Cthulhu Dark - A Rules-Light System for Lovecraftian Games

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Published on 8th March 2011 12:15 PM

8 Comments

Graham Walmsley (author of The Dying of St. Margaret's, The Dance in the Blood and others) has released a freely available light rules set for Lovecraftian games entitled, Cthulhu Dark.

The rules are very minimal (fitting on a single piece of paper) and don't require a character sheet to play, so starting a game can be very quick.

Graham is allowing anyone to freely reprint the rules with their own publications for those who want a fast and light rules set included with their scenarios (simply get in touch with him first via thievesoftime.com).

Here's what Graham had to say:

"Cthulhu Dark is my rules-light Lovecraftian game. (It gets its name because it's essentially Cthulhu Light, but you can't call a Cthulhu game that, so it's Dark.)

The rules are fun and incredibly minimal: they fit on one sheet of paper. You don't need a character sheet to play, so you can start playing after two minutes of prep. Despite the simplicity, there are some interesting rules twists: look at the Suppressing Knowledge rule for an example.

I've played this a lot at conventions and it works pretty well.

Finally, if you write Cthulhu scenarios, you can use Cthulhu Dark to publish them as standalone products. This, in fact, is one reason I wrote Cthulhu Dark: because people wanted to buy my scenarios without buying a rules book. Put simply, you can Cthulhu Dark at the back of a scenario, free of charge, and publish it as a standalone thing."

For more details see Graham's web site at: www.thievesoftime.com

Download Cthulhu Dark (PDF, 98 KB)

There's also an ongoing discussion about Cthulhu Dark in the YSDC forums: Cthulhu Dark

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8 Comments

Hogscape - 8th March 2011, 01:26 PM

I liked the the combat rules: "if you fight any monster you meet, you die." but as it stands, it feels more like a LARP than an RPG.
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Sid - 8th March 2011, 01:28 PM

I'll be trying this out on Thursday with a friend visiting from Yorkshire (running Monophobia: Robinson Gruesome). It looks like a great beer and pretzels ruleset. Only thing I'd change is a green d6 for insanity and a red d6 for harm. Great stuff Graham!
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GrahamW - 8th March 2011, 08:28 PM

Green! Of course, you're absolutely right. I was trying to think of a significant colour, so I chose black, to indicate darkness. But green is much better.
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Yellow_Sign - 9th March 2011, 04:11 PM

Hey, it's pretty cool =D It reminds me of the Scandinavian style http://rpggeek.com/rpg/4304/the-upgrade
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OlderNick - 15th March 2011, 04:42 PM

http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn...ate=2011-03-15
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Tigger_MK4 - 20th March 2011, 03:39 PM

Just had a game with GW at ConcreteCow...Nicely elegant set of rules.

p.s. Its just occurred to me they're also make excellent "light" rules for a Star Trek game, replacing the characters profession with their branch of service...
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