This section consists of a series of resources which are designed to help a Game Moderator design exciting and dangerous scenarios to challenge a Protagonist Group.
Maddening Revelations
A common feature of Cthulhu Mythos fiction is the existence of musty old tomes which describe the ‘truth’ about mankind’s perilous place in the universe, and the powers thirsting for cosmic upheaval. In the Modern Age such revelations might be found buried in ancient tomes, journals or even files in an electronic database. Alternatively, the secret knowledge might be passed down from generation-to-generation through spoken tales and mystic traditions.
Revelatory accounts and the secret information they contain can, if you wish, be important parts of your Cthulhu Eternal game. Some of the revelations might describe supernatural powers or “magickal effects” that Protagonists might be able to utilize to fight back the shadows. Often these will require they perform time-consuming rituals drawn from mystical traditions.
Researching the Mythos
If you as Game Moderator want to include a form of revelatory information in your game, there are a few factors to consider:
- How will the Protagonist’s locate it?
- What skill rolls are needed to read it (or view it, or otherwise access its information)?
- How long does it take to study the information before it is understood?
- Does the information cause a Sanity Loss to those who learn it?
- Does understanding the revelations cause an increase in skills?
- Does it impart some other benefit, such as the chance to learn a magickal ritual?
Mythos accounts offer one of the few ways in which Protagonists may increase their rating in the Unnatural skill. Each has an associated amount of Unnatural skill gain that it might potentially impart … if only the Protagonist is able to see past its disordered jumble of insane ideas. Simple accounts of the Cthulhu Mythos might impart just a few points (+1 to +3 perhaps) while weighty records (like those immortalized in the infamous Necronomicon) might offer the reader thorough and dangerous insight (+15 or more points of increase in Unnatural).
Finding Information
If the ‘tome’ (or other information source) is hidden away or stored as part of a vast collection, Protagonists may need to exercise a range of skills to track it down. Or maybe interpersonal skills will allow them to get directions to it from people who are knowledgeable about the collection?
Accessing and Understanding the Contents
If the item is expressed in a language other than the common vernacular, understanding it might require a relevant Foreign Language test. This is especially true if the information is expressed in archaic or highly specialized language.
Other possibilities:
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If the knowledge locked up in the account is highly contextualized on esoteric systems of thought it might also require an Occult test.
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If it is so full of references back to antiquated knowledge that it can’t readily be understood, perhaps a History or Anthropology test might be required.
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On the other hand, if the knowledge is closely tied to people, places, folklore and events from a particular geography then maybe a relevant Regional Lore test may be needed.
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If the information is locked away in some technological recording – on a video camera or busted server – there may be a need for Protagonists to succeed in Technology Use tests, or track down replacement parts, or even use Craft skills to build apparatus to decode and display the information in a human-readable form.
Immersion
To the layperson, an account of the Cthulhu Mythos looks like nothing more than a random collection of disjointed thoughts, none of them imparting any real meaning. This is because most people have no prior experience of the Unnatural and thus have no reason to think that the gibbering ravings might be something meaningful.
If the Protagonist undertaking the research has an Unnatural skill rating of 0, he or she will be likewise unconvinced. Such an individual will be unable to become sufficiently ‘immersed’ in the account’s buried secrets to learn anything useful at all.
On the other hand, a researcher with skill in Unnatural may be able to see beyond the disconnected rantings and perceive the implied secrets. This requires an Immersion test: a roll against the Protagonist’s current Unnatural skill × 10 with a negative modifier based on the account’s weightiness (measured by the amount of potential additional Unnatural skill it may afford the cautious reader).
| Tome’s Unnatural Skill Gain | Modifier to Immersion Test |
| +1 to +3 | 0 |
| +4 to +6 | -10 |
| +7 to +12 | -20 |
| +13 to +16 | -30 |
| +17 or more | -40 |
If this roll fails, the researcher becomes convinced that the account is gibberish. No matter how many days or weeks he or she invests in studying it, that belief will prevent any deeper understanding of its contents.
