History DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu / TabletopGames

* The boardgame ArkhamHorror, a spin-off of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' RPG, involves the players trying to close interdimensional gates opening around the town of Arkham. If they fail, a Great Old One awakens and the players have to fight him. It's possible, but extremely difficult, to defeat the Great Old One (unless it's Azathoth, who [[RocksFallEveryoneDies automatically ends the game with a loss for the players]] if he awakens).

* The tabletop roleplaying game ''CthulhuTech,'' which is a mashup of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', both averts and works this way. The Old Ones themselves pretty much automatically win if they actually bother directly fighting any number of protagonists, and the awakening of Cthulhu would officially screw over not just the human race, but an alien race trying to invade as well. Even the avatar of Hastur, horribly crippled to work within our limited sets of dimensions and weakened by improper summoning, is set as outgunning every other army on the planet combined. [[DeusExitMachina Thankfully, he stays at home]]. On the other hand, you can easily beat up a few HumongousMecha or even an [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Engel]] with luck and some simple soldiers, or survive exposure to the infinite dimensions without being fried instantly. Seeing an Old One directly ''can't'' even drive you irreparably and instantly insane on its own, and lucky individuals can stroll up to the body of Cthulhu, take a picture, and leave without taking a single point of insanity.

** In the ''Main/FireWarrior'' novels and the game based on it, the [[FlatEarthAtheist Tau]] manage to defeat a Chaos greater daemon. In the book, it's killed by a team of MiniMecha, in the game it's killed by [[TheHero Kais]] himself. Alas, Kais [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes a bit off his trolley]] afterwards, but hey, not many beings in the setting can boast about taking on a greater daemon single-handedly and coming out on top.

--->Exalted is in many ways like TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu. Both can be set in a [[CrapsackWorld largely negative world]] and both contain [[EldritchAbomination mind-numbing horrors]] whose [[FingerPokeOfDoom gentlest sneeze]] could [[PersonOfMassDestruction kill half of Malaysia]]. The difference is the scope of fear; humans fear Cthulhu, Cthulhu [[HumanoidAbomination fears]] [[BadassAbnormal the]] [[AGodIsYou Exalted]].

* [[AvertedTrope Handily averted]] by just about every other ''CallOfCthulhu'' [=RPG=]. In the original rulebook by Chaosium (and from 2nd Ed. onwards), Cthulhu's stats are so high that he's essentially NighInvulnerable (although a big enough attack, say six tanks firing at once, has a reasonable chance of dropping Cthulhu for up to 20 minutes), and he "devours 1D6 characters per round"; in the ''{{GURPS}}'' version ''Cthulhupunk'' (which mixes modern-day ''Call of Cthulhu'', CyberPunk and HighTech Sci-Fi genre), a note indicates that vaporizing the big guy with an A-bomb would only get rid of him for two days, after which he would return... ''[[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive]]''.

--->Exalted is in many ways like CallOfCthulhu. Both can be set in a [[CrapsackWorld largely negative world]] and both contain [[EldritchAbomination mind-numbing horrors]] whose [[FingerPokeOfDoom gentlest sneeze]] could [[PersonOfMassDestruction kill half of Malaysia]]. The difference is the scope of fear; humans fear Cthulhu, Cthulhu [[HumanoidAbomination fears]] [[BadassAbnormal the]] [[AGodIsYou Exalted]].

* The tabletop roleplaying game ''CthulhuTech,'' which is a mashup of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and ''CallOfCthulhu'', both averts and works this way. The Old Ones themselves pretty much automatically win if they actually bother directly fighting any number of protagonists, and the awakening of Cthulhu would officially screw over not just the human race, but an alien race trying to invade as well. Even the avatar of Hastur, horribly crippled to work within our limited sets of dimensions and weakened by improper summoning, is set as outgunning every other army on the planet combined. [[DeusExitMachina Thankfully, he stays at home]]. On the other hand, you can easily beat up a few HumongousMecha or even an [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Engel]] with luck and some simple soldiers, or survive exposure to the infinite dimensions without being fried instantly. Seeing an Old One directly ''can't'' even drive you irreparably and instantly insane on its own, and lucky individuals can stroll up to the body of Cthulhu, take a picture, and leave without taking a single point of insanity.
* The boardgame ArkhamHorror, a spin-off of the ''CallOfCthulhu'' RPG, involves the players trying to close interdimensional gates opening around the town of Arkham. If they fail, a Great Old One awakens and the players have to fight him. It's possible, but extremely difficult, to defeat the Great Old One (unless it's Azathoth, who [[RocksFallEveryoneDies automatically ends the game with a loss for the players]] if he awakens).

* ''{{Exalted}}'' has a good number of [[EldritchAbomination ineffable, horrifying beings]] out there on the periphery, all designed so that your characters will inevitably beat the snot out of them. A lot of ''gods'' in ''Exalted'' are weak enough for starting characters to kill them without much trouble (granted, many gods are "Least Gods", whose dominion encompasses things like individual blades of grass). ''Scion'', by the same company, follows the same design philosophy.

