I'm considering buying it, and based on what I've read it seems quite good, I just figured I should get some first hand opinions
>>47888417
>I'm considering buying it
Don't. It's mechanics are a clusterfuck in myriad ways.
>>47888417
>I'm considering buying it, and based on what I've read it seems quite good, I just figured I should get some first hand opinions+ 0 post omitted.
It's late in the primary timezone so this thread might go well for the next five hours.
Opinion: Don't. Get this instead:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/156677/CthulhuTech-V2-The-Shadow-War-Open-Beta?manufacturers_id=3225
It's the 2E playtest.
It actually >>47888425 works.
>>47888417
Stop lying, you just wanted the monthly CTech bashing thread.
>>47888417
>based on what I've read it seems quite good
I have a hard time believing this. What did you read that suggested it was good?
>>47888456
Most everywhere I looked. Though base don these responses I'm guessing I didn't look well enough.
>>47888498
based on*
>>47888498
Be specific, halfwit.
>>47888515
Mostly RPG.net and drivethrurpg
>>47888525
I find that RPG.net tends to either shill games the reviewer likes or pulls punches when reviewing bad games.
>>47888417
Actually kinda cool and novel setting, unfortunately the system and "archetype power levels" seem to make the game unplayable?
>>47888436
Will 2nd edition also unfuck the stupid setting decisions?
>>47888658
>Will 2nd edition also unfuck the stupid setting decisions?
I can't comment. The setting is a lot slimmer on any count.
>>47888658
Like what?
Not OP, but I know a couple of things about the setting, so what would
>stupid setting decisions
be for you?
>>47888548
I probably should have been able to work that out for myself. I don't think I've ever seen them give anything less than three stars
>>47888658
All I saw was it lookd like the same shit system
>>47888417
It's garbage with a few good ideas. I haven't tried 2e yet, but apparently it focuses on the good idea of Tagers and eases up on "this is our game fuck you", even going so far as to say they'll allow homebrew to be sold under an OGL style license.
>>47888436
Will 2E unfuck sorcerers and para-psychics?
>>47888417
Unplayable, fetishy, and exploitative. Unrelated to the Lovecraft Mythos. A transparent attempt at baiting adolescents for their allowance with incoherent concepts randomly thrown together for cheap effect without actaul functionality as a game.
>>47888417
Wait for MK2, don't buy the books until you look at them and try them first, the system is a clusterfuck, but the setting has some interesting ideas, you just have to filter out some of the shittier ones.
>>47888417
>I'm considering buying it
Not worth your money
>based on what I've read it seems quite good
The hell you read and where?!
The mechanics are just garbage. They are so bad it makes Pathfinder shine as well-designed, slim and workable system.
The game can't decide what EXACTLY it wants to be and what genre it should evoke, so it's all at once, creating a clusterfuck of rules for completely different things and setting that doesn't hold together at all.
And speaking of setting, it's pretty much tentacle rape mecha anime bullshit.
So honestly - you just wanted to make another "CT is shit" thread, because there is no way anyone using /tg/ woudn't know already.
>>47889750
>it's pretty much tentacle rape mecha anime bullshit.
And that's bad how?
>>47889815
Shitty mechanics, forced metaplot, clusterfuck on top of a clusterfuck.
It's literally my go to example for the worst system I've played. Unlike FATAL, it's technically playable, but why would you want to?
>>47889815
Because it has nothing to do with advertised genre or genres for that matter? The only thing it shares with Mythos is title and few names spread over lore. That's all.
Honestly, the game would be roughtly 15% less shit if it wasn't pretending it's related with Mythos.
>>47889951
Honestly, I like it's handling of the Mythos, but I'm not actually a Lovecraft fan. I think that taking Lovecraftian concepts and putting them into an anime Evangelion/Guyver setting is actually a pretty awesome concept, "b-but that's not how cosmic horror works" whining be damned. Cthulhu was put back to sleep by Cubans with a boat, and we can split the Goddamned atom.
It's like that scene in Buffy where the big bad can't be slain by any weapon forged of man. Turns out the prophecy didn't realize rocket launchers would exist.
CthulhuTech's main problem isn't the setting, it's the clusterfuck of rules and the existence of a Metaplot.