If this roll is a critical success, the researcher becomes obsessed with the account – and will want to pursue its analysis at all costs. This might present some difficult situations, but also means the research (see below) will be completed in half the normal time.
Investing Time
Delving into a weighty account of the Mythos might take months, especially if it is rendered in rambling and confusing language; on the other hand, the information might be presented in a form that only takes a few minutes to comprehend. You as Game Moderator should make a call as to the amount of time that a Protagonist must invest in order to properly appreciate the contents of the knowledge source – in general, the more cryptic and voluminous, the longer it will take. Conceivably, some records featuring elliptical logic might take months to properly understand.
If the Game Moderator determines that some form of skill test is required to comprehend the information (e.g., if it is in a foreign language or recorded in a highly unorthodox way), that roll should only be allowed after the necessary research time has been invested. In general, it isn’t necessary for the research process to be uninterrupted, but a long break might prove a setback which lengthens the overall task.
Dangers of Understanding
Lovecraft famously wrote that the most merciful thing in the world is mankind’s inability to correlate all the pieces of knowledge at its disposal. It’s this “island of ignorance” that saves humanity from going insane from the realization of the true horrors underlying the world. Deliberately diving into the study of the hidden truth is a potentially perilous undertaking.
Revelations about terrible or shocking events or disgusting practices of Cthulhu Mythos entities or their followers, might warrant a SAN Loss.
Skill Increases
The main reason to unlock the hidden wisdom of Mythos accounts or other obscure knowledge-sources is to gain information that is relevant to the state of the current world or the scenario/campaign that is being played. In this regard, you as Game Moderator should reward successful research with some helpful details or facts which will aid in solving a problem or remaining alive in the broken world.
In addition to this, you might rule that the knowledge learned through research increases the Protagonist’s skill ratings in some way. The most common ‘reward’ is an improvement to the Unnatural skill (which captures hidden knowledge about the Cthulhu Mythos and its attendant horrors).
A minor account might provide +5 skill points (or fewer) to Unnatural, while certain rare and shocking accounts might offer as much as +15.
When improving the Unnatural skill, don’t forget that a Protagonist’s Sanity cannot ever be higher than (99 minus the Unnatural skill rating). If changing this cap means current Sanity is too high, that number must also be reduced to match the new Maximum SAN.
In addition to learning about the Unnatural, successful research might improve other knowledge-based skills as well. For example:
- Information about obscure human beliefs might improve Occult
- Information about events or places from the distant past might improve History or Archeology
- Information about folklore specific to a geography might improve a Regional Lore skill
- Information about human civilizations, either past or present might improve Anthropology
More mundane knowledge might be learned as well, which improves Art, Craft, First Aid, Law, etc.
Usually the amount of skill gained through such means will be variable and relatively small (e.g., 1D4 to 1D10).
Learning Rituals
Mythos accounts may also include descriptions of rituals which, if correctly performed, can create a supernatural effect. Rituals typically involve (potentially complex) patterns of action, chants, and associated paraphernalia. The manifestations created through rituals can be significant, but unlike magic in most tabletop roleplaying games such supernatural workings are laborious. They are typically time-consuming and may require the coordinated actions of a group of people to have any chance of succeeding.
Despite such inherent limitations, supernatural rituals represent perhaps the most powerful source of otherworldly influence which Protagonists (or their human adversaries) are ever likely to have under their control. As such there are some individuals who scour the world searching for tomes which can instruct them in such rituals.
When a Protagonist has successfully read a tome in its entirety you as Game Moderator should provide him or her with a list of any rituals it contains. Not every account contains rituals, and not every description of supernatural effects in an account is detailed enough to allow it to be reproduced. But for those that are present in such form, you should provide a sketchy description of what the ritual seems designed to do. This should be a description in vague game-world terms rather than in terms of game mechanics: “seems designed to bring forth a shadow entity” is preferable to “summons a Night-Gaunt”.
