Tag Archive for: age system

Face Fear and Fight Fascists with the Cthulhu Awakens Quickstart

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Cthulhu Awakens Quickstart

The FREE Cthulhu Awakens Quickstart is Available Now!

 

Hagley, England, 1940: an idyllic village under the shadow of the Second World War. As its inhabitants watch the sky for the terrors of the Blitz, they have no idea other horrors lie beneath their feet. Long bound by forgotten rituals, an entity creeps closer to freedom as the Old Ways die, but it will be an attempted revival of those traditions, combined with an unnatural disaster, that unleashes the ancient God Beneath the Tree on the world.

Written by Stoker Award nominated author and internationally recognized folk horror expert Sian Ingham, The God Beneath the Tree is a quickstart: everything you need, from streamlined rules to starting characters, to play its included Cthulhu Awakens scenario. By playing, you’ll not only confront the ancient creature beneath Hagley’s trees but teach yourself Cthulhu Awakens, the roleplaying game of confronting Mythos horror across a Weird Century of strange histories and cult conspiracies. All you need is ordinary six-sided dice, something to write and record your character and their adventures, and up to five friends joining a Game Master.

The Cthulhu Awakens Quickstart is available in PDF and coming soon as a full-featured Roll20 virtual tabletop product.

The full version of Cthulhu Awakens and the GM Kit is now available in print, PDF and on Roll20, and hardcovers are on the way to retail game stores near you!

And speaking of Roll20, we have a brand new NPC Token Pack available for you today as well. Check it out!

Cthulhu Awakens NPC Token Pack for Roll20

Dare the Lair of the Horned Giant, and Enter the First Fantasy AGE Dungeon

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Lair of the Horned Giant for Fantasy AGE 2nd edition!

Available Now!

 

As the new Fantasy AGE developer, I’m pleased to share something from the roots of the AGE system, updated for the 2nd edition of Fantasy AGE: a new adventure called Lair of the Horned Giant!

Long ago, a hero confronted a fierce challenge on the sacred fields of Kreyatos, and what transpired became the origin of a thousand legends—of sacred bulls slain, of a curse that fused victims with beasts, and of the Horned Giant and its cult. Now your heroes have come to investigate the legends at the fields themselves, where the cattle of the gods once roamed, and where the servants—or jailers—of a fallen hero, now given horns and an urge for bestial violence, dwell. But is there more to the Horned Giant? Beyond the rumored bull-man, what of the rumors of konotaurs and other beast-people?

Lair of the Horned Giant is an adventure our friend and very cool game designer Will Hindmarch originally created to support fans of the Dragon AGE roleplaying game who wanted to use it to adventure in other settings, but it was never published. I discovered it in our files, loved it, and updated it for Fantasy AGE’s second edition. It features an open-ended presentation like Fantasy AGE Lairs, a book for First Edition Fantasy AGE I really like, but it has a mythic resonance I think would go especially well with Fantasy AGE Trojan War, though it’s designed to slip into the classic fantasy worlds core Fantasy AGE supports.

(As I talk editions, remember that Fantasy AGE editions, and AGE games in general, are easy to convert between.)

This challenging adventure with shades of Greco-Roman and Middle Eastern mythology is best suited to characters of levels 8-10. It includes new creatures and magical treasures for Fantasy AGE suitable for a wide variety of campaigns. The mythology of the Horned Giant is even designed to be easily adapted for your own games, too.

This also inaugurates our series of new adventures called Fantasy AGE Dungeons, though some of these might not be “dungeons” in the usual sense. We’re currently working on another, Menace of the Grave Warrens, and I can’t wait to announce that too. Use them for one shots, side quests—whatever works for your table. Until then, challenge the cursed cult and dare the Bull of Heaven!

The Fantasy AGE Quickstart Arrives!

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Fantasy AGE 2nd Edition Quickstart

A neglected ship sales the moonlit seas with no living crew to guide her. Can the heroes unravel the mystery? And more importantly, can they live to tell the tale?

New to AGE games? Looking for more starting adventures for your Fantasy AGE game? That’s the teaser for “Terror of the Ghost Ship,” the adventure included in the new Fantasy AGE Quickstart up above. It’s available today! Get it in PDF at the Green Ronin Online Store and DrivethruRPG —click through to wherever you want it from.