>>47889951
>Because it has nothing to do with advertised genre or genres for that matter? The only thing it shares with Mythos is title and few names spread over lore. That's all.
I've never seen it advertising itself as "totally loyal to Mythos" or anything remotely closer. It blatantly says that it's Lovecraft with anime, shaken not stirred. So, don't confuse your assumptions with it's presentation.
>>47890278
>>47890220
So why not call it LolitaTech, or Space Robo Rape? Calling it Cthulhu-anything is about as apt as calling it American History Tech.
>>47890369
>Involves several aspects of the Mythos, even if it eschews the nihilistic 1d4 Investigators per round tone for the vague possibility of hope, and the secret cult aspects for full blown Mythos revealed post apocalypse
Gee, why the fuck do you think they call it CthulhuTech?
Just because it's not the same tone as Call of Cthulhu doesn't mean it's not still a game using the public domain Cthulhu Mythos as it's core setting. Calling it CthulhuTech is about as reasonable as calling the other game Call of Cthulhu when it has little to do with that namesake story. Or even calling it the Cthulhu Mythos in the first place, considering Cthulhu himself is worthless, and even Lovecraft didn't call it that, that was August Derleth, who also coincidentally used Hope as a theme and considered the central theme to be good versus evil.
>>47890493
>Seriously defending one of the worst games on the market
Different anon, but holy shit, this is some A-tier shitposting. What are you trying to achieve her actually?
The game is shit - everyone knows that.
It uses Mythos for marketing, but has nothing to do with them - everyone knows that.
And yet you are openly and smugly defending it.
What for?
>>47890493
>Involves several aspects of the Mythos
So does Pathfinder.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/great-old-ones/great-old-one-cthulhu
Do you think calling it Cthulhufinder would have been better?
>>47890565
Old one induced madness would explain why it's so shit.
>>47890565
CthulhuTech focuses on that particular mythos. Pathfinder does not.
Look, I know CthulhuTech is shit, but trying to say it's in no way related to the mythos is just utter retardation. Not everything about CthulhuTech has to be complete shit to make CthulhuTech shit. It's shit because of all the "RAEP AND EDGE" and because the mechanics are absolutely the worst fucking shit I've ever seen. Aside from FATAL, but I think that's more an understood thing you don't have to actually say.
>>47890565
If the entire game and all the monsters were from the Mythos? Yes.
>>47890516
I'm defending the aspects I like. Namely, that the Mythos is used for something other than "hurr durr you can't comprehend so you take brain damage, nothing can stop Cthulhu, everyone loses, haha**." I think Lovecraft is shit, but the Mythos has potential. I wouldn't call "why are you complaining about the one part of the game that isn't fucking stupid" openly and smugly defending it, either.
It's literally about TECHnology created through tapping into the CTHULHU Mythos. It has a different tone, that's about it. That's not "nothing to do with [the Mythos]" no matter how much it chaps your undies that some people would rather fight back than put a revolver to their head because they can't comprehend the vastness of reality.
**Except in the stupid fucking "you lose because metaplot" and "give them SAN damage because fuck your players" modules.
>>47890647
>If the entire game and all the monsters were from the Mythos? Yes.
which isn't true for Cthulhutech either.
It's like you enjoy being wrong.
And it's not the ability to fight back that makes it stupid. It's that the mythos just became a thing you fight with giant robot suits. It's stapling names onto generic enemies.
If you changed the names, whould there be anything mythos like about the game?
>>47890691
In what way is Cthulhu not all about Mythos creatures?
>If you changed the names, whould there be anything mythos like about the game?
Yes. Because then it'd just be like Bloodborne, where they might as well be using the Mythos. tentacled horrors from space that cause madness is Mythos to a T, even if you can fight individual MiGo instead of cowering in fear.
>>47889903
FATAL is technically playable, unlike Hybrid and RaHoWa
>>47890734
no, because Bloodborn had actual mythos themes.
Note how the hunt didn't actually stop the things going on. The themes of corruption, experimentation, alienation, the draw of the 'outside'. People identified it as lovecraftian despite having no copy pasted names.
That's the opposite of what Cthulhutech is doing.
You do enjoy being wrong. That's the only explanation.
>>47890734
>tentacled horrors from space that cause madness is Mythos to a T
Oh you poor child.
