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As a huge fan of both Pandemic and the Cthulhu Mythos, I was intrigued when I learned that the two had been brought together. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (Pandemic: RoC) came on the scene in 2016 amidst a tabletop gaming market that was (and still is) thoroughly saturated with Cthulhu content. With its ready-to-go lore that is out of copyright and an established fan base, who can blame designers for drawing thematic water from this seemingly endless well? What this does mean, however, is that any game set in the Cthulhu Mythos has really got to be worth its weight in gaming gold nowadays to stand out from the homogeneous pack. So let’s grab some .38 revolvers, vintage Fedoras, a copy of the Necronomicon and get stuck in!
In Pandemic: RoC players take on the role of investigators who must work together to prevent the Great Old Ones from being summoned and plunging the world into madness and chaos. To do so, they must seal 4 cosmic gates as well as stop fanatical cultists and grotesque Shoggoths from running amok around 1920s New England. Play takes place across 4 iconic Lovecraftian towns (Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich, Kingsport), each with its own gate. If the investigators seal all 4 gates, they win! However, there are 5 ways to lose in Pandemic: RoC, as opposed to only 3 ways to lose in regular Pandemic. The game ends if: the final Old One (Cthulhu – who else?) is summoned, there are no cultists left to add to the board, there are no Shoggoths left to add, a player cannot draw 2 player cards, or all players go insane.
I will now outline the setup and the gameplay in some detail, as it not only allows players who are new to the world of Pandemic to get a sense of the game but should also help seasoned players get an idea of how RoC differs and doesn’t differ from the original Pandemic. My thoughts on the game are mixed in with the descriptions throughout.
Setup
Each player chooses 1 of 7 investigators (Driver, Doctor, Reporter, Detective, Occultist, Magician, Hunter) and places their corresponding miniature on the Train Station in Arkham. Each player then receives 4 sanity tokens and a delightfully clear reference card. As in Pandemic, each character/investigator has a different special ability, but in RoC these abilities become limited if/when the player goes insane (i.e. they lose all 4 of their sanity tokens, more on that shortly). For example, the Doctor begins with the special ability to perform 5 actions per turn, but this drops to 4 when he becomes insane. The sanity count adds an element that wasn’t present in Pandemic, where players must be mindful of their own personal situation as well as the overall game situation. This mechanic also adds a fun additional layer to the co-operative interactions, as players must factor in who has the most remaining sanity when deciding who might take a riskier action.
The Cthulhu Old One card is always placed face down in the final Old One space along the top of the board. The remaining 11 Old One cards are shuffled and 6 are placed face down in the remaining spaces. Various events (such as needing to place a 4th cultist on a location that already has 3, or when a Shoggoth moves through an open gate) will trigger the next Old One to be summoned, which entails an immediate and often ongoing negative effect impacting the gameplay each time this occurs. Some of these effects can be particularly punishing, and the fact that different Old Ones appear in a different order each time adds crucial variety to the game. For example, if Azathoth is revealed, players must remove 3 cultists from the unused supply, or if Shudde M’ell rears its ugly sandworm-esque bonce, then all players collectively lose 3/4/5 sanity depending on the player count. Some of these Old Ones are more brutal than others and the wrong one at the wrong time can result in a crushing defeat (I’ve drawn Azathoth when my supply of cultists was low, for example). From my 14 playthroughs of RoC I have found that the fairness and the challenge presented by the Old Ones does balance well, and the random order they appear in ensures a nice amount of variation during each game.
The difficultly is decided on during setup by adjusting the number of Clue cards. These cards relate to the 4 towns in the game and are what players will need to collect in order to seal the gates. For an introductory game, leave all 44 Clue cards in the deck. For a standard game, remove 1 Clue card of each colour. For an expert game, remove 2 Clue cards of each colour. This effectively means that the higher the difficulty, the shorter the amount of time the players have in which to complete their objective. In the original Pandemic the difficulty was set by the number of Epidemic cards in play, and so RoC differs substantially in this respect. Reducing the number of Clue cards makes RoC a real race-against-time, which in turn gives the game an even tighter, more claustrophobic feel than Pandemic had. This sense of time-is-running-out fits well with the Lovecraftian theme, making the players feel like they are working against the odds in their quest to banish the cosmic horrors.