A Protagonist might decide to attempt to study the specifics of a ritual described in a tome. If so, he or she will need to devote time and effort to that endeavor. This is in addition to the time spent researching the account itself and represents study that can only begin when its information has been consumed in full.
Exactly how much time is needed to study a given ritual depends on its complexity – that is, whether it is considered Simple, Complex, or Elaborate. Typically, the more powerful the potential effects of a ritual, the more complex it will be.
Simple rituals take research of the order of hours or days to learn; Complex rituals can only be learned through the application of days or weeks of study; and Elaborate rituals can take weeks, months, or years to master. The time investment to learn a ritual does not have to be a single continuous block of research but can be split across many shorter periods of intense study.
Rolling to Learn A Ritual
If the Protagonist invests the requisite time, he or she will still need to make a roll at the end of the period to see whether the time invested paid off. The Protagonist must attempt a SAN roll – and fail the roll – to learn the ritual.
If the roll does not indicate a successful learning of the ritual, it means the Protagonist does not grasp the nuances required to master it. He or she can try again but will need to start from the beginning and again invest the same amount of time again before re-attempting the test.
If, on the other hand, the roll does indicate the Protagonist learned the ritual, he or she loses SAN. This is the price of internalizing unnatural truths about the universe and weird techniques for manipulating it. For Simple rituals, the Sanity loss should be modest (e.g., 1 point, 1D4, or 1D6); for Complex rituals a more substantial loss is warranted (e.g., 1D6, 1D8, or 1D10), while learning Elaborate rituals will always be damaging to Sanity (e.g., 1D10, 1D12, or 1D20 point loss). Learning an Elaborate ritual also grants a Protagonist +1 percentile in the Unnatural skill.
Once a ritual has been successfully learned, the Protagonist may attempt to perform it (see below).
Mythos Accounts With Multiple Rituals
Some written accounts, in particular so-called ‘grimoires’, contain descriptions of many different supernatural rituals. Learning rituals from such sources requires each effort to be attempted separately, using the method described above.
Keeping Failed Rolls Secret
The Game Moderator may choose to keep the SAN roll made at the conclusion of a research attempt secret from the player. If the outcome is a clear success or failure the Protagonist should recognize it as such, but if the roll was a marginal success or failure the Game Moderator might choose to tell the player that the Protagonist believes he or she has memorized all the subtleties but is not 100% sure. The only way to know for certain is to attempt the ritual – and if the learning attempt was a failure, such an attempt will never properly succeed. Although it may still generate an unintended supernatural effect.
Performing Rituals
The specific actions, chants, and paraphernalia required to successfully perform a ritual are particular to each and should be designed as part of the ritual’s description.
Any attempt to carry out a ritual without the necessary knowledge or components is doomed to failure … although it is possible that flawed ritual activities might still generate some kind of supernatural effect, just not the one intended by the person conducting the ritual. The Game Moderator should use his or her judgement to determine any such random supernatural side-effects; they should almost always be dangerous and detrimental to those involved.
In terms of game mechanics, the successful performance of a ritual (once the correct pieces are in place) is achieved via an investment of time/effort, the sacrifice of points in one or more game attribute (usually Willpower Points), and a successful Ritual Activation Test (see below). If all these steps are successfully achieved, the supernatural effects of the ritual will manifest.
Time Invested in the Ritual
The amount of time required to perform a ritual depends on its complexity rating – Simple, Complex, or Elaborate.
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Simple rituals are relatively quick to carry out, requiring somewhere between a turn and a minute.
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Complex rituals are more time-consuming, needing somewhere between a few minutes and an hour.
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Elaborate rituals are serious undertakings, consuming anything from a few hours to a day or maybe more.
During the time taken to perform a ritual, assume that all participants are completely occupied (chanting, carrying out prescribed actions, using paraphernalia in particular ways). A short interruption might not destroy the momentum of the ritual but a longer break likely will.
Powering the Ritual
The description of a ritual should outline the type and number of personal attribute points that must be sacrificed to provide mental energies that fuel the supernatural effect.
