eldritch skies - core rules

8/18/2019 Eldritch Skies - Core Rules

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Credits

Created and written by John Snead (based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft)

Fiction, additional material, and editing by A.J. Luxton

Cover Art: Joel Biske

Interior Art: Eric Lofgren and Bradley McDevitt

Cover and Layout Design: Richard Iorio II

Special anks: Purple Duck Games, Rod Chanas, Jargen Hubert, Ben McFarland, RobertO’Connor, Mark Townshend, Matthew C H Winder, A. Hauber, Mark W Roy, ChristopherFedak, Xavier Freycon, Mark Shocklee, Adam Krump, dennis beebe, Wordman, Adam C, Jean

FRIDRICI, Karim Chelli, Michael W. Mattei, acp, Reverance Pavane, Guillaume Bernard, J.A. Dettman, Ryan Fisk, Bryant Durrell, W. Samuel Ashley (“ e Evil Midnight Lurker what Lurks at Midnight”), James Haughton, Noah Bogart, G. Hartman, Kate Hanley, ErichSchmidt, Jennifer Earl, Vera Vartanian, Randall Dederick, Omer Ahmed, Michael Ostrokol,Greg Stolze, Max Kaehn, Kurt McMahon, Travis Stout, Jason Marks, Neal Dalton, Jose LaC-ario, Zed Lopez, Tom Ladegard, John ompson, Jeff Pittman, Fred Herman, L.J. Shepherd,Matt M McElroy, John W. ompson, Paul Leone, Eric Priehs, Chris Jarocha-Ernst, Eric Ed-

wards, Dave LeCompte, Stephanie Sours, Eric Nail, Kevin Mowery, John Cmar, Laura Burns,David Paul, Michael J. Tresca, Lorien Green, Chad J. Bowser, Jack Norris, Stephan Szabo,Diego ‘Escrivio’ ‘OLIVEIRA GRANJA, Chris Willrich,Wayne Coburn, James Holden, AdamRajski, Alex Torres, Adam Boisvert, Mark Tozzi, Alex Coyner, Hans Zurcher, Karl Mazurak,Henry “Le Squide” Ulrich, J. Peters, Indi Latrani, RJ Grady, Val Kinman, Jeff Chapin, Rob

Boyle, Cat Davidson-Hall, Luke Martinez, John Morrow, HPLustcraft, Linda M Kolar, Jeff

reyB Boles, Rich Canino, Stacy Forsythe, carl ollivier, e Ennead, Chris Dalgety. Raphael Paobst,Steve Dempsey, Drew (Andrew) South, Felix Girke, Adam Crossingham, Reto M. Kiefer, Ste-fan Ohrmann, Duncan Webster, Stew Wilson, Matthew Broome, M. De Jonge,Cesar BernalPrat, Jose Luis Porfario, Rick Neal, Joonas Katko, Patrick Barrett, Ken Finlayson, Hamildy,Dirk Remmecke, Martin Schramm, Peter Aronson, Christopher Gunning, Bryce A. Lynch,

Jake Baker, Dana Myers, Bard Bloom, Bowden “Trey” Palmer, Mike Laff erty: Warrior-Poet, Tamika Clinton, Nick Bate, Harry K, Rune B Reinas, Meredith L. Patterson, e Roach.

B ATTLEFIELD PRESS, INC is Jonathan M. ompson and Christopher Helton

ELDRITCH SKIES Copyright © John Snead. ELDRITCH SKIES is published by Battlefield Press, Inc., Bar-onne St, Shreveport, Louisiana . All rights reserved. Errata and other feedback can be sent to thompsonjm@

gmail.com. Attention: e bearer of this PDF has the permission of the publisher and the copyright owners to have

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Unisystem game mechanics are copyright CJ Carella. All rights reserved.



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Contents

INTRODUCTION, P. 11

CHAPTER 1, P. 20

CHAPTER 2, P. 50

CHAPTER 3, P. 98

CHAPTER 4, P. 142

CHAPTER 5, P. 162

CHAPTER 6, P. 198

CHAPTER 7, P. 242

APPENDIX , P. 258

SERENDIPITY, P.268

VECTORS, P. 6



6

“T ’ F .” As the other engi-neers stood up from the table, Robert Barlington turnedto Connie. “You will be there, won’t you?” A blast ofcheap cigar smoke hit her full in the face with his words.

e man could aff ord anything, but he had no taste.

“Oh, I’ll be there, all right,” she muttered. He wastaunting her. As the only woman in his cadre of engi-neers - he even called them Barlington’s Boys - she gotheld to twice the standard of anyone else: on any givenday she was either a genius or a shameful waste of space.

e insinuation was that by ursday, she’d have made amajor breakthrough on the Soviet castoff alien tech they

were studying, or she’d be the joke of the meeting.By some standards, Connie thought, she was lucky.

Bob knew what he had in her; that whatever it took, shehad the drive to best the other intellects he’d amassedaround her, regardless of the fact that he would alwaysgive the credit to someone else. She got paid, and he

knew that if he fired her, the company’s stock would tank within a year, just as soon as the investors noticed themagic was gone. She’d never be cast aside lightly.

But he knew, too, that she’d never quit. She valued the job too much, and the opportunity to work with materi-als she’d never otherwise see - grey market pieces thatBob got through contacts she didn’t even want to knowabout. ere were moments when the stink of smoke andthe humiliation of the way she was treated all faded tonothingness, replaced by the exultation of science andthought, and as long as she had those, it was almost

worthwhile: better, at least, than the alternatives. As she entered her apartment that night, the blink-

ing red light on the answering machine caught her eye.She pressed play, and a man’s voice came through the hissand crackle of the worn tape. He sounded nice, person-able, but that didn’t mean anything. “Connie Gilman,” hesaid. “If I have reached the correct number, please returnthis phone call as soon as possible.” He gave a telephone

number. “We’re not with a competitor, but we have somequestions about the research you’re doing. It’s imperativethat you return our call.”

She wrote down the number and erased the message.It was too late into the evening to call anyone. e area

code was Washington, DC. Now, what was that all about? e ups and downs of working for Bob took a toll onher health. She never let on about it; every time she sawthe bluish circles under her eyes in the mirror or pickedup the small bottle of pills from the gleaming white shelfof her medicine cabinet, Connie died a little from embar-rassment. She kept her family history of insanity under

wraps for the same reason. She knew what the magazineshad to say about women under pressure. It was obviousbullshit. She’d met Paul Erdos at a conference and seenthe amount of pharmaceuticals he swallowed down, butdamned if she could get away with the same withoutfeeling like it was a dirty secret.

e pills beat out not sleeping, so she swallowed onedown and got under the coverlet. It wasn’t long beforethe restless thoughts that troubled her mind faded intonothingness.

Connie made it to work before dawn on Tuesday, de-termined to make a good showing of it. Gilman womendidn’t give up. Hours passed in the workshop before sheremembered that she hadn’t eaten breakfast.

Remembered, too, the faintest wisp of a dream fromthe last night. A voice speaking to her, low and enthrall-ing, a crystal wine glass and earrings to match, that un-canny gleam of light coming through them to strike hereye... Something about that gleam of light...

e printer assailed her with its insistent, repetitivebleating. Connie made a clean tear at the perforated edgeof the dot-matrix printout and read the fi gures on thepage. ey represented particle emissions from the work-ing prototype; the numbers failed to align with the onesshe’d read from the original.



7

e original, the alien artifact, sat there slick and darkand smooth and unknowable. It looked more born thanmade. If engineers had contributed to this thing, theyhad concealed their eff orts thoroughly, and though Con-

nie would never say so out loud, she despaired of it. Howdo you reverse-engineer something if you cannot evenimagine what the original engineer was thinking?

Damn it. She’d think better with food in her stomach.But something about the alien artifact and the dream

still nagged at her as she walked out to the Chinese placearound the corner and came back with her steaming,sickly-smelling chow mein. Over the nasty sweet-and-sour sauce, she thought she scented the waft of an inde-scribably sophisticated perfume.

at night, frustration and equations spinning in herhead, she barely remembered making it home, barely re-membered going to bed. But her dream was clearer than theday itself, clearer than all her hours of toil over her calculator.

It was the same dream as last time, resolved into clear-er focus: she was on her way to a conference to see thefamous Nyarlathotep, pushing through crowds of scien-tists, white men whose faces jeered and leered at her and

who puff ed noxious cigar smoke at her as she passed. eroom grew taut with tension as they waited for Nyarla-thotep to take the podium. Nyarlathotep passed up theaisle, oozing the poisonous scent of her perfume, and theodor cleared Connie’s head of the clouds of smoke witha sort of sudden shock.

e suit on Nyarlathotep’s perfect porcelain-doll body

was immaculate and designed by the highest-class de-signer, and she walked as if her feet had been made forhigh heels: not a wobble, not a moment of uncertainty.Over the faint electric crackle of the PA system, her voice

was so cultured it almost hurt to hear, East Coast witha touch of British, and left Connie with a simultane-ous feeling of hatred and intense longing, almost sexual.She’d never been lesbian, though constantly accused ofit, but this transcended preference. is... exaltation, thishorror of what she would never be.

In the way of dreams, the lecture faded away andsuddenly Connie was in a hotel suite, amid a crowd ofNyarlathotep’s admirers. Nyarlathotep herself was seated

on a plush leather chair, her feet perched delicately onthe floor, and the sound of her lilting laughter rang outas men told her what a brilliant mind she had. Conniefelt jealousy so violent her lip quivered, and then Nyar-lathotep turned her face to her, and beckoned Conniecloser with a finger gesture and a mocking smile.

Connie woke with Nyarlathotep’s words ringing sharp-

ly in her ears: “It’s simple, Connie. Give up your illusions.”Give up your illusions... She felt a hunger so deep it

almost nauseated her, not for food or sex but for the rec-ognition she would never have. She was not that white

woman, and her attempts to play the man’s game werehalf-baked at best. She threw on some clothing, did notbother with makeup, and addressed the California high-

ways in the pallid gleam of pre-dawn.“Hey, Connie,” said Leider. Of course he got a sur-

name, and referred to her by her first name; that was justhow it was done around here. “Is the strain getting to you,honey? Need some help with the hard math?”

Barlington’s Boys were always posturing, always get-ting up in her space. For some reason, it didn’t bother hertoday as much as usual. She looked up at Leider, ready toretort, and saw through the skin of his forehead, to theflesh underneath; a skeleton criscrossed with decayingmuscles and fat. Flies crawled through the empty sock-ets of his eyes, and Connnie understood, suddenly, thaton some level what she saw was not hallucination. Shelooked into the rot that was Leider’s face, and laughed.

is was her competition: walking corpses. e illusions went both ways.

He laughed back, but it was an uneasy sound. An “eh-hehheh,” like he was caught off guard. He’d been expect-ing a hostile response, she knew, and perhaps he wasn’tsure what to do now that Connie hadn’t risen to the bait.

Or maybe the expression on her face threw him. Heranger never did. But now she felt calm, amused, like she

walked catlike through the world, beyond the eyes of theunseeing. Leider blinked suddenly and walked away, shuf-fling his feet as if he wasn’t sure which way he was going.“I’m... going to go get some coff ee,” he said. “Want some?”

She looked into her full cup and said, “Sure.” e next dream came when Connie was ready for it.

She wasn’t asleep, but knew that had nothing to do with it.Some dim protest in the back of her mind said she

should have been afraid, having dreams when she wasawake like this. It wasn’t proper - it was insane...

And that was where it started, an asylum for the ne-gro insane. Her mother and father had fought that day,

viciously; Father said the asylum was no place to bring

a little girl, and Mother had said that Connie shouldhave a chance to meet Grandma Gilman who was hisown mother anyway, and he was terrible to keep his ownblood family apart from each other.

at was the first time Connie had heard the words blood family . ose words made strange images in hermind, made her fear something stranger than insan-



8

ity. So: her dream began back there, in a filth-encrustedroom, in the smell of diapers and disinfectant. In life, shehad gone in with her mother and father, who had settledfinally on bringing her; in the dream, she walked in alone,

and the door to the corridor vanished behind her onceshe had moved fully into the room.

Blood ran from Grandma’s eyes. But instead ofspreading down her cheeks like tears, it danced into theair, vibrant, curling, forming a thousand tiny threads. Oneof them connected her to Connie. Blood family. Others

went outward in other directions.“Grandma?” Connie said, and her adult voice came

out of her mouth, even though she was short, child-sized.“ is is your family tree, child,” said Grandma Gilman.

“You can follow the paths of blood to find your birthright...”Blood within blood within blood. e threads and

traceries extended out from her, and the pattern in itsintense complexity could have been a graph of waves andforces, could have been the deep knowledges Conniecarried in the back of her mind, of particle physics andhigher mathematics. Of...

“You forget yourself, and think that because places andtimes appear to us to be diff erentiated, that they actuallyare.” Her grandmother’s voice again, calm and deep as water.

She focused on a thread, and it grew and grew, suck-ing her forward, as if it had gravity of its own. At once,alarmed, she drew back from the thread of blood, andturned her mind to another, and another. But it didn’t takeher back out of it; instead, each thread pulled her forward

and outward, in thousands of directions, in an infinity ofdirections, and her mind shattered into a million pieces.Pieces of Connie were everywhere at once. Later,

when enough of her soul was whole to formulate an ob-server, she remembered this as being in the minds or thestories of her ancestors.

Connie was a slaveholder, wielding the heavy lashagainst the back of a slave who was pregnant with hischild... Connie was that slave herself, a woman who hadhad a name so long forgotten and now was named Phoe-be... Connie was one of the great builders, guiding slavesof the Pharaoh’s, and the world was a massive and perfectgeometry and the pyramid a microcosm of it... Connie

was her grandmother, participating with others in a se-cret midnight ritual that honored that perfect geometrythe same way the pyramids did...

Flame crackle, whip crack... an unspeakable act on astone altar... the mathematics of the Gods...

And through all of it the laughter of Nyarlathotep,the Other, the perfect white woman with perfect nails

who could walk on heels because she was not walking atall; she was navigating space in a di ff erent way entirely .

And Connie, and her people: her ancestors: the whiteman, the black woman, her family, herself, all trapped like

flies in amber in this terrible small human reality wherepeople did violence to each other and subjugated oneanother. Even the rituals and rites and works of humangreatness, she saw now, were part of the same pattern, thesame dimension, the trap.

Her grandmother’s voice again: “Do you want to bethis, or do you want to be more?”

e voice became a chord, became interwoven withalien harmonies. Connie could see a thread, now, that

went in no direction or every direction, that was a vectorof all her bloodlines. Like torque or a field vector it wentstraight out of the page. She knew that if she took holdof that thread, she became more than human.

Was she breaking from her people, her family, fromtheir paths and directions? No - she was summing theforces, following the vector. is was right. is was thesum of her. e math worked out, even if it gave her adirection she couldn’t see.

And suddenly she could.For a hellish and heavenly moment, languages she’d

never heard before rang in her mind. She understood themperfectly. It was like her dreams as a student, how afternights spent studying the textbooks would recite themselvesrestlessly in her head while she was sleeping, but sped upand continuous and simultaneous, and yet every single one,

all at once, made sense to her. She tried to turn away fromthe relentless flow of information, but there was no turningaway, no tuning out; it was all there, and it all went in, untilher mind screamed with the overload and her universe rang

with the pain of the sudden transformation.Connie woke with her heart pounding. Reflexively she

touched her head with her hands; it still felt like her head, atleast to the touch. Sweat slicked her forehead. She searchedher mind for the knowledge she’d just imbibed, the preciousburden of it: was it gone, completely ephemeral?

No. She felt the structures and frameworks dimlysettled into her mind. But they were unclear now, a half-forgotten derivation leaving only the final equations.

Reconstructable?She reached for the printout of numbers next to her,

and as she did so, saw the clock out of the corner of hereye; it had been only minutes she was dreaming. Min-utes before, the numbers had been nonsense; no patternin them, no way to draw a correspondence to find whatmight be happening in the heart of the alien device.



9

Now patterns occurred to her. She had been lookingat it from the wrong angle; a human angle.

Now she had an inkling of what the original engineer was thinking.

Quickly, before it faded, she began making sketches, writing out laborious proofs. It was frustrating trying toreconstruct what had been so whole in her mind, butshe remembered how much it hurt to have the wholething there; too much, too soon. And now she knew, too,that she could make it from her basic principles to thesemulti-dimensional concepts. at the alien tech was -could be - a vector of her human thoughts, a step side-

ways that she could take on her own.Knowing she could make that step was more satisfy-

ing than any conference, any business lunch, any bevy ofadmirers. She wrote out numbers until her eyes itchedand her fingers ached, doing the square roots in her head,not even bothering to use a calculator.

All that day and the next, she worked steadily. It wasstrange: she slept barely three hours that night, but shefelt sure she was better rested in the morning than she’dbeen in months. Bob came in periodically to ask for re-sults and blow cigar smoke in her face. “I’ll have it readyfor the investors’ meeting,” she said, “get out.” Her insub-ordination turned his face red, and she laughed at him,gently. In her ears it sounded like the cultured laugh ofNyarlathotep, the laugh of the Other, of the one whoknows what others do not.

No more illusions.

e phone rang only once before the nice-soundingman picked it up. “Connie Gilman?” he said. Another dayit might have shocked her that she was such a priority tothese people; today, it did not.

“ e same,” she said.“We have some things to ask you about.”“Something to do, no doubt, with the Barlington corpora-

tion and grey-market tech?” She barely let him get throughthe beginning of ‘yes’ before she went on. “Well, I can give youan earful,” she said. “And I’d like to make a deal.”

“We’re listening.” ere was respect in that voice. It was gratifying. When Bob Barlington came into the conference

room, Connie was already there. He looked at her, puz-zled, and sniff ed the air deeply. “What’s that perfume

you’re wearing? It’s...” He sounded as if he were aboutto make a crude remark, then trailed off , for a momentutterly speechless. Expressions fl ickered across his face:startled, impressed, confused.

She wasn’t wearing any perfume.

Men and women in dark suits fi led in through thedoor. Bob opened his mouth and almost asked what thehell was going on, but he was smart enough to hold hissilence. Instead he gave Connie a look. She just smiled.

Her suit seemed to fit her better than it ever had, andbefore anyone else could make a move, she took the head ofthe table. She overheard disquieted whispers from the Boys- “What the fuck is she doing?” “Where are the investors?”

rough a haze of smoke and warm ceiling lights shelooked out across the conference table, and she heard acrackle of static and a laugh that belonged to a woman

who wasn’t there.“Boys,” she said. “I’m pleased to introduce you to my

new associates.” e company men began shouting overthe half-empty table, and the suits fl anked her, then,their body language like Secret Service men guardingthe president. It sent a hush over the room. “ e inves-tors’ meeting is postponed. ey have all been uninvited- politely, don’t worry about that. I trust you’ll have funexplaining next week exactly what has happened with theproject, particularly given that it has become classified.”

Bob looked up at her, eyes wide, and made a faintchoking noise. “You can’t-”

“No, Bob,” she said. “It’s you who can’t. You knew this was bigger than you when you took it on. My research isnow government property. is is bigger than any of you,”Connie said. “Maybe bigger than the US, too, speakingplainly - but they’re better equipped to handle tech thatchanges the nature of space. ey’re giving me the staff of

mathematicians I need.”He started babbling. Off ers came out his mouth, staff and resources and facilities he should have given her yearsago. “I can give you funding priority - newer computers -”

“You can’t give me any of that. It’s not yours any lon-ger,” she said, gently. In the light of her voice, Bob lookedlike a spoiled child being denied a toy. “Go home. Begrateful you had your golden goose as long as you did. If

you’re lucky, you won’t remember what you’ve lost.”Silence and smoke hung in the room.“I believe I’ve said enough,” Connie said calmly, and

walked out into the fresh air. e might of a nation fol-lowed her.

e Gilman Velocity Multiplication Drive was completedthat year under the auspices of the Special Physics Agency, asubsidiary of the U.S. Bureau of Xenological Investigations.



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1

LA MAISON DIEU

I , , C G.He walks/has walked the libraries of my people, occupies/has occupied my space in our haven outside of time,

while in his name and place and body I carefully mimic/have mimicked the ways of his people. e time comes/will come/has come soon when these deceptions are not/will not be/have not been necessary.

Christopher’s time is still the time of secrecy, but also a time of change. Change I must witness, lest the knowl-edge be lost. He pays the price they all pay; it does not concern us.

It does not go well for him when he returns. His people regard him as mad, and when they no longer regardhim as mad, they regard him as dangerous. ey lock him away and ask him questions.

In my when, in my body, he reads and learns/has learned/will learn the answers to those questions, even as Ilearn answers to my own questions in his human body. ey do not like his answers. But they need them. And soby returning, with the knowledge he holds, he serves - as I serve - that-which-is-necessary.

us do all things. Some of us more intentionally than others.

Introduction



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THE GAME IS AFOOT

So, what exactly is the Eldritch Skies RPG ? It’s a role-playing game of somewhat cinematic Lovecraftian SF.Let’s start with the first half of that sentence first. A ro-leplaying game is basically shared storytelling. You gettogether with several friends and create a tale. In the caseof Eldritch Skies , you’ve got heroes defending the Earthand its off -world colonies from the monsters and foes ofthe Cthulhu Mythos, but that’s not all. Unlike any otherkind of game, your group’s story can take you, the char-acters, and the mythos universe anywhere you want it to.

e action takes place in your imaginations, and the storyis told through your interactions.

CHARACTERS

Each of you creates a character, an alternative personathat becomes your “in game” role. is is your Hero. Youchoose the character’s strengths and weaknesses, abilitiesand limitations, and—in particular—personality. Duringthe course of the game, you make this Hero’s decisions,utterances, and actions.

You could base your character on a well known char-acter from the Cthulhu Mythos. Maybe you’re playingRandolph Carter’s great granddaughter, or you mightbase your character on one you’ve seen in a movie or readin a book. ere are plenty of overly curious FBI agents,reformed criminals, and newly recruited intelligence op-eratives in TV, movies, and books to provide you with a

wealth of inspirations. Alternately, you can create a to-tally unique character.

You may never have encountered a character who was abrilliant and insatiably curious misfit that fights the forcesof the Cthulhu Mythos with amazing computer skillsand technosorcerous devices, but that doesn’t mean thatsuch a character won’t be wonderful to play. Whatever

you do, you’ve got an edge. You’re one of the good guys,the Heroes —you are fighting the good fight. Of course,some characters also have dark secrets or serious problems.Dealing with mythos dangers can take a toll on anyone.

THE DIRECTOR

All the players and Heroes are important, but one of youis the linchpin, the person who makes it all work. atkey player is called the Director. e Director sets thescene, plots the plot, and details the descriptions.

e Director casts and speaks for the other charac-ters—anyone that the Heroes meet in their adventures.

If these folks are neutral or even helpful to the Heroes,they are called Guest Stars. A Guest Star could be therun-away teen running right into the arms of an evil cult,an administrative assistant searching for a way to blow

the whistle on superiors who are making illegal deals with the mi-go for advanced weapons, the conspiracynut looking for proof and respect, or someone moremundane … or more twisted. ese folks come into theHero’s lives, do their part for the plot and leave. Unless,of course, they are recurring types. Some recurring GuestStars can even become Heroes—if both a player and theDirector like the idea.

