Crothian
First Post
Shadows of Cthulhu
The games involving the Cthulhu Mythos have been around for decades. It is very interesting to see the game now being allowed to use different mechanics. I always wonder what a game looks like with different rules and this will make the third rules set for Cthulhu; Call of Cthulhu being the long running classic game and Trail of Cthulhu being the very different game mechanically using the Gumshoe system. Shadows of Cthulhu takes the durable and well respected True 20 system by Green Ronin and combines it with the World of H. P. Lovecraft.
Shadows of Cthulhu is a new game by Reality Deviant Publications. It does require the True20 Adventure Roleplaying by Green Ronin to make full use of it. The book is about one hundred and thirty pages long and comes as a PDF or in print. I am reading from a print version and the review reflects that. The book is black and white with good art and lay out. The top and bottom of each page have what I guess is some sort of writing in unfamiliar characters reminiscent of what might be seen in the game. The art is good but I feel too many pieces are of obvious monsters and I like a little more subtlety with my mythos art.
The order the information is giving in the book is not the way I think it should done. It seems like a little thing but the book places the mechanics in the front and it feels like that is the emphasis of the book. It being a Cthulhu book I would have like to see the book start with information on the mythos and the setting first. The book also seems to assume the reader is familiar with the mythos and the stories. I would have liked to see more introductory material in the book. The last issue I have with the book as long as I am going into the negatives first is there is no adventure here. There are plenty of adventure seeds but nothing that really shows what a Cthulhu scenario really looks like.
The book starts with the mechanics of True 20. Nothing seems to be reprinted here from the True 20 book so that book will be needed here. The chapter begins with plenty of new backgrounds that are very useful for the setting. There are things here like Ancient Bloodline, Old World, and Secret Society. It is very important to realize that the game is set in the 1920’s so backgrounds like Wild West and Small Town have an even greater impact on the character then similar backgrounds from our own modern world. There are also new roles that can be used in addition to the Adept, Expert and Warrior of the main True 20 book. The new roles are the Academic, Investigator, and Reverent. There are new archetypes and an important section on how some skills and feats are changed as well as a few new skills and feats. There is not a lot of things that really stand out here. Everything looks good and fits the setting.
The next two chapters are all about the setting. The first deals with the 1920’s and the second narrating the Cthulhu games. I would have liked to seen more cross over between the two chapters. How does the mythos change the world of the 1920’s. The book does a nice job with just giving enough information to allow readers to get the feel of the setting and the main elements without the need to overburden the reader with less useful minutia.
As most people know with any Cthulhu game there is going to be insanity. There is a simple save way to do it and a little more complex but better system that uses a mental health track so characters can have many stages of insanity and ways to get disorders. It seems to be a good way to bring the feel of the Call of Cthulhu insanity into the True 20 rules. There are lots of disorders giving in its own chapter and the almost ten pages seem like plenty of disorders for the game. There are mythos powers, mythos books, and plenty of monsters to make sure the player characters get plenty of chances to go insane.
The book gives one what they need to run a Cthulhu game with the True 20 book. It is not going to be easy for someone that doe not know mythos or how those scenarios play out in an RPG to use this product. I have always considered Cthulhu a difficult game to run because capturing the feel of the game for people not used to it is tough. Hopefully, with more Cthulhu books coming out from different companies it will make this job easier.
The games involving the Cthulhu Mythos have been around for decades. It is very interesting to see the game now being allowed to use different mechanics. I always wonder what a game looks like with different rules and this will make the third rules set for Cthulhu; Call of Cthulhu being the long running classic game and Trail of Cthulhu being the very different game mechanically using the Gumshoe system. Shadows of Cthulhu takes the durable and well respected True 20 system by Green Ronin and combines it with the World of H. P. Lovecraft.
Shadows of Cthulhu is a new game by Reality Deviant Publications. It does require the True20 Adventure Roleplaying by Green Ronin to make full use of it. The book is about one hundred and thirty pages long and comes as a PDF or in print. I am reading from a print version and the review reflects that. The book is black and white with good art and lay out. The top and bottom of each page have what I guess is some sort of writing in unfamiliar characters reminiscent of what might be seen in the game. The art is good but I feel too many pieces are of obvious monsters and I like a little more subtlety with my mythos art.
The order the information is giving in the book is not the way I think it should done. It seems like a little thing but the book places the mechanics in the front and it feels like that is the emphasis of the book. It being a Cthulhu book I would have like to see the book start with information on the mythos and the setting first. The book also seems to assume the reader is familiar with the mythos and the stories. I would have liked to see more introductory material in the book. The last issue I have with the book as long as I am going into the negatives first is there is no adventure here. There are plenty of adventure seeds but nothing that really shows what a Cthulhu scenario really looks like.
The book starts with the mechanics of True 20. Nothing seems to be reprinted here from the True 20 book so that book will be needed here. The chapter begins with plenty of new backgrounds that are very useful for the setting. There are things here like Ancient Bloodline, Old World, and Secret Society. It is very important to realize that the game is set in the 1920’s so backgrounds like Wild West and Small Town have an even greater impact on the character then similar backgrounds from our own modern world. There are also new roles that can be used in addition to the Adept, Expert and Warrior of the main True 20 book. The new roles are the Academic, Investigator, and Reverent. There are new archetypes and an important section on how some skills and feats are changed as well as a few new skills and feats. There is not a lot of things that really stand out here. Everything looks good and fits the setting.
The next two chapters are all about the setting. The first deals with the 1920’s and the second narrating the Cthulhu games. I would have liked to seen more cross over between the two chapters. How does the mythos change the world of the 1920’s. The book does a nice job with just giving enough information to allow readers to get the feel of the setting and the main elements without the need to overburden the reader with less useful minutia.
As most people know with any Cthulhu game there is going to be insanity. There is a simple save way to do it and a little more complex but better system that uses a mental health track so characters can have many stages of insanity and ways to get disorders. It seems to be a good way to bring the feel of the Call of Cthulhu insanity into the True 20 rules. There are lots of disorders giving in its own chapter and the almost ten pages seem like plenty of disorders for the game. There are mythos powers, mythos books, and plenty of monsters to make sure the player characters get plenty of chances to go insane.
The book gives one what they need to run a Cthulhu game with the True 20 book. It is not going to be easy for someone that doe not know mythos or how those scenarios play out in an RPG to use this product. I have always considered Cthulhu a difficult game to run because capturing the feel of the game for people not used to it is tough. Hopefully, with more Cthulhu books coming out from different companies it will make this job easier.
