Search Results for: kenneth hite

Hideous Creatures: Great Race of Yith

22
Apr

“As mental barriers wore down, I beheld great masses of thin vapour in various parts of the building and in the streets below. These steadily grew more solid and distinct, till at last I could trace their monstrous outlines with uncomfortable ease.” From unguessable aliens to cone-shaped librarians to beetle-conquerors, the Great Race of Yith takes many forms. Learn to recognize them, before they take yours!

Hideous Creatures: Great Race of Yith includes,

  • A breakdown of the usual Great Race scenarios, to build two sandbox adventure frames
  • Keeper clues for every Trail of Cthulhu Investigative ability
  • Four mythic echos from across the world
  • Seven Yithian technologies
  • Thirteen Great Race variations

In this series, Kenneth Hite looks at the creatures, species, and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos from every non-Euclidean angle. Alternate versions and new explanations provide the same jolt of mythic bisociation that the gods and titans receive in the TRAIL OF CTHULHU corebook. Hite traces these foul things through their legendary history, and provides further clues for any Investigator to follow. Horrific scenario seeds burst and bloom, story spines protrude and deform, in a blasphemous garden any Keeper can harvest.

Praise for Hideous Creatures:

“a brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo.” – High Trust, High Drama Blog

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instill uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman…” – Paul Baldowski

Hideous Creatures: Great Race of Yith is the third installment of the third Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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Hideous Creatures: Wendigo

22
Apr

“In spite of his exceeding mental perturbation, Simpson struggled hard to detect its nature, and define it …” Cannibal spirit or arctic ogre? Wind-walking demigod or folie a faim? Hunt the Wendigo down — or up into the skies, where mad auroras roll.

Hideous Creatures: Wendigo includes,

  • Two unique scenario seeds, Out of the Ice and Hungry for Power
  • Keeper clues for every Trail of Cthulhu Investigative ability
  • Six mythic echos from across the world
  • Fourteen Wendigo variations
  • Eleven new powers, with GUMSHOE statistics

In this series, Kenneth Hite looks at the creatures, species, and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos from every non-Euclidean angle. Alternate versions and new explanations provide the same jolt of mythic bisociation that the gods and titans receive in the TRAIL OF CTHULHU corebook. Hite traces these foul things through their legendary history, and provides further clues for any Investigator to follow. Horrific scenario seeds burst and bloom, story spines protrude and deform, in a blasphemous garden any Keeper can harvest.

Praise for Hideous Creatures:

“a brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo.” – High Trust, High Drama Blog

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instill uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman…” – Paul Baldowski

Hideous Creatures: Wendigo is the fifth installment of the third Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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Hideous Creatures: Hunting Horror

22
Apr

“I see it—coming here—hell-wind—titan blur—black wings—Yog-Sothoth save me—the three-lobed burning eye. . . .” Avatar or servitor, this winged and coiling horror haunts the dark and hunts those who seek it out. Shine a little light on this most shadowy of creatures!

Hideous Creatures: Hunting Horror includes,

  • Two unique scenario seeds, The Shadow From the Screen and Out of the Vale of Pnath
  • Keeper clues for every Trail of Cthulhu Investigative ability
  • Seven mythic echos from across the world
  • Twelve Hunting Horror variations
  • Twelve new powers, with GUMSHOE statistics

In this series, Kenneth Hite looks at the creatures, species, and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos from every non-Euclidean angle. Alternate versions and new explanations provide the same jolt of mythic bisociation that the gods and titans receive in the TRAIL OF CTHULHU corebook. Hite traces these foul things through their legendary history, and provides further clues for any Investigator to follow. Horrific scenario seeds burst and bloom, story spines protrude and deform, in a blasphemous garden any Keeper can harvest.

Praise for Hideous Creatures:

“a brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo.” – High Trust, High Drama Blog

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instill uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman…” – Paul Baldowski

Hideous Creatures: Hunting Horror is the sixth installment of the third Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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Tomb-Hounds of Egypt

22
Apr

Tomb-Hounds of Egypt

“God! … If only I had not read so much Egyptology before coming to this land which is the fountain of all darkness and terror!” All you need to know to forge a Pulp archaeology campaign set in 1930s Egypt – for Trail of Cthulhu or just GUMSHOE Bullwhips & Baboon-Mummies!

The Depression has hit Egypt, too. Funding for major expeditions has dwindled; minor expeditions have almost dried up. Formerly, Egyptologists could look forward to recouping their costs by selling half their finds overseas, to museums or collectors. Now, however, the increasingly nationalistic Egyptian government pressures the Service of Antiquities to keep all such new-found ancient treasures in the country.

