What is Evil High Priest?
Evil High Priest is a competitive cult-management board game for 2 to 5 players, published by Petersen Games and set in the Cthulhu Mythos. Players lead rival cults, managing resources and performing rituals in a race to summon the same Elder God before everyone else does. Plays in roughly 45 minutes. Rated for ages 14 and up. Currently priced at $59.99.
If you know Petersen Games from Cthulhu Wars, this one sits in a different part of the catalog. No map conquest, no area control across a premium game board. Evil High Priest is tighter: a focused, darkly funny strategy game built around resource management and player sabotage, with a theme that leans fully into the absurdity of running a Lovecraftian death cult.
How does Evil High Priest play?
You're the leader of a cult. Every player runs a rival cult, and all of them race to summon the same Elder God, competing to be the one who completes the summoning first. The game includes five unique Elder God boards, each with its own powers, so the entity you play toward changes from game to game. Your job is to gather the right resources, perform the right rituals, and get there before your rivals do, while actively disrupting what they're building.
The core loop is resource management and ritual sequencing. You're collecting what you need to advance your summoning progress, and you're watching what opponents have at the same time. Sabotage is a real part of the strategy, woven into the design rather than tacked on. Ritual cards give you tools to wreck other players' plans, and the race element makes every turn feel like it counts. The rulebook is reportedly fun to read, which is a deliberate design choice from Petersen Games: they wanted the dark humor embedded in the actual rules experience, in the cards and writing throughout.
Components in the box: a game board showing cult sites around the world, 5 unique Elder God boards each with their own power set, wooden cultist meeples, resource tokens, and ritual cards. The cult-site world map and individual faction boards do a lot of work to sell the theme and keep the table readable at a glance.
What's the theme, and where does Evil High Priest fit in the Lovecraftian universe?
Right in the middle of it. The Cthulhu Mythos (H.P. Lovecraft's fictional cosmology of ancient, indifferent gods) is the same universe that powers Cthulhu Wars, Petersen Games' flagship title. Evil High Priest draws from that same source. The Elder Gods you're racing to summon are vast, alien entities from that tradition, genuinely hostile to human sanity and reason.
The tone is deliberately different from Cthulhu Wars. Where Cthulhu Wars is a premium strategic epic played out over hours with large miniatures and deep faction asymmetry, Evil High Priest leans into dark comedy. The premise (competing cults trying to outmaneuver each other to bring about cosmic apocalypse first) plays it seriously enough to give the strategy real weight, while acknowledging how absurd the whole thing is. That combination is genuinely rare. Most games in the cosmic-horror space commit to grim atmosphere or to parody. This one finds a middle ground that works for groups who want real decisions alongside genuine laughs.
For context on how Lovecraftian themes show up in board games more broadly, Polygon's rundown of Lovecraft board games covers why this corner of the hobby keeps generating new designs. The source material has been driving tabletop creativity since Arkham Horror first appeared in the 1980s.
Who is Evil High Priest for?
Someone who already understands how competitive board games work. You don't need to be a Lovecraft scholar; the theme is evocative without requiring any lore homework. You do need to be comfortable with resource management, reading other players' positions, and making disruption decisions. This isn't a gateway game. It's a mid-weight competitive title with real strategic depth and a 45-minute play time that doesn't waste any of it.
Three groups tend to get the most out of it. First: existing Petersen Games fans who want something shorter and funnier than Cthulhu Wars for the same table. Second: players who enjoy worker-placement and resource-management games and want to try a Lovecraftian spin with genuine dark-comedy writing baked in. Third: groups who want a competitive game that plays in under an hour and still gives everyone a real decision on every turn, an actual strategy game at a shorter runtime rather than a party game with thin mechanics.
Two players works fine. The sabotage mechanics are just as sharp head-to-head as at a full table of five, though the dynamic shifts. At two, every move is directly visible to your opponent. At five, you're tracking four other cults and the table gets unpredictable fast.
BoardGameGeek covers the game within their Cthulhu-themed category as a lighter entry alongside heavier cosmic-horror titles. Check their Cthulhu Mythos category for a sense of how it fits into the broader space. Dicebreaker has also written about the Lovecraftian board game genre and how designers keep finding new mechanical angles on the same source material. Their feature on the best Lovecraft board games is worth reading if you're building out this corner of your collection.
How does it compare to Cthulhu Wars?
Different game entirely. Cthulhu Wars is one of the largest, most ambitious tabletop games in print: premium miniatures, a sprawling map, deep faction asymmetry, sessions that can run two to three hours. It's a collector centerpiece. Evil High Priest shares the same fictional universe and the same design philosophy (give every player a real choice every turn), and it's built for a completely different occasion.
Think of Cthulhu Wars as the main event. Evil High Priest is the game you pull out when you want Lovecraftian competition at the table in 45 minutes flat. The resource-management core and the Elder God theme keep it in the family. The runtime, box footprint, and price point ($59.99 versus $249.00 for Cthulhu Wars O4 Edition) put it in a different slot entirely.
If you're deciding where to start: come to Evil High Priest for a faster, funnier entry into the Petersen Games catalog. Come to Cthulhu Wars when you want the full centerpiece experience. A lot of collectors own both for exactly that reason.
Where to get Evil High Priest
Available directly through the Petersen Games store. In-stock orders process within 48 hours (Monday through Friday). US shipping is via USPS Ground Advantage, typically 2 to 5 business days after processing. Rates calculate at checkout; check the store for any current promotions before ordering.
Pick up Evil High Priest at the Petersen Games store for $59.99. Same Lovecraftian universe as Cthulhu Wars. Shorter night, same competitive instincts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many players does Evil High Priest support?
The game plays 2 to 5 players. The sabotage mechanics work at every count, though the table dynamic shifts considerably from a tight head-to-head at two to a chaotic multi-faction race at five.
How long does Evil High Priest take to play?
About 45 minutes. The race structure keeps the game moving; there's no runaway downtime because every player's progress directly affects what everyone else can do. You're unlikely to stretch much past the stated time once your group knows the rules.
What age is Evil High Priest rated for?
Ages 14 and up. The resource management and ritual sequencing requires some strategic thinking, and the Lovecraftian dark-comedy theme is aimed at teenagers and adults rather than younger kids.
Is Evil High Priest connected to Cthulhu Wars?
Thematically yes. Both games are set in the Cthulhu Mythos and published by Petersen Games. Mechanically they're very different. Cthulhu Wars is a large-scale area-control game with premium miniatures. Evil High Priest is a focused resource-management race that plays in 45 minutes. You don't need to own Cthulhu Wars to play Evil High Priest, and no rules carry over between them.
What do you actually do in Evil High Priest?
You lead a cult. Every player is a rival cult racing to summon the same Elder God (chosen from five unique Elder God boards for that game). You gather resources, execute rituals, and race to complete the requirements to summon that Elder God before your rivals do, using ritual cards to disrupt what they're building along the way. First cult to finish the summoning wins.
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