Faith, Science, and Shotguns

"The police could not but realise that they had stumbled on a dark cult totally unknown to them."
     –H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Confronted by horrifying, otherworldly monsters and by the evidence of foul rituals that defy all human decency and human comprehension, as your perceptions of reality suddenly shatter and as your world expands to include vast, cold darknesses full of new terrors, will you recoil from the discoveries? Will you succumb to madness? Or will you take up your torch and your shotgun and head into the darkness with a new resolve, standing alongside those few other brave men and women who have also come to a similar understanding of the nature of human existence…

For the Greater Good is now available at your local retailer and online though our webstore!

The eighth deluxe expansion for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, For the Greater Good adds 165 new cards to the game (three copies each of fifty-five different cards), roughly two-thirds of which bolster the ranks of the Agency faction, which purportedly serves humanity's interests as its front-line defenders in the ongoing struggle for survival in the face of foul cultists, ghouls, monsters, and elder gods. Though the conspiracies run deep and it's not entirely clear whether or not everyone associated with the Agency's Government networks has humanity's best interests at heart, the faction's agents gain renewed powers to operate in all fields, as the expansion adds a host of new characters that greatly bolster the Government trait. Meanwhile, the Hunters of Ardenne battle against evil, emboldened by both faith and science.

Of course, the game's other factions don't sit idly by as the Agency extends its networks. Each of the game's seven other factions gains new characters and support cards, as well as the ability to draw upon several new neutral cards, including the Ancient One Iod (For the Greater Good, 36) and the Polar event Ice Storm (For the Greater Good, 38).

Gear Up

Whether or not it's fully justified, the Agency has long held a reputation as the "attachment faction" of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. This likely owes in part to such characters as James Logan (Whispers in the Dark, 1) and John Henry Price (Search for the Silver Key, 61), who make attachments better in decks with them than without them. However, the reputation also owes greatly to the tremendous utility that the faction gains from its attachments and to the fact that even though the Agency ranks fifth among the factions in terms of total support cards, it has more attachments than all but three: Miskatonic University, the Syndicate, and Yog-Sothoth.

Notably, those three factions have all benefitted greatly from their own faction-focused deluxe expansions, and once For the Greater Good arrives and helps the Agency fill its rank with new recruits, those recruits will also benefit from an influx of new supports, including several noteworthy attachments.

For the Greater Good provides every faction with at least one one-cost support card that attaches to a story and impacts the way that characters will need to approach it. The Agency gets two of these cards, including Under Surveillance (For the Greater Good, 23). The Agency has long excelled at Combat struggles, and Under Surveillance ensures that your Government hit squad will be able to start its investigations on the right foot, both by playing to its strength as it begins resolving the story's struggles and by providing an alternative benefit for winning Combat struggles at the story. Armed with a Lightning Gun (Secrets of Arkham, 3), a Hunter like the Relentless Stalker (For the Greater Good, 5) could potentially hold off an entire army of cultists or earn up to four success tokens against a character without Invulnerability.

As far as Invulnerability goes, Agency operatives gain some of that in the form of their new Armored Car (For the Greater Good, 25). The absolute best protection that money and science can offer in the face of devouring Ancient Ones and Ravagers from the Deep (Core Set, 46), an Armored Car grants Invulnerability to all your characters at the same story. Better yet, because you can transfer it from character to character as an action, you make sure that it ends up at the story where you need it most. Just save a resource to race it to the scene of the otherworldly invasion!

Finally, since there's no guarantee that the Ancient Ones or their cultists will reveal themselves in an urban area, the Agency's operatives need to be ready to confront their evils wherever they should arise, even if that means heading to the frozen tundra of Siberia or to the icy wastes of Antarctica. Preparation is key, and For the Greater Good gives your agents the means to travel to the coldest of climes with a Snowmobile (For the Greater Good, 21). The game's second Polar attachment, Snowmobile allows you to count the attached character's icons not only where it is committed but at each other story where you have characters committed, as well. Again, that makes it a powerful attachment to combine with the Relentless Stalker, who can choose not to uncommit from a story until it is won.

Descend into Madness

"Investigations and discoveries have left their mark upon him; so that his voice trembles when he tells them, and his hand trembles when he tries to write of them."
     –H.P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

As well as the Agency's new tools may help your operatives survive the terrors they may encounter in their defense of humanity, they won't be able to bleach the horrors from their minds. Still, in the face of absolute chaos and ultimate ruin, there's not much choice but to stand and fight.

Now is the time to celebrate those who stand at the front lines of the greatest battles never to make the news. Now is the time to honor those who have silently and secretly fought long and hard For the Greater Good. Head to your local retailer today to pick up your copy of this eighth deluxe expansion for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game!