Cthulhu: Death May Die

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Details

Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Stop the ritual and destroy the old one!

  • Put main board in middle of table
  • Put tokens and dice next to game board
  • Choose Elder One and episode to play:
    • Put Elder One on 1st space of summoning track
    • Set aside 8 Mythos cards to be shuffled later
    • Set out tokens contained in Elder One box and episode box
    • Put Elder One stage cards in ascending order on main board
    • Prepare Mythos cards:
      • Shuffle 8 Mythos cards in episode box with 8 Mythos cards from Elder One box
      • Place deck face-down next to game board
    • Prepare Discovery cards:
      • Shuffle cards and place face-down next to game board
    • Set up map based on layout on back of episode card
    • Put minions card, monsters card and episode card on main board
  • All players receive the following:
    • 1 investigator board and its figure
    • 1 coloured base to attach to figure
    • 6 tentacle markers in player colour
  • Prepare 6 tentacle markers:
    • Put 3 on level 1 of each skill on investigator board
    • Put 1 on first space of sanity track
    • Put 1 on leftmost space of health track
    • Put 1 on leftmost space of stress track
  • Put investigators on starting space of map
  • Give 1 random insanity card to each player
  • Randomly choose a starting player

The game takes place over a number of rounds where players will be working together to achieve two main objectives:

  • Disrupt the ritual
  • Kill the Elder One

Turn Structure

Each player's turn consists of 4 steps:

  • Take 3 Actions
  • Draw a Mythos Card
  • Investigate or Fight
  • Resolve End of Turn

Disrupting the Ritual

Each episode describes a ritual that must be disrupted. When the ritual is disrupted, the Elder One is summoned at the end of the current turn. If the ritual is not disrupted by the time the summoning token reaches the red spaces of the summoning track, the Elder One will be summoned.

Until the ritual is disrupted, the Elder One cannot be attacked or damaged.

Elder One

The Elder One has a number of stages that must each be defeated for the Elder One to be killed.

When a stage has gathered more wounds than the health shown on the stage card:

  • Reveal the next Elder One stage card
  • Activate the "When Revealed" effect shown on the new stage card (if any)
  • Wounds gathered from previous stage do not carry over to newly revealed stage
  • All effects, stage cards and dice do stay in effect when new stage begins

Making a Roll

Player Character Rolls

  • Take 3 standard black dice
  • Add any green dice granted to you according to your sanity track and skills
  • Roll all dice together

Enemy Rolls

When you are asked to "make a roll" for enemies, use the dice as shown on the monster's card. For Elder Ones, the dice used is the aggregate of all dice shown on all revealed stage cards.

Rerolling Dice

You may use 1 stress for each time you wish to reroll a die. You may do this multiple times on any roll.

Resolving Dice Results

When resolving die effects:

  • !: This means a success or a successful hit
  • Blank face: No effect or miss
  • Elder Sign: This means a miss unless a skill or card specifically says otherwise
  • Tentacle icon: move sanity track marker 1 space to left:
    • If your sanity track marker reaches red space on track:
      • All other sanity damage for this roll is ignored
      • Resolve effect on player's insanity card
      • Level up a skill

Death of Investigators

When a player character dies:

  • If the Elder One hasn't been summoned yet, the game is immediately lost
  • Otherwise, discard investigator card and tokens
  • If the investigator died during their turn:
    • Skip all phases of turn except for checking Mythos pile for 3 summoning symbols. If there are 3:
      • Advance Elder One 1 space on Summoning track

During this step, players take 3 actions.

You may take the same action more than once. In each episode, there are 2 episode actions that can be taken, along with the standard 4 actions.

Do keep in mind that some actions can only be taken in a safe space, meaning a space that does not contain any enemy pieces.

  • Draw top card from Mythos deck
  • Resolve card from top to bottom
  • If you can't do a step, the step is skipped
  • If the card has an Elder One symbol on the top, make sure this symbol is visible when it is discarded
  • When resolving effects on card, effects only affect the investigator whose turn it is (unless otherwise stated):
    • Enemies take shortest path possible when moving towards active player
    • In case of ties, active player chooses path taken
  • Summon any enemies at gate colour as shown on bottom of card:
    • If multiple gates/enemies shown, they are summoned in order shown
    • If you run out of a particular enemy token, they are skipped

If you are on a safe space, you will Investigate. Otherwise, you must Fight.

Investigate

  • Draw top card of Discovery deck and resolve text on card
  • If card grants you level in skill that your investigator does not already have, gain skill token for that skill

Fight

  • Each enemy on your space attacks you:
    • Active player chooses order in which enemies attack
    • If an effect brings an enemy into your space, that enemy will also attack you
    • If an effect moves an enemy into another space, that enemy will no longer attack you

End of Turn Effects

Any effects that happen at the end of the turn happen in order chosen by active player

Note: Elder One effects are not resolved at this point.

Fire!

Roll 1 standard (black) dice for each fire token on your player board.

After all tokens have been resolved, discard all fire tokens on investigator.

Check Mythos Discard Pile

If there are 3 cards with Elder One symbol:

  • Elder One/progression token advances 1 space on summoning track.
  • If there are any effects on the Elder One stage cards when token advances, they are resolved now.
  • All discarded Mythos cards are then shuffled into deck

Check Elder One Summoning

If the Elder One has not yet been summoned:

  • If the ritual was disrupted this turn or the progression token entered the 1st red space:
    • Summon the Elder One
    • Move stage 1 card to side and reveal stage 2 card
    • Resolve stage 2 card effects
    • Remember that the stage 1 card effects are still in effect for the rest of the game
  • Place progression token on summoning track

Elder One End of Turn Effects

Resolve all end of turn effects on stage cards in stage order. If a stage refers to you, you means the current player.

Along with the standard actions described here, each episode includes 2 actions that are also able to be selected in the Actions phase of a player's turn.

Move up to 3 spaces.

  • You can only move between spaces if there are arrows on both sides of the passage pointing at each other
  • You may also travel between 2 spaces with a staircase or tunnel
  • When you leave a space with enemies, all enemies will follow you to your new space
  • When you leave a space with fire, place 1 fire token from the reserve onto your investigator board for each token on the space

Target a single enemy and make a roll.

  • For each success, add 1 wound to target
  • If wounds on target matches or exceeds their health, you have killed them

Note: You can only take this action on a safe space, meaning a space with no enemy tokens on it.

Heal any combination of 3 stress and/or health

You may trade with any investigator on the same space as you in either direction.

  • If you trade a card, it must be placed on the same side it was before the trade.
  • You are not allowed to trade conditions.

The game ends in victory when the Elder One has been killed.

The game ends in failure when any of the following happen:

  • Any investigator is killed before the Elder One is summoned
  • All investigators are killed before the Elder One is killed
  • The Elder One is still alive when the progression token reaches the last space of the Summoning track

If multiple end game triggers happen at the same time, the game ends in victory.

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.