Terrible New World: Shadow Apocalypse

We recently announced that the next title in our APOCTHULHU line is an anthology of four mini-campaigns, titled “Terrible New Worlds”. It is looking like it’ll be ready for an August release (fingers crossed).

The first of the mini-campaigns in the anthology is “A Small Price” by Dave Sokolowski. To whet your appetite for this nifty adventure, I’m happy to share some (spoiler free) notes about the unusual Post-Apocalyptic world that Dave has wrought.

This rather original “Shadow Apocalypse” was briefly sketched out in the APOCTHULHU core book, but is really brought to life in the mini-campaign.

Scenario Splash Page

“A Small Price” is an APOCTHULHU campaign set in a Post-Apocalyptic version of the United States where civilization has crumbled, and the world has become shrouded in an unearthly and impenetrable cloud. Day and night are now both tainted by a perpetual dull charcoal sky.

The cause for this terrible downfall stems from a great calamity five years ago. Hundreds of simultaneous explosions — occurring across every continent — spewed dirt up into the sky. But that was the least of their impacts. Those same explosions brought forth terrifying Shadow-wraith creatures, millions of them. When they arrived, these strange entities mostly lurked within normal shadows … but they also can seep into people’s bodies, possessing them utterly.

One of the scenario illustrations by the awesome Anna Helena Szymborska

The world that is left behind is a shattered ruin of its former self. But the Shadows are still here … in fact, each year they seem to multiply. Some believe that it is the Shadows’ destiny to finally exterminate humankind from the face of the planet. But for now, there are small pockets of humanity scattered throughout the world that have survived their ravages. Some form nomadic groups which try to stay one step ahead of the poisonous touch of the Shadow. Other groups have hidden themselves in secure shelters where they are protected from the entities. There they eke out a meagre living … living forever in fear, always watching closely the shadows around them.

The campaign revolves around one such sanctuary, where a small and highly insular community is working hard to try to understand — and maybe overcome — the threat posed by the Shadows. When the Survivors encounter this curious community, they discover that some of the biggest challenges to survival can be those created not through external horrors but from inter-personal rivalries and conflicts.

Cartography by Dean Engelhardt

“A Small Price” is designed for 3–6 players and offers a mixture of survival horror, research, and diplomacy. It takes inspiration from both Clark Ashton Smith and Ira Levin and requires cleverness and a strong survival instinct in order to navigate the myriad threats that lie around every corner.

More sneak previews of the mini-campaigns in “Terrible New Worlds” to come …

Terrible New Worlds: Coming Soon

A few people have been in touch with us to ask how things are going with our upcoming anthology book of APOCTHULHU “mini-campaigns”, titled “Terrible New Worlds.” We’ve posted a little bit of information about this book, but now that things are getting closer to its completion I am planning on sharing a bunch more. I’m sorry that updates about our projects are so sporadic — when you’re a small publisher it’s not uncommon to get so caught up in whatever piece of the creative process you’re knee-deep in right now, and forget that it’s been ages since sharing any news here on the blog.

“Terrible New Worlds” sees us publishing four brand new Post-Apocalyptic Lovecraftian “mini-campaigns”, each set in a new and horrible dystopian future. We’re using the term “mini-campaign” to describe these pieces, rather than simply calling them “scenarios” because in reality each of the four is a chunky piece of gaming that would occupy any group for many sessions of play.

The nightmare adventures contained within these pages range from 50 to 85 pages. All up the book of four mini-campaigns run to approximately 256 pages.

I aim to post a short (spoiler-free) thumbnail of each of the campaigns in coming days, but I can reveal titles and authors now. The four terrible new worlds are:

• “Hold The Flood” by Christopher Smith Adair
• “A Throne of Corpses” by Emily O’Neil
• “A Small Price” by Dave Sokolowski
• “… even death may die …” by Fred Behrendt

More details and some art previews to follow … Estimated release for the book (in PDF format) is early August.

And In Other APOCTHULHU News …

We have been delighted to see that a group of awesome gamers has decided to run an APOCTHULHU game online as a “play by forum” thing over on RPG.net. The game is called “The Vulture Committee”. The GM of the game — friend of the blog Paul StJohn Mackintosh — has crafted an original and highly inventive Post-Apocalypse setting of his own. Here’s a link to the game’s thread.

In this setting, the end of the world was somehow brought about by mankind’s dabbling in Quantum Computing, brought to a head by the Cryptocurrency craze. When the mass use of parallel Quantum computers began in earnest, it opened gates — logic gates — and through them, SOMETHING slithered into our reality. Spreading like a digital plague, the non-human intelligence came to infect the world’s networks, mutating reality (and people) as it went. Fast forward several years and the world is now a fragmented place of desperate survivor groups, raiding parties, and other ne’er-do-wells, huddled together in communities to avoid the weird Unnatural manifestations that roam the wastelands.

Prior to the game starting off, Paul and a few other folks had some great discussions about how this unique setting might work. That thread is also a pretty good read.

We’re thrilled the read the adventure as it unfolds …