The Other OSR—Forgotten Duty

The Book of the Key is an elaborate monastic chronicle written in the sixteenth century in an obscure Italian dialect that describes events and happenings so fantastical that they are at odds with the known history of the period, yet the work is anything other than a satire. The marginalia is even strange, annotations consisting of esoteric formulae and prayers dedicated to an unknown and unnamed god. The god is described as having the power to permit movement from this world to another, from this reality to another… It is currently held in the library of the University of Navarra, in the city of Pamplona, in north-east Spain. It is also rumoured to have been stolen from its previous owners, and that they, the Knights Hospitaller, seek to return to their possession. There are many reasons why someone might want to examine The Book of the Key. Perhaps to right a wrong by engaging in the many-worlds theory of quantum physics to shift to another reality where the right rather than the wrong took place. Perhaps to open, or even close, the way, perhaps to prevent access to our world by otherworldly entities such as Dimensional Shamblers or Hounds Out of Time. Perhaps the book points to the means to locate an artefact that will be inimical to a true enemy. Perhaps the connections to the Mythos of the book are already known and it has fallen into the wrong hands, and whoever that is, they need to be stopped from using it.

This is the set-up—or rather the set-ups—to Forgotten Duty, a modern day scenario for Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition, the Old School Renaissance-adjacent roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror published by Just Crunch Games. Whatever the reason for the Investigators to want to look at the book, the curator at the museum, Gustavo Ibáñez, will sadly explain that the book is currently not held by the university, but has been loaned to a benefactor to the university, Count Cielo Al-Hamrā. Fortunately, he can arrange an interview with the count and when this happens, the count will be very gracious and tell the Investigators that he has returned the book. The book though, has already been shipped off elsewhere, or has it?

There is a strangeness that runs deep not only into the question of the missing book, but also in the city of Pamplona itself. The inhabitants seem to be suffering from collective trauma, there are reports of missing persons and missing persons posters across the city, and the Investigators begin to suffer strange dreams, nightmares that point to the city’s dark history and the invasion of the Romans centuries before. Random strangers approach the Investigators, some to question their interest and reason for being in the city, others steal from them, or worse, assault them as an act of revenge, but for what? Then there is Count Cielo Al-Hamrā, a man that the Investigators have met, but whom nobody can quite recall too much about beyond his being a great benefactor to the city.

Ultimately, the investigation will point to Count Cielo Al-Hamrā as being key to getting to the heart of the mystery in Pamplona, let alone being key to locating the book. In fact, by this time, the location of the book almost becomes secondary to the need to find just what is really going on in Pamplona. Doing so will take the Investigators to the count’s home, a villa with an oddly unlived in feel and signs of strange activity, whilst the staff genially about their odd duties. This is to the extent that the Investigators may be able to explore the villa almost unimpeded, though something is surely waiting for the truly curious. Which should of course, include the Investigators.

Forgotten Duty supports the Game Master with details about Pamplona and the University of Navarra, descriptions and details of the odd encounters that the Investigators might have around the city, and the means to create the dreams that they begin to have. There are missing persons posters too, as handouts. Throughout, there are footnotes as well, and these will help the Game Master add flavour and detail to the scenario.

Physically, Forgotten Duty is decently done, but a little rough around the edges. It does need another edit as there is missing text, but the maps are good, as are the few handouts.

Forgotten Duty is a solidly weird and creepy scenario. It can easily be played in a single session and so be run as a convention scenario, in fact more easily than it can be worked into a campaign. It is also just as easy to adapt it to the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror of your choice.

—oOo—

Just Crunch Games and All Rolled Up will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 31st to Sunday June 2nd, 2024.

Cthulhu ‘Old Style’ like its 1981

The first thing that you notice about Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is how surprisingly white and colourful it is. There is bold use of colour in its chapter headings and then the rest of the book is simple, black on white text. Which gives it a clean, modern aesthetic, that is, of course, easy to read, but also in keeping with the setting for Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition. That setting is the modern day of the here and now because just like H.P. Lovecraft set his stories in his time, so the Game Master’s scenarios are, by default, set in her time. This does not mean that Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition cannot be set in other historical periods, but the modern day is the default. Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, which means it pitches ordinary men and women in extraordinary situations and confronts them with the true sanity-leeching mysteries of the universe as portrayed in the stories by H.P. Lovecraft. For its mechanics, it uses The Black Hack, Second Edition, the player-facing retroclone originally published in 2016. Lastly, the simple layout and use of colour allows the artwork of Paul Tomes and Andrés Sáez Martínez to really stand out.

Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is published by Just Crunch Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Notably content for both editions of the roleplaying game is compatible and the roleplaying game is designed for quick and easy play, especially Investigator creation. After an introduction and a decent example of play, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition wastes very little time in explaining the rules. For its core mechanic, whenever a Player Character—or Investigator—wants to take an action against a threat that will either hurt or hinder the Investigator, his player makes a Save against an appropriate attribute by rolling under it. If the roll is successful, the Investigator avoids the Threat, but suffers its consequences if his player roles equal to the attribute or higher. This is always player-facing, so whenever an Investigator wants to punch a cultist, his player will roll a Save against his Investigator’s Strength, but to avoid the cultist punching the Investigator, his player would roll a Save against his Investigator’s Dexterity. Depending upon the situation the player can also run with Advantage or Disadvantage.

The investigative aspect of Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is handled via Resources. These categorised into three types—Investigative, Sanity, and Supplies. All types of Resource work in the same way. Each is represented by a die type. When a Resource check is called for, the Resource die is rolled. If the result is a one or a two, the Resource suffers a Break, meaning that the Resource is partially used up. Eventually the Resource die is stepped down to a four-sided die and when that suffers a Break, it is completely used up and thus Broken. Investigative Resources are divided between Smokes and Flashlights. Flashlights are divided into Smokes and Flashlights. Flashlights are used to get clues through studying, finding clues, spotting things, and so on, whilst Smokes cover gaining clues via interaction, financial means, or connections. When a one or a two is rolled on either Investigative Resource, a clue is still found, but something bad happens to the Investigator. When Flashlights is Broken, the Investigator is burned out and exhausted, whilst when Smokes is Broken the Investigator has brought too much attention upon himself.

In terms of running and playing the game, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition lays its principles for both the Game Master and the player early on. For the former, this includes giving out plenty of information, setting the stakes when the Investigators are faced by threats, giving them opportunities and choices, and so on, whilst for the latter, to be a part of the story and support the other Investigators’ role in the story, to investigate and ask questions, to focus on survival rather than fighting, and more. Much of this will be familiar to veterans of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but not everyone is, so the advice here is more than welcome.

An Investigator in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition has six Saves (or attributes)—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma—that are rated between three and eighteen. He also has four Resources— Hit Die, Sanity, Flashlights, and Smokes—and various Benefits, including a Skill, and various Assets. Two methods of creating an Investigator are provided. Freeform gives the widest choice, but the simplest method is to pick one of the roleplaying game’s six Archetypes. There are six Archetypes—Adventurer, Bruiser, Performer, Philanthropist, Ruffian, and Scholar. Each determines the Resource die values for an Investigator’s Resources, gives a single Special Ability and lets the player choose another from a choice of three, and either rolls for or chooses an Occupation and an associated skill. There is actually a lot of flexibility within each Archetype, so that an Adventurer can be an Archaeologist or an Aviator, but he could also an Aristocrat or a Sales Rep.

Henry Brinded
Strength 13 Dexterity 12 Constitution 10 Wisdom 15 Intelligence 18 Charisma 11
Sanity D10 Flashlights D12 Smokes D10 Hit Die D4 Armed 1 Unarmed 1
Hit Points: 4
Special Abilities: Iron Mind, Deduction, Erudite
Occupation: Academic
Skill: Language (Latin)

An Investigator is meant to be fragile, although as a group, Investigators do have access to a pool of Fortune Points which allow a failed Save or Resource check to be rerolled. Combat follows from the core rules and in spite of Investigators having access to Fortune Points, enforces their fragility. They have relatively few Hit Points, weapons can be deadly, and armour is rare.

Sanity is handled as a Resource die in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition. When an Investigator is confronted with something truly terrifying or the effects of the Mythos and the Investigator’s Sanity suffers a Break, it indicates that he has encountered something so hideous or unreal that he has temporarily lost his connection with reality. Sanity being Broken means that the Investigator has lost focus or is overwhelmed by the alienness of what he is confronted with. The Investigator becomes permanently insane when the number of times a Sanity Break occurs equals the Resource die for his Sanity. However, not all horror is equal, and it is possible to suffer a Shock instead of an incidence of Insanity when his Sanity suffers a Break.

The moments when an Investigator is likely to be at his most fragile is in confronting the Mythos. Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition does not include an extensive list of Mythos entities and creatures. It goes even further by not actually including stats for several of the Old Ones, but instead discusses their relationship with humanity (or in some cases, humanity’s ‘supposed’ relationship with them). This moves the seven discussed—Azathoth, Cthulhu, Hastur, Nodens, Nyarlathoptep, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth—into narrative roles rather than something that can be physically defeated. Only eight lesser creatures and races are given more detail, both in terms of background and mechanics. Traditional Mythos creatures such as the Deep Ones, Elder Things, Ghoul-Kin, Rhan-Tegoth, Shambler, Shoggoth, and Yuggothi, are joined by the Deathless, the equivalent of Keziah Mason from ‘The Dreams of the Witch-House’ and its antagonist. All of these are given nicely detailed descriptions and an excellent illustration. In each case, their stats are very simply presented, there is a note as to their motivation, and their origins, purpose, and allegiances are discussed, along with options and variants. It is interesting to note that Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition makes clear that Deep Ones are not the equivalent of Orcs or Goblins in the Cthulhu Mythos.

