The Gate of R’lyeh

Type: Tabletop Game

Playing Time: 60 minutes

Number Of Players: 4-8

Age: 10+

Release Date: Released

$39.99

In stock (can be backordered)

You have been sent to reinforce the cosmic gate. You must be confident that you are combining the proper components, but be warned, delving into the occult is certain to affect you and your colleague’s sanity. The clock is ticking and time is running short. Stop the cultists – create the sigils.

Overview

How to Play

Videos

Reviews

FAQ

The clock is ticking. The gate is failing. Your team of investigators has been sent to R’lyeh for the purpose of trapping Cthulhu in his prison forever. The investigators have two enemies: The clock and the cultists hidden among their numbers.

Triggering the four needed incantations will take all of the skill your team can muster and you don’t have the luxury of time to search for the traitors in your midst.

The odds are slim and the fate of the world rests in your hands.

R’lyeh is played in rounds. After each player chooses one of five actions the clock advances one hour. Choose your actions wisely. The pressure is on to complete the mission. Finding cultists is secondary. DO NOT GET DISTRACTED!

GODS

For the basic game use the 4 gods without special rules (Ithaca, Zahr, Bokrug, and Dagon). For a deeper game and to add even more replay value add in any number of the additional 8 gods included in the game.

CULTIST CONTINUE EVEN IF THEY ARE FOUND OUT

No players are eliminated from the game. A discovered cultist is weaken and becomes a bit pesky. They can no longer vote, (who would listen to them?) but they still need to be dealt with.

The goal for the investigators is to have 4 of the 7 cards played in the incantation be of the target sigil. Playing cards of the polar opposite are damaging. The 7th card is played face-up and all cards are revealed to determine success of failure. If the investigators fail to create the 4 reinforcing sigils by midnight all will be lost.

Equipment will give investigators AND cultist special abilities!

THE NECRONOMICON
When it’s looking bleak for the investigators, they can decide to consult the Necronomicon. However, this is a dangerous and risky proposition. The Investigators may buy themselves some additional time, but failure will mean an immediate and gruesome end.

HOW TO PLAY

REVIEWS & PLAYTHROUGH

Board Game Buffet Podcast

REVIEWS FROM BGG

EmberWing  Dec 2019
United States
I’m not a huge fan of social deduction games where one player plays the bad guy, but this game was fun and had some extra elements to it that stood out to me from others.

ValTyr  May 2019
Ontario · Canada
An amazing game for a group of people to sit down to. Well conceived and fun to play.

danaolson  Apr 2019
Canada
The theme and mechanics are integrated nicely. It’s a bit like The Resistance or Doppelganger, but a bit more tasty tasty meat on the bone. I don’t really understand why investigators are doing incantations, though. The cultists should be the ones doing incantations to open portals, and the investigators should be trying to stop them. But whatever, the game is very fun as it is. I’ve played it a few times now and my rating has not changed. It’s longer than The Resistance, about the same as Doppelganger, but I prefer it over both. In fact, I find it hard to want to pull out Doppelganger, Secrets, Blood Bound, or other social deduction games now. I’d rather play this. I like that you have more you can do, but it does feel hard to win as investigators.

isfella33  Apr 2019
Pennsylvania · United States
Another game about hidden roles and traitors as you lay cards: a more complex Shadows Over Camelot with a Cthulhu theme. Always need more cowbell and Cthulhu in my life.

podonnell  Dec 2018

While the social deduction market may feel oversaturated, DPH Games do something really special to stand out here. Too many social deduction games are shallow at their core and revolve around a very simple mechanic. This is great for casual players, but it can run dry quickly for those looking for a little more meat.
The core gameplay of The Gate of R’lyeh is more than just one mechanic, and allows for both cultist and human players to take more control over the game. Smart player elimination is a plus as well.
Highly recommended for those looking for a social deduction game with a little more meat.

NiceGuyMike  Oct 2018
Horseheads, NY · United States
Somehow, this game is *always* fun, and frequently surprising. Very much in flux right now because it is still in development, it is a satisfying and tense race against the clock to place four sigils before “midnight”, to keep the gate from failing and losing Cthulhu upon the world. In general, I don’t like social deduction games, but DPH has something special here.

