Achtung! Cthulhu GM’s Guide is the ultimate WWII+Lovecraft sourcebook 💀🌞🌚 RPG Review

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Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Gamemaster’s Guide is a book published by Modiphius in 2021, and covers setting, spells, items, NPCs and monsters. This is the 2d20 version of a game that has also been published using the Call of Cthulhu rules, as well as Savage Worlds and Fate. The game’s other half comes in the form of a Player’s Guide.
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0:00 Intro!
00:14 The Printed Book (Exarch Edition)
01:08 Factions
05:54 Secret Weapons of the Secret War
09:11 Magic and the Mythos
11:49 Gamemaster Section
12:56 Heroes and Villains of the Secret War
14:14 Bestiary
18:17 Conclusion
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Get Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 in print and PDF, and dice and other stuff from Modiphius!
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Thanks to Modiphius for providing the review material for this video. They had no editorial say on my content. All opinions are my own.
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[@richardextall2002]

"a dark version of Sponge Bob Square Pants" - Lol 😂

[@savethefunk]

I GM'd the (excellent) Quick Start that you can download from their website. The adventure included in there is really good to learn the ropes, and fun to run. It was my first 2D20 game. I really like the system, but I found it quite tricky to run smoothly - especially having to constantly think about which combination of attributes an skill to combine, plus the dice interpretation when you don't have the special dice. It just slowed things down quite a bit. I think there is quite a learning curve here, but if you stick with my money is that this would be a very, very rewarding game.

[@alexgreychuck7605]

Worth it to hear Dave's German pronunciation.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Apologies!

[@TabletopTiger]

Happy Valentine's to myself; because of you, I'm buying both books. Thanks for always showing me cool new TTRPGs. I also got Twilight 2000 in print because of your video. Achtung! sounds really cool and I can picture some players of mine getting into this.

[@MagicGreenSquid]

In answer to your question about dogs... Back when 2E "D&D" was the system of choice, there was a period where a lot of our low-level PCs would have trained war dogs, so we were very familiar with the relevant stat block. (From memory, you needed Animal Handling and Animal Training to make 'em work.) Anyway, we rocked up to a convention game once where you got to bring your own characters. The DM must have looked over our sheets and thought, "Nah, those dogs are too much of an advantage." I distinctly recall the module started with some kind of tricky climb which forced us to leave the good boys behind. I bet it was something the DM hastily tacked onto the adventure as written. I can respect that, though. Nowadays, I hate running groups where everyone has a pet - the player combat turns take forever! :-)

[@dangarthemighty0980]

Great video. Thanks for the review. I am absolutely loving my copy of the exarch edition.

[@keithmathews4605]

The Spongebob Squarepants reference/comparison was AWESOME-SAUCE!!!!

[@chasebacetich6809]

I appreciate the detail of the review. I love the idea of this game. Sadly I have way too many KS games on the way. I have used the dog (wolf) stat block in 5e. But that's because the adventurers had to protect Lassie to find their owner who's cart was stuck in monster occupied woods.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Well there we have it, though. The dog stat does get used!

[@nicklarocco4178]

Personally I love that every monster had lots of special abilities and attacks. 5e's ubiquitous "multiattack" really waters down about 90% of the monsters in that game to a sack of hit point with 2 attacks. Having cool rules and special attacks is what makes monsters interesting both to run as the gm, and fight as the players.

[@MollyGermek]

Feel like, of any game, Achtung! Cthulhu seems like it would have the most use for a dog stat block given how many military installations you're likely to be sneaking into.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Good point!

[@walterw9829]

I'm running an A!C game and you are right about the villain stat blocks. For Operation Marseille, the Wendigo has a lot of special abilities which is great, but it's hard to parse which ones apply when. Some are at the beginning and are different for both GM and the Players. I had to make extra notes. What would help is to have those separated by function vs. how it currently is. Wendigo OP stats vs. rolls that need to be made b/c of a special power. It's been a great game regardless. Using Notion to organize the notes.

