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If you've spent any amount of time in tabletop gaming, you've probably run across references to C'thulhu, HP Lovecraft, the Mythos, or non-sexualized tentacles. You're on the internet, so rather than bore you with explanation, let's talk about the games that celebrate all of these things: The Stories Nearly all of Lovecraft's works are available in the public domain. Ruth from the excellent (but sometimes unbearable) Double Shadow Clark Ashton Smith podcast has typed up Lovecraft's complete works in a free eBook. His stories are both ahead of their time and a product of it. The world was changing - getting smaller in many ways while expanding infinitely in others. Cultures were coming together, wonders were being discovered and invented on a daily basis, and it was dawning on humanity how insignificant we are against the infinite backdrop of the cosmos and vastness of time. Be warned that there's also some racist stuff in there, but that's a discussion for a different thread. RPGs  Call of Cthulhu - Chaosium The Great Old Ones ruled the Earth aeons before the incidental rise of man. They came from the gulfs of space, waged war upon one another, and then were cast down by even greater beings. Remains of their cyclopean cities and forbidden knowledge can still be found in the remote extremes of our planet. Upon uncharted islands, within dark ocean depths, under burning desert sands, locked within polar ice, miles below the Earth's crust, they lay imprisoned. But when the Stars are right they will awaken and walk this earth once more. (From the site) This is the granddaddy of HP Lovecraft RPGs (unless you count a short-lived printing of D&D's Dieties and Demigods). It's something of a living fossil, having changed very little since it's original incarnation 30 years ago. It's currently in its 6th edition, but a 7th edition is on the horizon - details are sketchy at this point, but it's safe to say it won't be a complete re-invention. Features: - Facilitates adventures that emulate Lovecraft stories (mostly endings) - An iconic sanity system - 30 years of printed material, almost completely compatible - Runs on Chaosium's BRP system - D20 available in some areas - Easy to learn and play  Delta Green - Pagan Publishing Deception is a right. Truth is a privilege. Innocence is a luxury. Born of the U.S. government’s 1928 raid on the degenerate coastal town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, the covert agency known as Delta Green spent four decades opposing the forces of darkness with honor, but without glory. Stripped of sanction after a disastrous 1969 operation in Cambodia, Delta Green’s leaders made a secret pact: to continue their work without authority, without support, and without fear. Delta Green agents slip through the system, manipulating the federal bureaucracy while pushing the darkness back for another day — but often at a shattering personal cost. (From the site) Delta Green is a modern paramilitary secret commando war against the forces introduced in Call of Cthulhu above. Some of its sourcebooks have been out of print for a long time and could easily fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay. Fortunately, PDF and Print-on-Demand versions have saved us all from scalpers. Features: - Runs on Chaosium's BRP system - D20 available in some areas Trail of Cthulhu - Pellgraine Press  Trail of Cthulhu is an award-winning standalone game produced under license from Chaosium, set in the 1930s, now in its third print run, and produced in five languages. Trail of Cthulhu uses the GUMSHOE system, which is finely tuned for investigative play – the challenge is in interpreting clues not finding them. It supports both Pulp (for Indiana Jones, Robert E. Howard, thrilling locations sorts of games) and Purist styles of play (for intellectual horror and cosmic dread). HP Lovecraft’s work combined both, sometimes in the same story. It includes a new take on the creatures, cults and gods of the Lovecraft’s literature, and addresses their use in gaming. It adds new player backgrounds, and bulk out the GUMSHOE system to give intensive support for sanity, incorporating into the rule set the PCs desire to explore at the risk of going mad. (From the site) This is a relative newcomer, but is penned by HP Lovecraft guru Ken Hite, and presents a take on the genre that focuses more on investigation than adventuring. Features: - Runs off the Gumshoe system that has its own thread! - Ken Hite is a really cool guy that knows his chicken  Realms of Cthulhu - Reality Blurs Whether you seek action and adventure battling cultists in sun-drenched jungle temples, a shadowy milieu of dark words and impossible deeds, or a twisted mixture dredged up from the darkest recesses of imagination and nightmare, you will find the rules you need and the inspiration you desire within these pages. Four distinct styles impact how physical damage and mental anguish are handled. This allows you to effortlessly shape and direct the focus of your campaign, from the pulpiness of Heroic Horror to the grim desolation of the Dark Spiral. (From the site) Realms of Cthulhu is a more action-oriented take on the Mythos. Features: - Runs on the Savage Worlds system - ???  