What is Weirdness Overflowing?
over 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 03, 2022 at 08:51:25 AM

Skimming the stretch goals, the $70,000 Weirdness Overflowing supplement may have caught your eye? What is it? How do you get it?

The hint is in the title. Since we’ve blown past all the stretch goals that expand content in the Cthulhu Awakens core rulebook, we need another place for additional material. Weirdness Overflowing is that place, in the form of a PDF supplement for the core game that will include expansions to the game. Some of these had to be cut from the Cthulhu Awakens as part of the development process but will be reintroduced with new development and revisions to fully integrate them into the main game.

But what is that material, anyway? Well, the better the Kickstarter does, the more you’ll get. You see, if we hit $70,000, you’ll get the Cults of the Mythos, an exploration of the occult conspiracies, fringe science practitioners, and other secret societies that shape the Weird Century, along with rules for managing their conflicts and fates.

This is just the start, however. In future stretch goals, Weirdness Overflowing to include another chapter, the Demimondes Gazetteer. The demimondes of Cthulhu Awakens are alternate universes, reachable through The Corridor that connects 1924 Arkham to 1894 Saraswanagar, Bengal, 1934 Carracina, Italy, and 2024 New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, USA. Each of these cities does not exist in the others’ timelines, and visitors occupy bodies indigenous to that time and place. Is the Corridor a Yithian artifact? A flaw in the threads binding space, time, and consciousness? This section will explore those possibilities.

Finally, if the campaign really pushes past existing stretch goals we’ll add a third section, Redacted Rites and Unmentioned Artifacts, expanding the number of eldritch workings and strange artifacts available.

Weirdness Overflowing will be available in PDF to all backers who qualify for digital stretch goals shortly after the release of the Cthulhu Awakens rulebook.

IMPORTANT NOTE! Weirdness Overflowing is different from the DREADCRAWLS zine, Issue #0 of which will go out free to anyone who backed in the first 48 hours. If you missed the 48-hour window, however, it will still be available for general sale. And yes, more issues of DREADCRAWLS are being worked on right now. Details to come!

Session Zero Livestream, and a Podcast!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 06:39:11 PM

Last night The Expanse RPG developer, Ian Lemke hosted a Session Zero for a new Cthulhu Awakens livestream game! Keep an eye out for future sessions, as the group gets those dice rolling!

Our friends over at Game Knight Heroes have also recorded an actual-play podcast from their adventures with Cthulhu Awakens. You can check it out on Spotify!

More Goals, Less Stretchy
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 04:23:57 AM

If you take a look at the main campaign page you might notice that we’ve revised our stretch goals. We’ve done that for a few reasons.

1) We’re in the middle of the campaign for Cthulhu Awakens and we want to keep the hype going! I mean, that’s the main goal, from which all else descends, obviously.

2) We’ve been looking at feedback and general reactions to the campaign and one consistent element was the desire for more stretch goals with original Cthulhu Awakenscontent in addition to the Modern AGE PDFs.

3) As we’ve worked on expansions for the game, we’ve concluded that some of them should be multi-part, or otherwise have follow ups. That’s the situation for Weirdness Overflowing and DREADCRAWLS.

As a result, we’ve dropped to $10,000 increments for the goals going from $70,000 to $100,000. Here’s what’s coming!

$70,000—Weirdness Overflowing: Cults of the Mythos PDF: The Weirdness Overflowing supplement has gotten big enough that we’re splitting it into chapters covering different topics. The first, Cults of the Mythos, will cover at least 20 cults and organizations, along with rules to track their fates, tracking in at an estimated 32 pages.

$80,000—Modern AGE: Enemies & Allies PDF: Modern AGE’s Enemies & Allies is a book of supernatural and technological threats, along with NPCs who are specialists, cops, criminals, psychics, modern-day warriors, and more. It includes a dedicated chapter on horror-oriented creatures that are easy to use with Cthulhu Awakens as well.

$90,000—1960s Adventure PDF: The weird 60s beckon! Social revolution, rampant espionage, daring outer space—it presents dangers and opportunities when characters delve into the secret hand of Mythos influence. Estimated 16 pages.

$100,000—Weirdness Overflowing: The Demimondes Gazetteer PDF: In Cthulhu Awakens “demimondes” are alternate universes, each one containing a location that doesn’t exist in the others. By traversing the mysterious Corridor, travelers steal the lives of dwellers in these other timelines. This chapter of Weirdness Overflowing will cover 1924 Arkham, 1894 Saraswanagar, Bengal, 1934 Carracina, Italy, and 2024 New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, USA from an intimate perspective, presenting people and places, while speculating about additional realities accessible through the Corridor and, of course, its ultimate nature, across an estimated 32 pages.