pjperl  Jun 2018
Corning, New York · United States
I am always SO excited when I get to go to a game convention and DPH Games is there. This small publisher has put out a handful of very enjoyable games – each wildly different from the next. And that is a good thing. So when Dan and I ended up at ORIGINS Game Fair this year, I made sure to be available for his demos of The Gate of R’lyeh. Wow! Keep an eye out for this one. What a fantastic time people had playing this Lovecraftian deduction game.
THEME: The basic gist is as follows: You are investigators from the Office of Paranormal Investigations who have been sent to the nightmarish city of R’lyeh in the center of the Pacific Ocean. Your task is to create 4 sigils by contributing cards to an incantation. The formation of these sigils is of cosmic significance. By creating them, you are reinforcing the failing gate that is keeping Cthulhu dreaming in his watery grave. But the task won’t be easy. Through the use of hidden role cards, some among you are cultists who want to see your efforts fail. In games with more than one cultist, they do not know who each other are – a very important and welcome departure from games like Werewolf and The Resistance.
GAMEPLAY: You are given a hand of Mythos cards with symbols that match the 4 sigils that are placed on altars in a circular pattern on the game board. At the start of the incantation the lead investigator will pick a target sigil. Asking for suggestions and table talk are encouraged. Once a sigil is decided upon a random face down Mythos card starts the incantation. Players can do 1 of 5 actions on their turn. The main action is CONTRIBUTE – adding a card face down to the incantation. There are 7 spots for cards to be placed with the last card played face up and triggering the incantation. Once the incantation is triggered, the cards are picked up, shuffled and looked at. A success is 4 target sigils – a failure is anything less. A Mythos card with a sigil opposite the target sigil on the board, cancels a good card. Other sigils act as neutrals.
Other actions that players can take on their turn include: RESEARCH – discarding 0-3 cards from your hand and drawing back up to 3; GAMBLE: taking 2 random Mythos cards and placing one in the incantation and discarding the other; INVESTIGATE: picking up all the cards in the incantation before it is triggered, shuffling, placing one back face down, looking at the remaining cards and switching one out if you want with one from your hand; and ACCUSE: make an accusation about who may be a cultist – this action requires a vote with everyone placing a yes/no token in front of them. Another unique aspect of this game is that certain actions require you to draw from an Insanity deck which may limit your actions for the rest of the game. Insanity can continue to build and eventually cripple you.
Some other significant departures from the popular deduction games is the way that the designer deals with the hidden roles. This game is not a game of finding all the cultists to win. More pressure has to do with the clock which ticks down each round. If all 4 sigils are not created by midnight, the investigators still lose even if the cultists are revealed during the game. Too much time spent finding the cultists might stall the incantation. Discovered cultists are not out of the game but have their abilities greatly reduced.
Players can also consult the Necronomicon if they find time running short. A vote is needed to open the book and the player who does takes 3x Insanity cards. The Necronomicon changes who the incantation works. Players refill thier hands and also gain an hour back. Finding a cultist while the Necronomicon is open can also give another hour. There is a catch though, fail the incantation and the game is over – cultists win.
THOUGHTS: The number of deduction games available continues to grow. I like deduction games but many out there offer nothing new or are just not enjoyable. Enter The Gate of R’lyeh. So much about this game is fresh, unique, and exemplary. The fact that you have a choice of actions on your turn make this feel more like a tabletop game than a simple deduction card game. It is a VERY SOCIAL game. Table talk as I said is encouraged. There is no limit to what you can say (or lie) about in the game. And this makes for some very memorable moments. No one is ever out of the game and even exposed cultists can continue to play. Included with the game are advanced and optional rules which adds some variability for secret identities, Insanity cards, god rules for each sigil, and additional end conditions. I can’t imagine anyone making another game that combines deduction and Lovecraft in such a unique and enjoyable way. Highly recommended!

Kinsoul Studio  Apr 2018
New York · United States
Played this game at a convention and backed it on Kickstarter. Our team had a very fun experience with the game and would recommend it to anyone seeking a new social deduction gaming experience.

Runawayparade  Mar 2018
New York · United States
Was lucky enough to play this at Granite Game Summit and had a blast. Loved the fact that it was a social deduction game that went beyond the casting of accusations. It still had plenty of arguing about who the nefarious actors were, but it also included a great logic puzzle in trying to ensure the team had the right distribution of cards to win each round. Also enjoyed that even when the evildoers are unmasked they are still in the game, albeit somewhat weakened. The theme was well integrated, and I enjoyed how the more powerful actions had the drawback of forcing the players to draw madness cards, which produce side effects that can potentially unravel the teams plan.

Ender02  Aug 2017
Waverly, New York · United States
I’m not usually one for social games, but I got a chance to play an early version of this game at the Affliction release party on July 6,2017. The game was reminiscent of The Resistance, or similar games, but with a lot more options and more going on. It is still in development, so there were a couple things that crept up, but nothing that kept the game from being enjoyable even in its prototype state. You’re basically either an investigator, trying to cast a spell to seal four gates before the clock strikes midnight or you play as a cultist, secretly trying to do whatever you can to hinder those spells, while trying to remain inconspicuous. The game mechanics are fairly well laid out and pretty easy to pick up on, yet challenging enough that it does take some time to come up with good strategies. You never know who to believe and who to distrust as information is shared among players about what is going on with the spell during the course of the turns.
We played two games that night. In the first I was a cultist and we quickly won the game by spreading doubt among the investigators, causing them to waste time accusing each other of being cultists. That game ended with only one gate being sealed at the end of the time. For our second game, I was an investigator and we just managed to squeeze out a win by sealing all four gates in the final hour of the game. We would have had a little more time, but some last minute doubts were cast and accusations started flying which wasted much needed time.

FAQ

Clarification of Necronomicon rules:
If the Investigators are desperate, they may attempt to use the Necronomicon. Before a player takes their turn, they may ask the group if they wish to consult the Necronomicon (this is NOT an action). A majority of players (not counting discovered Cultists) must agree to consult the book. At that point, a player must volunteer to be the one to open it. After opening, that player will draw 3 Insanity cards. Flip the book cover card off the Necronomicon deck. Read the directions and place the card face-up next to the Necronomicon deck.

When the Necronomicon is active, it has five effects.
– Immediately put 1 hour back onto the clock.
– All players fill their hand back to 3 cards (do not discard any cards).
– If a cultist is discovered while the Necronomicon is active, the Investigators will regain one hour on the clock.
– The rules for Triggering an incantation will be altered.
– If the Incantation fails, the game immediately ends with the Investigators losing.

If Successful, the Necronomicon is “closed” (replace the book cover). If the group wishes to leave it closed, they may. If the players want to re-open it, they must go through the voting process, find a volunteer, and lose sanity.

The Insanity card that requires a player to accuse if possible when they are out of cards requires both actions. Draw three cards AND accuse. If their other insanities make it impossible to accuse another player they do not have to.

Rules

Gate of Rlyeh Rules ver 1.1

Click on the image to the left to view, print or download the rulebook.

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