Cthulhu Dark - Grahm The rules are fun and incredibly minimal: they fit on one sheet of paper. You don’t need a character sheet to play, so you can start playing after two minutes of prep. Despite the simplicity, there are some interesting rules twists: look at the Suppressing Knowledge rule for an example. (From the site) This is a great, extremely rules-light take on these games. It's completely free, so if that sounds even a little interesting you should go download it right now. Features: - No really go download it it right now.  tremulus - Sean Preston Want to See Something Really Scary? We all do. tremulus lets you and your friends make terrifying stories together. No experience necessary. And dice? You only need a pair of regular old six-sided dice, like you find in most family board games. If you've never played any roleplaying games in the past, then this is a great game to start with. (from the site) tremulus is currently funded on Kickstarter but looks to become a promising addition to the family of HP Lovecraft games. Features: - Ultramodern bleeding edge design - Runs on a modified Apocalypse World system Board and Card Games Arkham Horror - Chaosium, Fantasy Flight Games Arkham Horror is an adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium and most recently published in 2005 and revised in 2007 by Fantasy Flight Games. In both editions, players take on the role of investigators in H. P. Lovecraft's Massachusetts town of Arkham. Gates to other planes open throughout the town. If too many gates open, a powerful alien being will enter, likely destroying the town and possibly threatening the world. The investigators must avoid or fight alien creatures that enter Arkham through the gates, enter the gates themselves, survive the alien places beyond, return to Arkham, and close the gates. (From Wikipedia) Arkham Horror has been around almost as long as Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu. It's been reprinted by Fantasy Flight Games, and has gone from a cult following (ha!) to something of a games-room staple since. Features: - Lots of expansions - Cooperative gameplay  Call of Cthulhu LCG-Fantasy Flight Games Call of Cthulhu is a two-player card game in which players construct decks from a choice of seven different factions from the Cthulhu Mythos. Players then muster their decks against each other and attempt to win story cards through various challenges. The first player to win three story cards wins the game. (from site) Features *All cards for a single story come in a box, meaning no Booster packs *Interesting between-faction interactions, making it easy to create a deck with whatever factions you please *Being able to play as the forces of darkness and the government at the very same time  (Thanks to Fausts Pen for this writeup!) Elder Sign - Fantasy Flight Games Elder Sign is a fast-paced, cooperative dice game of supernatural intrigue for one to eight players by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, the designers of Arkham Horror. Players take the roles of investigators racing against time to stave off the imminent return of the Ancient One. Armed with tools, allies, and occult knowledge, investigators must put their sanity and stamina to the test as they adventure to locate Elder Signs, the eldritch symbols used to seal away the Ancient Ones and win the game. To locate Elder Signs, investigators must successfully endure Adventures within the museum and its environs. A countdown mechanism makes an Ancient One appear if the investigators are not quick enough. The investigators must then battle the Ancient One. A clever and thematic dice mechanism pits their exploration against monsters and the sheer difficulty of staying sane and healthy, all within the standard game duration of one to two hours. (From the site) Elder Sign is a pared-down dice take on Arkham Horror. It's got some similarities to the excellent dice version of Risk, which never saw US distribution. Features: - Solo play option - Won't take many many hours Mansions of Madness - Fantasy Flight Games Designed by Corey Konieczka, Mansions of Madness is a macabre game of horror, insanity, and mystery for two to five players. Each game takes place within a pre-designed story that provides players with a unique map and several combinations of plot threads. These threads affect the monsters that investigators may encounter, the clues they need to find, and which climactic story ending they will ultimately experience. One player takes on the role of the keeper, controlling the monsters and other malicious powers within the story. The other players take on the role of investigators, searching for answers while struggling to survive with their minds intact. (From the site) Mansions of Madness is a boardgame that follows a narrative structure similar to Descent or Heroquest. Features: - ??? Munchkin Cthulhu - Steve Jackson Games Munchkin Cthulhu is a stand-alone game that lampoons Lovecraft's Mythos and the horror gaming that surrounds it. Brought to you by Steve Jackson and John Kovalic, this set features four Classes – including the Cultist – and a lot of classic monsters from outside reality. And they all have Stuff you can take from their twitching bodies. (From the site) It's a Munchkin game with John Kovalic art, and all that that entails. It actually introduced some interesting mechanics, but at the end of the day you've probably got your own opinion either way about it. Features: - Whimsical illustrations - Is munchkin Cthulhutech  You may have heard cool things about this, so check out this review hosted off-site. Creatures and Cultists - Pagan Publishing, Steve Jackson Games CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE Mythos - Chaosium COMING SOON Video Games JDCorley posted:I know this is TradGames, but there've been some good Cthulhu themed video games too: I clearly know less about some of these games than others, so feel free to correct or add additional information. If you know about one that I don't, feel free to write it up using the format below and I'll add it to the OP (and credit you of course). code:Note 2: Currently the FFG site is down, but I plan to link to their games when it resurfaces. Note 3: 