Next players place the opening cultists and Shoggoths on the board. From the Summoning deck, draw 2 cards and place 3 cultists on each location stated on the cards, then draw 2 more cards and place 2 cultists on these locations, and then another 2 cards and place 1 cultist on each. Finally, draw one more card and place a Shoggoth on that location. Cultists work in essentially the same way as disease cubes in Pandemic, except they are not colour-coded. Just like with the disease cubes, players need to keep removing cultists to prevent them from building up. However, rather than an ‘outbreak’ occurring where the infection spreads to neighbouring locations, in RoC if any location needs a 4th cultist placed on it the next Old One card is revealed.
The Shoggoths are a new addition to the game with no precedent in Pandemic and are represented by some gorgeously grotesque miniatures. Shoggoths present a significant threat that can be difficult to deal with, as they take 3 actions to remove rather than the 1 action required to remove a cultist. A fair number of the Summoning cards feature a ‘Shoggoth moves’ symbol on them, and when you draw one of these, as well as placing the cultist on the location stated, any Shoggoths on the board move one location closer to an open gate. As soon as a Shoggoth passes through an open gate, the next Old One card is revealed. I think the Shoggoths are an inspired addition to the game, as their constant movement around the board presents a mobile but predictable threat that forces players to work together more efficiently. Additionally, the Shoggoths’ movement ensures that the whole extent of the board is being utilised, which keeps the game moving and prevents play from getting clogged up in certain areas.
Finally, the player deck should be setup and starting hands should be dealt. To do this, players randomly select 4/5/6 Relic cards (depending on a 2/3/4 player count) and shuffle them into the remaining Clue cards to form the player deck. Then cards are dealt from the player deck to each player to form their initial hands (4 cards each for 2 players, 3 each for 3 players, 2 each for 4 players – hand limit is 7). Finally, the remaining player deck is separated into 4 even face down piles, and 1 Evil Stirs card is shuffled into each pile. The Evil Stirs cards are the RoC equivalent of the Epidemic cards in Pandemic; more on these and the Relic cards shortly in the gameplay section.
Now you’re ready to play!
Gameplay
A player’s turn consists of:
1) Do 4 actions
2) Draw 2 Clue cards
3) Reveal Summoning cards
A variety of actions are available to players, such as move to a connected location, take the bus between bus stations, travel between open gates, defeat a cultist, give or take a Clue or Relic card. Players can also defeat a Shoggoth, but this takes 3 actions, or seal a gate, which will require them to have 5 Clue cards in their hand that match the town they are in.
Whenever a player moves using an open gate, uses a Relic card, is in the same location as a Shoggoth, or draws an Evil Stirs card, they must perform a sanity roll with the sanity die. Depending on which side the die lands on, players may lose 1 or 2 sanity, add 2 cultists to their current location, or escape with no effect. As previously mentioned, players start with 4 sanity tokens, and go insane when they reach 0. Players may also regain their sanity if they seal a gate while insane (this is very hard to orchestrate!). The sanity die introduces an element of luck that was not present in the original Pandemic, and I find that it energises the proceedings somewhat, as well as gives the players another thing to consider as they make their decisions about what actions to take when. Thematically, it feels justified, as when dealing with monstrous forces beyond human comprehension there is always the chance your mind may go beyond its limit despite your best intentions! The die itself is a semi-translucent turquoise blue with black markings and is very satisfying to roll.
