The Gaming Den

OSSR: GURPS: CthulhuPunk: Colons:
Ancient Horror Crawls Into the Dark Future


This is the reprint cover of this book, and how Steve Jackson would like you to remember it. The cover from the time was a bit more... period appropriate.

There we go. It's like bionic commando.

We did GURPS Cyberpunk.

We did Call of Cthulhu (5.6).

Now, we're sort of doing the combination of the two. GURPS CthulhuPunk is a one-shot adaptation of another games system in a GURPS context; sort of like GURPS: Vampire: The masquerade: The Coloning, but unlike G:V:tM, G:CP is a re-imagining of the Cthulhu Mythos game into the near-future setting of GURPS: Cyberworld, which was in turn the setting book for GURPS: Cyberpunk.


GURPS Cyberworld is not necessary to understand this product.

A lot of RPGs in the first edition are, well, igneous - fired by the forces of creation. Later books tend to be sedimentary, small accretions building up to new editions. This is one of those rare metamorphic books. Not just an adaptation, but a true mixing and reimagining. Shit got weird.

GURPS Cthulhupunk is written by Chris W. McCubbin, who also wrote the GURPS Bestiary, GURPS Aliens, GURPS Space Bestiary, GURPS Fantasy Folk, GURPS Atomic Horror, GURPS Magic Items Volume 1, Cyber Mage: Darklight Awakening, and the official strategy guides to a bunch of Star Wars and Wing Commander videogames. He is a science fiction fan and a hack writer with a special focus in GURPS and writing fill-in-blanks books on “lists of stuff” topics.

The 90s was a time in RPGs where setting was selling RPGs more than mechanics. A cynical historian might be tempted to conclude that the mechanics on offer in the 90s tended to be a plate of hot ass, but the conclusion of the people making games was that “setting sells.” TSR was busy bankrupting itself by writing more settings than they could actually manage, and even GURPS is getting in on the action by tying their nominally generic gameline books to halucinogenic fever dreams masquerading as stand alone settings. I can't say it was a bad idea, the strongest games of the period tended to do exactly that – with games like Vampire: the Masquerade and Shadowrun kicking the snot out of the generic systems from the 80s. Anyway, it's 1995, and Steve Jackson Games has decided to tell one of their workhorse writers to write a near future scifi pastiche of Cthulhu for GURPS. So... like if CthulhuTech had been written 13 years earlier by a slightly different flavor of fanboy using a better core game mechanic.

Actually, it's a lot like that.

McCubbin also wrote some bits and pieces on GURPS: Vampire: the Masquerade, and apparently was slated to write the hypothetical Texas sourcebook before the honeymoon period with White Wolf turned septic.

This is a GURPS book, so the standard disclaimers apply - GURPS just does not do half-assed books; it's the entire ass or nothing. It is worth saying, however, that even by GURPS standards this gamebook concept has unusual staying power. Maybe it has to do with the incestuous nature of Cthulhu Mythos roleplaying, but people will know of CthulhuPunk even if they have never read it, and even decades after it was released and all official and unofficial support had ceased it stands as a point of reference in comparing with other Mythos RPG products.

...and well it should. Chaosium, at this point, had never quite managed to do a decent contemporary Mythos RPG. They had tried with Cthulhu Now, and the guys at Pagan Publishing did Delta Green, but any sort of future or near-future stuff was pretty much relegated to a very few scenarios tucked away into obscure sourcebooks. The very possibility of tipping a toe outside the well-established waters of "Mythos shit happens, go investigate, handwave everything" was still something that sent the Chaosium writers into fucking hives.


Yes, exciting rules for playing the Mythos in the 80s. There was an adventure involving a computer-dating service and Shub-Niggurath. Not even kidding.

Yet it's important to bring up Cthulhu Now, because there is a shred of its mRNA in this book; the idea of transcribing eldritch horrors into a setting outside of Lovecraft's 1920s and 30s (or Arthur Machen's gaslight 1890s) was realized there, so I think it contributed, in some small way, to the drug trip that allowed GURPS CthulhuPunk to be born.

I should go on to say that the whole '20s and '30s setting for the Cthulhu Mythos roleplaying is fucking bizarre. Lovecraft wrote stories set in what was for him the current day, or pretty damn close to it, most of the time. A large chunk of his motivation for doing so was to get away from the hackneyed ghost stories and Gothic romances of stuff set far away in some distant period. The whole idea of setting the game back in the '20s and '30s has little to do with Lovecraft's conception of the Mythos as timeless horrors and everything to do with shortsighted nostalgia by raging grognards.

This isn't just any old Mythos related or inspired RPG, this is an explicit tie-in to Chaosium Games' Call of Cthulhu. Steve Jackson Games got permission from Chaosium to use their intellectual property, and the credits page gives you a window into how little there actually is of that. This book needed permission to use the Call of Cthulhu trademarked name in a roleplaying game context (as opposed to using the term “Call of Cthulhu” in a movie, TV show, novel, or any other context, which you don't need their permission for because they don't own the term), and to reprint a specific drawing of August Derleth's design of an Elder Sign that Chaosium happens to own. Not the design, just that specific drawing of that design.


If you draw your own damn Elder Sign, Chaosium ain't got shit on you.

It's pretty trivially easy to write a Cthulhu-based RPG without using any IP that Chaosium actually owns. Most of Chaosium's material is actually just “fair use” or public domain references to the works of authors who are explicitly allowing their works to be shared and in many cases also long dead. If you wanted to publish Call of Cthulhu your own damn self you could copy the game almost word for word so long as you gave it the title of a different HPL story and used a different font. CthulhuTech showed how easy that is a few years back. But US Steve Jackson liked licensing other peoples' stuff whenever possible, and so he was willing to cut a deal with Chaosium to license their ownership of... two logos.

Artists don't actually get any credit here, just the art director and the people who bought the prints. They might have been trolling highschool art fairs and flea markets by the look of some of the pieces, which would explain why they don't know or care about the names of the original artists. Speaking of not crediting the original artists – the authors of the mythos stories that are being pastiched in this book are also not credited. Material by Brian Lumley is for the most part excised from the text (no Cthonians in this book, and Ithaqua's planet of Borea is unmentioned), but HPL and August Derleth's material is used all over the place. They were dead of course, but I think in 1995 some of Derleth's copyrights still applied.


On your left, we seem to be passing the point where it's traditional to credit the work of people whose copyrighted material we are are going to be using. Or not. You know, whatever.

In 1995, people had had enough of paying tribute to Arkham House for the things they probably didn't own. And while they were at it, they figured they might as well not pay them tribute for things they probably did own. Because fuck it.

By '95, the Arkham House claim to copyrights for Lovecraft's material was really dubious. If you're really interested in an overview, you can check out Black Seas of Copyright, and then understand that the situation was even more fraught and complicated than that.

Hell, most of the reason people equate Chaosium with copyrights, gaming, and the Mythos is because of the kerfluffle over the Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia.

tl;dr: TSR used the Cthulhu and Melnibonean Mythos without permission (which they didn't need for the former, but they didn't know that), because Chaosium had the RPG licenses for both, and had to issue a second edition without those two - thus beginning a cycle of hunting after rare RPG books.)

This book has 8 numbered chapters, as well as a conversion chapter numbered “g.” and an introduction and bibliography. Chapter “g.” was probably supposed to be a “9.” and in this font it kind of looks like a 9. It's an odd typesetting mistake, but there are a lot of ones like that (“Rdventure” for example). It's the kind of error that got made when people were fucking with actual movable block print, or in this case some primitive scan to text programs with little human oversight. That's 11 chapters/sections, but the whole book is only 125 pages, so we can probably do a couple of chapters per post.

On the second edition of this book, the inner front cover suggests several helpful GURPS books to go along with this product, including GURPS: Steampunk, G:Cyberpunk, G:Cyberworld, G:Undead, and the rather weird Floor Plan 1 - Haunted House, which was part of a line of generic maps and floor plans for various settings. The back inside cover pimps the GURPS website and Pyramid online. All power to the tubes.

Introduction



Tell me more about these “Weird Tales.”

The introduction is three pages long and is split into two streams of text side by side. It's like a two-column format, except that text in the “inner” column steams from page to page into the next “inner” column, and text from the “outer” column streams into the next page's “outer” column. Or since it's just three pages, it goes that one text stream is Left Column, Right Column, Left Column while the other text stream goes Right Column, Left Column, Right Column. It's like if there was box text, except there are no boxes involved.

Anyway, the bigger text stream is a more proper introduction. But the smaller text stream that should be box text technically comes first and it is a rant about why you should buy more GURPS books. It being 1995, Steve Jackson games promises that they will send you an up-to-date errata sheet for any book if you send them a self addressed, stamped envelope. Also, they abbreviate that “SASE” because it was 1995 and people actually knew what that meant. As Steve Jackson Games was always striving to be on the forefront of technology, they assured you that they had a 28.8 baud modem, not the 14.4 modem they had in 1990 when they did GURPS Cyberpunk. The 56k modems actually didn't come out until 1997, so those higher data transfer rates would have to wait for GURPS Steampunk.

Once we start pimping specific products, things get kind of surreal. They tell you that the source of all the mythos lore in this book is Call of Cthulhu 5th edition – which is a book we OSSRed and doesn't actually contain all that much mythos lore. So while the statement may be true, it's not encouraging. Also it probably isn't true, because this book has its own extensive bibliography at the end. The book's second recommendation is GURPS Cyberworld by Paul Hume (of Shadowrun fame), which it specifically calls out as being a “plausible dark future” which may be the only time anyone has ever accused Cyberworld of being plausible. They then make progressively weaker and weaker cases first for reasonably applicable things like GURPS high tech until it trails off with an I-am-not-making-this-up pitch for you to buy GURPS Vampire: The Masquerade.

Will there ever be another GURPS/CoC crossover? Frankly, I don't know.

This is why people love Steve Jackson Games. They're honest. Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf will lie to you about release dates and rules fixing and keeping James Fucking Wyatt away from the drugs or the rules or both, but only Steve Jackson Games will actually deliver on any of those promises.

