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Cthulhu Who?

Introduction

This page gives you all the rules you require to play the board game "Cthulhu Who?"

The game is played on a grid 8 by 8 ( yes thats right, a standard chess board ), and depicts a struggle between a small band of heros and some Evil monsters and thier nasty cult followers. The game has been inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos he wrote about.

In case you dont know, you pronounce Cthulhu as "ka - thoo - loo".

"I had only just sat down to the dinner table when our host leapt from her seat and rushed to the patio windows with a gasp. The others like myself immediately sped to her side full of concern. Her face was white and she shook with fear as she bit down onto the knuckle of her left hand.

"I followed her quivering gaze through the glass and saw the cause of her fear. In a mind reeling wave I came to understand that the rumours she spoke of were founded in a horrifying truth.

"Beyond the fountain, across the lawn men came forwards towards the house brandishing knives. While behind was a thing... a hideous, monsterous... indescribable thing, taller than the trees in the orchard. Its single gleaming eye burrowed into my soul and I shunk under its power.

"It was Charlie Qualland that had the gumption to lead our desperate fight, grabbing an antique Pike from its hanging on the wall, he threw open the windows and issued a challenge. Not realising my true peril I grabbed a carving knife from the table and followed the gallant Charlie down to the lawn..."

Playing Equipment

The Board

The game can be played on a simple chess board or if you wish to have a larger playing area you can place two chess boards side by side.

The board represents the garden of a house in which unspeakable deeds have taken place, the result of which have summoned into being a number of monsters (super natural beings).

Terrain

Not all of the squares on the board are empty. As this represents a garden you should place various obstacles into some of the squares. An obstacle can be a tree, bush, pond, statue, wall, etc. You can use either a card token or possibly any wargames terrain that is suitable. At a push you might be able to raid the childrens Lego set.

You should place at least one peice of terrain on each row of each board.

The outside of the board represents a good solid wall of brick and mortar. If you have joined two boards together then the wall extends along this join except for the two inner most squares. Its only at these two squares that movement between boards may be made.

Heros

Heros are the playing pieces you will control. There are many wargame manufacturers that produce civilians that would be suitable to represent heros. Again if your pushed there is always the Lego!

Weapons

Your Heros will use any weapons they can get thier hands on and you will need tomake up some counters to represent these. A list of the possible weapons appears below.

Cultists

A number of Evil Cult members will have to be represented on the board and you could source them from the same location as Heros (try and get really manic looking figures if you can).

Monsters

Monsters come in differn't sizes so you'll need a variety of models to represent them. They come in three sizes, those that cover 1, 2 or 4 squares. You might find some nice models from wargamer model manufacturers for the smaller monsters, but have difficulty finding bigger monsters. For these I reccomend raiding the kids "Monsters in My Pocket" collection.

As with terrain if you feel a bit arty you can always knock up some coloured counters to represent these pieces

Dice

You will require one standard six sided die for play with these rules.

Set Up

How Many of What

To start a game work your way through the following tables to determine how many of each counters/figures will be used in the game. Roll the die and consult the following table. Remember your Die Roll, this is your starting Danger Score.

Monster Size
Die Roll	Size

1	Dog (1 square)
2	Horse (1 square)
3	Bear (2 squares)
4	Elephant (2 squares)
5	House (4 squares)
6	Super (4 squares)

Next you need to determin the number of monsters that will appear. Cross reference the monster size with another die roll on the following table. Add the number you roll ( not the number from the table ) to the Danger Score.

Number of Monsters
	Size :	1	2	3	4	5	6

Die :	1	3	3	2	1	1	1
	2	4	3	2	1	1	1
	3	5	4	3	1	1	1
	4	6	4	3	2	1	1
	5	7	5	4	2	1	1
	6	8	6	4	2	2	1

Now you have to determin how many of the devilish cult followers will be attacking your heros. Cross reference the monster size against another die roll on the following table. Add the number you roll ( not the number from the table ) to the Danger Score.

