It’s hard to overstate the impact H.P. Lovecraft’s work has had on the board game industry. Maybe the reason for that is as simple as it’s a theme in the public domain that people are familiar with. Or maybe the kinds of people who enjoy board games have lots of overlap with the kinds of people who enjoy Lovecraft’s work.

Whichever the reason, over 200 board games with a Lovecraft-inspired theme have been produced over the past 40 years or so. Usually that theme boils down to Cthulhu, but not always.

These games are hugely popular. 85 games on this list have over 100 ratings, while 36 have over 1,000 ratings. Some observations about them:

• 10 games are either titled “Arkham Horror” or are listed in the “Arkham Horror Files”: Arkham Horror The Card Game, Arkham Horror 1st Edition, Arkham Horror 2nd Edition, Arkham Horror 3rd Edition, Arkham Horror Final Hour, Eldritch Horror, Mansions of Madness 1st Edition, Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition, Unfathomable, and Elder Sign
• 29 games reference “Cthulhu” somewhere in the title
• Only 4 games refer to H.P. Lovecraft himself: Lovecraft Letter, H.P. Lovecraft’s Kinsport Festival, H.P. Lovecraft’s Kinsport Festival: The Card Game, and Building an Elder God: A Game of Lovecraftian Construction. He was a nazi-sympathisizing asshole, so this is fine.
• 6 games were produced, in my opinion, to justify a pun in the name that the designer came up with first: Cards of Cthulhu, Necronomicards, Hastur La Vista Baby!, Necronomonopoly, A’Writhe, and the Necroboomicon expansion for Two Rooms and a Boom.

Editor’s Note: The number of ratings listed will quickly become out of date, but ratings seem relatively stable after 100-1,000 ratings.

Base games and expansions to non-Lovecraft-themed games are eligible for this list. Expansions to titles already on the list are not, unless they play standalone.

87 titles with >100 ratings

8/10 and higher

1. Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016)

The first of approximately 80 games on this list with the same name, Arkham Horror (The Card Game) is one of the highest-ranked games on Board Game Geek.

2. Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019)

I first heard Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019) described as a game where “players team up to find Cthulhu and shoot him in the face.” This is such a spectacular misrepresentation of the Old Ones mythos that it gives me a headache.

I’m not alone. In a forum post on BGG, Has anyone in the gaming industry ever actually read Lovecraft?: Bjorn Fink, the original poster, writes, “I always imagine the sad face when someone who played Arkham Horror or any other Cthulhu Themed game actually reads Lovecraft…no Shotguns, no Tommyguns, no Heroes waving guns around, almost no direct monster attacks…well not even that many Monsters at all.”

And this is the key point. Even if we only focus on Lovecraft stories that include big monsters/Elder Gods (which eliminates at least half of his work), the plot of Death May Die is still about as noncanonical as you can achieve while still claiming to be inspired by the author. Central to these stories is the concept that old ones like Cthulhu are A) timeless and immortal, B) beyond human reckoning, and C) potentially apocalyptic should they come out of dormancy. The protagonists of Lovecraft’s stories never fight these beings—that’s not an option.

Now, adaptations of all kinds take lots of artistic liberties, and I find it annoying to dismiss them purely for this reason—even while I’m doing it. And you can certainly argue against treating the source material with any kind of sanctity—especially with someone like Lovecraft whose work is filled with racist and sexist issues. And I appreciate that this will not be the last game on the list with this issue.

But nevertheless, Death May Die misses the point so badly that I find it hard to focus on anything else. It’s like if someone made a Batman game that was primarily about constructing the most devastating firearms to kill criminals. Or a Jaws game about serenely researching shark ecosystems. Or a Star Trek game about elaborate and interesting space battles. These aren’t terrible themes for a board game, but they’re just fundamentally not what the associated IP is about. It’s okay to retheme it!

3. Machina Arcana: Second/Third Edition (2019)

This Kickstarter exclusive is apparently well-regarded by its backers. But most of us will never see it.

4. Mansions of Madness: Second Edition (2016)

One of the first popular games to make use of a digital app.

7/10 to 7.9/10

5. Cthulhu Wars (2015)

Huge minis also make this expandable game hugely expensive.

6. Bloodborne: The Board Game (2021)

Not the last time we’ll see Bloodborne on this list.

7. Deep Madness (2018)

This Kickstarter exclusive is not widely available.

