I ran into Graeme Davis in the Cubicle 7 booth at Gen Con and we had a great discussion about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. If your’e a fan there is something dark coming.
If your a fan this is definitely for you.
In this Box Breaking Matt Takes a look at Doctor Who Time Clash. The card game where Daleks struggle against DR and his companions to determine the fate of the universe.
If your’e a Doctor Who fan this is a must have!
Dom from Cubicle 7 graced my presence while at Gen Con and we talked about Dalek Dice, Time Crash (their DR WHO card game), Lord of the Rings 5E, and the cover of the DR Who rule book – sort of.
Dom this interview was a lot of fun – thank you.
Cubicle 7 are proud to announce the imminent launch of the Cthulhu Tales Kickstarter.
A story-telling card game, designed by award winning designers Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, with stunning art from Scott Purdy, Jon Hodgson and Sam Manley, Cthulhu Tales develops the themes introduced in the Cubicle 7/Sophisticated Games co-production Hobbit Tales, enhancing the structured, story-telling mechanic with a range of new Elder God-appropriate rules and tweaked play style suitable for tales of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Dominic McDowall, Cubicle 7 CEO:
“I’m delighted to be able to bring Cthulhu Tales to Kickstarter this week. It’s a development of the rules which Francesco and Marco have been working on for a long time, and it’s really great to be able to finally bring it to light.
We’re planning a very straight forward campaign. As gamers we’re suffering a little bit from gigantic Kickstarter fatigue, so for this one we have a very clear, simple goal, with a handful of pledge levels. It’s all about the game, and the game is really, really good. Not only is it great fun to play, producing some eerily Lovecraftian stories, but is also shaping up to be one of the most good-looking games we’ve produced. I’m very excited to see how it will do!”
The Cthulhu Tales Kickstarter launches this week.
From the Cubicle 7 website (www.cubicle7.co.uk):
“In relating the circumstances which have led to my confinement within this refuge for the demented, I am aware that my present position will create a natural doubt of the authenticity of my narrative.”
– The Tomb, by H.P. Lovecraft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLKYHpLz1Hc
The dawn of the 20th century. New England, America; Lovecraft country.
Home to university libraries filled with worm-eaten tomes, legend-haunted towns populated with degenerate locals and their rustic superstitions, Cyclopean ruins from long-forgotten aeons, and the disquieting glimpses of things from beyond…
You are the unwilling guests of a disquieting and antiquated sanatorium, perhaps the infamous Arkham Sanatorium, or maybe the Danvers State Asylum.
Your only hope of escape is to convince your fellow inmates, and perhaps yourself, that you do not belong here. And so you begin to explain the sinister series of events that led to your unjust incarceration.
Unfortunately, your memories are populated by the stuff of nightmares…
In Cthulhu Tales, players take it in turn to tell their story using a hand of Story cards. The other players play Hazard cards to disrupt and darken the tale. In the course of the game, the narrators receive Treatment tokens, representing the misguided therapies and medication administered to them by the terrifying medical staff.
When everyone has told their tale, count up each player’s Treatment tokens and the player who underwent the least therapies is the winner.
Designed by Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, the designers behind award winning games such as The One Ring Roleplaying Game, Hobbit Tales, The War of the Ring and many more, Cthulhu Tales brings horrifying and darkly humorous story telling to your gaming table.
Inside the box you’ll find:
• 115 beautifully sinister and disquieting, large format playing cards with artwork from the C7 art team Scott Purdy, Jon Hodgson and Sam Manley
• A board to guide your tale-telling
• A 16 page full colour rulebook (which is available for free download now)
• A 12 sided die, or perhaps if the stars are right, a unique Cthulhu Tales 12 sided die
• A set of Treatment tokens
More about the game:
In Cthulhu Tales you take the role of unwilling inmates of a fictional 1920s asylum or sanatorium. Using the cards as both inspiration and guide, you’ll take it in turns to make an accusation explaining why one of your fellow inmates, the Narrator, should be incarcerated.
The unfortunate Narrator then answers the accusation with their card-driven tale – choosing to either explain away the mysterious and sinister events, or perhaps having little choice but to reveal the secrets of the deeper horror that lurks just beyond the veil of reality.