Number of Cultists
	Size :	1	2	3	4	5	6

Die :	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
	2	1	1	1	1	2	2
	3	1	1	1	2	2	3
	4	1	1	2	2	3	4
	5	1	2	2	3	4	5
	6	2	2	3	4	5	6

Only two more steps to go. Now we determine how many heros you will have to battle the riseing tide of Evil. Cross reference the Danger Score with another Die Roll on the following table.

Number of Heros
	Danger Score :	3-5	6-8	9-11	12-14	15-17	18

Die :	1	1	1	1	1	2	3
	2	1	1	1	2	3	4
	3	1	1	2	2	3	4
	4	1	1	2	3	4	5
	5	1	2	3	4	5	6
	6	2	2	3	4	5	7

Now we know how many gallant heros there are, we have to see what weapons they've managed to grab on thier way from the Dining Room to the Garden. For each hero roll 1 die and check on the following table. I recommend you make up some counters for the weapons and then place the counter under the model for the hero.

Heros Weapons
	Roll	Weapon

Die:	1	Cutlery
	2	Poker
	3	Antique Pike
	4	Pistol
	5-6	Shotgun

Placing the Figures/Counters

Players set thier pieces up at either end of the board, this represents the Heros emerging from the Dining Room of the mansion, and the Tide of Evil leaving its shrine at the end of the garden.

Players take alternate turns each placing one figure on the board. These must be placed on the end row of spaces and may only progress to the second row if there is no room left on the first. Once all figures are on the board, your ready to start.

Playing Rules

Turns

Players take alternate turns. To Determin who goes first both players roll a die with the highest scorer starting.

Turn Sequence

You start your turn by rolling a Die. The result is the number of action points you have for your turn. An Action point can be used to do one of the following things.

Move a Hero 2 spaces
Move a Cultist 1 space
Move a 4-square or 2-square Monster 1 space
Move a 1 square monster 2 spaces
Attack with a Hero, Cultist or 1-square Monster

Expending 2 Action points allows you to do 1 of the following things.

Attack with a 2-square monster

Any one figure may only be moved once and attacked with once in a turn. Any unused Action Points at the end of the turn are lost. Figures ( with the exception of 4-square monsters ) may not occupy the space held by another figure.

Attacking

Attacks come in differnt forms.

A 4-square monster cannot attack in the conventional sense. It simply has to move into a square containing another figure. In this way it crushes its enemies, no die roll is required. Unfortunately for the Evil player it will also crush Cultists that get in its way.

Heros armed with Pistol or Shotgun, or 2-square monsters may attack any enemy that is 2 or less squares away. This ranged attack may only take place if there are no intervening figures or terrain.

All other attacks must take place into an adjacent space

Cross reference the Attacker against the Attacked on the table below. Then roll 2 dice, if you get the indicated numbers then the Target has been killed and should be removed from play.

Attack Scores
	Attacked
Attacker	Hero	Cultist	1-square Monster	2-square Monster	4-square Monster

Hero/Cutlery	-	7-12	10-12	11-12	12
Hero/Poker	-	6-12	10-12	11-12	12
Hero/Pike	-	6-12	9-12	10-12	11-12
Hero/Pistol	-	6-12	9-12	9-12	10-12
Hero/Shotgun	-	6-12	8-12	8-12	9-12
Cultist	11-12	-	-	-	-
1-Square Monster	10-12	-	-	-	-
2-Square Monster	8-12	-	-	-	-

Special Rules

If all monsters on the board have been killed the Cultists will make no more attacks and will try to leave as quickly as possible by the board edge that they entered. Once they have all left or been killed the game ends.

When a 4-square monster is killed it collapses or explodes, this effect is represented by a "Cultist" type attack on all figures in the spaces immediately next to the monster being killed.

End of Game

The game ends when all of the Monsters and thier Cultists are dead or have left the board, meaning a victory for Good. Alternativly if all of the Heros have been killed, this is a victory for Evil, and the world is doomed.

Be warned this game usually ends up in an unfair fight, but then Cthulhu aint fair, is he!

Counters

Here are some graphics to get you started on making the counters for this game. I'll add more as they become available.

	Ancient Pike
	Cutlery
	Poker