Raiders of R’lyeh is out

[Raleel]

i found out about it via google search and asking in a thread. I've not bought it, but I figured some folks might want to know. What I've been able to discern is that it is Edwardian Pulp Mythras with Cthulhu, which hits a lot of right notes for me. I was looking at a slight time shift forward to WW2 and including Nazi punching.

It's also $40, which I just can't justify without a preview on drivethrurpg. At that price, it is more than most games I pick up, and need some reassurance it is worth all that for me. That and I have two print on demand coupons I still have to use and those ones are not cheap either!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/209168/Raiders-of-Rlyeh-Gamemasters-Guide--Core-Rules For those looking.

Apparently long delayed out of Kickstarter due to health issues. I asked about it a couple weeks ago on therpgsite and provoked a couple pages and in my imagination was the catalyst for it being released ;)

 

[The Butcher]

I preordered. I have the PDFs.

It is 1910s pulp Cthulhu. It's ostensibly powered by Openquest but the system is Mythras/RQ6 in all but name.

I don't much care for some tidbits (like starting with magic) but the world information and random tables are top notch. I'm talking Sine Nomine levels of awesomeness.

That being said, USD 40 is steep for a PDF.

I also hope they is a sign Quentin is doing better — my limited interactions with him suggest he's an awesome, enthusiastic creator and a stand-up guy, and IIRC his health issues seemed fairly serious.

 

[Raleel]

Could you talk about the awesome a bit? I have godbound and stars without numbers but have not read them. I literally have an rpg addiction issue

I truly hope he is doing better as well. Health issues suck, and we have enough of that in the community.

 

[K_Peterson]

I contributed to the Kickstarter (4 years ago?), and I expect that I've got a pdf of RoR stashed somewhere on OneDrive. Which was distributed to backers a while ago. Perhaps it's the same one that's available on DTRPG?

I've pretty much stopped caring about RoR. Quentin hasn't posted an update to the Kickstarter since last Christmas (when he was "close to releasing the game!"). I thought his health issues occurred in 2014 or 2015 - but perhaps he had another issue recently. In any case, for me, RoR will be consigned to the Island of Misfit Rpgs - forgotten on cloud storage, never to be played, and $40 of wasted cash.

 

[The Butcher]

Could you talk about the awesome a bit? I have godbound and stars without numbers but have not read them. I literally have an rpg addiction issue

I truly hope he is doing better as well. Health issues suck, and we have enough of that in the community.

Random tables, my good man. Lots of them. And good ones too. To generate your own eldricht horrors, weird happenings and bizarre cults. Or even to stock an occult library. Pair this with Sine Nomine's Silent Legions for the ultimate DIY CoC scenario (or campaign) tool kit.

I contributed to the Kickstarter (4 years ago?), and I expect that I've got a pdf of RoR stashed somewhere on OneDrive. Which was distributed to backers a while ago. Perhaps it's the same one that's available on DTRPG?

I've pretty much stopped caring about RoR. Quentin hasn't posted an update to the Kickstarter since last Christmas (when he was "close to releasing the game!"). I thought his health issues occurred in 2014 or 2015 - but perhaps he had another issue recently. In any case, for me, RoR will be consigned to the Island of Misfit Rpgs - forgotten on cloud storage, never to be played, and $40 of wasted cash.

Trust me: it's worth looking into. To shuffle it into the same vault as Septimus or other cursed jewels would be a travesty.

 

[Raleel]

I assume you are just delirious from new baby stuff.

 

[TristramEvans]

I was really excited about this when it was announced, but the conduct during the KS has soured me unfortunately.

 

[3rik]

$40 may seem rather steep, but it's 490(!) pages crammed full of nothing but good stuff.

 

[Aglondir]

It's also $40, which I just can't justify without a preview on drivethrurpg.

A preview and several reviews.

What's the "Raiders" in reference to? In other words, why is it in the title? Does it reference a Lovecraft work, or does it have an Indiana Jones feel, or something else?

 

[TristramEvans]

490 pages actually works against it in pdf form. Which means the cost then becomes $40 + whatever the cost of printing it up.

 

[Raleel]

There is a 25 page preview available now.

 

[Simlasa]

Looks good!
Though I'm wondering how much I 'need' it is I've already got loads of CoC stuff as well as Silent Legions...

 

[The Butcher]

Looks good!
Though I'm wondering how much I 'need' it is I've already got loads of CoC stuff as well as Silent Legions...

I think they complement each other very well.

 

[K_Peterson]

Just got a notification from BackersKit that the RoR "Gamemaster Guide & Complete Rules Update 09/17" is available for download.