>>47890734
Jesus, the levels of just wrong in this post is impressive. Bloodborne is actually a much better example of a Mythos-flavored game that draws from the source material earnestly and tweaks and modifies them in order to suit the creator's ideas as well as allowing for the horrors to be at least theoretically defeated in standard combat.
Ctulutech just staples Mythos words willy-nilly without understanding or caring what any part of that means.
>>47890647
But it's still used for those things, anon. The only things normal humans fight on a regular basis are some of the weakest, puny monsters in the mythos, and humanity is STILL losing to them. The forces of monsters in Asia are the most threatening things humans regularly face, and they're not all that.
If someone took the best, biggest mecha in the setting and went up against Cthulhu, they would be immediately squashed, and probably without the Big C even noticing he did anything. Even without the metaplot, there are no illusions in the game that a ragtag team of investigators, a guy with a giant robot, or the humanoid monstrosities that are tagers could take on things like Ithaqua or Yig and win.
>>47890947
I actually find that kind of stupid. After all, remember that Cthulhu and his kin fought a war with beings of comparable physiology to humans and LOST. By the time mutants and EVA units are in the mix, humans should be able to stand some chance even if a bit slim.
I still agree with the other anons who say that CT uses Mythos stuff in a willy-nilly and ineffectual way.
>>47889304
>Will 2E unfuck sorcerers and para-psychics?
Right now it does so by screaming at you to never ever ever NO YOU RETARD E-V-E-R mix splats. It's sort of like WoD where the splat books are physically and thematically separate and mixing them is only allowed in the sense of that they technically can't stop you.
>>47891054
WoD also did the thing where they created versions of other splats that could work with the given splat.
Like don't mix in Mage into your splat, but here's 'witch' or 'sorcerer' character you could use.
My changeling campaign handled it like this. There is guy named Steve, he's a 5'4" redhead. He's also a werewolf, but kinda half-knows about the faeries, and is well liked because if it looks like there is going to be a conflict, he'll stop by and tell you where the conflict might be and give you a chance to back down and clear out. The courts have very clear instructions to everyone about this matter "Do what Steve tells you".
>>47891019
>humans should be able to stand some chance even if a bit slim.
The big issue would probably be how much species wide SAN loss we'd be looking at. Victory at a price shit.
>>47891019
I don't remember how big Elder Things are, but they didn't really win that conflict so much as they survived. Technically.
>>47888417
I had a blast playing CthulhuTech with friends. It has some great atmosphere and neat ideas. The poker dice rolls are neat.
That said, there are a lot of caveats, namely:
1. It's a game about Anime Tropes + Cthulhu Monsters. If you don't like that combo, it's not for you. It's not meant to be pure Lovecraftian horror scifi.
2. Many of the rules are badly designed, poorly worded or incomprehensible, especially in the mecha section, where the stats for the mecha often don't match the descriptions. And movement is bizarre.
3. The adventures all suck. Really suck. You have to make your own.
4. Just buy the core book + vade mecum. The other books are poorly written and don't add much you couldn't have just made up yourself in 5 minutes.
Run it loosely and with a lot of your own house rules and it'll be better.
I heard there's a version 2.0 being worked on, but I don't know much about it.
>>47891226
Oh, and as the GM you have to decide on the power scale of the game you're running, namely:
1. Investigators, soldiers, common people OR
2. Tagers, Psychics, Sorcerors OR
3. Mecha Pilots, Zoners
Don't mix them, it doesn't work.
https://cthulhutech-once-were-men.obsidianportal.com/
>>47890769
I hear FATAL is missing some core rule, like movement or range or something.
>>47890886
It's how people use it.
>>47890799
>>47890935
I'm not saying Bloodborne isn't a Lovecraftian game. I'm just saying that CthulhuTech isn't "just copypasting names". Bloodborne really does do that, too, though, at least with the shoggoth.
People have also been calling Shadows Over Innistrad Lovecraftian, and it just came after the block where they literally punched out the Elder Gods. Yes, the themes are vastly different, but that doesn't mean it's completely unrelated and using the words willy nilly. The things from the Mythos are still mostly the same things here.
