davewire

I purchased the original edition back in 2020 and have access to the pdf. When the new version comes out, will I have access to the new pdf with the updated art, layout etc or is this being treated as an entirely new and separate entity from the original Nameless Horrors?

I keep seeing these Korean titles popping up and they really intrigue me. Perhaps Chaosium might make a translation like they did for Does Love Forgive? one day. Maybe if there’s enough interest (and surely claiming a top spot on DriveThruRPG should generate that interest) then it might be looked into.

CoC doesn’t just have to be Lovecraftian horror. The game is an entire toolset on how to run horror mysteries and I think, with little work, Ravenloft can be run as an investigative scenario. The premise of original module follows a group traversing the halls of Castle Ravenloft, seeking a way to put an end to Strahd and escape the misty borders of Barovia whilst trying to avoid the eye and ire of its dread lord and maintain their composure. Searching for ways to survive a powerful entity that is beyond human means by arming one’s self with knowledge and discovering powerful artifacts is very CoC. I’d mainly want to retain the story and setting of Ravenloft. Traversing the castle would be more of an abstract than a dungeon crawl as the investigators search for hidden libraries of arcane knowledge and crypts containing relics and lore. You wouldn’t be running tons of monster encounters like you would in D&D. This isn’t a fantasy hack and slash game. A few good monster encounters, maybe with some zombies or other undead, a lesser vampire or two, and Strahd himself would be more than enough for a CoC encounter. Obviously Strahd would have to be more than just a vampire as laid out in the Keeper’s Rulebook. He’s also a wizard and in life an accomplished soldier and his stats should reflect that. If you did want to add in a bit of Lovecraftian horror, I believe that the aloof Dark Powers of Ravenloft from which Strahd draws his power and was transformed could fit in with the themes of the mythos.

I’m a big fan of D&D’s original Ravenloft module and its many rereleases over the years including 5th Edition’s Curse of Strahd. However, a criticism I have often found for the module, especially for Curse of Strahd, is that D&D is game of heroes, not horrors, and that it is difficult to bring a sense of dread to a game that wasn’t really built with dread mechanics in mind. The Keeper Tips book says on page 8 that “[you shouldn’t] feel that you have to limit yourself to Lovecraftian horror. Gothic horror… can all be easily enjoyed with Call of Cthulhu. Explore the genres!” When I read that line, I immediately thought of the stats for vampires found in the Keeper’s Rulebook and it suddenly sparked an idea. What if I just ran Ravenloft as a Call of Cthulhu scenario!? I thought about how and where I would add sanity saves as investigators come across the horrific scenes of blood drained corpses and the dead rising from the grave, failing sanity checks and developing a fear of or even a taste for blood, delving into the mystery of the vampire, the lore of how he came to be and how to stop him, the investigations to discover where his secret tomb lies, the horrifying possibility of encountering an awakened and angry Strahd and all the terrible ways it could end. What are your thoughts? Does this seem possible or am I trying too hard to force a square peg into a round hole? Are there any suggestions on how this could be achieved?

It appears that, from what HPLHS posted on the preorder page for the prop set, that the Haunting will be getting props as part of the set as it lists the props coming from the Call of Cthulhu rulebook and the five supplements.

Apparently he’s a big fan of the game so I’m not surprised to see him honored in merch. https://imgur.com/72huZrX Agreed. The Haunting (or the Haunted House rather) is in the Classics box. It would be nice if that got props too.

We’re about $500 short of reaching the next stretch goal! I’m sure it will be hit within the hour. EDIT: It’s just sitting there with $42 to go and I’m just getting anxiety waiting for someone to back the cause. EDIT (again): Woohoo! We made it! Can’t wait to hear what the $400,000 goal is.

That’s truly part of the beauty of 7th edition. We’ll be getting reprints of all these 2nd edition supplements and all of them can easily be converted for modern play.

Just received this in an email from the HPLHS. Seems we’re gonna get some upgraded handouts. Awesomesauce.

That makes sense. I would have loved to have gotten a remastering of the 1st edition though, just for the novelty as it’s the only only edition I have never seen a copy of (print or digital). If they had offered rereleases of both the 1st and 2nd editions, I would have definitely gone all in on both. Still, it’s great to be able to delve into the history of the game and get a chance to obtain any of the old editions as I’m much too young to have ever had the chance to have picked up 2nd edition was released. (I was born after the release of 3rd edition after all.) Even if they can’t release physical copies, I’d love if they could make 1st edition available in PDFs and maybe POD as a stretch goal.

”Mask of Desire” from “Does Love Forgive?” has ties to the Cult of Hastur. Here’s a few non-Chaosium RPGs that are related to the King in Yellow: “Carcosa” is a OSR hex crawl that brings you to the titular city and the its surrounding world near Aldebaran where black stars burn. Not much to do with the King in Yellow mythos, but it is an intriguing RPG based on OSR RPG “Lamentations of the Flame Princess”. It’s got a fair amount about the mythos between its covers The Pathfinder 1st edition Adventure Path “Strange Aeons” pits your party against the King in Yellow. “The Repairer of Reputations” for Pelgrane Press’ “Trail of Cthulhu” RPG allows you to play through Robert Chambers’ original story. “Trail of Cthulhu” uses the GUMSHOE rules like Pelgrane’s “Yellow King” RPG. However, Pelgrane has released ways of converting between the two systems so you might be able to use the Call of Cthulhu rules with a bit of tweaking. Well-known CoC internet reviewer Seth Skorkowksy’s book “Ashes of Onyx” delves in the Hastur mythos. The first season of HBO’s True Detective is perhaps one of the best filmed representations of the King in Yellow themes. Beyond that, I’d check out the original stories by Chambers and Ambrose Bierce and many of the stories in the Hastur Cycle published by Chaosium.

Looking forward to reading this over the weekend. I love this piece of artwork. I think I mentioned this back when the art was first announced for this book, but it has a definite ring of German Expressionism to it, an art style popular around the time of Lovecraft's works for their dreamlike quality. More specifically, this artist perfectly captures the work of Wenzel Hablik and very much reminds me of my favorite painting of his, The Path of the Genius.

Chaosium is finally planning to release the long lost 2nd edition of Pendragon. 😂😂 But in all seriousness, I can’t wait to find out what it is.

I’m pretty sure you’re looking for Last Rites from 1999.

Just got the email, Mansions got released today in print. Darn it, and just after I had put in an order for something else, too. I think I'll just wait a bit for Malleus Monstrorum and Does Love Forgive? to arrive in print to snag them all together.