The Fantasy AGE Quickstart also contains streamlined rules and pregenerated characters for Fantasy AGE, the Adventure Game Engine (AGE) game of swords & sorcery adventure. The current, second edition of Fantasy AGE is an evolution of the rules found in Modern AGE, The Expanse Roleplaying Game, Blue Rose: The AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy, and others. The pregenerated characters, rules, and included adventure provide everything you need to run it except at least three six-sided dice, writing materials, and your friends.

AGE is designed to be intuitive and straightforward, while leaning into the swashbuckling side of adventure roleplaying with amazing stunts, cinematic combat, and a loose, four-class system that lets you shape a heroic archetype into a true individual.

After the adventure, move on to the full rules of the Fantasy AGE Core Rulebook. The Stranger Shores await—and that’s for starters. Adventures, new settings, and more are on the horizon, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Tune in today (Thursday, 21 March 2024) at 2p Pacific, 5p Eastern for ThursdAGE, when Malcolm Sheppard and Ian Lemke join your host, Disembodied Troy Hewitt. We will not only take a look at the new quickstart, we’ll be talking about the future of the Adventure Game Engine!

Revelations of the Bacchae, the GM’s Kit, and DREADCRAWLS: New(ish) Releases for Cthulhu Awakens!

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Cthulhu Awakens, the AGE RPG of confronting Mythos horror across the Weird Century, entered electronic release last October—but since then, we’ve released more for the game, with ambitious plans for 2024! Here we go:

Revelations of the Bacchae for Cthulhu Awakens

Revelations of the Bacchae (PDF, Roll20)

Revelations of the Bacchae presents expanded notes on the Cthulhu Awakens actual play session of the same name, run by Ian Lemke during the Cthulhu Awakens Kickstarter campaign. Note that this is not a full scenario—well, not completely. Instead, the basic notes used to run the game have been cleaned up a bit and presented for your perusal or use, as you see fit. This development process means it may vary from the adventure as presented, as elements of improvisation are “set into stone.”

Revelations of the Bacchae is set in the modern day, but with adjustments can be situated earlier. The latest time-dependent element is from 1996, but the exact date isn’t important.

PDF GM's Kit for Cthulhu Awakens

 

Cthulhu Awakens Game Master’s Kit (PDF)

The Cthulhu Awakens Game Master’s Kit is a collection of resources that helps you smoothly deliver terror and adventure to your players. It provides a PDF with 3 Game Master’s screen panels that displays stunts and other essential information. The quick reference card PDF provides further assistance with commonly used rules, and the combat tracker helps you organize the action.

The true secrets of the Game Master’s Kit are revealed in Unexpurgated Texts, a PDF booklet detailing a dozen fell grimoires and their modern counterparts, each in an expanded, 2-page format listing the eldritch workings and other strange secrets each of them contains.

Dreadcrawls PDF 'zine for Cthulhu Awakens

DREADCRAWLS #0: Strange Places (PDF)

Mountains of madness, cave complexes inhabited since before history, and secret temples under moldering ruins are all part of the Mythos horror genre. With DREADCRAWLS #0: Strange Places, you can generate these bizarre, haunted locations with a few dice rolls and simple decisions. From underground complexes to hyper-dimensional locales folded into non-Euclidean shapes, create haunted lairs for the Mythos with a tried-and-true old school, table-based method.

DREADCRAWLS is the official zine for Cthulhu Awakens, the AGE roleplaying game of Mythos horror, across the Weird Century.

More Horror?

Some of these have been mentioned before, specifically for the Roll20 edition, as Jonesy talks about here. Read about Cthulhu Awakens’ full-featured Roll20 version.

Furthermore, we have four more supplements in various stages of development, so rest assured, there’s support here, and support coming. We’ll tell you when!

Do you Want the Power in Fantasy AGE? Well, Have It!