>>47890947
Cthulhu was put back into naptime by a Cuban fishing boat. I think a building sized robot would be fine. I'm fine with the set up, though. I mean, the reason Hastur and Nyarlathotep and Dagon and the Migou are a real threat is because it's not just the one big monster to fight like a jRPG final boss. They lead Chrysalis Corp and the Rapine Storm and the rape factories, and at war with the Migou.
>>47891198
SAN loss has always been a stupid, arbitrary mechanic, and one of the reasons I hate the direct Lovecraft canon and inspired works. People see terrifying, nonsensical things all the time, but they don't cause SAN loss. SAN loss is an arbitrary thing. I mean for fucks sake:
>"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
If a fucking quantum mechanics textbook isn't going to make people go insane, reading the Goddamned Necronomicon isn't. They're both about as meaningful or sensical to the average person, and at least the gibberish of the Necronomicon doesn't come with math.
>>47891226
>The poker dice rolls are neat.
Literally the worst part of the game.
>Just buy the core book + vade mecum
If for some reason you like the game, this is without a doubt the best advice. Everything after Vade Mecum is steadily more garbage.
>>47890647
>CthulhuTech
>Mythos is used for something other than "hurr durr you can't comprehend so you take brain damage, nothing can stop Cthulhu, everyone loses, haha
Have you actually read the rulebook for it? I won't even ask if you ever played, but just read the lore from core book
>>47891309
you are wrong at basically ever point in this comment.
The only thing I will somewhat give you is that SAN lose isn't a great system.
It is meant to be more evocative of the themes than a representation of the reality of psychology, and the original system didn't have a means of becoming hardened to events, which newer better san systems do.
But you have a real misunderstand of what lovecraftian themes actually are, and how the systems are supposed to work.
You are talking from a place of ignorance and misinformation. The hope is that you are not outright stupid, and can realize these points where you are wrong, and work to correct them.
>>47891309
>If a fucking quantum mechanics textbook isn't going to make people go insane, reading the Goddamned Necronomicon isn't.
Reading the necronomicon doesn't drive anyone mad in any of lovecraft's works.
>>47891309
>Cthulhu was put back into naptime by a Cuban fishing boat.
...You do realize that isn't what happened, right? You aren't actually that fucking stupid?
>If a fucking quantum mechanics textbook isn't going to make people go insane, reading the Goddamned Necronomicon isn't.
Oh, nevermind. You are.
>>47891324
I have. I've also tried to play it. Tried being the operative word.
The story about the victory in Japan is one of the things that I like. The war may seem unwinnable, but little victories can still happen. It's possible that humanity can defeat the Migou, even if the war would be a lot easier without the cults.
>>47891354
The problem is that the themes are stupid. I mean, I quoted the Lovecraft quote that sums everything up. That's the core principle of the Mythos, and I strongly disagree with it and find the notion ridiculous. Honestly, one of the reasons I like CthulhuTech is that taking this shit and making giant robots out of it seems like the most realistic outcome, aside from the robots being human shaped for no reason. Sanity in Lovecraftian horror ends up being arbitrary induced madness, but it's *supposed* to represent the horror of knowing uncomfortable truths. The problem is that the world doesn't work like that. You either compartmentalize and can't physically think about those things all the time, or you flat out don't understand them and that's that. Reading the horrible truth of reality isn't going to make you go insane. Seeing something with odd angles won't make you go insane. Knowing your grandma was a nigger isn't going to make you go insane. While I know that not every Lovecraft story is about reading a journal and going insane, the way it tends to be handled just... annoys me. Especially in the things inspired by Lovecraft, like the games. "You read the book, take 1d6 SAN damage" is stupid because it implies just having knowledge makes you crazier. It puts an arbitrary distinction between real actual fucking science (which is already pretty far out there in some cases) and whatever the Elder Things were up to. It's not even "you're scared", it's "your brain is injured by your inability to comprehend it". Being unable to comprehend something doesn't hurt your fragile human mind.
Better sanity systems like CofD's Integrity or the four way Sanity of Unknown Armies work by not trying to bother with the Call of Cthulhu model of "forbidden knowledge makes you crazy" so much as "experiencing crazy shit fucks you up".
>>47891367
>>47891391
I can't say I've really read much of Lovecraft to know which things specifically do and don't happen, but that's how it works in the games, where SAN damage is a mechanic. Also the knowledge was still transcribed by a madman.