Both Mythos tomes and artefacts in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition work in a fashion similar to Mythos antagonists. Each volume or item is measured by its Index, representing both the potency of its content and the danger it represents to the reader; Ire is the attention garnered by its possession—and especially—the use its lore, power, or spells; and Lore the ‘benefit’ gained from the successful study or use of it. The latter might a modifier to a Save, an Advantage on a later Save, a Skill, one or more Spells, and so on. In the case of the Index and Ire factors, the Investigator will need to make a Save against them. Failure in the case of Index means that the Investigator suffers a Shock and in the case of Ire, a failure means that the attention and scrutiny of cultists or other forces of the Mythos has been drawn to the tome or artefact and thus to the Investigator. This can lead to more direct encounters with them or set up difficulties in the story later on, meaning that Ire and a failure to Save against it has narrative rather than mechanical consequences. One thing not explored here are Mythos artefacts—the focus is entirely on tomes rather than objects.

The list of Mythos tomes avoids the classics of Lovecraftian investigative horror, so no Necronomicon, De Vermiis Mysteriis, or Unausprechlichen Kulten. There are several quite detailed examples though and tables for the Game Master to create her own. In terms of spells, there is a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. Thus, there is The Voorish Sign and Elder Sign alongside Deceiver’s Charm and Cyclopean Shift. Of course, knowing and casting magic has consequences. Knowing any spells automatically imposes a reduction in the Resource die for an Investigator’s Sanity and casting spells requires a personal sacrifice, there being the possibility of an Investigator losing a point from of his six Saves. In addition, casting a spell triggers a save against the Ire of that spell, potentially attracting the attention of the cultists and other Mythos entities. Magic in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is deadly and dangerous, and its use is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

The scenario in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is ‘Save Innsmouth’. This is an expansion and development of Save Innsmouth: A Student Documentary. It is specifically written to be run in two hours, but is easily expanded to run in a longer, fuller session. In line with the rest of the roleplaying game, it is set in the modern day, taking place in Lovecraft Country in New England in the modern day, specifically in and around Innsmouth. In the short version, it begins en media res, with the Investigators trapped in the tunnels and caverns of the blighted town, decades ago shattered by the 1928 FBI raid. Already bruised and battered—and low on Resources—they must find their out of their rough and rancid prison, hunted by a strange creature… In the longer version, the Investigators, students at Miskatonic University and members of its Miskatonic Heritage Club, have travelled to Innsmouth, first by bus and then by hiking, in order to examine and photograph the pre-Prohibition town before it is completely bulldozed to make way for a health spa. It is a scenario in two parts. The bulk of its investigation is done in the journey to Innsmouth, whilst the action takes place in the second part, the imprisonment, which is what is played out in the shorter version of the scenario. If there is an issue with the scenario it is that the author talks about it for four pages before actually telling what the scenario is about. This is frustrating, although the information given in those four pages is both relevant and useful.

Lastly, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition gives a short discussion of campaigns, supporting it with a series of tables of prompts and pointers that can be used to bring the Investigators and get them sufficiently intrigued by a mystery to want to investigate. These are good starting points which the Game Master will of course, have to develop. It also introduces the concept of Remnants, the consequences of encountering the Mythos upon an Investigator’s personality. Roleplaying these will reward the players as a whole with an extra Fortune Point.

Physically, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is nicely presented. It needs a slight edit, but is very accessible, clean, and tidy, and the artwork is excellent. This does include some artwork generated by MidJourney AI, but the publisher has made a charitable donation to the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution.

Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is a streamlined and cleaner presentation of the earlier, The Cthulhu Hack, much like Old School Essentials is a cleaner and more accessible update of the Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay. It is not just cleaner and more accessible, the book itself is handier and easy to use. The downside of that is that it is not comprehensive in its treatment of the Mythos, but it is complete in and of itself. In play, the consistency of the rules, especially Resources, means that an investigation becomes one where every effort matters, not just facing the Mythos, since there is a chance of depletion, of a Break, each time an effort is made towards the investigation. Thus, the consequences of an investigation are wider than mere loss of Sanity and the tension of looking into mysteries is prevalent throughout an investigation rather than in just the confrontation with the Mythos.

Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is an excellent redesign and reimplantation of The Cthulhu Hack. It provides a solid introduction to Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying and for any looking for a Old School Renaissance compatible roleplaying game dealing with the Cthulhu Mythos, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is the obvious choice.