D&D General Cthulhu by Torchlight Brings Mythos To D&D

Dungeons & Dragons 5E lead designer Mike Mearls' latest project combines his current and former employers--on D&D Beyond you can now access a digital exclusive product from Chaosium which brings the Cthulhu Mythos to D&D 5th Edition.

The supplement is called Cthulhu by Torchlight and includes subclasses, feats, and spells designed for 5E.

Cthulhu by Torchlight adds a new subclass to each of the character classes in the new Player’s Handbook, along with over two dozen Mythos-themed spells, a new background, and new Origin feats. For DMs, it holds over 20 horrid monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos. Rules for Passions and Dreadful Insights amplify roleplaying by putting mechanics behind your characters’ personality, while the skill challenge rules provide a framework for investigation, interaction, and other non-combat encounters.

 

[Desdichado]

More than happy to answer questions here.

How do you (or do you?) see this interacting with the Sandy Petersen Cthulhu Mythos stuff? It kinda sounds like they'd be complementary in most respects, rather than treading on each other's toes, but hard to say so far.

 

[mearls]

Tell us more about the skill challenges! As you know, I have all your old articles on file and read them occasionally....

Skill challenges have two main pieces:

• There's the basics of a list of possible skills and DCs, with room for player improv.
• Each player gets the chance to make one check or assist another check.
• After everyone takes a turn, the skill challenge includes a twist. The situation changes, either driven by or independent of the characters' actions.
• Every takes another turn.
• The situation resolves. The number of successful checks determines if the group gets the good outcome, bad outcome, or a mix.

As an example, in an adventure I wrote the characters have the chance to investigate a small village for clues. The checks they make measure how long it takes to find information. The NPCs in town are a little hard to deal with, but they ultimately want to help the party.

The twist determines what happens when a spy for the evil cult shows up. If the PCs have enough successes, then they move quickly and are in position to confront the spy. If not, the spy shows up, pokes around, but a town guard then spots him.

In the second arc, the spy tries to escape. If the PCs succeed, they catch him. On a mixed result, they can pursue him to a nearby cave and see what entrance he uses. If they fail, they follow him to the cave, don't spot where he goes, and he had a chance to alert a nearby NPC to confront the party.

I've found that the twist really makes the mechanic work. I've had a lot of success with it in my games.

 

[mearls]

How do you (or do you?) see this interacting with the Sandy Petersen Cthulhu Mythos stuff? It kinda sounds like they'd be complementary in most respects, rather than treading on each other's toes, but hard to say so far.

I intentionally avoided looking at it. My understanding is that Sandy has the copyright to it, so I wanted to make sure we didn't inadvertently cross streams.

 

[Zaukrie]

Skill challenges have two main pieces:

• There's the basics of a list of possible skills and DCs, with room for player improv.
• Each player gets the chance to make one check or assist another check.
• After everyone takes a turn, the skill challenge includes a twist. The situation changes, either driven by or independent of the characters' actions.
• Every takes another turn.
• The situation resolves. The number of successful checks determines if the group gets the good outcome, bad outcome, or a mix.

As an example, in an adventure I wrote the characters have the chance to investigate a small village for clues. The checks they make measure how long it takes to find information. The NPCs in town are a little hard to deal with, but they ultimately want to help the party.

The twist determines what happens when a spy for the evil cult shows up. If the PCs have enough successes, then they move quickly and are in position to confront the spy. If not, the spy shows up, pokes around, but a town guard then spots him.

In the second arc, the spy tries to escape. If the PCs succeed, they catch him. On a mixed result, they can pursue him to a nearby cave and see what entrance he uses. If they fail, they follow him to the cave, don't spot where he goes, and he had a chance to alert a nearby NPC to confront the party.

I've found that the twist really makes the mechanic work. I've had a lot of success with it in my games.

Thanks. Pretty much what Odyssey will do, I assume. It's a good design.

 

[TravDoc42]

2024 formatting, but the mechanics are all found in 2014. Monsters work in either version.

Thank you!!

 

[mearls]

What is the ability of the Feline Court class to turn into a cat like?

It's a polymorph effect that you gain at 3rd level. You can still cast warlock pact spells while in the form. At higher levels, you can do classic cat stuff like distract people by being adorable or vex them by... just being a cat, really. I write that as someone who lives with four of them.

The idea is to make a stealthy warlock who can sneak into places or wander around town unnoticed. I see the character as someone who might take down cults in secret, gathering information on them and doing just enough to disrupt their plans.

 

[mearls]

Thanks. Pretty much what Odyssey will do, I assume. It's a good design.

Thanks! I was planning on using a mechanic like this in Odyssey, so that project gave me a chance to surface some concepts and get feedback before finishing up work on Torchlight.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's a polymorph effect that you gain at 3rd level. You can still cast warlock pact spells while in the form. At higher levels, you can do classic cat stuff like distract people by being adorable or vex them by... just being a cat, really. I write that as someone who lives with four of them.

The idea is to make a stealthy warlock who can sneak into places or wander around town unnoticed. I see the character as someone who might take down cults in secret, gathering information on them and doing just enough to disrupt their plans.

I suspect this is also going to be very popular with a lot of tabaxi players.

 

[mamba]

when CoC d20 released all those years ago retailers and distributors had trouble keeping the lines straight.

Partnering with D&D Beyond solved that challenge for us.

is the plan to turn this into a 'line' (e.g. have some adventures for it) or is it a one-off?

 

[mearls]

is the plan to turn this into a 'line' (e.g. have some adventures for it) or is it a one-off?

It depends on how this goes sales-wise and what Chaosium wants to do with CoC, but I'm definitely open to expanding on this.