Cthulhu Dark

Do you ever feel that you’re losing control, even though you present a mask of calm to the world? That one push could make you snap, turning you into a screaming, desperate maniac?

Welcome to Cthulhu Dark.

So welcomes Cthulhu Dark, a new roleplaying game designed by Graham Walmsley, an award-winning author and game designer, new players to the game. You take on the role of an investigator, bent on learning more about the cosmic horrors that lurk beyond our world, our sanity, who are eager to claim our world once more as their own.

Unlike Call of Cthulhu and many other roleplaying games based on H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction, the role of the investigator is not necessarily to prevent the Mythos in taking over the world or thwart their evil plans, but to get a glimpse of the world beyond and gain insight into the alien horrors of the world. For players, Cthulhu Dark is a game about doomed investigators. So, sit back and enjoy watching your investigator slowly loose her mind, as she discover the things sleeping in the deep or beyond the fragile veil of sanity.

The game mechanics are fairly simple and offer players chance to co-operate in the narrative, or so to speak, as they can choose to make other players fail their rolls. The keeper’s role is to present not only the unfathomable cosmic horrors, but also help the players tell their stories and partake in the mysteries. The system uses d6 and is skill-based, where 4 is a success, 5 is a better success and 6 is not only a success, but offer the investigator a glimpse into the weird and alien beyond human knowledge. Reading the rules, it’s easy to see that this game will offer many chances for laughs, as the investigators uncover the some forbidden and terrifying knowledge of the world.

Graham Walmsley won a Gold Ennie for his work on Trail of Cthulhu for Pelgrane Press, which included Cthulhu Apocalypse and the legendarily bleak Purist adventures (collected as The Final Revelation). He has teamed up with some great co-authors and created an interesting and promising roleplaying game, that Lovecraft fans should definitely check out.

Cthulhu Dark is to be released later this year and can be pre-ordered here.