What do you think?
Rate this book
Fate of Cthulhu
A complete, stand-alone cthulhu-themed RPG that offers a fresh take on playing with the mythos.
Specific time-travel rules focused on how the actions of the characters in the present day change the coming future apocalypse.
Five fully detailed sample time lines; play a mission team working to prevent one apocalypse, or string multiple apocalypses together for a longer campaign.
A standalone, fate core RPG about time-traveling heroes who are preventing a future apocalypse brought on by the arrival of the Elder gods.
Specific time-travel rules focused on how the actions of the characters in the present day change the coming future apocalypse.
Five fully detailed sample time lines; play a mission team working to prevent one apocalypse, or string multiple apocalypses together for a longer campaign.
A standalone, fate core RPG about time-traveling heroes who are preventing a future apocalypse brought on by the arrival of the Elder gods.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2021
2 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Blackmoore
27 books800 followersStephen Blackmoore is the author of the noir / urban fantasy Eric Carter series (DEAD THINGS, BROKEN SOULS, HUNGRY GHOSTS, and FIRE SEASON), about a necromancer in modern-day Los Angeles.
You can find him online at stephenblackmoore.com, or follow him on Twitter at @sblackmoore.
You can find him online at stephenblackmoore.com, or follow him on Twitter at @sblackmoore.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 8, 2021
Un juego muy interesante, muy enfocado a la temática del juego y de mucha originalidad. Se hace entretenidísimo de leer y las 5 líneas temporales son divertidas y evocadoras.
Si en vez de 5 escenarios, fueran 2 bien detallados, este juego seria una obra maestra.
Aún así, un juego fabuloso. Muy recomendable.
Si en vez de 5 escenarios, fueran 2 bien detallados, este juego seria una obra maestra.
Aún así, un juego fabuloso. Muy recomendable.
July 5, 2020
A cookie-cutter Fate guide to apocalyptic adventures in time; the basic idea is that one of the Great Old Ones of the Lovecraftian mythos has almost ended the world and the only way out lies in the haphazard returns of time travel.
This is the time travel of The Terminator; ripple effects that make subtle changes rather than fundamentally unravel the future. And you can only travel back a generation or less, so no heading off to the Stone Age or the American Civil War. You're from 2050 and the end of the world happens in 2030, so you're tied to the 21st century for your solutions—and thankfully, the eternal Great Old Ones have restricted their world-ending plans to that period as well. Convenient, right?
Upfront the game distances itself from both Lovecraft's personal opinions and sanity as a mechanic for the impact of the Mythos of humanity. I can get behind both decisions; there's no space for Lovecraft's opinions on people. It was never the right thing to think. I understand the move from sanity to corruption, but I'm unconvinced the change has left the same footprint.
Mechanically, cosmic horror has no teeth in Fate of Cthulhu; corruption is a slide away from humanity. As a means to leverage Fate mechanics (i.e. compels), it presents a suitable concept, but without commitment to that handling, by players and GM alike, corruption almost feels like an excuse for superpowers. You can have all the combat advantage of The Thing—with a mouth in your chest, tentacles and the ability to spit acidic slime—but, eventually, you'll succumb to the dark side. Sucks to be running around with double-powered Corrupted Stunts, right?
The core of the book deals with various approaches to the apocalypse, depending on your choice of Great Old One. Herein, it feels like the game has not only distanced itself from Lovecraft's foul cultural views and the matter of mental health, but also from the stories themselves. The Fate of Cthulhu robs the source material of what makes it deep, compelling and grotesquely vibrant. Like they've cast Rend Soul on the stories and left the disembowelled remains behind in the hope that this might be enough.
You could swap in King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra and Battra with a bunch of twisted factions to drive their cause and support their goals, and you could just re-label the game The Fate of the Godzillaverse (admittedly, not as catchy). The Great Old Ones have all too human plans, reactions and very ordinary approaches, tied up with a scattering of interesting events but really doing nothing that some other monster couldn't substitute for. I mean, Mothra is no more human than Shub-Niggurath, but in this book, the eternal entities feel all too mundane and commonsense in their intentions.
