We thank Gear Games for the physical edition of High School Cthulhu provided to us in order to write this review.

You can find it here (in Italian or English) at the price of 45 euros for the basic manual. You will also find many other accessories for sale, as well as a volume of adventures, but we will talk about these later. Keep in mind that the cost of these extras is between 10 and 20 euros each.

If you think you have a déjà vu about this title, you are not wrong. On our pages you have already been able to read a juicy preview, where we expressed our opinion as well as having exposed the simplest game dynamics.

Let’s delve deeper into the real world of terror: adolescence.

High School Cthulhu Review: Cosmic Horror and 90’s Fabulousness

You’re a student. It’s the 90s. And you live in Innsmouth, a town with a dark past… What could possibly go wrong?

This quote, taken directly from the back cover of High School Cthulhu, perfectly summarizes the setting we will be playing in. And the answer to this question should be: “everything”.

We mix, in fact, the two cosmic horrors par excellence: high schools and Lovecraftian myths. We can take inspiration from the TV series broadcast in the decade from 1990 to 2000, such as Beverly Hills 90210, Bayside School and the most recent Dawson’s Creek. Let’s shake up broken hearts, school failures and competitive spirit with cultists eager to bring monsters from other dimensions, sleeping deities and ancient books that we would have done better to keep sealed to our plane of existence. You will get a decidedly unusual cocktail, in which the opposition between the frivolous and the horrific will give us moments of absolute panic. Or absolute hilarity.

But do not let your guard down, as mortality will remain very high, doing justice to the fame of the Bard of Providence.

Game System

High School Cthulhu uses the Director’s Cut game system. Rolling a certain amount of 6-sided dice, you will have to get the highest possible number of identical faces, regardless of the specific result printed on them. You will have a reroll at your disposal, but at your own risk. If you do not improve your situation (for example, going from a pair to a three of a kind), you will also lose a success obtained. Depending on the result you obtain, you will pass a basic, critical, extreme, impossible and non-Euclidean test. You will have to decide in case of action which Ability and which Area (the so-called characteristics) you think corresponds to the situation you are in. This will determine the number of dice at your disposal, keeping in mind that they will never be less than two or more than nine.

For example, barricading a door might go under Physique (Scope) where I have 2 power, plus Muscle (Skill) where I only have 1. Adding the two values, I will find that I can roll three dice.

Don’t have enough successes to pass the test? We can still use those obtained to limit the damage, transform them into a point of Bravery (which we will need, if accumulated, to automatically pass an action) or reduce the loss of Freshness (that is, your mental and physical health).

High School Cthulhu Characters (Sacrificial Victims) Review

Compared to the quickstart we took a look at together, we expand our choice with new classes (in this game called Style) and subclasses (aka Journey).

To create our alter ego, we will also need to choose a Guardian, a Bond and a Special Type that will affect the choices during the narration by giving us bonuses or penalties on actions when they are brought into play. They are in all respects those who count most in our personal story, for better or for worse.

Taking into account our Style and our Journey, we will assign Scope points and Skill points. As we have seen, this will allow us to determine how many dice to roll in any test. Following the same principle, we will assign three Traits, or more specific skills related to the chosen path. For example, in the case of the Jock, choosing Trained will allow us to safely reroll all the tests for running, climbing and swimming.

But how do we choose the character we will lead to a tragic fate?

Many Options…

Choosing a good character to identify with is always essential in a campaign, and High School Cthulhu is no exception. Let’s see together what our possibilities are.

• Jock: You are the star of the high school football team. Admired by all and always present at parties, there is no one more popular in Innsmouth. Brought to the physical realm and all that concerns it, the paths you can choose from are Champion, Bully, or Big Brother.
• Cheerleader: beautiful and popular, but also full of insecurities. That the façade of a star hides secrets far beyond her capacity to bear? Her options are the Supreme Bitch, America’s Sweetheart or the Crush.
• Nerd: if your ability to interact with others was equal to your intelligence, you would have no problems in high school. Unfortunately, this is not the case and you often feel misunderstood, even though you can be of great help, especially in tutoring and with technology. Top of the class, Tinkerer and Know-It-All are his travel choices.
• Goth: You wander around the school like a cursed prince of darkness, preferring everything that is black. Maybe you are bored by the monotony of everyday life? Could this be the reason that pushes you to be attracted to the occult and death? You can choose between Occultist, Metalhead or Emo.

