World of Darkness - Cthulhu.pdf - World of Darkness - RPG

Based on Materials

Written by:

H.P. Lovecraft

Sandy Petersen

Justin Achilli

Layout,

Editing, & Design:

James D.

Hargrove

Thanks To:

Mister Gone

World of Cthulhu

Lovecraftian Roleplay in the World of Darkness

Draft Version 0.02

Introduction

World of Cthulhu is an unofficial supplement designed to be used with

White Wolf Incorporated’s World of Darkness core rule book. Call of Darkness is

an homage to the supernatural horror of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and, as such,

draws heavily upon public domain works written by that author. Finally, World of

Cthulhu was also inspired by the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game published by

Chaosium Incorporated. Please, for the love of all things holy, don’t sue me for

making World of Cthulhu available to the public!

Characters

Characters in the World of Cthulhu are normal, everyday people - just like

you and me. While some of these people may possess combat training (such as

soldiers) or the legal right to arrest other people (such as FBI agents or local police

officers), at the end of the day they’re still human beings. They don’t possess

supernatural powers, they don’t have some higher calling to fight evil, and they

don’t routinely kick supernatural evil in the face, either. In the World of Cthulhu,

it’s not the character who is unusual, but the circumstances that life or some more

sinister force (such as the Storyteller) thrusts upon them.

New Skills

The World of Cthulhu rules add three new skills to the standard skill list

utilized in the World of Darkness core rule book - Cthulhu Mythos, Diving, and

Etiquette - all of which are explained directly below:

Cthulhu Mythos

“Beyond the stars lie boundless portals - the dark, the darkness, compensates in

closed spaces - but I have gazed into those portals and I have seen the horrible

things gazing back.”

The fiction of Howard Lovecraft treats non-mythos related magic much as

it does non-mythos related religions - such things are superficial constructs of

humanity that serve no purpose other than to comfort people as they live out a

meager existence in an uncaring universe. In the World of Cthulhu, only the magic

and methods of the Cthulhu Mythos have any true power. You can slap down a ten

dollar bill at the local bookstore and buy a book of so-called Pagan ‘magic’, but

the damnable sorcery of the Cthulhu Mythos comes at a much higher price. As

such, the knowledge of these things is represented by this new skill.

Possessed by: Misguided individuals who don’t know any better such

as crazed cultists, sorcerers, savages, unfortunate investigators

Specialties: Alien Artifacts, Cosmology, Cult Practices, Sacred Tomes,

Sorcerous Rituals

Roll Results:

Dramatic Failure: Your character has seriously misjudged some aspect

of the Mythos, be it a ritual component or the intentions of a particular cult. Note

that such a mistake may not become apparent immediately, but either way, the

ultimate consequence of such a mistake will be very bad .

Failure: Your character simply makes no headway in his efforts to

decipher a Mythos tome, call upon the power of a sorcerous ritual, deduce the

origin of an alien artifact, or otherwise practically apply their knowledge of the

Cthulhu Mythos.

-1-

Success: Your character successfully calls upon their knowledge of the

Cthulhu Mythos to enact a ritual, identify the calling card of a particular cult,

decipher a passage from the Al Azif, or discern the intended use of an alien artifact

from beyond space and time.

Exceptional Success: Not only does your character’s attempt to apply

their knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos succeed, but they also recall some niggling

(and potentially very important) detail about the cult, spell, tome, artifact, or other

abominable thing that they are explaining, investigating, or invoking.

New Skills

(Continued)

Diving

“When I saw that horrible face hiding amongst the seaweed, I forgot all of

my training, dropped my weights and sped toward the distant surface of the bay,

bends be damned!”

Characters who posses the Diving skill are versed, not only in the basic

principles of diving, but in their practical application as well. Such a character

knows how to control their breathing, how to move with precision underwater, and

how to avoid unnecessary risks while beneath the surface of the sea. Given the

nautical nature of many Lovecraft short stories, the inclusion of a skill that expressly

allowed for undersea exploration seemed prudent.

Possessed by: Marine biologists, pearl divers, pipeline welders, sailors,

weekend warriors

Specialties: SCUBA diving, skin diving, spear fishing, underwater safety

Roll Results:

Dramatic Failure: Your character’s effort not only fails, but they injure

themself in the process - and, obviously, diving accidents can have the potential

to be lethal (see the rules for Holding Breath on Page 49 of the WoD core rule

book).

Failure: Your character fails to achieve what they were attempting to do.

They decide that exploring an underwater cave before going up for another air

tank is a good idea, they clumsily bump into the rotten hull of a sunken vessel,

triggering its collapse, etc.

Success: Your character accomplishes the action as planned. They

surface to exchange air canisters before exploring the underwater cave, they deftly

maneuver past the rotten hull of the sunken ship, etc.

Exceptional Success: Your character accomplishes the action with

more efficiency or speed than expected. For instance, your character manages to

spear an attacking sharp through the roof of it’s mouth, rendering it harmless.

Etiquette

“She was called Victoria because she had beaten us in battle seven hundred

years before, and she was called Gloriana because she was glorious, and she was

called the Queen because the human mouth was not shaped to say her true name.”

Eccentric socialites and high society often play a role in Lovecraft’s short

stories, thus, a specific skill to deal with such elements has been implemented here.

The Etiquette skill is essentially the inverse of the Streetwise skill - that is, a character

-2-

New Skills

(Continued)

who possesses the Etiquette skill knows the ins and outs of high society and are

adept at surviving by its often cutthroat rules. Characters who understand Etiquette

can bend the ears of important socialites, broker items at exclusive auction houses,

and otherwise make use of the unique resources available to the social elite. Like

the Streetwise skill, Etiquette also comes in handy for avoiding the law and staying

on the right side of wrong people, albeit in a different social circle.