More on the Cthulhu Mythos and GURPS in general, as with G:V:tM, it is a weird concept - Call of Cthulhu is noted as having a very terrible rules lite "system" (I use the term loosely; it is a very many numbers held together by a connective tissue of mindcaulk and fanwank) that its fanbase is rabidly in favor of, and GURPS translations tend to be very rules-heavy, even if the rules themselves are cumbersome and unwieldy. So your CoC fans probably are going to ignore the mechanics and be confused by the changes to the setting material...and the GURPS fans are going to exploit the rules and be confused by the setting material. Ah, the joys of roleplaying!

I have no fucking clue who the audience for this book is supposed to be. Seriously, it's not like GURPS aren't down for including eldritch horrors in an RPG game - they're probably an entire chapter on it in GURPS Horrors, or something - but think about how very weird it is to have a GURPS product married to Cthulhu married to Cyberpunk. I don't disapprove, but it is really fucking strange, because the typical GURPS approach would have been to do a GURPS Cthulhu book, and then tell players they could marry it up with GURPS Cyberpunk and make their own GURPS Cthulhupunk. I'm not sorry they decided to sort of cut out the middleman on this one, but it is atypical, which is what makes this such an interesting product. I mean, you don't see GURPS CyberVikings or GURPS AztechPunk books out there. The only likely possibilities I can think of are some really good drugs, or a line in the deal with Chaosium to make sure that GURPS didn't step on all of their toes in terms of settings.

What's odd about this is that the pitch for doing Mythos as science fiction makes itself. The Cthulhu-mythos is science fiction. It's science fiction that was first written in the past, but mythos material is still being written today is science fiction of the present. Instead of ranting about how the Great Depression was created by telephones (by the way: it was not) or how a Hound of Tindalos is not that different from a cyberninja, they really could just say “Mi-Go are fucking aliens with space ships who use ultra-tech to transfer brains into jars and keep them alive, and in Cyberpunk that kind of technology is also available to the humans.” Really, this introduction just serves to highlight the ignorance of the genres enjoyed by the author.


This is literally 100% of what should have been said about the so-called “difficulties” of mashups involving science fiction with aliens and science fiction with cybernetics.

GURPS CthulhuPunk was, according to this introduction, written under a one-book licensing deal with Chaosium, with the idea that if it did well enough there would be more licensed collaborations in the future. As far as I know, there were no such future collaborations, lending credence to the conspiracy theory that this book sold like herpes cream with 20% more herpes.

In McCubbin's defense, there is a literary link between Cyberpunk and pulp fiction - I think William Gibson acknowledge the influence of 30s detective fiction on Neuromancer, and Ridley Scott clearly borrowed film noir aesthetics for Blade Runner - and of course, the weird fiction of Lovecraft was part of the scientifiction (yes, that was a real word, if you just learned a new word, have a cookie) movement, and led more-or-less directly to Phillip K. Dick and John Shirley and Rudy Rucker and all that jazz. Fuck, H. P. Lovecraft was positing futuristic dystopias before it was cool.


This is one of the few known pictures of Lovecraft trying to smile.

Also, despite the weird wording, McCubbins wasn't claiming telephones created the Great Depression - but the sudden massive propagation of new communication technologies helped shape the Depression era, much as the promulgation of personal computers and the world wide net helped shape cyberpunk fiction.

The About the Author section holds that the author believes he is best and most fondly remembered for his work as an editor of the already canceled fanmagazine “Autoduel Quarterly.” This might actually be true.

He also has two cats, Polychrome and Clipper. Lovecraft would approve, and welcome him to the Kappa Alpha Tau fraternity.

Okay, it sounds like we're ribbing a bit harshly...bottom line, this is a very strange, high-concept book, even by GURPS standards, and it's written by a veteran industry hack. You know going in that you're going to see a lot of Mythos setting weird and GURPS clunky rules weirdness. That's a given, that's the ticket to entry. The question we have to answer at the end of the book is: is it any good? Does it come up to GURPS standard? Did it fulfill its bizarre and unholy purpose of combing Cyberpunk and the Cthulhu Mythos? And if so, did it do it well?

I think a lot of people are selling the appeal of fusing cyberpunk with the Cthulhu Mythos a little short, even back when this book was written. I mean, damn, Guyver and Devilman and Baoh. And yeah, I know Baoh didn't really have demons and aliens and cosmic horrors in it but would anyone be surprised if there were?

Frank Trollman wrote: The About the Author section holds that the author believes he is best and most fondly remembered for his work as an editor of the already canceled fanmagazine “Autoduel Quarterly.” This might actually be true.

SJGames published ADQ as their house magazine to support Car Wars. It's as much a fan magazine as White Dwarf, Dragon, or Dungeon. It's just a weird thing to say.

Cyberpunk + Cthulhu is an idea that seems to come up fairly regularly. There's obviously Cthulhutech, this, and I seem to remember a White Dwarf article andI think an article in Arcane on the subject too. The Mythos being basically science fiction and the shared focus on the banality and pointlessness of human existence probably has something to do with it.

Ancient History wrote:it's not like GURPS aren't down for including eldritch horrors in an RPG game - they're probably an entire chapter on it in GURPS Horrors, or something

Given GURPS Horror has been under the wing of a certain Kenneth Hite since the 3rd edition, this is pretty much a certainty.

Anyway I can't wait to get to the meat of any Cyberpunk game review... just how badly does the Netrunning system suck?

OSSR: CthulhuPunk
Chapter One: The Cthulhu Mythos


You don't matter in the eyes of an unflinching and uncaring universe.

The Cthulhu Mythos is one of those things where the process of finding out about it is a large part of the fun; like a detective story, or initiation into a cult, or foreplay before sex. The central mystery or truth, told in the bald light of day, is not the stuff of dreams or nightmares; there is no illumination and enlightened state, there may not even be a five second orgasm. It may, in fact, just be silly. This is one of the central problems with trying to move the Mythos to a roleplaying milieu, because a) players tend to know more than their characters, and b) not all gamemasters can manage to guide the players successfully through a transformative process - which isn't restricted to Mythos RPGs, now that I think of it; the basic hero's journey works well enough in a novel, but not so much for a tabletop game. Just very few people start out as bastards and turn into heroes; mostly they start off as overconfident newbs that level up and become overconfident, overpowered assholes.

And GURPS, as we've seen, tends to tackle things directly.

Great Cthulhu is a gargantuan, immortal, extraterretrial creature of almost unimaginable power. It lies, and has lain for millennia, entombed in the sunken city of R'lyeh. It is fully described on p. 17.

The first proper chapter is 15 pages and starts with a picture of some punks and that well known Eldritch Horror: Veronica from Archie. I dunno what that is about, but I assume one of the uncredited interior artists was attempting to get away with something.


If we were doing the Care Bear Mythos or something, we would presumably have gotten Betty instead.

This being an RPG product from the mid-90s, we sacrifice the first page or so of the chapter into an italicized story. I'm on board with those teaser fictions being half a page – but a whole page of italics is just too much. But then, RPGs fucked that particular chicken more than 20 years ago and it seems devilishly hard to get that chicken unfucked. This particular story tries so hard to capture the in-your-face attitude of cyberpunk that it's largely incomprehensible. As in, someone seriously says “Krovvy faex, Booshk” which is like an attempt to create a future slang the way Shadowrun had frag and slitch. However, while the various chapters recycle the same characters and use these made up words enough that you can mostly figure them out eventually, this book has no slang glossary and you never quite figure out how obscene “faex” is supposed to be.

The chapter, and indeed several chapters in the book continue the Introduction's plan of having a big inner test block and a completely unrelated small outer text column. As I mentioned earlier, it's like if there was box text on every page of if each page just had bits from two unrelated chapters. This system of information presentation never caught on, and I think we're all better off because of it.

That was the standard GURPS plan, get used to it.

This chapter is trying to cram the Cthulhu Mythos into a nutshell. It is primarily the Chaosium take on the Mythos, but there are hints here and there that McCubbins actually knows rather more about the genesis of the Mythos than some of the actual CoC writers, or at least more willing to show his work. It's actually kind of refreshing to see the little details he manages to cram in to the rather forthright description of the Mythos.

This is, I should say, rather classic GURPS style of writing. The voice of the author is not talking down to the audience, and indeed deliberately avoids the quasi-mystical hinting typical of most Mythos products, but it also doesn't fall into the habit of dry recitation of boring facts; the voice is colloquial, to-the-point, and communicates rather directly to what the audience should know.

Such that this chapter has a point, it is to talk about how the mythos interacts with history and to lay down a historical basis for the mythos. Note that this is both the history of the mythos that was written in our world, and the history that the mythos has within its own fictional world. The chapter goes back and forth between those things, and it's all pretty odd. So we get discussions about how Nightgaunts were based on nightmares that HPL had when he was 6, but also discussions about how in the game world the Yithians fought the Elder Things in the ancient past. The chapter is divided up into 8 sections: “What's a Cthulhu?” “The Essential Meaninglessness of Everything,” “Cosmic Forces,” “Blasphemous Tomes,” “Inhuman Artifacts,” “A Mythos Gazeteer,” “The Dreamlands,” and “Timeline of Prehistory.” The side text column is also divided into four sections: “The Making of the Mythos,” “The Nature of the Beast,” “Mythos Terms,” and “Forgotten Places.”


Yes, it really has a section called The Essential Meaninglessness of Everything.

Of course, the scholarship here really isn't that great. The dates and ordering of events aren't good. But really it all comes down to the fact that this chapter is basically a 15 page book report on the book reports of the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Which as you may recall from that OSSR, there were actually a lot of those written by a various people with axes to grind over a period of decades. So when it's all condensed like this, it comes off as a bit confused. On the one hand, the book admits that “there are those who vehemently disagree with some of the directions Derleth took in his own Mythos stories,” but it still claims that “There is a definite taxonomy to Lovecraft's immortal beings.” Those two statements are on facing pages of the book! The one claiming that there's a definite canon that fans agree upon and the frank admission that fans do not agree on what constitutes canon. Grr.

As a distillation of the Mythos in a nutshell, I think it's actually very competent; the weird bit is that this comes through a GURPS lens, so some of the classic mechanics of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, like the Cthulhu Mythos skill (here "Mythos Lore") and increasing it by reading forbidden books is handled with the usual GURPS aplomb (i.e. clunky mechanics, including that old vanguard the Fright Check).

