“Of course it was a dream. All the specialists have told him so, and he has nothing to prove the contrary. Indeed, he would rather have it thus; for then the sight of old brick slums and dark foreign faces would not eat so deeply into his soul.”
   
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror at Red Hook

Night is coming, and few truly know what secrets the brightly colored masks and costumes worn by revelers during Carnevale may conceal…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Terror in Venice , the fifth deluxe expansion for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game !

Agents of good and ancient evils patrol the streets of Venice. All of them share terrifying secrets, and those secrets sit at the heart of this new theme-driven expansion. With its 165 new cards (three copies each of fifty-five individual cards), Terror in Venice explores the wealth of new conspiracies taking shape amid the streets, alleys, and darker corners of Venice.

In addition to seven far-reaching new conspiracies, Terror in Venice explores the game’s Day and Night themes. The forces of darkness are stronger at Night , so those that oppose them will want to take advantage of every minute of each Day . Accordingly, you’ll find a wealth of new cards and powerful effects centered around the Day and Night mechanics. You’ll also find new support for the game’s Relics and the new Fated keyword introduced in The Key and the Gate . Finally, with its emphasis on conspiracy and secrecy, Terror in Venice introduces a number of Masks , each of which affords a measure of protection to the character who wears it.

Convenient Morality

No less than twenty of the cards in Terror in Venice reinforce the Day and Night mechanic that originally appeared in Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game during the Dreamlands cycle of Asylum Packs.

The Day and Night conditions do little on their own, but these rival game states can make a powerful impact over the course of a match as they trigger other Day and Night cards. Day effects tend to favor the forces of “good,” those that seek to protect humanity from the unfathomable terrors worming their way into our world. Meanwhile, the game’s Cultists , Monsters , and Ancient Ones , as well as their Servitors , tend to gain strength while they can move about more freely under the cover of Night.

In fact, in Terror in Venice , each of the game’s eight factions favors one or the other time, Day or Night , excepting one faction – the Syndicate. If Day corresponds with the forces of “good” and Night with the forces of “evil,” then we can regard the Syndicate’s self-interested efforts to as purely pragmatic. Whether you consider them the lesser of the evils or the lesser of the goods, members of the Syndicate are happy to steal whatever advantages they can from either Day or Night .

For example, when it’s Day , the Carnevale Sentinel ( Terror in Venice , 47) gains an Arcane icon, an Investigation icon, and Willpower . However, unlike the members of those more moralistic factions, the Agency and Miskatonic University, the Carnevale Sentinel is perfectly happy when it’s Night , too. At Night , he gains a Terror icon, a Combat icon, and Toughness +1 .

The Syndicate’s malleable sense of morality allows them to adapt in order to keep up with the other factions as your opponent changes the time from Day to Night , or from Night to Day . More importantly, though, it allows them to steal a key advantage against more time-dependent factions. By manipulating time with The Gold Pocket Watch ( Terror in Venice , 49), your can keep your opponents off-balance, even as your Syndicate characters nimbly adjust from one set of advantages to another.

The Secrets of Venice

Why are the Ancient Ones and their followers turning their attentions to the streets and canals of Venice? What secrets lie hidden there? How widespread are the city’s great conspiracies, and what impact will they have upon the world at large?

Terror in Venice follows the themes of H.P. Lovecraft’s eerie fiction far from the shores of Arkham, Massachusetts and offers players of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game a chance to rediscover the terrifying struggles of the game they love. Full of terror and perils, arcane secrets, and desperate investigations, Terror in Venice returns the game to its glorious roots, even as it ushers its mind-melting mysteries further into new territories.

Look for the conspiracies of Terror in Venice to come to life in the third quarter of 2013!

Based on the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his literary circle, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game takes two players deep into the Cthulhu Mythos where investigators clash with the Ancient Ones and Elder Gods for the fate of the world. The Living Card Game format allows players to customize their gaming experience with monthly Asylum Pack expansions to the core game.

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