AND BEYOND: We have several things ready once we break the six-figure ceiling. One of them is further issues of DREADCRAWLS (though a free Issue #0 remains an early backer exclusive—sorry!). Another is more Weirdness Overflowing. And then?

We’ll see.

The AGE of Cthulhu Awakens
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 10:07:02 PM

Over the weekend we unlocked another stretch goal and our second adventure for the core book. As if that was not exciting enough, we have more information coming soon about what "Weirdness Overflowing" is going to look like. In the meantime, we have another post from developer Malcolm Sheppard answering some of the questions folks have had about how Cthulhu Awakens works in the AGE system!

Take it away, Malcolm!

Cthulhu Awakens uses the Adventure Game Engine—the AGE system, for short. 

AGE was originally devised for the Dragon Age RPG, based on the Bioware electronic game, and was further developed in Fantasy AGE, as featured in Wil Wheaton’s Titansgrave, and in the Blue Rose romantic fantasy RPG. But in the case of Cthulhu Awakens, the most relevant predecessor is Modern AGE, the multi-genre contemporary era version of the system. This version was also adapted to The Expanse. All versions use the same basic system, so it’s easy to move from them to Cthulhu Awakens and vice versa.

Early on, however, we wanted to deeply tailor AGE for Cthulhu Awakens. This has led to a number of innovations. These characteristics are notable.

Levels, Not Classes: Cthulhu Awakens use levels to manage character advancement, since these encouraged balanced improvement, but doesn’t have character classes—your character’s areas of expertise are up to you.

Gritty Elements, Cinematic Options: Levels don’t make you tougher—unless you want them to. While your Health doesn’t improve like that of a fantasy hero as you gain levels, you have the option of introducing cinematic resistance to injury and more heroic deeds via the included Fortune rules, first devised for The Expanse RPG.

Expanded Specializations: To represent obsessive interests and traditional character niches, specializations in Cthulhu Awakens have five degrees of competence, allowing for dedicated occult scholars, seekers of the unknown, and, perhaps, sorcerers.

Bonds: A Bond is a relationship, belief, or preoccupation that has a powerful influence on you, providing bonus stunt points when actions support the Bond. Evolved from the Relationships system in prior AGE games, Bonds expands this into other character elements, and introduces External Bonds, which represent involuntary or aversive influence.

Alienation: In Cthulhu Awakens, exposure to the Mythos adapts minds to the myriad Unseen Dimensions. This Alienation provides Enlightenment, conferring strange insights, and Terror, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Eldritch Workings: “Magic” in Cthulhu Awakens comes from strange texts and cults and can be used by virtually anyone. Workings risk Alienation, but include potent, bizarre powers.

More: Other refinements include how stunts are structured, new equipment rules, some revised actions—and a lot more. We didn’t just slap the Mythos on top of AGE but made top to bottom tweaks to improve the game. It’ll be fun—well, eldritch fun...

-Malcolm Sheppard

Adventure Game Engine (AGE) 101
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 07:21:56 PM

Cthulhu Awakens uses the Adventure Game Engine, also called the AGE system. 

What is AGE? How does it work?

The AGE system is designed to be straightforward and easy to learn. You use normal, 6-sided dice, rolling three of them against a target number. If you score doubles on any two of the dice, you may activate stunt points, which you can use to add extraordinary effects to your actions. 

AGE powers multiple roleplaying games, including the following:

• Dragon Age Roleplaying Game
• Fantasy AGE
• Modern AGE
• Blue Rose: The AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy
• The Expanse Roleplaying Game

From its beginnings as the system used for Dragon Age, the AGE system has evolved, with multiple variations, but they all use the same basic system, with some customizations for specific styles of gaming. Like its close cousin Modern AGE,Cthulhu Awakens uses levels to measure experience, but no character classes. Fortune, a special trait to help characters in the face of danger, is an option in Cthulhu Awakens, having evolved from The Expanse.

Cthulhu Awakens presents a number of evolved or unique systems to support Mythos roleplaying on top of past AGE rules, such as Bonds, Alienation, eldritch workings, new specializations, and of course, the dread entities of the Mythos.

To find out more about the AGE System, visit https://cthulhuawakensrpg.com/what-
is-age-the-adventure-game-engine/.