As the Narrator attempts to refute the accusation of madness using Story cards, the other players disrupt the tale with Hazard cards, trying to force things to take a darker turn.
The cards have three main elements that can be used to aid your story. The title, the illustration and a quote from Lovecraft’s fiction. You can use any or all of these as inspiration for your tale. This makes replayability huge, with endless combinations of scenarios, mysteries, situations and horrific scenes possible.
Cthulhu Tales is very much a game, rather than simply a guided storytelling activity – it features structured and elegant rules for the telling of the tale, and for Hazard card interruptions. Players use the symbols on the cards to determine whether a card can be played, and its effect on the Narrator’s tale. The die introduces an element of luck into the proceedings – perhaps that Viscous Black Slime was merely a passing detail, or perhaps its arrival was the precursor to something far more sinister and madness inducing…
Players keep score with Treatment tokens, the aim of the game being to gain as few tokens as possible, and thereby be judged the least insane inmate.
There are, of course, some tweaks along the way – some cards are harder to match with, and thus harder to interrupt. But they come with other dangers: Phobia and Hazard symbols make playing these cards a risky gamble. There are also Deity cards, featuring the mind-bending Mythos deities, whose appearance can change the course of a tale entirely.
There are optional rules for awarding a bonus to the best storyteller, allowing the most Lovecraftian tale to shine, and perhaps take first place.
A Note on Madness.
The Cthulhu Tales rulebook includes this note on “madness”, which we think is pertinent to share here:
Cthulhu Tales deals in the madness described by H.P. Lovecraft in many of his stories. It is a fictional condition, an imagined state of derangement, where the walls of reality fall away and the frail human mind cannot contain the reality of the universe inhabited by The Great Old Ones.
This is an entirely distinct condition to the tragedy and pain of real-world mental health issues which sadly are statistically likely to touch all of our lives. We encourage players of Cthulhu Tales to wholly enjoy the fictional nature of the various maladies and madness described here, while remembering that in the real world mental health issues are no laughing matter.
Cubicle 7 Entertainment launch Cold War espionage setting for Call of Cthulhu on Kickstarter
Following on from their first two smash-hit Kickstarters, Cthulhu Britannica: London and The Lone Wolf Adventure Game, Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd have announced that their latest project – World War Cthulhu: Cold War – is now live on Kickstarter!
World War Cthulhu: Cold War is a new Call of Cthulhu setting full of thrilling espionage, tense horror and sudden betrayal set at the height of the Cold War in the 1970s. The tangled webs of the spymasters tear and rejoin, double and triple agents make their moves and counter-moves, and it’s hard to be sure which side you’re really working for. Nuclear destruction hangs over everyone, and a few people at the heart of western intelligence continue their personal battle against the insidious influence of a much older enemy…
Cubicle 7’s first Kickstarter project was to fund a deluxe boxed set for Call of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Britannica: London, providing both Keepers and investigators with everything they need to play games set in 1920s London. The campaign succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, funding to the tune of over £90,000/$130,000!
Today Cubicle 7 were pleased to announce that the PDF version of Cthulhu Britannica: London boxed set is now available to buy. They’re also opening the pre-order for the physical boxed set too, and pre-orders both on their webstore and at participating Bits & Mortar retailers come with a complementary PDF copy too. So, if you missed out with the Kickstarter, now’s your chance to pick up this superb new boxed set.
London in the 1920s is the greatest city in the world, a vibrant melting pot of history and culture at the heart of the British Empire. But underneath the powerhouse of the City lie millennia of history, from the well-documented paths of Roman Londinium to darker antediluvian secrets veiled from modern eyes. London sits atop its history: an ancient swampland that was itself once an even-more-ancient sea-bed. Who knows what secrets lie buried?
Cthulhu Britannica: London comprises three books: The Investigator’s Guide to London, The Keeper’s Guide to London and Adventures in Mythos London.
The Investigator’s Guide to London is a comprehensive guide to the capital in the 1920s. It contains, amongst other things, information on public transport, the bustling party scene, the people and a whole lot about the places investigators might go in the course of your adventures. Great for both players and Keepers alike, and packed full of maps and beautiful artwork.
