Cultists of Cthulhu: Miskatonic University is a boardgame of mystery, investigation, teamwork, and betrayal set in H.P. Lovecraft’s Miskatonic University
Basic Information
Players: 3 – 8
Ages: 14+
Time: 2 – 4 hours
Estimated Delivery: April – July 2015
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Game overview
Forum: Cultists of Cthulhu: Miskatonic University
I have trouble passing up any game or product that takes place in the Lovecraft Mythos, just like I’m a fan of Steampunk. That’s just the way I am; it’s why I decided to back a project of standard playing cards just because it was a Steampunk Cthulhu themed deck.
Cultists of Cthulhu definitely seems like a well designed game. I won’t go as far as to say it could be the next Arkham Horror, at least not until I have a chance to actually play the game. Also, I’m not a fan of calling something “the next…” It should and can stand on in its own merits.
From the Campaign
It is a dark and stormy night. A lightning bolt has shattered the Elder Sign over the entrance to Miskatonic University’s library, leaving open the path for unspeakable eldritch horrors to encroach upon our world. Are you an Academic, investigating these strange happenings and trying to preserve your school, yourself, and your sanity? Or are you the Cultist, secretly plotting the downfall of your so-called “friends”?
In Cultists of Cthulhu: Miskatonic University, each player controls a student or professor exploring the strange goings on in Miskatonic University. Characters move around the map of the University, working together to try to find useful tools, arm themselves, survive events, combat monsters, and accomplish the goals of the Scenario. However, unbeknownst to the rest of them, one of the players is secretly a Cultist working to kill the others. Cultists of Cthulhu comes with four Scenarios, each of which has several possible Cultists, so that the Academics never know exactly who they’ll be facing off against.
Campaign Specifics
Goal: $70,000
Pledge Tiers: 20 tiers ranging from $1 – $4,000
End Date: Mon, May 12 2014 2:59 AM EDT
Funding Type: Fixed
Chances of success
This is the second game being crowd funded by Sixpence Games, which means there’s already a history of a delivered product. The first one, Professor Pugnacious, came in at 112% of its base funding goal. Cultists of Cthulhu has managed to bring in roughly 30% of its funding in the first week. This isn’t bad. It seems like Thomas, from Sixpence, was able to pull from past backers while also doing quite a bit of legwork to get the word out to the general public.
The campaign itself is laid out well. Pretty much all of the rules are listed on the campaign page itself, except for, as is quite common, the basic statistics of the game. Luckily there is a link to the complete rules which states that “Cultists of Cthulhu: Miskatonic University is a horror game…for 3-8 players ages 14 and up. It plays in about 2 hours with three or four players, plus about another hour for every two additional players.”
There are also some neat high tier perks such as getting a building named after yourself, receiving an original play test copy of the game, get to design your own scenario, or even get the original authentic Necronomicon (I’m a little reserved about that promise *nods*).