Let’s talk about CthulhuTech

When this game first came out, I didn’t pay much attention to it. It’s not normally the kind of thing I play, and I’m coming to feel like games based on the Cthulhu mythos have just lost their magic. There’s a solid market for mythos inspired games, and it seems like everyone’s angling for a piece of that market. Sometimes, the games are excellent. But the bad ones are really bad. If you combine that with me being more or less an indy snob, this game just wasn’t really on my radar.

After having met the brains behind the game at a private horror gaming event, I added the book to “The List Of Games I Need To Look At Closer.” When I was offered a review copy of the main book, I jumped at the chance.

Obvious things first. The book is 50 bucks (with PDF it’s $60). It’s gorgeous, and it’s full of stuff. The setting is a mixture of Cthulhu Mythos and Giant Mecha Anime. There’s more than enough here for you to start running your game or writing a campaign. If you’re already on the fence, then I’ll say it now: You Want This Book.

The system used is called Framewerk, a custom job that will probably remind you of White Wolf’s Storyteller system. They mix up the dice rolling a little by letting you pick different combos of dice from your dice pool for success, which is cool but may seem a little too fiddly for some. There’s some structure in place to spend points to affect die rolls, a mechanic I always like. And they stress pretty heavily throughout the book that telling a good story is the most important thing.

Which brings me to the setting. As far as the Cthulhu Mythos goes, if you’re looking for something that sticks closely to what Lovecraft wrote, this game isn’t for you. I’ll go further, and say if you are looking for something that sticks to what people traditionally think of as the Cthulhu Mythos, this game isn’t for you. The game takes great liberties with the source material and the Mythos – indeed, there would be no way to write this game if it didn’t. The question is, is the end product worth it. In this case, I have to say yes. The book lays out a rich history and background for the setting, and a judicious use of fiction in the book helps bring the setting to life. There’s a lot of meat there, and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into it. The setting alone can suck you in.

As for the Mecha, when you’re dealing with any game with giant robots, there is only one question to answer: Are The Giant Robots Awesome? In CthulhuTech, I can pilot a Mecha that has a plasma cannon, a tentacle sheath, and a tongue I can use as a weapon. The Mecha are also partially organic, and they heal on their own. In other words – yes. Yes, the Mecha are awesome. But as with the Cthulhu Mythos, if you have particular ideas about what Mecha are and how they work, you may not like how these Mecha work.

You can also play what they call a Tager – a human merged with a creature from beyond time and space in a kind of symbioses. Shifting between human and alien forms, Tagers are strong, but horrific. It’s a nice touch to the game, and I could see a lot of great story coming from dealing with being a Tager.

I’m not so into the idea of running CthulhuTech. I’d much rather play it. And I haven’t had a chance to do either yet. I don’t think it’d make a good game for a brand new player. As a game it just feels a little too involved to use as someone’s introduction to gaming. But if you dismissed it off hand, like I did, then I’d encourage you to give it a chance. It’s a great looking game, with a lot of meat to it, and conceptually it just works.

Clearly, at 50 bucks, the game is not aimed at people who want to run a one-off. I think it would take a couple sessions to get into the swing of thing. Buy this book to set up and play a campaign. If you want more detail than that, you’ll need to do some more reading:

• WildFire: CthulhuTech Quick-Start Rules
• Atomic Array: Episode 013: CthulhuTech RPG
• Mad Brew Labs: CthulhuTech: The Game That Almost Wasn’t
• Critical Hits: When Horror Meets Awesome: CthulhuTech
• Kore Dice: Interview with CthulhuTech’s Mike Vaillancourt
• Stargazer’s World: Review: CthulhuTech
• Stan!: The Stars Will Be Right
• Arcane Underground: The Saga of CthulhuTech (Updated)
• Atomic Array: Episode 040: CthulhuTech
• The Village Barbarian: Review: CthulhuTech Core Book
• Dice Monkey: Review: Vade Mecum
• Blog of a new RPGer: Review: Dark Passions
• Stargazer’s World: Review: Damnation View
• allgeektout: Review: Mortal Remains
• The Spirits of Eden: Review: Vade Mecum
• Creatively Anomalous: Review: Dark Passions