There is nothing cosmic about this horror—no sense that humanity is a speck against the soul-sucking backdrop of the endless void, but just an irritating stumbling block on the road to planetary decimation. There are real horrors in our world that feel as close to apocalyptic catalysts as the coming of the Yellow King.
There are many games that can have a finger pointed at them as obvious cash grabs, hanging off a license or popular concept in a way that just about ticks the boxes for a sale, but little else. For me, The Fate of Cthulhu has less soul than one of Joseph Curwen or Herbert West's early failures and wears the source material like a tissue paper raincoat. I'm not certain who the end product should appeal to, but to my mind you might be better served reading Lovecraft's stories and using Fate Core and the Fate Horror Toolkit than picking up this book.
This is the time travel of The Terminator; ripple effects that make subtle changes rather than fundamentally unravel the future. And you can only travel back a generation or less, so no heading off to the Stone Age or the American Civil War. You're from 2050 and the end of the world happens in 2030, so you're tied to the 21st century for your solutions—and thankfully, the eternal Great Old Ones have restricted their world-ending plans to that period as well. Convenient, right?
Upfront the game distances itself from both Lovecraft's personal opinions and sanity as a mechanic for the impact of the Mythos of humanity. I can get behind both decisions; there's no space for Lovecraft's opinions on people. It was never the right thing to think. I understand the move from sanity to corruption, but I'm unconvinced the change has left the same footprint.
Mechanically, cosmic horror has no teeth in Fate of Cthulhu; corruption is a slide away from humanity. As a means to leverage Fate mechanics (i.e. compels), it presents a suitable concept, but without commitment to that handling, by players and GM alike, corruption almost feels like an excuse for superpowers. You can have all the combat advantage of The Thing—with a mouth in your chest, tentacles and the ability to spit acidic slime—but, eventually, you'll succumb to the dark side. Sucks to be running around with double-powered Corrupted Stunts, right?
The core of the book deals with various approaches to the apocalypse, depending on your choice of Great Old One. Herein, it feels like the game has not only distanced itself from Lovecraft's foul cultural views and the matter of mental health, but also from the stories themselves. The Fate of Cthulhu robs the source material of what makes it deep, compelling and grotesquely vibrant. Like they've cast Rend Soul on the stories and left the disembowelled remains behind in the hope that this might be enough.
You could swap in King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra and Battra with a bunch of twisted factions to drive their cause and support their goals, and you could just re-label the game The Fate of the Godzillaverse (admittedly, not as catchy). The Great Old Ones have all too human plans, reactions and very ordinary approaches, tied up with a scattering of interesting events but really doing nothing that some other monster couldn't substitute for. I mean, Mothra is no more human than Shub-Niggurath, but in this book, the eternal entities feel all too mundane and commonsense in their intentions.
There is nothing cosmic about this horror—no sense that humanity is a speck against the soul-sucking backdrop of the endless void, but just an irritating stumbling block on the road to planetary decimation. There are real horrors in our world that feel as close to apocalyptic catalysts as the coming of the Yellow King.
There are many games that can have a finger pointed at them as obvious cash grabs, hanging off a license or popular concept in a way that just about ticks the boxes for a sale, but little else. For me, The Fate of Cthulhu has less soul than one of Joseph Curwen or Herbert West's early failures and wears the source material like a tissue paper raincoat. I'm not certain who the end product should appeal to, but to my mind you might be better served reading Lovecraft's stories and using Fate Core and the Fate Horror Toolkit than picking up this book.
April 22, 2020
Great way to run a pulpy fate game in a comic horror universe. I liked how respectfully they dealt with Corruption instead of mental illness, so much more imaginative and interesting a mechanic. Comes with 4 campaigns of 4 missions each.
June 20, 2021
Una premisa interesante: volver al pasado para evitar la llegada de un Primigenio y la consiguiente destrucción de la humanidad. Quizás demasiado ochentero (¿quien no ha visto Terminator?) pero puede dar bastante juego si la mesa coge la idea con ganas y deja volar la imaginación.
September 6, 2020
Really interesting twist on mythos gaming and some rock solid advice on how to run the presented game.
June 17, 2025
I was skeptical at first, not being a Cthulhu fan, but this is a very slick game. Even if I never play it specifically, it's setup for managing a time travel campaign is pretty ingenious.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews