyChristian De Las AlasRebecca Burk EllisStanley EllisDr. GrantSamantha LoyerT.J. MacBlaineJ.K. MilesMike RowSonny ScottNithin ShenoyMike WalkerDeven Young

Acknowledgements

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AcknowledgementsCONTRIBUTORS Adam, Marella, & Sterling AldermanJohn Ayers AKA His High Holiness Episkopos Dilligaf, First of His Name, Second of the Hour, Third BaseSeth Barger, GM ExtraordinaireMike BarkerStephen BarrJosh and Amy BatenSalvador BernadoSven “DOC” BergloweDaniel BettsJoan “Jester” Bofi llRichard BouletLinda BurkChristopher L. CainSacha CauvinTeam CharSanAdam “Kicktraq” ClarkPeter CovalciucCrazyMonkeyStyleJoe Hell de MulderGuillermo DeSantiagoAlberto Martin del Campo y Laura RuizGarrick DietzeMorty DouglassGuillaume DumaireRobert DunnreklaW ekiMCoach for the Erisian Discordians. Hail Eris!Joachim FransJosé Manuel Bernal GangaGet Your Fun OnGregg M. Giersch

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AcknowledgementsZachary GilliamSteven E. GoodellCharles J. GoveyKristy GrazianoJeff Greenesir harrio...Gabe HarkinsStephen B. HaydenXander HintzSimon HuntManuel Joseph B. Ibanez IIIMike JervisBill “Two Soups” KahlerEric & Kelsey KenneyKris KlinkMichael M. KroekerMark R. LesniewskiRex LoyerSamantha LoyerM. Ethan LucarelliPablo LukasSamuel MäenpääSanja MarasovicS. Alessandro MartinezCharles-Nicholas Kealoha MartinezMichael McAllisterGary McEwenPhil McKrackenJames McIeMeitreyaJ.K. MilesMurray MillsJeremy MitchellRaymond Monnone

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AcknowledgementsHiroshi OyamadaDr Alan PedenJosh “Da Damned Budda” PerryPatrick “Padruig” PhilpotphyphorOmar H. PorrasBob RankinSeth.A.RobersonWilliam RobertsonKelley RossAaron J. SalibaJay-Alphonse SantosLevi James SassamanKire SazeralStephen SchleicherKarl SchmidtNithin ShenoyAnderw SmithAngel StarsBill “Gryffn88” StilsonJames StirlingAlvin TaylorSamuel “Professeur !” TissierNicole TrueDavid UyttendaeleJoy Slaughter WalkerWestley WalkerAlexander WeakleyBruce F. WebsterJason Edward Robert WebberMichael WenglandChristopher WheelessBenjamin S WolfJade Yoo

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HOW TO PLAY