Hills Rise Wild! (Call of Cthulhu) [BOX SET]

One of the best Cthulhu and Lovecraftian board games on the market! After several years playing this, our group has noticed a pronounced advantage for the Whately clan, and a distinct disadvantage for the Cult of Ezekiel, but that does not detract from the fun! Count on 1 hour playtime for each player in the game, and some of our games have run longer. With multiple copies of the game, we have doubled up on a faction to add more players. There is also a random element to the game, besides die rolls, that can throw some unpredictability into play.Loaded with Cthulhu references, both serious and hilarious, the only complaint I have is that the company has yet to issue any expansions for the game, although some fan-created variants are available for free on the internet. Hours of fun!

I just got this game (I think it was published in 2000), and my sons and I just had our first play through. Man it was a blast! Compared to other Cthulhu mythos games it is much more our speed with backstabbing, mayhem and deceit in a mad rush to claim the Necronomicon. The premise is simple. Wizard Whateley died and his copy of the dread tome is up for grabs for the first faction that can claim it. You take on one of four clans: the ghouls, a cult, the Whateley family or the Marsh clan from Innsmouth. You control 6 characters to try to outwit or outmuscle your opponents. Each character has some unique properties to spice things up. The playing board is composed of 16 tiles that can be arranged any whichway, and items are hidden in various small buildings that you can try to explore. Once you can find a seal you can open up the central mansion and try to grab the Necronomicon, get it to your home summoning circle and call down a Great Old One to eat your opponents.In our run through a ghoul uncovered the dread tome in the mansion and was promptly killed by some cultists. The sea hag of the Marsh clan scooped it up and teleported back to her summoning circle, where a cultist stabbed her in the back. Then three ghouls swooped in, guns blazing, offing the cultist. On their way back to their summoning circle they killed the last Deep One, and the last cultist managed to kill himself trying a spell. Back at ghoul central, two of them attempted to open the gate and died, until the very last ghoul was successful. 18 characters and 17 died. All of this was accompanied by lots of yelling, laughing, trash talking and double dealing. That's good gaming!Pros - Immensely fun gameplay and good replay value; we can't wait to have another go at it.Cons - It is pricey, and then the game itself is very chintzy. The pieces are all cardboard cut outs (literally), and don't seem very durable. I opened the box and then spent an hour cutting and folding little cardboard pieces. They want you to tape a penny to the bottom of the pieces so they don't blow away! I realize that this was a bit of a shoestring production but compared the Arkham Horror from Fantasy Flight Games this was a big drag. Then, instead of a hex board you're given a tape measure (I'm serious) to measure distance movement. It took us more than an hour to set up and try to get a grasp on the rules. The next game will be much easier.Educational Value - How do you answer this question for a game like this? I learned that as a Marsh you should never trust those damn stinking ghouls. They'll turn on you every time.I would definitely support a Kickstarter campaign to reissue with higher quality gaming materials.