Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This came out recently and I saw it in the store. The King in Yellow has always been my favorite of the lovecraftian horrors so I looked up a bunch about it. I searched the Trove of the internet and found some good information.

It runs on a streamlined version of Gumshoe Games, has a GREAT mechanic, design philosophies, and advice for running mysteries since the game is based around the players being investigators. I think it's good to read through the core (Paris) book and see what the game itself has in store mechanically.

But what I would really like to point out is the included first adventure in the Paris book. The structure for how they write out and provide the information for running a adventure is the total opposite of the crap we get from games like DnD in that it is actually incredibly useful. THIS is amazing. They break the game into scenes starting with a hook/lead and then branching elements based on information provided by the hook. Each element of the scene is provided in bullet points. The NPCs are given a description earlier in the book but here they are simply given the relevant information they have for the players and their motivations for the scene. It's great and will likely influence how I put together a planned adventure in the future. Give it a read.

How would you compare this to a game like Call of Cthulthu (sp)?

In terms of adventure presentation i think this is one of if not the best i have even seen.

In terms of mystery/investigation mechanics. There is a lot to love here with ideas that directly address some of the biggest pitfalls of running a mystery game (mostly related to players missing clues).

In terms of the prepackaged adventure itself, its ambitious and broad spanning and great. One of the worst things about lovecraftian horror imo is how retreaded it is. Innsmouth/dunwich/arkham again.deepones shoggoths cthulhu yogsothoth nyarlathotep again.

This game takes the king in yellow on its own. Straight from the source by Chambers not lovecraft and builds something on that that spans decades, timelines, and realities and lays in a new take on old horror thats well done. This comes across more true detective season 1 then lovecraft itself and slow burns to true horror.

Damage (mental and physical) is also well done. Represented by cards that represent individual traumas and are healed individually instead of "life/Sanity points". Too many cards and your dead/insane.

Might pick it up.

 Lance845 wrote:
Damage (mental and physical) is also well done. Represented by cards that represent individual traumas and are healed individually instead of "life/Sanity points". Too many cards and your dead/insane.

This kills it for me. I'm a bit against the requirement for cards, tokens, etc. in a tabletop RPG. I'm fine using miniatures and a dry-erase map, but start adding card stacks and I'm just playing a board game with more chatter.

Now, if it's something that can just be 'make an note on your character sheet', then I can deal with it and just assume the cards are a convenience thing for people who haven't discovered the photocopier.

Personally I kind of like the use of cards. I mean, I do like cards. Cards are cool and collectable! It also saves me from having to erase or manage a character sheet. I just take the card while it applies and toss it when it doesn't.

I saw a game being played at my store the other day that is a full RPG, but it uses cards for everything. Every skill has a card, characters have "character cards" items, conditions, and monsters have cards and even the game map is made up of cards. I've really enjoyed Arkham Horror LCG since picking it up, but I want to ask them what game they were playing next time I see them cause it looked pretty fun.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Damage (mental and physical) is also well done. Represented by cards that represent individual traumas and are healed individually instead of "life/Sanity points". Too many cards and your dead/insane.

This kills it for me. I'm a bit against the requirement for cards, tokens, etc. in a tabletop RPG. I'm fine using miniatures and a dry-erase map, but start adding card stacks and I'm just playing a board game with more chatter.

Now, if it's something that can just be 'make an note on your character sheet', then I can deal with it and just assume the cards are a convenience thing for people who haven't discovered the photocopier.

To be fair, even the creator was like... I am not 100% sure what the best most convenient way to utilize the cards at the table is. But I will say the cards do not come in packs for you to buy. It's all just in the books and you are I guess intended to print them out onto card stock or just detail to the payers what the impact is.

So like... Getting shot with a pistol in 1895 France has a card that causes the physical trauma of being shot and what that does to the character. And healing it has a particular requirement on the cards. If the players get 3 (or 4 depending on game mode) cards they die. Just too much physical trauma. Particularly bad cards might count as 2. I agree that I am unsure how EXACTLY I would use these in game. Would I print them out and hand them to my group when things happen or would I dictate to them the effects and have them make notes? I dunno.

For the most part I would say that yes, they can just be noted on some scrap paper.

For instance.





It's interesting. I wouldn't say it's the best thing I have ever seen. But it's interesting and I am excited to see it's impact in use.

It's somewhat similar to how Mouse Guards handles injury. In the game injuries have different severity and you must heal the most severe before you can heal the least severe. Injuries also have debuff effects that make you want to be rid of them fast.

Photocopying something I can handle. Used to do this with Charms in Exalted so people could have their own little stack of note cards for their abilities. I just don't think it should be a 'card mechanic' in an RPG. A convenience thing, sure- that's actually good.

So combat encounters are given a minor and severe injury in the book. If individuals fail by a small amount they suffer the minor injury and if they fail by a lot the major and it's possible tough enough encounters that there may be unavoidable traumas (think of in lovecraft you can't SEE a shoggoth and not suffer some amount of mental strain). Outside of combats these can come from things too. Noticing that the corridor under the secret hatch has been steadily slopping down for a long time and by now you should have reached the sewers but you haven't.

Well you might make a test to notice and on a fail your fine. On a pass take a minor mental stress "It must be an illusion. That can't be right" or pass by a lot and take a "I am completely lost and we are never getting out of here." (not real ones just an example).


Again... interesting. Not just a simple -2 sanity points. And each trauma relates to the situation. Maybe cumbersome? Maybe not. I haven't played it yet.

I'll have to demo it before I put money into it. As much as I love horror and Lovecraft-esque horror in RPG's, it's not really a lot of fun to play a game that's basically 'countdown until your brain melts' for a couple of weeks. Tends to just get people rolling characters and being deliberately reckless because they know the character is as good as dead in a few weeks anyway.

It doesn't strike me as that ULTRA lethal. That being said the box set is actually 4 games. 1895 Paris with the players playing foreign art students. 1950s weird war I that never ended. Modern day alternate history built on the back of the previous settings where the players were renegades that took out the American Emperor (based on the story the Repairer of Reputations from The King In Yellow - But different because the main character succeeds in the RPG).


Spoilers for plot bits.


Each game/setting can be as brief as the single provided scenario (a couple sessions to many each) or extended into full campaigns including just making up your own. And they tell you that in each book including providing you with advice and tools to do so. But it's presented with the idea that you will move from one setting to the next eventually to tell the over all story that they build together.