…All Themed

And, as anticipated, the customization continues:

• Self Made: life doesn’t always go as you want, but you’ve managed to start from scratch. You’re not afraid to experiment and reinvent yourself. This makes you fascinating and mysterious in the eyes of your companions. Whether you’re a Former Promise, a Worker or an Expelled, your path will be anything but boring.
• Rebel: everything that is conventional is not for you. You show signs of rebellion against society with your skateboard and your subversive ideas. This can evolve into Hooligan, Activist or Skater.
• Gangsta: you come from the ghetto and experience school as a chance for revenge or yet another slap inflicted by life. Delinquent, Genius of the Ghetto or Petty Thief will be your alternatives.
• Daddy’s Kid: life has already given you everything you could ever want. Sure, you’re not immune to the pressures of adolescence, but you’re already starting with a huge advantage. Your choice will be among Party Animal, Scion of the Underworld and Born to Win.

High School Cthulhu Review: Madness and Drama

Everything you face will test your sanity. To keep track of your disturbances, you will have the Spiral of Madness at your disposal. Each unblackened square will correspond to a die that you can roll to pass a test. Every time you come into contact with a situation or a creature that can create a crack in your psyche, you will be called upon to perform that test.

The Ancient One (aka the narrator) will tell you how difficult it is. If you overcome it with the exact number of dice, you will still blacken a space on the spiral. But if you get a higher success, everything will slide off you like fresh water and you will have no consequences. If you fail… Try not to fail… at least not too often, that is. Fortunately, victories, relaxation and psychiatric care can help you restore the spiral. In some cases it will also be possible to remove a disturbance, or negative statuses that are added to the achievement of the blackening of certain squares.

Drama, on the other hand, is a tool shared by the group that the Ancient One takes into account. For example, the girl you like kisses someone else? Drama goes up by 1. At certain levels of Drama, something will happen. Only good things, of course. Just kidding, of course.

Material for the Ancient

We now come to the most substantial difference compared to the quickstart taster: the possibility of choosing between countless pages of objects, artifacts and, above all, monsters. Just like our characters, the latter will have a small stat block with the Freshness Points (i.e. life), the attack level, the defense, particular traits that could put our psyche in difficulty, special actions and weak points. We will thus start from the simple Adepts, still maintaining a connection with reality, and we reach abominations like the Astral Hounds.

We will also have a detailed map of Innsmouth with all the points of interest and the most famous inhabitants. These are important details to start any campaign. We will know that if we go to the Pluto video store, we will meet the owner Henry, a D&D and Magic enthusiast. Who’s coming to play a game?

High School Cthulhu Accessories and Miscellaneous Review

Along with the core rulebook, we also received the game master screen, the custom dice set, the Audrey’s Diary comic and the Blasphemous Deck. Let’s see together whether they are worth considering purchasing.

The Game Master Screen presents, on the illustrated side, a comic image of the characters engaged in the battle with the great ancient one par excellence, Cthulhu. On the back we will find the summary of everything that could be useful to us in managing the campaign.

The dice set includes 9 of them, strictly 6-sided and completely customized with the game’s symbols. Not essential, as the game’s authors also admit, but definitely very cool!

Audrey’s Diary, edited by Marco Ventura And Virginia Salucci, is a comic that tells the story of a high school student from Innsmouth to better immerse us in the atmosphere of High School Cthulhu. An addition that makes us reflect on how much effort is being put into this title, even though it is not necessary for the game.

Finally, the Blasphemous Deck is a set of cards that summarizes all the important notions for the players. We find spells, NPCs, items, monsters, styles and paths for a total of 112 cards. On one side we will have the image of what we will encounter, while on the back we will find all the relevant information. By placing the cards on the table, you will have a visible reminder of the characters encountered, the creatures to face or the stuff just found. The only flaw to report: the cardboard case can barely contain the deck and therefore it can be easily ruined. Surely, if you are serial sleevers, know that once you have used protective sleeves you will not be able to use the original packaging anymore.

Conclusions

Let’s wrap up this review: High School Cthulhu is a perfect blend of horror and comedy. If you’ve been a fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you can’t miss it. We also brought a demo from the quickstart to an event and it was absolutely fun and thrilling.

The graphics of the core rulebook, which is 260 pages long, were designed to resemble a school notebook and are therefore extremely suitable for the setting. The creators of this game, Simone Raspi And Mattia Arnaudo, are definitely huge fans of both Lovecraft’s works and the magic of the 90’s. Their passion is evident at first glance throughout the work.

The illustrations are curated by Jacopo Tagliasacchi, Lodovico Sartirana and Matteo Cecchi, and recall a mixed style between comics and graffiti, perfect for the occasion.

The amount of different materials available makes us reflect on how much the publisher believes in this title and gives us hope for future expansions.

So why give this title a chance? To remind us that we can downplay even the worst horror: light-hearted is not synonymous with poorly cared for. Remaining balanced between laughter and speechlessness for a horrific situation seems difficult indeed, but I can assure you that it is possible.

If you enjoyed this review of High School Cthulhu, stay tuned for more tabletop RPG news!