If the Director-controlled characters oppose the He-roes, they are called Adversaries. ese include cultists,hyperspatial mutants, aliens, and other nasties—up toand including Cthulhu itself. Some Adversaries merely

wish to cause trouble for the Heroes, others want themdead, and some are looking to end the world.

All rules decisions are handed down by the Director(usually with some discussion from the other players).He or she fi gures out how and when to use the gamemechanics and decides the outcomes of certain rolls.

GAME SESSIONS

Game sessions in the Eldritch Skies RPG can take anywhere from a couple hours to an entire weekend (if youhave both the time and the stamina). ere is no formalstart or end—that’s up to the Director and players to de-cide. Also, in roleplaying, no one gets to brag about being

the winner. e flip side is that no one has to be the loser. e objective is to create a story, engage in some sponta-neous conversations, and have a good time with friends.

And no electronics of any kind are necessary – just you,some friends, some dice, and your imaginations.

at’s not to say that there isn’t any structure. egame is divided into Episodes, resolved in one or moremultiple-hour gaming sessions. ese are plotlines orlinked subplots that make up a single story. Episodes andtheir related story arcs may be strung together to forma Season, and several Seasons lead into the Series, the

whole story created by the interaction between the play-ers’ Heroes and the Director.

Or you could just play one session and have a rip-roaring race to locate and obtain a powerful artifact be-fore an evil cult can obtain it or save an interstellar colonyfrom being overrun with fl ying polyps. We suspect that,once you get started, you’ll want to play again.



1

GETTING STARTED So, what’s next? Well, the Director should read througha couple portions of this book (particularly Chapters One,

Two, ree, and Seven). en he or she gathers some friendsand everyone should get paper, pencils, and some dice.

Standard cubical dice are called six-sided dice. Mostgamers refer to them as Ds. Ds are useless for the El-dritch Skies RPG . What you need are Ds, or ten-sideddice. ese are usually stocked in hobby game stores

where copies of this game can be found. ey are alsofound in some bookstores or department stores.

Finally, you might want to gather some markers orpoker chips. ese can help you keep track of how manyDrama Points your character has. Drama Points are a

very important part of Eldritch Skies . We’ll look at Dra-

ma Points in CHAPTER

THREE

: R ULES

& GEAR

.

WHAT IS LOVECRAFTIAN SF?Now that we’ve got all the info about roleplaying gamesout of the way, something else you might be wondering:

what exactly is Lovecraftian SF? Eldritch Skies is a sciencefiction RPG based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and isset in the Cthulhu Mythos, which is a setting that he cre-ated, and which dozens of authors have been using for thelast + years. However, all interpretations of the CthulhuMythos are not the same. In the s & s, there werethe original Mythos horror stories like “e ing On eDoorstep” and a science fiction story like “e Shadow Outof Time” . However, genre boundaries were far less rigid

years ago, and so there were many stories like “e Dreamsin the Witch House” or “e Shadow Over Innsmouth” that

were equal parts science fiction and horror. At the time,there were no bookstore regulations placing an anthologycontaining one story in the horror section and the other inthe science fiction & fantasy section.

When most people today think of Lovecraft’s CthulhuMythos, they think solely of horror, in large part becauselater mythos authors like August Derleth & Ramsey

Campbell wrote their stories as horror and these laterhorror stories influenced the way that most readers seeLovecraft’s Mythos. Eldritch Skies is a game that specifi-cally looks at Lovecraft ’s Cthulhu Mythos as science fic-

tion. To do so, all of later stories, written after Lovecraft’sdeath are ignored. Instead, this is a game that focuses onthe works of H.P. Lovecraft. Like Lovecraft ’s own work,Eldritch Skies contains Mythos elements that H.P.L.borrowed from other writers of his time, such as RobertE. Howard’s serpent people and Robert W. Chambers’e King in Yellow. In short, this is the Cthulhu Mythosas Lovecraft saw it, but viewed as science fiction, ratherthan as horror or fantasy, and written from a modern per-spective.

So, what does the term Lovecraftian SF mean? emost obvious answer is to be found in Lovecraft’s mostclassic SF story – “ At the Mountains of Madness ”. In thisstory, the mysteries of the Cthulhu Mythos are explainedor at minimum are considered fully comprehensible.

e “ancient aeons” of the other mythos stories becomeknown geological epochs, the utterly inhuman aliens are(as one of the characters declares) “not evil things of theirkind. ey were the men of another age and another order ofbeing ”. e alien beings like the elder ones, the great race

THE UNISYSTEM

e game part of the Eldritch Skies RPG is handled bythe UNISYSTEM. e UNISYSTEM helps players and Di-rectors decide what options are available at any givenmoment in the game, and the success or failure of anycharacter’s actions. ese rules are presented in detailin CHAPTER T WO: CIVILIANS AND OPERATIVEs andCHAPTER THREE: R ULES & GEAR .

Although the UNISYSTEM is designed to handle anykind of roleplaying game—in any setting, with anytheme—each particular game has its own flavor. Forthe Eldritch Skies RPG , a somewhat cinematic tone isrecommended, but you can also do grim and gritty orgonzo pulp action – the choice is up to you. However,this book is largely written assuming that the feel willbe similar to that common in somewhat action-orient-

ed SF. Regardless of your exact approach, the point isto have fun and not sweat the details too much. We arenot even going to talk about trajectories of fire, or thescatter patterns of grenades.

e UNISYSTEM is also the heart of several other gamescovering magic and horror themes. You can also findout more about them at www.edenstudios.net .

CARDS

If you just can’t get your hands on some Ds, an easysubstitute is playing cards. Just grab a deck, separateout the four suits, hand one set of Ace through toeach player, and you are ready to go. When it ’s time to“roll”, simply shuffled your ten cards quickly, and drawone. Ace is one…the rest match up pretty clearly.



14

of Yith, the mi-go, and others like them are not bizarremonsters, they are biological alien entities with thoughtsand desires, and with civilizations that were fi lled withart, science, and technology.

Treating the Cthulhu Mythos as SF also means thateven magic is explicable. As Walter Gilman discoveredin “e Dreams in the Witch House ”, magical visions andalso the apportations to distant places and perhaps evendistant times or dimensions were shown to not be oc-cult mysteries, but the deliberate uses of advanced scienceto manipulate the structure of space-time. In short, thecreatures and magics of the Cthulhu Mythos are expli-cable natural phenomena and not unknowable mysteries.

Along with this point of view comes the more general viewpoint common to almost all science fiction; knowl-edge is always superior to ignorance and that new knowl-edge can then be applied to solve problems.

In the stories “ At the Mountains of Madness ” and “eShadow Out of Time” as well as in Eldritch Skies , the uni-

verse of the Cthulhu Mythos is a universe filled with bothterrors and wonders, but it is also a universe where intel-ligent, civilized beings can have thriving advanced civili-zations that last for aeons. Although even the greatest ofthese civilizations cannot destroy Cthulhu or any of theother Great Old Ones, some of civilizations can defeatand imprison even these terrible beings. is is not a uni-

verse where humanity or intelligent life is doomed, butit is also not one where intelligent beings automaticallytriumph over adversity. Of course, all this also means

that the universe of Eldritch Skies is a perfect universe forcharacters to have all manner of exciting SF adventures. Eldritch Skies is also a game about extrapolation. In

Lovecraft ’s stories, the FBI dynamited Devil’s Reef in and in , a team of scientists discovered the ruins of thecity of the elder ones in Antarctica. Eldritch Skies uses thefact that these and various other mythos mysteries havebeen known and studied as the basis for a timeline ex-tending into the early st century. is is a timeline where

various governments learned that alien beings visited andin fact still inhabit Earth. is is also a timeline wherethe various investigations into the various alien ruinshave yielded numerous advances in science and technol-

ogy. Discoveries about the Cthulhu Mythos have aff ected world history and the development of technology – to thepoint that humanity began traveling to the stars in the lates and psychic powers are in common use.

Eldritch Skies also makes one other radical departurefrom most later mythos fiction. Most authors and read-ers of the last years have seen the Cthulhu Mythos as

one where humanity is not just doomed, but in imminentdanger of extinction or horrific transformation. In manyof these stories and RPGs, Great Cthulhu may rise at anymoment and erase all civilization or even all of humanity.

Many people consider this sort of bleak nihilism as an es-sential characteristic of the Cthulhu Mythos. However,looking at Lovecraft’s own work shows that his own in-terpretation was diff erent. In “e Shadow Out of Time ”,

we have a description of the narrator’s memories of talk-ing with people and aliens from the past and the future,including an Australian physicist from the th century, aphilosopher from the th century, and a magician from theth century. While the brief fragments of description ofthe th century looks fairly bleak, at least the next ,

years of human history seem devoid of returning GreatOld Ones or the destruction of humanity. According toLovecraft, humanity is clearly not in immediate danger.

One of the essential truths of Lovecraft’s cosmology isthat entropy and the other cosmic forces (as personified asthe Other Gods and Great Old Ones) are far greater thanany civilization or species, including humanity. Althoughhumanity may be ultimately doomed to becoming ex-tinct and eventually forgotten, this fate may not occur fortens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years.Lovecraft’s cosmic horror is horror on a cosmic timescale,not the immediate horror of impending destruction.

However, the Cthulhu Mythos is also not an ulti-mately hopeful cosmos. ere is no benevolent deityacting as the champion of humanity and humanity has

no grand destiny to colonize or conquer the galaxy. In-stead, we are merely one of hundreds or perhaps thou-sands of intelligent species throughout the galaxy whoevolve, develop civilizations of various sorts, and then dieoff , leaving behind only weathered ruins and inscriptionsin lost languages to mark their passing. In this universe,non-human species have all manner of exotic body plansand physiologies and there is nothing remotely special orimpressive about the human form or the human mind.Ultimately, this is essentially the same view that moderngeology and astrophysics has been revealing about theuniverse around us for the past century or so. Humanityis simply another intelligent species of many. Humanity

is special and important to us because it is our species,but it is no more cosmically relevant than fruit flies, gi-raff es, or any of the many intelligent and non-intelligentalien species found throughout the galaxy.

While humanity is not particularly impressive, in El-dritch Skies, the universe as a whole is wondrous. EldritchSkies is set in a universe far richer, stranger, and consid-



1

erably more dangerous than our own. Swift and eveninstantaneous travel to other star systems is not only pos-sible, but occasionally happens by accident. Also, thereexist exotic hyperspatial dimensions, inhabited by strange

and often dangerous creatures, as well as exceptionallypowerful entities, such as the Other Gods and Great OldOnes, which have capabilities so far beyond our own.Humanity is like insects in comparison to the greatest ofthese beings. In Eldritch Skies , these beings are not actualdeities, but simply beings of extreme power. Neverthe-less, if someone is unfortunate enough to encounter oneof these entities, they are unlikely to care or even noticethis distinction.

As is true of all good science fiction, Eldritch Skies is mostof all about humanity. It’s a game where humanity facesgreat challenges, but, like several of Lovecraft’s own protag-onists, and most especially the renowned sorcerer RandolphCarter, humanity is learning the truth about the cosmos andmaking their place in it. Humanity is in the process of learn-ing how to use the various natural and preternatural laws ofthe universe they live in to their advantage.

So, what is Eldritch Skies ? It’s a game about human-ity on the threshold of the stars, where it is starting toexplore the wonders and terrors of the cosmos. It is agame where the characters defend humanity against vari-ous terrible threats, including both malevolent aliens andequally dangerous humans. It is also a game where thecharacters will help humanity take its place in the cosmosalongside the other important species, such as the mi-go

or the great race of Yith. In your hands, this game canbe the story of the triumph of humanity over adversityor it can be the story the doom of humanity, not becausethis doom is inevitable or unavoidable, but because thecosmos is dangerous and sometimes there are no secondchances for sufficiently serious mistakes.

CINEMATIC SF is is SF where impressive and determined heroes andheroines can accomplish impressive feats that are more athome in action movies than real life. Eldritch Skies is a gameof pulp, heroic, action-oriented SF. It uses the CINEMATIC

UNISYSTEM rules, which are designed for fast, cinematic,rules-light play.CHAPTER THREE: R ULES & GEAR containsthe rules for Drama Points, the most cinematic and pulp-oriented aspect of the rules. is game includes three op-tions for play, from gritty realism to high-action pulp, to amore intermediate option called cinematic play, which is thedefault. See p. for information on DRAMA POINTS.

If run in a gritty and realistic fashion, Eldritch Skies is agame that focuses on the dangers of the mythos cosmos.Heroes who face inhuman monsters or deadly cults caneasily be killed. Nothing but a mixture of luck and care-

ful planning stands between characters and utter disaster.Characters risk their lives in every encounter with a dan-gerous monster and anyone who goes on missions to fightmutants, hostile aliens, or hyperspatial beings stands anexcellent chance of giving their lives to safeguard human-ity. If you wish to run or play Eldritch Skies as SF horror,then this mode of play is likely to be a good choice. Runas gritty realism, Eldritch Skies will have a feel similar tosomewhat grim TV shows like the new Battlestar Galactica or the Alien films. In such films, characters regularly dieand few victories come without a heavy price.

Run as pulp, characters are very likely to not onlysucceed, but to triumph.In such a Series, the Heroes arelarger than life characters who can regularly face exceed-ingly dangerous foes and perilous situations and survive

with at worst minor wounds. e overall feel of a Seriesrun in this manner will be similar to many somewhatover-the-top action-oriented TV shows or movies. echaracters take risks and occasionally one of them may beseriously injured or even killed, but most of the time thecharacters will both survive and triumph. Series will havea feel similar to SF shows like Farscape , or films like therecent Star Wars films or e Chronicles of Riddick, wheretwo or three Heroes can repeatedly fight a dozen or morefoes and triumph every time.

Run in the recommended fashion as cinematic SF, Eldritch Skies is a game where heroes typically survive,but where that survival can be difficult and charactersmay sometimes fact the choice between assured failureand at best an exceedingly high chance of death. Runlike this, Eldritch Skies has a tone similar to some of themore realistic, but also cinematic SF action TV shows,like Babylon or Stargate SG- . In these stories, charactersare occasionally killed or injured and careful planning isessential. ere are foes that even the toughest hero mustflee from and fights where the odds are six to one againstthe characters are very dangerous and to be avoided ifat all possible. For more information on diff erent Series

styles, see PULP VS. GRITTY SERIES, P. 2 4 5.



16



1

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE WORLD OF ELDRITCH SKIES

Eldritch Skies is set in the year , in an alternate world where H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is true. In thefirst half of the th century, several governments learnedsome of the truths of the Cthulhu Mythos, and in thes, most of these truths became public. For the past years, humanity has been living with the knowledgethat the universe contains a multitude of alien species,all of which are exceptionally diff erent from Earthly life,and that several of these species have visited Earth. Itis also a setting where humanity now uses exotic alien-derived technologies to travel to other planets and eventhe stars and is now in the process of colonizing other

worlds. Psychic powers, and more recently hyperspatialsorcery are also publically known and some people maketheir living as professional psychics.

BEYOND THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE

Eldritch Skies is also a game where both several non-physical realms and various paranormal abilities exist.

e existence of psychic powers, sorcery, hyperspace andthe dream realm are important features of this setting.Humanity is now in the process of learning to make useof all of these wonders.

Hyperspace: e known universes is in continual

proximity to a multitude of far stranger universes thatare (in most cases) completely separate from it. eseother universes are collectively referred to as hyperspace.In all of them, the known physical laws are radically dif-ferent from those in the normal physical universe. Onecommon theory is that the hyperspace universes make up

what is known as dark matter.Except in a few exceptional circumstances, these uni-

verses and their inhabitants are completely invisible andintangible to the inhabitants of the normal universe andthe only way the hyperspatial universes can interact withthe physical universe is via gravitation. However, it is pos-sible to travel from the physical universe to the various hy-

perspatial universes. Also, in at least some of the universesof hyperspace, inertia is a tiny fraction of that in the nor-mal universe and a speed of light is many millions or evenbillions of times greater. As a result, it is possible to createshortcuts through hyperspace that can allow intelligentbeings, including humanity to move millions of miles oreven dozens of parsecs by stepping a few feet. Knowledge

of hyperspace has given humanity access to the stars.Unfortunately, the various universe of hyperspace are

far from empty. No one knows what any of these univers-es looks like, whether there are planets, stars, but many

of them are clearly inhabited. e inhabitants of theseuniverses are completely beyond human comprehension.

At least some of these hyperspatial beings are intelligent,but humanity cannot communicate with any of these be-ings in more than the most rudimentary fashion, nor canhumans destroy or even significantly harm any but the

weakest hyperspatial entities. Instead, humans can onlyobserve them, and this must be done at a safe distance.

When the spatial and gravitational alignments be-tween the physical universe and one of the hyperspa-tial universes are correct, hyperspatial entities can enterthe normal universe and they all seem to be attracted toplanets, especially inhabited planets. Regular visitationby hyperspatial entities can have a catastrophic aff ect onan ecosystem. e Permian-Triassic extinction event, million years ago, caused percent of all marine speciesand percent of terrestrial vertebrate species to becomeextinct. is extinction was caused by a being commonlyknown as Great Cthulhu and its star spawn. Much ofthis destruction was caused by the fact that these beingsboth fed on the psychic emanations of various life formsand other life was destroyed simply because it spent toolong in the vicinity of these hyperspatial entities

Not all of the inhabitants of hyperspace are so great orterrible. Just as insects and bacteria are far more numer-

ous than humans or elephants, most creatures in hyper-space are far smaller and less deadly than Great Cthulhu.Various technologies have allowed humanity to peer intohyperspace. Although utterly alien, many of these crea-tures are completely harmless. However, some of theseseemingly mindless creatures will attack humans andsuch attacks are usually deadly. As a result, the nations ofthe world have created a worldwide network dimension-al sensors to keep track of any deliberate or accidentalopenings between the two universes.

Hyperspatial Exposure: One of the problems in in-teracting with hyperspace and hyperspatial entities is thatexposure to hyperspace is damaging to human minds and

eventually it also warps human bodies. Unlike speciesthat are more intelligent or more advanced, humanity issomewhat protected from and blind to the presence ofhyperspatial entities or their attempts to communicate

with humanity. However, sufficient exposure to hyper-spatial energies renders humans more sensitive to thesebeings and to all other hyperspatial phenomena. Unfor-



18

tunately, perceiving and communicating with these be-ings is always dangerous and is never a good idea.

Exposure to high levels of hyperspatial energies and hy-perspatial beings twist human minds so that they become

utterly inhuman as those of actual alien species. Exposureto the highest levels of hyperspatial energies eventuallytransforms humans into twisted and insane caricatures ofhumanity. e ab-human like the deep ones and ghouls

were originally created when groups of humans were ex-posed to hyperspatial energies many thousands of yearsago. Today, moderate hyperspatial exposure causes hu-mans to produce inhuman off spring, and intense exposurecauses humans to become unique and terrible monsters.

Hyperspatial Sorcery: Humanity and various otherintelligent beings have learned to manipulate hyperspace.

is process can be accomplished either mentally, by meansof focusing the complexities of an intelligent brain on cer-tain complex patterns, and using these thought processesto alter the local fabric of hyperspace, or by building ad-

vanced technological devices to accomplish the same goal.Mental manipulation of hyperspace appears to untrainedindividuals as if it was some form of magic, and it is usu-ally referred to as sorcery, but it is a precise, if exotic sciencethat relies upon the fact that precisely patterned thoughtsand advanced electronic devices can exert an eff ect uponspace, time, and the various hyperspatial universes.

Psychic Powers: Although some mystics and would-be magicians have used psychic powers for many centu-ries, the details of how these abilities function only be-

came clear in the th

century. In , psychic researchis a well-established and respectable discipline, psychicsplay an important role in business, and psychic devicesare frequently used in courts of law. Researchers learnedthat psychic powers are common to all intelligent species,and in fact almost every species other than humans isinnately psychic. e same blindness that prevents mostof humanity from perceiving hyperspatial entities alsoseems to render most of humanity non-psychic and re-sistant to psychic contact. By the same token, developingpsychic powers automatically produces a small degree ofexposure to hyperspatial energies. e Dream Realm: Humanity’s exploration of psychic

powers soon led to the discovery of the psychic dimen-sion known as the Dream Realm. Many people regularly,but unknowingly visit this realm when they sleep, but theyremember only brief and exceedingly vague fragments of

what occurs there. However, psychics and those with somedegree of exposure to hyperspatial energies become awareof their visits to this realm and can choose to deliberately

and knowingly visit it when they sleep. is realm consistsof a series of separate dream worlds that seem to be insome way related to psychologist Carl Jung’s concept ofthe “collective unconscious”. However, the Dream Realm

also includes the dreams of various alien species, includingthe dreams of ghouls and deep ones.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS CHAPTER ONE: THE ELDRITCH P AST & THE M YTHOS PRESENT describes the setting of Eldritch Skies, includ-ing the true history of the Earth and the various speciesthat have inhabited it, as well as more recent history, upto the year , when the game is set. is chapter con-tains a timeline of events and an overview of history from to . In addition, it contains information about

the various nations of the world and information abouthow humanity has reacted to the various revelationsabout mythos phenomena. e chapter also introducesthe OPS – the UN Office of Paranormal Security. isis the international, and now interstellar agency charged

with protecting humanity from mythos phenomena anddangerous advanced technologies.

CHAPTER T WO: CREATING CIVILIANS AND OPERA - TIVES provides rules for creating characters. is chaptercontains information for creating both intrepid civil-ians who get caught up in the Cthulhu Mythos as wellas professional OPS operatives charged with protectinghumanity from mythos threats and dangers. is chapter

contains details of attributes, skills, and qualities, includ-ing exotic qualities like psychic powers, hyperspatial sor-cery, and various biological augmentations, including afew created by the alien mi-go. is chapter also includessix ready-to-play characters that just need a name andmaybe a tweak or two.

CHAPTER THREE: R ULES & GEAR is the rules chapter.It provides Players and Directors all the information theyneed to play or run Cinematic Unisystem and EldritchSkies . is is where you learn how to play the game as

well as rules for advancement. Rules for Drama Pointsare explained as is combat, including information aboutconventional weapons and armor. is chapter also con-

tains a list of the various gear that characters may need,including exotic weapons and armor, as well as surveil-lance equipment, space suits, and vehicles.

CHAPTER F OUR : A RCANE SECRETS provides informationabout the wonders and dangerous of hyperspatial sorcery, as

well as details of sorcery use by various sorts of inhuman be-ings. is chapter includes a list of spells as well as complete



1

rules for using and defending against hyperspatial sorcery.CHAPTER F IVE: THE R EALMS OF THE M YTHOS con-

tains descriptions of many of the worlds that humanityhas visited or colonized. is chapter includes descrip-

tions of planets both inside and outside the solar systemthat civilians and agents can visit, including both worlds

with thriving human colonies and worlds that are hometo dangerous alien intelligences. In addition, this chaptercontains information about the psychic Dream Realm.

CHAPTER SIX : ELDRITCH THREATS & W ONDERS containsinformation about and statistics for the various non-humansand ab-humans of the mythos universe, including everythingfrom the ab-human deep ones to Great Cthulhu itself.

CHAPTER SEVEN: S TORYTELLING A DVICE is for Di-rectors. It provides hints and suggestions for running a

variety of Eldritch Skies Series, including discussions ofhow to run both this game in either a pulp, cinematicor a grim and gritty fashion as well as more informationabout the OPS. In addition, this chapter contains a seriesof brief adventure seeds.

A PPENDIX contains useful charts and tables, an index,and brief conversion notes for using Eldritch Skies withthe CLASSIC UNISYSTEM rules.