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It’s no secret that lots of gamers are, like me, remnants of the Generation cohort who got into it during the 80s roleplaying game trend. Ah, the 80s, an era of many bad things, a few good things, and admittedly morally ambiguous things—like Saturday morning cartoons. And toy-based cartoons. These vehicles to sell toys and sugary cereals represented advertisers preying on children in a low-key fashion, though it wasn’t always so low key for their parents when we kids dutifully screamed for consumer goods—but we’ve still got good memories of them, and even the most commercial pop culture has to be attractive, and therefore interesting. Toy designers recruited comic creators. They looked at inspirations from sword and sorcery fiction. Then they mashed it up to create playsets and dolls (called “action figures” for a gendered flair when they had swords and ray guns). And we pretended to be them, or used them as a playing piece in imaginative games.

Enter the Icon: a way to play such a character in Fantasy AGE, coming soon to an unannounced project.

YOU HAVE THE POWER! As a Fantasy AGE Icon character

New Specialization: Icon

Some say icons were born of experiments conducted in an ancient fortress, whose secrets were used to fuse magic and technology. Others say the icons are an order of spiritual knights who, in communing with the universe, found the discipline to bind science and sorcery behind a single mystical archetype. They might be from a lost world at the center of the universe, or the remnants of angelic beings, who are born again within the icon. Not all icons are heroes, however. In fact, evil icons are sometimes easy to identify, because of the way icon status influences appearance, so skull-tipped staves and blood-red cloaks set them apart.

Regardless of their origins, these figures of action are defined by a techno-mystical aspect solidified in the form of mysterious vestments: special clothing and gear laced with technology and sorcery. Only an icon can use the powers of their vestments to perform extraordinary feats. These abilities fit a theme that is usually apparent by appearance of individual vestments. Vestments consisting of a pectoral plate, loincloth and sword suggest an untamed warrior, while robes and an animal headdress might belong to a sorceress who channels the power of a god the animal represents.

Consequently, an icon is often best known by a name that refers to their powers and appearance. A demonic soldier with three horns might be known as “Tri-Horn,” for instance. It may seem to be a simple nickname, but that’s enough to earn the respect and fear of those who know the power of icons.

Class: Any

Requirements: 3 or higher in one of your class’s primary abilities.

You have the power to master the universe when you take on an alternate identity.

Novice: You initiate yourself into the path of the icon. You acquire techno-magical vestments. These only work for you, and while they can be stolen, you always know what direction to find them in, or even if they’ve been taken to another world. You may include up to 100 sp of non-perishable equipment with your vestments, including armor and weapons.

When you wear your vestments, you may use a minor action to prepare a stunt you select when you gain this power that normally costs you 2 SP, so that you can use for 0 SP on your next action (assuming it succeeds) without having to score doubles or spend stunt points, though you gain the normal benefits of both. This stunt must fit the theme and loose capabilities of your vestments, but it can be a basic stunt or class stunt. If the selected stunt proves to be a poor fit, you can swap it for another the next time you gain a level.

Expert: Your icon abilities grow. You may use the Novice benefit, under the same conditions, for another stunt that normally costs you 3 SP. You must use a separate minor action to activate each free stunt, however. You must also select an iconic name. This name acts as an honorific while you wear your vestments. Finally, when you’re wearing your vestments, you can choose to cause them to conceal your identity. As a free action that can only be rescinded by removing your vestments, you can make them a disguise with a TN of 10 + your Willpower to penetrate, allowing you to keep a secret identity.

Master: A lord among icons, your enemies tremble when they see you in your vestments. You may use the Novice benefit, under the same conditions, for an additional stunt that normally costs you 4 SP, though again, activating each free stunt is a separate minor action. Furthermore, you may summon from or dismiss your vestments to another dimension as a minor action. You choose whether to summon your vestments to appear on you, or adjacent to you. If they appear on you, anything that you could not wear with them is shunted to the alternate dimension until you dismiss your vestments again.

 

Robots, in Fantasy AGE? If only the Icon was here to save us!

But Wait, There’s More

Like I said, the icon is one of a number of brand-new specializations coming to an upcoming unannounced Fantasy AGE project—the second in a row I’ve been working on. If you checked out Fantasy AGE Trojan War you’ll have a sense of the probable format, but that’s all I can say for now. Let us know if you like these peeks at what we’re doing. Cheers!