8. Unfathomable (2021)

Unfathomable seems like it was designed in a lab to appeal to the board game community, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that it’s being released by Fantasy Flight Games. The game is a reimplementation of Battlestar Galactica (2008), a game that is well-loved (Ranked 85 overall on Board Game Geek) but showing its years. Then it has Lovecraft theming pasted on, which further plays to the crowd. Of course, Battlestar Galactica was also a great theme, but licensing is a game with much more complicated rules than anything on this list.

9. Eldritch Horror (2013)

Fantasy Flight Games broke the genre wide open when they used the word Eldritch instead of Arkham. Truly visionary.

10. Arkham Horror: Third Edition (2018)

Eldritch was too much of a stretch. Had to retreat back to Arkham.

11. Arkham Investigator (2013)

It is not possible to research this game without sifting through information on Arkham Horror first.

12. King of Tokyo/New York: Monster Pack – Cthulhu (2017)

I’m not sure if this qualifies as an expansion but it was necessary to include.

13. Railroad Ink: Eldritch expansion pack (2021)

A Lovecraftian-themed train game may feel like a stretch. But that’s the power of the Lovecraft theme. Where’s the Cthulhu Ticket to Ride expansion?

This small-box expansion was originally made available through the Railroad Ink collector’s box.

14. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (2016)

From what I understand, a shorter version of the Pandemic system. Just an anecdote, but I once saw a couple complete a game of this in about 15 minutes.

15. AuZtralia (2018)

16. Mythos Tales (2016)

17. Cthulhu: The Horror in Dunwich

A standalone expansion to Cthulhu: The Deckbuilding Game further down on this list.

18. Mansions of Madness: First Edition (2011)

Before the app, Mansions of Madness needed a great deal of bookkeeping to reasonably play.

19. Fate of the Elder Gods (2017)

20. Secrets of the Lost Tomb (2015)

21. Cthulhu Wars: Duel (2020)

A follow-up to Cthulhu Wars further up this list

22. Arkham Horror: Second Edition (2005)

23. Lovecraft Letter (2017)

24. A Study in Emerald: First Edition (2013)

25. Shadows Over Normandie: Achtung! Cthulhu (2015)

26. Evil High Priest (2018)

27. Gates of Delirium (2019)

28. Multiuniversum: Project Cthulhu (2016)

29. Two Rooms and a Boom: Necroboomicon Expansion Pack (2017)

A deeper pun that I can respect, Necroboomicon adds nine new characters and… that’s it.

30. Elder Sign (2011)

31. 7 Souls (2020)

6/10 to 6.9/10

32. Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game (2008)

33. Bloodborne: The Card Game (2016)

34. A Study in Emerald: Second Edition (2015)

35. Don’t Mess With Cthulhu (2014)

36. Call of Cthulhu: Collectible Card Game (2004)

37. Dark Cults (1983)

38. Tides of Madness (2016)

39. Ancient Terrible Things (2014)

40. Arkham Noir (2017)

41. The Cards of Cthulhu: Second Edition (2014)

This game was clearly designed to justify the name. The version shown above, released by Dan Verssen Games, is actually the second version of the game. The first was played with a normal deck of cards and print-and-play rules.

42. Cthulhu: A Deck Building Game (2016)

43. NecronomiCards (2016)

The name of this game was brainstormed first, then a card game was built around it. You cannot convince me otherwise.

44. Smash Up: The Obligatory Cthulhu Set (2013)

Fun fact: If you search Board Game Geek for “obligatory,” this is the only thing that comes up.

45. Cthulhu Realms (2015)

The red-headed stepsibling of Star Realms (2014) and Hero Realms (2016), Cthulhu Realms plays almost the exact same way: as a competitive Ascension-style deckbuilding card game. But unlike its space and fantasy-themed relatives, Cthulhu Realms has never released another set or expansion pack, and while Star Realms and Hero Realms are ranked fairly high on BGG (#121 and #205, respectively) in the overall ranking of games on Board Game Geek, Cthulhu Realms ranks #1,597.

So what gives? You could blame it on the theme, I guess, but I’m more inclined to blame it on the iconography, which is much smaller and harder to identify at a glance than the iconography of its more popular siblings.

46. Kingsport Festival (2014)

47. Mythos (1996)

48. Arkham Horror: First Edition (1987)

The game that started it all. No longer would Lovecraftian horror consist of cult members, scholars, and unknowable evil. Now it was monsters and tommy guns—as the Lord intended.

49. Cthulhu: Rise of the Cults (2017)

50. I Am the Fourth Wall (2019)

51. Witch of Salem (2008)

52. Rise of Cthulhu (2015)

53. All Manor of Evil (2019)

54. Arkham Horror: Final Hour (2019)

Not content with the 62 properties it already had entitled “Arkham Horror,” Fantasy Flight Games released this peculiar title a day after it was announced.