20

During the winter of - officials of the Federal government made a strange and secret investigationof certain conditions in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth. e public first learned ofit in February, when a vast series of raids and arrests occurred, followed by the deliberate burning anddynamiting - under suitable precautions - of an enormous number of crumbling, worm-eaten, andsupposedly empty houses along the abandoned waterfront. Uninquiring souls let this occurrence pass

as one of the major clashes in a spasmodic war on liquor.Keener news-followers, however, wondered at the prodigious number of arrests, the abnormally large force of

men used in making them, and the secrecy surrounding the disposal of the prisoners. No trials, or even definitecharges were reported; nor were any of the captives seen thereafter in the regular gaols of the nation. ere were

vague statements about disease and concentration camps, and later about dispersal in various naval and militaryprisons, but nothing positive ever developed. Innsmouth itself was left almost depopulated, and it is even now onlybeginning to show signs of a sluggishly revived existence.

Complaints from many liberal organizations were met with long confidential discussions, and representatives weretaken on trips to certain camps and prisons. As a result, these societies became surprisingly passive and reticent. News-paper men were harder to manage, but seemed largely to cooperate with the government in the end. Only one paper - atabloid always discounted because of its wild policy - mentioned the deep diving submarine that discharged torpedoesdownward in the marine abyss just beyond Devil Reef. at item, gathered by chance in a haunt of sailors, seemedindeed rather far-fetched; since the low, black reef lay a full mile and a half out from Innsmouth Harbour.

H.P. Lovecraft – e Shadow Over Innsmouth



2

Chapter 1The Eldritch Past & The Mythos Present

SACRIFICE

N before he saw the readings. e wash of hyperspatialenergy was like being plunged into slick soapy liquid, a strange cold brightness that cross-sectioned the ship at odd angles. He didn’t know if the other crewmembers recognized it,but their faces, cast askew in the shaky reframing of the world, contorted with unease.

And then it was all normal again - three solid dimensions and a blaring alarm. In hispanel, bars flickered into the danger zone. A red light in the corner read -. Nick cursed explosively.

“What was -” Bill had gone white-faced and stared at something that wasn’t there.Something that probably had been, minutes previous. Nick ignored him and started run-ning diagnostics, fingers fl ying across the keys to type in commands.

e shields faltered again. He didn’t pause, though the keyboard doubled, tripled andshattered in his vision. Here, out past Pluto, he could study the signatures of ancient stars

without so much of the inner solar system’s light interference - but the ship’s thin veil ofenergy was the only thing that protected them. ere were things out there that could pullthe life out of their minds like water exiting through a pulled tub stopper.

Shields up. Shields down. He heard a screaming from behind him, a screaming thatended in a rattle. Hands on the keyboard, eyes on the screen. e system had found thesource of the overload now; he had only to rectify it. He wasn’t quite aware of his body anylonger, only his hands and his mind. He had no attention to spare for the screaming, orthe sense of unreality: only for bringing the shield systems back to normal.

e cold brightness was gone, but the world was still split and shattered. Nick kept try-ing to type, but there were no hands. Someone was making sounds, someone whose face

was like a kaleidoscope, and it was only after he managed to parse the words oh my god, you’ve saved us, oh my god, Nick, is that you, the shields are back that he understood thathe was staring at them through compound eyes.



22

THE HISTORY OF EARTH’S PRIMORDIAL AEONS

Earth was formed like many similar planets throughoutthe galaxy. Life evolves on less than one in fifty potential-ly habitable worlds; Earth was one of those lucky few, andlife arose over the course of under a billion years. Overtime, this life grew slightly more complex and the evolu-tion of cyan bacteria a billion years later set the Earth onthe path of developing an oxygen atmosphere and com-plex life forms. Eventually, this young life-bearing world

was noticed by an already ancient species known later tohumans as the elder ones (see p. ).

THE TIME OF THE ELDER ONES

e elder ones always took an interest in worlds withtheir own native life. A group of several hundred thou-sand elder ones came to Earth million years ago, inthe late Precambrian. eir arrival coincided with the era

when free oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere began climbingto modern levels after a long period of stagnation. Ge-netic engineering by the elder ones played an importantrole in the transformation of Earth’s atmosphere, andthey are also responsible for the adaptation of primitiveplants to living on land, which is one of the steps that ledto Earth’s atmosphere taking on its modern form.

For the next several hundred million years, the elderones were content to build their cities and to watch and

in some cases direct the course of Earthly evolution. Inmost cases, they limited their eff orts to creating a fewnew species and then observing their interactions withthe existing biosphere. e most well known modern ex-amples, including the bizarre hallucigenia, are preservedin the famous Burgess Shale fossils. Paleontologists and

xenobiologists believe that competition with these cre-ated life forms sped up the evolution of life on Earth.

Although claims that the elder ones were responsible forlife on Earth are false, they were a significant force inEarthly evolution until the end of the age of dinosaurs.

THE ARRIVAL OF CTHULHU

Cthulhu (see p. ) and its thousands of so-called starspawn first appeared on Earth Million Years ago. esebeings dwell in hyperspace, but visit life-bearing planetsin our universe to feed upon them. e Cthulhoids’ ap-pearance was the cause of the Middle Permian Extinction,

which killed off much of the life on Earth. Cthulhu andthe rest of its species fed on the primitive minds of the

various types of animals that then lived on the land andin the sea, absorbing their psychic energies. is processmaddened many of Earth’s species, causing them to losetheir natural behavior, and eventually killed them.

ese activities conflicted with the elder ones’ biologi-cal projects, and the elder ones also resented alien invaderson a planet they had claimed. e elder ones fought back.

e Cthulhoids initially killed thousands of elder ones asthey turned their psychic feeding on the creatures that op-posed them, but the survivors used psychic technology toshield themselves from Cthulhu’s feeding and then beganto fight back. e technology of the elder ones was at itsheight at this time, but they were almost defeated in theirbattle to fend off Cthulhu and its race. After a war lasting, years, a tense truce was forged, where the Cthul-hoids controlled the supercontinent of Pangaea and theelder ones occupied the seas and the various islands.

is state of aff airs endured for the next million years.During this time, the Cthulhoids were joined by an alliedlesser species that was partially hyperspatial in nature. isspecies, known as the fl ying polyps (see p. ) was mortaland far less powerful. e treaty between the Cthulhoidsand the elder ones endured until psychics of the great race of

Yith (see p. ) made contact with a group of Earth’s elderones, seeking help to free the bodies they wished to inhabitfrom the control of the fl ying polyps.

THE FLYING POLYPS AND THE GREAT RACE OF YITH

e fl ying polyps used controlled hyperspatial mutationto engineer an abandoned mobile fungus created by theelder ones into a semi-intelligent food and servant ani-mal. However, these creatures also proved to be ideal forthe great race of Yith to transfer their minds. e elderones aided the great race in their eff orts to inhabit theseanimals and free them from the fl ying polyps. Within years, the fl ying polyps were imprisoned in deep

warded caverns. In return, the Yithians worked to helpthe elder ones prepare to attack the Cthulhoids. esetwo species worked together to construct a device thathas become known as e Elder Weapon.

THE ELDER WEAPON

e Cthulhoids discovered the elder ones’ plans beforetheir weapon was complete and the result was a terrible

war. Visible in the geological record as the Permian-Tri-assic extinction, this war raged for a quarter of a million

years, causing the single worst mass extinction in Earth’s



1

2

history. e elder ones and the great race of Yith workedto complete their weapon, while fending off deadly at-tacks by the Cthulhoids. To fuel their potent hyperspatialpowers, the Cthulhoids began devouring the minds of all

unprotected life. Between the madness and death causedby these feedings, and the devastation produced by thepotent weapons used by both sides, almost of all lifeon Earth was destroyed during this war. e Cthulhoidspoisoned the seas, and the weapons of the Yithians andelder ones blasted the land. During the final battle, theelder ones were at last able to use the Elder Weapon. eCthulhoids were imprisoned in the furthest reaches ofhyperspace (see e Elder Weapon, p. ) and the battle

was finally over. At this point, the Earth belonged to theelder ones and the great race of Yith.

e next challenge to the elder ones was the arrivalof the mi-go (see p. ). ese beings were unable todwell at any but the highest altitudes, but they coveted

various minerals and biological materials abundant onEarth. As a result, the next several hundred million years

was marked by a mixture of trade, raiding, and outright warfare between the mi-go and both the great race of Yith and the elder ones. On several occasions, alliancesshifted and the mi-go managed to temporarily turn theelder ones and the Yithians against one another, allowingthe mi-go to mine and raid the Earth with impunity. eelder ones were exceptionally protective of Earth and itslife forms and at times the more extreme factions of theelder ones promoted the idea of not allowing any other

alien intelligences on Earth. is xenophobia drastically increased million years ago, after the mi-go aimed a comet at one of thelargest non-Antarctic elder one cities, killing more thanone million of these exceptionally durable beings and se-riously aff ecting the course of life on Earth. By this point,the elder ones on Earth had lost the ability to travelthrough space and were forced to make a treaty grantingthe mi-go access to Earth. Skirmishes between the mi-goand the great race of Yith continued.

e next chapter of Earth history began million years ago, when the fi rst native sentient life on Earthevolved. is species is now called the serpent people.

For the next million years, they shared the land withthe great race of Yith, while the increasingly xenophobicelder ones retreated to Antarctica and the oceans aroundit. e wars between the serpent people and the greatrace of Yith never reached the scale of those between the

various star-faring species. ese battles ended mil-lion years ago, when the Yithians all sent their minds

million years into the future, to inhabit intelligent beetlesthat are to evolve more than million years after hu-manity vanishes from Earth.

e huge meteor that ended the age of dinosaurs

seems to have been a natural event, and the Yithians wereable to foresee it with their facility at psychic time travel.

is meteor further devastated the elder ones and causedthe survivors of the serpent people to retreat into cavernsdeep underground. In the aftermath of this catastrophe,the surviving elder ones dwindled in numbers and lostmuch of their advanced technology. Now confined sole-ly to their Antarctic city, they had to increasingly relyupon biological machines called shoggoths to keep theircivilization running. Eventually, these shoggoths gainedlimited intelligence and a malevolent free will. Approxi-mately million years after the end of the Cretaceous,the shoggoths rose up and killed the elder ones.

As the only surviving intelligent beings on Earth’s sur-face, some groups of serpent people attempted to recon-quer the surface world at various times, but none of theseattempts lasted more than a few tens of thousands of years.

e most recent attempt began , years ago, when agroup of serpent people spread across Europe and Africaand enslaved the early humans living there. ey built alarge civilization where nine million humans served theevery need of less than a quarter million serpent people.

Although these serpent people were skilled in the psychicarts and various inhuman sciences, eventually human reb-els who learned to make use of these magics and technolo-

gies eventually overthrew their ophidian masters. e next , years were the urian Age, human-ity’s first civilization, a Bronze Age civilization that alsoused sorcery, psychic powers, and surviving artifacts ofthe serpent people. e last remnants of urian Age civ-ilization were destroyed by the most recent ice age. Afterthat ice age ended, the few fragments of this civilizationthat remained in Africa were buried by relentless advanceof the Sahara desert. Other than continued high altitudemining and specimen gathering expeditions by the mi-go, by , years ago, the Earth belonged to human-ity and the obvious traces of alien visitation could onlybe found in the most remote and hostile portions of the

globe. At the dawn of recorded human history, therefore,the vast majority of humanity believed that they were theoriginal and only intelligent inhabitants of the Earth.

RECENT MYTHOS HISTORY

Human knowledge of magic, psychic powers, aliens,and hyperspatial entities goes back many thousands of



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years and can be found in all manner of ancient texts andesoteric tomes. However, both deliberate and acciden-tal usages of hyperspatial energies were rare and beforethe modern era were largely either accidental or accom-

plished by semi-sane would-be wizards. In addition, theexotic and non-causal laws of hyperspace fit poorly withthe regular and constant laws of nature first conceived ofby several ancient civilizations, built upon by medievalMuslim scientists, and brought to full fruition during theEuropean Scientific Revolution. Reports of hyperspatial“magics”, the Great Old Ones, the Outer Gods, and theirinhuman allies and servants were dismissed by scientistsas being noting more than myths or stories, like thoseabout Atlantis, faeries, or ghosts.

Psychic powers also remained unknown to modernscience because most scientists were disinclined to believein them. eir eff ects are often fairly subtle, especially onpeople who have not been exposed to any hyperspatialenergies, and the only people who were at all skilled intheir use tended to be eccentrics and the residents of re-mote lands that had kept knowledge of these techniquesalive for centuries. In the th and th centuries, travel-ers and ethnographers recorded accounts from all overthe world of hunters sending telepathic messages back totheir villages, shamans having precognitive visions, andmystics and witches performing various incredible feats.However, these accounts, just like similar accounts bysimilar mystics and eccentrics in Western nations, weredismissed as hoaxes, delusions, or impossible fantasies.

Everything changed in the th

century. For the firsttime, humanity was able to explore the entirety of theplanet and to sense and analyze previously unknown formsof energy. ese explorations yielded unexpected resultsand humanity began to learn something of the true na-ture of the universe. e US government gained first-handknowledge of the aff ects of hyperspatial radiations in ,

when the FBI was called into Innsmouth Massachusetts, where they quarantined much of the town’s populationand bombed Devil’s Reef in an eff ort to destroy the largecolony of hyperspatially mutated aquatic humans livingthere. Almost a quarter of the population of Innsmouth

was then removed to special facilities, where their unusual

physiology was carefully studied.By the mid-s, reports of the Miskatonic Antarc-

tic Expedition and the discovery of previously unknownand incredibly ancient ruins in Australia prompted an in-tensive investigation by the US and British governmentsinto these and similar archeological anomalies. e dis-coveries of ancient alien ruins and the recovery of a few

fragments of alien technology resulted in the formationof the formation of the Bureau of Xenological Investiga-tions (BXI) in the United States and the Secret ResearchService (SRS) in Britain.

e German Antarctic Expedition claimed anarea known as Neuschwabenland and thoroughly ran-sacked a ruin which had not been excavated by the USand British expeditions; what they would do with it wasa deep fear for the Allies during World War II. Nazi sci-entists and sorcerers used some of the relics they foundthere to build the Überverwüstung , a horrific hyperspa-tial weapon that was a predecessor to later hyperspatialdisruptors. e weapon required a trained sorcerer tooperate it and always killed its operator. Nazi Germanyhad no qualms about spending human lives, but they hadfew enough sorcerers that this cost thankfully kept the

weapon from its full potential.By , the BXI and the SRS were secretly traveling

the globe searching for sites and relics left by inhumanbeings. In addition to its ostensible research purposes,the International Geophysical Year declared in -

was part of a major eff ort by both nations to local andstudy all accessible paleo-extraterrestrial sites. Duringthis time, there was also limited cooperation with simi-lar secret investigations by the Soviet Union and discus-sions of these issues by the UN Security Council. In ,these discussions lead to the formation of a secret UNOffice of Paranormal Security (OPS), which answereddirectly to the UN Security Council.

Various governments were also coming to know thataliens still visited Earth. In July of , a mi-go oretransport carrying uranium secretly mined in the NewMexico hills crashed in Roswell New Mexico, killingthe single mi-go on board. e US government coveredup the crash as they began to study the mi-go and theirtechnology. Studying the remains of the ship recoveredfrom this crash was the beginning of a long-term eff ortto analyze and reconstruct this technology, as part of aneff ort to protect Earth from such intrusions. In addition,the US government began making plans of ways to makecontact with the mi-go.



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PREHISTORIC MYTHOS TIME LINE

Million Years BP: e elder ones arrive on Earth. ey land in the Antarctic Ocean and build their first city there.

Million Years BP: Elder one cities spread across the oceans of Earth, and the elder ones create their semi-sentient shoggoth servants.

Million Years BP: A cataclysm raises numerous new land masses, such as Ponape and R’lyeh. e disaster alsodestroys several marine elder one cities. Cthulhu and his kin arrive from the depths of hyperspace, and settleon the newly risen landmasses. e elder ones war with Cthulhu, but they eventually make peace. Cthulhucontrols the supercontinent of Pangaea, and the elder ones retain control of the rest of the planet.

Million Years BP: e Flying Polyps arrive on Earth, and build their basalt towers on the land. ey also createservants, whose bodies the Yithians later inhabit.

Million Years BP: e great race of Yith, fleeing catastrophe on their home world, transmit their minds intoa race of cone-shaped creatures on Earth. With the help of the elder ones, the great race freed their bodiesfrom the thrall of the fl ying polyps and imprisoned the fl ying polyps in deep caverns.

Million Years BP: An alliance of elder ones and Yithians use the Elder Weapon on Cthulhu and its star spawn. is weapon caused R’lyeh to sink beneath the waves. It also imprisoned Cthulhu and its star spawn in a well warded region of hyperspace, only accessible through this sunken city.

Million Years BP: e serpent people evolve from dinosaurs and become the newest intelligent inhabitants of Earth.

Million Years BP: A comet impacts Earth, ending the Cretaceous, and destroying the bodies of the great race of Yith and causing them to send their minds forward million years. is commentary impact also devas-tated the civilization of the serpent people.

Million Years BP: Intelligent and murderous shoggoths rise up and destroy the last citadel of the elder ones.

, BP: e serpent people create a large empire where the rule over primitive humanity. A small group of hu-mans flee domination by the serpent people and hide in deep and stygian caverns. Over the next few centu-ries, these humans mutate into the first ghouls.

, BP: Humanity overthrows the yoke of their serpent people rulers, who retreat underground. e urian Age – the first human civilization begins.

, BP: During the end of the urian age, several thousand humans from an ancient city in Africa colonizeGalatea I. Encroaching glaciers and the dawn of another ice age end the urian Age and reduce humanity toNeolithic savagery. Glaciers, climate change, and more than , years hide almost all traces of the urian

Age from later civilizations.

, BP: Early humans settle a now-vanished pacific island near the location of the sunken city of R’lyeh. A brieffluctuation in the elder one’s hyperspatial ward allows Great Cthulhu to have slightly more mental contact

with Earth than normal, causing a small portion of R’lyeh to rise above the waves, and drawing several dozen

of these primitive humans to this temporary island. Mental contact with, and hyperspatial emanations from,Great Cthulhu causes these humans to mutate into the first deep



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MODERN TIME LINE

: e FBI discovers the deep one and deep one hybrids of Innsmouth Massachusetts.

: e Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition discovers the elder one city.

: A small mi-go ore transport crashes in Roswell New Mexico. e wreckage is recovered by the US military.

: e US and UK governments release limited amounts of information, including a few photos of the elder onecity in the Antarctic and the Yithian city in the Australian desert. Both governments deny the existence ofany more recent contact with aliens.

: Deep ones from the Atlantic city of Y’ha-nthlei make contact with the UN Security Council. is meetingleads to the secret treaty between the UN Security Council and the deep ones.

: e UN Security Council accidentally discovers a Yithian spy and makes contact with the great race of Yith.

: e first US Mars expedition visits the red planet using a hyperspatial gateway.

: e third US Mars expedition vanishes and is presumed dead when their attempt to return to Earth fails. eUS cancels future attempts to use hyperspatial gateways for space travel.

: e UN Security Council forms the UN Office of Paranormal Security (OPS) to deal with mythos derivedthreats and problems.

: US Astronauts achieve the first public moon landing, in an advanced rocket propelled by monatomic hydrogen.

: e existence of psychic powers is publicly confirmed, but their potential is downplayed.

: US and Soviet astronauts on the moon work together to return to Earth using a sorcerously created hyperspatialgateway and describe having discovered this gateway amongst alien ruins.

: e first permanent Lunar base is established at the site of the Yithian ruins on the moon.

: Soviet cosmonauts secretly visit Mars using a mechanically created hyperspatial gateway.

: US astronauts return to Mars in a hyperspatial spacecraft.

: A joint US-OPS mission establishes a top-secret long-term base on Mars to study alien ruins there.

: First contact with the intelligences of Europa leaves of the members of the first Europa expedition dead. Followingpsychic contact made with the mysterious Europans, the OPS places Europa off limits for all human-made vessels.

: e USSR collapses due to political and economic troubles.

: e Great Revelation: After the fall of the USSR, information about the existence of psychic technologies,recent alien contact, hyperspatial technologies, and advanced space travel all become public, rocking publicconfidence in many governments.

: e Gilman-Hawking hyperspatial drive, also known as the “dragonfl y drive”, gives humanity the freedom of the stars.

: e Daedalus, the first crewed starship, visits Alpha Centauri and returns safely.

: e first extrasolar colony is founded on Eridanos. Also, the introduction of the first mobile link revolutionizespersonal electronics.

: Moonbeast raiders attack a mining station on Epsilon Eridani II and kill and capture its inhabitants.

: Moonbeast raiders attack the colony on Eden and are driven off

: e urian colony of Galatea I is discovered by the OPS.

: e UN declares a state of war between humanity and the moonbeasts. Given the infrequency of moonbeastattacks and the fact that humanity has not found any moonbeast colonies, this declaration is largely symbolic.

: Brazilian space explorers discover the exotic planet Prodígio, inhabited by a species that seems on the verge oftranscendence.



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After World War II, the discovery of the Antarcticruins could no longer be suppressed, and a joint commis-sion organized by US, UK and Australian governmentspublicly admitted the existence of alien ruins in the Ant-

arctic and in the central Australian desert. ey also gavethe public access to a limited number of photographs andreports of the expeditions. All of these reports stressedthat these aliens departed from Earth or became extincttens of millions of year ago, near the end of the dinosaurs’age. All published reports kept the existence of the shog-goths and all other evidence of more recent alien visita-tion carefully secret.

Of course, aliens were not the only wonder discov-ered at this time. One of the major technological break-throughs of the th century occurred in , whenelectronics researchers working for the US governmentdiscovered the notes of a psychiatrist who had devel-oped a crude radio-telepathy transceiver in . Utiliz-ing the newly developed transistor technology, engineers

who were part of a secret government program createda variety of psychic technologies. Meanwhile, research-ers in the Soviet Union were equally busy working ontechniques to train humans with the potential for psychicpowers in how to better use these powers. Much of theCold War between the US & USSR and their allies con-sisted of covert struggles between psychics and users ofpsychic technologies to uncover secret information andfoil the eff orts of each other’s agents.

In , the passage of the Freedom of Information

Act in the US combined with the growing countercul-ture interest in psychic powers, the occult, and extra-terrestrials began the gradual process of revealing someof this knowledge to the public. During this same era,

Joseph Rhine founded the Foundation for Research onthe Nature of Man, at Duke University, where he beganto openly explore psychic phenomena using some of therecently declassified information about psychic phenom-ena. In , Rhine’s foundation announced conclusiveproof of psychic phenomena, which caused renewed pub-lic interest in the paranormal across the world. However,the various psychic devices and more in-depth knowl-edge of psychic powers remained top-secret.

