[Reborn] The Stars Are Right! - Free Upgrade Pack

[dce]

Chances are that if you have ever run Call of Cthulhu games set in the modern-day era, you will have bought a copy of Chaosium's excellent scenario anthology "The Stars Are Right!" First published in 1992, then again in a second edition in 2004, the book is Chaosium's only collection of contemporary scenarios published to date. It's writing team boasts some of the best names from 1990s era Call of Cthulhu (including Richard Watts, Kevin Ross, John Scott Tynes, and Gary Sumpter -- just to name a few).

While the scenarios in "The Stars Are Right!" are generally well-written and tackle a bunch of modern-day horror themes, there's no denying that the fact that most of the scenarios are now 25 years old does lead to a few anachronisms. Most of these relate to the ways that technology -- in particular information and communication technology -- has changed over the past few decades. Fortunately, game scenarios being somewhat fluid things, the majority of the anachronisms can be easily fixed with a combination of small plot tweaks and conversions of old information sources from older to newer formats (e.g., printed newspaper clipping to online news article).

To make this process of "modernising" the scenarios from "The Stars Are Right!" easier, Cthulhu Reborn have created a free PDF "upgrade pack" (which also updates the scenario's stats up to 7th Edition). This is available right now for download direct from our site.

The upgrade pack contains Keeper resources which fall into three categories:

1. New versions of each of the scenario handouts, converted to more "modern" forms and rendered in full prop-quality detail. For some scenarios we've also created new handouts (things that are alluded to in the scenario, but never explicitly provided as handouts)
2. Some brief notes on ideas for tweaking plot elements in the scenarios to make them feel more "contemporary" -- mostly these are slight, but one of the scenarios (Steve Hatherley's intriguing "Fractal Gods") has some deeply embedded anachronistic elements that warrant some more significant rewriting [sorry Steve]
3. Updated statistic blocks and skill roll descriptions, which bring the scenarios up to 7th Edition compatibility

The montage below shows just a few of the 48 handouts that are included in the pack:

We hope that fans of modern-day Call of Cthulhu will consider using these revised handouts and resources to revitalise the scenarios in "The Stars Are Right!" and terrorise their players anew. And if you *don't* currently own a copy of "The Stars Are Right!" the good news is that Chaosium still has print copies (and PDFs) of the 2nd Edition for sale on their website.

[Legal Note: The Stars Are Right! Upgrade Pack is released under a Creative Commons license, and complies with the terms of Chaosium's policies on "fan material" which must always remain free of charge. The pack is not a standalone product, and will not be helpful unless you already own one of the two editions of the Chaosium book. Call of Cthulhu is a trademark of Chaosium Inc.]

Thanks,

 

Dean (from Adelaide)