COC LCG Solo Variant - Cthulhu Rising V2.1 - White Background
COC LCG Solo Variant - Cthulhu Rising V2.1 - White Background
COC LCG Solo Variant - Cthulhu Rising V2.1 - White Background
The modifications to the game play are described in this document, and all can be tweaked to adjust
the difficulty or to suit your own style and play. Some modifications are provided in the additional
information section.
It is near impossible to account for all the situations that arise in play and anticipate what future
cards will bring to the game. My advice is play the Minions cards as if they were your own, this
means that you will often hurt yourself; try not to shy away as a lot of the fun is in getting through
these situations. Most of all have fun.
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge and thank the following people for without their initiative, development and
input the exciting solo play of Call of Cthulhu LCG may not have been possible.
The Call of Cthulhu LCG is a Trademark of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc... All rights reserved.
A character’s Potential is the sum of its Cost and Skill. Modifiers based on the characters
icons are used to determine the Potential when characters are of equal Potential
Kirby O’Donnell 3 2
Ancient Guardian 7 0 2 2 0
Steve Clarney 5 1 0 2 0
Kirby O’Donnell 5 1 0 1 0
Ancient Guardian has the highest Potential with a Cost + Skill =7 so is ranked #1 The
remaining 4 cards have an equal Potential of 5 so you use the Modifiers to split them.
Hungry Dark Young has no Investigation icons so it drops to the bottom of the list. (#5)
Steve Clarney, Kirby, and Blackwood Clerk remain equal when using modifiers 1 and 2 it is only
at modifier 3 (combat) that we can separate their potential. Steve Clarney has the higher
Potential with the 2 combat icons, followed by Kirby O’Donnell with 1 combat icon and finally
Blackwood file clerk.
Note: If Characters cannot be separated across all the calculations then use the Character
capabilities provided in the text box the Minion will use whichever Character from which it will
gain the most benefit in the given situation,.
The Minion will always select opponent’s character with the highest Potential when it gets
the option to damage an opponent’s character
The Minion will always select its character with the lowest Potential when choosing a
character to take damage or go insane.
Resources
Use six sided dice to represent the Minions
Resources.
A fourth Domain referred to as the ‘Events Domain’ is used by the Minion for playing Events.
Event cards a placed below the Events Domain face up. This is the ‘Events Pool’
The Events Domain will initially be set at 2 resources. The Events Domain is not part of the
standard Domains so is not part of the dice roll to increase resources. It will however
increase if:
The Minion will drain the Events Domain to pay the resource cost for an Event card.
The Events Domain can never be drained for anything other than for an Event card, even if
there are no Events in the Events Pool
Events that have a cost higher than the resources in the Events Domain can use one of the
standard Domains to put the card in Play.
In those instances where the Minion has other un-drained Domains these Domains may be
drained for further Events.
ii. Replace the remaining drawn cards back into the Minion’s deck and reshuffle.
4. Place Domains
The Minion will start with 4 Domains. The fourth Domain is the Events Domain and is for
Event management only.
Player
Draw 8 cards from your own deck. Choose 5 of these cards to be your starting hand.
Note: If you choose to discard and redraw your hand (‘Mulligan’) the Minion’s Resources will
be set to 3 instead of 2. It is a high penalty.
6. Attach resources
Minion
Place one die on each of the Minion’s Domains so that the 2 spots re showing (3
spots if you have taken a Mulligan in step 5).
Player
Take the remaining 3 cards from your setup hand and attach one face up and upside
down, to each of your 3 Domains.
Minions Play
Refresh Stage
Reset drained domains, Un-exhaust characters and set one insane character to exhausted
When restoring an insane character the Minion will always choose the character with the
highest potential
Draw phase
Draw 2 cards
As the cards are being placed into the Events Pool determine playable Events and timing of
play of these Events. A playable Event means that all factors required for playing the Event
are present.
ii. Event would have greatest impact played in the Story Phase.
Note: The overriding factor that determines which Event/s will be played is deciding
which will have the most impact on the player.
Resource phase
Roll a dice to determine which of the Minion's Domains will increase by 1
The Minion will always try to put into play a Character, and a Support.
1st drain: Highest 'Potential' character the Minion can pay for. If no Character then Highest
valid Support card.