Possessed by: Aristocrats, business magnates, celebrities, politicians

Specialties: Fraternal Orders, Gossip, Publicity, Pulling Strings

Roll Results:

Dramatic Failure: Your character completely misjudges a situation,

making a blunder that could have fatal or, at least, financially devastating

consequences. He might try to steal money from a powerful businessman,

accidentally insult the head of a prominent fraternal order, or drop the name of an

individual who doesn’t wish to be associated with the character.

Failure: Your character has no luck rendezvousing with his high society

chums, or convincing the local social elite that he is worth their time.

Success: Your character manages to arrange a rendezvous with a high

roller who can provide him with what he seeks.

Dramatic Success: Not only does your character manage to arrange

a rendezvous with an important socialite, but they also manage to put themselves

in that socialite’s good graces, perhaps allowing for easier future interactions.

Old Skills With

New Names

At the moment, only one skill has been renamed (don’t worry - it still works

in exactly the same manner) - Brawling, In the World of Cthulhu, investigators are

generally gentlemen and/or ladies, and such folk simply don’t brawl - instead they

engage in Fisticuffs .

New Advantage

Sanity

Traits: (Wits + Composure) - Cthulhu Mythos

Madness and sanity are vital staples of Lovecraft’s fiction and, as such, it

only seemed appropriate that characters possess a special advantage to represent

mental fortitude in the World of Cthulhu, thus the Sanity advantage. A character

with a high Sanity rating is firmly grounded on our own level of reality, dismissing

such things as alien artifacts, lost cities, and eldritch gods as flights of fancy - things

that exist only in the realm of fiction. Characters with a low Sanity rating, on the

other hand, have begun to confuse our own level of reality with another where

human/fish hybrids haunt New England fishing villages, Antarctica houses an alien

city, and the Great Old Ones wait for the stars to become right so that they can rise

from their hidden prisons to reclaim the Earth as their own once more.

Sanity is rated on a scale from 1 to 10 and has both an initial rating and

a current rating. A character’s initial Sanity rating is filled in on the dots under

“Sanity” on your character sheet. A character’s current Sanity rating is tracked in the

corresponding boxes. As a character’s Sanity deteriorates and they begin to lose

points of Sanity, just check off a box. When dots and checked boxes are equal,

your character is no longer able to distinguish between different levels of reality,

confusing one for another and, as a result, is dismissed by those individuals with

high Sanity as a simple madman. That said, you might be wondering how this works

mechanically...

-3-

Madness Ratings:

Every potentially mind-twisting horror, every hidden truth that man was not

meant to know, has a Madness rating that delineates the potential of that hideous

thing to unhinge the human mind. Suggested Madness ratings follow:

New Advantage

(continued)

• 10 Encounter with Outer God (Roll 2 Dice)

• 9 Encounter with Great Old One (Roll 2 Dice)

• 8 Reading from the real Necronomicon (Roll 2 Dice)

• 7 Encounter with a Greater Servitor/Independent Race (Roll 3 Dice)

• 6 Enacting a sorcerous Mythos ritual (Roll 3 Dice)

• 5 Reading from copy of the real Necronomicon (Roll 3 Dice)

• 4 Encounter with a Lesser Servitor/Independent Race (Roll 4 Dice)

• 3 Reading from another greater Mythos tome (Roll 4 Dice)

• 2 Reading from a lesser Mythos tome (Roll 5 Dice)

• 1 Reading from a phony Mythos tome (Roll 6 Dice)

Whenever a character comes face to face with a horrible truth (or unholy

creature), the player of that character makes a Sanity roll, as outlined below.

The Sanity Roll:

When a player finds themself faced with horrible truth that man was not

meant to know, a creature born beyond the realm of reason, or other such sanity

draining thing, the player of that character rolls a number of dice as indicated by

the Madness Rating of the force or situation being encountered. If this roll

succeeds, the character’s ability to distinguish between the different levels of reality

remains unaffected, and their Sanity rating does not change. If the sanity roll fails,

on the other hand, the character’s ability to parse the different levels of reality

suffers and they lose a point of their Sanity rating.

Derangements (Option):

As a character’s ability to differentiate between levels of reality becomes

impaired, they become noticeably deranged, perhaps to the point that they require

psychiatric treatment. When a Sanity point is lost due to the discovery of a horrible

truth or confrontation with forces that mankind was not meant to know, roll your

character’s new Sanity rating as a dice pool. If this roll succeeds, your character

manages to come to terms with their new understanding of the world. If this roll

fails, however, a derangement manifests in your character.

Derangements in World of Cthulhu games work exactly as described on

pages 96-100 of the World of Darkness core rule book. Do note, however, that

in the World of Cthulhu, derangements are solely a product of insanity, not moral

decay - so ignore all of those rules concerning derangements as the result of moral

decay that appear in the World of Darkness core rule book. Derangements in the

World of Cthulhu reflect the fact that a character is nuts , not morally corrupt (it is,

after all, possible for a mentally disturbed person to be moral).

Final Note On Sanity:

Do note that sanity is not the same thing as willpower - it is entirely

possible for a raving lunatic to possess a force of iron will and, conversely, it is

possible for a perfectly sane person to be a spineless weakling. Very simply put, a

character’s force of will has nothing to do with their mental wellness.

-4-

World of Darkness - Cthulhu.pdf

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