Adventure Calendar 2026: Cthulhu Review

Overview 

The Adventure Calendar 2026: Cthulhu Is a Cthulhu adventure in calendar form that you play every day of the year. 

The game is based in the city of Arkham, where you play John Miller, a private detective with a keen eye and sharp mind. As the adventure progresses, John will find himself confronted with unspeakable horrors and adventures throughout the year. 

What makes the Adventure Calendar 2026: Cthulhu Interesting is that it is a game that you can play every day in 5 minutes, all the while having a simple setup to play. Because the game is in calendar form, this means that it can easily sit on your desk at home, at work in the office and will serve multiple uses which aren’t just the game. 

The quality of the images on the calendar are well done, very defined and very clear with attractive pictures to look at. In essence it’s more than just a game; the calendar gives you a good decoration as well for your desk all the while allowing you to play a cheeky game every day.  

Because of the nature of the calendar, it folds really nicely and compactly. This allows for easy transportation as it is smaller than an A4 page and folds fairly flat. 

I have used the game at home, but I have also taken it into work which makes for a great conversation piece.  

In Play/ Is it exciting? 

In play the Adventure Calendar 2026: Cthulhu Is great fun and also intriguing as each day you find new things within the game.  

The rules are very simple and easy to get the hang of very quickly. Each day you move your hero John Miller forward on the calendar to the next day. This is how you progress in the game. How you track your progress on the calendar is with the use of the John Miller magnet. The magnets are really strong and hold in place great when you are moving it across the calendar. The use of the magnet to track game progression is a really great idea from my perspective. It allows for quick and easy tracking of each day all the while looking really cool on your calendar. There are a total of 3 Symbols used on the calendar to display the type of encounter for the day. Each day only has one symbol on it, so it is not complicated or too crowded on each day. This also allows the game to be quickly played. Each day I have spent a maximum of 5 minutes playing the game which I find good as there are some games that can take hours for setup and gameplay whereas this one is quick and snappy. 

The different encounter type symbols all the following: a Pistol, a Magnifying Glass or a Flashlight. 

The Pistol is for a physical confrontation, the Magnifying Glass is for a detailed investigation in the field, and the flashlight is for tailing or for searching in the dark and dangerous places of Arkham.

Each encounter is decided by the use of a maximum of three dice rolls. This is done with the included five dice. Three of the dice are black which are the number dice and 2 of the dice are green, which are the symbol dice. After each roll you can decide to keep those dice can progress or you can re roll them if you are not happy with the result. There is a maximum of 3 dice rolls per day though, so use them wisely. 

These encounters are done Monday through Saturday, with Sunday being the climatic encounter. What makes the encounters interesting is that if your dice rolls do not match up the day that you are currently on you can do an encounter later or earlier in the week if you failed it. This allows for poor dice rolls which helps maintain the fun of the game but also helps with the Sunday encounters. 

Sunday encounters have high values that are required to be rolled on the dice, but you don’t actually have enough dice to hit those numbers. This is where the encounters from Monday to Saturday Become relevant and have an impact on your ability to complete the Sunday encounter. With each encounter completed in the week, the Sunday encounters value is reduced by 1. 

At the end of each month, you tally up the Sunday encounters that you have completed with each one of these encounters being worth 5 adventure points. 

Once the month has been finished, you turn over the page which greets you with a new chapter of your adventure in Arkham. There is a short story narration to be read Alongside a new rule set added to the game. This makes each month progressively harder but also fun and engaging while keeping the interest in the adventure going.  

What’s In The Box? 

In the box There is the following: 

The calendar 

1 John Miller investigator magnet  

One rule sheet  

Five 6-sided dice  

Complexity Rating 

I would say that the complexity of the game is simple at the beginning but as the months go on and new rules are added, the complexity does increase slightly. For me this was a great surprise and change as I had worried when playing the first month that the game could become stale as you went through each month. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the rule changes, with some of them really throwing my strategies off and causing me to lose some encounters. I feel that the use of the rules is very well done, while keeping the Cthulhu vibes of the game strong. 

Artwork 

Hands down the artwork is Amazing! 

The artwork captures the Cthulhu theme so well with the defined picture designs and use of colour throughout the game. Some of the monsters do look really evil and interesting but gave me a bit of nervousness at the beginning of each week as some of them are very tough. 

The print quality is perfect and feels very expensive considering the price of the game. The materials used are of a high quality which did surprise me considering the Adventure Calendar 2026: Cthulhu is a very reasonably priced game considering how much gameplay there is. 

I will be completely honest that I cannot pick a favourite part of the game. From day one I have loved and adored this game, and I feel it wouldn’t be fair to pick a favourite part.  

My Final Thoughts 

If you are wanting a game that is quick and easy to play with very little setup while having practical uses in your day-to-day life, I would highly recommend that you try Adventure Calendar 2026: Cthulhu and enjoy all that it has to offer. 

The story is very engaging and I’m looking forward to December to finally finishing the adventure. 

Because I haven’t done great throughout the adventure so far, I will be restarting it next year to try and get better than I had this year. The days would be off slightly, but it would still be a really good game to play again, and I know I will enjoy it for many years to come. 

Score: 90/100 

Artwork 5/5 

Complexity 2/5 

Replayability 3/5