But the European and American market for Egyptian antiquities remains, stoked to ever-higher heat by Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamen’s golden tomb in 1922. With fewer expeditions guarding and excavating the tomb sites, and fewer artifacts coming onto the legitimate market, real opportunities have opened up. Those who know enough Egyptology to know where to dig, and who know enough shady dealers to know how to sell what they dig up, can name their own price for a spectacular item. Of course, there’s always that little matter of a curse – but no true tomb-hound lets the possibility of a curse interfere with the certainty of a profit.

Wonderful things await — all you need is a map and a bullwhip.

Tomb-Hounds of Egypt includes new occupations (Reis, Smuggler), Drives, and abilities for Trail of Cthulhu. Additionally, full stats for God-Beasts and Monsters, write-ups of Necropolitan Egypt, and Egyptian Magic.

Praise for Ken Writes About Stuff,

“The content of KWAS is top-notch, as one would expect from a RPG luminary like Kenneth Hite” –Daniel D.

“ brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo” – Bill Templeton

Tomb-Hounds of Egypt is the twelfth installment of the second Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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Ken Writes About Stuff Volume 3

22
Apr

KWAS logo_300_white

Mythos monsters, occult conspiracies, alchemical mysteries and more! KWAS Vol. 3 collects 13 supplements by master Lovecraftian writer and GUMSHOE guru Kenneth Hite.

In the ENnie-award winning Ken Writes About Stuff series, Kenneth Hite turns his considerable writing talents and encyclopedic knowledge of game design, history, the occult and all things Mythos to bear on new topics. From hideous creatures to GUMSHOE innovations, from Moon Dust Men to martial arts, Ken illuminates the dark corners of the genre with 4000-word supplements.

Each PDF includes a deep delve into some deeply weird topic, plus crunchy bits for your GUMSHOE game. If you’re a fan of Suppressed Transmissions, Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, The Nazi Occult or Day After Ragnarok, KWAS is a must-have.

KWAS Vol. 3 features:

  • Hideous Creatures: Tcho-Tcho. “The nastiest people who ever lived … and whatever it is they were doing, they weren’t going to let a stranger in on it.” Do you really want to know what the Tcho-Tcho know? Too late.
  • The Spear of Destiny. Is it the Spear that pierced Christ’s side, or the Spear of Odin? Does it grant true kingship or invincibility? Who has borne it through the millennia, and who seeks its true whereabouts now? This issue pierces the legend to reach the truth — and then makes the legend invincible. Plus, a look at the Spear for NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS, THE ESOTERRORISTS, TRAIL OF CTHULHU, and TIMEWATCH.
  • Hideous Creatures: Great Race of Yith. “As mental barriers wore down, I beheld great masses of thin vapour in various parts of the building and in the streets below. These steadily grew more solid and distinct, till at last I could trace their monstrous outlines with uncomfortable ease.” From unguessable aliens to cone-shaped librarians to beetle-conquerors, the Great Race of Yith takes many forms. Learn to recognize them, before they take yours!
  • Mutant City Spies. Ten years after the ghost flu hit, the world is changed — but the secret world stays the same. Enemies of your country still plot, terrorists still scheme — but now they might have superpowers. An espionage-specops frame for Mutant City Blues takes the super fights into the shadows.
  • Hideous Creatures: Wendigo. ” In spite of his exceeding mental perturbation, Simpson struggled hard to detect its nature, and define it …” Cannibal spirit or arctic ogre? Wind-walking demigod or folie a faim? Hunt the Wendigo down — or up into the skies, where mad auroras roll.
  • Hideous Creatures: Hunting Horror. “I see it—coming here—hell-wind—titan blur—black wings—Yog-Sothoth save me—the three-lobed burning eye. . . .” Avatar or servitor, this winged and coiling horror haunts the dark and hunts those who seek it out. Shine a little light on this most shadowy of creatures!

 

KWAS 3 Covers

 

