Achtung! Cthulhu – Conclusion “A Quick Trip to France”

After the playtest of the new 2d20 version of Achtung! Cthulhu was quiet about the project for a while. Now, in addition to the pre-order campaign, there is also a quick starter to get to know the second edition of Achtung! Cthulhu (A!C). Modiphius’ in-house system was again tailored to the setting. In order not to spoil the fun for anyone, I did not write a session report and instead wrote a conclusion.

---

Gamemaster:

KyoshiroKami

Players:

• Crash as Sven Nielson, Norwegian resistance fighter
• Salvir as Dan Gregg, American mechanic
• Samweis as Samuel Walker, Australian commando soldier

Participants in the playtest already know the adventure “A Quick Trip to France” and I’ve played it before. Accordingly, I didn’t have that much to prepare. This time there were also ready-made characters, all of which are very different. Here I have to positively emphasize that there are two characters who are able to work magic. Therefore, you can also experience the magic in A!C using the quick starter. The characters were quickly distributed and we started the adventure straight away.

I explained the new system rather shortly and did most of the explanations when we needed them. All my players had memorized the rules for tests quickly and had only a few questions during the session. Some of my players had a lot of luck with the dice and the group always had a good supply of momentum, the meta-resource for players, and they used it diligently. For the most part momentum was spent to buy additional dice for tests and damage dice.

The characters’ truths also came into play very often. These short sentences define the characters. You can compare this with aspects from FATE. Places can also have such truths and influence tests. It also helped define and get to know the characters better.

We fought very little because the group was very careful and acted in secret. However, the main fight was a lot of fun. Our skirmish was relatively short and very action-packed; I think the comparison with Indiana Jones films is quite appropriate. The character Sven is able to use magic and has done it diligently. We had a Mythos creature in the fight, but the spells helped to take it down. The use of firearms was also fun and the qualities of the weapons often came into play.

For me as the gm, “A Quick Trip to France” is the best quick start adventure of a 2d20 system so far. It has a good structure and, even if it is relatively linear, offers different approaches and provides a lot of information for them. I would have liked one or two additional maps for fights, but we could also work very well without it. The combat system works well in the theater-of-mind principle for smaller fights, but it might get a little confusing in larger battles. At least a sketch would then be appropriate.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 offers a significantly different feel than the Call of Cthulhu variant of A!C. We had fun playing the Savage Worlds version back then, but the new version is definitely my favourite. I put A!C 2d20 in the pulp category and, as mentioned above, it can be compared to Indiana Jones. The players found their characters to be competent and powerful, but they are not supermen. The use of magic is very exciting and I really like the effects of Mythos monsters. We had a lot of fun and I was asked directly about a sequel, which I will then offer with the complete rules.