 

[Raleel]

nice to see. the 10 pages of...um... discourse on therpgsite might have prompted some action

 

[K_Peterson]

Yeah, I saw all the bitching and moaning, rage and anguish over there. But I'm doubtful that greased the wheels. Probably just what the publisher had planned to do anyway.

 

[Raleel]

Yeah, I saw all the bitching and moaning, rage and anguish over there. But I'm doubtful that greased the wheels. Probably just what the publisher had planned to do anyway.

I can hope, though I find it oddly coincidental that i bring it up on therpgsite a few weeks back and suggest that a PDF on DTRPG would do, even in a beta state, and money was being left on the table (not my words there), and it magically appears. Then, when the "discussion" happens and a lot of people get all spun up, suddenly it gets sent to backers too! I bet he reads therpgsite at least

 

[CRKrueger]

Heh, I'm the one who made the "left money on the table" post, and it does seem coincidental. Then again, one of the reasons we were surprised he wasn't doing it was because it was so obvious...

 

[Raleel]

and then so many crabby people because it hadn't gone to the backers!

 

[3rik]

I for one am just happy to receive my backer copy of the pdf.

 

[Endless Flight]

I saw this on DTRPG. I know the price is heavy, but would this be a good starting point for someone who has never owned a Cthulhu game before? I've only read Lovecraft and have never owned any games based on his works. This game said it was inspired by REH, and since he's one of my favorite authors, that always piques my interest.

 

[Raleel]

I saw this on DTRPG. I know the price is heavy, but would this be a good starting point for someone who has never owned a Cthulhu game before? I've only read Lovecraft and have never owned any games based on his works. This game said it was inspired by REH, and since he's one of my favorite authors, that always piques my interest.

It might be at that, though it is a different time period (Edwardian era) than the default Cthulhu game.

I was just reading RoR last night actually, as I've not spent a lot of time with it (stupid work). It's a fine book. It has an excellent history section, chase rules that I'm going to poach for my Mythras games, and excellent cosmic terror sorts of things. It is definitely in the RQ6/Mythras line of stuff, though based on Mongoose's OGL version, so there are some small subtle things in it. Still, if you are familiar with that line already, it will feel very at home.

I think that there are a large number of Cthulhu games at this point. If you are more familiar with some other system type, there is probably something there.

I'll try to spend some more time with it here and make some more detailed observations

 

[The Butcher]

I saw this on DTRPG. I know the price is heavy, but would this be a good starting point for someone who has never owned a Cthulhu game before? I've only read Lovecraft and have never owned any games based on his works. This game said it was inspired by REH, and since he's one of my favorite authors, that always piques my interest.

It's a good game. Now if you've never owned CoC, you damn well should, because it's a classic (I am partial to CoC6); the chief differences are that RoR is a tad crunchier (takes after Mythras in many things) and that characters are a bit beefier, and Sanity (Rationality in RoR) is a bit more forgiving. I am very fond of CoC's simplicity and grit, both of which RoR does away with to a degree, but RoR is a great game.

 

[Raleel]

Decided to go through and start bookmarking it in a more satisfactory fashion for me, and came across some nuances

• It has some new secondary attributes, like Rationality and Mettle Points. It doesn't use hit locations out of the box, but the option is there. It's like CoC+Mythras.
• Social status is more used. if you are noble, you have to take a bond for being nobility.
• they have a quick cultural background option, which I like for some players
• they have a religious heritage table, which is pretty neat. includes some extremely obscure religions that I happen to be familiar with
• the professions are pretty well tuned for the time. they also have special abilities in them, which is unlike many other d100s. These are somewhat like class abilities or feats.
• It has an Essential Nature for your character, in parallel with Culture and Profession. So, you could be an Outsider Tribal Magus, or you could be an Everyman Industrial Tradesman. I like this add, actually, quite a bit.
• There is a Circle of Influence section. It's sort of like a Cult or a Brotherhood, and everyone gets one to start with. You get Networking points with these, based on your charisma, and they don't replenish. You can apparently tap into your circles of influence and use those, but I've not read a lot on that yet.

 

[Raleel]

Looking through skills - one thing that strikes me is that they give automatic success on some things if you have a certain level. So, Amateur (25-49%) might get a bit of info, and professional (50-74%) might get more. The way they display it - with dots, with each dot increasing the level - makes me think of Gumshoe.

I've been noodling a Gumshoe/d100 crossover system for investigations. I've not read enough of Gumshoe to say, but i know you spend points for things, and I feel like the levels of skill might be a good proxy for the points. I know that Gumshoe has two classes of skills as well, and the "generally used in investigations" ones are on a different scale (generally smaller) than the "ones you use in other things" set. If I set up pools like this for Professional skills, it might encourage some taking of them without causing a lot of grief "yea, I took some seduction. I spend those points occasionally to get info out of people".

