|
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 |
#
¿
Aug 30, 2012 02:03
|
|
. It's not on GOG.com yet. 
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:07 |
|
|
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 |
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2012 02:03
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2012 02:55
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2012 17:39
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2012 18:31
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2012 22:52
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2012 18:06
|
|
|
 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.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 5, 2012 12:48
|
|
|
If you haven't been watching, the tremulus Kickstarter has been blowing up quite a bit, and there's only about a day left. If they make the last goal, we get what looks like Ken Hite presents InnsmouthWorld. And that's something the world wants to happen. And the Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarter has  less than two hours left if you want to get, ahem, on-board.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2012 03:12
|
|
|
Backers of tremulous should check your emails again, there has been a slight update. I really like that they kept the *world art style, even if they're edited photos.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2012 17:09
|
|
|
waqii posted:Would this thread be a good place to post ideas and thoughts about your own threadworks for tremulus? tremulous talk is definitely within the scope of the thread, and it's probably one of the coolest things going on in C'thulhu games right now. There's also room for horror games that don't have their own thread (Kult, Chill, Dread, um... ) but I didn't want to exclude Arkham Horror or the LCG.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2012 02:30
|
|
|
Now that I'm done making wedding arrangements and Christmas is nearly done, I had some time to see about getting into the next round of 7e playtesting! Unfortunately, we were too late to get in. It's not all bad news, though, because I found some 1920s mugshots today. Tougher mugs are hard to find. E: Follow up article with women's mugshot photos, they weren't all flappers. moths fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Dec 21, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 15:29
|
|
|
7th edition rumors Someone claiming to be in the 7e playtest and bad at adhering to the NDA has intimated some stuff! 7e may borrow a modified version of D&D Next's advantage / disadvantage system. So in situations where you would have doubled your skill, you now 2D10 for the 10s place and 1D10 for the 1s place - keeping the 10s place you prefer. But in situations where you would have halved your skill, you also roll 2D10 for the 10s place but must succeed on both. Something about it seems way off to me, a layperson in the world of maths. Suppose you need to roll under 20 on a D%. You have a 20% chance to do this, since 2/10 results (0, 1) on the first D10 will succeed. At half skill it would be 10%, since 1/10 results (0) on that D10 succeed. But passing that test twice is a much less-than 10% chance, isn't it? Because now you need (0,1) and (0,1) on two dice. So you have a 20% of a 20% chance, or a net 5% chance of success (if I did that right). Would you double that for the other situation, making two 5% chances instead of one 10% chance? Is that statistically the same thing? I don't know what they're going to implement it or how right the rumor is - I didn't get into the playtest. And if I did I couldn't talk about this. They've also mentioned Spot Hidden type rolls will now automatically give you the clue, with extra bonus information if you pass. This may also work with Idea rolls as a "move the game along" mechanic, with negative consequences for failing (you still get the idea, but maybe it's worse when you get there).