In the late s and early s, private researchersin both the US and Western Europe gradually learned tostudy, use, and train psychic powers in those few people

with natural gifts. ese groups then began learning howto awaken psychic power in people who had latent psychicpotential. From the late s to the mid s, belief inboth recent extraterrestrial contact with Earth and psychic

phenomena remained high and many people were convinced that the various governments of the world knew farmore than they were admitting about both. However, theofficial line from all major world powers remained that all

proven alien contact with Earth occurred many millionsof years ago and that psychic powers were a mere curiosity

with little potential for practical use. e collapse of the Soviet Union in ushered in an

era of unprecedented openness about psychic phenom-ena and alien life. As secrets known only to researchersand a few high Soviet officials became public, purposelyor inadvertently, the other member nations of the UNSecurity Council were forced to acknowledge that psy-chic powers and technologies had played a major role inthe Cold War, and that the world had possessed evidenceof recent alien contact for many decades. At this time,early psychic devices were declassified, as were more ofthe images taken at the Antarctic ruins of the elder onecity as well as more images from a variety of other an-cient sites of alien visitation and of the Roswell crash. Inaddition, the general public also learned that hyperspatialtechnologies derived from alien artifacts played a majorpart in humanity’s exploration of space.

THE GREAT REVELATION

When the world populace learned that aliens continuedto visit Earth and that governments had experimented

with hyperspatial technologies to warp space and travelto all parts of the solar system, the impact was immense.

e most religiously and socially intolerant sects of severalfaiths, including both Christianity and Islam, denouncedall aliens as incarnate demons and claimed that variousgovernments, including that of the US had been mak-ing demonic pacts. Meanwhile, other less extreme voicesdenounced the governments involved in this cover-up asbeing completely irresponsible and profoundly authoritar-ian. Public confidence in government reached new lows inacross the US and Western Europe, and in , electionsin the US and several other first world nations showedclear evidence of this dissatisfaction and distrust. Incum-bents with knowledge of this information were almostuniversally voted out and replaced with candidates who

favored policies of openness and public disclosure. While much public opinion was furious at govern-

ments keeping knowledge of aliens, exotic technologies,and a secret space program from them, people also fearedthese new revelations about aliens. Once many of thepoliticians and other officials who had known about thecover-up had been voted out of office, confidence in gov-



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ernments returned faster than expected simply becausemost of the populace needed to believe that their gov-ernments could protect them from alien threats. In thistroubled time, the revelation of the existence and mission

of the OPS and of some of its previous eff orts at safe-guarding humanity helped reassure many people.

In what was later recognized as an extremely clever ploythat worked exceptionally well, the UN Security Councilinitially provided journalists with a high degree of accessto the OPS. OPS representatives also made it clear thatthe OPS’ former policy of total secrecy was due to ordersfrom the governments of the nations on the UN SecurityCouncil and did not originate in the OPS. By , whiletrust in various governments was still recovering, the OPS

was already publically seen as a vitally important organiza-tion charged with safeguarding humanity.

SOCIETY CHANGES:1990 AND BEYOND

Before the late s, psychic powers were odd parlor tricksand minor talents that private investigators, criminals, andstage magicians used to make their work easier. ey werealso quite rare, since techniques for reliably training them

were still classified. However, the fall of the Soviet Unionreleased large amounts of information about psychic pow-ers and psychic technology. During the s, the Western

world embraced these new talents. Psychic pop stars and

psychic characters were featured on dozens of movies andtelevision shows, and psychic devices gradually began tomake their way into common use.

e difficulty of lying when using mental communi-cation caused a large amount of debate about using men-tal link crowns in court as the ultimate lie detector, butthe general public soon learned that anyone sufficientlyskilled or sociopathic can lie in mental communication as

well as verbal. By , in both the US and the EU, linkcrowns were acceptable in legal proceedings, but werealmost exclusively used to corroborate eyewitness testi-mony. ey soon became merely another tool and did notprovide definitive answers or exact images. While pro-

fessionals do sometimes use link crowns to verify truthor sanity, someone with sufficient control over theirthoughts and feelings can alter the results.

Instead, the major impact of psychic technologies camefrom the ability to record and play back recordings madefrom link crowns. Because even a few minutes of a fullsensory link crown experience requires a large amount of

data storage space, this medium did not come into its ownuntil the very end of the s, when devices capable ofstoring sufficient amounts of data became commerciallypractical. Sensory recordings rapidly became an important

new medium, used for everything from recordings of un-usual experiences like dinner at one of the world’s finestrestaurants or scaling Mount Everest, to hyper-realisticfirst person dramas recorded from a protagonist’s eyes, al-lowing people a chance to temporarily “be” an action hero,rather than simply watching the action.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF SPACE EXPLORATION

e space race of the s, the moon landings that be-gan in , and the space shuttle launches of the s

were only the public face of a larger and considerably morecomplex and dangerous eff ort. Scientists and engineersinvolved in secret government projects were aware thatseveral species of aliens had visited Earth in prehistoryand, after the Roswell crash, that the mi-go continue todo so. Research teams working for the US and the UK

worked to duplicate some of the various alien means ofinterplanetary and interstellar travel. Meanwhile, workingfrom similar evidence, the Soviet Union launched theirown program of hyperspatially powered space exploration.Unfortunately, all of these eff orts proved both difficult anddangerous because the methods involved working with

barely controlled or understood hyperspatial energies. e first eff orts at hyperspatial space travel were per-formed in the s in both the US and the USSR. All ofthese attempts relied on the posthumously published workof mathematician and dimensional physicist Walter Gil-man. In both nations, a series of physicists and mathemati-cal savants were schooled in visualization and meditationtechniques and learned to open portals through hyper-space using what eventually became known as “hyperspa-tial sorcery”. Despite many successes, this method of travelremained a minor part of a larger eff ort due to the seriousrisks to the sorcerers. In addition to the risk of progressiveinsanity in practitioners, such missions required at least

one human to pass through to the other side. e only wayto return was either for a sorcerer on the mission to opena portal to Earth, or for a member of the team to be intelepathic contact with a sorcerer back on Earth. Other-

wise, the portal could appear in an unpredictable location,often many kilometers from its intended location and por-tals created using hyperspatial sorcery could be maintained



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for less than a minute. ere are still families who do notknow the reasons for the posthumous medals awarded tosorcerers who gave their all.

In , the US expedition to Mars succeeded several

years before any rocket carried a person into orbit. Twosubsequent US missions to Mars were performed in .In all three cases, trained hyperspatial “sorcerers” were pres-ent both at the departure site and in the Mars expedition,to allow expedition members to return in the case of anemergency. Also, the expedition included a trained psychic

who kept in telepathic contact with another psychic onEarth. Disaster struck in the last of these missions, whenseveral members of the expedition, including the sorcerer

were injured after a cavern they were exploring collapsed. When the sorcerer back on Earth attempted to open a hy-perspatial portal to allow them to return, something went

wrong and the entire expedition was instead transportedto some unknown and presumably fatal destination. ethird Martian expedition was the last US hyperspatial ex-pedition for more than a decade.

THE RACE TO THE MOON

In addition to the various secret eff orts, both the US & theUSSR were eager for the publicity gained in sending a rock-et to the Moon. Starting in the late s, both nations be-gan to invest large amounts of time and money in this eff ort.

After World War II, the US Operation Paperclipraided the Nazi brain trust, and made a few prize catchessuch as Wernher von Braun. His work on the Überver-

wüstung made his welcome in the United States con-troversial with those few personnel who knew, but hebrought with him advanced chemical knowledge deci-phered from the elder one ruins in Antarctica, and withthe scientists of the US space program used this knowl-edge to create the fi rst monatomic hydrogen rocket.More powerful than any chemical rocket, this advancedallowed US astronauts to reach the Moon in . In Au-gust , the second US mission found ancient Yithianruins in an ice cave near the Moon’s South Pole. August also marked the landing of the first Soviet expedi-tion on the Moon.

e most notable news came from the US expedi-

tion, which after discovering the alien ruins, also foundthat their lunar module had been damaged during land-ing and could not safely take off . e Soviets off ered torescue two of the three astronauts, but lacked the spaceand fuel to carry all three. In a daring move, the US andSoviet crews worked together to create a sorcerous por-tal back to Earth. e eff ort succeeded, and in an eff ort

to avoid revealing the existence of hyperspatial sorcery,the US then revealed that the US and Soviet astronautshad explored the great race of Yith’s ruins and discov-ered a hyperspatial portal connecting to ruins in northern

Canada. e Soviets went along with this deception tokeep their own eff orts secret, and in return for a promisethat both nations could explore the Lunar ruins. By ,both nations were working together to build a permanentLunar base at the site of these ruins. is base was firstoccupied in and remains in use today.

THE EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Using technologies scavenged from the Roswell crash,US researchers began attempting to build their own hy-perspatial vehicles. By , researchers had managed toduplicate the basics of hyperspatial movement and ve-locity multiplication, allowing them to make small ob-

jects levitate and move rapidly under laboratory condi-tions. e first piloted vehicles were completed in ,and were only useable in a gravity field, with a maximumunmultiplied velocity of , kph. e greatest advanceat this time was the velocity multiplication field that al-lowed these vessels to travel at high speeds without ad-ditional thrust or fuel by reducing the vessel’s inertia. Ve-locity multiplication required the vessel to shift partwayinto hyperspace, which was risky, but far less dangerousthan using hyperspatial gateways.

e first vehicles could only achieve velocity multipli-cation ratios of :, giving them a top speed of , kph. Greater velocities would await improved electron-ics. In , the velocity multiplication ratio was improvedto ,:, with a maximum unmultiplied velocity of . million kph. Although interstellar travel remained impos-sible, these new craft gave the US the freedom of the solarsystem. A breakthrough in , achieved by a scientist

whose name was, rather uncannily, also Gilman (rumorsspeculate that the distant relationship to Walter Gilmanin the genealogy of her family was somehow significant,though how this could be so is uncertain) improved the

velocity multiplication ratio to ,:, allowing vehicles

to attain of the speed of light. However, the most im-portant breakthrough came in , with the developmentof the Gilman-Hawking drive, named for both Gilmansand the mathematical work of Stephen Hawking, whichallowed unmultiplied speeds of up to , kph and veloc-ity multiplication of up to a factor of half a billion, givinghumanity the freedom of the stars, allowing starships totravel , times the speed of light.



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now more than years old, most colonists now immigrateto one of the seven extra-solar colonies. e first of these

worlds was opened for colonization in and sincethen, fi ve additional worlds have been opened for colo-

nization. OPS explorers have declared all seven of these worlds as devoid of obvious threats and safe for humanhabitation. On fi ve of these colony worlds humanity hasfound no evidence for current intelligent native life. One

world has minimally advanced natives who are isolatedfrom the colonies, and another has alien intelligences thathumanity has not yet discovered. Four of the six worldscontain alien ruins, all of which are more than , yearsold. In addition to human habitation, alien archeology isanother reason for the existence of these colonies.

Since these worlds were opened for colonization, thefleet of several hundred large dragonfl y drive transports hascarried more than six million colonists to their new homesamong the stars. Current estimates indicate that both thesuccess of the larger colonies and the increasing size of thestarship fleet means that the total population of all off -Earthcolonies should increase to more than million by .

e two oldest and largest of the extra-solar colonieseach are now home to a few million inhabitants, with ad-ditional shiploads of colonists arriving every few months.

Although each colony world is quite diff erent, the colo-nization process has mostly become standardized. Beforesettlement begins, OPS places in orbit a network of sen-sor and weather satellites, communications satellites, andGPS satellites. Hundreds of robots and prefabricated

parts are sent ahead of colonists, to build easily service-able power stations using renewable local resources, likesolar, wind, wave, or tidal power, and construct importantpublic buildings like hospitals and emergency services.

After these preparations, the first colonists arrive. e robots that help construct the colonies are then

used by the colonists as factory labor to build vehiclesand other useful items. e level of technology and stan-dard of living on even the oldest colonies is slightly be-hind that found in the most developed nations on Earth,but is still quite advanced. In addition, several thousandcolonists have become exceptionally wealthy due to dis-coveries they made, ranging from new biologically de-

rived drugs to valuable artifacts pulled from alien ruins. e Colonists: Space colonies have more than their

share of diversity. Any country that shares economic in-terests with the establishing nation usually participatesin its colonies to some extent, and smaller nations’ spaceprograms “hitchhike” on the starships of larger ones.

Adventurous people in Latin America who wish to im-

migrate to the United States often apply for settlementin a US colony, where they can live and work towardscitizenship, while Nigerians working for Chinese com-panies often travel to Chinese colonies, and so on. While

living on an extra-solar colony is desirable, it’s also dan-gerous. Most of the countries that hold the strongestshares of space technology are also relatively stable, andtheir populations relatively content: people from lessstable countries tend to be more zealous about applyingfor colonization, seeking their freedom, their fortune or anew horizon. Currently, almost one fifth of the residentsof the various colonies work preparing the colony for thearrival of new colonists.

Colonization requirements depend on the demands oflife and work on any given planet. Colonists must general-ly pass safety exams and go through a hiring process beforethey can emigrate. is can involve both skill suitabilityand psychological stability tests. Education is important.Nonetheless, along with in-demand jobs, every humanhome also retains some support staff : where people work,they also drink and eat, play music and enjoy art. Europeancolonies, especially, hand out a certain number of short-term creative or service work visas to young adults. Lan-guage teachers are always wanted in any place where hu-man cultures come into contact with each other; psychicscome in handy in any place where intelligent aliens abide.Each colony has diff erent needs. Scientists, researchers,explorers, engineers, food producers, resource miners, OPSpersonnel, medics, and support staff are everywhere; small-

er colonies and research stations don’t have much crime,but Eridanos has its share of tech-smugglers.In many cases, colonists must pay their own fare for the

journey through hyperspace. In other cases, it’s includedas part of a signing bonus for particularly sought-afterprofessions. Several organizations also have funds set upto assist prospective colonists, akin to scholarships. ose

fleeing persecution in their home countries often qualify.

ALIENS AND THE PUBLIC

e general public first learned of the existence of alienlife when the details of the various Antarctic expeditions

were made public in , in the aftermath of the USNavy’s massive post-WWII expedition to the Antarcticknown as Operation Highjump. Photographs of the elderone city on the Plateau of Leng taken by Navy personnel

were accidentally released and were soon followed by anofficial US government statement about the discovery ofan ancient alien city. In response to this revelation, Brit-



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ish and Australian archeologists revealed they had beenexcavating the ruins of the Yithian city of Pnakotus in

Australia’s Great Sandy Desert since . Expecting thetwo cities to both be the work of the same alien species,

both archeologists and the general public were shockedto discover that two alien species had inhabited Earth

tens of millions of years in the past. ese revelations fueled a growing fascination with

aliens, accompanied by a decade-long period of UFOhysteria following the sightings of UFOs aroundMount Rainier and the Roswell crash during the same

year. e UN and the various governments of the worldattempted to reassure the populace that aliens were notknown to have visited or dwelled on Earth more recent-ly than million years ago, but belief that aliens werestill visiting Earth persisted among various fringe sub-cultures. is belief in present-day alien visitations waseventually confirmed when dealings with the mi-go andthe treaty with the deep ones (see p. ) were both madepublic in the late s, as part of the Great Revelation.

Among its other cultural impacts, the Great Revelationmade the population more credulous of conspiracy the-ories for decades thereafter, a legacy which has mostlypassed but still carries some influence.

In the late s, much previously classified informa-tion about aliens and ab-humans on or visiting Earth

was made public, but some still remains secret. Flyingpolyps are now known to be dangerous aliens, found onrare occasions in ancient underground ruins, while the

deep ones are known to be mutated aquatic off shoot ofhumanity and the mi-go are alien beings that humanityhas limited trade with. Since the deep ones and the mi-go have little interest in contact with the general public,

visiting alien or ab-human dignitaries are very rare oc-currences, but when treaty negotiations occur, the press isalways in close attendance.

e initial public reaction to the various aliens wasshock followed by horror. e deep ones are disturbinginhuman and the mi-go almost incomprehensibly alien.However, the fact that the deep ones were originallyan off shoot of humanity and that they only inhabit theocean depths was used to reassure the populace that their

presence changed nothing about the world. Also, thedeep ones’ lack of conventional technologies due to theirunderwater homes has led most of humanity to regardthem as primitives, which soon caused most people tobelieve them to be absolutely no threat to anyone livingon land. Until it became widely known that most deepones had no interest in contact with humanity, there were

even several organizations working on extending variousinternational development eff orts to the deep ones.

Similarly, while the mi-go are fungoid crabs with apartial telepathic hive-mind, the fact that they cannot

live on Earth’s surface for more than a few days helpedreduce fear of a mi-go invasion. More importantly, thefact that they are willing to trade advanced biotechnol-ogy with humanity gradually transformed them from asource of fear and horror to a disturbing source of life-saving medicines and other useful technologies.

In , the first human trade mission to the mi-go col-ony on Pluto was an enormous public relations coupe forOPS and the discovery of the dragonfl y drive in the early also drastically changed the widespread feeling of infe-riority much of humanity felt with regard to the mi-go. Hu-manity could now venture out among the stars and whilethe mi-go remain far in advance of humanity in terms ofknowledge and technology, most of humanity either ignoresthis fact or does not fully understand it. Even in , mostpeople still assume that humanity will be able to surpass anyand all mi-go achievements within a few decades.

Since the late s, there have been no further rev-elations about alien contact on Earth. e OPS and the

various member nations of the Security Council con-tinue to keep a few secrets from the public, but otherthan the truth about the ghouls, (see p. ) all of therest of these secrets are known only to a tiny handful ofpeople and are difficult to prove. Instead, all of the recentdiscoveries of alien life and alien ruins have come from

human interplanetary and interstellar expeditions. efirst of these discoveries were the reclusive Europans in, followed by the discoveries of the remains of fourlong-extinct alien species on four separate extra-solarplanets, and then in , the fi rst encounter with thehostile moonbeasts (see p. ).

Currently, popular opinion holds that humanity is in various ways inherently superior to all the known aliens.Some aliens like the mi-go are widely known to havetechnology well in advance of humanity, but such factsare widely considered to be only temporary obstacles.

Although more accurate information is widely available,the mass media does its best to reinforce the idea of in-

nate human superiority and eventual human dominance,in large part because most commercial firms believe thata widespread belief in human inferiority or a true un-derstanding of humanity’s place in the galaxy could leadto a serious economic disruption. us a conflict existsbetween subconscious awareness of the truth and the re-assuring falsehood of human superiority.



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EARTH IN 2030 e year is . Humanity has traveled to the stars andseveral million people now live off of the Earth. Humanstrade publicly, in a limited fashion, with several species ofaliens, and humans have begun augmenting themselves

with advanced biotechnology. e world is vastly diff erentfrom the one that most people lived in during the s,before the revelations about aliens, sorcery, and space trav-el, before the internet, ubiquitous microelectronics, and the

widespread use of electronic telepathy. Energy is abundantand clean, with a mixture of solar power and fusion reac-

tors providing most of Earth’s electricity.

TECHNOLOGY & DAILY LIFE

e average fi rst world citizen of has never beenoff -planet, except perhaps in a tourist getaway to Luna,but their life has been transformed by psychic technologyand the various advanced technologies derived from alienartifacts and trade with aliens. e single most wide-spread of these technologies is the psi-link. is device isa modern version of the telepathic link crown developedin the s and is used in many modern computers, mo-bile devices, and electronic games. Rather than requiringscreens, headphones or display glasses, psi-links allowthe user to control devices by thought and to receive afull range of sensory impressions, including touch andsmell. From console games to nature documentaries,from off -planet travel to recorded experiences of foodand sex, psi-links off er users the chance to experiencesensory impressions recorded by others, as well as onesthat are computer generated. Virtual meeting rooms andother gatherings now allow dozens or even thousands ofpeople to meet and interact online in much the same waythey could in person.

Psi-links also allow a level of interpersonal communi-cation previously available only to two or more telepaths

who were in communication with one another, a level ofcommunication that can even transcend language. Psi-links have been available for the last years and more

than of the inhabitants of economically developedcountries and slightly more than half of the entire humanpopulation have at least tried a psi-link once. However, asubstantial minority of people still regard psi-links as un-holy, dangerous, or otherwise deeply suspect and refuseto ever use them. Nevertheless, the widespread use ofpsi-links has done much to reduce and largely end anti-psychic prejudice among most of the population. Now,

anyone can experience at least some of the advantages ofbeing psychic. An increasing amount of the internet isspecifically designed for use with psi-links. e popularsite SenseAll has been marketing both professional and

amateur-made clips of both actual and digitally createdsensory experiences for the last years and remains oneof the most commonly visited sites on the internet.

Robotics is another field that has transformed dailylife. Starting with simple single-purpose devices like the

vacuuming robots developed in the early s, home ro-botics has now progressed to the point that many highend kitchens come with built-in cooking and cleaning ro-bots. Kitchen robots typically consist of several complexrobotic arms equipped with cameras and other sensors.

ese robots can cook and serve many simple meals, andcan also take dirty plates and other items left anywherein the kitchen, clean them, and place them in designatedcupboards. Similar appliances now perform tasks rangingfrom laundry to home and commercial cleaning and homeand automotive maintenance. Although robotics has not

yet achieved the dream of factories that need only two orthree human employees, most manufacturing is now heav-ily automated and is becoming more so every year.

As a result, worldwide manufacturing jobs have de-clined over the last few decades, despite an overall in-crease in manufacturing. e number of low-end service

jobs, like hotel cleaning and fast food work, has also de-clined – although everyone still wants to interact withhuman workers in fancy restaurants and bars. e world

economy has begun to change. e value of handcraftshas increased somewhat, and for many wealthy and up-per middle class people, the cachet of having personalservants has increased. However, these changes in theeconomy have produced a moderate amount of economicdisruption that has helped fuel the desire for an increas-ing number of people to move off world.

Automation has also aff ected transportation. For thelast years, almost all automobiles sold in anywhere inthe first world have been capable of automatic driving.Most nations still require a licensed driver in a vehicle’sdriver’s seat, and this driver is still legally responsible forthe operation of the vehicle. However, the vast majority

of the time, these drivers can relax, certain that the car’sautomated systems will instantly notify them in the eventof a problem. Several nations have introduced laws remov-ing the requirement for cars to have a legal driver, but allsuch proposals have been rejected. In most countries, auto-mated driving is required to be active on major highways;however, compliance is not perfect, and many people will



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risk a fine for a joyride. Laws have passed that require au-topilot to be active for operating helicopters and the re-cently developed ducted-fan aerodynes (see p. ) over ur-ban areas. No one other than official emergency personnel

can legally pilot air vehicles over urban areas, except in caseof systems failure. Instead, all air vehicles must have theirown automated control systems, backed up by a ground-based automated control system.

BIOTECHNOLOGY & AUGMENTATIONS

Starting in , trade with the mi-go, combined withadvances in Earthly biotechnology, finally began to pro-duce results beyond laboratory curiosities and a few trulyhideous experimental failures. Several new medical tech-niques were introduced, including cures for diabetes andmost forms of cancer. Advances in organ growth and re-

generation soon followed and predictions about the aver-age lifespan soon climbed over and are now around, with many researchers believing that anyone less thana century old is likely to make it to . is number isstill climbing. In addition, the discovery of ways to re-grow damaged limbs and organs including eyes, and torepair severed nerves, means that there are far fewer dis-abled people in and conditions like blindness arenow largely confined to the poorest parts of the world.

While many doctors and other healthcare personnelcelebrated these advances, the general public was alsoentranced by stories of augmentations that could now beperformed on human bodies. Using techniques ranging

from radical gene therapies to implanting vat grown tis-sues and organs, humanity now has the capability to alterpeople by giving them enhanced capabilities, includingsome capabilities never before possessed by humans.

e majority of augmentations remain both relativelyminor and expensive, but are increasingly popular amongthe middle class and wealthy of most nations. Minor aug-mentations like increased disease resistance or improvedmemories are legal in almost all developed nations, and afew are even have their costs covered by various forms ofhealth insurance. Many nations have found that payingthe cost of having citizens become increasingly resistantto disease and toxins is well worth the price. Except for a

few theocracies and autocratic nations, these augmenta-tions are legal across the world, although members of afew religious groups consider them to be unacceptable.

