I've never really liked CCG for two main reasons.

1) The player who spent the most money seems to have the better deck and therefore the best chance of winning, making CCG a very expensive way to play a game if you want to win.

2) The games I have watched or played seemed very mechanical without much essence of the theme of the game. I do this so this happens, then you do that and then this effects that: A bit like looking at the grammar of a sentence and ignoring its meaning.

Does Cthulhu LCG address these or am I better just staying away?

I'm not trying to say that CCGs are bad. ; I just haven't found one I like yet, and seeing as I am a Lovecraft fan I thought I would look into this one.

Welcome PLPompey !

Give us a little more to go on, please.  What sort of Lovecraftian games DO you like?  Arkham Horror?  Call of Cthulhu Role Playing? 

Did you ever play Mythos, even though it is (was) a CCG?

Games which do not need a game-master must, by their nature, be mechanistic, because they must have unambiguous rules, and each card has an effect.  Some of the effects fit very well with the name of the card, and that makes it easy to imagine what might really be going on in the 'story in your imagination'.  Other card effects are less easy to imagine. 

CoCLCG is a good game with lots of interaction, interesting tactics, multiple options, and lots of decision-making during play.  Hard to ask more than that of any card game. 

Chick

plpompey said:

This is addressed with the LCG format mostly. A certian upkeep is still needed, but it cuts costs dramatically versus CCG's.

plpompey said:

There is a lot of flavour behind the mechanics. The choic between a mechanical game and a flavourfull one is up to you though; You can built a deck purely for the mechanics, or one that is oozing with flavour and story telling.

chicklewis said:

Actually I justy ment I loved the stories he wrote ;)

Thanks for everyones answers. It seems it might be well worth me trying this out to get the flavour of it, even if it is just for the artwork! I will sell all the WoW CCG cards I have picked up on ebay and get hold of a copy of this one instead.

I was drawn to this game orginally because of it's Lovecraft Mythos subject matter.

I had played D&D and the Call of Cthulhu rpg drew me into the literature.

I think you'll find as I did that the icon struggles (terror,combat,arcane and investigation)

are evocative of the flow of many Mythos plots. The Insanity-restore-ready mechanic is

maybe the most flavorfull of all. The fact that the object of the game is to resolve and win

3 story cards as opposed to lowering your opponents life total to 0 is very appropriate as well.

Welcome and good luck!