moths fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Aug 27, 2021 |
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Aug 30, 2012 02:03
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I'm hoping to use this area for crazy new updates to Cthulhu gaming. While this ordinarly moves at a glacial pace, this is a really great time. Right now, the following is going on: 30AUG2012 Call of Cthulhu 7th edition is in the works Very little is known at this point, except that it's expected to be largely compatable with previous editions. That said, the following is very likely - nothing can be confirmed, since Chaosium hasn't signed off on any of the developer's proposed changes. - Abilities now go to 100. Nobody knows how this will work! - Luck changes. Luck will be a depleatable resource like SAN. If you just barely miss a roll, you can buy-up the missing points by expending Luck. - SAN changes. Players have always roleplayed low-SAN characters as a little edgy, but there's never been any mechanical reason to do this. - Degrees of success. You'll track your skill scores, half-skill, and 1/5 skill (for impales/criticals) will be important. - Combat skills consolidated! More info can be found here, the audio is a little shaky at times but there's a great summary. Nobody is mentioning if it will feature the layout from the French 30th Anniversary edition - which is a fantastic book. There was a partnership with FFG for the art - it seems unlikely that such a deal would only extend to the French printing, but it wouldn't be unthinkable. Chaosium is Reprinting Horror on the Orient Express The Kickstarter is funded and now we just have to wait for the magic to happen. And did I mention that tremulus is 3x over its goal? Well it is, and that's good news! It's been talked to death, but if you've been living under a rock and missed out, Cthulhu was the capstone for the recently completed Reaper kickstarter. If you have a friend who participated (you probably do), ask him about getting you a Cthulhu  January 26, 2013 RIP Lyn Willis, if you've enjoyed any of the published Call of C'thulhu material, you've probably enjoyed some of his work. The Orient Express kickstarter was a huge success, work has begun. FFG has announced an expansion for Mansions of Madness, Call of the Wild in which the investigators go outside. Tidbits of info about 7e Call of Cthulhu have been leaking, changes don't seem so radical after all. June 2, 2013 It's been a long time without news, but the 7e Kickstarter has gone live and is funded. It's not what we were hoping for, but kind of what we expected.  August 2, 2021 Turns out Sandy Peterson is kind of poo poo! Mythos fans are practiced at separating art from artist. Two factors making Call of Cthulhu palatable are: 1)Chaosium isn't backing him and put out a pro-trans message, and 2) used books exist. moths fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Aug 3, 2021 |
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Aug 30, 2012 02:03
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I guess I'll start us off with a question: me and my friends love Arkham Horror, but we've gotten really good at it and thus the threat of the Ancient One awakening is less of a threat and more "bonus round for laughs after sealing 6 gates." Can someone make a recommendation for an expansion to get that would make things more challenging without just making things straight-up harder?
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Aug 30, 2012 04:22
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Yawgmoth posted:I guess I'll start us off with a question: me and my friends love Arkham Horror, but we've gotten really good at it and thus the threat of the Ancient One awakening is less of a threat and more "bonus round for laughs after sealing 6 gates." Can someone make a recommendation for an expansion to get that would make things more challenging without just making things straight-up harder? Most of the expansions have alternative dynamics in addition to ramping up the difficulty. I've played "Lurker at The Threshold," but I'd advise reading up online and seeing what feels good. "Lurker" added different types of gates, there were split gates where you spent part of the time in one area and your next turn in another, and there were gates that would kill whatever occupied the space they opened on. There was also a pretty sweet allegiance system so that you could buddy up with the player to your left and gain bonuses. The amount of nasty poo poo was pretty balanced with the amount of friendly poo poo.
