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.

 

[Reynard]

While the terminology might be outdated i think the insanity concept is important for a Mythos game. It serves a similar purpose to hit points for a genre in which combat should not be common or even desirable. I haven't played AGE, only skimmed through the core Fantasy and Modern books, so I don't recall how it manages dwindling resources like health.

 

[Von Ether]

Probably the biggest boon will be very nasty monster stunts that GMs can steal for their own creations. Especially for those times the GM wants the table to know that it just got serious.

 

[Aldarc]

While the terminology might be outdated i think the insanity concept is important for a Mythos game. It serves a similar purpose to hit points for a genre in which combat should not be common or even desirable. I haven't played AGE, only skimmed through the core Fantasy and Modern books, so I don't recall how it manages dwindling resources like health.

Sanity is not really part of the terminology of the Fear & Horror rules in the Modern AGE Companion. It uses Fear and Horror ratings/scores.

 

[Reynard]

Sanity is not really part of the terminology of the Fear & Horror rules in the Modern AGE Companion. It uses Fear and Horror ratings/scores.

To what end? That is, do those ratings cause penalties? Status effects?

 

[MGibster]

I suspect that Cthulhu Awakens will follow the recent trend of resisting the language of "insanity" and "madness." There are fear, horror, and "distortion" rules in Modern AGE, but I am curious whether Cthulhu Awakens will opt for those rules or use a modified version.

I'm interested in seeing what they do with that. While I consider sanity and madness to be kind of a core requirement of Cthulhu stories, you can have a decent horror story without them. I wonder if they could achieve similar effects and call it something like Alienation.

 

[Reynard]

I'm interested in seeing what they do with that. While I consider sanity and madness to be kind of a core requirement of Cthulhu stories, you can have a decent horror story without them. I wonder if they could achieve similar effects and call it something like Alienation.

Horror often requires people making terrible decisions and acting out of strong emotions (not just fear). Those are hard to force by rules.

 

[Aldarc]

To what end? That is, do those ratings cause penalties? Status effects?

Not entirely sure. I know they are there in the Modern AGE: Companion, but I haven't looked at the fine details of how it all works.

I'm interested in seeing what they do with that. While I consider sanity and madness to be kind of a core requirement of Cthulhu stories, you can have a decent horror story without them. I wonder if they could achieve similar effects and call it something like Alienation.

Also consider the fact that D&D and a few other games (e.g., Shadow of the Weird Wizard) also moved away from the mental illness language of "madness" and "insanity." I believe the newish D&D Ravenloft uses "Stress" and also discusses the shift away from this language in its Cosmic Horror section.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Maybe it will more away from permanent insanity and be more temporary insanity or PTSD. After all, a lot of what happens could fit that better. And PTSD was not even a thing, as we understand it now, back when the original stories were written or the original game systems written.

 

[Reynard]

Maybe it will more away from permanent insanity and be more temporary insanity or PTSD. After all, a lot of what happens could fit that better. And PTSD was not even a thing, as we understand it now, back when the original stories were written or the original game systems written.

PTSD is not something to be taken lightly -- or, more importantly in this context, misrepresented in a game (much like the madness/insanity rules that have fallen out of favor). As someone who lives with a partner who suffers from PTSD, it doesn't look like the movies make it look and it isn't really something that I would expect to get treated properly in an RPG.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

PTSD is not something to be taken lightly -- or, more importantly in this context, misrepresented in a game (much like the madness/insanity rules that have fallen out of favor). As someone who lives with a partner who suffers from PTSD, it doesn't look like the movies make it look and it isn't really something that I would expect to get treated properly in an RPG.

Well, with all that has been researched and figured out about it since the 80's, shouldn't modern RPGs cover it? Or should it just be ignored? Isn't that worse? Getting mind-raped by some Mythos creature is definitely going to cause some PTSD along with whatever other mental issues go with it. So it should be covered, but properly, not like games in the 80's treated mental stuff.