Cthulhu Eternal - Cold War SRD
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... a terrible cosmic narrative derived from ... discourses of the mad self-styled spy who had killed himself. I found myself faced by names and terms ... Yuggoth¸ Great Cthulhu¸ Tsathoggua¸ YogSothoth¸ R'lyeh¸ Nyarlathotep¸ Azathoth”
IMPORTANT NOTE: This PDF contains the text of a full set of rules for a (setting-independent) RPG which embraces Lovecraftian investigations in a mid-to-late 20th Century context. In OGL terms it is a "System Reference Document” (or SRD). While the rules contained in this PDF give you everything that you'd need to run a game they are not illustrated¸ typeset¸ or furnished with detailed examples as you would expect from a core RPG rulebook. Neither do they describe a particular game world¸ with a set of monsters¸ rituals¸ tomes and the like (although guidelines for building and encountering such elements are fully described).
Cthulhu Eternal is a multi-era¸ setting agnostic ruleset which aims to support inventive game designers who have original ideas for Lovecraftian roleplaying games or scenarios. It draws upon the long line of D100 games of Cthulhu-themed investigation¸ offering a beautifully streamlined and elegant set of mechanics to support a diverse range of gaming styles.
Different eras of human history each have their own flavor and character - due in part to the technology available¸ and in part due to social conventions of the day. Recognizing this¸ Cthulhu Eternal exists as a family of inter-related rules engines - each based on the same mechanics but tailored to the needs of a specific era.
This version of Cthulhu Eternal is specially designed to support Lovecraftian games set in mid-20th Century¸ and in particular the shadowy world of the "Cold War” that waxed and waned roughly from the end of World War II to the mid-1990s. This "historical era" is one which many older gamers will still recall¸ perhaps fondly or perhaps with memories of the pervasive sense of dread and paranoia fuelled by fears of nuclear war. The Cold War era was one rife with real-world subterfuge¸ paranoia¸ and uncertainty ... what better backdrop to set the scene for a tale of cosmic horror.
The Cthulhu Eternal Cold War SRD aims to support a broad spectrum of different types of Lovecraftian game set during these decades. Whether it's Mythos-tainted tales of ruthless espionage ... or nostalgia fuelled recreations of your favorite decade (whether that's the 50s¸ 60s¸ 70s¸ or 80s)¸ these rules give you the foundation for an evocative tale of horror and dread.
Other versions of Cthulhu Eternal currently available in SRD form:
Cthulhu Eternal: Age of Revolutions (1750-1850) SRD Cthulhu Eternal: Victorian Era SRD Cthulhu Eternal: Jazz Age SRD Cthulhu Eternal: World War II SRD Cthulhu Eternal: Modern Age SRD
More titles are planned as future releases.
Contained within the 100+ page PDF¸ you will find rules covering the following topics:
Part 1: Rules of the Game
1.0 Core Game Concepts 2.0 Creating Protagonists (the term given to player characters in Cthulhu Eternal ) 3.0 The Game (skills¸ tests¸ willpower) 4.0 Combat 5.0 Equipment 6.0 Vehicles 7.0 Sanity 8.0 Downtime (developing protagonists between adventures)
Part 2: Game Moderator Resources
9.0 Maddening Revelations 10.0 Supernatural Effects
Part 3: Game Building Resources
11.0 Designing New Archetypes 12.0 Translating Creatures from D100 Games 13.0 Gumshoe Creature Conversion
For convenience¸ this pack also includes two versions of the Cthulhu Eternal Cold War Day character sheet. One is a high-resolution non-fillable PDF¸ suitable for printing. The other is a fillable PDF sheet which will ONLY work with the full version of Adobe Reader - save the file to a local drive and open it using the Adobe Reader App (using it in-browser or on mobile devices won't work).
WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS SRD?
We are releasing this SRD to support community creators who would like to produce their own original