I don't like the prose itself, and I don't like the specific themes as Lovecraft used them. I also don't like everything that I've looked up and read about it to justify why I don't want to read Lovecraft, because apparently "I don't like the prose or themes" is never enough for people.
Regardless, "a quantum mechanic textbook won't give you SAN damage so the Necronomicon shouldn't" was more of an off the cuff reason for why I don't like things that try to ape the Mythos, not so much a thing that happens in the primary author's works.
>>47893231
I agree with this anon. Lovecraft was an overly-sensitive ponce, and thought that everything that wasn't an Anglo-Saxon country estate would make you go insane. That's not how the real world works. UA does a far better job (though not perfect) of modeling actually sanity loss and mental damage.
I own the game and actually ran it for about a month. The game's concept is interesting enough but as others have said it's too unfocused and messy to be useful. It wants to be shadowrun, robotech, mutants and masterminds, and survival horror but manages to do none of these even passably and then asks you to combine them from time to time. It's also insanely magical realm at parts to an uncomfortable degree.
I wish it could be redone without the furries and the rape mecha and without the absolutely insane dice system and just focusing on one style of play but the stigma of the original game probably makes that impossible.
>>47893551
>and then asks you to combine them from time to time
No, no, it LOOKS like they should be combined. The creator will shout at you and tell you that you're fucking WRONG if your Tager or psychic ever looks at a robot with the idea of getting inside of it.
ITT: People are seriously defending Cthulhu Tech
>>47893303
you don't have to like Lovecraft that's fine.
But if you don't like Lovecraft, and didn't bother to know much about lovecraft, you don't get to arguments about whether something handles Lovecraft well, or whether something like Cthulhutech actually captures any of the themes.
Because you don't know what you're talking about. You don't have to learn about this, or be interested in learning, but you do need to keep your damn mouth shut about them if you're not going bother learning.
>>47893303
Sounds like u just had a bad dm. (or are a bad dm)
>>47893955
HOLY FUCKING CHRIST DO YOU EVEN READ?
THERE IS ONE ASPECT OF CTHULHUTECH THAT IS WORTH A GODDAMNED
POINTING THAT OUT IS NOT "DEFENDING" THE SHITTY ASPECTS OF THE GAME.
>>47894517
But again, the reason I don't like Lovecraft is because of how his own works handle things. Like, I don't like the twist of Shadow Over Innsmouth (and I love the thread a week ago the said Lovecraft is just a racist and the Deep Ones were basically just friendly sea elves). Like, I've bothered learning. The more I learn the more I dislike.
>>47894539
That is literally a mechanic in Call of Cthulhu. If you see a Mythos thing, you take SAN damage. If you read books about the Mythos, you take SAN damage. I've even seen people praise things like how in Bloodborne you gain Insight for learning plot and for seeing the bosses. Gaining Mythos Lore skill ranks causes Sanity damage. That's a mechanic of the system, not a product of bad DMing.
Although my DM was bad and loved the whole "you arbitrarily lose" aspect of CoC. I ran down burning steps only to get stopped by some goat demon. Instead of freaking out I cold cocked it and knocked it out, so the ST decided the floor gave out and I was in a pit with fifteen more of them in the burning building's basement.
>>47894795
>Getting triggered this hard
>>47895365
Look, we get it, you don't like to read, so dismissing people as being "triggered" or "defending" the thing you don't like is easier for you. It's okay. I know. I used to have trouble reading, too. Does Hooked on Phonics still exist? It's really helpful.
>>47895413
Anon, I've just came to this thread. And last post in it is written in 1/3 in Caps.
I'm not even sure on what I'm staring here.
If you confused me with any of the anons that you were arguing before, sorry, bad call this time. But seriously, holy shit, why Capsing so much? The discussion looks pretty civic and then suddenly explosion
>>47895545
>holy shit, why Capsing so much?
Because it's like the second or third time someone's dismissively said people were "defending" CthulhuTech.
It has one positive aspect. ONE thing worth a damn in the main setting.