The most common form of sacrifice is Willpower Points – to create relatively minor effects might only require 5 or 6 WPs; a substantial effect might require 15; a vastly powerful effect might require 30; and a truly cosmic-level effect might need 100 or more WPs.
When a Protagonist makes a deliberate sacrifice of WPs, check to see whether the new total carries any effect upon him or her (see WILLPOWER POINTS, page 43). In particular, remember that reaching a WP total of 1 or 2 indicates a mental collapse of some kind, and reaching 0 WP causes unconsciousness.
Whenever a sacrifice of WP is called for, a participant in the ritual may always choose to sacrifice points of permanent POW instead – each such point is equivalent to 10 WPs for the purposes of fueling a ritual. Such sacrificed points do not refresh, but Protagonists can attempt DOWNTIME activities to try to get some back (see page 77)
Some rituals also call for a sacrifice of Hit Points, either from the participants or from elsewhere (animal, human, or other living entity). Note that Protagonists who knowingly harm another person, or even cruelly harm or kill an animal are likely to be subject to Sanity loss due to VIOLENCE (see page 68).
Depending on the nature of the specific ritual, it may be possible for several people to cooperate in the performance. For especially large effects this may be the only way to generate enough mental energies. While the leader of the ritual must have learned it in full (using the process described in the previous section), helpers can be instructed through simple notes and rote learning. Each assistant chooses for themselves how many points of attributes they will sacrifice.
The Ritual Activation Test
If the requisite amount of time has been devoted to the ritual and the necessary number of attribute points sacrificed, the individual leading the performance may make a roll to see if the effort was ultimately successful.
Successfully activating a ritual depends on the ritual leader’s Sanity, but success is more likely the lower that number. The Ritual Activation Test is a SAN test that must be failed for the ritual to work as planned.
If the roll indicates the ritual did not work, all the chanting and ceremony has been for naught. The ritual leader has two options – he or she can either:
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Abandon the ritual: nothing supernatural happens at all, and half of the sacrificed points are returned to all participants; or
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Force a connection to the supernatural: this involves the leader personally sacrificing 1 POW permanently to turn a failed roll to a successful one. The ritual effects happen after all, despite the roll.
Sanity Costs to Ritual Participants
The simple act of being involved in a supernatural ritual performance is damaging to a character’s Sanity, regardless of whether the ritual was successful or not.
If the performance was completed but something went awry (e.g., insufficient mental energy was raised, or the Ritual Activation Test indicated the effort was fruitless), all participants suffer an automatic SAN loss. For rituals intended to create small effects this will be modest, perhaps just 1 SAN point; if attempting a substantial supernatural effect, the loss is 1D4; if attempting a vastly powerful effect it might be 1D6; and for a cosmic effect it might be 1D20.
On the other hand, if the ritual succeeded and the supernatural effect is generated it is quite likely that the experience of witnessing something bizarre created by one’s own actions will damage each participants Sanity. The precise losses should reflect the effect that is created, as described by the spell description. As a guideline, a minor supernatural effect might warrant a SAN loss of 1 point, a substantial one might be worth 1D8, a vast effect might lead to a loss of 1D12, and a truly cosmic manifestation might cause a Sanity loss of anything up to 1D100.
Objects with Unnatural Power
As Game Moderator, you may wish to include in your game items with the power to create supernatural effects reminiscent of those wrought through rituals. Using such an item does not require any special training or learning, and no Ritual Activation Test is needed. The user of an object with supernatural powers may, however, still need to sacrifice attribute points to fuel the effect (as per the GM’s description of the item) and might suffer SAN loss from the experience.
Supernatural Effects
There are lots of weird, supernatural things that can happen in your game of Cthulhu Eternal. In most cases, the style of weirdness and its scope of effect should be tied to the specific setting, or the current adventure/campaign/plotline being played out. As such Cthulhu Eternal doesn’t provide a ready-made catalogue of supernatural rituals and effects to plunder. Effects should relate to significant plot points or elements of the setting rather than being generic RPG ‘spells’.