Today, almost of the world’s population has atleast one minor augmentation, and this number is grow-ing every year. However, social researchers fear that theseaugmentations may increase the division between rich

and poor, with the richer now becoming smarter andhealthier than the poor. e EU recently added a fewhealth-related augmentations to the list of proceduresfully covered by national health plans. Much of the first

world has been taking steps to do the same, and somecountries to include at least some mental augmenta-tions. Increasing physical and mental inequality betweenresidents of countries with greater and lesser economicpower seems inevitable, although an increasing numberof wealthy residents of developing nations are also pur-chasing augmentations.

As various minor augmentations become increasinglycommon, the mass media has increasingly focused on theflashier and more impressive augmentations: those thatgive people cat-like claws, allow people to cling to a walllike a gecko, or even breathe water. ere is little populardemand for these augmentations, and many people con-sider anyone with them to be freakish and unnatural. Re-ports by OPS and other international organizations alsoindicate that if widespread these radical augmentationscould be socially destabilizing; the technology also hasnot been fully tested for safety. As such, OPS researchand public opinion have combined to make performingthese augmentations illegal in most fi rst world nations.However, possessing them is not, and they can be ille-gally obtained back-room clinics in China, Mexico, andthe United States. For the right price, such augmenta-tions are also easily available in Russia, Pakistan and inseveral other third world nations. ere are numerous

news reports of clinics that perform fake augmentations,as well as of botched procedures that leave patients deador disabled. As a result, individuals who seek out theseclinics are usually either desperate or exceedingly driven.

Although simply possessing an unlicensed augmentationis legal, most government keeps track of people who havethem. In addition to criminal penalties being more severe tosomeone who uses one to commit a crime, many employ-ers check national databases to see if prospective employeespossess unlicensed augmentations. (Visible augmentations,regardless of their utility or legality, also sometimes lead to

job discrimination in more conservative professions.) In vivid contrast, individuals who obtain advanced augmenta-

tions legally, as part of OPS or various other organizationsare widely regarded with a mixture of awe and mild distrust,since such people are both heroic and potentially no longerentirely human. Current estimated indicate that at least twomillion people have unlicensed radical augmentations andthis number continues to grow.



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HYPERSPATIAL AUGMENTATIONS

e most infamous and extreme of the radical augmentationsare the hyperspatial augmentations created by the mi-go.

ese augmentations allow humans to perform near-mirac-ulous feats like fl ying or telekinesis. ese augmentations are

well beyond current human understanding and can only be

acquired though illegal trade with the mi-go. Individuals whopossess them are widely considered violent criminals, a beliefaffirmed by the fact that many of these people have a tenden-cy to go dangerously insane. ese augmentations can only beacquired by people who have connections to various criminalor terrorist organizations or by special agents of especially un-scrupulous governments, like North Korea or Russia.

ALIEN DERIVED TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES BY DECADE

e following is a list of the most notable technologies that appear in the world of Eldritch Skies but not in our world. Most of these advances are derived or inspired by alien knowledge or technology.

1940S

Nazi hyperspatial weapons known as Überverwüstung kill hundreds of Allied troops and warp areas of land. Onlythe fact that they must be set off by a trained suicidal operator who is within the UVW field and the difficulty ofproducing them prevents them from being a major force in the war.

1950 & 1960S

Advances in all fields of materials technology. e development of stable monatomic hydrogen rocket propellantgreatly advances space travel. e introduction of transistors also permits the first reliable link crowns.

1970S

Cost reductions due to improved material processing, while the first politically driven oil shortages spur the develop-ment of high efficiency solar cells and the first superconducting batteries for cars. e spread of these batteries alsoallows the first aff ordable electrical weapons.

1980S

In , the introduction of the velocity multiplication drive enables humanity to send crewed missions to both Jupiter and Saturn. Artificial hibernation is also discovered. Inexpensive solar cells are increasingly used for powergeneration.

1990S

In , the introduction of the dragonfl y drive makes travel throughout the solar system and to the stars possible. Advances in genetics allow treatment for most cases of Innsmouth Syndrome and cures or treatments for most otherinherited conditions. Improvements in link crowns and advances in brain scanning technology give rise to the psi-link, first introduced in classified research.

2000S

e psi-link arrives on the public market in . A combination of modern genetics and mi-go derived biologi-cal knowledge allows humanity to create the first reliable bio-augmentations. Diabetes and most forms of cancerare cured. Regrowing organs and nerves cures most disabilities; blindness and most forms of paralysis become very

rare in the first world. Automobile automation is perfected, and cars can now drive themselves. e dream of fusionpower becomes a reality and the first commercial fusion reactor is constructed in .

2010S

e first human-created augmentations become available to the general public. e ability to purchase physical andmental improvements changes mass culture, while also widening some of the gaps between the rich and the poor.

e first commercial ducted fan aerodynes go on sale – the fl ying car is now a reality, made possible by the automateddriving systems now mandatory on all new cars sold in almost every developed nation.

2020S

e mi-go introduce the first hyperspatial augmentations to humanity, but they remain carefully regulated and areonly available to government agents and a few criminals. e first reliable and aff ordable general purpose -D print-ers become commercially available. An increasing number of people can purchase them and create everything fromclothes to consumer electronics in their own home.



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ere have been a few pilot programs with OPS and various national intelligence agencies to attempt to see ifthese augmentations can be safely installed in operatives.However, the risks of hyperspatial exposure inherent in

their use has kept such programs small. While displayingordinary augmentations is widely regarded with a mixtureof awe and either fear or envy, seeing someone use a hy-perspatial augmentation can cause a public panic. ereare also widespread conspiracy theories that anyone whopossesses these augmentations can either be taken over bythe mi-go or will eventually transform into some hideoushuman-mi-go hybrid.

PSYCHICS & SOCIETY

Psychic powers have been publicly known since the mid

s and are now an accepted part of life. is accep-tance was aided by the swift passage of laws, in almost allnations, making mind reading without the prior consentof the target a serious crime. Most people understandnow that psychics can only read minds by touch or obvi-ous eye contact, but suspicion still persists on the fringesof society. Some people are nervous around psychics still,and there are always the occasional rumors of undetect-able mind-control powers – though the recent wide-spread use of psi-links has further reduced the distrustof psi-powers; indeed, some people consider psi-links su-perior and regard psychic powers as a bit old-fashioned.

Shortly after psychic powers were revealed to the gen-

eral public, there was a wealth of speculation about howpsychics would transform trials and law enforcement. ereality has proven to be somewhat diff erent. Psychic evi-dence was not acceptable in court during the s andthe early s. By , link crowns were regularly usedfor collecting all official psychic evidence, since they arefar easier to test for reliability. However, psychics and linkcrowns can only be used to read thoughts currently passingthrough the subject’s conscious or unconscious mind. As aresult, any process of gathering psychic evidence requiresthe subject to be questioned about the desired memoriesor to be exposed to images or other stimuli that cause thesubject to think about the events in question. is and the

fact that most trained psychics and a few others can delib-erately shield their thoughts from a link crown mean thatin most of the first world psychic evidence is consideredcompelling, but not definitive without other proof. Psychicevidence gathered without a subject’s consent is only ad-missible in a few of the most repressive nations.

For the last years, psychics have been most in de-

mand in certain counseling specialties and in importantbusiness transactions. Many business people avoid usinglink crowns during business transactions, because theiroutput can easily be recorded. However, the possibility of

knowing if a prospective business partner is being hon-est in their off er is exceptionally tempting. As a result, insome business deals, psychics are employed as negotia-tion facilitators, who listen to the thoughts of each partyin a negotiation when off ers are made, and then reportsto one or both parties about the other’s thoughts whendiscussing the proposed business deal. ere are severalinternational organizations which license psychics as im-partial commercial facilitators who undergo regular psy-chic examinations for honesty and are bound by exceed-ingly strict non-disclosure agreements. However, mostbusinesses are more comfortable hiring psychics who

work only for them and who only read the minds of theother party in business negotiations.

HYPERSPATIAL SORCERY Hyperspatial sorcery performed using complex devices isa mainstay of space exploration, regularly used by manygovernments. However, the details of how to performsorcery remain highly classified and information aboutperforming sorcery using rituals is also classified. Dur-ing the s, the UN Security Council adopted a largebody of secret laws governing the uses of hyperspace, andthe various member nations and the OPS was orderedto enforce them. e most important among these was

keeping the existence of hyperspatial sorcery secret. While OPS and various governments were far from

happy when the existence of psychic powers and laterof aliens became public, they found the idea of most ofhumanity learning about sorcery far worse. e fact thatanyone with access to the correct training and documentscould theoretically learn to create hyperspatial gatewaysor summon hyperspatial entities terrified many OPSoperatives. e potential for crime, terrorism, and asym-metrical warfare were all far too great to ignore. As aresult, prior to the late s, anyone who learned of sor-cery and who attempted to either use it for any purposeor to make knowledge of it public was either recruited,

discredited, or subjected to memory erasure. After the fall of the Soviet Union, when much infor-

mation about hyperspatial sorcery became public, OPSchanged its mandate from keeping hyperspatial sorceryand the existence of hyperspace a secret, to keeping infor-mation about how to perform hyperspatial sorcery secretand attempting to make certain that no unauthorized



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personnel learned how hyperspatial sorcery or hyper-spatial devices actually worked. Although the existenceof sorcery is now public knowledge, the details remainclassified and most people believe that it requires the use

of complex, expensive and highly specialized equipmentto perform. In actuality, this equipment is not necessary,but does allow sorcerers to perform their rituals and con-struct their devices far more safely.

In addition to preventing public disclosure of infor-mation about performing sorcery and occasionally dis-seminating false information about sorcery, the OPSand various national occult security organizations alsoinvestigate dangerous occultists and off er them a choice:memory suppression or recruitment. e first option in-

volves having all memories of actual occult knowledgesuppressed, leaving the individual with some lost timeand what seems to be a multitude of failed occult ex-periments. All materials and information are confiscated,sometimes altered and returned to the occultist bearingbad data. Alternately, the sorcerer can join OPS or a localoccult security organization. Potential recruits must un-dergo psychic examination to determine if their willing-ness to join these organizations is sincere.

Individuals who have already mastered various occultabilities when they are discovered, but who have not usedthese abilities to harm others or to threaten the safety ofhumanity are often given a third option. ese sorcer-ers go on an OPS watch list. eir occult activities aremonitored, but they are otherwise free to pursue their

lives and their occult practices. e OPS acknowledgesthat there have been human sorcerers throughout all ofrecorded history. Some were dangerous and destructive,but others were not. Also, completely suppressing allnon-classified sources of information about sorcery hasproven to be impossible; there are simply too many oldbooks. Although their activities are technically illegal inmany nations, private sorcerers are tolerated. ese sor-cerers are allowed to exist as long as they do not revealany knowledge of sorcery to anyone other than one ortwo apprentices and colleagues who already know aboutsorcery (who also go on the watch lists) and do not usetheir knowledge to perform criminal acts.

e OPS is aware that high levels of occult ability arerare and that many of the most skilled occultists are not

willing to be recruited. e OPS tolerates and encour-ages member governments to tolerate the existence ofcareful and discreet sorcerers because skilled sorcererscan be a remarkably useful resource. In addition to the

watch list, these sorcerers must also agree to occasion-

ally accept commissions for OPS or local occult securityagencies. is option is usually only used when this OPSor local government is facing some form of particularlymysterious or deadly sorcerous or hyperspatial threat, but

the use of skilled sorcerers has proven to be invaluable,and so they are always well paid for their eff orts.

Most of the general public believes that private sor-cerers are either criminals or frauds. e news media andportrayals of sorcerers in popular culture support thisidea. However, almost all cities contain small groups ofoccultists, most of whom are not sorcerers, but who areeither scholars of the occult or simply curious. is occultunderground serves to direct people with various needsto professional sorcerers who might be able to help them.Such services can range from hyperspatial spying andother forms of occult information gathering, to creatinga gateway to aid with some form of theft or escape frompursuit, to providing sorcerous protection from somemundane threat, or even various forms of exceedinglydiscreet murder for hire. Some unscrupulous sorcerersprovide all of these services, but the ones who wish toavoid undue attention from either law enforcement orthe OPS may be willing to bend the law, but stop wellshort of murder, mind control, or similar acts.

THE UNITED NATIONS

e United Nations is far from being a world govern-ment, but it remains very powerful. In large part, its pow-

er comes from the fact that humanity is now in contact with several non-human species and the United Nationsprovides a forum where the nations of Earth can presenta unified front to these various alien intelligences.

In , the nations of the Security Council unani-mously voted not to allow individual nations to maketheir own deals with alien intelligences without UNoversight. Although most members of the SecurityCouncil supported the idea of their own nation makingadvantageous deals with the mi-go and the other alienshumanity was in contact with, the leaders of the mem-ber nations did not want to risk letting rival nations gainunilateral access to alien technology. To prevent any one

nation from gaining a substantial advantage over all oth-ers, the UN oversees all deals with aliens. When newsof Earth’s contacts with aliens became public in ,the nations of the UN initially lodged dozens of pro-tests with the Security Council, denouncing the secrecyinvolved. However, an understanding of the dangers in-

volved with this knowledge, combined with a pledge of



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openness and frank discussion of the complexities of theCold War eventually helped to mollify these protests.

Today, the UN has both unprecedented power and severe limitations. e UN is the sole body allowed to make

treaties and trade agreements with alien species. Also, theOPS now has the right to investigate incidents that may

violate the Dangerous Technologies Treaty (DTT) in the vast majority of the nations of the world, and DTT vio-lations are grounds for serious UN action, including de-ployment of UN peacekeeping forces. However, all otherforms of UN intervention are far more limited. Any na-tions can request UN humanitarian or military aid, as caneither side in a civil war. In the absence of a direct requestfor aid, though, the UN cannot intervene in political ormilitary incidents that do not cross national borders.Most nations now regard the UN as a vital body thatprotects them from both alien dangers and from peopleand nations who would misuse dangerous technologies.Since no nation wishes to have UN troops inside its ownborders, UN rights to interfere in the sovereign aff airs ofa nation are both substantial and strictly limited.

THE DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGIES TREATY

e cornerstone of the OPS’ current mandate is the Dan-gerous Technologies Treaty. e Security Council pro-posed the original version of the DTT in , shortlyafter the truth about the presence of aliens on Earth and

in space was revealed. is treaty originally only served toregulate hyperspatial technologies, including sorcery. enations of the General Assembly who had not previouslyhad access to knowledge of aliens or hyperspatial technol-ogy felt betrayed by the nations of the Security Counciland demanded a more powerful treaty, which also gov-erned potential weapons of mass destruction, including allchemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. As a result, theDTT also allows the UN to interfere in cases of potentialnuclear terrorism, and, most controversial of all, unpro-

voked use of nuclear weapons by national governments. Inthe wake of massive protests both inside and outside theirborders, the nations of the Security Council reluctantly

agreed to this revision of the DTT in . e OPS nowhas the authority to investigate a wide range of potentialthreats to the safety and security of humanity as a whole,including all unauthorized research or manufacturing ofchemical, biological, or nuclear weapons and any theft orpotential misuse of these weapons.

THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL

e Security Council is the branch of the UN charged with maintaining international peace and security, and

dealing with hyperspatial and extraterrestrial threats anddangers. Included in this power is the sole right to ne-gotiate treaties with alien species and governments. eSecurity Council has three permanent members and fourtemporary members. e permanent members are repre-sentatives of China, the EU, and the US. e four tem-porary members are each elected for a two year term, andare selected by the UN General Assembly, composed ofrepresentatives of all of the member nations of the UN.Each of the permanent members can veto any proposedSecurity Council resolutions completely; the temporarymembers merely vote.

THE OPSEmpowered by the UN Security Council, the OPS is alarge international agency that seeks to protect humanityfrom alien threats. It has connections to all of the intel-ligence and law enforcement agencies of the UN Secu-rity Council member nations. e OPS can work closely

with members of these intelligence and law enforcementagencies, and on certain occasions they can demand thecooperation of such personnel.

OPS has three primary missions: Protect humanity from alien threats Prevent alien technology, hyperspatial sorcery,

or weapons of mass destruction from beingused to harm humanity.

Help humanity safely expand throughout thegalaxy

THE PUBLIC FACE OF THE OPS As its primary mandate, the OPS monitors alien-derivedand other hyperspatial technology and protecting off -

world settlements. In addition, it also investigates sorcery,mythos cults, and conventional weapons of mass destruc-tion, including chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

is broad mission provides agents with a large amount

of freedom, but in most nations, OPS agents are specifi-cally forbidden from investigating any incidents that arenot directly related to their mandate and in many, OPSteams must be accompanied by members of local law en-forcement or security organizations.

Almost anywhere across the globe, when an OPSoperative shows their badge, most ordinary people un-



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derstand that there may be a serious threat that theyare unprepared to handle. A few police officers or otheremergency service personnel are willing to help the OPSoperatives, but most work to help evacuate all civiliansfrom the area and let the OPS operatives handle mythosdangers. e one downside of the publicity surroundingOPS eff orts on Earth is that OPS agents openly investi-gating some location are widely regarded as evidence thatthere is some significant danger and OPS agents oftenmust attempt to reassure the people that they are inter-acting with in order to prevent widespread panic.

REMAINING MYTHOS SECRETS

OPS’s most secret and most controversial eff orts arethose aimed at keeping the few secrets that remainedafter the fall of the Soviet Union. Despite many otherrevelations, humanity as a whole does not know of theexistence of the ghouls or of the hyperspatial intelligenc-

es often referred to as the Great Old Ones. e publichas read stories of the war between the elder ones and theCthulhoids hundreds of millions of years ago. However,only those with a certain level of security clearance and a

few skilled and secretive occultists know that the Cthul-hoids are anything more than another alien species, orthat they still maintain a very limited contact with Earth.

Also, while sorcery is publicly known, much of thepublic information about it is incorrect and OPS at-tempts to keep limit the spread of further informationabout sorcery. e motives for the OPS disinformationcampaign are simple. e governments of the UN Secu-rity Council fear that revealing the truth would produce

widespread panic and make the public curious aboutexceptionally dangerous topics. It’s clear that ghouls at-tempt to kill or otherwise silence anyone who tries topublicize their existence, the Great Old Ones are bothterrifying for most and horrifyingly tempting for a few,and as long as most people assume that sorcery requireslarge laboratories and complex devices, they are far lesslikely to experiment with it on their own.

Researchers into hyperspatial phenomena have re-peatedly informed the UN Security Council that thefact that more than of the world’s population haveno degree of Hyperspatial Exposure is one of the factorsthat helps to protect humanity from hyperspatial enti-ties and phenomena. Some things cannot be unseen onceseen, and OPS officials fear that informing the populacemore thoroughly about hyperspatial entities or sorcery

would create a tipping point. More people would investi-gate these phenomena, and thus significantly increase theexposed percentage of the population.

As a result, the OPS does not just protect humanityfrom alien interference; it does its best to keep some of thephenomena that it investigates and deals with secret. OPSagents use a variety of tools to maintain this secrecy. Al-though only used when absolutely necessary, the hypnoscopehas proven very useful at helping to suppress information.

is device is derived from Yithian technology that causestargets to forget various events and experiences. Agents dotheir best to conclude any interviews of civilians who havehad contact with ghouls or hyperspatial intelligences with a

hypnoscope session designed to suppress all of the subject’smemories of unusual events, replacing these memories with

various cover stories involving illegal alien-derived technol-ogy, hoaxes, and misperception. Hyperspatial Exposure can-not be reversed this way, of course, but people can go backto their daily lives.

In addition, some governments have provided OPS

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS & THE TRUTH

Most of the general public has some knowledge of hy-perspatial sorcery. Rumors of ghouls are found acrossthe world. Great Old Ones and other hyperspatial enti-ties are the stuff of vague urban myths; though storiesabout them persist, they are dismissed as conspiracytheories. So far, OPS has successfully kept these phe-nomena from the general public. However, there arealways a few people willing to accept unlikely truths.

Fortunately, such people also often believe variousparanoid fantasies, including ideas that various impor-tant political figures are disguised aliens. Stories of theserpent people and how they are secretly running the

world are especially popular, as are stories about how

various government leaders are part of exotic and ter-rible cults. ere is a persistent rumor that Michael

Jackson’s death was actually a cover story for his trans-formation into a deep one. In their eff ort to keep certaintruths from the general public, the OPS disinformationdepartment makes careful use of the more outspokenconspiracy theorists, feeding them unattributed tidbitsof information both completely false and sufficientlyfantastic that no one who is not a dedicated conspiracytheorist will take it the least bit seriously. Discreditingconspiracy theory is harder than it used to be since therevelations of the s, but enough bogus informationfed in makes it impossible for most seekers to distin-

guish signal from noise.



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with covert access to a wide variety of electronic data-bases, including the fi les of news organizations. As aresult, OPS is sometimes able to erase electronic infor-mation on any story that it would prefer to not become

public. When this happens, in the event that the breach was minor, reporters are fed information suggesting thattheir story was pulled for some innocuous reason; moremajor breaches lead to use of the hypnoscope. is levelof electronic access also allows OPS agents to learn thelocation of most non-electronic pieces of evidence thatthey wish to suppress. Armed this with knowledge, OPSfield agents can break into locations where this evidenceis held and either steal it, or whenever possible, replace it

with false evidence that points to another more mundaneanswer or is obviously fake.

Since OPS has such a serious ability to tamper withthe population, the main check on its influence is thedecision of when operatives are permitted to invoke theserules. Situations are reviewed before an ethical commit-tee made up of former field operatives. If the situation isslow-moving, the committee gets to make a judgmentcall as to whether the OPS can employ disinformationand memory blocking; in more obvious or fast-pacedcases, field operatives act now and account for their ac-tions later. ere are serious consequences for OPS oper-atives caught employing secrecy maneuvers for improperuses, and the organization is very careful about deciding

which missions require these technologies and policies.

THE WORLD IN 2030 Advancing technology, contact with aliens, and the begin-nings of interstellar exploration have all transformed worldpolitics. As a result, st century politics are substantiallydiff erent from th century politics. e following is a briefdescription of the most important nations in this setting.

MAJOR NATIONS

ere are three major powers in , China, the EU,and the United States. All three have space programs, allthree are permanent members of the UN Security Coun-

cil, and all three command a large share of the world’seconomic and military power. In addition, these threenations also have the three largest space programs.

CHINA

e severe poverty that afflicted China before isnow a distant memory. China experienced a high degree

of economic growth during the s and the early stcentury, and by was a fully developed nation. equality of life in China from onward has been onpar with the United States or the EU. However, China

remains an authoritarian nation, where the governmentis largely non-democratic. e elected National People’sCongress has more power than it did in the th century,but China’s true leader remains the Premier, chosen by

what is still called the communist party, but is no longerremotely communist in its policies.

e essentially authoritarian nature of China’s govern-ment does not mean that the will and desires of the popu-lace are ignored. e government uses everything fromsoftware that monitors the overall tone of online publicopinion to websites where citizens can comment on gov-ernment policies and major local and national issues. eresult is a measure of public opinion that is relatively accu-rate and that the Chinese government takes into consid-eration when considering new policies, though the averagecitizen can only exert indirect influence.

