Green Ronin Announces 'Cthulhu Awakens' RPG

Green Ronin has announced a new standalone Cthulhu mythos tabletop RPG. It will come to Kickstarter in February, and is described as an inclusive take on Lovecraftian canon, powered by by their in-house Adventure Game Engine. The game takes place at any time in the last century, which it describes as the 'Weird Century'.

Green Ronin Publishing is proud to announce that its latest AGE System roleplaying game, Cthulhu Awakens, will begin crowdfunding on Kickstarter on February 15, 2022. Cthulhu Awakens is a complete roleplaying game where a diverse set of protagonists confront the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. It will be a 270+ page full color hardback book, with additional material unlockable through Kickstarter stretch goals.

Cthulhu Awakens deviates from Lovecraftian “canon” in the interests of creating an inclusive setting fit for the roleplaying campaign medium. In the game the original Mythos stories hinted at the truth, but it was obscured by their authors’ biases and fallibilities. Cthulhu Awakens creates a distinct vision of the Mythos that provides a new springboard for Cosmic Horror roleplaying. It allows you to play at any point between the 1920s and the present day, through a period it calls “the Weird Century.”

Cthulhu Awakens is a stand-alone RPG powered by Green Ronin’s popular Adventure Game Engine (AGE), a dynamic and easy to learn system whose games include Fantasy AGE, Modern AGE, Blue Rose: The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy, and the licensed RPGs Dragon Age and The Expanse. Cthulhu Awakens evolves the Modern AGE rules, customizing them for the Cosmic Horror genre, but the game is also substantially compatible with other AGE RPGs.

“The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the pillars of modern roleplaying,” said Green Ronin Publishing president Chris Pramas, “so with the success of Modern AGE it was only natural we explore it, but we wanted to make sure we had the right team and a distinct, inclusive direction for the game.” The writing and design team for Cthulhu Awakens includes Sharang Biswas, David Castro, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Hiromi Cota, H.D. Ingham, Khaldoun Khelil, Danielle Lauzon, Ian Lemke, Monte Lin, Jack Norris, and Malcolm Sheppard.

The February 15, 2022, Kickstarter will not only fund a physical release of the book estimated by the end of 2022, but it will also include stretch goals for things like adventures and VTT token packs, plus options to explore other AGE System games at a discount. The campaign also features a special offering for backers in its first 48 hours.

H.P. Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos (beginning with the short story The Call of Cthulhu in 1928) is well known for his racist views which are reflected in his works. Much of the Cthulhu Mythos itself, including Lovecraft's own work, has been in the public domain since the 1980s.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I think it's important to note that I haven't seen a single game really try to emulate a Lovecraft story.

De Profundis?

 

[jerryrice4949]

Kind of surprised this is what Green Ronin is doing next. Seems like a crowded area. But honestly their decisions as of late just perplex me. Still cannot believe they never brought their most popular franchise Freeport to 5E.

 

[MGibster]

De Profundis?

I haven't seen that one so I can't really say.

 

[eyebeams]

This might clear things up.

The Cthulhu Awakens FAQ, Version 0.5

As we recently announced, we’re making a new standalone AGE System game, Cthulhu Awakens, which will start crowdfunding over at Kickstarter on February 15, 20

greenronin.com

 

[MGibster]

This might clear things up.

Oh, wow! They're using Alienation! I can only assume I'll get my .05 cent royalty check in the mail from Green Ronin for using my idea. I'm still not quite sure what Green Ronin is bringing to the table with their interpretation of Lovecraft's that's unique, but I'm still looking forward to finding out.

 

[eyebeams]

Oh, wow! They're using Alienation! I can only assume I'll get my .05 cent royalty check in the mail from Green Ronin for using my idea. I'm still not quite sure what Green Ronin is bringing to the table with their interpretation of Lovecraft's that's unique, but I'm still looking forward to finding out.

I don't know how it compares to other forms of open ended gaming in a 100 year timespan that assumes classic Mythos fiction is unreliable, biased narration, but I applaud your appreciation of the term Alienation. We bopped around a few ideas before settling on it last year.

 

[eyeheartawk]

So, I read the FAQ.

I'm still not clear on what this game does that takes deep breath CoC (and its many settings and sourcebooks), Delta Green, Trail of Cthulhu, Realms of Cthulhu, Shadows of Cthulhu (which is for Green Ronin's own True20 by the by), Cthulhu Dark, Cthulhu Live, Cthulhu Tech, Eldritch Skies, De Profundis, The Laundry, Tremulus, Achtung Cthulhu, World War Cthulhu etc etc don't already cover in part or whole. Well, besides filling a perceived need in an existing product line, I suppose. In that regard I suspect it serves a purpose.

Also, there was no other option than using Kickstarter? Really?

Game On Tabletop • Project list • Game On Table Top

List of available crowdfunding projects on Game On Tabletop

www.gameontabletop.com

That certainly looks like an option. An option that was utilized previously. Personally, I don't take issue with using Kickstarter, but to say there is no other viable option (after listing how awful Kickstarter is ) when a previous crowdfunding campaign by the very same company on another platform made 250% of its goal strikes me as disingenuous.

I also didn't see anything regarding what sort of value the Kickstarter will offer to backers, so I suspect the usual bad Green Ronin terms. Though, I didn't suspect that would be any different.

 

[eyebeams]

I also didn't see anything regarding what sort of value the Kickstarter will offer to backers, so I suspect the usual bad Green Ronin terms. Though, I didn't suspect that would be any different.

Oh thank goodness, I thought you'd be coming in with some sort of bias.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Oh thank goodness, I thought you'd be coming in with some sort of bias.

Never claimed I didn't have any. That's a conscious choice.

I'm under no obligation to unquestionably to nod along to your FAQ and just hand you money, in the same way that you are under no obligation to actually address the salient points that I made and offer snark instead. That's also a conscious choice.

 

[eyebeams]

Never claimed I didn't have any. That's a conscious choice.

I'm under no obligation to unquestionably to nod along to your FAQ and just hand you money, in the same way that you are under no obligation to actually address the salient points that I made and offer snark instead. That's also a conscious choice.

Well, in terms of very specific business decisions, you'd have to ask the people doing that, which you can easily do by email or social media, if you feel like it. If you don't, cool. Like, I don't know which prior Kickstarters you're dissatisfied with because you didn't say, and even if I did, I probably don't have the specific knowledge. As for this one, which comes in 20 days, I have a feeling that more information will come out in, say, the next 20 days. It's not really my job to take your money, so you don't have to hand it over, no worries. I don't know where GIVE ME MONEY NO QUESTIONS ASKED was in the FAQ, which would defeat the purpose of it. In any event, if you have a specific question--say, a salient point, there are people (mostly not me) you can ask! If this is some kind of angry challenge, I'm not interested! Cheers!

In terms of asking that I prove this game has things 13 other RPGS don't within the confines of a forum post? 1) Sure it does. I look forwward to talking about it more in that spacious period of 20 days. 2) Fundamentally, the game is the way it is because it pleased the team writing and designing it to make it that way. AGE is fun, I know it pretty well, and there are some ideas that came out of interacting with the source material critically from the start, instead of to flavour a genre, create a process to emulate a genre, or act as a more direct literary exploration, that I look forward to sharing.