The following guidelines may be helpful to Game Moderators inventing custom supernatural powers for their own game.
Designing Supernatural Effects: General Principles
Supernatural effects in Cthulhu Eternal are unlike the forms of magic that appear in most roleplaying games, especially games set in the fantasy genre. Rather than wielding a flashy fireball into the midst of combat, a ritual magician in Cthulhu Eternal might create a supernatural effect as the result of hours of ritual incantation placing his or her mind into communion with extradimensional horrors.
The following general guidelines will help you in depicting magic in a suitably low‐key and creepy fashion:
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Supernatural Effects are seldom flashy: while some spells might create a spectacular if shocking manifestation of unnatural horror, most work with little or no visible or physical effect. Frequently, people who aim to unleash supernatural effects have no way to tell whether their ritual succeeded or not, until hours, days, or even weeks have passed. And even then, its effects may be subtle changes that most people would never notice.
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Supernatural Effects are usually time‐consuming to create: many supernatural effects require lengthy rituals which are repetitious and wearying to perform. While there are a handful of smaller, casual effects which might be useful in a tactical, fast‐paced situation, most play out far too slowly to help in tactical environments.
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Supernatural Effects are ALWAYS dangerous to invoke: generating a supernatural effect is equivalent to opening one’s mind and essence to the unknowable forces which make up the Cthulhu Mythos. These powers are inherently corrosive to reality as we know it. So, coming into direct mental or physical connection with them always causes some form of lasting damage to the spellcaster, and maybe others as well.
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Supernatural Effects are the enemy of Sanity: Connecting with the forces of the Mythos is inherently dangerous to one’s Sanity. In game terms this manifests as a mandatory sacrifice of SAN; but in narrative terms you should play up the highly disturbing experience of touching an unknown and unknowable extra‐dimensional force whose very existence is anathema to everything that the caster has ever known or experienced. Generating supernatural effects should hurt. Every single time.
Calculating the Scope of the Supernatural Effect
The manifestations associated with a supernatural effect can be virtually anything the Game Moderator can imagine. Where such effects require game mechanics, these can be designed on a case-by-case basis.
For determining the attribute cost of a ritual, as well as its potential for creating Sanity losses, it is useful to gauge the overall ‘magnitude of the effect being generated – this is termed the scope of the effect. For convenience, a scale of eight scope ratings (from least to greatest) is shown below, along with a representative Willpower Point cost for fueling effects at each rating.
| Supernatural Effect Scope | Indicative WP Cost |
| Minor | 6 |
| Small | 9 |
| Significant | 12 |
| Substantial | 15 |
| Major | 22 (or 12 WP + 1 POW) |
| Vast | 30 (or 10 WP + 2 POW) |
| Sweeping | 45 (or 15 WP + 3 POW) |
| Cosmic | 110 (or 10 WP + 10 POW) |
The scope of an effect is based on how sweeping a change it causes to the physical (or mental) world. The sections which follow give guidelines regarding how specific types of effects might be rated using this scale.
One basic factor for consideration is the range of the supernatural effect (i.e., how far from the ritual site the effect manifests). Generally, it is much easier to create effects nearby and harder to influence reality a long distance away. The table below gives a rough guide.
| Range of Effect | Base Scope Rating | Range of Effect | Base Scope Rating | |
| Nearby (10 m away) | Minor | Global (anywhere on Earth) | Major | |
| Local (100m away) | Small | Beyond earth, but within our galaxy | Vast | |
| Line of Sight (1km away) | Significant | In another galaxy | Sweeping | |
| Distant (100km away) | Substantial | In a separate dimension | Cosmic |
Use these base scope ratings as a starting point, adapting them according to the criteria specific to different effect types as shown on the next page. Wherever multiple criteria apply, always pick the greater of the two possible scope ratings (e.g., if one criterion suggests a Significant rating and another a Vast rating, the scope of the effect is actually Vast).