** ''{{Scion}}'' also averts this, however; yes, you ''can'' kill the Titans, but there's a reason [[SealedEvilInACan the gods sealed them up instead of doing it in the first place]]. Remember the Ice Age? It ended the SECOND Ymir was killed. And flooded most of the Earth.
*** To elaborate: Titans in Scion are less like living beings and more like worlds unto themselves (they do have minds, but like A'tuin the Great, they think thoughts so huge and slow that lesser beings cannot hope to comprehend them), floating in the Overworld, with landscapes, cities and entire races of monsters within them. Each one of them represents (and is naturally ruled) by a certain basic element of reality, and it's existence ensures the continued existence of the element. Any attempt to Punch Out a titan would result in [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu breaking the World's arm.]] Killed the titan of fire? No more fire or heat in the universe. Killed the titan of darkness? Now the entire universe is filled with endless, blinding light for all eternity.

* ''{{Monsterpocalypse}}'' features the [[LawyerFriendlyCameo Lords of Cthul]], who have "We were inspired by HPLovecraft" written on them in the maddening tongue of R'lyeh. Complete with tentacles. In the backstory, they're avatars of cosmic forces and are here simply because they like making people dead. These avatars can be taken out by tank fire, kamikaze cyborg alien birds, and 60-foot-tall HighlyVisibleNinja bodyslamming them.

* In ''[[{{Warhammer 40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]'', the C'tan {{Physical God}}s just need new bodies built for them if the shells are destroyed, although it is said that neither of the two active ones are at full power yet.

* [[AvertedTrope Handily averted]] by just about every other ''{{Call of Cthulhu}}'' [=RPG=]. In the original rulebook by Chaosium (and from 2nd Ed. onwards), Cthulhu's stats are so high that he's essentially NighInvulnerable (although a big enough attack, say six tanks firing at once, has a reasonable chance of dropping Cthulhu for up to 20 minutes), and he "devours 1D6 characters per round"; in the ''{{GURPS}}'' version ''Cthulhupunk'' (which mixes modern-day ''Call of Cthulhu'', CyberPunk and HighTech Sci-Fi genre), a note indicates that vaporizing the big guy with an A-bomb would only get rid of him for two days, after which he would return... ''[[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive]]''.

*** Worth mentioning that when their paths crossed again, [[spoiler:Magnus remembered that last time. Same Wolf, same weapon and same intent. Our one-eyed Primarch buggered off just as Ragnar was about to throw the Spear, thus saving the system in a general sort of way]].

** ''{{Scion}}'' also averts this, however; yes, you ''can'' kill the Titans, but there's a reason [[SealedEvilInACan the gods sealed them up instead of doing it in the first place]]. Remember the Ice Age? It ended the SECOND Ymir was killed. And flooded most of the Earth.

* Averted in ''{{Shadowrun}}'' unless [[ThanatosGambit Cthulhu wants to be punched out]]. Dragons can't be punched out unless they're absolutely dumb, because they have [[LuckStat Edge]] and can burn it in the same ways as [=PCs=] and then some, and one of those uses is to cheat death, ''notwithstanding'' the ChunkySalsaRule. Even if you [[RefugeInAudacity explode a nuke inside the dragon's gut]], it's OnlyMostlyDead and it'll come back and destroy your life from a place of complete safety, then have you for lunch once you're safely under control. Meanwhile, Harlequin, in the adventure he appears in, simply has no stats because the designers ''know'' that if you give it stats, the players will kill it, and [[{{Railroading}} that would screw up the setting]].

* In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', Sam Noblood chased down]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Summer itself]] and used a tree-branch of autumn leaves [[ImprovisedWeapon as a spear]] to force it to make an exclusive pact with him.

* In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', [[CrazyAwesome Sam Noblood]] [[BeyondTheImpossible chased down]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Summer]] [[BeyondTheImpossible itself]] and used a tree-branch of autumn leaves [[ImprovisedWeapon as a spear]] to force it to make an exclusive pact with him.

** OF course, even with this there are exceptions, the most famous being the tale of [[CrazyAwesome Old Man Henderson]], [[CrazyAwesome the only person to ever have won at Call of Cthulhu]], by using the trick of 1. Becoming Hastur's Greatest Foe, Thus Allowing You To Personally Summon Him By Chanting His Name. 2. Knowing That An Elder God Summoned Without Their Consent Will Be Really Pissed Off, But Temporarily Weak Enough To Be Killed, Though You Only Get One Attack To Try It. 3. Wiring a Building With Enough Explosions To Make Michael Bay Blush. Of course, it's technically less DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu than [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Did You Just Permanently Blow Up Hastur In An Ice Rink?!]]
* In the early ''Call of Cthulhu'' by Chaosium the Headbutt skill allowed you to stop anyone acting for one turn. A starting character had a 95% chance of pulling this off. Yes, even Great Old Ones are affected by the Headbutt.
** Not really. Most versions of the rulebook mention that non-humanoid creatures are completely immune to all knockout attempts.

