We posted a couple of days ago about the steady stream of negative DTRPG ratings we see attached to our products, all sourced from the same two accounts (clearly working in tandem, probably controlled by the same person).
Well … it seems like the individual in question has spotted our posting, if today’s review spree is anything to go by. A snapshot from my inbox:
Yes, that is a total of 24 not-so-great star rating reviews in the space of 2 minutes. From the same person. Absolutely, totally normal behaviour … well, maybe not so much NORMAL, but perfectly rational. Right?
A few folks left comments on the earlier blog posting suggesting that we commission a special product and dedicate it to our hater-stan … we love this idea. But what kind of spite-themed product would work best do you think? Best suggestion in comments we will find a way to make it happen 🙂
Today we are proud to announce the release of another in our expanding range of customized versions of the Cthulhu Eternal ruleset. This one is firmly aimed at historical games set in any period between 1750 and 1850. We call this turbulent century the “Age of Revolutions” since it embodied massive political and social shifts as well as great advances in industry and learning.
The Cthulhu Eternal “Age of Revolutions” SRD is available right now as a Pay-What-You-Want download on DriveThruRPG. It is a fully-featured ruleset, spanning a little over 100 pages, and is ready to bring life any 18th Century Lovecraftian game setting you wish. Ever wonder what the Cthulhu Mythos was up to during the American Revolution? Or during the Reign of Terror following the French? How about the secret Otherworldly battles that somehow formed part of the vast Napoleonic Wars? And if settings of conflict and strife aren’t your thing, the “Age of Revolutions” is also the time when both the Industrial Revolution and the “Enlightenment” were hitting their peaks — who knows what terrors might have been stumbled upon by those re-writing the established order of industry, or the longstanding worldview?
This era is also the time of the creation of the Australian penal settlements, which is a setting very near and dear to our hearts thanks to our long-standing Convicts & Cthulhu setting. In the future, we plan to reboot that line using this SRD as a foundation stone.
But for now, we invite anyone who has an interest in historical gaming, and also a fascination for cosmic horror, to consider mixing the two to build … some kind of 18th Century Mythos Monstrosity … and bring it to your game table with our SRD ruleset!
As with all our previous Cthulhu Eternal SRDs (Modern, Cold War, Jazz Age, Victorian, APOCTHULHU), this new edition is a self-contained and full-featured bare-bones TTRPG. While it doesn’t have the flashy illustrations and worked examples you’ll find in your average published game, the text of the rules are extensive and cover everything you would need to run a Lovecraftian game set in the 18th Century — everything from character development, skills, combat, sanity rules, and guidelines for building magickal rituals, supernatural effects, and adapting pre-existing Mythos horrors. Also included are some nifty character sheets (fillable and printable versions). Best of all, though, is the price tag — you can get this 100+ page ruleset for free if you want, or a small donation if you’d like to help us make more editions (we have many more planned).
Age of Revolutions Protagonist Character Sheet
We hope the creation of this new roleplaying engine will encourage folks to go back and look at this evocative (if somewhat grubby) period of history and imagine what horrors might lurk in the unwatched places as the world underwent the tumultuous events that created the world that we recognize today. Because our rules are 100% free and open (under the Wizards OGL) anything you imagine and create is yours to release (commercially if you want) as long as you do so under the OGL … Download our SRD today and start scheming.
So, find your powder horn, polish up your brace of flintlocks, … it’s time to set out into to uncover the hidden threats that no earthly revolution can harm, but which you must suppress lest all humanity fall. Nobody said it was going to be an easy life! C’est la vie.
It’s H.P. Lovecraft’s birthday … so we thought we’d celebrate the occasion by releasing yet ANOTHER in our immensely popular “Miskatonic Mysteries” PDF scenario series. This new addition is titled “Bottoms Up!”, written by one of my personal favorite indie Lovecraft game writers Rachael B. Randolph.
The best news is … the 42 page Cthulhu Eternal scenario (with loads of neat props) is available right now!
[NB: An earlier version of this scenario was released with stats for a different D100 ruleset, so if this all sounds familiar … you’re probably remembering that version. This revision converts the scenario to the Cthulhu Eternal, adds a nifty new map of Bolton (see below) and otherwise refreshes the layout.]
