Pyramid Review
Cthulhu 500
Published by Atlas Games
Designed by Jeff Tidball
Art by Scott Reeves
Edited by Michelle Nephew
110 full-color cards, rules sheet; $19.95
required but not included: six-sided die and lap countersAttention, racing fans. Roll down your tailgates, break out the Space Mead, and get ready for high-speed thrills. Atlas Games is waving the green flag -- at least, it looks like a flag -- and the Cthulhu 500 is underway.
The object of the game is to be the farthest ahead in the race when the checkered flag waves.
Players pick one of eight vehicles, each with a different set of statistics for how it performs on the track. One or two of them also have special abilities beyond these numbers. Vehicles get two cards each -- one is placed in the middle of the table to show its position in the race, and the other sits in front of its owner where everyone can see what kind of upgrades and crew it has.
The cars' order is determined at the start of the game, and their positions change throughout play. The lead car is placed at one end of the line, and whoever's bringing up the rear is at the other. The game is abstract: There's not a real track, so position is relative. Each vehicle wants to pass the one in front of him, and the car in front wants to "pass" the one at the back. If the lead car passes, his card goes to the end of the line, but a lap token is placed on the vehicle to show that he's lapped the competition. (Counters for the laps aren't included -- a couple dozen . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 1, 2004
Copyright © 2004 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.