The result is...well, probably not enough to make anyone happy. Steve Jackson Games was not going to bring Sanity Points into GURPS, especially when they had a Fright Check system already in place, but they also jettisoned a lot of the excess baggage (and flavor) that Chaosium had generated over 20+ years of churning out content. So we still have pages listing various translations of various Mythos tomes, which challenge your sanity (though Fright Checks) and grant points in the Mythos Lore skill, but you don't get, say, average reading times or lists of spells they might have or any of that crappola. Occult tomes are right out.

Cthulhu is much like a corporation. Weyland Yutani can be defeated or driven back. But Aztechnology can't really be killed with bullets. The Tyrell Corporation doesn't care what you do or who you are. Ondo-Sendai can potentially live forever in its inhuman villainy.


Makes for weird shareholders meetings.

Frankly, the themes of insignificance in the face of an uncaring universe in mythos literature aren't very different from the themes of insignificance in the face of an uncaring universe in cyberpunk literature. So you'd think that this chapter would blend these concepts, to present the essential similarities of the implacability of a dystopian future society for the individual to the implacability of cosmic monstrosities for mankind as a whole. That would be really literary and deep while also being low hanging fruit. But you don't get that. There's very little in this chapter to even mention that we're talking about a cyberpunk setting or really doing anything other than writing a book report on the essays contained in the Call of Cthulhu RPG. I think 100% of it is some speculation about how the GM might want to come up with a reason that N'Kai isn't generally known about. Even though this book is in fact supposed to be presenting a setting and thus presenting an answer to that fundamental question is probably most of why people might want to buy and read this book rather than just doing it from scratch themselves.



It's been observed that part of what let Lovecraft get away with the Mythos is that he lived in an age of exploration, when people were still combing the farthest corners of the globe, meeting some of the last uncontacted people, uncovering ancient ruins that re-wrote the history books, and finding new planets and shit with telescopes - and that was all shit that was going on before he added any fictional elements. Today we continue to push back the borders, but there are fewer frontiers. Satellites can do various probes of any piece of the earth's surface, and even see what's underneath it; submarines have reached some of the deepest parts of the ocean; exploratory vehicles have landed on fucking Mars and sent back live video. So the fact that there might be a hidden race of hominds in the jungles of Africa, or a lost city millions of years old of cyclopean proportions in Antarctica stretches contemporary belief.

And this book actually talks to that, it just does the typical GURPS thing and does not commit to any one single reason for it; instead it gives a selection of reasons and tells the gamemaster that these are possibilities and that it's up to them. On the one hand, this actually works for GURPS, where you design the game first; on the other hand, I rather expected (or hoped) for more in what should have been more of a setting book than a general ingredient in a GURPS stew.

The most obvious thing that is wrong about the Mythos Gazeteer is that it tells you that Nyarlathotep is the King in Yellow and rules Carcosa. This is of course completely wrong. The King in Yellow is Hastur. No effort is made to nail much of anything down, nor is any effort made to tell you how to work any of this shit into a game. Carcosa is on an island in a lake on a planet around a star that is sixty five light years away. How one might be expected to get there or care what happens in its wavering towers is left as an exercise for the reader. The original source material is an 1895 book that predates HPL altogether, and it's quite... opaque. This book is an RPG and could claim whatever canon it wanted, but elects instead to lamely admit that the original book is “swathed in untold layers of symbolism and allegory.”


Not Nyarlathotep.


Nyarlathotep is the one in the middle.

But really, it's not much of a gazeteer. It's a list of a couple of places, each getting a paragraph or two. R'lyeh gets a plug, but Y'ha-nthlei does not. More obscure Deep One cities are likewise missing. No mention is to be had of the city of Pnakotus, which is ironic considering that the Pnakotic Manuscripts warranted inclusion in the books list. Your extraterrestrial locations include Yuggoth, Carcosa, and the Throne of Azathoth, but do not include Borea, Shaggai, or Xoth. The Dreamlands gets its own “section,” but that just entitles it to 8 short paragraphs instead of two.

Frank's mild nerd-rage on Hastur, Nyarlathotep and the King in Yellow brings up a rather important point: in the literature of the Mythos, very few things are concrete and nailed down; even Lovecraft never bothered to keep a lot of things straight. It is part of the reason why even today we can have nerd-fights over whether or not Hastur is the King in Yellow - which is really an invention of the Chaosium RPG, spinning off August Derleth's contributions (AWD originally wanted to call it "The Mythology of Hastur," Lovecraft preferred "Yog-Sothothery"). So equating the KiY with Nyarlathotep is only really wrong if you accept the version of things popualrized by Chaosium and co. that Hastur == the King in Yellow. But it is a very bizarre thing to have here, and I don't know what McCubbin did it.



But again, this is rather GURPS in a nutshell. They give you the nuts and bolts, and then if you want more they point you to the source material. Where White Wolf would have filled a 350 page book full of shovelware crap on the detailed geography of the Dreamlands that was pretty much shit, or Chaosium would have filled the same amount of space with fanrants (and they did), or some fans doing a CoC spin-off like Pagan Publishing might do a painfully well-researched version of the same, GURPS gives you the important bits of what the Dreamlands are and then expects you to fill in the blank spaces to your heart's content.

The timeline gets as far as the Hyborian Age, and calls out the reign of Conan of Aquilonia.


Yes, that Conan.

The degree to which the mythos is connected to the Conan universe varies depending on the author. Older editions of Call of Cthulhu played it up more than newer editions. Which is to say that there are some things that even the people at Chaosium are a bit embarrassed about.

Well, the same goes for Marvel comics.


Conan may never have sliced off one of Cthulhu's tentacles, but he did fight Yog-Sothoth once. It...could have gone better.

The timeline ends c. -11,500 B.C. with the destruction of Atlantis, or well into prehistory; unlike Earthdawn and Shadowrun then, this rather neatly avoids a lot of overlap and discrepancies (besides, y'know, pre-human empires and all that.)

So just to restate, this is GURPS basically boiling the better part of CoC 5th edition's fluff down into a dozen pages. It's...well, bare-bones, and in places iffy. They could have taken more time and space with it. But they didn't because things are about to get really weird...

Chapter Two: The CthulhuPunk World

Actually, HPL detested seafood because of the smell. This led to at least three otherwise rational human beings to assume that he had a phobia of vaginas, and to write it in print. Not even making this shit up.

This chapter is 17 pages, and we're still in the “main column and aside column” format that dogs much of the book. We get another one page story of the continuing adventures of people who use words like “nerks” and “faex” in sentences. Not much actually happens in this one, so we should skip to the main text.

GURPS CthulhuPunk wrote:Due to space constraints, and to keep the game's setting open-ended, this book concentrates mostly on the ways in which the Mythos interacts with the world at large, giving only the broadest outlines of the more mundane political and social situation.
If the GM desires more detail, any cyberpunk world can become a [b CthulhuPunk[/b] world.

No. This is wrong. This book is supposed to present a Cyberpunk Mythos setting, not to provide some scattershot GURPS conversions of some of the shit in Call of Cthulhu and then tell you to roll your own cyberpunk setting. And yet, here we are: the book literally tells you at the beginning of the CthulhuPunk World chapter that the author has no intention of actually making a world for CthulhuPunk. One is entitled to wonder what is actually in the remaining pages. As it happens, it is to present a world, just to do it in a really half-assed way because you're probably going to roll your own anyway.

Which is the fundamental problem with McCubbin writing this book, I think. When Paul Hume did GURPS CyberWorld, it was no great piece of work - maybe someone will OSSR that dog one day - but it was engagingly insane as GURPS setting books tend to be, when they sit down and decide to actually make a setting, instead of just providing some tinkertoys to build your own. It's really why GURPS Time Travel and Alterante Earths became the default game setting in 4th edition; because those were interconnected worlds which allowed a maximum of possibilities while still having a thin connective tissue of material that the gamemaster did not have to pull out of their own ass. And, rather sadly, that is the best GURPS usually gets when it comes to providing detailed settings. Not for them is the Shadowrun location book, or the White Wolf splat book, or the Dungeons & Dragons gazetteer.

So when you get this book, it is one of those bizarre (and rare) GURPS books where to use it to its full potential you sort of need GURPS CyberPunk and GURPS Cyberworld - of course, if you have those and CoC 5th edition, it's hard to say how much of this book you absolutely need, unless you're a hard bastard for "official" statistics and whatnot.

Anyway. So, GURPS CthulhuPunk is a slightly twisted version of Cyberworld, which was a default setting created for GURPS Cyberpunk, full of typical cyberpunk tropes like augmentation technology, big monolith corporations, dirty cities, ecological disasters, early colonization of space, etc. A lot of the basics presented in CthulhuPunk are lifted pretty much directly from Cyberworld - things like Puerto Rico gaining statehood in the far distant year of 2002, etc. Where the last chapter was basically a book report on Call of Cthulhu 5th edition, this chapter is primarily a book report on Cyberworld

Shadowrun had some big plagues that killed off an ass tonne of people too. I think this was done to excuse having the demographics of 2050 be essentially the same as the demographics of 1989. The fast growing peoples of India, Nigeria, and Brazil were hit harder, so the share of brown people in the world was no different in the future than it was in the present. I genuinely do not know why CthulhuPunk has a big plague in the late 90s, there isn't enough world building for the author to have to care what the population of France or Pakistan is in the grimderp future.

The big economic collapse makes more sense. Wage slavery and mass poverty are important aspects of cyberpunk, and mass unemployment goes a long way towards explaining how that could happen. I don't know how the author thought that unemployment could be over 30% with inflation in the double digits though. Even in the 90s that was a stupid thing to say. Six years into the Great Recession, it just seems like gibberish.

The timeline is oddly specific and goes year by year starting in 1996, but peters out and skips a bunch of years when it gets to the 2040s. This is, of course, exactly and totally wrong. If your game is set in the 2040s or 2050s, none of the characters will give a rat's ass what year Boris Yeltsin or Fidel Castro died in. But they will care about events that took place last year or the year before. Also, your future history is pretty much guaranteed to be wrong, because truth is stranger than fiction and all that – so the closer you put your major history turning points, the more quickly you're going to look like a moron. This book came out in 1995, so by setting major turning points in 1996 it was demonstrably wrong in just a few months.



'95 was actually very late-era for a cyberpunk book, and it shows because you've got stuff like MafInc which was pretty much lifted directly from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, which bookends both classic cyberpunk fiction and Stephenson's ability to end a fucking book in a reasonable number of pages.