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Aug 30, 2012 21:57
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I remember being really curious about Call of Cthulhu when I was a young nerd, but growing up in a small town that had only one local book store meant that I never got to experience the game first hand. Around the time that 3.X was in its prime, WotC released a d20 version of CoC and for some reason my local book store actually got a couple copies! I was super excited and I couldn't wait to terrorize my friends with a really creepy adventure. Unfortunately, the d20 version was probably the worst version that I could have used to try and transition my friends from D&D to CoC. The core mechanics were all the same so it seemed like everything would work out nicely, but my friends could not make the mental transition from being D&D world renowned heroes, who poo poo lighting bolts and fell dragons with their eyes closed, to playing fragile human investigators who are at odds with forces infinitely beyond their comprehension. I remember a few of my friends complaining that the "offensive" option only had the Rogue's BAB progression and how bullshit that was, or that spell casting had mostly terrible effects and it was so dumb that almost all the spells had some kind of drawback, etc. They all hated having to track sanity and had no interest in solving mysteries or doing anything other than going in guns blazing 100% of the time. I don't think that the d20 version of CoC was bad in and of itself (outside of the usual problems with the d20 system) but I always wondered if my old high school chums might have gotten into CoC better if we had used an entirely different system that didn't allow them to import their preconceived expectations regarding how the game "should" work.
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Aug 30, 2012 22:18
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Call of Cthulhu LCG-Fantasy Flight Games Call of Cthulhu is a two-player card game in which players construct decks from a choice of seven different factions from the Cthulhu Mythos. Players then muster their decks against each other and attempt to win story cards through various challenges. The first player to win three story cards wins the game. (from site) Features *All cards for a single story come in a box, meaning no Booster packs *Interesting between-faction interactions, making it easy to create a deck with whatever factions you please *Being able to play as the forces of darkness and the government at the very same time
Permotriassic fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Aug 30, 2012 |
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Aug 30, 2012 23:45
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Fausts Pen posted:
Just chiming in to say that the CoC card game is under rated and tons of fun. The game play mechanic is rather unique and you end up crafting what feels like a real horror story during play. Definitely worth sampling.
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Aug 31, 2012 01:42
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D20 Call of Cthulhu was such a mixed blessing for the game. On the one hand, D20 was king and this got the game(s) some badly-needed exposure - but on the other hand it wasn't really a great fit. Weird Fiction deals with a lot of things, but level 3 Defensive Option newspaper man is pushing even that. Horror doesn't really do so well in that sort of mechanics-as-physics model. The FFG card game is really good, and switching to the LCG format (and then going to the current 3x card booster format!) has been a parade of improvements. There's been some discussion of it in the non-magic TCG thread, so I'm not sure how I forgot it! But thanks again Fausts Pen, I've added it to the OP.
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Aug 31, 2012 02:55
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moths posted:D20 Call of Cthulhu was such a mixed blessing for the game. On the one hand, D20 was king and this got the game(s) some badly-needed exposure - but on the other hand it wasn't really a great fit. Weird Fiction deals with a lot of things, but level 3 Defensive Option newspaper man is pushing even that. Horror doesn't really do so well in that sort of mechanics-as-physics model. Well, I don't know. It does emphasize the "pulp" end of pulp horror. Lovecraft's stories, for all the RPG nonsense that has built up around them, did have a bunch of slightly ill thought out action, and d20 does that pretty well. And the GM directions/advice section is actually pretty amazing, well beyond what Call of Cthulhu did for many years. I would say the main advantage of Delta Green, which maybe should be added to the OP, is that it actually creates a campaign structure for Call of Cthulhu. The original game really relied a lot on players just deciding to campaign/explore together because that was the game.
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Aug 31, 2012 05:12
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So tremulus is officially my first kickstarter! Apocalypse World plus Lovecraftian horror? Be still my beating heart.
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Aug 31, 2012 15:29
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moths posted:D20 Call of Cthulhu was such a mixed blessing for the game. On the one hand, D20 was king and this got the game(s) some badly-needed exposure - but on the other hand it wasn't really a great fit. Weird Fiction deals with a lot of things, but level 3 Defensive Option newspaper man is pushing even that. Horror doesn't really do so well in that sort of mechanics-as-physics model. Agreed. With the way skills and stats work in CoC, it definitely plays into the idea that you are ordinary people with a lifetime's worth of experience encountering cosmic, unfathomable horror. With the way d20 systems work though, it doesn't quite handle it as well. d20 systems are very combat-oriented (though there are skills!) and a central tenet of CoC is that if you engage in combat, then you're doing something wrong/are incredibly desperate. Skills are the more preferable route towards dealing with situations. Chaosium's system is built around the design intent, while d20 Cthulhu is an attempt to try to shoehorn that into the confines of a d20 system. It was bound to be a little wonky. One thing that I love the 6th edition rulebook (and for that matter, most every Chaosium CoC book) for doing is including some of Lovecraft's short stories. If you ever wanted reference material to build your own campaign with, what better resource to use than the work itself?