Common Types of Effects
As Game Moderator you’re free to invent any type of supernatural effect that complements your game world. For settings which emulate the styles of otherworldly phenomena found in H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction, a few common categories of effects may prove useful starting points for broader invention.
Summoning Supernatural Entities
In many Lovecraftian settings there exist a family of rituals designed to compel a supernatural being of the Cthulhu Mythos to manifest at the location where the ritual is performed. The specific details of the chants and actions that must be performed to achieve this outcome vary according to the type of creature to be summoned.
In determining the Scope rating for this supernatural effect, the most pertinent factor is the POW characteristic of the supernatural creature summoned.
| POW of Supernatural Entity | Scope Rating |
| 1—8 | Minor |
| 9—12 | Small |
| 13—16 | Significant |
| 17—20 | Substantial |
| 21—30 | Major |
| 31—40 | Vast |
| 41—60 | Sweeping |
| 61—150 | Cosmic |
Binding Supernatural Entities
Another category of rituals found in many Lovecraftian settings are those compelling a supernatural creature of the Cthulhu Mythos to obey the will of the ritual leader (at least for a period of time). This control is called binding. As with summoning, the Scope of such an effect is governed primarily by the POW of the creature – use the table above. Binding spells which have a long duration (more than a day) may warrant a higher Scope rating than that mentioned on the table.
Mental Contact With Alien Gods
While the Cthulhu Mythos includes numerous races of supernatural creatures, the major Powers are more properly thought of as individual alien ‘gods’. This includes vastly powerful entities that are trapped in obscure places on our planet (like Cthulhu) through to cosmic forces that define our very reality (like Azathoth).
Certain insane sorcerers have at different points in history devised rituals to make mental contact with one of these vast unknowable intelligences. In determining the rating for the scope of such an effect the primary consideration is the potency of the Alien God.
| Magnitude of Alien God | Scope Rating |
| Minor (e.g., Nodens) | Substantial |
| Major (e.g., Dagon) | Vast |
| Significant (e.g., Cthulhu) | Sweeping |
| Cosmic (e.g., Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth) | Cosmic |
Opening Physical Conduits to Alien Gods
Some sorcerers are not content with communing with the vast and corrosive intelligences of the Alien Gods, but instead wish to open conduits for their physical avatars to enter our reality.
Again, the primary consideration in determining scope is the potency of the Alien God, although the act of opening a physical conduit is at least one step greater in scope than merely communicating telepathically.
| Magnitude of Alien God | Scope Rating |
| Minor (e.g., Nodens) | Major |
| Major (e.g., Dagon) | Sweeping |
| Significant (e.g., Cthulhu) | Cosmic |
| Cosmic (e.g., Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth) | Cosmic |
Dimensional Traversal
Lovecraftian settings often incorporate the idea of extra-dimensional locales, whether remote parts of our own universe, realms created by the collective human unconscious mind, or entirely different dimensions. Stories set in such worlds may involve a myriad of different supernatural effects that permit mere mortals to cross the barrier between the normal (ravaged) world and one such outside region.
In determining the scope of an effect which allows dimensional traversal, consider the distances involved. Use the range table provided above, re-imagining the range values as referring instead to the distance traversed.
Cursing and Damaging
Although far less common than in traditional tabletop roleplaying games, supernatural effects may exist in Lovecraftian settings which directly inflict physical harm on individuals. The scope for such an effect can be estimated by considering the amount of physical damage which may be potentially inflicted, usually represented by a dice value or Lethality rating.
| Damage Inflicted | Scope Rating |
| 1D4 | Minor |
| 1D6 | Small |
| 1D10 | Significant |
| 1D20 | Substantial |
| 10% Lethality | Major |
| 20% Lethality | Vast |
| 40% Lethality | Sweeping |
| 99% Lethality | Cosmic |
Warding and Protection
As counterpoint to supernatural effects which may cause physical harm, it is equally possible for supernatural effects to exist which protect individuals from such harm. When estimating the scope of such an effect, consider the worst or most-serious type of damage the effect is likely to mitigate and consult the table from the previous section.