Beings of ancient evil, known as Old Ones, are threatening to break out of their cosmic prison and awake into the world. Everything you know and love could be destroyed by chaos and madness. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity.

In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, you’ll experience the classic Pandemic gameplay with an horrific twist that’ll have you face twelve Old Ones, each threatening the world with their unique powers. As players take on the roles of investigators attempting to seal a series of portals before monsters of unspeakable horror pour into our world there is, of course, a high risk of the investigators losing their own minds.

Instead of curing diseases like in the original Pandemic, players seal portals and shut down cults in the classic New England fictional towns of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time?

Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity and the evil that lurks beneath your feet…

Box Contains: 

• Game Board
• 7 Investigation Figures
• 26 Cultist Figures
• 3 Shoggoth Figures
• 4 Seal Tokens
• 44 Clue Cards / 12 Relic Cards
• 22 Summoning Cards / 7 Investigator Cards
• 4 Reference Cards / 12 Old One Cards
• 18 Sanity Tokens / 1 Sanity Die

• Ages 14+
• 2-4 Players
• 40 Minute Playing Time

Find out more about Pandemic Reign of Cthulhu by reading our Board Game Spotlight. 

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Spotlight
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Opinions are like crippling existential doubt; something everyone has, but often not something they’re willing to scream confidently about in the street. Zatu Games commits itself daily anew to eking them out, often with unparalleled levels of success.

Here are some on this year’s Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu from gamers around the web.

The Positive

Eskimosam says:

I love Panthulu! My girlfriend and I are pretty big Pandemic fans with multiple expansions and I was most excited to test this game at Gen Con last August.

I’m very pleased with just about everything this game brings. It does not feel like a blatant recoloring of Pandemic. I would compare it to almost like a really elaborate expansion.

The game is still played very similarly. You travel around the board trying to keep the spread of something negative in check while assembling a hand of 5 same color cards.

However with the Elder Gods coming out and creating permanent effects, the shoggoths trying to summon the Elder Gods, the introduction of the sanity dice, and traveling changed to fit the 1920’s theme makes for a different experience that I am extremely happy with. I would encourage any fan of Pandemic to check it out.

Mik0ri says:

It’s more thematic and fun than vanilla Pandemic, and I will always prefer to play the Cthulhu version over vanilla. It’s a really good game.

Bremic says:

I have played this twice in the last week. Both have been good games; have really enjoyed it.

I think this is a better gateway co-op than Pandemic, and I really like the Awakening mechanic that makes every game different.

I think this is going to hit the table a lot over the coming months.

The Negative

decaffinatedplease says:

I’ve played it a couple times at my FLGS. I enjoyed it somewhat. As someone who finds Eldritch/Cthulhu theming kind of bland, I wasn’t enraptured by it, but it’s got some neat mechanical differences from Pandemic, and plays pretty tightly.

I think I’d only recommend it to someone who loves the theme, or loves Pandemic. It’s fun, but ultimately unnecessary, and I could see it getting a few plays then being permanently shelved.

ccxvii says:

I wish it wasn’t called “Pandemic”. It feels like a cheap cash grab, abusing a well-known name for easy marketing.

jello_aka_aron ripostes:

Except it is Pandemic.. the gameplay is a very close variant on standard Pandemic. If anything the Cthulhu part is the cash-grab end, not Pandemic.

ccxvii finds common ground:

It may very well be “Pandemic” the game, but the name doesn’t fit Pandemic” the theme. At least you agree that is sounds like a cash grab.  

Elder Gods, thematic disagreements and the word ‘Panthulu’: a comprehensive overview of Reign of Cthulhu courtesy of actual real people.

Spotlight

In another of our board game Spotlights, Zatu Games revolves its chunky peepers and takes an eyeful of Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu.

The Game

Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu takes the established and effective Pandemic blueprint and marinades it in H.P. Lovecraft’s cerebrospinal fluid.

It’s a co-operative game that thrusts you into a world of Lovecraftian lore, taking the fictional towns of Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich and Kingsport as its settings and pitting players against growing cults that support the tentacled overlords.

Players must work together to save the world from inhuman horrors, all while under threat from the eponymous reign itself, a reign which, judging by the box art, mainly involves gently caressing jazz-age stereotypes with tentacles, as do all good parties.

The game eschews the Pandemic mechanic of curing diseases and instead has players closing down portals to prevent beings from other worlds crossing through, presumably because they lack the necessary visas.

As in previous Pandemic titles, players can take on one of a variety of roles, each with its own unique abilities: Magician, Hunter, Reporter, Detective, Doctor, Mystic and Driver, the latter of whom must feel like a right div. Players have decks of relic cards which aid them in their quest, but mixed among them are ‘Evil Stirs’ cards, which release Shoggoths onto the board, creatures that take several moves to defeat and that will make a beeline for the nearest portal.

Setting it apart from other Pandemic games is the thematically fitting ‘sanity’ mechanic. Facing off against Shoggoths or entering portals reduces players’ sanity. If their sanity drops too low, they become insane, which seems medically accurate. This changes their unique ability, often reducing its usefulness.

Obviously ideal for those who are fans of previous Pandemic games and expansions, Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu is a new twist on a well-loved game.

The Publisher

Z-Man Games was founded in 1999 with the sole aim of bringing back Shadowfist, a popular CCG.  Under new management since 2011, it has published a new run of original titles, including several from the Pandemic Series.

Z-Man Games are also behind the top-selling tile game Carcassonne. This Universe, as they name it on their website, now has several different versions of the game The latest edition Carcassonne:Amazonas is available to pre-order right now on our online store.

The Designers

Matt Leacock is a game designer known for the extremely successful Pandemic, released in 2008. He specifically designs games that he would want to play.

Chuck D. Yager works in the video game industry as an executive producer, and designs board and card games in his spare time.

Order Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu

Intrigued by this version of pandemic? If so, you should head over to our online store and order yourselves a copy before they sell out!

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