 

Cthulhu Awakens Compendium on Roll20

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As a big fan of both the AGE system and of the Cthulhu Mythos, I was super excited when the Cthulhu Awakens Kickstarter was announced and backed it immediately. Part of what excited me was the inclusion of a Roll20 Compendium since I run games both in person and online as part of the USP actual play team. What I didn’t know, at the time I backed that Kickstarter, was that I was going to be entrusted by team Ronin to make that Roll20 Compendium a reality.  With that said we are happy to announce the stars are right and the Cthulhu Awakens compendium is now available on the Roll20 marketplace, as well as DrivethruRPG.

The compendium includes

  • Rollable Tables to randomize your character’s Social Class, Background, Profession, and Drive
  • Dynamic Lightening for all included maps.
  • Drag & Drop for support for Character Creation, including Focuses, Background, Talents, Specializations,
  • Eldritch Workings, Dangerous Texts, Artifacts, and Psychic Phenomena
  • Full drag & drop compatibility and tokens for over 40 Cthulhu Awakens adversaries

Cthulhu Awakens Roll20 compendium

Cthulhu Awakens Roll20 Compendium

Along with Cthulhu Awakens compendium we released Revelations of the Bacchae on Roll20, which features three location maps with dynamic lighting, two Challenge test trackers, Four pre-generated characters, and seven new NPCs

Revelations of the Bacchae

Cthulhu Awakens Roll20 Compendium monsters!

Lastly, we released the token set that comes with the Cthulhu Awakens Compendium as a stand-alone offering for those game masters who only need the tokens.

Cthulhu Awakens Tokens: Entities Pack

So, what is next for Cthulhu Awakens on Roll20? We are working on the Game Master’s Kit, and a couple new surprises I hope to share with you soon.

Cthulhu Awakens Roll20 Compendium Abilities

And don’t forget to tune in to ThursdAGE on the Green Ronin Publishing official YouTube Channel, today 2/8/24 at 2p Pacific/5p Eastern where we’ll do a deep dive into the Cthulhu Awakens Compendium! Your host Disembodied Troy welcomes Malcolm Sheppard, Ian Lemke, and myself to celebrate this VTT Team milestone and talk all things Cthulhu Awakens!

Uncover the Secrets of the Galaxy with Trades of the Expanse: Journalist

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Trades of the Expanse: Journalist Available now!<transmission from Green Ronin Publishing incoming.>
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Today I’m here to tell you about the latest for The Expanse RPG—Trades of the Expanse: Journalist. The 1300 worlds are filled with stories, and it’s the journalist’s job to seek them out, uncover the truth, and share them with the galaxy. This exciting supplement explores the life of journalists in The Expanse. It offers helpful information for players who want to make journalists, groups who want to play a team of journalists, and plenty of source material and new rules, gear, and ships for any GM who wants to expand their campaign.

 

The life of a journalist can be hazardous. Journalists pride themselves on keeping humanity honest by speaking truth to power and exposing dirty secrets. With humanity spread across the galaxy, the sharing of information has become even more important. Journalists help to share the human experience of people from vastly different circumstances and backgrounds. They expose the dirty secrets of the rich and powerful, share the plight of the Belters with the Inners, and shine a light on the truth. Journalists tend to make a lot of enemies. Most folks don’t like having their secrets exposed and sometimes seek revenge or just to stop information from being released.

 

Trades of the Expanse: Journalist follows the same format as the other Trades books. It opens with an in-depth look at the role of journalists in The Expanse universe and explores different kinds of journalism. There’s also a fun section on media lingo and a listing of many of the media outlets journalist characters are likely to interact with. Then, there’s the Finding Work section that provides some charts and tables for GMs to use to determine the types of journalist jobs that are available.

 

The Tools of the Trade section details a trove of new gear for journalists: electronic press IDs, recording drones, and burn keys for quickly deleting data, and even a new augmentation. Following the tools is everyone’s favorite section—Ships! There are new Ship Qualities and a ship designed for the journalist on the move, the Cronkite-class Media Ship.

 

Under Doing the Work there are new rules for journalists and campaigns involving journalists. There’s a Journalist specialization with a new talent that helps with getting access and getting the story out. There are new stunts including Hardball (for getting to the truth when conducting an interview), Fourth Estate (for earning the trust of different organizations), and Press Pass (for getting access). There are even new Churn complications for adventures for journalist-oriented adventures and campaigns.