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2013 05:12
|
|
|
I think they're shying away from situations where you do math on the fly. This is generally good for pacing, but I have reservations about the math. One of the earlier rumors was that character sheets had spots for double, half, and 1/5th numbers so you could instantly check if you rolled an easy success, hard success, or an impale. That seems like a much better solution since you don't get into wonky percentages. I'm of two minds for the "the always get the clue" rolls. I mean, it's stupid to have an adventure grind to a halt if nobody checks the victim's pockets, but that's more of an adventure-writing problem than a system design problem. Addressing it in-game pushes into Cthulhu Dark and Trail of Cthulhu territory, and Call has always been more of an adventure game with investigative elements (even thought the PCs are Investigators) than a straight-up investigative game.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2013 19:31
|
|
|
There have been tiny changes over the years, but it's always been hard to notice. Some of the skills have changed, and some of the starting skill levels have varied, but for the most part you could pick up a module written for 2nd ed and run it in 6th. SageNytell, I absolutely don't want to get you in hot water and would recommend against going into any detail beyond that you're enjoying it. Even though I'd like to hear all about all of this, I realize you signed a thing.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2013 01:40
|
|
|
Oh hell, did they really do that? And the LCG takes place in the 30s so good luck with all the found footage youtube clips, I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2013 02:59
|
|
|
Pope Guilty posted:The Slender Man is an avatar of Nyarlathotep, so I don't see the problem. Aside from it being a Shub card? I don't really feel like there should be a cast in stone Mythos that never changes. Some of the better gods and monsters are non-Lovecraft anyway. That said, slenderman just seems like something dumb and dated that'll stick out like a Gangnam Style joke in a few years. I'd be irritated to see it in the 7e core, but it's not like slenderman sullies the literary credibility of an LCG.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2013 22:54
|
|
|
The Miskatonic University podcast was doing a regular segment on 7e until recently. I don't think they actually read the NDA before they signed it.  It doesn't sound like there is anything in 7e that you couldn't house rule with a previous edition. The only thing I heard that made cringe was the new skill system, which sounds like they were trying to steamline but actually made more complicated.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2013 18:47
|
|
|
I think you'd be ok commenting on what has already been announced, but the only publicly available thing I've found from Chaosium is that hour-long youtube 7e seminar. I think I linked it earlier, but I'll double check when I'm not posting from my phone.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2013 19:30
|
|
|
Trail seems like it's cool but I never got into it enough that I could say anything useful about it.  I was listening to the MU podcast in the car today, and they were discussing the Idea roll. One thing about this podcast is that they're not always the best at dealing with problem mechanics. Every time they bring something up that they have trouble with, I sit there having an answer like I'm watching an easy quiz show. Today's problem was the Idea roll, and how if the players are out of clues and blow their Ideas there's nowhere to go. The game is done, may as well wrap it up. This is an outcome nobody wants. They did mention fail forward, but couldn't think of a satisfactory way to incorporate it. So here's what I thought: The Keeper makes the Idea roll, hidden behind the screen. If someone passes, they get an Idea that puts back on the right track and the adventure continues without interruption. If they don't, they get a Bad Idea that puts them on a different path towards getting the adventure moving again. The important thing is that the players get a suggested course of action, and it's not like peeking at the answer key because there's a chance it'll turn out to be a dumb idea. But it gets things moving again. A Bad Idea shouldn't be something suicidal or that will wreck the game, but it should be dangerous or foolhardy enough to make for an interesting night.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2013 03:08
|
|
|
The skill system didn't function any differently, but they had this bizarre skill tree thing where you had sympathetic skills and specialties. So if you got better at shotguns you'd also get a little better at rifles. But they were mad about the FRACTURED VERSIMILITUDES of getting better at Intimidate and it also helping your Fast Talk and Seduction. The obvious fix is to make a blanket Manipulation skill with the option to specializes in Fast Talks or Seductions or whatever. And I think that might actually be how it works and they just didn't understand it right. I think there some weird things at key skill levels (50%, 90%) too. It's been a while since I listened, but it's in this episode starting at the 35 minute mark.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2013 04:10
|
|
|
There's also The Haunting from the back of the 6e book, which is apparently wildly popular despite being a relatively straight foreward ghost house instead of a Mythos parade.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2013 15:27
|
|
|
