How to Play Don’t Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe Edition & Review

Don’t Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe Edition is a bluffing and deduction game.

Title: Don’t Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe Edition

Year Published: 2018

Designer: Yusuke Sato)

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Players: 4-8

Game Time: ~30 mins

Set-up Time: ~2 mins

Ages: 10+

Theme: Lovecraft

Mechanisms: Bluffing, Deduction, Negotiation

How to win: Have the fewest Sanity after one player has gone insane.

Game Description

Players are either Investigators trying to keep Cthulhu from waking and controlling the world, or Cultists that want to bring the world to a disturbing end.

Set Up, Game Play & Game End

Don’t Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe Edition Round-Up

Theme

Cthulhu… Cultists and Cthulhu. Lovecraft and all that.

I dunno, I wasn’t feeling it. Don’t point the torch at the Green card isn’t very thematic to me.

Setup

Setup the decks, shuffle and deal them out. Minimal setup. But don’t rush it, you need to make sure the right cards are there.

Components & Artwork

The cards are OK, they’re just cards.

The artwork is basic and simple enough. Based on the fairly humorous title I would have expected something more cartoony. Something fun and maybe even cutesy? These seem overly serious.

Ease of teaching & Accessibility

It’s very simple to teach. There are a few special cards that change things but I THINK the text of those cards is written on them? I never received one in the games I played.

As with all Social Deduction Games, the accessibility comes down to teaching it all beforehand. There isn’t much to teach so it’s OK.

If someone is unsure during gameplay they need to be able to ask a rules question without giving any information. Possible, but difficult if new to the genre.

Don’t Mess with Cthulhu Deluxe Edition Summary

I like this kind of game. My favourite is still Avalon but I like the One Night Ultimate Werewolf for its speed and simplicity. But this is even simpler but just as fun.

Someone says “You can pick me, I have 3 Eldar Signs” and you think “Yes, I’ll pick them… wait a minute, do they? or do they want me to pick them because they have Cthulhu?”

Sometimes it can lead to a back and forth between two trusted players leaving most of the table out of the game for a bit.

But messing with peoples heads is fun. Simply saying “It’s safe to pick me” or “Don’t pick me” gives everyone something to think about.

To add further to it, there are special cards that add some risk and reward. One lets a player look at another players role card. Another, I think, shuffles all found Eldar Signs from this round back into the deck (or something. It was bad.

But was the game good? Well, I bought it didn’t I? 🙂

Rating I give it 7/10