 

To wrap things up, you’ll find a rogues’ gallery of ready-made sources that GMs can use to build a story around or if they need a quick NPC in a pinch. Finally, there we present an optional system for journalists (although it could easily be adapted to other types of adventures and characters). The No Further Questions! optional system allows a player to add to the Churn tracker in exchange for special journalistic actions such as getting answers to questions, capturing important video, finding a new source, or gaining an important clue.

 

That about wraps it up. The Trades of the Expanse series continues. Next up is Trades of the Expanse: Entertainer. Keep your comms open!

 

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Trades of the Expanse: Journalist is available now in the Green Ronin Online Store, and on DrivethruRPG!

Cthulhu Awakens Now! Well, in Preorder and PDF Form, That Is!

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Cthulhu Awakens Preorder Available Now!After a successful Kickstarter campaign, careful design and art direction—and errata, where necessary—Cthulhu Awakens is available to general audiences for preorder and in PDF! Furthermore, if you preorder the print release, you can add the PDF for just another $5.

Cthulhu Awakens brings cosmic horror and the Cthulhu Mythos to Green Ronin’s AGE System. This complete RPG reimagines and expands the Mythos beyond the biases of the original stories, creating a setting designed specifically for roleplaying eldritch adventures across about a hundred strange years—what we call the Weird Century. Follow aliens and cults through wars, the broken atom, the rise of digital and genetic technologies, and the horrors of social media. Contend with Deep One cults, Yithian agents, and terrifying revelations from across the globe—and within your dreams.

If you’ve played any AGE game, such as Blue Rose, The Expanse, Fantasy AGE, or Modern AGE, you already know the basics. Cthulhu Awakens customizes the system with the effects of horror and Alienation, eldritch workings, psychic powers, strange artifacts, mystic tomes, and more. The game also includes Mythos horrors and ready-made NPCs for the Game Master, and two complete adventures. All you need are character sheets, 3 six-sided dice, and friends ready for weird stories. In Cthulhu Awakens, anyone can stand against the darkness.

If you backed the Kickstarter, you’ve probably already received a preview PDF, and an updated PDF, along with everything else you backed, in time, is on the way—and you’ll get it first. This is for the rest of you, to follow backers in a similarly amusing abyss where everything you thought was a lie…for fun.

Here’s where to go:

There’s more Cthulhu Awakens to come, from the Game Masters Kit to adventures and other supplements. Stay wary!

Travel the Stars—Trades of the Expanse: Scout

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Scouts! a new supplement in the Trades of the Expanse seriesExplore the galaxy! Chart new systems! Study new stellar phenomena! See what no human has ever seen!

Sign up today and join this new branch of Pope Enterprises family – The Pope Scouting Service!

 

Just a little over a month ago, I brought you the news that the new edition of Trades of the Expanse was coming out. Now I can tell you that the next is ready to go. The PDF for Trades of the Expanse: Scout is now available! So, what exactly are scouts in The Expanse RPG? Well, let me tell you….

The 1300 new worlds beyond the ring gates are ripe for exploration, colonization, and plundering. However, before these worlds can be explored, they must be located and determined and their safety analyzed. While much of the initial exploration and observation is uncrewed, using probes and other remote-operated ships, nothing beats the human touch. A scout can often notice dangers or anomalies that a remote probe might miss. They can also react immediately and make on-the-fly decisions if an unusual situation arises rather than waiting for hours due to the time delay in communications.

Scouts and planetary surveyors often work hand-in-hand, with a scout ship leading the way and then a team of planetary surveyors arriving soon after they give the all-clear. Sometimes, the ships explore a system in tandem, or you may even find planetary surveyors on the same ship.

Of course, not all scouts explore new systems and stellar phenomena. The MCR and UN Navies make heavy use of scouts to monitor their enemies, and the Belters also have their own scouts for spying on the MCR and UN as well as other Belters. The megacorps are also not averse to using scouts to ferret out information about the competition. This type of scout overlaps somewhat into the territory of spying, although in most cases, they never leave the ship. It can also prove to be incredibly dangerous. No military or corporate entity takes well to surreptitious scans of their stations, factories, or colonies. The response to this sort of snooping can often be lethal.