* In ''[[{{Warhammer 40000}} 40k]]'', the C'tan {{Physical God}}s just need new bodies built for them if the shells are destroyed, although it is said that neither of the two active ones are at full power yet.

** The new Necron book has {{Retcon}}ned this backstory so the C'tan were ripped several dozen new ones by the Necrons, with the star-gods reduced to fragments rather like Khaine. Only worse, since Khaine was destroyed by other divine beings, and the C'tan dismembered by ''robots''. We assume their expressions were rather like that of a chess player being beaten to death by their own pawns.

* Making certain entities statless for this reason shows up in a number of other [=RPGs=], such as ''UnknownArmies'' and ''{{Planescape}}''. In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' there is only one rule for fighting [[CainAndAbel Caine]], the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast first vampire]]: "You lose".

** OF course, even with this there are exceptions, the most famous being the tale of [[CrazyAwesome Old Man Henderson]], [[CrazyAwesome the only person to ever have won at Call of Cthulhu]]. Of course, it's technically less DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu than [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Did You Just Blow Up Hastur In An Ice Rink?!]]
*** And note that this isn't like the "radioactive Cthulhu" example- due to the rules of the game and the summoning, Old Man Henderson took out Hastur ''permanently''. That's right, Hastur was KilledOffForReal by a crazy old man.

** There used to be a collection of D&D jokes somewhere on the Internet that invoked this trope. "You know your character is too powerful when..." In particular, there was the series on jokes about the demon lord Orcus, who was in the early Monster Manual stated to be so strong that he'd deal damage with a slap with his open palm. The jokes went something like this: "You know your character is too powerful when... ...You slap Orcus on the back, and Orcus dies. / Orcus slaps you on the back, and Orcus dies. / You think "Maybe I should kill Orcus" and Orcus dies..." And so on.

In {{Mortasheen}}, there are creatures called [[OlympusMons the Ultimates]], monsters that include a creature engineered as a weapon of genocide so effective that nobody even remembers the name of the society it wiped out, a creature that can kill you with torrents upon torrents of its own blood and a creature that can MindRape enormous masses of people as easily as one would edit a computer. And you can fight them, and you can win, though the creators have stated that they are all intended to be ThatOneBoss.

* ''Game/{{Munchkin}}'' has a Cthulhu version, as well as a variety of others. It has been stated in the Internet-based epic rules that with these rules in play, at high levels, you can have enough personal power to kill a radioactive Cthulhu and his clone. Presumably, by this point you have six hands, and they're all on fire.

* Averted in ''{{Shadowrun}}'' unless [[ThanatosGambit Cthulhu wants to be punched out]]. Dragons can't be punched out unless they're absolutely dumb, because they have [[LuckStat Edge]] and can burn it in the same ways as [=PCs=] and then some, and one of those uses is to cheat death, ''notwithstanding'' the ChunkySalsaRule. Even if you [[RefugeInAudacity explode a nuke inside the dragon's gut]], it's OnlyMostlyDead and it'll come back and destroy your life from a place of complete safety, then have you for lunch once you're safely under control. Meanwhile, Harlequin, in the adventure he appears in, simply has no stats because the designers ''know'' that if you give it stats, the players will kill it, and [[{{Railroading}} that would screw up the setting]].

** ''{{Scion}}'' also averts this, however; yes, you ''can'' kill the Titans, but there's a reason [[SealedEvilInACan the gods sealed them up instead of doing it in the first place]]. Remember the Ice Age? It ended the SECOND Ymir was killed. And flooded most of the earth.

* Following in Moorcock's example, every single monster in the various Monster Manuals of ''DungeonsAndDragons'', up to and including demons and horrors from the Far Realm, can be defeated by bashing it to zero hitpoints (in every edition).

* Making certain entities statless for this reason shows up in a number of other [=RPGs=], such as ''UnknownArmies'' and ''{{Planescape}}''. In ''[=~Vampire: The Masquerade~=]'' there is only one rule for fighting [[CainAndAbel Caine]], the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast first vampire]]: "You lose".

* In ''[=~Changeling: The Lost~=]'', [[CrazyAwesome Sam Noblood]] [[BeyondTheImpossible chased down]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Summer]] [[BeyondTheImpossible itself]] and used a tree-branch of autumn leaves [[ImprovisedWeapon as a spear]] to force it to make an exclusive pact with him.

* In ''[=~Magic: The Gathering~=]'', this can happen to ''the players themselves.'' See, you are a "planeswalker," which is basically a wizard with godlike powers. And a [[HitPoints life total]]. Most creatures with an attack power higher than zero can, if left alone, bring that total down to zero, effectively "killing" you. Now, this is perfectly acceptable when the creatures are [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193767 angels]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39734 demons]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=43711 dragons]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83977 elementals]], and so forth, but becomes a little stranger when we start talking about [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29781 elephants]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4302 lions]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29877 tigers]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83115 bears]] (oh my,) and becomes outright ridiculous when [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=27250 insects]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=97100 rats]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29979 squirrels]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74257 little girls]] enter the picture.