Like its older siblings Arkham Horror, Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, and Arkham Horror, Arkham Horror: Final Hour (2019) is a multiplayer cooperative game, but with a compelling twist! This one… plays in under an hour (which actually does set it apart from Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, and Arkham Horror, which can each take upwards of four hours).

55. Mountains of Madness (2017)

Mountains of Madness falls somewhere between a co-op dice roller (see every other game on this list) and a memetic party game that sees players speaking in pig Latin and pacing around the room a la Quelf. Players must coordinate as a group to make decisions based on which cards they individually have in their hands. But communication is limited; It’s not limited in the same way as, say, The Crew or The Mind, where you’re simply instructed not to talk about the cards you have in hand. In Mountains of Madness, you are allowed to discuss which cards are in your hand, but players accumulate “curses” over the course of the game that direct them to sabotage their communication in various ways the game designers found funny. And the team has limited time to make each decision.

This cheeky design actually captures the theming of Lovecraft’s novella “At the Mountains of Madness” quite well. As you climb into the mountains, your various party members begin going insane and communication breaks down. Unlike in many of these other games where sanity is a stat you gain or lose, here sanity is represented by how well you can get your point across given whatever limitations you’ve been handed.

56. Unspeakable Words: Deluxe Edition (2017)

57. Cthulhu Gloom (2011)

In Gloom, players are given a group of characters and get victory points based on how miserable they can make those characters. Conversely, they might try to do nice things for their opponents’ families to lower their ultimate victory points. It’s a storytelling game that works best if you and your friends can get caught in the narrative rather than just focusing on game mechanics.

So is Cthulhu mythos a good theme for Gloom? Well, it certainly contains no shortage of horrible things that can happen to core characters. Those horrible things might be more compelling if you already have some familiarity with Lovecraft’s work or at least other Lovecraft-ish games. But the same could be really be said for any of the themed Gloom sets: fairy tales, sci-fi, Game of Thrones. Base Gloom also has its own gratuitously depressing mythos.

58. Tower of Madness (2018)

Unlike several other games on this list, Tower of Madness saves its core pun for the kicker: Don’t lose your marbles–literally!–because you have marbles in the game! Get it?

59. The Stars Are Right (2008)

60. Munchkin Cthulhu (2007)

Sidebar rant: One thing I hate in games? Niche rules you are supposed to remember to apply under certain circumstances that aren’t printed on any components except in the rulebook. (E.g. you can summon Exodia if you have all 5 pieces—even though the piece cards don’t say that).

So anyway, the already convoluted Munchkin series has a Cthulhu adaptation, which decided to complicate things by adding arbitrary cause-and-effect triggers that fundamentally affect the game. For instance, a common class card in this version is “cultist” that you cannot voluntarily discard. The cultist cards say this to remind you; perfect.

Then the rulebook also adds “If all the players become Cultists but one, the non-Cultist player gets a level, and this can be the winning level. If ALL the players become Cultists, the game ends immediately, and victory goes to the players with the highest level.” Is this fairly essential rule but easy-to-forget rule printed on either the cultist cards or the gameboard? Of course not! You can only find it in the rulebook.

Munchkin Cthulhu is full of these unique edge cases, often tied to other obscure keywords:

• “You may play any Undead monster from your hand into combat to help any other Undead, without using a Wandering Monster card.”
  • Do the undead monster cards say or indicate this anywhere? No! It just says “undead” somewhere on the card
• “When a [monster ending in ‘goth’] appears in a combat, the player who played or drew it may play one other ‘goth’ monster from his hand into the combat. If he does not play another ‘goth,’ go around the table, starting at his left.
  Each player in turn has one chance to add a single ‘goth’ to the combat, until one ‘goth’ is played. After one ‘goth’ joins the original monster, the combat proceeds. A ‘goth’ that enters the combat this way does not get to bring in another ‘goth.'”
  • Do the “goth” monsters indicate this anywhere on the card? No!
  • This time it’s even worse because they aren’t a monster “type” like undead. It just means any monster whose name ends in “goth” like “shoggoth” or “froggoth.” There are even cards that try to trip you up over this by having similar endings like “Shoggoats.”

This all might not be so bad if Munchkin weren’t a series. But Steve Jackson Games already has rules for Munchkin that fans are used to. Then for this edition, they introduced a bunch of edge cases that aren’t printed anywhere except in the second sentence of a paragraph in the sidebar of the rules.