You don't really start to get any hints about integrating the Mythos into this world until fairly far in - and that by a rather bizarre crackdown on occult groups due to an assassination that reads like it was written back during the Satanic Panic.

After that, it picks up speed, but the Mythos tends to remain fairly sub rosa, which is an...I was going to say interesting way to go, but that's wrong. It's kind of the lazy way to go. Yes, it is one option; another is to go the CthulhuTech route and the Mythos is totally out in the open. I guess with a name like CthulhuPunk people might be expecting something closer to inbetween - contact with the Mi-Go and Deep Ones, some public recognition of established worship of the Old Ones, various groups and agencies jockeying for one goal or another, maybe something really bizarre like implants based on shoggoth-tissue harvested from Elder Thing cities and corners of the 'Net given over to non-Euclidean geometries; six-legged hermaphroditic Deep One corpses washing up on the shores of New Jersey because of all the chemical waste being dumped in the water, the Necronomicon available for download, the occult meeting the occultech...but, not so much.


Malware, 'zude.

Most cyberpunk worlds posit the collapse of major powers like the United States and China. Mostly in order to lend credence to the idea that corporations hold the whip hand and can do what they want. This book posits the opposite: a United States that has annexed much of the rest of North America and a Russo-Japan union that also includes much of Eastern Europe (including Armenia and Latvia!). Really, it seems like the author doesn't much “get” Cyberpunk as a genre. I get that with plagues wiping out tens of millions of people and massive and oppressive police states dominating the globe that we are being presented with a futuristic dystopia, but it's not actually a particularly cyberpunk version of a futuristic dystopia. There are lots of ways for the future to be terrible, and only a few of them are cyberpunk.


Katniss Everdeen lives in a dystopian future, but it's not a cyberpunk dystopian future by most accounts.

The world gets divided up into nationalistic empires, and India and Africa get shat upon. It doesn't quite pen “here be brown people” on the map, but it does literally say:

CthulhuPunk wrote:Nobody goes to Africa or India by choice – it's just too depressing, and unsafe.

I'd ask to implement some sort of policy where if RPG authors can't say something that isn't shitty and dismissive of Africa or India that they shouldn't say anything – but that leads to the current status quo where not nearly enough things are said about those places altogether. There should be more wordcount spent on Africa and India in RPGs. Also, the wordcount that is spent should be saying things that aren't wildly implausible and borderline racist. But instead, and especially in the 90s and before, you got shit like this:

CthulhuPunk wrote:Today, Africa is back where it was in the 19th century technologically, socially and politically.

I would sign that petition, Frank.

The Discovery of the Ghooric Zone wrote:Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha's coronation was splendid. Never before had the South Polar Jerusalem seen such pomp, such display of pageantry and power. Thousands of slaves, naked and gilded and draped in jewelry and feathers, paraded up the wide boulevard before the Imperial Palace. They drew, by ropes of woven gold and weizmannium, glittering juggernauts. Fountains sprayed scented wine. Chamberlains threw fistfuls of xanthic shekels to cheering crowds.

The climax of the spectacle was the march of the anthrocyberphants, resplendent mutated elephants whose cerebellums had been surgically removed at birth and replaced with spheres of human brain material cultured from clone-cells donated (involuntarily in some cases) by the greatest scientists, scholars and intellectuals in Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha's realm. When the anthrocyberphants were well grown and into their adolescence, their gonads were surgically removed and replaced with a variety of electronic implants including inertial guidance computers, magnetic compass-gyroscopes, neural transceivers.

The anthrocyberphants pranced and tumbled down the grand boulevard before the Imperial Palace, trumpeting melodies from Wagner, Mendelssohn, Bach, Mozart, vain self-portraiture by Richard Strauss, erotic fantasies by Scriabin, extended lines from Britten, discordant percussives by Edgar Varese, all in perfect orchestral harmony, all punctuated by the sounds of tympani, timbales, kettle-drums and cymbals held in writhing flexible tentacles that grew from nodes at the marchers' shoulders.

Upon the silken-draped and jewel-encrusted balcony of the Imperial Palace, the Ultimate Monarch of Laddino Imperium smiled and waved, bowed, applauded, turned to turbaned chamberlains and grasped fistfuls of commemorative favors to toss graciously upon the marchers and the cheering crowds come to celebrate the grand ceremonial.

The Laddino Imperium included all of the grand Antarctic domain of the former Israel-in-Exile and the expanded territory of Greater Hai Brasil that had extended to claim hegemony over all of the Americas, from Hudson's Bay to Patagonia, before falling under sway of the South Polar nation. The Ultimate Monarch, Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha, bowed, waved, tossed favors to the crowd. Deep in the bowels of the Earth beneath once-frozen plains and mountains, huge gyroscopes throbbed into life.

The axis of the Earth began to shift through a lengthy and carefully computed cycle. None but the servants and advisors of the Ultimate Monarch had been consulted, and none but the will of Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha, the Ultimate Monarch, was considered. The ambition of Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha was to give every citizen of the planet Earth, every square meter of territory, a fair and equitable access to the wealth, the beauty, the joy, the light, the warmth of the sun.

As the huge gyroscopes whirled their massive flywheels the Earth shifted its ancient tilt.



The fanatic hordes of Nrisimha, the Little Lion, poured from the city of Medina in the ancient Arabian desert, conquering all before them in the holy name of the Little Lion of God. The forces of Novum Romanum, the empire built by Fortuna Pales, and of the New Khmer Domain, created a century before by Vidya Devi, slaughtered the followers of the Little Lion Nrisimha by the hundreds of thousands, then by the millions.

How could Nrisimha continue to replace the decimated armies? How many soldiers could the single city of Medina produce? What was the secret of the fanatical hordes?

No one knew.

But they poured forth, fearless, unstoppable, unslowable, unturnable. All that the forces of resistance could do was slaughter them by the million, and they fell, they fell, but their fellows only marched across their very bodies, their strange bodies that did not putrefy like the corpses of normal soldiers but seemed instead to turn to an amorphous gel and then to sink into the Earth itself leaving behind no sign of their presence, not even uniforms or weapons or equipment, but only, in the wake of their passage, fields of strange flowers and fruits that bloomed gorgeously into towering pillars and petals and berries the size of melons, that produced sweet narcotic fumes and brought to those who harvested and ate them dreams of haunting beauty and incomparable weirdness.

Strange messengers sped across the sands of the deserts of Africa and Asia bearing the word that the Little Lion Nrisimha had come to bring peace and glory and splendor to a new Empire, to Khmeric Gondwanaland, an absolute dictatorship of unparalleled benevolence that would stretch from Siberia to Ireland and from the Arctic Circle to the Cape of Good Hope.

It took remarkably few years for the followers of the Little Lion Nrisimha to complete their conquest, and few more for the establishment of an efficient infrastructure and the appointment of regional satrapies under the absolute command of Nrisimha.

Khmeric Gondwanaland was a roaring success.



It was less than a century from the complete triumph of Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha throughout the Laddino Imperium and that of Nrisimha the Little Lion in Khmeric Gondwanaland, the two great empires were driven into union by the eruption of attacking battrachian forces from beneath the seas of the planet. How long these strange, frog-like intelligences had lived in their deep and gloomy metropoli hundreds of meters beneath the surface of the Earth's oceans, will remain forever imponderable.

What stimulated them to rise and attack the land-dwelling nations of the Earth is also unknown, although in all likelihood the steady shifting of the Earth's axis brought about by the gargantuan subterranean gyroscopes of Yamm Kerit ben Chibcha were in fact the cause of the attacks.

The Deep Ones emerged and waded ashore in all regions at once. They wore only strangely crafted bangles and ornaments of uncorroded metal. They carried weapons resembling the barbed tridents of marine legendry. They dragged behind them terrible stone statues of indescribably extramundane monstrosities before which they conducted rites of blasphemous abandon and unmentionable perversion.

The Laddino Imperium and Khmeric Gondwanaland combined their respective might to deal with the menace, to drive the strange Deep Ones back into the murky realms from which they had emerged. By the year 2337 a unified Earth lay once more tranquil and prosperous beneath a glowing and benevolent sun.

The menace of the Deep Ones, at least for the time, was over.

And billions of kilometers from Earth, humanity renewed its heroic thrust toward the outermost regions of the solar system.

That spoilered text is from The Discovery of the Ghooric Zone by Richard Lupoff; it is essentially the granddaddy of all Mythos cyberpunkish literature - mainly because it's actually part of New Wave sci fi, which was the immediate predecessor to Cyberpunk - and seriously, the it's the kind of thing that everybody who even thinks of doing a Mythos-in-the-future setting should read. Not because it's perfect, but because it is not; it's not very punk at all, really - but it does get across a setting where the Mythos interacts with world politics and future history on a strong level without completely dominating it. Flipping back and forth through this chapter, I'm kind of upset about how little the Mythos is in it.

As we mentioned in GURPS Cyberpunk, the default assumptions about how batteries were going to work at future technology levels look completely insane to us today. Basically, back when they first did up the tech levels, they thought that people were going to be running around with futuristic power cells that were like the old D batteries that output a lot more power and that people would be powering power gluttonish future devices and burning through them like they were skittles on a road trip. This was probably a pretty terrible prediction at the time, but of course actual power technology has gone very much the opposite direction – modern lights use literally 90% less electricity than old incandescents do. Modern flashlights use less batteries, and the batteries they use are also lighter and last longer. We aren't “Tech Level 8” by any means, but people would already look at you like you were insane if you wanted to discuss how many pounds of phone batteries you wanted to take on a trip.

Meeting this freight train with its own unfortunate tunnel light was the fact that the tech level one point higher than “today” (which was the 1980s) was where space elevators and combat lasers lived. So not only were the power cells of the future bizarre raygun gothic retro-future things to begin with, but the kind of near future setting most cyberpunk aspired to is explicitly lower tech than the GURPS future that has them. So we're at this weird point where the author is trying to posit the existence of an intermediary stage where portable power supplies are even heavier and more ridiculous. Where the smallest available battery is heavier than a modern AA and it only goes up from there.


Not even hoped for in GURPS Ultratech.

The numbers aren't as silly as they were in GURPS Cyberpunk, but it was years later and the basic hilarity of GURPS's entire take on future batteries was already well established.

