| Modern Firearms, Forensics, and Occupations, Plus Four Modern Roleplaying Adventures | |
|---|---|
 Cover by Tom Sullivan. | |
| Designers |
|
| Publishers | Chaosium |
| Publication | 1987 |
| Genres | Horror |
| Systems | Basic Role-Playing |
| ISBN | 978-0933635470 |
Cthulhu Now is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1987 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu .
Cthulhu Now is a 154-page softcover book with two foldouts and 24 pages of perforated removable player handouts that was designed by William Barton, Keith Herber, Sandy Petersen, Michael Szymanski, G. W. Thomas, William Workman, and Lynn Willis, with interior art by Lynell McAdams, and cover art by Tom Sullivan. [1]
The original Call of Cthulhu game was set in the 1920s. This book provides information on running adventures in a modern setting, detailing new investigative skills and equipment, and modern armament — including nuclear weapons. A variant system on hit locations is covered, and there is a chapter on coroners and forensic pathology. [1]
Four full adventures are also included:
In the October 1988 edition of Dragon (#138), Ken Rolston thought the introductory rationale for moving Call of Cthulhu up to the present day was a waste of ink — "We have already accepted the Cthulhu Mythos in spite of its shabby documentary trappings and will continue to accept it for the purposes of gaming because it’s so delightfully lurid and evil" — but he found the rest of the book "is going to make Cthulhu fans happy." He called the information about new equipment and firearms "good stuff" that he "eagerly devoured". He also found the chapter on modern forensics "fascinating reading and a real help to GMs trying to add realistic touches to scenarios." He called the first adventure, The City in the Sea, "a bit heavy-handed and linear", but found the second adventure, Dreams Dark and Deadly, "an excellent example of mystery role-playing in a horror context... As a model of mystery scenario design, and a classic horror/supernatural scenario, this is my pick of the lot." The third adventure, The Killer Out of Space was judged to be "very good", but the open-ended finale of the fourth adventure, The Evil Stars, was "a disappointing weakness, since a detailed development of one of the possible endings could have been a guide and inspiration without railroading both plot and PCs toward a single conclusion." Rolston concluded that "The rules and background essays for contemporary CoC role-playing are interesting and adequate... The adventures are either quite good or very, very good, and the presentation and development of scenario materials, player and GM background, and handout props and clues are up to Chaosium's highest standards." [2]
In the 2014 book Designers & Dragons: The '70s, Shannon Appelcline commented that "After 1984, Chaosium turned away from new Basic Role-Playing System (BRP) games, but they didn't stop creating new settings for their BRP rules. Later years instead brought new venues for their existing games — most notably for Call of Cthulhu, whose publications included: Cthulhu by Gaslight (1986), set in the Victorian Age; H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands (1986), set in a fantasy world; and Cthulhu Now (1987), set in the modern day. [3] : 262
Basic Role-Playing (BRP) is a tabletop role-playing game which originated in the RuneQuest fantasy role-playing game. Chaosium released the BRP standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of RuneQuest. Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis are credited as the authors. Chaosium used the percentile skill-based system as the basis for most of their games, including Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, and Elfquest.
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft, RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon, based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and 7th Sea, "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe.
A generic or universalrole-playing game system is a role-playing game system designed to be independent of setting and genre. Its rules should, in theory, work the same way for any setting, world, environment or genre in which one would want to play.
Stephen Herbert Perrin was an American game designer and technical writer/editor, best known for creating the tabletop role-playing game RuneQuest for Chaosium.
Castle Greyhawk is a comedic adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module bears the code WG7 and was published by TSR, Inc. in 1988 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.
Trail of Cthulhu is an investigative horror role-playing game published by Pelgrane Press in which the players' characters investigate mysterious events related to the Cthulhu Mythos. It was designed by Kenneth Hite using the Gumshoe System, which was created by Robin Laws. Trail of Cthulhu is based on the Call of Cthulhu role playing game under license from Chaosium.
Daredevils is a tabletop role-playing game published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) in 1982 that is meant to emulate pulp magazine fiction of the 1930s.
Shadows of Yog-Sothoth is a series of adventures published by Chaosium in 1982 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Death in Dunwich is an adventure published by Theatre of the Mind Enterprises in 1983 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Masks of Nyarlathotep, subtitled Perilous Adventures to Thwart the Dark God, is an adventure campaign first published by Chaosium in 1984 for the second edition of the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. A number of revised editions have subsequently been published. Masks of Nyarlathotep is a series of several sequential adventures set in the 1920s that take the player characters from New York, to London, Cairo, Nairobi, and Shanghai as they deal with the threat of the god Nyarlathotep. Screenwriter Larry DiTillio wrote the adventure with game designer Lynn Willis during a writer's strike. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Casus Belli, The Space Gamer, White Dwarf, Different Worlds, and Dragon, and is considered to be one of the best roleplaying adventures of all time.
Cthulhu by Gaslight is a horror tabletop role-playing supplement, written by William A. Barton, with art by Kevin Ramos, and first published by Chaosium in 1986. This supplement provides information on role-playing in an alternate setting of Victorian England of the 1890s for Call of Cthulhu. An expanded second edition was published in 1988, and a third edition was published in 2012. It won an Origins Award and received positive reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, Casus Belli, Different Worlds, Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer, The Games Machine, Games International, and Dragon.
Griffin Island is a boxed tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest. Originally published by Chaosium in 1981 as Griffin Mountain, a set of adventures set in the world of Glorantha, this edition was published in 1986 by The Avalon Hill Game Company as part of its third edition RuneQuest rules set. It was written by Rudy Kraft, Jennell Jaquays, Greg Stafford, and Sandy Petersen. Griffin Island contained role-playing material to help gamemasters design adventures in the setting. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Casus Belli, White Dwarf, Dragon, Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer, The Games Machine, and Games International.
In the Shadows is an anthology of adventures published by Chaosium in 1995 for the 5th edition of the Lovecraftian horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is an adventure campaign published by Chaosium in 1996 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu; it is the third edition of the adventure campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep originally published in 1984. It is a series of several sequential adventures set in the 1920s that take the player characters from New York, to London, Cairo, Nairobi, and Shanghai as they deal with the threat of the god Nyarlathotep. The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is a revised and expanded version of the original adventure scenario with additional material by new authors. It won an Origins Award and received positive reviews in game periodicals including Arcane and Dragon.
Horror on the Orient Express is a campaign boxed set published by Chaosium in 1991 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. In this adventure, the player characters use the Orient Express to search for pieces of an artifact, while a cult tries to stop them. The original edition won two Origins Awards and received positive reviews in game periodicals including The Unspeakable Oath, White Wolf, and Dragon. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2014, which won three ENnie Awards.
Pavis: Threshold to Danger is a boxed tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1983. This boxed set detailed the fictional city of New Pavis for use in role-playing adventures. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, Dragon, Different Worlds, and Fantasy Gamer. The set was republished in 1999 by Moon Design Publications in a single volume with Big Rubble: The Deadly City as Gloranthan Classics Volume I – Pavis & Big Rubble. The 1983 edition was republished in 2019 in PDF format as part of Chaosium's RuneQuest: Classic Edition Kickstarter.
The Asylum & Other Tales is an anthology of seven adventures published by Chaosium in 1983 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Horror's Heart is an adventure campaign published by Chaosium in 1996 for the 5th edition of the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Snakepipe Hollow is an adventure published by Chaosium in 1979 for the fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest, then revised and republished in various editions.