The fate of humanity - a Mephisto review
Fate of Cthulhu
Combining the Fate rules system with the background of Cthulhu is an idea that is actually quite obvious, so you almost have to wonder how long it took until Fate of Cthulhu was released (strictly speaking; however, with the Fate variant of Achtung! Cthulhu already exists a roleplaying game that combines both parts).
If you now expect Fate of Cthulhu to be a simple adaptation of the usual background and (presumably) necessary rule mechanisms for Fate, you will be surprised by this book. Fate of Cthulhu is not merely an adaptation of the rules, but provides, as is so typical for Fate, a very unusual approach to the setting. The starting point is bleak: In 2030, one of the Great Old Ones appears, and humanity is almost completely wiped out. Or rather: that would have happened. For with the solution from the Terminator films, the last humans - here in a dangerous ritual - send several people back ten years into the past to change the timeline and stop the events that led to the appearance of the Great Old One.
Fate of Cthulhu thus follows a very schematic approach in its gameplay: There are always four core events that led to the appearance of the Great Old One - and the player characters familiar as time travelers are familiar with these events. It is now up to the player characters to stop or at least mitigate these events, which in turn are defined by four so-called catalysts - places, people, enemies, and objects - so that humanity still has a chance in the future. The book provides five such scenarios, each one focusing on one of the most famous Great Old Ones: Cthulhu, the King in Yellow, Shub-Nigurrat, Dagon, and Nyarlahotep. At the end of the book, however, there is also advice for the game master, how to plan a tailor-made apocalypse (to be prevented by the player characters, hopefully).
Playing with the timeline is not only a ruse for drama, but depending on how the players act, they can change the events, which should also manifest itself visibly in their timeline. But beware: the risks and side-effects that are typical for the genre will probably occur.
In terms of rules, the book provides complete, very compressed and adapted Fate rules, so that you do not necessarily need Fate Core for this roleplaying game. In fact, Fate Condensed is based on this variant of the rules and has taken up many of its simplifications. Of course, such a book also provides additional rules needed for the setting. In contrast to classic Cthulhu scenarios, however, the investigators are not driven insane but corrupted by the events, which manifests itself in aspects and also stunts. The corruption gives the player characters additional power and strength - but at a very high and very dangerous price. The rules that determine whether the player characters in the individual scenarios change the story for the better or worse - and how this affects the overall timeline - are also explained in detail and are surprisingly mechanistic for Fate at first glance. But they are very useful for measuring the success of the player characters more objectively.
The five exemplary scenarios are well designed and build on the individual characteristics of the Great Old Ones. And as you might expect, the information of the time travelers is not always accurate, so there will be some surprises in this respect as well. Even with the trick of time travel, the chances of humanity are minimal.
Even though Fate of Cthulhu surprised me with its approach initially, which I did not expect at all, I like this roleplaying game very much. The concept of time travel is a fitting element for the Cthulhu background and gives the game its additional charm. Of course, most groups will probably not play several apocalypses—still, the option to choose the appropriate variant or use it as basic material for your background is very helpful. If you are looking for a simple adaptation of the Cthulhu setting to Fate rules, you will only find a few pieces of the puzzle here. But if you want to play a truly epic campaign against the Great Old Ones, which can be bizarre, dark, and sometimes a bit black-humored, this book is one of the Fate series' highlights so far.
(Björn Lippold)
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