Not much is said about the Net. This was one of the great myopic oversights of a lot of science fiction, but it was '95 for fuck's sake and Steve Jackson had email and a website and shit. They really should have made more of the 'Net, and its impact on society, and how the fuck it interacts with the Mythos. I'm actually kind of cross with McCubbins on this, because at this point Alan Moore did a better job presenting a near-retro-future Mythos setting with The Courtyard, and that involved drugs, carving people into meat flowers, and a dome over New York City.


Trust me, you don't want the Aklo. It leads to Deep One penis.

Shadowrun had Shadowrunners. Cyberpunk 20XX had Solos. Mercenaries for hire taking The Man's money to fight The Man. And that was good, because you need some kind of framework to hold a cyberpunk campaign together. Actual cyberpunk fiction tends towards the mystical at times, and really a lot of stories involve big reveals at one point or another that so fundamentally change the setting or the way the characters interact with it that a continued “campaign” of the traditional RPG variety is not likely to work.


If you want me to explain this big reveal, I will. But the next big reveal of the series involved a space station turning into a fucking tree and your guess is as good as mine.

So to really work as a cyberpunk setting, CthulhuPunk needed to deliver some persistent Player Character shaped hole in the world that the PCs could be assumed to be in during and between episodic adventures. So while I am actually tentatively in favor of rants about how in the dark future, edgy teenagers listen to bassoon ensembles, that can't come at the cost of having a default playable structure for stories set in this world. And this book doesn't deliver on that. It doesn't even try.


Although the idea that the cutting edge music of the future looks like this is pretty awesome and I'm totally stealing that.

Going with what Frank was saying, your default cyberpunk campaign tends to have you as mercenaries or criminals or freelancers of some sort employed to do some shady shit; the basic shape of cyberpunk novels from Neuromancer on has always been based on '30s pulp detective stuff, with maybe a little John Le Carre worked in there (because Johnny was a very technical boy).



And Lovecraft's Mythos fiction was inspired in part by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the fathers of the detective genre; it's the reason that in Chaosium your PCs are called investigators. So there really is a thematic and literary link between cyberpunk and Mythos fiction that could have been exploited here - PCs that are characters on the grey or black market edges of a crumbling cyberpunk dystopia society, the general mundane dissolution of disease, ecological disaster, Big Brother surveillance, and crumbling infrastructure a thin web disguising the even more terrible reality of the Cthulhu Mythos swarming beneath the dying cities and in the depths of the ocean and the cold lonely wilds of space - and as humans get farther away from being human and thinking like humans, they get closer to being able to actually talk and deal with the Old Ones and their servitors and their spawn... Throw the PCs into that and hardened, jaded mercenaries see shit that would make the True Detectives urinate themselves lavishly and in unison.

But, we don't get that. Instead, we get a lot of this "How it Came to Pass" bullshit - which I hate, but which was in vogue at the time, and still is the unfortunate default for a lot of games.

The Mythos tie-ins are particularly weak. And by that I mean that it throws a lot of “maybes” at the reader. It's like the author did not understand that he was writing a fucking RPG setting that other people were supposed to fucking use to fucking set stories in, and that it was not fucking acceptable to tell the GM to write it themselves. Fuck.



As I said, I think a lot of this is on McCubbin not understanding the purpose of what this book should have accomplished. It's not enough to say "Here's the Mythos. And here's cyberpunk. Now mash them together and have fun." You are supposed to be doing the mashing! That is what we paid you for! Again, it's like he thought he was writing two half-supplements and then interleaved the chapters. Like he took a few pages from GURPS Vikings and GURPS Technomancer and collated them and said "Yes, I've made a new sourcebook, GURPS Vikingmancer!" No you fucking have not.

This is seriously the most pissed and disappointed I've ever been in a GURPS book, and not even age really forgives it. And we're not even half through it yet.

Although the idea that the cutting edge music of the future looks like this is pretty awesome and I'm totally stealing that.

Later on there's an adventure seed which has stuck with me since I read it. Basically a cultist group who are also a musical group; a corp-sponsored, mega-rich, pop-spook band who are planning to produce a worldcast rock opera of the King in Yellow and wow, stopping that is a great idea. Part of the twist is that mythos cultists are classically low-profile lower-class weirdos in the sticks, not superstar 1%er weirdos in concert, and the usual expedient of shotgunning them is going to be a lot harder to accomplish past their cyber-enhanced bodyguards, and a lot harder to get away with because they're on camera 16 hours a day.

You forgot to close your italic tag in the Bassoon Brothers bit.

It's clear from Lovecraft's writing that he meant for The King in Yellow to be either Hastur or a worshiper/minion/icon of Hastur (who was the God of the place that the Yellow Sign was from) - but everything else about Hastur was an invention of August Derleth, whose stories mostly aren't very good.

Equating the King in Yellow with Nyarlathotep is strange - Nyarlathotep fucks with peoples heads in a sorta similar way but he never possesses anybody.

I gotta say, this book is sounding really disappointing so far.

From what we've heard, Shadowrun sounds more Cthulhupunk than this actual Cthulhupunk book. Like, unless this book pulls a rabbit out of its hat it seems that Toxic and Bug spirits by themselves are doing a better job at immersing people in existential xenobiological horror. And we haven't even gone into shit like HMHVV and simsense trodes.

I was hoping no one would point that tags issue out. It amused me to have it in the same post talking about how a full page of italics was too long.

OSSR: GURPS: CthulhuPunk
Chapter 3: Characters


In the grim future, tentacles jack into you.

In a CthulhuPunk campaign, the starting point total of the PCs is, in a way, quite meaningless. Point totals mean nothing to game balance in a campaign where the ultimate enemies are the Great Old Ones - 100-point characters and 1,000-point characters taste the same to Great Cthulhu

We've mentioned before that points in general are actually worthless for measuring general ability in GURPS; it's a hard truth that takes a while to come around to, but it sort of represents the success of GURPS on a simulationist level - even if people are nominally equal in worth in some legal or spiritual respect, different life choices and opportunities lead to massively different capabilities. In GURPS, it's just a bit more obvious because you can spend your points different ways and get the same numbers, so some characters are explicitly better than other characters in a points-economy kind of way - and yet both characters can still be utterly useless for doing anything in-game. You can shovel well, but it's not going to help against a kaiju.


I'm gonna need a bigger shovel.

But, in the context of this being the bastard child of Call of Cthulhu as well, where you sort of expect your investigator to be absolutely worthless if they have to pick up the dice, a switch to GURPS actually means it's a vast improvement in terms of ability, character creation, character direction, etc. Seriously, big step up. It says something about Basic Role-Playing when GURPS point-buy is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the fetid corpse of your own chargen.

At 19 pages, the Characters chapter is the second longest of the book, being just one page shorter than the Investigators chapter. And that makes sense, because characters are the interface between the players and the story. There honestly hasn't been a lot of world building in this game, telling the GM to basically write their own damn world. And that means that it pretty much comes down to the players to create their own backstories, their own plot hooks, their own reasons to be in a team together, their own reasons to pursue the proposed adventure. When you think about it, it's actually kind of a lot of pressure to put on the players.

When it comes down to it, the basic idea of an RPG whose DNA is traceable back to D&D (as most games including CthulhuPunk do) is that you play a character in a story who is a member of a group that participates in serial adventures where the group combines their skills to do dangerous things together each time. That's a pretty good setup for cooperative storytelling in an open-ended serial format, but when you think about it from the outside looking in – that's actually weirdly specific.


Almost all RPGs are basically offering you this. No matter what other genre trappings the game attempts to layer on top of that.

So what you should be getting is a primer on how to make a character who is unfailingly loyal to the rest of the group and totally dedicated to solving mysteries that the player knows (and the character presumably suspects) are actually quite dangerous. And not, for example, going out and getting a well paid job in a corporation with a pension and health insurance. In short, the character you make has to be Shaggy or Velma, and not any of the people considered successful and attractive by the people in the world, nor most of the protagonists from Cyberpunk or Mythos fiction (who I will remind the gentle reader: usually work alone). It's a quite specific set of skills, and the game shouldn't pussy foot around with telling you what those requirements are.


It's really quite a particular set of skills.

So instead of that, the game comes out swinging with the idea that the amount of points you start with doesn't really matter because Cthulhu is just going to eat you anyway. This is... wrong. It's wrong for GURPS, of course, because Cthulhu obviously has some number of points and if you had 1,000 points you could probably just punch like a steam ship and knock his squid ass out. And it's wrong for Call of Cthulhu, because the reason you're fucked in that game is because your character isn't very good, not because there's anything special about a Dark Young that it could still beat you up if you were Wonder Woman or Iron Man. The Call of Cthulhu game jerks its flaccid cock to the idea of the monsters running roughshod over the player characters, but that is because the player characters in that game are only one step up from Paranoia clones. The mythos itself has plenty of characters who gaze into the abyss and then piss in it. All those warlocks why are better than you, for example.

It is the case that so far CthulhuPunk has, instead of taking the strengths of both games and doing something fun and insane with it, has instead taken the limitations of both games and combined them (and yet, the result is still better than straight Call of Cthulhu). I don't say this very often, but this really is the kind of game that Kenneth Hite would have been better off writing; there's a lot of missed opportunities here.


Guyver-style Starspawn armor, for one.

When you look at cyberpunk fiction, the default standard is Neuromancer, where a well-funded provocateur assembles a team of professional criminals for some larger criminal enterprise; in Mythos fiction the default is basically "The Dunwich Horror," where at the end an assembly of educated old men are convinced by overwhelming evidence of a vast supernatural threat and combine their academic and personal resources to solve the mystery and/or prevent unspeakable consequences.

Somewhere in between is Ghostbusters or Bubblegum Crisis, which is a pretty solid place to start from; you could do much worse in CthulhuPunk than to be a group of shadowrunners/solos who end up running into the Mythos, or a librarian recruited by some hardened hackers and razorboys to handle the weird runes when they break into the cultists' nest to get the corporate prototype FTL back before they manage to use it to open a gate to Xoth or something. The problem is, you sort of have to ground the game concept in the setting. You have to commit to how the Mythos interacts with the world, what the PCs can and cannot know and do, and what the default kind of game should be for the setting. But McCubbins refuses to commit; he's playing this like the typical GURPS book, which is an ingredient and not an end product, and that is a painful mistake.



