The concept is rather like the classic world-conquest game "Risk," except each player controls one color-coded faction of cultists runescape gold and monsters. As they move across a world map, the cultists build dimensional gates, which can be used by players to summon monsters or their faction's Great Old One: Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Hastur, or Cthulhu itself. The critters are represented by big, solid, detailed plastic figures, and it's quite satisfying to grab your Great Old One and plop it down in the North Atlantic Ocean, ready to wreak havoc.

It takes a little while to absorb the rules, which lean a bit too much on jargon, but once you get the hang of it "Cthulhu Wars" is a rewarding, repeatable experience. (It better be at that price, right?) Each factions has its own monsters, from Flying Polyps to Fungi from Yuggoth to The King in Yellow, as well as its own spell books, so each player has vastly different abilities and strategies. It's a good idea to read the detailed hints in the rulebook about how to play (and how to defeat) each faction before getting started.

The game's limitations include the fact that it's only for two to four players, and gameplay is best with all four factions involved. The packaging lists the expected playing time as 90-120 minutes, but unless you're a gaming savant, you're looking at maybe twice that. In other words, this isn't casual, spur-of-the-moment recreation, but an evening-long activity you'll need to lay in snacking supplies for. And despite all the cool plastic figures, this isn't a game for young kids.

Things could get even more complex with the release of several planned expansion sets, www.rsfarmer.com including new factions and the ability to play with up to eight players. However, earlier this month, it was announced that Petersen had rejoined Chaosium Games, which originally released "Call of Cthulhu." It remains to be seen if that will impact the expansions' release.