You can certainly make an argument that I’m just complaining about reading a rulebook. But I like reading rulebooks. I like learning games in advance so I can teach them to my friends. I don’t like sounding like a crazy person because I’ve interrupted play to point out rule 2b subclause A in an unappealing wall of text.

You can argue that this turbulent experience helps replicate insanity, I guess, but that’s a questionable strategy for making a fun game.

/rant

61. Unspeakable Words: Pleb Edition (2007)

62. Cthulhu Fluxx (2012)

63. Stay Away (2014)

64. Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection (2019)

65. Pocket Madness (2016)

66. Lost in R’lyeh (2016)

67. The Doom That Came to Atlantic City (2013)

68. Cthulhu in the House (2016)

69 (nice). Kingsport Festival: The Card Game (2017)

70. Tekeli-li (2005)

5/10 to 5.9/10

71. Incredible Expeditions: Quest for Atlantis (2015)

72. Chez Cthulhu (2010)

73. Cthulhu’s Vault (2015)

74. Cthulhu 500 (2004)

I would love to know what was going through Jeff’s mind when he came up with the idea for this game. Also, they didn’t name it Cars of Cthulhu! I’m so proud of them.

75. Cults Across America (1998)

76. Do You Worship Cthulhu? (2006)

77. Cthulhu!!!: Hastur La Vista, Baby! (2014)

78. Innsmouth Escape (2008)

79. Shadow of the Elder Gods (2015)

80. Miskatonic School for Girls (2012)

81. Wake Up, Cthulhu! (2015)

82. Yahtzee: Cthulhu Edition (2015)

83. Arkham Ritual (2017)

84. Cthulhu Rising (2008)

85. Cthulhu Dice (2010)

86. Creatures & Cultists (1993)

Below 5/10

87. Building an Elder God (2011)

132 titles with <100 ratings

Bureau of Investigation: Investigations in Arkham and Elsewhere (2022)

This French adaptation of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective is a recent release and we’ll see where it ends up when more people get their hands on it.

Necronomonopoly (2004)

I felt obligated to expand on this one because of the amazing and hard-to-type pun

Cthulhu Kitchen (2019)

A Japanese-language game that isn’t widely available, Cthulhu Kitchen (2019) plays like a party game where players put together courses of an inedible meal to delight your great evil god. That description makes it sound like a version of Competition Kitchen (2017), which sees players putting together inventive recipes with a given ingredient and prompt, cooking show-style. I don’t know how much more inventive you can really be when you start with a card as complicated as a banana split made out of cephalopods, but then I also don’t speak Japanese.

A’Writhe: A Game of Eldritch Contortions (2018)

Another game that seems justified exclusively because of the name, A’Writhe is basically a team-based version of Twister with some Codenames elements and Arkham-theming pasted on. It can support three teams of two, which is interesting, but it apparently wasn’t enough to save the game, if the number of ratings is any indication. You can’t even blame this one on the game being unavailable.

I went ahead and bought a copy of this when researching this list because it seemed so absurd and relatively inexpensive. It’s actually an incredibly heavy box because it contains 20 neoprene mousepads that you use to make the board. Other than those, it’s just a few cardboard cards (some with powers, others with Codenames-esque orientations) and the rulesheet.

Call of Madness (2021)

The Everrain (2021)

Kemet: Blood and Sand – The Great Old Ones (2021)

Book of the Dead (2020)

Four Against the Great Old Ones (2020)

Don’t wake up Cthulhu! (2020)

Strange Aeons (2009)

Hornet Leader: Cthulhu Conflict (2013)

Dreamlands Adventures (2012)

Valley of the Kings: The Awakening of Nyarlathotep (2016)

Cultistorm (2019)

The Gate of R’lyeh (2018)

Museum: The Cthulhu Relics (2018)

Eldritch Duel (2018)

Feed the Shoggoth! (2015)

Madness At Midnight (2017)

The Thing in the Darkness (1984)

Wrestlenomicon (2019)

When Darkness Comes: The Nameless Mist (2005)

The Seals of Cthulhu (2019)

Monsters vs. Heroes: Volume 2 – Cthulhu Mythos (2019)

Unlocking Insanity: Dice Vermiis Mysteriis (2020)

Mad Love (2018)

Dice of Arkham (2012)

8 Bit Attack (2019)

Cultists of Cthulhu (2016)

Miskatonic School for Boys (2016)

Towers of Am’harb (2019)