The book spends four and a half pages talking up various character concepts. These are: Artist, Charlatan, Clergyman, Cop, Criminal, Dilettante, Ganger, Hacker, Korporate [sic], Mercenary, Mystic, Physician, Private-Eye, Reporter, Scholar, Terrorist, Tribal, and Vet. It's a decent list, and each is given some sample skills and a short bit on why they might want to know or care about the Mythos. That's almost the minimum amount needed to bring any of these dudes into the game. It's a damn sight more than Call of Cthulhu ever gave you, that's for sure.


But still no “stripper” or “space marine,” which seems a shame.

However, while that's better than the source game was offering, it's still not enough. A newly minted CthulhuPunk character needs more than a list of favored skills and a reason to know that there are tentacle monsters chillaxing in the shadows. They also need a reason to abandon their homes and families to drive around the country in the Mystery Machine – and a reason to trust the other Scoobies with their lives. In the next chapter, we talk a bit about the “activist campaign” and the “investigative campaign,” which is as good a set of answers to the “what are we doing here?” question as any Cthulhu-based game is liable to give you. But even before we get to that question we still need to answer the question “Why are we not you and I?” And that's not a question this bit answers or even asks.

It bears repeating that despite the fact that these character jobs fail basic tests of playability that they are still head and shoulders above the occupations of the source game (Call of Cthulhu). How sad is that? This book doesn't really tell me how to put together a group of characters who can play the game, but it does tell me how to make one character and give them a starting hook for caring about the mythos. That ain't much, but it's an advance.

A fair chunk of these professions/character concepts are more-or-less familiar from other GURPS products. Clerics, for example, are expected to have some level of Clerical Investment. What they can actually do with Clerical Investment is a matter of the setting, however; the Hellboy RPG does a lot more with it, for example. Given the overlap with Mignolaverse and the Mythos, you could be forgiven for borrowing some stuff from there...but then again, this is GURPS. These sort of parallels are the default of what you're supposed to expect.

Hacker characters, somewhat bizarrely, are not given any real guidelines with regards to hacking; the whole 'Netrunning angle is in fact not given a great deal of wordcount in the book at all. I think the problem is that while the fantasy magic and Mythos magic is well represented in literature; Mythos + computers and magic + computers is a relatively rare thing (at least until relatively recently), so McCubbin didn't have a lot of stuff to draw from (or was ignorant of the stuff that was there to draw from).


Warren Ellis should have pinch-hit for this.

The other side of the equation, of course, is that while GURPS would seem to be uniquely situated to do technomagic...it isn't quite. Even GURPS Technomancer is a bit weak in that regard; they don't hold magic to the rigor of science, and they don't allow science to interact much with magic, and there's not a lot on how Mythos magic interacts with science and computers...it makes me sort of appreciate the Laundry RPG more, which even if it's a BRP variant at least is based on a setting where it's all math and a calculator is helpful.

Special call outs must be made to the Hacker, because the Hacker is a very important archetype in Cyberpunk literature. What Hackers can do in this setting is undefined. There is no attempt at writing a set of Hacking rules, there is no description of what Hackers can expect to accomplish. The GM is expected to grab a Cyberpunk book of their choice and attempt to write a set of house rules that generate events that might happen in that book using their mind.


The closest thing to a rule about any of this is that you can buy a virtual screen and keyboard setup like this one for $1000. I don't know how many briefcases or tacos that's supposed to be.

The thing is... I'm not sure that was a bad plan. It was certainly a lazy plan. But I can't recall any Cyberpunk RPG successfully getting their hacking rules to actually “work.” Hacking rules have, for the most part, been fiddly chickenshit that was pretty much unplayable and whose emergent behavior from actually reading the fucking things was pretty much completely incompatible with what the free text told you was supposed to be going on. The novels and story segments of Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 20XX told you that hackers did certain things and could accomplish certain things, and the rules didn't deliver those things. Not even once.

From a rules standpoint, CthulhuPunk lets you buy a Hacking skill. Higher values are presumably better... but that's all you get. What a hacker does in the game or what they have to do in order to do that is left undescribed. Can hackers hack from their protected basements using Cyberspace? Or do they have to do ninja flips into the base to hack from on site? Do hackers risk their own amygdalas in psychic battle against brutal black IC? Or do they risk nothing harsher than an IP ban from an opposed firewall? I don't know. You don't know. The author of this book doesn't know, because he cannot give a shit until he first takes a shit because he ran out of shits to give.

Having nothing but a hacking skill with the implied assumption that higher numbers are better is pretty much what hacking rules in other Cyberpunk genre games boiled down to. But only because the rules they actually wrote were incomprehensible gibberish that were worse than not having anything. Is eliminating the middle man by just never writing any hacking rules in the first place a step forward? Possibly yes. But there should still be some kind of in-character explanation of what the fuck Hacking is supposed to look like or do. Even if you can't be fucked to try and fail to make a set of functional hacking game mechanics. The design failure is at worst no greater than the design fail of any other cyberpunk game. But the total abdication of responsibility in world building is pretty harsh.


Possibly, Steve Jackson was just afraid of putting hacking rules onto paper at this point.

The Mystic archetype actually encourages you to take ranks in magic or psionics, and is thus infinitely superior in every way to Call of Cthulhu in every respect. Seriously, you can always tell that one of the first things practically every BRP-offshoot does first is include some way for PCs to access magic at character generation. It's not just the desire to play a spell-slingin' wizard or sorcerer, it's just that so much of the Mythos pretty much requires magic or dynamite to deal with the threats. In CthulhuPunk you presumably have explosive, armor-piercing ammo and monofilament whips and shit, but a banishing spell and an Elder Sign are nice to have too, and here you can actually have them.

Sanity in Call of Cthulhu isn't good. The emergent behaviors it encourages are stupid and it does a terrible job creating playable scenarios or generating stories recognizable from the source material. GURPS: CthulhuPunk attempts to backhack this by using the regular GURPS rules for Fright Checks. This is bad. It does a bad job of simulating Call of Cthulhu, but it doesn't do a better job of simulating source material or encouraging the players to do things that aren't stupid.



Welcome aboard!

The author has noticed that the natural reaction of players to having their characters get taken away and forced to do stupid shit whenever they see a monster and fail a Willpower check is to invest heavily in Willpower and not look at monsters. And this is... both unfun and shitty. The author suggests that what you should do is throw a temper tantrum and possibly refuse to tell the players you are going to be fucking with them using Willpower checks until after they didn't buy enough Willpower. Basically, the author has noticed that the natural and emergent behavior from his shit design is for things to become shitty. And like original authors of Call of Cthulhu, he's pretty sure this is somehow the players' fault and not the fault of the author for making a weak design.

One of the things you also ran into in GURPS: Vampire: the Masquerade was "The Willpower Trap," for pretty much the same reason, which inclines me to think McCubbin might have actually had some influence on the mechanic in that one as well.

This being a GURPS product, we get a handful of new advantages and disadvantages, most of which you don't care about - except the Innsmouth Look, which is -20 points. New skills include Dreamlands Lore, Meditation, Thanatology, and Mythos Lore (which is equivalent to the Cthulhu Muthos skill in CoC). Given it's special status and weird parentage, the write-up for this skill is very long indead, and it has the rather steep default of Occult -12...but this is, again, a substantial step ahead of CoC in every respect, because it means your Sorceress Supreme character from another campaign can at least have heard of Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep. And really, at this point this is less a CthulhuPunk setting book than a thinly-veiled port of CoC to GURPS, so all the use you're likely to get out of this product is to mine it for relevant rules to steal anyway.


Master of the Mystic Arts; Occult-12 still gives a higher Mythos Lore rating than the teenager with the Necronomicon

And see, this is GURPS in a nutshell right here: giving the players and gamemasters what they want.

We've made hay over the fact that costs of things in GURPS don't really correspond to anything meaningful before. It bears repeating. Something costs points in GURPS because the author thought that in-world it would be a thing that would be hard to learn to do. But straight up powers that you never learned in the first place also cost points for no reason. Disadvantages give you points, unless they make it harder to have learned the things you know in which case they cost you points.

There is, quite simply, no underlying theory as to what a point means. It's a problem. It isn't just that someone who is better or worse at the game can learn how to fiddle points values to make a more powerful character on less points – although obviously they can. It's that the game refuses to commit to the idea that things should cost more points for being better. That's true sometimes, but not all the time. Sometimes you pay extra to go the long way around because that's hard in-world, and sometimes you pay extra to cut through the middle because that's good. And if you want anything more than that, go fuck yourself.

It's the commitment problem again, just the other way around it. Part of the thing is that if GURPS had a more rigorous set of limitations on what you could spend your points on - which 4e does to an extant - it would be a much more balanced game, provided they could figure out the points right. Maybe. But as it is, you're looking at it a bit like World of Darkness, where combine two advantages and disadvantages and you're basically winning the game while coming out even in terms of points. It's the kind of mechanics which encourages a blenderized munchkindom which GURPS has sort of become known for unless the gamemaster has an iron hand.



Magic and Psionics get some page space. In fact, they get a bit over five pages. The magic “system” isn't much of a system to be honest. Spells are skills, but they don't have listed difficulties or costs. Most of them don't really have listed effects. It's pretty much a list of some spells and an idea that the GM should probably write some rules for this shit – doubly so if he's going to actually let the players use this shit.


One of the spells in the list summons Azathoth to your location, who I remind the gentle reader is physically larger than the entire Earth.

GURPS took one look at the Call of Cthulhu magic system, sighed, and had several large drinks before getting to work.



Basically, they took the most useful, systemic, and important spells, and turned them into GURPS spells. So you have the Summon/Bind, Contact, Call/Dismiss Deity, and Contact Deity spells, and then a Miscellaneous section with things like Brew Space-Mead, Create Gate, Dread Curse of Azathoth, and Elder Sign. Which is good, because GURPS has quite a lot of spells already, and these are pretty much the only ones in the game that anyone cares about. Twenty plus years of completely directionless content generation have left CoC with a massive list of spells, most of which are never learned and never learnable by any character, PC or NPC; there's probably a few munchkins unhappy that they can't jerk off Create Ley-Line with Visage of Bast or some crappola, but those some assholes in GURPS can play a Tremere blood-mage that summons Cthulhu after draining a dozen virgins, so they should be happy.