 

[Endless Flight]

This game seems pretty cool from the info you are providing and that preview pdf I've been looking through. I have very little experience with BRP so it's pretty new to me.

 

[Simlasa]

It's sounding a bit complicated and fussy to me... adding lots of little widgets.
What is 'rationality' in the game?

 

[Ladybird]

Looking through skills - one thing that strikes me is that they give automatic success on some things if you have a certain level. So, Amateur (25-49%) might get a bit of info, and professional (50-74%) might get more. The way they display it - with dots, with each dot increasing the level - makes me think of Gumshoe.

I've been noodling a Gumshoe/d100 crossover system for investigations. I've not read enough of Gumshoe to say, but i know you spend points for things, and I feel like the levels of skill might be a good proxy for the points. I know that Gumshoe has two classes of skills as well, and the "generally used in investigations" ones are on a different scale (generally smaller) than the "ones you use in other things" set. If I set up pools like this for Professional skills, it might encourage some taking of them without causing a lot of grief "yea, I took some seduction. I spend those points occasionally to get info out of people".

Basically, yeah.

If you have any dots in an Investigative ability, you're a professional in it (About the competence of an investigator in a TV show or book), and as long as you're in a place with a clue you could obtain with that ability, and doing a thing that would let you find it, you get it - no rolling required. What you'd do would vary depending on the situation and the clue, of course. You can spend points from an ability to get more information about that clue, but it's optional, and even if you've spent all the points you still have that skill, you're still an expert, but if you want more information you need to mix up your approaches. The game encourages you to buy lots of investigative abilities at relatively low levels, and explicitly encourages the group to make sure that, between them, they're got everything covered.

Mapping skill levels to autosuccesses sounds like a great way to do it. I'd probably go with 25% getting 1 point, 50% getting two, and 75% getting 3, with points replenishing if the character spends non-adventuring time doing R&R. It maybe runs into the issue of making high skills too strong, because with a 75% rating plus three autosucceses per adventure you're not going to be failing often, but on the other hand 75% is the level of an exceptionally skilled person, so it should work out. The other thing I'd be wary about is difficulty modifiers, which aren't a thing in Gumshoe; realistically, d100 players are likely to keep autosuccesses for when they're facing down a big negative modifier. You may or may not consider that a problem!

 

[Raleel]

Basically, yeah.

If you have any dots in an Investigative ability, you're a professional in it (About the competence of an investigator in a TV show or book), and as long as you're in a place with a clue you could obtain with that ability, and doing a thing that would let you find it, you get it - no rolling required. What you'd do would vary depending on the situation and the clue, of course. You can spend points from an ability to get more information about that clue, but it's optional, and even if you've spent all the points you still have that skill, you're still an expert, but if you want more information you need to mix up your approaches. The game encourages you to buy lots of investigative abilities at relatively low levels, and explicitly encourages the group to make sure that, between them, they're got everything covered.

Mapping skill levels to autosuccesses sounds like a great way to do it. I'd probably go with 25% getting 1 point, 50% getting two, and 75% getting 3, with points replenishing if the character spends non-adventuring time doing R&R. It maybe runs into the issue of making high skills too strong, because with a 75% rating plus three autosucceses per adventure you're not going to be failing often, but on the other hand 75% is the level of an exceptionally skilled person, so it should work out. The other thing I'd be wary about is difficulty modifiers, which aren't a thing in Gumshoe; realistically, d100 players are likely to keep autosuccesses for when they're facing down a big negative modifier. You may or may not consider that a problem!

Thanks for the info! much appreciated. I might start playing with this on my current characters and see where it goes. My thinking on the skill modifiers is that there is a time for a pools and a time for not. In "pool time", you can get automatic successes and spend points to get more. In non-pool-time, you don't get either. It's somewhat suggested like that in the book actually (though, without pools).

hrm... spend points to get the next grade up in skill seems like it would map very well. Also means that your very skilled people are only spending points on the really hard stuff.

 

[Raleel]

It's sounding a bit complicated and fussy to me... adding lots of little widgets.
What is 'rationality' in the game?

Many of the rules here are optional, actually. The skill tier I mention above definitely is.The religion is as well. It actually doesn't use hit locations, so that's a little less fussy. Networking is also optional.

