Product– High School Cthulhu Demo

System- High School Cthulhu

Producer– Gear Games

Price– FREE here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/gear-games/high-school-cthulhu-roleplaying-game

TL; DR– 90s teen Cthulhu.  99% 

Basics– Homework and the end of days?  Bummer…. High School Cthulhu is about that turbulent time in any young man’s life where the elder gods are trying to end life as we know it and you have to figure out the school dance.  High School Cthulhu is a teen drama RPG set in the 90s where all of Lovercraft is happening just below the surface.  Let’s go Innsmith tentacles!  Here is the breakdown.

Base Mechanics and stats-  Every character has base attributes that can’t go below 1 and base skills for each stat that can’t go below one.  Each time you want to do anything, the GM will tell you the skill and attribute to roll.  You take that many d6s and roll them.  You are not aiming for any particular number, just a group of one number.  The number of same results you get determines the level of your success.  More successes is better than less.

Rerolls-You can choose to take any number of unsuccessful dice and reroll them.  If you do, you MUST roll one more of the number you saved.  If you do, great!  Take the new result or reroll again.  If you fail to get another number like the ones you saved, then you fail!

Grit-Grit is your hit points.  You gain and lose these as things happen.  They are not the same as your DnD hit points, but they serve the same function.  Lose too many and bad things happen, like getting knocked out.

Miracles and Guts-  If you succeed at anything really well you gain Guts.  Guts give you special bonuses to rolls or help a bit in a situation.  Miracles are like guts but WAY bigger.  You’re still a teen and mortal.  You can absolutely get wrecked by some monster or a crazy person with a shovel. Miracles are your dad stepping in punching the guy or talking the cops out of arresting you for breaking into the school.

Madness–  Wouldn’t be Cthulhu without madness.  Each character has a spiral of madness.  As you see things and fail rolls you gain madness.  Along the spiral you hit bad points and you get a bit crazy.  These are not realistic mental illnesses, but it does give the Lovecraft flavor we know and love.  Lose too much and you lose yourself.

Drama- And it wouldn’t be teen-centered storytelling without drama!  As you fight other characters and fail rolls, you gain drama.  Too much drama and everyone has to have a montage where you all separate and have a sad moment to reconcile, but friendships are hurt and bonds broken.  Standard teen stuff.

Allright, let’s review the game

Mechanics or Crunch–   This is an interesting take on a d6 system.  You roll a bunch of dice and see what happens.  You don’t need specific dice results, so it’s different.  I do love rolling 40 dice in Shadowrun, but while this is different it is fun still.  SImple and clean make a good system. 5/5

Theme or Fluff–  I WAS a teen in the 90s!  I remember most of the movie and show references this game parodies, and I love it.  It might not be for the younger kids, but if you remember “I know what you did last summer” and read “The shadow over Innsmouth” in the 90s, then this is the game for you.  So many references in this book!   I like what’s here, and if you need to take aspirin for your knees in the morning, you will too.  5/5

Execution– This is a near perfect demo for the game.  You have a decent rundown of the game, fun worldbuilding, and a FULL four hour adventure with  multiple premade characters.  It reads fast and easily, but no hyperlinks!  That is the lone issue with this book’s construction.  4.95/5

Summary– This is free and hits near Halloween. Just go get this one from the backerkit.  I love what I see, and the price is right for free!  I love the game, and I hope you do as well.  Solid 90s vibes with solid Cthulhu energy.  99%