I finally put down the money for DG:Countdown today. In hardcover print-on-demand (with the PDF) it costs about half of what scalpers are getting for the softcover on eBay. It's just... why do people hate their money? Has anyone heard anything about the Delta Green standalone RPG? According to this really long interview Pagan Publishing is working on it and is in the dark (and apprehensive) about 7e so they're making their own game that's somehow compatible with previous stuff and does.. something.. else differently? Pagan's news page hasn't been updated since August 2012. The original announcement goes back to 2011 - and it looks super-promising. It sounds like a tweaked BRP (using the OGL parts), with Kenneth Hite and Greg Stolze attached, but word on this has completely dried up. Does anybody know what's happening here?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2013 06:53
|
|
|
Yeah, there's a lot of book here - I'm really looking forward to the physical copy. PDFs are a great convenience, but it's distracting to have to zoom every time I turn the page. I completely forgot about this until I read your post, but I spent the better part of a year refreshing Pagan's website before I could order Eyes Only, the reprinted chapbooks. You're completely right about the pacing.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2013 00:40
|
|
|
I didn't know that presentation existed, OR that Pagan had a podcast. This is good news, and thanks! Listening to it now, I feel like they glossed over why it's going to be a stand-alone, but I'm happy to hear that it's going to bring DG up to current year.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2013 13:25
|
|
|
My conspiracy theory is that they want to be the BRP Pathfinder if people lose their poo poo about 7th edition.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2013 23:24
|
|
|
The Malleus Monstrorum is a really great book that's full of ideas and monsters. Something to note is that all of the illustrations are faked historical evidence of the monster. For example, you don't get a crappy line-art illustration of a gug - you get a 15th century Chinese paper puppet of one. It's currently on sale, and I can't recommend it enough. If all you could own were the core book and one other, this is the other one that you'd want.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2013 04:49
|
|
|
I've always thought of them them as scary horses with no skin, bat wings, and bunny ears. e: Oh! I'm glad you liked the recommendation, Aleph Null! It's one of my favorites. moths fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Mar 21, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2013 03:15
|
|
|
The MU Podcast did a recently interview with that guy, Graham Walmsley. He's well spoken and has good ideas about RPGs in general. If you like Cthulhu Dark and want to learn more about the guy behind it, it's absolutely worth a listen. Countdown Update: I got a shipping notification that it was shipped Wednesday. So there was less than a week between the demand and print.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2013 11:37
|
|
|
Peas and Rice posted:Could you let us know what the print quality looks like? Countdown is the only DG book I don't have and the only reason I haven't bought one from DT is that is says "scanned from a physical copy" or somesuch, which scares me off a bit. Sure! I got it Friday, which was a week after I'd ordered it. Here's a brief trip report:   The cover is nice. The image is sharp and the colors look great. It's pretty thick card with a glossy finish. There's also a cloth binding, which is promising for the longevity of the book. As you can see, it was mailed in a cardboard shipper, which should be resilient to rough handling.   The printing is good in most cases. This one isn't full bleed, meaning there's a quarter-inch (at most) white margin around the pages. This bugs me, but I'll get over it. This is the same thing as on the Vampire 20th Anniversary PoD, but they posted a warning on that one but not for Countdown. (For V20, they said it was a restriction of the printer, which I thought they'd possibly overcome.) There's a tiny amount of blur around some lettering. It's most pronounced in the index, but if you look hard enough you can find it other places. You're not going to notice it under normal conditions. I wouldn't have noticed it except that I was specifically examining the print fidelity.  Except for this particular image, nothing strange was going on in the way of scan / reprint quirks. If I had to guess, I'd say that the borders imposed by printing restrictions caused them to shrink everything to 97% original size which hosed with the dithering. Fortunately, there isn't a lot of dithering. It's good, and I'm happy with it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2013 16:35
|
|
|
Cross-posting from the Crowd-funding thread! Achtung Cthluhu is in its last 48 hours. It's a Weird War II setting whose tone is more in-line with BPRD than Werewolf Women of the SS (NWS). It's definitely less serious / plausible than Delta Green, and seems to be a lot "pulpier" and action-oriented. The rules are for Savage Worlds, BRP Call of Cthulhu, and now Fate. I was interested in it when it first posted, but back then it seemed too expensive for what you got. Now that they've cleared a ton of stretches, it's a much better value. I wouldn't have given it a second look until I listened to the Meeples & Miniatures interview. I swear that show has made me spend more money on games than any other podcast. I think the sweet-spot here is either the £35 PDF Master level, where you get: Keeper's Guide Investigator's Guide Guide to the Eastern Front Guide to the Pacific Front Guide to North Africa & the Middle East Shadows of Atlantis Campaign Assault on the Mountains of Madness Terrors of the Secret War Interface 19.40 (An interface zero mashup) An unnamed(?) Dust / Achtung Cthulhu mashup adventure and German bunker floor tiles and editable doccuments Or at £40 you get print / hardcover versions of the Keeper's and Investigator's Guides and all the stuff above. (But there's also £5 shipping charge so you actually have to pledge £45.) It gets a little confusing after that. The addons seem a little pricey and confusing when you include the additional shipping, and of course there's a spreadsheet that chokes OpenOffice. I'd say this is definitely worth a second look if you're into C'thulhu and WW2.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2013 01:37