2nd drain: Highest valid Support card. If no valid Support card then next highest 'Potential'
character the Minion can pay for.
Note: Valid means that support is playable. For example if the Support needs to be attached
to a character and there is no character available it is not a valid option and will not be used.
Story Phase
The Minion will alternatively hold back characters for defense and commit characters to
stories using character Potential. Working from highest Potential to lowest Potential.
Any characters that cannot for some reason be committed to a story do not feature in the
commitment/defense determination. E.g. the card has been exhausted for a card Action.
Characters will be first committed to the story where the Minion has the most icons.
If the Minion has no icons on a story it will first commit to the story closest to the Deep End.
Characters will continue to be committed to the same story until the number of characters
committed equal the number of characters the player has for defense. Then the Minion will
start to commit to the Story on which it has the next most icons or the story to the left of the
previous committed story.
The Minion will use all characters for either defense or committed to a story.
Example: Player has 2 characters available for defense and Minion has 6 characters. It has
2 icons on the Middle story.
Refresh Stage
Reset drained domains
Un-exhaust characters
Set one insane character to exhausted
Draw phase
Draw 2 cards
Resource phase
Optionally place a card under one of your domains
Operations phase
As described in the COC LCG Rules of Play
Story Phase
Player
Optionally commit characters to Stories
Minion
The Minion will defend every story that the player has committed to.
Any characters that cannot for some reason be committed to a story do not feature in the
defense determination.
The minion will defend using characters from highest to lowest potential. Starting with the
Story where its opponent has the most icons.
Example: The player has committed Characters to Story 1 and Story 3. Minion has 4
characters ready for defense. The player has 2 icons on the third Story and none on the
others.
1. Minions Character with highest 'Potential' will defend Story 3 (has most Icons for player).
2. Minions Character with next highest potential will defend the Story 1
3. Minions Character with next highest 'Potential' will defend Story 3
4. Minions Character with next highest potential will defend the Story 1
Playing attachments.
Attachments will be attached to the character with the highest potential without an
attachment. If all characters have an attachment then it will be attached to the character with
the highest potential.
Using Conspiracies.
When playing a conspiracy card the Minion will place the conspiracy card close to the deep
end making it the first story card. The player will place the conspiracy furthest from the deep
end making it the last story card.
Increasing or decreasing the cost of the Minion’s scout (the initial card).
Increasing or decreasing the number of starting resources.
Increasing the Events Domain starting resource.
Drawing 3 cards each time for the Minion.
Use options for the LILLITH variation described below.
LILLITH
A fiendish AI from beyond who will be your Call of Cthulhu LCG solo Play Opponent….
LILLITH was developed by prasomchai and is an evolution of Cthulhu Rising. The AI used in LILLITH is
less random than that used in Cthulhu Rising and as such is a heavier game. The key differences
include:
Pre-triggers
Before playing against LILITH, the player decides on the trigger for each event card in her deck.
Alternatively the player decides on the trigger for each of LILITH’s event cards when they enter
LILITH’s hand.
LILITH will play the events as soon as a trigger occurs. LILITH will try to use the event pool to pay for
events; only if they can’t be afforded then she will try to use a regular domain. However, playing
character, support and attachment cards from hand takes priority over events as regards the use of
regular domains.
In the case of multiple possible events, resolve them in priority order. Some examples will best
illustrate possible triggers (noting that the triggers are ultimately up to the player to decide).
LILLITH’s aim is to play out the maximum number of cards each turn:
If LILLITH can play an extra card by increasing a particular domain’s resources she will do so.
If LILLITH can pay for the maximum number of cards with existing resources she will add a
resource to a domain to facilitate the play of a higher cost card held in her hand, in later
turns.
In the absence of a need to increase a particular domain LILLITH will increase the smallest
domain to better balance the domain resources.
Potential (Prioritization)
LILITH will always prioritize cards based on cost (inclusive of the cost of any attachments).
Tiebreakers based on icon counts (both printed and granted) are used to determine the priority
when characters are of equal cost.
Tiebreaker 1: Terror
Tiebreaker 2: Terror + combat
Tiebreaker 3: Terror + combat + arcane
Tiebreaker 4: Terror + combat + arcane + investigation
Tiebreaker 5: Terror + combat + arcane + investigation + skill
If a tie still exists choose based on alphabetical order of the card names (with “a” the highest
potential).