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Aug 31, 2012 16:40
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Yeah D20 it definitely works better in a pulp or action-movie setting (and especially for DG, I will add that to the OP) where you are raiding a cult compound or chasing down some villains or monsters that you plan to tommy gun to death. But horror and mood in general are fragile and don't translate especially well to granular rules. And your interactions with the setting are going to be filtered through those rules. The deep one hybrids are scary because they imply humanity can be usurped as masters of this world. It's not that they have lots of HP and a good armour class.
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Aug 31, 2012 17:39
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The point I was trying to make is that Lovecraft's actual stories have lots of ill thought out action in it, and an ill thought out action game fits that a lot better than ultra-fragile CoC. A submarine torpedoed an underwater city and Treasury agents machine gunned a town full of monsters and a dude crashed a boat into Cthulhu and beat Cthulhu by doing so. These are all things that happened in Lovecraft stories that d20 fits just fine.
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Aug 31, 2012 17:48
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One thing that's gotten me interested in CoC is actually RPPR. Goon clockworkjoe runs the joint and they've got a whole shitload of CoC actual play podcasts here if you want to listen some games before giving them a shot. Bryson Springs is particularly hilarious and creepy and you can get the scenario for free over at https://www.hebanongames.com.
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Aug 31, 2012 18:02
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I'd offer that none of those scenes would play more dramatic or interesting with a more granular rules set. This it's obviously a personal taste issue, but for me D20 and similar trend to bog and steer focus away from the adventure and onto the system itself. Time spent resolving tripping a cultist while he's grappling the sacrifice is time away from the action. It's also a comfort/familiarity issue. If everybody knows D20 inside and out, you may have the exact same gear grinding and bogging problems trying to adapt to BRP CoC. There is no right answer here, but I definitely prefer the Chaosium system and personally consider it a better fit.
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Aug 31, 2012 18:31
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JDCorley posted:The point I was trying to make is that Lovecraft's actual stories have lots of ill thought out action in it, and an ill thought out action game fits that a lot better than ultra-fragile CoC. A submarine torpedoed an underwater city and Treasury agents machine gunned a town full of monsters and a dude crashed a boat into Cthulhu and beat Cthulhu by doing so. These are all things that happened in Lovecraft stories that d20 fits just fine.
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Aug 31, 2012 18:59
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Yawgmoth posted:But those don't make d20 a good system for the style of game that CoC is, in part because d20 is a mediocre system in the best of times and partially because those events are the exception that proves the rule; they're notable because they're infrequent, both in their scale and their successfulness. A typical band of PCs can't call in torpedo strikes or a task force of federal agents with high-powered artillery - such events are extreme outliers, not the basis of the game. I agree that d20 Call of Cthulhu is a bad adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, what I was saying is that it's a feasible adaptation of the short story "Call of Cthulhu", and related stories. It is more like Lovecraft's original work than it's like the percentile-based system from Chaosium. Edit: This is a huge thing actually. The culture that has grown up around BRP Call of Cthulhu where physical confrontation is supposed to be avoided simply doesn't exist in the original works, where explosions and guns handle many horrible problems. JDCorley fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Aug 31, 2012 |
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Aug 31, 2012 22:01
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Well, most of the high budget action scenes happen off-camera. The raid on Innsmouth and depth charging of Devils Reef were both learned of after the fact. Probably the most loyal to Lovecraft game would include rules for ending every scenario with a cleansing bolt of lightning and an italicized sentence. It's ok to diverge from this if that is more fun.
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Aug 31, 2012 22:52
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Delta Green is being made into its own stand-alone game, although there aren't many specific details available right now. Announcement was made at Gencon 2011. I freaking love these games! After a decade of nothing but fantasy gaming, I tried Call of Cthulhu back in 2010 and horror gaming is absolutely my wheelhouse. I've been trying to come up with a decent scenario for Cthulhu Dark but everything I come up with feels too complex, when I think half the draw there is the system's simplicity.