The last two and a half pages of the “character” chapter are dedicated to “Weird Science.” That's like Arcanotech or Mythostech or whatever you want to call it. Some of these are pretty cool, like the chip that turns an electric guitar into something that produces the brain breaking ethereal music of the throne of Azathoth. That's... weird. But it's also cool. There's some real worldbuilding there. And that's why you can't have one.

The author seems to have completely forgotten that he was nominally writing a chapter about player characters. These pieces of Weird Science aren't available to the players, and might not even exist. They are supposed to be examples of things the GM might want to include in a campaign, but to not have be things PCs can have because they aren't on the market.



That's actually a pretty typical GURPS thing; the line between PC and NPC is really hard to see as far as you-can-have-that versus you-cannot-have-that, at least in chargen. The problem is, the stuff like the R'lyeh Interface is exactly the kind of thing that we want to see more of in Cthulhupunk. Fuck, I'd take Steven Kenson-style Zauberpunk stuff, where you could get the Necronomicon on a skillchip and be a badass Mythos sorcerer until you become so incapacitated you can't make the necessary gestures and incantations. Which of course you as a GM can do, but it's one of those things I really wish was integrated into the setting...but, alas and alack.

And that's the chapter. There are definitely some ideas here. Someone has set about attempting to make Call of Cthulhu be a bit more accessible. But it's all baby steps. This doesn't read like a finished draft.

Ancient History wrote:

Guyver-style Starspawn armor, for one.

HEY! What is this? It's so fucking awesome I nearly shit my pants when I saw it.

GUYVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...looking at that picture, it seems that hacking and boob-fondling employ identical skills.

Koumei wrote:...looking at that picture, it seems that hacking and boob-fondling employ identical skills.

What do you mean, 'it seems'? Are you implying that it doesn't?

... have my Japanese animes been lying to me about my potential sexual prowess gained from geek hobbies?

...come to think of it, both sex and hacking share the space of "you don't get good rules for these, ever" (if for different reasons). This is yet more evidence that they're the same thing.

infected slut princess wrote:

Ancient History wrote:

Guyver-style Starspawn armor, for one.

HEY! What is this? It's so fucking awesome I nearly shit my pants when I saw it.

GUYVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Japanese version of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, I forget which edition. CoC and Lovecraft are surprisingly popular over in Japan.

"Surprisingly" popular you say. They love them some foreign deities to mess around with in varying degrees. Yes and also the tentacle thing.

The tentacle sex thing is complicated, but not directly related to Lovecraft in its origins; I talk about it in my book.

And yes, I say surprisingly, because the Japanese Mythos boom is much different from the American version. While translations of Lovecraft's works started appearing relatively early in Japan (by the 40s and 50s), it didn't catch the public imagination until the Call of Cthulhu RPG hit the shores, and it then turned into a massive hit. It spawned entire new styles of RPG books that we don't quite have in the US.

I'm extremely curious how the Call of Cthulhu adaptations fared in Japan. The D&D 1E/2E adaptation changed what was a Gygaxian wankfest/barely functional revision of the Gygaxian wankfest into... the madness that is Sword World. It makes you wonder how CoC fared.

OSSR: Colons: GURPS: CthulhuPunk
Chapter 4: The CthulhuPunk Campaign


Why yes, my refrigerator is running.

Clocking in at 12 pages, the CthulhuPunk Campaign chapter is like a gentle clearing of the throat between discussions of the characters and discussions of the investigators. And if your next question is “Hey, aren't the characters investigators?” then um... yeah. The layout of this book isn't great. The chapter is sort of a closet, where ruminations that didn't go into other chapters can be placed.

The start of the chapter is a continuation of the italicized story, and now we're actually getting into it. There's an inhuman monster behind a curtain in a Chinatown shop that is giving our protagonists the scoop on some Tcho Tchos who have apparently kidnapped some lady. It's mythos related, there are obvious double crossings, and it'd genre appropriate. The book should have led with this piece in addition to putting all this shit into a more legible font.

Of course, while it's Mythos related, and people are doing the kind of posturing and betrayal typical of cyberpunk literature – that sort of thing was similarly typical of the Noir genre from which cyberpunk arose. Really, aside from the fact that the main character is named “Jayboy” there isn't anything in this vignette to indicate that we're in the 2040s and not the 1940s. That wouldn't be a big deal, interludes in timeless and retro settings are standard cyberpunk fare, but considering that the book insists on alternating its two genres rather than presenting the reader with much of a vision of the two together, I noticed. In a bad way.


Nothing about Tcho Tchos with guns really says “near future” to me.

When the chapter proper starts, we are treated to a rant about about the three kinds of fear according to Stephen King. King wrote a rambling book on horror fiction theory in 1981, and you could certainly do worse than following that advice. You could probably do better though, albeit perhaps you weren't likely to back in 1995 with no internet. Chris McCubbin condenses Stephen King's 400+ page treatise into a third of a page without losing much more than examples. That says a lot about Danse Macabre and a lot about Chris McCubbin, but it doesn't say very much about the CthulhuPunk universe, which doesn't really seem to be gelling in this book. What's perhaps even weirder is that when you stop and think about it for a moment, Danse Macabre was largely inspired by Supernatural Horror in Literature... by H.P. Lovecraft. Had McCubbins gone for the older rather than the slightly less old, he could have made a reference that was on topic. Or at least, close enough to have its off-topicness be forgiven.

I'm gonna be honest, the monster-behind-the-screen gag is straight from The Golden Child.


This does not begin or end well.

I'm gonna defend this chapter, basically because it highlights something that Call of Cthulhu falls down on: setting up and running a campaign. It talks about the unique challenges of a CthulhuPunk campaign, how to overcome them, and the kind of campaigns you can have and bringing characters together in teams and everything. It's not exactly ground-breaking, but the effort is made, and I appreciate it, even if, as Frank mentioned, McCubbin seems a little hazy on some of the concepts and conceits here - for example, he describes Splatterpunk as "cyberpunk with the chrome stripped off," which is just...wrong. It's not that splatterpunk might not be relevant to a CthulhuPunk campaign, because seriously, Space Marines can get their asses handed to them in many a gory manner by Aliens, but it's not used right and that bugs me.


Splatterpunk: Less Lovecraft, more Clive Barker. Ish.

This is where the book tries to sell you on mixing Cthulhu Mythos and Cyberpunk. That seems odd to me, asthat is literally 100% of the reason that this book exists at all. I don't really want or expect this idea to come in on chapter 4. The pitch, such as it is, is this:

CthulhuPunk wrote:The one thing that brings the Mythos and cyberpunk together most overtly is that both genres depict societies in transition and in a state of denial.

Again we get back to the fairly inescapable conclusion that the author does not really “get” cyberpunk and also doesn't care very much. Mixing Cyberpunk and Mythos is not terribly difficult. They are both genres that emphasize nihilism and alienation. The inhumanity and incomprehensible power of a corporation and a great old one are pretty equivalent concepts. The main characters take on the role of an outcast because society as a whole cannot or will not acknowledge the problems that the main character is struggling against. This is not terribly difficult literary analysis and it should be trivial for someone even passably familiar with both genres to draw such analyses. And yet... you don't get that.


All of these people are loners who are thought insane by the public while they struggle in vain against unkillable enemies far beyond the reach and scope of a mortal man.

I think I have to spoil the ending here. There are no works of cyberpunk in the bibliography. I'm not doing a No True Scotsman on this, where I don't think McCubbins' cyberpunk selections are adequate representations of the genre, I mean there literally isn't a single fucking thing in the whole list that is even nominally cyberpunk by any stretch of the imagination. The author has a list of Cthulhu related books to read, and then some other Mythos fiction, and some methods to get your grubby gamer paws on HPL literature back in the days before the internet, and that's fucking it. No Snow Crash. No Neuromancer. No Dick, no Bethke. No nothing.

Even the references to previous GURPS titles are vague enough that I'm not sure the author has actually read them. I'm sure that the author has picked up and flipped through GURPS: Ultratech at some point, and maybe even looked at the index of GURPS: Cyberworld. But despite the fact that this book is nominally supposed to present a Cyberpunk world with Cyberpunk protagonists that has mythos monsters in it, I don't think the author bothered to do any research at all about Cyberpunk. It's... weird.

It is sort of inescapable that this book is, by itself, terribly incomplete. That's weird because that's a distinctly un-GURPS approach to things. GURPS Cyberpunk is a world unto itself, even if it tells you there's more goodies over in GURPS High Tech; GURPS CyberWorld is complete in itself, even if it tells you the rules are in GURPS CyberPunk; but GURPS CthulhuPunk...it's like McCubbins was all geared up to do a GURPS version of Call of Cthulhu, and then somebody sat him down gently three days before it was due and explained that he was making a CthulhuPunk book, not GURPS CoC. It's not just that the cyberpunk is an afterthought, it's that it obviously the themes and material weren't a major concern next to the Mythos bits - like McCubbins figured that GURPS CyberPunk and CyberWorld had done a good job of all that, so he didn't need to bother.



It's not that the content in this chapter is bad, and it is indisputably better than in CoC; I just expected more.

CthulhuPunk wrote:As anyone who's ever played Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu knows, the experience of roleplaying in Lovecraft's world is fundamentally different from that of other RPG adventures.

This is a “fact” that gets tossed around a lot. Not the least by the comic included in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu book. It's actually 100% bullshit, as we mentioned when we OSSRed that book. Call of Cthulhu is not fundamentally different from other RPGs. Even pretentiously ranting that the game is totally different from other RPGs and incompatible with lowly power fantasies common to the D&D inspired rabble is extremely familiar territory to anyone who has ever talked to a White Wolf fan.

Call of Cthulhu doesn't just spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel, it spends a lot of time congratulating itself for its totally never been tried before invention of round things to move objects with. And then it spends no time actually refining those physical circles because it's so convinced that it's got such a novel approach that no one could ever imitate or surpass.


Why change? We have no competition!

Chaosium and its fans only maintain this belief in their uniqueness and originality through massive self delusion. So for an interviewer or chronicler to repeat these specious claims uncritically means that they went exactly one level deep in investigating the subject matter. Chris McCubbin asked Call of Cthulhu what it thought of itself, but then spent zero effort checking to see if any of those opinions were relevant or sane.