Today, Chinese citizens remain guarded in their pub-lic discussions of politics, but have all of the lifestyle free-doms found in other developed nations, as well as a mod-erately high standard of living. Past pollution still plaguesthe land, but China has become a leader in sustainableenergy. e government has imposed strict controls onfactory emissions and runoff , and has taken heroic mea-sures to remediate the underground coal fires which oncepumped smog into the sky. China is also a major power

in space colonization. ey have a major colony on Marsand several large settlements outside the solar system.China’s space program is in large part driven by the over-all technological optimism of the populace. ese colo-nies also serve as a useful social and political safety valve.

As long as they pay modest taxes to China and respectthe authority of visiting Chinese officials, once a Chineseoff -world colony is fully established, the inhabitants havethe right to elect their own government and make mostof their own laws.

is policy has made the Chinese colonies a haven fordissidents and would-be rebels. e fact that individuals

who have been convicted of all but the most minor crimes

are not eligible for immigration to these colonies is widelybelieved to be one of the major reasons that so few Chi-nese dissidents openly defy their government. China alsokeeps crime and dissident activity in check through theuse of ubiquitous public surveillance, which is recordedand monitored by sophisticated software to look for evi-dence of wrongdoing or unauthorized forms of dissent.



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Unlike similar surveillance in the EU, recordings from thecameras and microphones found in most public locationsare only accessible to authorized personnel, and unauthor-ized access to this data is a serious crime.

China is a member of the UN Security Council andis a strong supporter of OPS. e Chinese government isexceedingly strict when dealing with unlicensed sorcery,unauthorized contacts with aliens, possession for forbid-den technology and similar crimes and have their owninvestigators who work closely with OPS agents to un-cover any such problems. However, Interpol, OPS, andother international law enforcement personnel who enterChina on official business are all required to wear min-iature recording equipment to monitor their activities.

While the Chinese government does not interfere withOPS activities within its borders, the government wishesto keep carefully track of OPS activities and does nothesitate to expel and censure OPS agents who involvethemselves in local politics of any sort.

THE EUROPEAN UNION

Without question, the most prosperous world power isthe EU, a confederation of most of the nations of Eu-rope, as well as Turkey. e EU remains a leader in hu-man rights as well having the highest overall standardof living in the world. However, the EU also has a rela-tively low birthrate and the median age of its populationis higher than that of any nation except Japan. Althoughthe EU is a leader in space exploration, it is well behind

the US and China in colonizing space, and possesses onlytwo extrasolar colonies.

Like China, the EU has embraced ubiquitous surveil-lance in all public places. However, unlike in China, most ofthese surveillance feeds are freely available to the public, al-though records are kept of who monitors what surveillancefeeds, and OPS still has their back door. Law enforcementpersonnel throughout the EU are required to wear minia-ture cameras and microphones, which broadcast all of theiractivities and conversations on a secure band while they areon duty. Removing or tampering with these cameras is aserious crime. ese recordings are only made public if thereis an arrest or any sort of violent incident involving the law

enforcement officials, and only after the case has been fullyresolved. Although the EU has occasional problems with il-legal sorcery, dangerous hyperspatial experiments, and secretcorporate deals with aliens, most are swiftly resolved by lo-cal law enforcement before they become serious enough torequire the presence of OPS agents. e EU is consideredby OPS to be the most secure of the world powers on Earth.

THE UNITED STATES

After the dissolution of the former Soviet Union in ,the US was the most powerful nation on the planet, but

by the end of the th century, its power had significantly waned. Problems began shortly after the Great Rev-elation of and the disillusionment and turnover ofelected officials that followed. e American public wasshocked and horrified to learn that the US governmenthad been concealing the existence of alien beings for de-cades and that the US had signed a secret treaty with oneof these alien species.

Even as the new policy of openness regarding alien lifebegan, public trust in the government had suff ered a majorblow and though revolutions in electronics, medicine, andspace travel created a global economic boom, the US econ-omy grew less than that of most other developed countries,in large part due to a lingering lack of public confidence.Known as the post-revelation malaise, this distrust shapedUS politics for the next years. e US became more iso-lationist in its international aff airs and while its space pro-gram continued to thrive, the US reduced its involvementin world aff airs until the st century.

Today, the US is one of the few developed nations with significant restrictions on ubiquitous public surveil-lance, a resistance driven by the continued existence of,and public interest in, various anti-government groupsranging from libertarians and anarchists opposed to allprivacy infringement to conspiracy theorists and “patri-

otic” rural white supremacists. ese later groups tend tostockpile weapons; many of them strongly oppose theUN and OPS operatives, and the most extreme recruitsorcerers and attempt to make contact with aliens andab-humans in an eff ort to obtain exotic weapons.

Fortunately, many of these eff orts are sufficiently care-less that they actually end up making contact with FBI orOPS agents posing as sorcerers or humans with connec-tions to rogue aliens. However, these eff orts occasionallypay off . OPS believes that some of the larger nationalistfactions possess potentially dangerous alien artifacts orsorcerously created hyperspatial devices. In addition, therehave been a few major incidents of terrorism, some di-

rected against the US government and the rest against theUN and OPS agents in particular. Most involve conven-tional attacks with bombs, but two major incidents, one in and another in involved the use of hyperspatial

weapons. In , a government building in Oklahoma was opened to hyperspace using a Tillinghast device anda third of the workers were devoured. In , half a dozen



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servitors of the other gods were sent to wreak havoc inNew York city’s financial district.

Most other developed countries regard the US as a violent nation, with a murder rate fi ve times the average

for developed countries. In both Chinese and Europeanmedia, American fanatics using hyperspatial weaponsare common villains. However, OPS regards the various

American radical groups as considerably less dangerousthan the Russian criminal gangs.

Of US threats, corporations pose the greater danger to world security. Senior personnel from certain mid-sizedUS corporations have been arrested for making unlicenseddeals with the mi-go. Also, although OPS has not been ableto prove that several US-based transnational corporationsregularly use sorcery to spy upon and on rare occasions tosabotage their competitors, many senior OPS officials arecertain that these practices are frighteningly common.

Today, the US remains a large and powerful nation,but no more so than the EU, or China. Politically, the USremains slightly isolationist. Economic problems in theUS contributed to the fact that both the EU and Chinahave both taken the lead in new technologies since thebeginning of the st century. However, the US spaceprogram remains a major source of national pride andNASA played a major role in the construction of the firstdragonfl y drive starship. Rivalry with the Chinese spaceprogram is intense and although trade and political re-lations between the US and China are extensive, many

Americans regard the Chinese space eff ort as a threat to

what they perceive as US dominance in space, a domi-nance that in actuality doesn’t exist. e US does controlthe largest lunar colony as well as several large extra-solar settlements. All of these off -world settlements areregarded as US territories, with the same status as theearthly territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

OTHER REGIONS

Countries of the rest of the world, while somewhat over-shadowed by the nations which drive the world economyand space exploration, have their own influences and spe-cial qualities. Some of them are up-and-coming worldpowers in their own right.

AFRICA

e st century is when fi rst-world prosperity fi nallybegan to reach the rest of the world. is statement is

widely true, except in sub-Saharan Africa, which remainsthe poorest and least politically stable region on the plan-et. Large-scale Chinese investment has enabled Kenya,

Ethiopia, and South Africa to become significantly morestable and prosperous than they were in the th century,but they remain relatively poor nations, and most of therest of Sub-Saharan Africa is far worse off . Most of the

civil and international wars of the past years have oc-curred in Africa. Several African nations have limited il-legal contact with the mi-g, but OPS has no proof ofthese allegations and continues to investigate.

Continuing warfare in northern Sudan, as well as abrutal dictatorship in Liberia and a repressive Christiantheocracy in Uganda have led to many calls for UN ac-tion in these nations. However, there is no clear evidenceof OPS violations by any of these three governments. Inthe absence of such international crimes, the OPS is pro-hibited from taking action these either nations. Sendingin a conventional UN peacekeeping force would requirea vote by the General Assembly that was also passed bythe Security Council, which is a far more difficult eff ort.So far, the only UN involvement in any of these threenations has been to send in medical aid, food, and relief

workers. Some of the Northern parts of Africa are con-nected with the Islamic culture of the Middle East. Re-searchers believe the historical Sufi sorcery tradition maysurvive in Morocco and Egypt, in particular, though if so,it is largely underground.

BRAZIL & SOUTH AMERICA

South America is growing rapidly in political and eco-nomic power, and the local leader of this growth is Brazil,

which is fairly economically advanced and has a smallbut growing space program. e Brazilian space programis less than years old, with a single small extra-solarcolony. However, Brazilian engineers and techniciansform an important part of the far larger UN space eff ort.Brazil is a strong supporter of OPS and OPS rarely hasreason to investigate problems in this nation. However,some of the less peaceful nations of Central and South

America are a very diff erent matter. e neighboring na-tion of Peru continues to be plagued with rebellions that

verge on civil war, and the most powerful group of reb-els have purchased hyperspatial weapons from Russiancriminal gangs and North Korean arms dealers. ese

weapons have been used in almost a dozen separate at-tacks on Peruvian forces and on government buildingsand officials. e troubles in Peru have been going onfor the last years and it remains both a hotspot forOPS activity and a general bogeyman in Brazilian massmedia. Peru is also home to radical groups who continueto preach that aliens are demons and both sorcery and



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psychic powers are tools of evil. ese groups have beenresponsible for several attacks on Brazilian psi-link fac-tories and aerospace firms.

INDIA

Like Brazil, India is a large, populous, and powerful nationthat is not yet in the top tier of world powers. A decade ago,India launched its first starship and now has a single smallcolony. However, India is also deeply divided. Two thirdsof the Indian populace have a middle class of living. eremainder live in dire poverty, including urban poor foundin every Indian city and struggling rural populations in areastoo remote and devoid of useful resources to be given signif-icant aid by the Indian government. e Indian government

would need to divert some resources to raise the standardof living for these people, and while progress is slowly be-

ing made, the decision-makers usually have more interestin supporting their local communities than in building newinfrastructure, due somewhat to pragmatism and somewhatto the persistent influence of the caste system.

As a result, significant tensions arise between the poorand the rest of India’s populace. ese tensions are ex-acerbated by the fact that India is bordered on the eastand west by Bangladesh and Pakistan, two nations thatare much poorer and whose residents are jealous of India’s

wealth. Tensions between India and Pakistan remain high,and while Pakistan has no access to hyperspatial devices,there is evidence of at least two local terrorist groups us-ing sorcery for attacks on both India and the Pakistani

government. OPS carefully watches the situation betweenIndia and Pakistan, but all incidents involving proscribedmagic and technology have been relatively minor.

JAPAN

Japan is unique in many ways, with the oldest averagepopulation on Earth, a negative birthrate for more than

years, and an intensely isolationist society that restrictsalmost all immigration. However, Japan also maintainsa small space program. Japan is also the world leader inrobotics, and almost all new Japanese houses and apart-ments come equipped with a wide array of complex com-mercial robots. Japanese extra-solar colonies are widely

popular in Japan and are seen as a source of nationalpride. A substantial number of Japanese young peopleregard their nation as overly bound by tradition andpolitically rigid, and while some immigrate to other na-tions, most compete to immigrate to one of the Japaneseextra-solar colonies. e examinations to obtain a placein one of these colonies are exceptionally difficult and

competitive and less than one in people who takesthese exams obtains a grade necessary to be approved forextra-solar immigration.

THE

MIDDLE

EAST

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran are the three wealthiestand most influential nations in the Middle East. Religioustensions between the first two and Iran are a major featureof Middle Eastern politics. is rivalry is made stronger bythe fact that since the mid s, oil has been increasinglyless important to the global economy and the Middle Easthas sought other sources of income. Today, Saudi Arabiaand the UAE largely rely upon a mixture of luxury tourismand outsourced jobs for their income.

Illegal mythos activity is relatively rare in the MiddleEast, because in most of the Middle East, including Saudi

Arabia and the UAE, any use of sorcery or alien-derivedbiotechnology is a capital crime. Unfortunately, this poli-cy also means that criminals, cultists, and dissidents who

work with alien technology or hyperspatial sorcery openlyenough to be caught are especially desperate and violent.Psi-links are legal in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, butare regarded with suspicion by much of the population.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE engage in extensive in-ternational trade and thus are forced to fully cooperate

with OPS investigations inside their borders, both na-tions require that all OPS agents be accompanied by atleast one member of local law enforcement who serves toboth limit and report on the activities of the OPS agent.

e relatively liberal nations of Lebanon and Egypt bothfreely allow the use of psychic powers and all non-hyper-spatial implants and both nations cooperate fully withthe OPS. However, these nations must also deal with oc-casional religious violence from local and Saudi-fundedopponents to these practices.

e only Middle Eastern nation with a space programis Iran, which has managed to combine a strict adher-ence to Islam and a religiously based democracy with aculture that has embraced psychic powers, augmentation,and hyperspatial technology. Since the Shah’s death in, Iran’s government has been a coalition of progress-oriented engineers and Muslim religious fi gures who

wish to place a Muslim nation at the forefront of sci-entific and technical achievement. Iran is a moderately

wealthy nation, but its space program remains relativelysmall because regularly threats by Saudi Arabia and theUAE force it to spend large amounts on national defense.Iran has a single extra-solar colony, and is preparing tofound a second colony.



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ere is some evidence for a Sufi historical traditionof sorcery: certain famous grimoires appear to originatein Arabic, though their exact provenance is uncertain.OPS monitoring has observed that most independent

sorcerers in the Middle East remain in less restrictivecountries and keep their work private. Most of thesesorcerers seem to regard sorcery as a spiritual endeavorrather than a quest for power, meaning both that theyare less likely to pose trouble as miscreants and that theremay be a larger underground here than the OPS knows.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

e decline in wealth of most Middle Eastern nationssignificantly reduced their defense budgets, and thus Is-rael has faced few military threats since the late s.Instead, their economy underwent a strong but contro-

versial push toward the goal of extra-solar colonization,and with the help of the United States space program,Israel founded a small, semi-independent colony on Eri-danos in . Many Israeli youth immediately immi-grated to the colony, known as Emek Emet: “the valleyof truth.” e old-guard regard its inhabitants somewhatderisively for their yerida or “descent” from Israel. ecolonists, on the other hand, arrived at another positionafter much rabbinical debate: Israel may be the home-land of the Jewish people on Earth, but Adonai createdall the worlds, and other sacred cities have existed in thepast, so what is to say that the valley they now occupy isnot a new sacred homeland?

Emek Emet’s founding took much pressure off . To-day, Israel is a divided nation that includes a small andimpoverished Palestinian homeland, which is nominallyindependent. Israel is now a moderately isolationist na-tion that maintains significant commercial ties to theUnited States, but has little force in international politics.

RUSSIA

e USSR fell in . Some of its smaller countries tookon EU membership or independent governance; any hopeof a renewed Russian empire is long gone. Russia today is arelatively poor nation, with a rigid authoritarian hierarchyengaged in a complex struggle with local organized crimi-

nal gangs. e largest of these gangs regularly challengegovernment authority and openly flaunt laws governingsmuggling, possession of military hardware, and taxation.However, equally often, the larger of these gangs work

with the Russian government, helping the governmentuncover and suppress dissidents and would-be reformers.

e Russian government also regularly attempts to play

the larger criminal gangs against one another. e result of all of these struggles is a nation where

the central government is harsh, but often ineff ective. Insome towns and city neighborhoods, the populace bribes

the local criminal gangs for protection from rival gangsand also to force tax collectors to accept lower payments.In other towns and city neighborhoods, residents paybribes to representatives from the central government forprotection from the criminal gangs. e bleak industrialcities located in the more remote portions of Siberia haveessentially no central governance and must occasionallycontend with small bands of rural bandits.

Russia’s urban upper class is relatively large, wealthy,and insulated from these troubles. Everyone else suff ers

various forms of oppression by both the criminal gangsand the central government. In order to recruit foreign in-

vestment and allow residents to gain technical educationnot available locally, Russia has relatively open borders,and a relatively large number of residents emigrate bothto other nations and to interstellar colonies. Russia startedseveral small extrasolar settlements and one Martian city,all of which have since declared their independence fromRussia and often allied themselves with other nations.

e Russian government claims to support the OPS. To avoid the sort of international censure that would harminternational investment, the government reluctantly co-operates with OPS agents. However, Russia is also widelyknown to be a haven for rogue sorcerers, mythos cultists,and especially for people making illegal contact with aliens

and performing unlicensed experiments with hyperspatialtechnologies and alien artifacts. Several of the large Rus-sian criminal gangs are believed to have contacts with mi-go or deep one criminals, and a few smaller gangs havelimited deals with the local ghouls.

In the more lawless regions of Russia, sorcery is justanother commodity available for the right price. As longas the Russian government is paid off appropriately, cit-ies are not over-run with servitors of the other gods, andOPS doesn’t obtain sufficient evidence to charge theRussian government with crimes against humanity, thissituation continues. Every year, OPS agents are sent onmore missions to Russia than to both the EU and China

combined, though most of the problems in Russia areeither relatively minor or portrayed as minor by officialsof the Russian government. Some of these officials arebrutally efficient at cleaning up mythos “situations” inadvance of OPS intervention.



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PAST AND PRESENT DANGEROUS NATIONS

Myanmar was the fi rst major test of the power of theOPS and of the UN as a whole, while both North Ko-rea and Pakistan are considered by the OPS to be thetwo greatest current threats to world peace and safety.Both North Korea and Pakistan forbid all UN personnel,including OPS agents from entering and both nationsdeny that they have ever had any trouble with mythosentities or dangerous technologies.

MYANMAR/BURMA AND THE UN INVASION

is small Southeast Asian nation has been a test casefor the power and eff ectiveness of OPS and the UN ingeneral. In , OPS investigators gained evidence thatthe so-called “Generals” in charge of Myanmar were us-ing hyperspatial weapons against mountain rebels, in aneff ort to gain control of the nation’s thriving heroin trade.Satellite photos revealed that several mountain villagesin the remote Shan State had been utterly destroyed,and a single blurry image revealed a servitor of the othergods crawling into the jungle. At this point, more thantwo dozen large, heavily equipped OPS teams infiltratedMyanmar. Half of them neutralized the sorcerous threatin the mountains of Shan State, while the rest used a

mixture of advanced technology and hyperspatial gatesto abduct most of the leaders of the ruling military juntaand bring them to trial before the United Nations court.

Immediately after the “Generals” were apprehended,, UN troops marched into Myanmar on a missionto restore order, prepare for the creation of a new nation-al government, and finish arresting the previous leaders.

Almost half of Myanmar’s army joined forces with theUN troops, while the rest fled into the nation’s eastern

jungles, led by the nation’s remaining military leaders. e UN organized a military campaign to capture theremaining leaders and defeat their forces. e Myanmar

War was fought using a combination of conventional

weapons and sorcery, with the most powerful and dan-gerous magics all being used by sorcerers working withthe remaining junta members.

e war continued until mid , when the lastmember of the Junta was captured and the remaininglocal military forces surrendered. e name “Myanmar”,associated with the former rulers, was abandoned at thispoint. From to , Burma was under UN rule, and

then in , the UN helped the nation hold its first freeelections held since the military take-over in . eMyanmar War remains a divisive issue to many peopleacross the planet. e overall mission was a success, and

today Burma is considerably more free and prosperousthan it was before the war. However, more than , people died in the three year war to defeat the remaining

junta loyalists. Also, radical nationalist groups across theplanet, especially those in the United States, look uponthe UN invasion of Myanmar as a possible harbinger toother eff orts at national conquest by the UN. Partly dueto this incident, most nations are reluctant to authorizethe use of UN troops except when OPS laws are being

violated by a national government.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea is ruled by the absolute dictator Kim Jong-Il, who at is widely believed to be kept alive throughthe use of advanced medicines that are otherwise illegalin North Korea. All psychic powers and psychic tech-nologies are illegal in North Korea, except when used bythe government, which is known to employ both sorcer-ers and psychics. Much of North Korea’s small amount offoreign trade consists of illegal shipments of convention-al weapons. ere are also many rumors that this nationmanufacturers nuclear, chemical, and hyperspatial weap-onry, but in the absence of any proof, the OPS cannot act.North Korea is known to use sorcerous wards to preventany sort of hyperspatial spying on various installations,

which is one factor that has prevented the OPS from ob-taining sufficient evidence to act against this nation. Co-

vert OPS reconnaissance teams periodically attempt toinfiltrate various installations in North Korea, but mostfail, and the rest simply vanish and are presumed dead.

PAKISTAN

In contrast to North Korea’s authoritarianism, Pakistanis a fragmented nation locked in perpetual conflict. ecentral portions of the nation are ruled by a brutal mili-tary government and the rest of Pakistan is controlledby more than a dozen feuding warlords who are unitedonly by their hatred of the central government. is stateof aff airs has continued for the last years. ere aremany rumors that both sides possess hyperspatial weap-ons and other weapons of mass destruction, but neitherside wishes any foreign interference.

e only thing that the warlords and the central gov-ernment hate more than each other is India. e OPS andIndian intelligence agencies carefully monitor possible



46

threats of hyperspatial weapons or other weapons of massdestruction being readied for use against India. Both thePakistani government and the warlords are suspected of

various acts of terrorism against targets in India. However,

lack of proof, combined with the fact that these acts haveso far only involved the use of conventional weapons keepsthe OPS from being able to act against Pakistan, just offear of open warfare with Pakistan keeps the Indian gov-ernment from any form of direct retaliation.

THREATS AND DANGERS IN 2030 e OPS strives to protect humanity from dangers like thefollowing. Although the OPS is regularly called to deal

with threats of chemical, biological, or nuclear terrorismor unapproved research into such weapons, much of their

work involves dealing with alien threats, mythos cults, hy-perspatial sorcery, or threats to the off -world colonies.

ALIEN THREATS OPS agents are responsible for keeping the treaties withthe deep ones and mi-go. ey also investigate possible in-cursions by the other aliens and ab-human beings. is en-forcement largely amounts to making certain that humansand aliens who are willing to defy existing treaties andmake illegal deals are swiftly found and punished. OPSagents are sometimes called upon to deal with especiallyproblematic bands of ghouls. ese eff orts usually requirekilling the ringleaders while also making certain to avoidanything that draws attention to the ghouls’ existence andto avoid killing more ghouls than is absolutely necessary.OPS knows that ghouls tolerate attacks on the most ambi-tious and aggressive of their number, but fears that exces-sive violence could lead to a wave of disappearances amonghumans in the area, as the ghouls retaliate.

OPS agents must also occasionally deal with simplerand more direct alien threats. Some are obvious, like fl y-ing polyps that break free from the ancient wards con-taining them and seek to feed upon humanity beforedeparting for the far reaches of space. When evidenceof such activity is discovered, an OPS strike team is not

far behind. e OPS deals with humans who have beenmutated into mad and dangerous monsters by high-levelhyperspatial exposure in the same fashion.

Armed with powerful weapons and occasionally hyper-spatial sorcery or hyperspatial devices, the OPS can deal

with most alien or ab-human foes, but some such foes causesignificant destruction and loss of life before they can bedestroyed or forced to flee the planet. OPS strike teams that

attack dangerous aliens and ab-humans have the highestmortality rate among Earth-based OPS groups. Discover-ing some aliens and ab-humans can be at least as difficult asdefeating them. Serpent people are rare, but use illusions to

pass as human. e smartest and most dangerous serpentpeople excel at avoiding cameras, and use their powers tosecretly control the people around them.