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Sep 1, 2012 21:05
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Are you using the Dark Tales and Dark Depths add-ons? They give you a skeleton to build scenarios onto.
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Sep 1, 2012 21:48
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Thanks for making this thread. I basically just want to play or run Cthulhu games 24/7, so, you know, this will suffice for now. I am surprised that the starter post does not mention the mid-1990s Cthulhu collectible card game Mythos. (That I totally thought would take off huge and from which I would one day reap a whirlwind of cash for having gotten in so early.) It was the only such game I ever played (though I realize there were others, and it may not have even been the first) where the point was to tell an interesting story rather than kill your opponent or win or anything, likely because, as we all know, there is no way to win. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythos_(card_game) Though here is where someone tells me that now those cards actually ARE worth something now that the rest of the world has gone Cthulhu-crazy and I should in fact not have angrily thrown them all away.
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Sep 3, 2012 01:37
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BlackIronHeart posted:One thing that's gotten me interested in CoC is actually RPPR. Goon clockworkjoe runs the joint and they've got a whole shitload of CoC actual play podcasts here if you want to listen some games before giving them a shot. Bryson Springs is particularly hilarious and creepy and you can get the scenario for free over at https://www.hebanongames.com. Thanks for the shout out! I would be remiss in my podcasting duties if I did not mention [url= http://theunspeakableoath.com/]The Unspeakable Oath[/url] and Unspeakable! the podcast Both are excellent sources for Cthulhu mythos gaming material
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Sep 3, 2012 05:07
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One game that got left out of the OP is The Laundry, based on the books by Charles Stross. It's modern day, and the characters work for The Laundry, the British monster-stomping agency that's probably the only secret government agency that is ISO9000 certified.quote:There are things out there, in the weirder reaches of space-time where reality is an optional extra. Horrible things, usually with tentacles. Al-Hazred glimpsed them, John Dee summoned them, HP Lovecraft wrote about them, and Alan Turing mapped the paths from our universe to theirs. The right calculation can call up entities from other, older universes, or invoke their powers. Invisibility? Easy! Animating the dead? Trivial! Binding lesser demons to your will? Easily doable! It's modern Cthulhu with a dash of Paranoia sprinkled in; everything in the Laundry is mired in bureaucratic procedures, from matrix management to meetings to filing your hours you spent in another dimension on your timecard to getting your paper clips audited. On the plus side you get toys like the Necronomiphone (a jailbroken iPhone that can cast spells), basilisk guns (which turns the target to stone), and can accidentally summon a dimensional shambler with your fractal screensaver!
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Sep 3, 2012 17:16
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Evil Mastermind posted:It's modern Cthulhu with a dash of Paranoia sprinkled in;
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Sep 3, 2012 17:30
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Evil Mastermind posted:you get toys like the Necronomiphone (a jailbroken iPhone that can cast spells)
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Sep 3, 2012 17:47
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I haven't read the original stories, but yes, The Laundry is completely awesome. I know this is TradGames, but there've been some good Cthulhu themed video games too: Great Games 1993's point-and-click adventure "Shadow Of The Comet". It's available on some abandonware sites but it's shady and might be  . It's not on GOG.com yet. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was a first person survival horror game for the X-Box, Playstation 2 and PC. You can get it on Steam for .Okay Games With Cthulhu In Them There are some Cthulhoid elements in the classic third person horror adventure Alone In The Dark 2. Some still love this series, I don't think it holds up that well. The goofy Cthulhu Saves The World is a 1980s-JRPG style PC game. I donno, I didn't find it that funny or engaging, but it was cheap and seemed pretty polished. Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened combines Sherlock Holmes adventuring and detection with Cthulhoid monstrosities. As much as I appreciate Sherlock Holmes games in which you actually have to do some detecting/deduction, it doesn't really work that well compared to the other Sherlock Holmes adventures from Frogwares. A lot of the engagement is lost when you're examining the body and you, the player, know a monster did it and Holmes is still doing poo poo like measuring wounds and examining blood spatter. Also on Steam.Bad Games With Cthulhu In Them Necronomicon: Dawning of Darkness. A Myst-like adventure game notable for making no sense whatsoever, although there are some nice visuals once you get to the Creepy Town (tm). Even JustAdventure, well known for giving any adventure game a A+++ for Upholding The Traditions gave this one a D. You can probably get it for like a dollar in discount bins.