The types of Campaigns are better thought out. We get the Investigative campaign, where the goal is to find out what the fuck is going on, and the Activist campaign, where the goal is to stop the old ones from destroying Arkham. Essentially, Call of Cthulhu and Arkham Horror. CoC purists probably flipped their shit about even mentioning the idea of an Activist campaign, but the author doesn't do much more than mention it. It's a good breakdown of “what can you do in a mythos campaign,” but the whole section gets a bit under a page.

There is a very nice, insightful sidebar on the fact that Lovecraft was a racist. It talks about race in his stories, and why GURPS is deliberately tossing all of that, although it wobbles a bit at the end. Still, good show on a sensitive topic.

In attempting to transpose Lovecrat's work into the 21st century, we have put aside most of his racial prejudice. This was not done merely to keep from offending anyone's sensibilities.

Good, good.

A pervasive theme in the cyberpunk genre is the decline and fall of the white race, as the cultural empire of the European Americans topples and the third-world countries take up the baton of cultural progress. This view of races and cultures as transitory phenomena that grow, thrive and die according to an arbitrary and inflexible historical timetable seems to mesh much better with the cosmology of the Cthulhu Mythos - where the entire human race is nothing more than a brief aberration in an ancient, hostile and chaotic universe - than do Lovecraft's rather simplistic and romantic racial prejudices.

Well...you tried.

How to put this. Lovecraft grew up in the 1890s and early 1900s; he was racist, it was by and large a racist era. William Gibson grew up in the 50s and 60s; it was a race-conscious era, and he saw the civil rights movement succeed. So there is some truth that if you go back to the old cyberpunk novels and short stories, there are portrayals of non-white characters that seem oddly anachronistic, because there's a preservation of some cultural distinctions that have dissolved a lot more rapidly than people thought they would, and cultural expectations for China, India, and Japan (much less South America, Africa, and the rest of Asia) were either fearmongeringly "____ Peril"-ish or expected an equally bizarre "Return to Savagery" or some shit. Pretty much no one expected that the world, as whole, might grow, with some parts having it better than others but Africa still being a leader in cellphones and phishing and all that while Japan pissed away a decade instead of ruling the world.

So while a lot of cyberpunk fiction is much more multicultural than Lovecraftian fiction, it's multicultural and multiethnic tends to either be on the low end of the scale (i.e. the characters interact with minorities and groups that have been pushed out to the edges of life and civilization, like the Lo-Teks in Johnny Mnemonic or the Rastafarian space dudes in Neuromancer), or have just completely taken over and supplanted traditional European power structures with nearly identical ones (i.e. Japanese megacorps; the Native American Nations in Shadowrun, etc.) Today this would probably be played up as white people feeling themselves become a put-upon minority in a world no longer in their cultural domination - increasing the sense of alienation inherent in the genre - but in practice, you don't get a lot of that, any more than you get a topsy-turvydom chuckle "Oh ho ho, the darkies are on top this time, how ironic!" That's oldthink. That shit didn't cut the mustard with Star Trek.

What you actually see in cyberpunk fiction - and Frank touched on this - is the breakdown of traditional power and social structures to make way for the looming alienation of humanity and the isolation of the individual. It's why the United States tends to balkanize, to pave the way for new social organizations; it just happens in America that a lot of our society is built around old white men. If you want to see major changes in said society, said old white men have to go.

How much of this shit should make it into games? Well, I'm 100% behind the idea that Lovecraft's "nautical-looking negroes" has to go. I also like making minorities and weird little multiethnic groups on the fringes of society - Manhattan can look like a fucking Apple store lit up at night for all I care, I want the Bronx to be a radioactive rat's nest built around a leaky fusion reactor where the Albanian and Neo-Brazilian gangs war over the docks and hidey-holes.

Mythos fiction and Cyberpunk fiction traditionally utilize lone wolf protagonists. This is almost completely incompatible with cooperative storytelling as a medium of expression. This book calls out and recognizes this problem... and suggests that the GM should really probably do something about it. It throws out a couple of lame ideas that amount to the old cliches of “meet in a bar,” “everyone wants the treasure,” and “your uncle just passed away.” Which were old and hackneyed when Arneson was ranting about them in the 70s.

The thing is that Cyberpunk games have been wrestling with this problem since the late 80s, and have come up with a number of solutions. Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 20XX created an in-world assumption that there would be small groups of mercenary criminals. Other games have dabbled with the investigative agency model. The point is that having the GM attempt to ad hoc a reason why Cyberpunk protagonists would join together as an ensemble cast for serial adventures is not really how RPGs in this genre work. RPGs solved this particular problem on the setting and character generation end in 1988, and there is no reason at all for someone to write a Cyberpunk game in 1995 and act like this is a game design problem that is still hard.

Part of this isn't laziness, it's the CoC DNA leeching through like the fucking Innsmouth Look. Part of the problem is that you can't really have a pure cyberpunk or pure Mythos feel in a CthulhuPunk game with more than one player; especially if you're going to go out for a campaign. You need to define a couple of clear ways for the PCs to get together as a group - either as criminals, or under the grey legal status of some corporation of intelligence agency or something. Fuck, this is a post-Delta Green game, you could have the players be an espionage team or Special Weapons and Occult Tactics team for the cops, corporate or otherwise.

The thing that I think keeps that from happening is...well...McCubbins hasn't really built a setting. We don't have any of those organizations named or defined in this game, fuck the game doesn't even say what it wants to be or how the Mythos really interacts with any of the political or corporate institutions that exist. That's a severe fucking handicap when you're trying to tell the gamemaster how the fuck he's supposed to set things up for an adventure; you can't exactly run most CoC adventures by default when player characters have implanted cellphones and miniguns.

While I can sort of accept the “Lovecraft was racist, but not a bigot” thing as a way to thread the needle of historicism and progressivism, the actual examples go way too far. In the previous OSSR, I called out Medusa's Coil for being racist. The big reveal at the end is that the Lamia is in fact part Negress. And that's problematic in a bunch of ways. But it's not problematic in the way CthulhuPunk is claiming it is where people of color never show up as villains or sorcerers. Marceline is a sorcerer, and a woman, and black. The inability to admit that black people could accomplish things is not even a small part of why that story is problematic, because it isn't fucking true.

We're a bit out of synch in our rantings again. That happens. I'd like to take a moment to call out another sidebar, this one called "Online Gaming." Yes, in the heady days of 1996, Steve Jackson wanted you to know that you could log into a BBS or Illuminati Online or even e-mail and run a roleplaying game that way.

Message-based games are easier for the GM to run, and provide the players with a public forum to display their creativity and roleplaying talents. However, organizing a message-based game requires a sysop who's willing to coordinate with the GM to provide the game with a permanent, public home on the system. Most private, recreational BBS sysops will be only too happy to help a GM organize an online game, but large commercial services usually have room for only a limited number of public games, while some services - particularly those devoted to business or an academic institutions - may be prohibited by policy from allowing public games at all.

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[/img]
That made me sad, so here's an image of another Japanese CoC product.

There are six presented adventure seeds. These are like story archetypes in the Campbellian sense. They are “The Ceremony,” “Forbidden Knowledge,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Outbreak,” “Lost Expedition,” and “The Site.” I'm not really sure how useful this way of looking at things is, and even the author notes that the major HPL stories don't really conform to these story outlines. The Dunwich Horror is presented as a synthesis of The Ceremony, Forbidden Knowledge, and Outbreak. So a basic workhorse HPL story is considered to be using half of the presented plot outlines. That tells me that these aren't very expansive plot outlines and at the very least the theory needs to be reworked with a list that better conforms to the actual source material.

But as I said, I'm not convinced this is fruitful. Even if you did rework your examples until they actually did describe the original source material stories, who gives a fuck? Your goal here isn't to hack out a mythos short story, it's to create an ongoing campaign of serial adventures. That's why this chapter is called “The CthulhuPunk Campaign,” and not “quarter-assed mythos story generator.”

The point is that you're supposed to at the very least create a story that leads to you being able to create another story with the same characters. That's what serial adventures with ensemble casts are all about. The author seems to have basically failed to understand what he was supposed to be doing here. This is a guy whose RPG writing credits seem to mostly be “lists of stuff” that GMs can take or leave, but these talents are wholly wasted when you're actually trying to write a setting that people can pick up and play.

I can quibble with the author's description of how mythos stories work, and I do. Heck, even the author lacks confidence in these things as evidenced by the fact that he admits that the stories don't really fit the list he made. But my problem here is much deeper. The point is that you're supposed to make a world that people can make characters for that can plug into a story that will have ongoing adventures. That's the point that the author seems to have missed entirely.

It's the end of the chapter, and we're still looking at this a lot like Prometheus when what we wanted was Aliens. The irony is that most of this chapter would be acceptable if the book was just supposed to be a GURPS Cthulhu port; but the fact is that it was supposed to be something much, much weirder than that, and so far it's been coming up very short of expectations.

You know who the cover artist of that Japanese CoC book is?

Found it on amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4775308467/r ... 367_u!OBx1[[HcA]_1420791596_ce0538

Kunio Aoki is the "illustrator", according to google translate.

Cthulhu mythology TRPG replay Minase seminar of Meijo to Gataki summer vacation (Role & Roll Books)

I'm hoping that it is basically "Elvis vs. Cthulhu".

I wonder if I could smuggle some of this into Europe?

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/restauran ... ine-beers/

To accompany a drunken OSSR of... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Cthulhu ?

Actually that's not very old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLA_Industries ?
WoTC still I think owns the IP, which they would've turned into their main horror line, I guess...?

I have SLA Industries. Thing is, the main book is very text-heavy, full of setting info, so doing a review becomes a long process that isn't particularly entertaining. And at the same time, the system is really simple so there isn't much to cover in a review on that end.

Also, I'm too biased to review it fairly. I still look back fondly upon when I got +9 on my important skills and then automatically succeeded at those tasks forever. And then pimped my armour out with flashing lights and unnecessary exhaust ports, because Contract Killers.

DrPraetor wrote:Kunio Aoki is the "illustrator", according to google translate.

Cthulhu mythology TRPG replay Minase seminar of Meijo to Gataki summer vacation (Role & Roll Books)

I'm hoping that it is basically "Elvis vs. Cthulhu".

I actually own that one, and it is not.

SLA Industries is on the list of RPG products I would only OSSR if the Farcast Review was finished. Because there's no way to do a proper review of it without talking about the bugshit crazy terribleness at the end, and I don't want to go through that again.