RPG: Cthulhu Dark – Now on KS

There’s a new Cthulhu Mythos RPG on Kickstarter, one aimed at bringing cosmic horror to the fore. Take a look at your own peril.

Cthulhu Dark is a horror RPG that drags the terror of the darkness between the stars onto your tabletop. But it’s more than that. It’s a guide to exploring the Mythos, the Mysteries, and the Threat poised by the eldritch horrors that lurk beyond the realms of mankind’s understanding–all done in a tone and style that tends to be overlooked in most “horror games.”

I love you, Strahdivarius, but it takes more than insanity rules to make a horror game.

Cthulhu Dark is a game about horror. About powerlessness. It’s a game that you don’t play to win, but rather a game that you enjoy failing at–at least according to the stripped-down rules that are there to help cement your exploration into the world of the Mythos. As per usual, players play as Investigators and are given four different settings to play in:

London in the 1850s

Arkham in the 1690s (hello Witch Hunts)

Jaiwo in the modern age

Mumbai in the near (and cyberpunk) future

Each of these settings is explroed in-depth in the book–but what really gets me cooking here is the Keeper’s Section which has all the information you need to place a game squarely in the Mythos. It’s got a ton on tone and mystery, take a look:

• Introduction: An introduction to cosmic horror and all the essential elements of a Cthulhu Dark mystery, including the Themes, the Threat, the Final Horror, the Setting, Creeping Horrors and the Power.  You can see the start of the Keeper’s section here.
• Writing a mystery: A step-by-step guide to writing Cthulhu Dark mysteries. This takes you through every step of making an effective horror story to play through, starting with the things you fear and ending with the full horror.
• Rewriting a mystery: Ten different ways to look at a mystery, which help you sharpen and polish it, until it’s as good as it can get.
• Playing a mystery: How to play a Cthulhu Dark game, including how to explain and use the rules, how to describe horror and how to find a dramatic ending.
• Threats of the Mythos: A guide to the creatures, artifacts and other unspeakable things that haunt the universe, explaining how to use these things to enhance the story you want to tell.

This game lives and dies by its exploration of horror and drama. One of the mechanics in the rules is called a Failure Die which boils down to, whenever you think it would be interesting for a player to fail at a task instead of succeeding, start describing how the character fails. Roll a die. If your Failure die beats their opposing die, they fail in the manner you describe. And this mechanic isn’t limited to the GM. Anyone can pull this off anytime. Because it’s not a game about winning–it’s a game you have fun losing. It’s about confronting your place in a horrific universe and coming to terms with what you can and can’t do.

The rules themselves are a scant two-pages long, a real streamlined system that gives your Investigators a few different d6s they can roll to represent either their occupation or their natural abilities as investigators, or their dark and terrible insight into the Lovecraftian mythos. Success can come easier, but with a price–and the more Insight you gain, the more horrific the world truly is. There’s an interesting mechanic which, when you are on the brink of madness/enlightenment (when your Insight reaches a total of 5 out of 6) where your character teeters on the edge of sanity.

They can try and suppress their Insight–this is done by burning books, stopping rituals, or “destroying yourself.” Now to the Investigator these actions may seem perfectly rational, but from an outside perspective–madness. But if you don’t–the alternate is understanding the full horror of the Universe, and subsequently retiring your character shortly after gaining 6 Insight.

I cannot go on about why this makes me happy. Horror in games is hard to do–but this one looks like it has it baked in pretty good.

via Graham Walmsley

Cthulhu Dark is a tabletop roleplaying game of cosmic horror, in the style of H.P. Lovecraft. 

It’s about the things we fear, amplified until they are unbearable. It’s about stories that genuinely creep you out, not well-worn tropes and creatures you’ve seen hundreds of times before.

And it’s about bleak horror, in which humans are powerless when confronted by hyperintelligent alien horrors. You can’t beat them. You can’t fight them. You can only watch, run, hide and fear.

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If you love Cthulhu games already, then this is Lovecraftian horror at its most intense. If you’re new to them, then Cthulhu Dark is a great place to start. You’ll enter a world of stories that are both terrifying and terribly human.

The rules are incredibly short: they’re tightly focussed on horror and they drive the game.

Have a look at these samples of the book: the rules, the start of the Keeper’s section and one of the settings, London 1851.

When you back Cthulhu Dark, I hope you’re investing in the project, rather than just buying a book from me. Thanks for your support. In return, I’ll make the final Cthulhu Dark rulebook as good as I can get it.

This is what you’ll get.

Whatever level you back at, you’ll get both the preview version, Cthulhu Dark Zero, and the final version, Cthulhu Dark.

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Cthulhu Dark Zero contains everything you need to play, including the full Player’s Section, Keeper’s Section and the London 1851 setting, and comes with special cover art. This is all written, edited, laid out and ready to go, and you’ll get it just after the Kickstarter ends.

Cthulhu Dark Zero is a PDF and I’ll give you a DriveThruRPG code if you’d like to print it. I’m doing it this way to avoid doing two print runs and keep the Kickstarter simple. It lets me put my energy into the final product.

Cthulhu Dark contains everything above, plus any stretch goals, plus the final three settings, Arkham 1692, Jaiwo 2017 and Mumbai 2037. I’ll make this book as good as I can get it, depending on how much we raise in the Kickstarter: it’ll definitely be hardback and I’ll upgrade the printing if I can (say, adding a dustjacket). It’ll be beautiful and you should get it before Christmas.

If you back at the Digital level, you get PDFs of Cthulhu Dark Zero and Cthulhu Dark.

If you back at Digital + Season Pass, you also get the Season Pass. I haven’t done this before and I’m excited about it! I’ll send you all the settings and other material as they are finished, so you’ll get something in your inbox at regular intervals until the book arrives. I’d love your feedback on anything I send. Oh, and with the Season Pass, you’ll get an exclusive scenario in PDF which won’t appear in the book: Chris Spivey’s The Whole is Greater, set in France in the First World War.

If you back at The Book, you get Cthulhu Dark in hardback. It’ll look wonderful.

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If you back at Signed Book & Season Pass, you get Cthulhu Dark in hardback, with a signed bookplate. You’ll also get the Season Pass, including that exclusive scenario by Chris Spivey.

If you back at Leather Book & Ominous Letter, you get a leatherbound copy of Cthulhu Dark. I’ll also send you a disturbing letter from a fictional correspondent, which warns that dire things will happen if you read Cthulhu Dark.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/78929588/cthulhu-dark

Back Cthulhu Dark Today

Back this game–I can hear them pleading now, at the window…now at the door…dear reader, if you find this, somehow…you must find a way–

Author: J.R. Zambrano

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]