Secondly is the Keeper’s Guide to London, which is strictly for the Keeper’s eyes only! This book is jammed full of ideas for running Call of Cthulhu adventures set in London, including new cults and Mythos threats, advice for capturing the unique feel of the city, a ready-made private club devoted to investigating the weird and wonderful, and a whole swathe of NPCs and plot hooks that you can use in your own games.
The final book is Adventures in Mythos London, which includes three complete, standalone adventures set in the capital city: Terror on the Thames, by Peter Wright, which has the investigators caught up in a night to remember on a boat trip down the river; Those Poor Souls Who Dwell in Light, by Call of Cthulhu 7th edition author Paul Fricker, which concerns the sins of Reverend Leigh, a vicar who has come into possession of a potent artefact; and The Non-Euclidean Gate, by Mark A. Latham, which is all about what happens when seven pages from one of John Dee’s notebooks turns up unexpectedly on the open market.
But that’s not all that will be included in the boxed set: There are also have six sheets of beautifully designed handouts for you to use in your games (in the physical edition these will be die-cut – you’ll have to print and cut them out for yourself in the PDF edition). Some of these are taken from the scenarios in Adventures in Mythos London, others completely new to inspire your own scenarios.
The physical boxed set also contains four poster maps, including a beautifully illustrated Macdonald Gill map of Central London – these are included at screen resolution in the PDF version.
The physical boxed sets are expected to ship in Spring 2015.
You can buy the PDF version here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/142785/Cthulhu-Britannica-London-Boxed-Set?affiliate_id=169435
Or pre-order the physical edition (expected March 2015) here: http://shop.cubicle7store.com/Cthulhu-Britannica-London-Boxed-Set
The One Ring: Ruins of the North
$34.99 SRP
To accompany Rivendell, Ruins of the North is an adventure anthology that takes your company from Wilderland and into Eriador, hunting Trolls, Barrow-wights and malignant spirits, and exploring the ruins of Fornost, Angmar and into the Barrow-downs. There’s some great stuff in here, including some well-loved characters from Bilbo Baggins and Glorfindel to Tom Bombadil himself…
Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Sourcebook
$34.99
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, this Sourcebook explores the Eighth Doctor’s adventures on Earth and beyond. With detailed information on all the allies, enemies, aliens and gadgets that he encounters, as well as examining each of his adventures, the book contains a wealth of material for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG, and is also a fact-packed resource for fans of the show!
After being shot in a gang war in San Francisco, the Doctor regenerates just in time to stop the Master one more time. His eighth incarnation had much to contend with, not least the Time War, during which he had a fateful encounter with the Sisterhood of Karn once more.
As well as detailing the Eighth Doctor’s adventures, this sourcebook also contains a complete campaign – The Doom of the Daleks – that sees the Doctor’s deadliest foe erasing him from existence, forcing his companions into a race against time itself to save him!
I have managed to read all of the rules and play two quick games of Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space. I haven’t rolled up a character yet, but I’m ready to write my review of the game. I picked up the rules at Origins and I’m glad I did.
The limited edition book is filled with great art. There are several to page pieces that often take your breath away. It is about 250 pages that is filled with background info and mechanics. I would say the the book is balanced for player and GM. For a stand a lone core book I would say Cubicle 7 did an excellent job compiling everything into a tight space. This book is not the Tardis – it’s not bigger on the inside.
While I haven’t made a character yet the process looks fairly simple. It’s point based with no random element. Characters have six attributes and 12 skills. Traits to help define the character that are both good and bad. Until I do more with it that’s all I can say.
The Rpg has done a very good job of following the spirit of the television show. It tells a story that often involves conflict but that doesn’t require the hack and slash of other RPG’s. That doesn’t mean that you won’t get into a fist fight; just that the game emphasizes brains over brawn.
Matt Takes a look at the Time Traveller’s companion for Doctor Who from Cubicle 7. He chats about the Tardis – sort of there is like 50 pages on the machine. He shares with you what he found to be fundamental about book with out spoiling the contents.
Check back for the review soon.
