Cthulhu still lives, in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places.

–H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Three years ago, in a remote and isolated stretch of ocean, a nightmare corpse-city rose from the depths, and its monstrous titan king woke briefly from his slumber before a band of intrepid sailors sent him back beneath the waves. But Cthulhu's cult is neither dead nor sleeping, and they know the stars are right. Now their sinister plans come one step closer to fruition in The Cthulhu Casefiles fan expansion for Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

When a package from your old acquaintance Inspector Legrasse arrives at your doorstep, it's accompanied by a plea for help. An old case has come back to haunt him, and several of his men have turned up dead or gone missing in the last month. With five mini cards and 156 full-size cards, The Cthulhu Casefiles pits you against the Great Old One's worshipers in a desperate race across the globe.

Five brand-new investigators are available to assist in this epic struggle, and they come bearing approximately sixty new player cards (exact count TBD) which allow you to experience a new twist on class themes and mechanics. The bad guys have new tricks too, and you'll experience them in the expansion's three scenarios – from terrifying dreams to immortal wizards to nameless spawn of the Great Old One himself.

So I'm just in love with this game, and rather than simply designing the odd card or two in Strange Eons, I'd like to go balls-to-the-wall and put together a full expansion. But... that's a lot of work for one person.

So, I'm soliciting help. If you'd like to lend a hand, just respond to this post with a brief description of what you can assist with – player card design, encounter card design, scenario design, art acquisition (AKA Google Image Search,) whatever. If there's enough interest, I'll throw together some Google docs so we can get started.

Cthulhu Fhtagn!

I'm down. I've got my own gimp templates so until strange eons has high def images, I'll use mine.

I'm down. I've got my own gimp templates so until strange eons has high def images, I'll use mine.

Did you ever finish making the templates for all the card types? Because I'd definitely rather use those if they're finished.

I'm down. I've got my own gimp templates so until strange eons has high def images, I'll use mine.

Did you ever finish making the templates for all the card types? Because I'd definitely rather use those if they're finished.

I only have templates right now for enemies, locations and treacheries. But I'll make all the rest as we go. I've been playtesting my scenario so I hadn't messed with any more templates.

Have you got a story in mind to draw inspiration from? I've not read Call of Cthulhu but I will if that's the one you want to do.

I like the concept, although I imagine the plot is a topic that we will see FFG cover soon. I would urge you to think about not doing player cards and only making scenario cards. I say this because a scenario, well built, can be used for years and years, but player cards will functionally fade as FFG creates more of them that either do what you want, or do something better. It just may be a waste of your time when you can devote that mental energy to better/more scenario cards. That doesn't mean don't have story assets, just don't make "sixty new player cards". I'll help where I can though, I'm probably better suited to encounter card design and scenario design (and I can use my Google Fu for images too!).

Sixty new cards sounds like a lot, but looking at The Dunwich Legacy's "59 new player cards", it's actually 5 investigators with their signatures + weaknesses, 4 cards per faction, 1 neutral card, and 3 basic weaknesses. That's only 39 different cards, with 2 copies each of 20 bringing it to 59.

The player cards aren't so much intended to be used (the investigators themselves will absolutely get official versions eventually) as to explore design space and play with new ideas.

The scenario design is absolutely the star here.

Google Spreadsheet is up with a few cards. Anyone is free to comment.

The general outline for the set is as follows:

Scenario 1:

Takes place in New Orleans. You arrive to find that Legrasse has, as feared, gone missing. However, evidence suggests that he's merely in hiding and, if you can make sure the coast is clear, he'll get in touch with you (Act 1.) From there, you track down leads from the old case, including a visit to old Castro, who's still kicking, and a trip to the swamp where you may encounter The Thing in the Lake:

There were legends of a hidden lake unglimpsed by mortal sight, in which dwelt a huge, formless white polypous thing with luminous eyes; and squatters whispered that bat-winged devils flew up out of caverns in inner earth to worship it at midnight. They said it had been there before D’Iberville, before La Salle, before the Indians, and before even the wholesome beasts and birds of the woods. It was nightmare itself, and to see it was to die. But it made men dream, and so they knew enough to keep away.

–H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Scenario 2 & 3:

Can be done in any order. One takes you to Providence, where you'll talk to Henry Wilcox, the artist who created the bas-relief of Cthulhu; the other to Norway to speak with the widow Johansen. Both are being targeted by the Cthulhu Cult and both have information which can help you fight them.

I like the concept, although I imagine the plot is a topic that we will see FFG cover soon. I would urge you to think about not doing player cards and only making scenario cards. I say this because a scenario, well built, can be used for years and years, but player cards will functionally fade as FFG creates more of them that either do what you want, or do something better. It just may be a waste of your time when you can devote that mental energy to better/more scenario cards. That doesn't mean don't have story assets, just don't make "sixty new player cards". I'll help where I can though, I'm probably better suited to encounter card design and scenario design (and I can use my Google Fu for images too!).

The Google Spreadsheet is up with a few cards (see previous post.)

Update notes 12/29:

Updated 3:47 PM PST

General:

• Added Story sheet. This sheet contains the Scenario cards, chaos reference card, Act and Agenda cards, Story Assets, and special set-aside enemies.

Investigator cards:

• Adjusted skill values for Tony Morgan, Akachi Onyele, Ursula Downs, and Lily Chen.
• Added a "taunt" passive to Lily Chen.
• Added +2 health and +2 sanity to Lily Chen to support her new "tank" role.
• Restricted Finn Edwards' passive ability and Elder Sign effect to only Item assets and disallowed free movement while engaged with an enemy.
• Added text/stats for Ursula Downs' signature event and personal weakness.
• Added text/stats for Lily Chen's signature skill.
• Increased cost of Finn Edwards' signature asset from 0 to 3 and added a niche recharge mechanic.
• Changed "Cultist enemy" to "an enemy" on Finn Edwards' personal weakness and addressed an oversight by adding "or spawns at" to the direct horror effect.
• Added a discard condition to Marked for Sacrifice.

Other player cards:

• Added a passive ability to Cracked Knucklebones to prevent a gamebreaking exploit.
• Added the Fast keyword to Double-Cross!

Story cards:

• Added new Story Asset: Inspector John Legrasse, Obsessive Detective.
• Added uniqueness indicator (*) to Castro.

Notes:

• New/updated cards will be marked in green; be sure to check comments for those cards.
• Cards marked in cyan have outstanding questions to be answered. Please leave your feedback on these cards specifically.

Updated the update. New additions in italics.

Update notes 12/30:

Investigator cards:

• Changed deckbuilding options for all 5 investigators. Off-class cards are now from "opposite" classes rather than "adjacent" ones.
• Finished adding stats and text for remaining signature and personal weakness cards.

I like the concept, although I imagine the plot is a topic that we will see FFG cover soon. I would urge you to think about not doing player cards and only making scenario cards. I say this because a scenario, well built, can be used for years and years, but player cards will functionally fade as FFG creates more of them that either do what you want, or do something better. It just may be a waste of your time when you can devote that mental energy to better/more scenario cards. That doesn't mean don't have story assets, just don't make "sixty new player cards". I'll help where I can though, I'm probably better suited to encounter card design and scenario design (and I can use my Google Fu for images too!).

If you like, I can add you as an authorized user so you can make edits to the spreadsheet.