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Sep 3, 2012 18:02
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JDCorley posted:Great Games Quoting this to the OP, if you don't mind. And I clearly don't know enough about the Laundry because what I'm reading makes me want to learn more. Does it have a US distributor? I don't think I've ever seen it on shelves.
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Sep 3, 2012 18:06
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If you have an account on Steam, you need to rate Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=91712806&searchtext=
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Sep 3, 2012 18:13
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moths posted:Quoting this to the OP, if you don't mind. And I clearly don't know enough about the Laundry because what I'm reading makes me want to learn more. Does it have a US distributor? I don't think I've ever seen it on shelves. I've seen it at game stores before, but yeah, pretty rarely. It's on rpgnow, though. Edit: Actually so is most of the Chaosium catalog.
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Sep 3, 2012 18:18
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Evil Mastermind posted:getting your paper clips audited This is a huge concern for any secret agency that uses sympathetic resonances in magic all the loving time. So do the bad guys. So knowing where all your paper clips are is a vital counterintelligence procedure.
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Sep 3, 2012 19:34
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moths posted:Quoting this to the OP, if you don't mind. And I clearly don't know enough about the Laundry because what I'm reading makes me want to learn more. Does it have a US distributor? I don't think I've ever seen it on shelves. mllaneza posted:This is a huge concern for any secret agency that uses sympathetic resonances in magic all the loving time. So do the bad guys. So knowing where all your paper clips are is a vital counterintelligence procedure.
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Sep 4, 2012 01:22
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Thank you for talking about the Laundry here; I keep seeing it at Gen-Con but never remember to look into it. Now I must.JDCorley posted:I know this is TradGames, but there've been some good Cthulhu themed video games too: Hound of Shadow, which looked drat stylish and fine on the Amiga. A Cthulhu text adventure with beautiful black-and-white graphics actually sounds like it would be amazing and actually the MOST likely to be terrifying of all Cthulhu computer games. Also thanks to the probably long-dead previous owner who gloriously transferred the low-density 5 1/4" floppy originals to a blessed high-density 3 1/2" disk.
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Sep 4, 2012 01:35
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JDCorley posted:I haven't read the original stories, but yes, The Laundry is completely awesome. You forgot to mention Prisoner of Ice, the sequel to Shadow of the Comet. I have no idea where it fits in the Great Okay Bad scale, but it is super batshit insane and involves both timetravel and World War 2 submarines.
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Sep 4, 2012 05:11
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I've never played either of those two, thanks (to both of you) for the intel. 
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Sep 4, 2012 06:33
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Also worth a look: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.
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Sep 4, 2012 14:12
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I'm interested in using one of these systems to run a non-Cthulhu horror game that shares some themes with the mythos. The premise is that the PC's are an X-files-esque task force in 1970's Poland, tasked with combating and concealing the supernatural, while navigating the bumbling communist bureaucracy and dealing with the issue of working for a thoroughly reprehensible institution that's mostly a tool of oppression. Cue horrific world-shattering discoveries and so on. Trails of Cthulhu seems extremely promising, but can someone tell me how well it adapts to other settings before I buy it? The group is entirely bilingual and we play with English-language books all the time, so that's not an issue.
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Sep 5, 2012 00:20
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Trail of Cthulhu uses the GUMSHOE system, so really any investigation-based game should be peachy.
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Sep 5, 2012 01:21
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A preview has been posted for tremulus: The Heir playbook.
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Sep 5, 2012 04:09
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Guildencrantz posted:I'm interested in using one of these systems to run a non-Cthulhu horror game that shares some themes with the mythos. The premise is that the PC's are an X-files-esque task force in 1970's Poland, tasked with combating and concealing the supernatural, while navigating the bumbling communist bureaucracy and dealing with the issue of working for a thoroughly reprehensible institution that's mostly a tool of oppression. Cue horrific world-shattering discoveries and so on. The Laundry has rules for dealing with Bureaucracy that might be helpful. Delta Green Countdown has a chapter on a Russian anti-mythos security agency called GRU SV8 http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/99299/Delta-Green%3A-Countdown That would be easy to adapt I would think.
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Sep 5, 2012 06:00
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 18:45 |
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 Callout for 7e CoC Playtesters is up. Limited space, but I think that limiting groups to those that can complete a physical NDA is probably going to weed out all the early lookie-loos that would spam BRING BACK RESISTANCE TABLE without playing anything anyway.
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Sep 5, 2012 12:48
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