This scenario takes Protagonists away from haunted Arkham to the nearby industrial town of Bolton (most famous for its involvement in some of the experiments performed by Herbert West: Reanimator). Unlike genteel and academic Arkham, Bolton is a working-class haven full of factories which once produced a range of fine produce to supply every town in the Miskatonic Valley.
Brewed products made by the Bolton Brewing Company — in particular beers and ales — were once a mainstay of local life from Aylesbury to Kingsport. But with the introduction of Prohibition the brewery business has suffered greatly … and has had to fall back on its non-alcoholic brewed drinks, sodas, and tonics. But recent advances in cheap long-distance transport have made the soda-selling business incredibly competitive. Out of state operators like Moxie (based in Maine) and Bub-L-Pep (from California) have now cornered a sizable share of the Miskatonic market. To business-minded folks it seems inevitable that Bolton Brewing is destined for bankruptcy.
But … recent news suggests that the old Bolton business isn’t going down without a fight. They’ve announced a range of new — and highly … unusual — new soda flavors. Varieties like “Djingula Bean” soda and “Xuin Flower Elixir” … flavors that no established soda manufacturer has ever bottled. Flavors that nobody much seems to even recognize.
Naturally this odd announcement has bemused residents in Arkham and elsewhere … but further afield it has inflamed a strong curiosity in some of those out-of-state competitors. The soda game is a cut-throat business, and inside information is the key to winning it. Some might call it gentle probing, others “industrial espionage.” Either way, there is a curious and sinister angle to this whole affair — since the first two out-of-town “investigators” both wound up dead. Each was found in a car at the bottom of the Miskatonic River, hands bound to the steering wheel. Who could have committed such brutal killings? The Mob? The brewers? Rival soda companies?
The Protagonists are hired on to get to the bottom of these ghastly murders. One thing is for certain … this is going to be thirsty work. So … Bottoms Up!
If you occasionally drop by our product pages on DTRPG, you might sometimes find something a bit … peculiar. Almost all of the product we have listed consistently score excellent ratings with folks who have purchased them … 4/5 or 5/5 ratings almost exclusively.
But sometimes, you might stumble upon a product which only has a couple of really low ratings. “What’s up with that?”, you might think to yourself. The mystery might even be compounded if we let the cat out of the bag … pretty much 100% of those 1 and 2 star ratings were all left by ONE individual.
What’s that? Someone who has purchased dozens of copies of our PDFs … the same products multiple times over … apparently just for the opportunity to leave bad product ratings? Sounds insane, right. But that’s what our DTRPG sales reports definitively show. One person, using two different drivethru accounts (accounts 2XXXX8 and 17XXXX6 [redacted for privacy]), seems hell-bent on repeatedly leaving us bad feedback. Well, I guess that is their privilege … although we really don’t know why.
There’s a couple of ironies about this situation, though. The first is the fact that this person’s reviews don’t persist for long — they’re up for a short time, but then quickly removed as inauthentic. The second irony is that this one individual — whoever he, she, or they might be — has now provided Cthulhu Reborn enough DTRPG revenue that we will shortly be in a position to commission further Open Source Lovecraftian PDF scenarios get written.
So … from that perspective … can I just say that whoever our #1 hater might be, please PLEASE don’t stop! We can make great new things together; your money and our creativity can achieve wonderful things.
While I am (sadly) not in Providence this weekend, celebrating H.P. Lovecraft’s life and monstrosities at NecronomiCon 2022 … some of our fine book did manage to make the trip.
If you are at the con and have always wanted to pick up hardcover or softcover editions of our APOCTHULHU books, track down the shared “small RPG publishers table”. There are even a few nifty T-Shirts available for sale.
Iä Iä …
In other news … we are hard at work on the next two PDF releases that should be crawling out from our crypt of gaming. One is a great “Miskatonic Mystery” playable with the Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age SRD. The other is … a whole new edition of the CE system, optimized for a brand new historical era. Watch this space. Things should be stirring before the month is out.
Cthulhu Reborn 