[@Miskatonic1927]

Good detailed review as always! 😊 I purchased the Call of Cthulhu versions of the Keeper's and Player's guide many years ago along with several of their adventures and campaign books over the years - including a few of the newer ones in the 2d20 system. Just watched your Achtung Cthulhu reviews to get a good recap of the info sunk into my Mi-Go Brain Cylinder. I am finally running a Call of Cthulhu 7e homebrew mashup of Beyond the Mountains of Madness, Achtung Cthulhu, and my own ideas with inspiration from 1982's The Thing. Instead of 1933/1934 this will be set right before the outbreak of World War 2. After years of on and off reading of the main Achtung Cthulhu books and Shadows of Atlantis and Assault at the Mountains of Madness finally will experience the Achtung universe! 😅

[@Humphreysfox]

Love your channel. Keep up the great content!

[@wylde_hunter]

On dogs. I play a Rat Catcher PC in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. My dog tracks, guards and really helps in combat. There is a place for them in RPG, both as allies and as adversaries.

[@DaveThaumavore]

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[@N0-1_H3r3]

The Dog is included in the Player's Guide purely because of the talent which allows a player character to have a dog companion... which, in my experience, has been quite popular. As for the Elder Gods and their stats... they can be defeated, temporarily, but death isn't necessarily part of that fate. Rather, the rules mean that there's a slim possibility (with luck and the right kind of firepower) to fend off such an entity long enough to banish it with a grand and perilous ritual.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Ah nice catch re the dog companion. I missed that on my reading.

[@kalleendo7577]

Awesome!

[@WookieeRage]

Our group is playing this now. I some how find this more approachable than the standard Cthulhu settings, which could be because of the many references of WWII I've been exposed to over the years. Because of the use of the Cthulhu head icon in the text I find some of the rules difficult to understand, with the symbol seeming to represent a D6 in most cases but an Effect in others. This will hopefully lessen with familiarity but still makes the game harder to learn. I am familiar with the use of zones from the Star Wars FFG RPG but feel immersive use of them requires a bit of nuance (e.g. an opponent going from Long to Extreme shouldn't equal the same effort as going from Close to Medium). I am getting used to the 2d20 system after playing Star Trek at a convention and enjoy its pace for action based games. Which is probably why I find this version of Cthulhu more approachable. Achtung Cthulhu feels more fantastical than horror, but allows for horror to be presented in whatever level the group finds comfortable. The action is like Indiana Jones, while the technology reminds me of movies like Hellboy and Capain America. I'm looking forward to many sessions and long campaign or three from this game. It feels like a balanced of serious and lighthearted moods with a large range of possibilities. Oh and I have used dogs before, starting a campaign with two of the players stuck up a tree surrounded by a small pack of dogs. I know they've been in other games I've played but that one stands out.

[@DaveThaumavore]

I have since encountered so many dog statblocks since making this video that I don't even mention them anymore. It's extremely common!

[@Morta1337y]

Would love to see a review of the Homeworld 2d20 game :D

[@anaximander66]

Does the GM guide not cover how much to craft a scenario originally adventure? How would I flavor the world?

[@matthewmcfadden6332]

Dave, please stop releasing videos when I have work to do.

[@DrWickermoon]

A bit late to the party, but...have you also noticed a lot of spelling mistakes and one of the tables in the GM's guide to have a stand-in title? I'm actually not sure whether I might've bought a pre-view copy of the Gamemaster's guide and I find the number of spelling or grammatical mistakes to be a bit egregious.

[@DaveThaumavore]

I didn’t notice any errors in mine. But I mostly used the PDF to actually read the material, so maybe that was up to date.

[@DrWickermoon]

@@DaveThaumavore Good to know. I guess I did buy a pre-view copy, then. :)

[@NefariousKoel]

A Dog stat block may be occasionally useful, regarding pets or trained attack dogs. What I'm often baffled about is when RPGs include other animals like cats, various birds, and other such normal animals which don't really need stat blocks. Waste of book space.

[@samchafin4623]

Seems like maybe the writers of this game had more fun making it than anyone will have playing it.

[@needmorecowbell6895]

A little too high fantasy for me. I think I'll stick with Delta Green.

[@solaries3]

Sorry, this isn't an RPG review - it's a book review. I'd like to see a discussion of how the game actually plays - the rules, the flow, etc. That's what matters.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Apology accepted.

[@jamessral-subclassact]

@@DaveThaumavore I read this in the Darth Vader voice 🤣