  • Moon Dust Men: MAJESTIC Overwatch. The Moon Dust Men are the tip of the spear. MAJESTIC-12 aims it. Manage the global war against the aliens with this new GUMSHOE subsystem. Do you build retro-engineered Aurora craft, or bioroids to fight on the Moon? Do you launch satellite screens or dig in anti-saucer lasers? You decide where the black budget goes — and who it goes after.
  • Moon Dust Men: Galileo Uplift. To fight aliens, one must use the alien. Take it apart, reverse-engineer it, rebuild it, turn it into armor and sensors and weapons and aircraft good enough to win a war against an enemy from the stars. Tech and gear for your high-powered MOON DUST MEN game, powered by a new GUMSHOE “tech tree” subystem for bootstrapping invention and development.
  • Las Vegas 1968 takes you to Sin City in the heyday of Howard Hughes and the Rat Pack, the mob and the Mormons, the fear and the loathing. Everything’s for sale and nothing’s for certain, except the house wins. Featuring happening hooks for vampire conspiracies, esoterrorism, and FALL OF DELTA GREEN Mythos machinations!
  • Alchemy Chemistry or magic? Madness or miracles? Poison or power? Blend all those elements — and more — with Alchemy, the latest Zoom in on a historical magic system for GUMSHOE gaming. Operating at every level from the base dungeon-crawl to the Awakened Working, this magic system gives you the secrets of matter — and maybe a touch of mercury poisoning.
  • Bast. “What fully civilised soul but would eagerly serve as high priest of Bast?” She Who Scratches, the Lady of the Ointment Jar, the great cat-goddess of nighted Khem comes alive in all her varied forms: as a Trail of Cthulhu titan (complete with her monstrous Brood of Bubastis), mysterious Ashen Stars entity, TimeWatch cult leader, and 13th Age Icon. Good kitty!
  • Unspeakable Cults: The Starry Wisdom. In our final issue of the year, we give the Hideous Creatures treatment not to one beast but to a whole cult — the “disliked and unorthodox Starry Wisdom sect.” Vile rites and terrifying symbolism unfold to shadow your Trail of Cthulhu game, along with alternate takes, investigative leads, possible echoes, and sinister scenario seeds.
  • BONUS ISSUE – Foul Congeries 3 once more opens the books on Lovecraftian monsters that have never taken stat-block form before in any game, including the Gaseous Wraith, the Raktajihva, and Y’m-bhi!

Volume 1 of Ken Writes About Stuff is available here, and volume 2 here.

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Hideous Creatures: Tcho-Tcho

22
Apr

“The nastiest people who ever lived … and whatever it is they were doing, they weren’t going to let a stranger in on it.” Do you really want to know what the Tcho-Tcho know? Too late.

Hideous Creatures: Tcho-Tcho includes,

  • A new unique scenario seed, A Tchoice of Dooms
  • Keeper clues for every Trail of Cthulhu Investigative ability
  • Five mythic echos from across the world
  • Seventeen Tcho-Tcho variations
  • Fifteen new powers, with GUMSHOE statistics

In this series, Kenneth Hite looks at the creatures, species, and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos from every non-Euclidean angle. Alternate versions and new explanations provide the same jolt of mythic bisociation that the gods and titans receive in the TRAIL OF CTHULHU corebook. Hite traces these foul things through their legendary history, and provides further clues for any Investigator to follow. Horrific scenario seeds burst and bloom, story spines protrude and deform, in a blasphemous garden any Keeper can harvest.

Praise for Hideous Creatures:

“a brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo.” – High Trust, High Drama Blog

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instill uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman…” – Paul Baldowski

Hideous Creatures: Tcho-Tcho is the first installment of the third Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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The School of Night

22
Apr

“Black is the badge of Hell; the hue of dungeons and the School of Night.” Queen Elizabeth’s realm lies vulnerable, not just to the Spanish or the plague, but to occult forces perhaps more dangerous than either. You study those forces at the risk of torture — at the risk of your soul — but you must hold them at bay or see England destroyed.

This GUMSHOE campaign frame sets the PCs on the stage with John Dee, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Walter Raleigh … and perhaps with traitors in their ranks.

Your School of Night campaign might resemble a 16th-century Night’s Black Agents investigation of a demonic conspiracy, a picaresque “weirdness and monster hunt” game a la Fringe, Supernatural, or The X-Files, Tudor ghost-breaking and exorcism played for psychological and proto-scientific chills, or feature straightup horror of the Cthulhoid or Gothic bent. It might feature “wolf in the fold” gaming as players betray Raleigh to the Tudor police state for their own masters, or play up the espionage element in true “wildernesse of mirrors” style. Or it might combine all of these elements but really feature the fun of carrying rapiers, casting Enochian spells, and playing the dozens with that new-fledged goose Shakespeare down at the Mermaid Tavern.

The School of Night includes new abilities (Tod-Spotter), arms and armor, magickal abilities, historical scolars, and the opposition (necromancers, werewolves, demons, etc.)

Praise for Ken Writes About Stuff,

“The content of KWAS is top-notch, as one would expect from a RPG luminary like Kenneth Hite” –Daniel D.

“ brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo” – Bill Templeton

The School of Night is the seventh installment of the second Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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Hideous Creatures: Byakhee

22
Apr

Hideous Creatures: Byakhee

“Apart from the curiously repellent feeling of human flesh under my hands, and furred wings, I was not able to ascertain what these creatures were like.” Servants of Hastur or misperceived shantaks? Astral psychopomps or sidereal scavengers? Climb aboard the byakhee and find out!