Also, in space, OPS agents must deal with incidents where moonbeast (see p. ) activity is suspected. Asexperts at hiding and working through intermediaries,moonbeasts are difficult foes to face. Fortunately, they arealso the only species that humanity is engaged in ongo-ing active hostilities with. Regardless of the type of alienor ab-human threat, OPS strike teams work to evacuatecivilians from the location, while also either destroyingthe threat or containing it until additional strike teamscan bring in larger and deadlier weapons.

MYTHOS CULTS

One of the most destructive and dangerous ways thathumanity can interact with aliens or hyperspatial entitiesis by forming cults and worshiping or serving these be-ings. Although aliens are now common trading partners,in the past humans who encountered aliens often wor-shiped them because they assumed that all non-humansmust be divine or demonic. While this is no longer thecase, hyperspatial entities still have a strong power diff er-ential in their interactions with humans, usually leadingto conditions of servitude.

Today the vast majority of mythos cults serve vari-ous hyperspatial entities rather than commonplace aliens.Cthulhu, in particular, periodically maintains sufficient

wakefulness and connection to the physical world to beable to send dreams and visions to sensitive individuals.Other hyperspatial entities, including Flying Polyps andother Great Old Ones, also occasionally attempt to sub-orn humans in the same fashion. Most sane individualsignore dreams and vision sent by hyperspatial beings. Atmost, the majority of humans would either seek therapyor take up the use of sleeping pills. However, someone

with a mildly unstable mind can become fascinated with visions of ancient and terrible wonders and inhuman di-

mensions. Others are filled with the hope that the mon-strous being that contacted them can fulfill some difficultor impossible desire, or become terrified of these visionsand the beings sending them and do their bidding in aneff ort to attempt to appease the entity.

Some people join mythos cults not because they havehad any direct contact with any alien entities, but simply



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because they are convinced to do so by existing mem-bers of the cult. Cults that grow large enough to recruitpeople with no direct connection to mythos entities arerare, but are also the most powerful and long lasting of

these cults. Often, the leaders of such large cults have hadextensive contact with the being the cult worships, andmay no longer be fully human.

ese leaders often have ways to introduce new mem-bers to the worshiped entity, either via telepathic contact,

where the leader imparts visions and their often insanemotives to the recruit, or via forbidden and blasphemousrites that summon the being into the minds of new mem-bers. e most dangerous cults of all are where the leaderor leaders are not merely in close contact with hyperspatialentities, but are also skilled sorcerers. Occasionally, carelesssorcerers succumb to the call of various hyperspatial enti-ties, and equally often, such entities teach sorcery to theirfavored servants to increase those servants’ eff ectiveness.

NON-RELIGIOUS SERVANTS

e term cult can be misleading. Actually worshipinghyperspatial entities or aliens is far from the only way tointeract with them. Some individuals feel no reverencefor these beings and are not attempting to free Cthulhuor otherwise allow various hyperspatial entities to at-tempt to conquer the Earth or rule humanity. Instead,these people seek to serve their own selfish ends, and findthe aid that mythos entities provide to be invaluable. Inmost of these cases, a single individual is contacted by

a hyperspatial entity or an alien, which asks the personfor help. ese requests can be anything from vague anddisturbing dreams of R’lyeh, to a chance meeting with arogue mi-go. Regardless of the nature of the encounter,the entity requests aid and off ers some payment in re-turn. A deep one might sink a ship or provide sorcerousaid. A ghoul might break into an underground structureand steal something or kill someone. e mi-go oftenoff er useful technology. A hyperspatial entity could drivea rival insane, or could provide precise visions of somelocation or time, providing the person with informationthat they otherwise could never obtain.

However, to attain this reward, the person must first

perform some useful service: stealing or unearthing someancient artifact and presenting it to the mythos entity,performing some exotic rite to help Cthulhu temporarilygain more awareness and ability to influence humanity,helping cover up evidence of forbidden activities by deepones or mi-go, or some similar action.

Occasionally, the service is a onetime aff air, where the

entity needs some immediate assistance and off ers to payfor it. More often, both the mythos entity and the per-son find the arrangement to be useful, and so the mythosentity now has a human servant. OPS always describes

these deals as the human serving the mythos creature,because in almost all cases that is precisely what happens.Humans who make deals with Great Old Ones or evenlesser hyperspatial entities like fl ying polyps are deal-ing with creatures who regard humans as at best useful,non-sentient vermin and which excel at using vermin astheir pawns. Physical beings like deep ones, ghouls, ormi-go are obviously on a more human level. However,deep ones and mi-go willing to break their treaties withhumanity are especially inclined to view humans as lesserbeings worthy only of being used, and many ghouls re-gard humans who work with them as potential prey whomay outlive their usefulness at any time.

Over time, these transactions make people willing togo increasingly far in aiding their inhuman masters, andcommit serious and sometimes heinous crimes in returnfor useful rewards. is is especially true when the personis serving a hyperspatial being, since repeated exposureto this being changes the person and may eventuallydestroy their sanity and transform their mind and eventheir body into something completely inhuman.

is relationship can also expand to include others. While most servants of mythos entities prefer to keepthe nature of their motivations secret and to hire un-knowing assistants to help them accomplish their mas-

ter’s commands, sometimes the requests are sufficientlyunusual that the only way to gain assistance is to findothers willing to serve their inhuman master. e result-ing cabal consists of the board of directors of a powerfulcorporation or the members of an alliance of politiciansor business owners more often than it resembles a reli-gious sect. However, the group’s actions are quite similarto those of an actual mythos cult; only the reasons andrationalizations are diff erent. Instead of enacting the willof their deity or the directives of an unchangeable fate,these “cultists” seek to serve their own ends, but are morethan willing to provide aid to malignant inhuman crea-tures in order to accomplish their goals.

Some of these individuals justify their behavior becausethey refrain from committing murder or other severelyimmoral acts. When the OPS discovers the servant of amythos entity who has not committed serious crimes, theymay erase the person’s memory of the incident, but are un-likely to impose more serious penalties. Occasionally, suchindividuals have been recruited into OPS if psychological



48

testing proves them to suitable candidates. e desire todeal with nonhuman creatures is not itself evil, after all;the particular entities a person deals with, and their moti-

vations, may be, but not everyone who follows such a path

does it in full knowledge of the consequences. When individuals are found to be complicit with deep

ones or mi-go who are breaking the treaties that bothspecies have with humanity, OPS agents also attemptto apprehend, or at least identify, the deep one or mi-gocriminals and their superiors, then share this informa-tion with representatives of the appropriate species. On afew occasions, OPS agents have been in the odd positionof working with deep ones or, more rarely, mi-go agents

who are also charged with apprehending treaty-breakers. is extended cooperation is rarely easy or comfortable,but can lead to the OPS agents learning far more aboutthe species involved; some especially curious agents signon for this work preferentially.

Even the most moral individuals can find their moral-ity changing along with their psychological stability whenthey work with hyperspatial entities, however. Continuedexposure to hyperspatial energies, especially if the person isin regular psychic contact with the entity, eventually trans-forms the individual into an insane and inhuman monster.

When the OPS apprehends a cultist or servant of theseentities who has committed serious crimes, the person issubject to either imprisonment or lengthy psychologicalrehabilitation – if it is not too late for them entirely.

THE GOALS & ACTIVITIES OF CULTS

Regardless of whether people serve mythos entities fromselfish greed, misplaced reverence, or fear, these entitiesfind a variety of uses for human cultists and servants. Or-dinary aliens and inhuman beings like the deep ones, mi-go, or ghouls all have relatively simple and obvious needs.

ey order or pay their human cultists or servants to acquireuseful artifacts or eliminate individuals who interfere withtheir plans. Hyperspatial beings are far less comprehensible.Great Cthulhu has the obvious goal of wishing to regain itsfreedom, while others wish for greater power, dominationof the Earth, or similar goals, but their methods of accom-plishing these goals rarely seem straightforward.

Some hyperspatial entities seek to cause large-scalecatastrophes like earthquakes or nuclear explosions inorder to either feed off the power of the event and theenergy of the deaths caused – or because these events insome way alter the local structure of hyperspace in waysthat benefit the entity. Other hyperspatial beings ordertheir human servants to acquire powerful magical arti-

facts, assemble at some magically potent site, and per-form an exotic ritual. While some of these rituals haveobvious goals like allowing the creature, or more oftenone of its servants to temporarily manifest, other ritu-

als have no obvious eff ect, but may eventually grant thecreature greater access to Earth.

e most terrible and ambitious plans involve severallarge cults performing rituals at widely separated loca-tions, with the goal of changing the local structure ofhyperspace in profound and occasionally lasting ways.Even without intervention by OPS agents, most ritualsdesigned to make permanent or long-lasting eff ects onthe structure of hyperspace have little or no chance ofsuccess. Restructuring hyperspace is exceptionally diffi-cult and even the most powerful hyperspatial beings havegreat difficulty in reliably making such changes. How-ever, the OPS attempts to stop these rituals, both becauseof the terrible consequences of an unlikely success andbecause the rituals involved often involve human sacri-fice and other equally unpleasant activities.

Sometimes these rituals have short term eff ects as well. One ritual performed in caused hundreds ofthousands of people in Europe and America to fall preyto a mysterious illness that produced coma-like sleep,sometimes for decades. Occult scholars now know thatthe minds of these victims drifted into hyperspace, wherethey were gradually devoured or fed upon by Cthulhu.Similarly, a group of very powerful servitors of the othergods was summoned in San Francisco in . e actions

of these beings caused a temporary ripple in the localfabric of hyperspace that for the next two days causedmore than people in the city to accidentally wanderinto hyperspace, where they were devoured by its hun-gry denizens. Many OPS researchers also worry that ifrepeated often enough, some rituals designed to makemajor changes in hyperspace might actually succeed.

According to one theory, Cthulhu is working to undothe eff ects of the Elder Weapon by periodically contact-ing minds and inducing cultists to perform various ritu-als. Each ritual has no noticeable eff ect, but hundreds ofthese rituals performed over the course of thousands of

years may give Cthulhu greater access to the Earth. OPS

researchers have no proof that this theory is true, butmost operatives tend to act is if it were, since ignoringthis possibility could be disastrous.

OPS RESPONSE TO CULTS

Human cooperation with aliens or ab-humans outside theboundaries of appropriate contact is a serious problem, but



1

4

most humans involved are regarded as ordinary criminalsor misguided dupes and dealt with accordingly. e resultof most illegal human-alien cooperation rarely amountsto more than theft, and perhaps some property damage.

Murders happen, but are relatively rare. e OPS is ea-ger to stop such eff orts, especially if lives are at risk, butconsiders a single team of operatives more than sufficientto handle most such problems. However, cases where hu-mans serve major hyperspatial entities are considered to beamong the most serious threats that OPS faces.

Because of the great danger posed by any interaction with hyperspatial entities, and the fact that humans working with them may include powerful and possibly deranged ormutated sorcerers, OPS moves swiftly and cautiously whendealing with these groups. Unless they suspect a group to beon the verge of a major eff ort, OPS protocols dictate thatany such cult be observed carefully, to determine the group’ssize and influence, how serious a threat it represents and

whether it has ties to any other similar groups.

SAFEGUARDING SPACE

OPS also operates away from Earth. Some off -world OPSoperatives spend most of their time exploring new worlds,identifying those that are safe for colonization or otherforms of use. ey also determine which worlds and whichalien species pose threats for humanity. Others monitorand protect off world bases and colonies. ese operatives

visit the various human colonies and investigate any prob-lems or threats that fall within their mandate. ey exam-

ine newly discovered alien artifacts, look into evidence ofunlicensed contact with alien intelligences, and track theuse of sorcery or alien technology by the inhabitants ofthe colony. However, all off -world OPS operatives must beprepared to perform any and all off -world duties.

OFF-WORLD CULTS

One of the most difficult aspects of OPS off -world opera-tions is uncovering and dealing with mythos cults on alien

worlds. at fact that many settlements are both smalland isolated means that given the correct circumstances,a mythos cult can rapidly spread to most or all of the in-habitants, and it may have done so weeks or months beforeany OPS operatives arrive. Full-size colonies are mildly atrisk; the danger of such cults appearing is highest in re-mote bases like biological research stations, archeologicalsites, and mining and resource extraction facilities, mostof which have a total population of less than . Manyof these bases are located on recently discovered worlds

which have not been fully explored. In such circumstances,

the discovery of an alien artifact with psychological eff ects,contact by a hyperspatial entity, or the presence of a secretsorcerer who already has begun worshiping some mythosentity can cause a small off -world settlement to become

entirely caught up in the cult in a few weeks or less. If thecult spreads to enough of the inhabitants, those who op-pose it can be imprisoned or killed.

e appeal of these cults is the same as the appeal ofmythos cults to people on Earth: wealth, power, protec-tion, revenge, and safety remain the most common motives.However, such cults can arise in isolated off -world settle-ments more easily than they can on Earth. e profoundisolation of living on an alien world for months or years at atime, combined with the fact that the inhabitants have fewprotections from contact with hyperspatial entities, renderssmaller settlements and bases uniquely vulnerable to suchproblems. When such incidents occur, the story released tothe general public usually tells of a research base destroyedby natural disaster; any who have survived undergo rehabili-tation and usually have their memories altered.

POLICING THE STARS

One of the unofficial duties of OPS agents who visitoff -world colonies is general law enforcement. Officially,every off -world settlement is supposed to take care of itsown law enforcement. e large permanent colonies havetheir own courts, while the many small temporary settle-ments, like research bases, are supposed to send seriousoff enders back to Earth for trial. However, the dynamics

of isolated settlements are well known; prejudice and theurge towards frontier justice can cause serious problems.Powerful and popular residents of small settlements caneasily have their off enses overlooked, while unpopularand low status inhabitants make convenient scapegoatsfor various crimes and misfortunes.

Because such problems occasionally arise, OPS agents visiting off -world settlements typically take on the unof-ficial responsibility of attempting to prevent gross mis-carriages of justice. Although OPS agents have no of-ficial power to enforce their decisions, OPS agents cancarry reports back to the proper authorities and can makecitizens’ arrests. More importantly, only the most desper-

ate or hardened criminals are willing to harm or kill OPSagents, and faced with the possibility of their actionsbeing reported, the inhabitants of many settlements goalong with the OPS agents’ recommendations to avoid afull-scale investigation by Earthly authorities.



50

Ilearned of chapters in human history whose existence no scholar of today has ever sus-pected. Most of these writings were in the language of the hieroglyphs; which I studied ina queer way with the aid of droning machines, and which was evidently an agglutinativespeech with root systems utterly unlike any found in human languages.... On waking, Icould recall only minute and meaningless scraps of the unknown tongues which my dream-

self had mastered, though whole phrases of the history stayed with me...I talked with the mind of Nug-Soth, a magician of the dark conquerors of , A.D.; with

that of a Roman named Titus Sempronius Blaesus, who had been a quaestor in Sulla’s time; withthat of Khephnes, an Egyptian of the th Dynasty, who told me the hideous secret of Nyarla-thotep, with that of a priest of Atlantis’ middle kingdom; with that of a Suff olk gentleman of

Cromwell’s day, James Woodville; with that of a court astronomer of pre-Inca Peru; with that ofthe Australian physicist Nevil Kingston-Brown, who will die in , A.D.; with that of an archim-age of vanished Yhe in the Pacific; with that of eodotides, a Greco-Bactrian official Of B.C.;

with that of an aged Frenchman of Louis XIII’s time named Pierre-Louis Montagny; with that ofCrom-Ya, a Cimmerian chieftain of , B.C.; and with so many others that my brain cannothold the shocking secrets and dizzying marvels I learned from them.

H.P. Lovecraft – e Shadow Over Innsmouth



5

Chapter 2Civilians and Operatives

CHOICES

Isabella crossed the pool unaided at the YMCA when she was four; a few years later shefell in love with the Pacific Ocean. She learned to ride the waves flat on her stomach, and

when her mother dragged her home summer evenings, she would lie on her bed and lookdreamily at the ceiling, bathed in the phantom feeling of the water rocking her.

In Santa Cruz, she graduated to surfboards. She never needed a bodysuit; others stared inshock at how she plowed through the cold water near-naked. She was hardier than the othersurfers - though one managed to keep up with her, by determination and hard exercise.

Avery left for college with her when she went; and, later, honeymooned with her in Hawaii.“Do you hear that?” she asked him one night, lying in his arms on the beach.

“Hear what?”“Oh, I don’t know. A sound that isn’t a sound. at doesn’t make any sense, does it? It’s

like feeling the waves after you come out of the water.”“Sorry, I have no idea what you mean,” Avery said, and grinned. “But it sounds cool.”It was easy to love someone who accepted you even when they didn’t understand. But

after Hawaii she was restless. She had recognized for the first time some rhythm that hadalways whispered in her head, and it wouldn’t let her go. Only at her first obstetrician visit,months later, did she begin to suspect why.

“Do you have New England ancestry?” the doctor asked.“...I don’t know. Why?”“... It’s not that important. But you have some choices to make, both for yourself and the

baby. You’ve already begun changing, and any gene therapies we could do now would prob-ably leave you feeling unsatisfied and incomplete. But your baby has more human DNAthan you do, Ms. Myers.”

Bella looked over the literature. If she chose normality for the baby, would her child everhear that rhythm, or would she always be alone with it in her head? e pamphlet felt like a

weapon in her hands.



52

HERO MAKING

Creating characters is the most important step in settingup a roleplaying game. e quality of the characters makesor breaks a Series. A good Series requires interesting char-acters, characters that also fit the theme of the series.

e Director should guide players through charactercreation, starting by introducing main setting ideas andthe needs of the Series. A Series composed of relativelyordinary people stumbling into increasingly strange andexotic situations is going to require very diff erent charac-ters from one where the characters are part of a monster-hunting OPS strike team, a group of psychics, sorcerers,and researchers who study of ancient occult mysteries, or ateam of heroic space explorers.

ere’s no single right way for a group to create char-

acters or for a Director to tell players about the Series.Some Directors have a general idea and just see whatpeople come up with, leaving things wide open for theplayers. Most Directors provide some guidance, but thiscan be anything from asking players to create a groupof space explorers who can be civilians or OPS agentsto asking the players to create characters who have hadsome experience with the Cthulhu Mythos and whohave a personal connection to at least one other character.

While players should create characters in collaboration with their Director, some gaming groups prefer doingthis with everyone together and talking about their char-acters, while others prefer their characters to be created

away from the other players and for characters to havesecrets that the other players don’t know.

Also, remember that diff erent sorts of characters areappropriate for diff erent sorts of Series. If the Series is allabout people who have never had contact with Mythosaliens and hyperspace encountering these things up closefor the first time, starting out with four levels in sorceryand half a dozen spells simply isn’t appropriate. Playingsomeone who is a hybrid ghoul or deep one also may notbe, unless the character has no clue what they really areand only later finds out why one of their parents vanished

when they were a very young child. Working with your Director is an important part of

this process. ere can be a thin line between a Directorplacing too many limits on what people want to play andplayers making choices that are seriously incompatible

with the sort of Series the Director has in mind. In a Se-ries that’s supposed to consist of heroic defenders of hu-manity, playing a secret serial killer who worships Cthul-hu likely isn’t the best choice, unless the Director feels

the group will be comfortable with that sort of tension. e goal here is to have every player, and the Director,be happy and comfortable with their character. A playerless than satisfied with their character will have less fun,

and a Director uncomfortable with player characters willhave trouble making the fun happen – so a little bit ofgive and take on both sides is sometimes needed to makeeverything work out for the best.

Chapter Seven: Storytelling Hints provides Directors with advice for developing an Eldritch Skies RPG Seriesand storyline-appropriate characters. Both players and Di-rectors should read through this chapter first. It containssections on various casting choices. Before creating newHeroes, consider the basic concepts behind them. Whatkind of role will the worthy play? An ex-cat burglar whois now an OPS infiltration specialist, a hard-bitten striketeam commando, an eccentric psychic, a brilliant physicist

who is also a skilled sorcerer? Look to espionage, spaceopera and action movies and TV series for inspiration orcome up with original concepts. If inspiration is lacking,remember that sometimes the concept behind the Herodevelops after character creation, in the course of thegame. In that case, just get all the numbers down and do abasic personality sketch for now.

Sources of inspiration for new characters include mov-ies, TV shows, comics, and novels. Want to have your fa-

vorite movie action hero to fight Cthulhu? If the Directorapproves, then feel free to do so. Some characters workbetter than others, of course. Brave and heroic characters

like soldiers, spies, explorers, and daredevil archeologistsusually work best. Mainstream television characters with atweak here and there might make interesting Heroes. Anoutlandish cartoon character or a gonzo kung-fu mastermight not transfer all that well, unless the game explicitlycrosses over into these genres.

Instead of creating a character from scratch, playerscan also use ready-made Archetypes (see p. -). eyare pre-generated Heroes that can be customized andthrown into action with little or no work. Just check outthe meaning of terms and numbers (see p. ) to under-stand the characters’ abilities.

ASSIGNING CHARACTERSOne option is for the Director to create the Cast and thenhave players pick from that “short list.” e Director canthen work the characters’ backgrounds and talents into theplotline in a coherent way. is can lead to stunning plottwists, but this option puts more responsibility on the Di-rector, who makes all the casting calls. If he or she guesses



5

2 wrong about certain player reactions, it might require se-rious scrambling later on. Some players may not get thecharacters they want, and might feel deprived of the rightto play their own creations. Remember, Directors run the

show but if a particular scheme doesn’t work, the Directorshould be open to changing it – or the group should be

willing to switch Directors.

THE CREATION PROCESS

e UNISYSTEM uses a “point system” to create charac-ters. Players “buy” diff erent abilities by spending charac-ter points. e better or more powerful a characteristic is,the more “expensive” it is. Some negative features, knownas Drawbacks, give rather than cost points. ey have anegative value—by acquiring them, the character gains ahigher total of ability points. Keep in mind, of course, that

Drawbacks limit or hurt characters in some way, so load-ing them on carelessly is not a good idea.Not everything is based on points though. Some char-

acter elements are creativity-driven: character concept(what kind of person she is) and personality, as well as hername and history. ese all come from the player, withoutthe need for any points or mechanics.

THE CHARACTER ELEMENTS

Characters in the Eldritch Skies RPG have four basic ele-ments. Some elements are conceptual (what kind of char-acter is this?) while others are numerical attributes (whatare the character’s actual abilities?). As you make each se-lection, you narrow down the possibilities of the character,until you finally have a clearly defined fictional individualready to go out and start throwing his weight around.

. Type: e Character Type determines the generalpower level and nature of your character. Operatives areseriously tough and skilled. Civilians are cut-above peo-ple who depend on their wits and luck to survive. Veter-ans are really powerful and impressive.

. Attributes: Your character’s natural abilities, bothmental and physical. . Qualities and Drawbacks: e innate advantages

or penalties the aff ect your character.

. Skills: Your character’s training and learned abilities.

THE CHARACTER SHEET

Attributes: e measure of how strong, fast, andsmart the character is. e human average is , and isthe maximum for an unaugmented human.

Skills: e character’s knowledge and training. Acompetent martial artist has Brawling Skill ; one of theOPS’ best commandos may have an or a .