Trades of the Expanse: Scout offers the trove of information folks have come to expect from all of the Trades books. You’ll find lots of fun details about the life of scouts, who hires them, and what kind of jobs they can find. Then there are new rules, including sample advanced and challenge tests for scout-oriented adventures, new stunts, reputations, and a scout specialization. And finally, the fun part—new ships and equipment!

For new equipment, you’ll find expert systems for scout ship computers and an array of probes and drones that can come in handy while exploring new systems. Ships are a necessary tool for any scout, and we’ve got four new designs. The Mosquito-class (dubbed the “Tin Can”) is a tiny one-person scout vessel. The Dove-class Stealth Scout is a slight step up, with serviceable living quarters for its crew of two—both of whom had best get along. This ship is designed for getting into and out of places without being seen. With a standard crew of six (perfect for a group of player characters), the Orion-class Heavy Scout is designed for long-term missions. However, most are constructed on a decommissioned class of  UNN patrol ships, and sometimes the age shows. Last but not least is the Beta-class Scouting Platform. While technically a ship, the Beta is more of a mini-space station meant for long-term missions and observation.

Keep your comms open for more information on upcoming books for The Expanse RPG at a space station near you!

Disembodied Troy and I will be taking a deep dive into the material, during ThursdAGE!, the official livestream Powered buy the Adventure Game Engine. Come join us on YouTube at 2P Pacific, 5P Eastern.

Trades of the Expanse: Scout is also available over on DrivethruRPG

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Exploring the Expanse—Trades of the Expanse: Planetary Surveyor

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Trades of the Expanse: Planetary SurveyorI know I’ve been talking about it for a long time, but it’s finally here—Trades of the Expanse: Planetary Surveyor! The perfect companion for Beyond the Ring, this book offers an in-depth look into the dangerous trade of planetary exploration. Not only will you find details about the nuts and bolts of planetary exploration but there are lots of new gadgets and new rules for expanding gameplay.

Prior to the discovery of the ring gates and the 1300 worlds that lie beyond, planetary exploration by humans had become a thing of the past. By the timeframe of The Expanse, all the major worlds and many of the major moons and asteroids in our solar system had been extensively explored. While new discoveries are still being made, the need for human-centered exploration missions has dwindled. However, with the opening up of so many new worlds and systems, planetary surveyors (and their companion scouts) have become hot commodities sought out by governments and mega corporations in the gold rush to the stars.

Planetary Surveyor offers a wealth of new information on the life of a planetary surveyors and includes details on the types of missions surveyors are likely to find and who might be hiring them. Governments, corporations, and even religious and special interest groups are all seeking information about these new worlds. Which planets are habitable (suitable for a colony), what are their resources, what are the dangers. Planetary surveyors are expected to report back with all this information and more. Of course, as the first colony on Ilus/New Terra proved, exploring new worlds is a dangerous task and suitable for only the bravest hardiest individuals.

Of course, scientific exploration breeds innovation and planetary surveyors have a wealth of new tools of the trade to make their job easier and maybe even a little safer. The new gear described in this book includes animal capture gear, chemistry decks, survival kits, drones (reconnaissance, surveying, sampling, snare, and submersible) as well as aircraft, aquatic vehicles, and ground vehicles. They even have their own special designed ships including the Giza-class research vessel, the Liu Hui-class scout, and the Narwhal-type submersible skiff. Yes, you read that correctly, a space craft designed for underwater exploration as well!

The book also features new rules including a planetary surveyor specialization, new reputations, and Churn results targeted specifically at exploration-based stories and campaigns. You’ll also find a few ready-made contacts, clients and fixers who might hire planetary surveyors.

So, what’s next? Trades of the Expanse: Scout, sort of the companion for this Trades book is right around the corner. And this fall, we’ll be bringing you Sol System which has everything you’d want to know about our very own solar system during The Expanse era as well as new rules including augmentations for player characters. And we’re not done yet! The Trades of the Expanse series continues with new entries and we have new books planned that take us through the Free Navy Conflict and beyond! So, keep your eyes on the stars, watch out for killer robots, and stay tuned to this channel for more updates.

 

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