Welcome to tonight’s triple-threat storytelling bout:

1. Call of Cthulhu

2. Achtung! Cthulhu

3. Pulp Cthulhu

The bell rings. Three contenders, one ring, only great tales.

The entrances

- Call of Cthulhu steps through the ropes in a rain-speckled trench coat. A notebook, a fountain pen, a map edge torn from a gazetteer. The lights dim on their own.
- Achtung! Cthulhu drops from the rafters with a parachute flourish. Mission dossier, resistance codes, a satchel that hums at the worst possible moments.
- Pulp Cthulhu cartwheels in with a grin. Fedora, leather jacket, a grappling hook that might actually work, and a talent for surviving what no one should.

Round 1: Tone

- Call of Cthulhu fights with whispers. The fear grows by inches. Ordinary lives unravel as questions find answers no one wants.
- Achtung! Cthulhu jabs with momentum. There is a war on. Objectives are clear, stakes are human, and somewhere in the shadows the Mythos wears armbands.
- Pulp Cthulhu throws a haymaker of cliffhangers. The dread is real, but heroes leap alleys, crash zeppelins, and still go pale at the truth behind the curtain.

Judge’s note: candlelit dread vs mission urgency vs serial thrills. All three scare. They just choose different heartbeats.

Round 2: Rules feel

- Call of Cthulhu uses percentile BRP. Skills are precise. Sanity is a tightrope. Luck trickles like a cracked canteen.
- Achtung! Cthulhu runs on 2d20. Momentum fuels bold moves. Threat lets the GM turn the screws so scenes stay sharp.
- Pulp Cthulhu builds on BRP but adds Talents and sturdier heroes. Luck returns when the pulp theme music swells.

Judge’s note: want granular investigation and fragility pick Call. Want cinematic mission tempo pick Achtung. Want daring stunts without losing the chill pick Pulp.

Round 3: What a session looks like

- Call of Cthulhu starts with a letter, a ledger smudge, a night watchman who will not return to work. Interviews, archives, site visits, and a final scene that costs something dear.
- Achtung! Cthulhu starts with a briefing. Infiltrate, decode, sabotage, extract. A patrol pattern drawn in the margins. A race to shut down a machine that should not think.
- Pulp Cthulhu starts mid chase. A rooftop leap, a cultist car, a villain with a monogrammed dagger. The finale ends on a cliff edge that becomes a ramp for the next episode.

Judge’s note: unanswered questions, answered objectives, or cliffhanger continuations. Choose your rhythm.

Round 4: Characters

- Call of Cthulhu fields professors, reporters, constables, dilettantes. People who should be home by now.
- Achtung! Cthulhu fields agents, commandos, occult scholars, partisans. People who kick doors when the code word fails.
- Pulp Cthulhu fields daredevils, explorers, masked avengers, intrepid doctors. People who run toward the crashing sound.

Judge’s note: three kinds of courage. All can break. All can shine.

Round 5: Pacing and danger

- Call of Cthulhu is slow burn with sharp edges. The danger arrives like frost under the door.
- Achtung! Cthulhu is measured urgency. Stealth, a spark, then the sprint to the rendezvous.
- Pulp Cthulhu is rolling thunder. Stunts, close calls, grins that falter when the stars are wrong.

Judge’s note: if your table savors hush before the snap choose Call. If they love timers and maps choose Achtung. If they crave motion and last second saves choose Pulp.

Corner coaching for GMs

- Coaching Call of Cthulhu: seed three clues for every core question so the mystery cannot stall. Let mundane scenes breathe so the weirdness hits harder. Vary sanity outcomes so fear feels personal.
- Coaching Achtung! Cthulhu: open with a tight intel brief. Draw an obstacle triangle time limit, enemy presence, environment. Advance enemy projects between sessions so the war keeps turning.
- Coaching Pulp Cthulhu: build vertical maps catwalks, alleys, moving vehicles. Reward cinematic description with small edges. Let Talents save the day, then attach narrative consequences that push the story forward.

Crowd favorites by player type

- Puzzle lovers, handout collectors, diary readers cheer for Call of Cthulhu.
- Mission planners, stealth fans, thriller readers cheer for Achtung! Cthulhu.
- Action hounds, cliffhanger chasers, serial adventure fans cheer for Pulp Cthulhu.

Three bite-size story seeds per contender

Call of Cthulhu
- The Sixteenth Book a catalog entry for a volume that cannot exist leaves seawater on the ledger.
- Rooms on the Fifth a hotel floor appears between floors on certain nights and bills in foreign coins.
- The Sound of Marble a statue hums when no one listens and the note matches a tunnel alignment.

Achtung! Cthulhu

- Black Snow at Peenemünde sabotage a ritual that teaches rockets to hear.
- The Night Railway board the ghost run, free the vanished, derail the cargo that is not cargo.
- Wolfshade Abbey the bell tower holds a lens that refuses to see the sun.

Pulp Cthulhu

- Sky Serpents of San Augustin a zeppelin full of relics circles a storm-torn city. Reach the mooring mast before the hymn ends.
- The Brass Prophet a mechanical oracle tours fairs, speaking impossible truths on a clockwork cue.
- Canyon of the Four Suns a lost city shifts at noon, 2 pm, 4 pm, and sunset. Miss the window and the ground decides you are a rumor.

How to pick your winner tonight

- Your table craves mystery boards, quiet horror, and the feeling that knowledge has a price choose Call of Cthulhu.
- Your table craves mission outlines, covert ops, and the thrill of breaking an occult machine before dawn choose Achtung! Cthulhu.
- Your table craves cliffhangers, rooftop chases, and big hero moments with real chills choose Pulp Cthulhu.

Post fight handshake

All three bow to the same dark stars. Call asks what happens when ordinary people keep asking why. Achtung asks what happens when brave people say not on our watch. Pulp asks what happens when courage makes a leap and the universe blinks first. There is no wrong choice. Only the flavor of courage you want to put on the table next session.