"Can you wargame Cthulu?" Topic

I know you can RPG or even set some sort of scenario with a little action in it, but what about a straight up wargame skirmish? I really like the world and enjoy the reading and heck I'm a wargamer, so it's a natural direction. But I've no interest in RPG or anything of the sort, is it possible with Cthulu?

I hear Strange Aeons is a set of skirmish rules for Cthulhu.

Of course it is.
You must create a sanity roll and remember that some of the mythos creatures are gods.

There are always battles against cultists and lesser outer-ones.

Yes, absolutely. Putting the really big boys (Cthulhu, other deity-level critters) doesn't work well, but there are plenty of iconic Mythos critters that can (hypothetically) be dealt with by sufficient firepower. Mi-go, serpent men, ghouls, Deep Ones, Yithians, even shoggoths (bring up the flame throwers!) or Chthonians – all viable tabletop monsters, along with some supporting cultist hordes. Morale should be a significant factor when facing the more gribbly types, and some of them (Yith, mi-go, maybe serpent men) should have scifi zappy weaponry.

There's a whole minis game coming out from the guys who do the Cthulhutech RPG later this year, but that's a near-future scifi setting, not quite so canonical.

Matakishi adapted elder horrors for Crossfire.

Basically he rated three power levels of model. Normal troops are the lowest, above them are Heroes/Monsters, and above them are Champions/Gods. Each fights its own category using normal Crossfire rules, but fights lower categories with enhanced powers. It's simple but seems effective.

Matakishi's Hellfire rules: matakishi.com/hellfire.htm

Perhaps it could be a game of who goes insane last. Or would you win if you went insane first?

There are also some fan-made NUTS! rules out there, and one guy who has done an amazing Raid on Innsmouth game:

Pictures near the bottom of this page: link

Rules here: PDF link

link

You're not thinking big enough. How about a fight between the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones? No little humans required.

While I like the Strange Aeons ruleset, and it is fun…

It's really hard to game C'thulhu, as you can NEVER get the feeling of horror, dread and helplessness that the books conveyed.

Lovecraft created the possibility for wargaming in his mythos with incidents in a number of his stories.The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Call of Cthulhu both come to mind.

It's really hard to game C'thulhu, as you can NEVER get the feeling of horror, dread and helplessness that the books conveyed.

That is quite true. I even think the 'leveling' aspect in Strange Aeons helps to diminish those feelings.

There is always the Kaiju World War option, mixing Monsterpocalypse Cthuul and Terrasaurs coverted to waterline models with A&A War At Sea.

Rules: WHERE HEROES DARE! link

Al | link

The elder gods are on the side of the bug battalions.

strange aeons for cthulhu gaming

regards

jim

You're not thinking big enough. How about a fight between the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones? No little humans required.

LOL! Many moons ago some friends and I kitbashed a Cosmic-Encounter type game set on a Pangea tile map of the Earth as opposed to the CE map. It was a fun game, wish we'd kept the bits.

I use Cthulhu in Giant Monster Rampage. Cthulhu predates Godzilla by several million years.

Cthulhu attacks! Roll as many d6s as you like. If any roll a 7, you save.

Cthulhu attacks! Roll as many d6s as you like. If any roll a 7, you save.

Could happen you know, this is CoC.

You're not thinking big enough. How about a fight between the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones? No little humans required.

Include them all and game it as a Cthulhu version of Inferno, which had the larger demon figures, mid-sized Sergeants and 25mm Minions.

Désagréablement,

StarfuryXL5

no.

It's really hard to game C'thulhu, as you can NEVER get the feeling of horror, dread and helplessness that the books conveyed.

Well, sure. That doesn't translate well to games, because people want a semblance of fairness in a game. And the world of the Cthulhu mythos is many things, but it's never, ever fair. So, if that's your criteria, then no. You won't find a game that will make you happy.

That being said, I think Strange Aeons does a great job as Cthulhu skirmish game.

>>the world of the Cthulhu mythos is many things, but it's never, ever fair. So, if that's your criteria, then no. You won't find a game that will make you happy.<<

Right. It's not possible since the point of doing a game about the mythos is to try to recreate the atmosphere which can't be done on a gaming table.

Derleth had some epic battles in his additiona to the cannon.

Spoiler – they nuke C'thulhu in 1946.

Spoiler – it doesn't work.

That's the gaming problem – they can be "pushed back" and "delayed" but beaten ?

…are you mad?

Fear and Faith has stats for eldritch beings and rules for going mad around them, but again, it will be very up to scenario design as to how much of that Lovecraft feelin' you get.

>>it will be very up to scenario design as to how much of that Lovecraft feelin' you get.<<

Can you remember that feeling of other worldly dread that you felt when you first read HPL? Do you think it's possible to feel that way again playing a game?

Can you remember that feeling of other worldly dread that you felt when you first read HPL?

Yes, I do.

Do you think it's possible to feel that way again playing a game?

No, I don't think so. I also remember that feeling of awe when I first saw Star Wars. No game of Star Wars (RPG or Miniature) ever game me that feeling again either. But I keep playing.

And, trying to capture the Lovecraft feelin' is a worthy, if unobtainable goal. Miniatures scenarios with heavy RPG elements can still make for an interesting game. This can be done, and I feel best done, using Call of Cthulhu. Games like Strange Aeons and the Goal System Chaos series are pulpier and best suited towards Hell Boy style games. Still, they give good games and, perhaps, with a clever campaign could also come close.

I'm looking forward to the Cthulhutech minis game. Hopefully, they'll make a bunch of Nazzadi for me to paint up.

I played Cthulesque scenarios in Fear and Faith. Well, the point is having fun at the reactions of the hapless humans when the big ones show up. 90% of a game can be battles against cultists and minions, which was generally the only thing the PCs were able to do in my old CoC RPG days.Trying to gun down the Old Ones makes no sense and cheapens the sense of dread, but you might do it for laughs.

And oh, I did Cthulhu versus Godzilla with Mighty Monsters :-)