|
|
|
So the 7th Edition Kickstarter launched today. It's pretty . The books sound over-priced and underproduced, most likely stripped-down to let stretch goals bring them up to even industry standards. If they make their goal (they will), I'm looking forward to exciting stretch goals like "color inserts" or "full color pages" and "a bookmark." And now it's two books: a Keeper's Guide and an Investigator's Guide. They're sold seperately, and both cost more than the single 6th edition book.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2013 02:11
|
|
|
It's just such a shame when you look at how the French and Spanish collector's editions turned out... And then Chaosium rolls up asking for fourty thousand dollars before we can talk about colored ink. At least it'll be easier on my printer when I make cheat-sheets to tape into my 6e book.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2013 05:07
|
|
|
Quarex posted:I wonder what would happen if someone posted the links to those two collector's editions in the comments and nonchalantly said "awesome, are they going to look like this?!?" I cross posted the links on the YSDC thread that Paul has been active in, and apparently there's a phone call to Chaosium today with early feedback, questions, etc. The sentiment seems to be "but that would be expensive!" and it's like... that's why you're at kickstarter. They should have secured those art assets years ago as part of the licensing agreement. And I was right about Chaosium insisting on the PDF pricing. Guys, I still love you but it's not 1992 anymore.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2013 13:48
|
|
|
Wait didn't they just win a quarter million dollars worth of small business seminars?
|
|
#
¿
May 30, 2013 00:14
|
|
|
Ruth from the Double Shadow podcast actually typed up Lovecraft's complete works in a free eBook - which is infinitely better than paying for public domain works. Goddamn, this 7e business. It sounds like they came up with some cool alternate mechanisms and optional rules that would have made for an awesome book of core tweaks and hacks like God Machine Chronicles update, Danse Macabre, or Mirrors for WoD, or that upcoming one for FATE. They've been backpedaling away from the changes, now many are "alternate" or "suggested" mechanics - and it's like, well why even sell that an edition? I guess there was some player push-back over change, because 4e. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2013 17:58
|
|
|
Everything about it just feels so half-assed. I mean, how else do you go from the latest keeper's screen: to 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
I want to say it was done by the guys who did the French edition, which was also beautiful. I still can't believe what a tease that turned out to be.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2013 20:34
|
|
|
The Miskatonic University podcast has an interview up where they talk about how reeled-in the proposed changes got. I'll listen to it again, but it sounds like the bigger changes (new luck system for example) became take-it-or-leave-it optional because it rocked the boat. I'll try to link when I'm not phone posting, it's ... Interesting.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 3, 2013 17:20
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:07 |
|
|
That's actually not as uncommon as you'd expect, but it's a pretty amateur-hour. Here's the podcast I was talking about earlier. It sounds like Chaosium and the playtesters pushed-back pretty hard on... well, everything. At the end of chapters you get alternate mechanics and optional rules. The interviewer asks if it's going to get the same layout treatment as the non-English ones, and they say that something like that could be on the table - and that you should talk to Chaosium about that. But Badger McInnes who's doing the layout had this to say on his blog: quote:I’ve been seeing a lot of clamor lately about “FFG edition/Spanish edition/French edition looks so gorgeous! That’s what we want!” on the interwebs. It would be really easy to try to mimic those designs, and i understand that some gamers really want a pretty book. But as a Keeper myself, i know that the first thing i want out of a rulebook is for it to allow me to read it easily, and find the information i need quickly. I cannot in good conscience let the organization of a book suffer to make it look more attractive. His gut gave us C'thulhu by Gaslight, which looked like this:  Which is serviceable and organized I guess, but even D20 CoC had more character with its weird slanting paragraphs and Claymation cover. And it's a $20 for the Keeper's Guide PDF which is still a lot for a blind purchase of tweaks and hacks and reprinted rules I already own.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2013 02:02
|
|