Cthulhu Crusades (2017)

Cthulhu Tales (2016)

Miskatonic Madness (2005)

Postcard Cthulhu (2014)

Cthul-B-Que (2008)

Fanhunter: Las Montañas de la Locura – Electric Boogaloo (2013)

Cultists & Cthulhu (2016)

Reanimator (2018)

Arkham Express (2010)

Lil’ Cthulhu (2016)

Macho Women with Guns (1998)

Monopoly: Cthulhu (2016)

Cthulhu Mash (2003)

Fast & Fhtagn (2016)

Sushi Dice: Cthulhu Loves Sushis (2014)

Cthulhu: The Great Old One (2014)

Cthulhu Horror (1989)

Chaos of Cthulhu (2015)

Are You the Cultist? (2016)

One Of Us Becomes an Evil God! (2016)

IÄÄ! Cthulhu! Fhtagn! (2016)

The Rats in the Walls (2013)

Recall of Cthulhu (2016)

Rites of Cthulhu (2018)

Builders of R’lyeh (2012)

Call of Cthentacle (2009)

Cthulhu: XOTHIC WARS (2017)

Wardens (2019)

Secret Cthulhu (2019)

Cthulinária (2009)

Nyog’Sothep ou les Brumes de l’Immonde (1988)

Cthulhu Skirmish (2005)

The Necronomicon Gamebook: Carcosa (2019)

S-P-O-N-G-E: Fight the Evil (2001)

Tragedy Looper: Weird Mythology (2015)

Cthulhu Island (2020)

Fear of the Dark: Solo Horror Skirmish Wargame (2021)

Lovecraft’s Revenge (2016)

USX Modern Day Heroes (2008)

Eldritch Century: Into the Lost Continent (2018)

Cthulhu Deckbuilder (2016)

Cthulhu Fu (2011)

Cthulhu Zap (2011)

Cthulhu: Tora! Tora! Tora! (2008)

Cults of Arkham (2014)

Mini Madness Cthulhu: The Arkham Investigation (2018)

Minions of Cthulhu (2011)

Mythic Wars: Cthulhu Rises (2018)

Sticky Cthulhu (2021)

Unicum (2014)

Arkham Terror: Experimental Therapy (2008)

Dead Man on Campus (2007)

Cthulhu Madness: Midnight in the Graveyard (2014)

Eldritch Express (2016)

U Mad Bro? (2016)

10 Die Survival Games Public Domain Promo Cards (2012)

Assault on Innsmouth (2009)

Coin Horror (2015)

Cthulhu Kids: Cosmic Catastrophe (2019)

Cultists among us (2022)

Dreamescape (2020)

Elder Things & Outer Gods (2001)

Lost Tales of Cthulhu: Dunwich (2016)

Mythos (2017)

One Page Cthulhu: Volume 1 – Miskatonic Tunnels (2019) 6.0, 2 ratings

Arkham Relic Hunt (2019)

The Calling: A Cthulean Social Deduction Game (2019)

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (2019)

Kamigami Battles: Rise of the Old Ones (2021)

Necronomicon: The Card Game (2008)

Rise of the Elders: A Cthulhu World (2017)

Shadow of Miskatonic (2020)

Things Man Was Not Meant To Know (2005)

Cthulhu Detective (2022)

Cultist/Occultist (2020)

Cults of Dagon (2017)

Eldritch (2016)

The Eldritch Mines (2020)

Great Old Ones (2006)

The Heart of Cthulhu (2021)

Hotel Lovecraft (2020)

I am Providence (2014)

Lanterns on the Dock (2019)

Manicomios de Arkham (2011)

The Music of Erich Zann (2019)

Mythos Encounters: A Cooperative Horror Miniature Skirmish Game (2021)

Mythos Miniatures (2008)

The Shadow of a Dark God (2001)

Shadow of K’s-Birlcess (1989)

The Spawn of Yog-Sothoth (1988)

The Stalking Terror (2020)

Terror in the Theater (2020)

Trail of the Brotherhood (2011)

Twilight City: Dark Mysteries (2010)

アザトース (Azathoth) (2020)

インスマスから届いた手紙 (Innsmouth kara todoita tegami) (2020)

クトゥルフが目覚める前に (Cthulhu ga mezameru mae ni) (2020)

マッドリック (MADRICK) (2018)

マッドリックーネクロマンス アポカリプス (MADRICK: Necromancy Apocalypse) (2019)

黄衣の王がやってくる前に (Koui no Ou ga yattekuru mae ni) (2021)