Byakhee are interstellar hunters, flying between the stars on vast membranous wings. They sometimes carry riders, usually one apiece — though such riders need protection from the vacuum and cold from suitable spells or potions. Byakhee do not have bases on earth, but sorcerers summon them to perform foul deeds or to serve as steeds.

Hideous Creatures: Byakhee includes,

  • Two unique scenario seeds, Something in Platinum, and Just a Song at Twilight
  • Keeper clues for every Trail of Cthulhu Investigative ability
  • Six mythic echoes from across the world
  • Eighteen Byakhee variations
  • And new powers, like Cognitive Dissonance and Orbital Flight, with GUMSHOE statistics.

In this series, Kenneth Hite looks at the creatures, species, and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos from every non-Euclidean angle. Alternate versions and new explanations provide the same jolt of mythic bisociation that the gods and titans receive in the TRAIL OF CTHULHU corebook. Hite traces these foul things through their legendary history, and provides further clues for any Investigator to follow. Horrific scenario seeds burst and bloom, story spines protrude and deform, in a blasphemous garden any Keeper can harvest.

Praise for Hideous Creatures,

“a brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo.” – High Trust, High Drama Blog

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instill uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman…” – Paul Baldowski

Hideous Creatures: Byakhee is the eighth installment of Volume 2 of Ken Writes About Stuff.

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Vendetta Run

22
Apr

Vendetta Run

You’ve done worse things, but you’ve never done anything as dangerous as angering the Earps. Because now they’re coming to kill you. And they can’t be killed. Not permanent, anyhow. A survival-horror frame for Fear Itself and Owl Hoot Trail set in the worst and weirdest West.

In December 1881, after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, three Cowboys ambushed and shot Virgil Earp. Three months later, four Cowboys shot Morgan Earp in the back and killed him. Wyatt Earp assembled a posse of his surviving relations and willing gunmen to hunt down the killers, gunning down the Cowboy Frank Stilwell in Tucson on March 20, 1882. You and the other Cowboys can no longer count on corrupt or intimidated local authorities for protection. The Earps have turned vigilante, riding out in vendetta against you, and you have turned and run.

The players all take the roles of Cowboys, members of the quasi-criminal ring of local rustlers and thieves in cahoots with Sheriff Behan. One of you may even be Sheriff Behan – the Earps no longer care about legal niceties. Your party is one group of Cowboys, with the Earps’ posse on their trail.

Praise for Ken Writes About Stuff,

“The content of KWAS is top-notch, as one would expect from a RPG luminary like Kenneth Hite” –Daniel D.

“ brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo” – Bill Templeton

Vendetta Run is the ninth installment of the second Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

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Hideous Creatures: Rat-Things

22
Apr

“Witnesses said it had long hair and the shape of a rat, but that its sharp-toothed, bearded face was evilly human while its paws were like tiny human hands.” Witch become rat, or thing become hyper-physicist? Familiar-ize yourself with Lovecraft’s creepiest creation.

Rat-things resemble ordinary rats, and are easily mistaken for them at a distance. Their heads are nonetheless evil caricatures of human heads, and their paws are like tiny human hands. They have extremely strong, sharp teeth, canines grown forward to resemble incisors. They nuzzle and nurse on human blood from their witch companions or from convenient sleepers. Though they do not die naturally, they are now very rare. Attacking rat-things climb the legs or clothes of human opponents, or drop down from ceilings, or climb plumbing into their delicate areas at delicate moments, or tunnel up from the insides of their chests.

Hideous Creatures: Rat-Things includes,

  • Two unique scenario seeds, The Rats in the Trenches, and The Dream House in the Witch
  • Keeper clues for every Trail of Cthulhu Investigative ability
  • Five mythic echoes from across the world
  • Thirteen Rat-Thing variations
  • And new powers, like Internal Attack and Dream Initiation, with GUMSHOE statistics.

In this series, Kenneth Hite looks at the creatures, species, and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos from every non-Euclidean angle. Alternate versions and new explanations provide the same jolt of mythic bisociation that the gods and titans receive in the TRAIL OF CTHULHU corebook. Hite traces these foul things through their legendary history, and provides further clues for any Investigator to follow. Horrific scenario seeds burst and bloom, story spines protrude and deform, in a blasphemous garden any Keeper can harvest.

Praise for Hideous Creatures,

“a brief injection of Hite-ian awesome … they’re just about the right length to digest in a single sitting, and full of amazing ideas that will make anyone’s game into a flavourful occult gumbo.” – High Trust, High Drama Blog

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instill uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman…” – Paul Baldowski

Hideous Creatures: Rat-Things is the tenth installment of the second Ken Writes About Stuff subscription.

Continue reading →
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