The Stars Are Right

It is no big secret that I have a fondness for everything lovecraftian, green and with tentacles. When I saw a small box with cartoon Cthulhu on it, I was kinda intrigued. The price wasn't too bad (around 20 euro) and I wanted a game with Cthulhu ever since I played Arkham Horror (about which I'll talk some other time). Checking couple of reviews on the internet, I decided to buy it and I must say that I will never regret it.

To anyone who knows the Cthulhu mythos will the phrase "The stars are right," seem familiar as it is said that the sunken city of R'lyeh and Cthulhu will arise when the stars are aligned (they "are right"). Each player takes a role of a cultist who tries to align the stars to summon creatures from beyond the space. Whoever has 10 points worth of creatures at the end of his turn, wins.



The sky is represented with 5x5 tiles with different star formations from both sides of a tile and each player can move the tiles around the grid and flip them in certain fashion during their turn. Players have up to 6 cards in their hands, which symbolize monsters they can summon if the stars are right - if there is a constellation (a spatial combination of stars) visible. If not, these cards can be used to move the stars in three different motions - they can be pushed which moves all the tiles in a row, they can be swapped which exchanges places of two adjacent tiles, or they can be flipped which flips a tile to show the star formation on its other side. Using a card for movement burns it, it must go to the discard pile, but through these movements, players can adjust the sky so that they can summon a monster from a different card in their hand.

the sky is being changed

There are different kinds of monsters - there are minions, servitors and the old ones. Minions give the player a special power like keeping one more card in their hand or the ability to swap their already summoned monster for a monster of a different player. Servitors are either lesser or greater and they serve one old one and they can be used to help with summoning him by giving the ability to omit one star formation from the desired constellation. Old ones are very powerful beings that are quite difficult to summon but they give the player the most points.

Each summoned monster (except from minions) can help the player when moving the tiles around the grid by adding moves or changing one kind of a move for another (e.g.: some monsters can make one push into two pushes, other can make one swap to one flip). The more powerful the monster is, the more difficult it is to summon it. The game nicely progresses from summoning small creatures like Tso-Tso or Formless to eventually Hastur's Spawns and Hastur or Cthulhu.

The game's graphic is cute, the rules can be somewhat confusing but everything is clear after one round. The round can last from 15 to 30 minutes, it depends how long are the players willing to spend their time thinking over combinations of movement. It is not rare to get into a state of so-called "analysis paralysis", when one player sits and stares, for minutes while the others have nothing to do. It's difficult to plan your turn beforehand as the sky changes every turn rather unpredictably.

summoned monsters

Most of the people I played The Stars Are Right wanted to play more and more. But then there were some that simply didn't see the possible constellations in the grid and that made the game less enjoyable for them. As there is a lesser factor of luck (compared to mainstream favourites like Settlers of Catan) and a great deal of combinatory thinking, I cannot recommend it to anyone. Yet those who know and like the stories around Cthulhu and his posse and like puzzles and are not afraid of some heavy thinking will probably like this game a lot. Like me :)