Believe it or not, today marks the two-year anniversary of our first publication of Convicts & Cthulhu, a setting for Lovecraftian horror roleplaying in the early penal settlements of Australia.
In the months since it’s original publication, we have been supplementing the original C&C setting by publishing a series of PDF releases under the “Tickets of Leave” series. Our initial goal was to release one of these every two months — and amazingly we have largely been able to keep to this release tempo, having now released 11 Tickets of Leave. While we initially planned for these to be small, free supplements (a little like the “one sheets” popular for Savage Worlds) … the needs of a mystery-based game have meant our supplements have been more substantial (and continue to grow moreso). They are still all obtainable free-of-charge, or Pay-What-You-Want if you shop via RPGNow.
In case you’ve missed some of these Convicts supplements, here’s a quick roundup of everything that’s been released so far:
Convicts & Cthulhu [96 pages]. This is the core setting book (with CoC 7e game statistics): this is the flagship book in our C&C line — at least until our release of the standalone Convicts & Cthulhu RPG, which is still in development.
Convicts & Cthulhu, Player’s Edition [57 pages]. A cut-down version of the above which focuses on the setting and the information required by players creating convict (or settler, or aboriginal) investigators.
Ticket of Leave #1: Night Terrors [4 pages]. Our very first “Ticket of Leave” supplement contains information about the Night Watch, a nocturnal patrol created by the early penal settlements. As well as describing character options and encounters typical to a Night Watch campaign, the PDF includes a short sketch of scenario involving an incompetent cultist and the messy consequences of a summoning that didn’t go as planned . . .
Ticket of Leave #2: Tricolour Terror [6 pages]. This supplement explores the rather tense relationship between the British penal colony and the French ships which occasionally visited; an antipathy fuelled by the on-again-off-again war between Britain and France in the era. As well as including character options (including French spy!) it has a scenario which begins when a French ship limps into Sydney Harbour with a tale of running into a strange creature at sea … is this a true account of a Mythos horror, or just an attempt to gain the trust of the Colonial authorities for nefarious purposes?
Ticket of Leave #3: Criminal Enterprise [8 pages]. This “Ticket of Leave” explores the phenomenon of criminal gangs within the penal settlement. A good proportion of those in the colony are there for their illegal dealings … so is it any surprise that some continue their criminal enterprises even once inside the prison settlement? As well as notes on playing criminal gang members (and a ready-made gang of ne’er-do-wells), the supplement includes a scenario based around a smuggling deal that takes a serious turn for the weird thanks to some rather … odd … clients.
Ticket of Leave #4: The Vanishing Ensign [14 pages]. This supplement explores the historical “musters” that took place periodically in the early colonies — massive census-like exercises in which a small team was sent into every corner of the colony to tally up the population, arms, and other defences to determine the colony’s readiness for attack. It features a scenario based around a mysterious sailor whose name appears on many different official records in numerous places around the colony … but nobody seems to be able to locate.
Ticket of Leave #5: The Damned & The Degenerate [24 pages]. When the core Convicts & Cthulhu book was published there was only limited space to outline profession templates for “investigators”. This PDF greatly expands upon the list in the core book providing dozens of additional occupations for players to roleplay … all the way from Aboriginal trackers to colonial undertakers. It also includes some slight tweaks to the skills list in the core book. There is a revised C&C fillable character sheet that goes along with these changes.
Ticket of Leave #6: Night of the Convict Dead [15 pages]. This PDF explores the subject of cemeteries in the early penal settlement, and the way in which authorities disposed of the (many) people who died, whether from disease, mistreatment, or other violence. It features a scenario with overtones of dark necromantic arts, cruel experiments, and dangerous hubris. All of these collide in the eponymous “Night of the Convict Dead.”
Ticket of Leave #7: Seams of Peril [14 pages]. Later history of Australia is heavily shaped by the gold rushes that brought many to Antipodean shores … but decades before that, shameless convicts were not above faking “gold strikes” and bargaining authorities to exchange their early release for the “secrets” of their discovery. The supplement includes a scenario about an audacious convict that tries just such a scam … but the location he picks for his phony mine is somewhere that he (and the investigators) would be better not to visit. But their mission is to accompany him to exactly that place.
Ticket of Leave #8: Gentlemen Convicts [20 pages]. While the majority of convicts sent to Australia were from the lower classes of British society, there were exceptions — so-called “Gentlemen Convicts” who were sentenced to transportation despite their relative wealth. These elite prisoners had a range of special priveleges, and a kind of society of their own. This “Ticket of Leave” features a scenario centering on just such a group, haunted by a curious and apparently spectral ‘stalker’. Who is behind the brutal murders of the society? And what strange and supernatural hand fashions such gruesome deaths for the gentlemen convicts?
Ticket of Leave #9: Orphan School Horror [23 pages]. This “Ticket of Leave” is our (vaguely) Christmas themed release, centering upon the only benevolent institution in Sydney township, the Female Orphan school. This worthy establishment was set up to ease the problems of unwanted children on the streets. The scenario included has a decidedly “ghostly” theme: several of the female orphans at the school claim to have seen strange poltergeist-type manifestations. But there is a lot more going on that just a mere ghostly manifestation … and investigators had best hurry to solve the mystery before whatever lurks in the school succeeds in its mission to break through into our world.
Ticket of Leave #10: The Doom That Came To Five Dock [17 pages]. This supplement is a scenario-only release that describes a Mythos-heavy manifestation of doom in a remote riverside ferry station between Sydney and Parramatta. Can the tales of frightened ferryboat captains be believed; lurid stories which claim that Five Dock station was reduced to splinters by a massive and terrifying … insect horror?
Ticket of Leave #11: The Dispensatory of Doctor Macdead [25 pages]. This is our most recent “Ticket of Leave” (released just a few days ago), which focusses on the practice of medicine in the early colonial era. Even by the primitive standards of 18th century surgery, the health care available in the colonies was horrific, basic, and woefully lacking in medical supplies. The scenario included in the PDF is a lengthy tale revolving around a hoaxer who claims to be a private doctor, a most curious medical text book, and a rash of stories about patients who have exhibited the most bizarre transformations … what is the truth behind these terrible events? And why can nobody seem to find the self-styled “Doctor Macdead?”
Cthulhu Reborn 