Rationality reflects your adventurer’s carefully constructed
worldview, one in which the intuitions of darker truths
are repressed by civilized assumptions, institutionalized
education, hope, and — in the Enlightened mind — denial.
Rationality measures the adventurer’s ability to withstand
challenges to his perception of reality, or to hold frm to an
ideology. Use your adventurer’s Pow or Int (whichever is
higher), then multiply this attribute by 5

as well as

Rationality works as a kind of composite skill — measuring
the adventurer’s stability, reason and sanity — as well as a
kind of hit point pool — reflecting the adventurer’s overall
mental health. An adventurer with a high Rationality score
demonstrates lucidity, sanity and stability, while one with
a Rationality of zero experiences dissociation, madness and
imbalance.
Because Rationality represents in total the adventurer’s
worldview and long-built reasoning, it takes longer to
degrade than physical Hit Points. However, except under rare
circumstances, Rationality does not replenish in the same way
or as quickly as Hit Points do (see “Restoring Rationality”).

it is "willpower vs cosmic terror", as well as being hit points against madness. There are several pages on madness and the like, but I've not read them in depth

 

[Ladybird]

Thanks for the info! much appreciated. I might start playing with this on my current characters and see where it goes. My thinking on the skill modifiers is that there is a time for a pools and a time for not. In "pool time", you can get automatic successes and spend points to get more. In non-pool-time, you don't get either. It's somewhat suggested like that in the book actually (though, without pools).

I'm not keen on the "pool time" concept - it sounds a bit too artificial. I can forgive "time to detective!" breaks in something like the Batman videogames, but I'm not sure specific scene types really work outside of more storygamey RPG's.
But I'm also not at your table, so what I think doesn't matter as much as what your players might think

hrm... spend points to get the next grade up in skill seems like it would map very well. Also means that your very skilled people are only spending points on the really hard stuff.

Oooh, I like this - spend a point for +25% to one roll, say. I'd probably bump the amount of points up by one - so 1% - 25% is 1 point, etc - and the refresh rate might need some fudging, but now you've freed up the mechanic so a player could invoke it when the PC is really putting in a lot of effort and it works better within the d100 framework.

 

[Simlasa]

it is "willpower vs cosmic terror", as well as being hit points against madness. There are several pages on madness and the like, but I've not read them in depth

So is this in addition to CoC's 'Sanity' or instead of?
I'd like the idea of some PCs (a bank teller) taking bigger hits from scary stuff and other PCs (violent gangsters) being able to shrug them off.

 

[Raleel]

So is this in addition to CoC's 'Sanity' or instead of?
I'd like the idea of some PCs (a bank teller) taking bigger hits from scary stuff and other PCs (violent gangsters) being able to shrug them off.

instead of.

 

[Raleel]

I'm not keen on the "pool time" concept - it sounds a bit too artificial. I can forgive "time to detective!" breaks in something like the Batman videogames, but I'm not sure specific scene types really work outside of more storygamey RPG's.
But I'm also not at your table, so what I think doesn't matter as much as what your players might think


Oooh, I like this - spend a point for +25% to one roll, say. I'd probably bump the amount of points up by one - so 1% - 25% is 1 point, etc - and the refresh rate might need some fudging, but now you've freed up the mechanic so a player could invoke it when the PC is really putting in a lot of effort and it works better within the d100 framework.

yea, sort of low power luck points. Currently luck points are refreshed 1/session, 1/adventure, whenever. These ones i might refresh like once per arc, which would probably be ever 3-6 sessions, depending. Luck points also give on the order of 50% to a roll. These would be a little lower I think.

 

[Simlasa]

instead of.

OK, that makes more sense.

 

[CRKrueger]

Just curious, why spend points?
It seems like you're putting meta-mechanics in there just to add some metagame.
Skill levels is a great way to deal with the handing out of information (of course you know all about the Tcho-Tcho, you have a 83% in Occult Anthropology), no meta mechanics required.

 

[Ladybird]

yea, sort of low power luck points. Currently luck points are refreshed 1/session, 1/adventure, whenever. These ones i might refresh like once per arc, which would probably be ever 3-6 sessions, depending. Luck points also give on the order of 50% to a roll. These would be a little lower I think.

Hmm... I'm not sure you need both mechanics, and if a mechanic is available too rarely, it runs the risk of players forgetting they even have it.

 

[Raleel]

Hmm... I'm not sure you need both mechanics, and if a mechanic is available too rarely, it runs the risk of players forgetting they even have it.

yep i'm not sure you do either.

 

[Ladybird]

Just curious, why spend points?
It seems like you're putting meta-mechanics in there just to add some metagame.
Skill levels is a great way to deal with the handing out of information (of course you know all about the Tcho-Tcho, you have a 83% in Occult Anthropology), no meta mechanics required.

This is a good point; the innovation in Gumshoe is that if information is there to get, the dice can't stop you getting it, not that there are points to spend. Maybe, say, a 50% ability gets you the base level of clue just because you're that good, and you can roll if you want to find more.

 

[Raleel]

This is a good point; the innovation in Gumshoe is that if information is there to get, the dice can't stop you getting it, not that there are points to spend. Maybe, say, a 50% ability gets you the base level of clue just because you're that good, and you can roll if you want to find more.

like i said, need more time to think about it and read