Relic cards each feature an effect or power that will help the players in various ways. For example, the ‘Alien Carving’ card allows the active player to take 3 additional actions during their turn. These cards do not cost an action to use and can be played at any time. However, using them comes at a cost, and the player must do a sanity roll immediately after resolving the card’s effects. It is often a fine balancing act between hanging on to Relic cards for the right occasion and using them quickly to free up a much-needed space in your hand.
After taking 4 actions, the active player draws 2 cards from the player deck. If you draw an Evil Stirs card, cosmic trouble is brewing, and the following steps must be taken:
1) Roll the sanity die and apply the results.
2) Reveal the next Old One card and resolve its effects.
3) Draw the bottom card from the Summoning deck and put a Shoggoth on that location. Put this card into the Summoning discard pile.
4) Here comes that iconic Pandemic punishment! Shuffle the cards in the Summoning discard pile and place them ON TOP of the Summoning deck.
After resolving the Evil Stirs card, or straight after drawing 2 player cards if no Evil Stirs card appeared, draw as many Summoning cards as the current Summoning rate and place a cultist in each location stated. Then it’s the next players turn, and play continues like that until you either win or lose!
RoC is often hard to win, and like Pandemic, when you do win it is usually right at the last minute with very little time or actions to spare. I personally find that the game plays best at the 2-player count, as with 3 or 4 players it can become easy to cover the entire board and keep things under control. The scaling mechanism of starting with less Clue cards in your hand as the player count increases does restrict your team’s progress initially, and allows for more opportunities to co-operate by sharing knowledge (sharing Clue cards). The 40-minute play time stated on the box is more or less accurate, with setup taking around 10 minutes.
Final Thoughts
In spatial and temporal terms, Pandemic: RoC is a very tight gaming experience, and this is both a gift and curse. There are fewer locations on the RoC board than on the regular Pandemic board, which both focuses in and limits the players’ movement possibilities. Increasing the difficulty by reducing the number of Clue cards in the player deck means that the game length becomes shorter the more you play RoC, as it is likely you will want to increase the difficulty as you get better at the game. These space and time restrictions do work to make RoC an intense, exciting experience; unlike many games set in the Cthulhu Mythos, players are made to feel the imminent doom of mass madness and chaos right from the get-go.
However, a downside of this tightness is that the game doesn’t feel very expansive and can get a little repetitive after many playthroughs. To address this, RoC does add 2 interesting variable mechanics into the gameplay: the sanity die and the Old One cards. These elements keep the details of each game fresh, but it is the overall experience that tends to feel the same. Ultimately the proof is in the pudding, and while I would say that I enjoy my games of RoC more than my games of Pandemic, I also find myself taking it down from the shelf less often than the original.
The component quality of RoC is fantastic. The use of detailed miniatures for the investigators, cultists, and Shoggoths is far superior to the abstract pawns and cubes that you get in Pandemic. The cards are of good stock, come with a linen finish, and feature appropriately evocative artwork. Particularly noteworthy is the board, which perfectly captures the eerie, oppressive atmosphere of Lovecraft country.
While RoC is not the best Pandemic experience I've ever had (Pandemic Legacy: Season One is likely to maintain that position), it is the best integration of a Lovecraftian theme into an existing board game that I’ve ever played. The urgent management of disease outbreaks in Pandemic maps perfectly onto the urgent management of cultists attempting to summon Great Old Ones. The tight, claustrophobic vibe evokes in a wonderful way the ultimate against-all-odds feel that so many Cthulhu Mythos games fail to capture. On the whole, I would recommend Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu for anyone who enjoys challenging co-operative games but isn’t looking for the epic thematic challenge that Arkham Horror or Mansions of Madness offer. If you’re a fan of either Pandemic or the Cthulhu Mythos, you’re sure to have some fun with this one.
Cthulhu Reviews: 6 out of 8 tentacles 🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
Designers: Chuck D. Yager, based on Pandemic by Matt Leacock
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Artists: Chris Quilliams, Atha Kanaani, Philippe Guérin
Players: 2 – 4
Age: 14+
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