That one thing is the fact that it's taking Mythos ideas and punching them up with Anime. The fact that my Guyver ripoff is fighting a secret war against Nyarlathotep's minions while Evangelion rip offs fight the Migou is great. The core setting isn't why CthulhuTech is garbage, it's the only reason it's worth caring about.
>>47895639
>Cthulhu Anime
>Good
Kill yourself
>>47893231
>making giant robots out of it seems like the most realistic outcome, aside from the robots being human shaped for no reason.
They actually give a reason. It's a side effect of the d-engine, you get much better operational effects out of something humaniod.
>>47895714
Why not kill yourself?
What system could make this game work? GURPS?
>>47895962
someone tried making a hack with eclipse phase
>>47895962
On fluff level nothing saves this piece of shit.
Crunch-wise GURPS is probably the only system that can handle few different types of magic, mechas, different size of units, powerful firearms and shitload of other things within single game, all of which being fully operational.
>>47888417
All the books should be pirateable. If you want to try the game, go ahead and have fun. If poker dice aren't your thing, there is an alternative system in Vade Mecum that uses cards.
>>47888436
Thanks for the link, I'll give it a look.
This game is not for all tastes. It's not d&d. I'd you can find something to enjoy, enjoy it.
>>47895962
There's a Traveller hack/supplement somewhere, and /tg/ was making a conversion to some system or another. Should be on 1d4chan.
>>47895714
It's like that Angry Beavers episode. Stinky + Stinky = Not Stinky.
>>47895962
I wanted to make a WoD hack for something similar to Tagers, but I'm lazy. GURPS is not a great system. It has the problem of not doing anything well. Everything in GURPS feels like GURPS, not its own thing.
>>47896005
If you don't like the fluff, you don't like it. Some people do. I love it. The core concept (and Tagers, maybe Engels) is really the only thing worth saving.
>>47893955
>>47895365
>>47895714
>memeposting is good
I really like the setting with the horrible rape monsters rampaging across the world. I like the knock-off Zentradi getting their tits out.
I hate the stupid dice poker mechanics and the worst spell ever devised (Yog Sothoth's Guard) ruins the game with invincible GMPCs.
I can't overstate how much I hate that fucking spell. It ruins the setting because there would be no war, Hastur's desolate one's have won. They have so much fucking psychic shit they can cast it, teleport in with the hybrid damage sword, and kill a Seraph Engel in a turn. They do this for five minutes, destroying entire mecha battalions, and then teleport away and immediately recast Yog-Sothoth's Guard because they can afford to simply cut down the casting time.
A game's mechanics should reinforce the setting, not contradict it.
I would recommend importing the setting to a different system and getting rid of that fucking spell.
>>47897594
I'm not familiar with the system. What does that spell actually do?
>>47898148
A two-day casting time spell that makes the caster reflect all damage dealt to them and disrupts all technology nearby for five minutes. With some ritual casting shenanigans you could reduce the casting time to a reasonable level and then theoretically teleport into wherever, cause havoc, and then teleport out.
That anon is probably just making a mountain out of a molehill though. It's no worse than much of the scry-n-die stuff you see in D&D. Pretty bad, yes, but not the worst, and there are in-game reasons that powerful cults might not try that: namely that government hires sorcerers of its own who can likely ward areas against teleportation or other means of quick access and/or trap the caster from teleporting out. It's a threat that might make a good plot point for a game (still not a good excuse to actually play the game) but not something that upends the setting by any means.
>>47894795
>I bothered learning.
Except where you didn't.
Because you seem to confuse using the mythos, and using the names from the mythos.
It's like saying that Eva was addressing the themes of Christianity. Which everyone knows is wrong, it just used name and imagery it thought looked cool.
>san system
it wasn't a good system, but it was also a really early system.
What it did do well was create the sense of wearing down and falling apart that is useful for horror, and especially investigation based horror. It gives a sense of ticking down, of slowly getting worse.
Now how this connected to the literature is often poorly understood.
Most of what Lovecraft described as 'going mad' would be what we'd now call PTSD, and stress induced anxiety disorders. They typically came after shocking events that undercut foundational beliefs and were accompanied by violent death.
Now does it seem strange that such a thing might give a person PTSD?
The other form of madness was more the obsession form of madness, which ties into the gothic horror roots. Having both of these represented by the same basic mechanic was the main problem with the San system.