Qualities and Drawbacks: e character’s upsides and

downsides. Is a character unusually attractive, psychic, orsomewhat paranoid? Benefits costs points; flaws give points.

Life Points: How much damage a character can takebefore they are at, or beyond, death’s door.

Speed: How fast the character can run (in kilometersper hour).

Drama Points: In cinematic and pulp Series (see p.-), these are what separate the Heroes from ordi-nary people. Drama points allow a character to functionlike an action movie hero and not merely someone with agun and some possibly misplaced courage.

Success Level Chart: A quick reference for just howimpressive a character is at what they do. Look at thechart to see if your character was mindblowingly impres-sive or merely OK.

Combat Maneuver Table: e bonus added to thecharacter’s moves and the damage his attacks do. AddSuccess Levels to the damage.

CHARACTER TYPE

Creating a character involves allocating a number of pointsto various aspects. Character Type determines how manypoints you have to “spend” on each character component,

while also defining what sort of character you have.

OPERATIVES

e Operative category includes highly trained agents who either work for OPS or in a similar capacity for agovernment. Spies, special forces soldiers, and FBI agentsare all Operatives. Operatives also include characters whohad such training but now work free-lance, as well as theoccasional powerful sorcerer. Use this Character Type forpeople who know their way around the Cthulhu Mythosand typically have some special edge. Tough special opssoldiers who “get the mission done”, powerful and highlyskilled sorcerers, brilliant engineering polymaths, and

highly experienced psychic investigators are examples ofthis type of character. Every OPS operative is by definitionan Operative, hence the name.

Attribute Points: Quality Points: Drawback Points: up to Skill Points: Drama Points:



54

CIVILIANS Civilians are above-average people with some degree oftraining who happen to find themselves dealing with

Mythos aliens and unusual situations. ey don’t havemuch in the way of special powers, but in a Series usingDrama Points, they start the game with more points, al-lowing them to survive against insurmountable odds. Jour-nalists who risk danger or madness to get their story, or-dinary police officers who encounter cosmic dangers, andscientists and technicians who discover wonders and ter-rors either inside the laboratory or following them homeare all examples of this type of character.

Civilians can be used in the same Series as Operatives,but are only recommended if the Director is using the“Now With Extra Pulp” (see p. ) rule option for DramaPoints. Otherwise, Operatives and Civilians may be toounequal to work well together. If the Director elects to gogritty and not use Drama Points (see. ), then Operativesand Civilians should not appear in the same Cast, since inthis case Civilians have no advantage to off set their lowerscores.


VETERANS

ese are full-fledged cinematic heroes, with incredibleskills and abilities. Veterans should not be used alongsideOperative and Civilian characters, unless the Directorand group want to have a significant power gap betweenthe Characters. is is the type you would use to createSpecial Forces soldiers who rescue human experimentalsubjects from fiendish alien laboratories with baling wireand a knife, sorcerers whose names are spoken in whis-pers in the occult community, and augmented half-ghoulpsychics who have battled mythos dangers on a dozen dif-ferent worlds. Of course, in keeping with their impressiveabilities, such characters will also face world-shatteringdangers and terrible foes.


ATTRIBUTES

Attributes are inborn characteristics: strength, intelligence,senses and so on. Attributes define the limits of what acharacter can and cannot do. Characters who are designedto be impressive heroes shouldn’t have low Attributes, andplayers should take care not to scrimp.

BUYING ATTRIBUTES Attributes are purchased using Attribute Points. osepoints are set by Character Type (see p. ). Attributescan be “bought” up to level fi ve on a one-for-one basis(i.e., Strength would cost three points, Strength fourpoints, and so on). Attributes above level fi ve are more

expensive: points per additional level. For a humancharacter, the maximum Attribute is level six—that’stops for ordinary humans (buying an Attribute up tolevel six would cost points). Partially human characterslike half ghouls and half deep ones don’t have this limita-tion, but buying Attributes up to maximum can reallyeat into points. Qualities and Augmentations can alsoincrease Attributes; we’ll revisit this later.

At the other end, at least one point must be put intoeach Attribute. Leaving any attribute at one is not recom-mended: that’s the kind of weakness that can get a charactertaken out easily when things get hairy (and they always do).

For example: a Civilian character has points to distributeamong the six Attributes. is could amount to three Attri-butes at level two (average), and three at level three (somewhatabove average). A player could also raise an attribute to four bytaking a less important attribute down to average, or even dropan average Attribute to one, creating a character who wouldreally shine in one aspect, is above average at a couple otherthings, is a liability at one thing and is average for the rest.

MIXING AND MATCHING

In many Series, the characters are going to be all Operativesor all Civilians. If the concept for a Series is a crack team of

OPS operatives, then no one should have a Civilian charac-ter, and if the Series is about a group of hardy colonists onan alien world seeking to uncover the terrors and wonders oftheir new world, then Operatives may be out of place. Op-eratives also have more raw power and more diverse abili-ties than Civilians, and some people will not like that sortof power diff erence. All Operative, all Civilian, and mixedSeries can all work, but the Director should always makesure the group is comfortable with power level diff erentialsand make sure players have clear expectations.



5

2

THE MEANING OF NUMBERS

Level : e character is below average in that Attribute. Strength indicates a poor physique, either a petite orflabby, sedentary person. Dexterity indicates clumsiness, someone likely to drop things—not to be trusted withintricate manual work except in areas where she has trained very hard. Characters with a Constitution are delicateand often in poor health. Intelligence is below average—not mentally challenged, but certainly slow on the uptake.

A Perception person is not very aware of his surroundings, likely to miss what ’s before his face. A character with Willpower is easily intimidated and influenced by others, a follower instead of a leader, and somebody who is likelyto succumb to temptation. Attributes at level one can be dangerous, and give a character a challenging weakness.

Level : is is the average for human beings. Most people from the general population have Attributes at this level,typically with one or two at levels one or three. Nothing wrong with being average, but a character is unlikely tomake great achievements with such Attributes, unless his skills are so high he can compensate.

Level : is is above average but not extraordinary. Strength and Constitution show some athletic aptitude—somebody who works out at least three times a week, or a natural athlete who has not taken time to develop hertalent. Characters with Dexterity are graceful—good dancing partners, grabbed near the beginning in pick-upsports, unlikely to “drop the ball” when put to the test. Intelligence indicates a bright person who can easily learnnew skills, if he has the temperament to do so. With Perception , a character has good senses and intuition, and isnot easily fooled or confused. Characters with Willpower are rarely bluff ed or bullied under normal circumstances.

Level : An Attribute at level four is well above average. A few people, perhaps one out every ten in a random group,have one or two Attributes at this level. Strength and Constitution can be found only in athletes (including thebest football players in a large high school or college campus), extensively trained Special Forces soldiers, and otherpeople who spend serious time in the weight room. A Dexterity would only be common among top amateur ballplayers, gymnasts, acrobats, and sensei. Mental Attributes at level four indicate near genius (Intelligence), uncannysenses (Perception), or iron will (Willpower).

Level : is is the “practical” human limit. People at these levels are extraordinarily talented, able to perform com-plex and difficult feats with little practice. While people with Attributes at level fi ve are not “record breakers,” theyare among the best and the brightest. In a small or medium-sized community, only a handful of people have oneor two Attributes at this level, and they are likely to be well known for their strength, wisdom, or toughness. Cities,large college campuses, and groups of OPS operatives have more of these extraordinary individuals, but even therethey are not common. ink of the mental prodigy who can work hyperspatial equations in her head, the Olympic

athlete, the sales clerk who resists bargaining and whose pitches always work.

Level : is is the true human limit. A few people with “freakish” attributes may exceed it (to level seven), but theyare a handful even among the teeming billions living in the st century. Characters with one or more Attributes atlevel six are very rare, something on the order of one in ten thousand, or less. People with more than one Attributeat level six are perhaps ten times less common, and so on.

Level +: ese are superhuman levels of ability. A physically fit deep one has Strength ; Dexterity would matcha particularly graceful tiger...



56

An Operative has twenty points. A balanced Operative who’s reasonably good at most things might have four At-tributes at level three and two at level four, while keepingthree Attributes at average level and having two at level

fi ve and one at level four would create a character who isextremely gifted in certain areas.

THE SIX ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH

e measure of a character’s physical power, Strengthgoverns how much damage the character inflicts andhow much weight he or she can carry, and helps deter-mine how much damage he or she can take. Strength isuseful to people who do a lot of heavy lifting or anybody

likely to enter close combat—in Eldritch Skies , the lattermay occur often. Characters apt to have a high Strengthinclude athletes, manual workers, and soldiers. Frail orsmall-body types and couch potatoes have low strength.

e Strength Table notes the amount a character candead lift without much eff ort. is load can be carriedaround for a while but carrying this much isn’t easy or fun.

A character’s maximum lifting weight—for brief periodsis equal to double the Lifting Capacity, but lifting heroic

amounts of weight too often leads to knee or back injuries.

DEXTERITY

Dexterity indicates a character’s physical coordination, agil-ity, and gracefulness. It aids any task that calls for motorcontrol and precision, and reflex tasks like steering a vehi-cle, dodging an attack or firing weapons. A high Dexter-ity comes in handy for acrobatics, picking locks, wrigglingthrough tight spaces, and sneaking around: an Operativeperforming an extraction mission will find it very useful.

CONSTITUTION

is Attribute shows a character’s physical hardiness orhealth. Constitution is important when it comes to re-

sisting disease, damage, and fatigue. It is used (along withStrength) to figure out what kind of pounding a Hero canstand up to. Constitution is useful for people in strenuousand dangerous jobs as well as anyone who is likely to beexposed to alien diseases and exotic toxins.

INTELLIGENCE

is mental Attribute determines your character’s abilityto learn, correlate, and retain information. A charactercan use Intelligence to excel at “scholastic” skills, and tounderstand and interpret information. Note that intel-ligence and education are two separate things; a charac-

ter could be a natural prodigy, but if she grew up with-out books and pencils, she’d still be illiterate – while acharacter of low Intelligence could still be a great reader

with some work. Education is covered by your charac-ter’s skills, which determine what she has learned in herlife. Scientists, engineers, master manipulators, and otherintellectual types tend to have a high Intelligence level.

PERCEPTION When a hungry ghoul is waiting in a dark alley, Per-ception might help your Hero spot the critter before itstrikes. is mental Attribute governs the usual fi ve sens-es and any extra ones that your character might possess.Hard-bitten detectives (to spot those important clues),people with persistent enemies (to see or hear them com-ing), and psychics (to detect hostile or alien minds) livelonger when they are highly aware of their surroundings.

STRENGTH TABLE

S L C

- kg x Strength (Strength : kg)

- kg x (Strength - ) + kg (Strength : kg)

- x (Strength - ) + kg (Strength : , kg/ tons)

- kg x (Strength - ) + , kg (Strength : , kg/ tons)

- ton x (Strength - ) + tons (Strength : tons)




5

2

WILLPOWER

is Attribute measures mental strength and self-control,and the ability to resist fear, intimidation, and temptation.Experienced Operatives don’t lose their lunch when theyfind the remains of a ghoul’s latest meal, but some thingsout there are much worse than that. When your characterruns into that sort of creepiness, Willpower allows her tokeep her cool. Any supernatural ability that tries to con-trol or influence victims is resisted by Willpower. It canalso be used actively, to intimidate and dominate othersthrough sheer force of will.

ATTRIBUTE BONUSES

Some Qualities (like Astronaut, Half-Breed Ghoul, orSpy) provide bonuses to one or more Attributes. esebonuses are applied after Attributes have been purchasednormally. For example, if you spend points on Dexterity,and your character has a Quality that adds a + to Dexter-ity, a Dexterity is the final result.

LIFE POINTS

Life Points keep a character fi ghting, running, or juststanding when the pounding commences. Strength and

Constitution are determinant factors—a big, muscle-bound Special Forces soldier can survive more punish-ment than a -pound professor. When your character’sLife Points reach zero or lower, they’re near death andshould lie down before they fall over.

Life Points are determined by adding the character’sStrength and Constitution, multiplying the result by

four, and adding . e Life Point Table gives the resultsof these calculations, handily allowing you to skip them.

is formula is only for human beings and human-likebeings such as deep ones and ghouls. Some creatureshave diff erent Life Point totals (hyperspatial entities likefl ying polyps are much tougher than normal humans, forexample, see p. ).

e Hard to Kill Quality (see p. ) is a good way toincrease Life Points. Players should work out their char-acters’ Life Points after all Attributes and Qualities havebeen purchased, and all Drawbacks taken.

SPEED is Attribute represents how fast characters can run atmaximum speed. It usually only comes up during chases(see Chapter : Rules & Gear , p. ). A character’s Speedis equal to their (Constitution + Dexterity) x . is is howmany kilometers per hour (kph) the character can run.

is translates to (Constitution + Dexterity) x mph. Ona shorter time scale, characters can move Constitution +Dexterity meters (or yards) in a second and can run fi vetimes that far during a Turn.

QUALITIES AND DRAWBACKS

Qualities are innate or specially trained characteristics thatgive the character an advantage or positive trait. Beinga psychic is a Quality, as is being a trained solider or anab-human hybrid. Characters like these have abilities thatother people lack and they may also have some major orminor drawbacks, but overall the good outweighs the bad:players can buy these traits with Quality Points.

LIFE POINT TABLE

STRENGTH CONSTITUION



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Drawbacks are characteristics that somehow limit ordetract from the character—being overly money conscious,having emotional problems, or having a limp or bad eyesight,for example. Drawbacks have values. When Drawbacks are

acquired, the character gains extra points that can be usedto buy Qualities or skills. ink of the extra points as a littlereward for giving the character a bit of a dark side—actuallypar for the course in the mythos universe.

Beginning characters are limited to points inDrawbacks. at does not mean players have to take points’ worth of Drawbacks; most should probably endup with less than that. Not every character needs to be aparanoid amnesiac with a limp.

LIST OF QUALITIES AND DRAWBACKS

ACUTE/IMPAIRED SENSES

-point or -point Quality or Drawback Some people have the eyes of a hawk, or the ears of

a bat. Others are near-sighted, hard of hearing, or oth-erwise impaired. Characters with this Quality have onesense that is more (or less, if it’s a Drawback) refinedand sensitive than the rest. Normally, the fi ve senses are

wrapped into the Perception Attribute. Acute or Im-paired Senses indicate one or more are higher or lowerthan normal for a person with that Perception Attribute.

When bought as a Quality, an Acute Sense gives yourcharacter a + bonus to any Perception-related roll thatrelies on that sense. If acquired as a Drawback, Impaired

Senses give a similar - penalty to Perception-based rolls.Some Impaired Senses (hearing and sight in particular)

can sometimes be easily corrected by appliances such as glass-es or hearing aids. If the impairment is eliminated by the useof such devices, the Drawback only counts for one characterpoint. As long as your character is wearing his glasses or hear-ing aid, he’s fine. If, say, a heavily armed thug knocks his glass-es off , your character could be a in a world of hurt (blurry andquick moving weaponry is definitely on the “thing to avoid”list). It is possible to have more than one type of Acute orImpaired Sense, or an up-and-down mix, for example, AcuteHearing and Impaired Eyesight. Taking Impaired and Acute

versions of the same sense would cancel out.Smell and taste do not impact human abilities much.

As such, a -point drawback is not possible, except thata half-breed ghoul character could drop their acuity ofsmell to normal human levels for one point. e com-plete lack of smell or taste is miserable for the suff ererand aff ects situations like detecting smoke from a fi re,and such an inability is worth points.

ADDICTION Variable Drawback

Some characters seek out drugs to relieve the stresses oftheir lives. While an opiate stupor might make memoriesof brain-twisting hyperspatial entities more bearable, it canalso provide a diff erent route to madness and death. Also, theOPS isn’t too keen on hard drug addiction. Most Operatives

HALLUCINOGENS AND THE MYTHOS

Hallucinogens and empathogens (such as MDMA, knownas Ecstasy) are not physically addictive. Instead, they’re a

special case. A character with any level of HyperspatialExposure risks “seeing too far” when they take these drugs.Sometimes, that’s why people take them. Other times,they stumble in unaware. A hyperspatially aware character

who takes Ecstasy experiences a - penalty to Willpowerand has a chance of temporarily developing an uncon-trollable psychic power, assigned by the Director for theduration of the drug’s eff ect. e eff ects also temporarilydisable Iron Mind and Supernatural Resistance.

A hyperspatially aware character who takes a hallu-cinogen suff ers a - penalty to Willpower and Dexterityrolls, and will see creatures that are not usually there.

“Indescribable shapes both alive and otherwisewere mixed in disgusting disarray, and close toevery known thing were whole worlds of alien,unknown entities...Foremost among the livingobjects were great inky, jellyish monstrositieswhich fl abbily quivered in harmony with thevibrations from the machine. ey were presentin loathsome profusion, and I saw to my horrorthat they overlapped; that they were semi- fl uidand capable of passing through one another andthrough what we know as solids...”

— H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond

Now, are those creatures actually there? Well, that’sthe problem. Some of them are. Without some indepen-dent means of verification, it becomes difficult to tell thediff erence between real hyperspatial manifestations andgenuinely hallucinatory ones. e eff ect replicates theVoorish Sign spell or Tillinghast viewer, but adds in fod-der from the character’s own unconscious mind.

Cults often use these drugs on unwitting or unwill-ing guests; a few hits of acid in a drink can generate aconversion experience…or make their enemies vulner-able to passing hyperspatial predators.



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roll and one month of game time for every point of addic-tion eliminated, or two months for every point of a prescrip-tion sedative addiction. e player must make an additional

Willpower roll when especially stressful circumstances would

normally drive the character to use the drug, or backslide.

AMNESIA

-point Drawback e character has lost a part of his memory. e char-

acter still remembers who he is, but some portion, betweena few months and a few years worth, of his memories aremissing. He doesn’t know why: maybe this results from aphysical injury or illness, from trauma too terrible to recall,an alien Hypnotic Command, a Hypnoscope, or a body-swap with a Yithian. What happened during the forgottentime period is up to the Director, who may impose new

Qualities and Drawbacks later as the character starts todiscover the lost memories.

ASTRONAUT

-point Quality e character has the “right stuff ” and has experience

both going into space and working with space ships. echaracter also knows her way around zero-G environmentsand automatically possesses the Space Training Quality.

Astronauts gain + to one Mental Attribute (Intelligence,Perception, or Willpower), and + to Constitution. In ad-dition, astronauts gain + to Acrobatics, + to Engineering,and + to Pilot. On the downside, astronauts learn that be-

ing careless gets you killed fast, and so all astronauts have amild Obsession to double check all equipment and safetyprecautions. Being an astronaut costs points.

ATHLETE

-point Quality e character is into physical fitness in a big way. Athletes

can be marathon training types, weightlifters, enthusiasticswimmers or team players. Whatever their specialty, athletesgain + to each physical Attribute (to a maximum level of sixfor humans), and one level of both the Acrobatics and theSports Skill. e character must also purchase at least one

more level of each skill. Athletes also gain a two-point Obses-sion with keeping fit, eating right, and/or keeping in practice.

ATTRACTIVENESS

-point/level Quality or Drawback is Quality or Drawback determines the character’s

looks (or lack thereof). e average person has an At-

tractiveness of zero, but it can range from - to + in hu-mans. A + or + make the person stand out in a crowd.

At + or +, we are talking model-good looks. At +,the pulchritude borders on the heart stopping. On the

flip side, at - or -, the person has homely features, orunsightly blemishes or scars. At - or -, the characteris downright repulsive. At -, looking at the character isalmost painful and perhaps even mildly horrifying.

A positive Attractiveness helps a great deal in most socialsituations. A character’s looks and attitude can slip him intosorcerous gatherings where he doesn’t belong, or into thegood graces of the wary. A character’s Attractiveness bonusadds to any activity involving persuasion (usually InfluenceSkill rolls.) Negative attractiveness works the opposite way,except when the purpose is to intimidate someone. eharsher your character looks, the quicker most folks cave tohis demands. Ugliness also brings Fear Tests (see p. ).

Attractiveness costs or adds one point per level as aQuality or Drawback, respectively. After character cre-ation, Attractiveness can change only by events thatmodify the character’s entire appearance, either throughscarring or plastic surgery, or by more moderate changes:a bit of gray at the temples can be distinguished, and anupgrade from chunky glasses to contacts or sleeker mod-els can make a diff erence.

CLOWN

-point Drawback e Clown uses humor to cover all types of situations,

even during the most inappropriate moments. Perhapsthis character is deeply insecure and tries to gain otherpeople’s acceptance through humor, or simply delights inkeeping folks off -balance with her comments. e big-gest problem these characters have is that they cannotkeep their mouths shut even when they know a joke willonly work against them.

Clowns are generally accepted and liked during situa-tions where their quirky humor is not out of place (partiesand other social gatherings, or among friends). eir senseof humor gets them in trouble during tense and dangeroussituations. Another problem the Clown faces is that peo-ple often do not take him seriously even when they should.

CONTACTS

Variable Quality You know the routine—get in touch with the right

people and you get information, special supplies, somecash, or even a well made sniper rifle. is Quality gives

your character those phone numbers. e more helpful the



6

2contact is, the higher the Quality’s point value. For anyand all Contacts, your Director determines whether theyare available at any given time. Generally, the more time

your character has to reach or get word to her Contact, the

more likely the Contact comes through.Contacts can be anyone with the inside track in their

area (or anyone who at least claims to have the inside track).Pick a sphere of influence for your character’s Contactsfrom the following: Criminal, Governmental, Supernatural,or Technical/Academic. Some suggestions are listed below.

Criminal: Informers, fences, dealers, burglars, divebartenders, alien tech smugglers, mobsters, con men.

Governmental: Cops, detectives, national or inter-national agents, bureaucrats, politicians, OPS operatives.

Supernatural: Professional sorcerers, deep one hy-brids, human agents of ghouls, mythos cultists, seriousoccult hobbyists.

Technical/Academic: Astronauts, technicians, engineers,scientists, archaeologists, scholars, researchers, professors.

A Contact that only provides hints, rumors, or gossipcosts one point. If the Contact usually provides reliableinformation and helps the character out in small ways(off ering a ride, letting the character spend the nightover, or getting a background check on somebody), thisQuality sets you back two points. Actual allies who helpthe character in any way they can run three to fi ve points,depending on the Contact’s resources.

COVETOUS

- to -point Drawback Everybody wants stuff . A Covetous character wantsstuff really badly, and is willing do almost anything to getit. He may be motivated by love of money, lust for sensualsatisfaction, hunger for power, or the search for glory. Hisdesires are limited only by his sense of caution or moral-ity—and in some cases, not even by that.

ere are four types of covetousness: Greed (moneyand wealth), Lechery (sexual relations), Ambition (powerand influence), and Conspicuousness (fame and renown).It is possible to covet two or more of those things, buteach additional source of desire adds only a single pointto the value of this Drawback.

e Covetous Drawback has three levels of severity, worth one, two and three points respectively.

Mild: e first level is relatively low-key. Your charac-ter knows what he wants and spends a great deal of timeand eff ort to attain it, but won’t break his own rules orthose of society to do so. is is a one-point Drawback.

Serious: Presented with enough temptation, the char-

acter may act even if it goes against her better judgment ormorality. She may resist if the action she contemplates istruly wrong and reprehensible—stealing credit for a friend’sheroic deed, for example—but resisting requires a Willpow-

er (doubled) roll, at a penalty of - to - if the temptation andpossible rewards are great. is is a two-point Drawback.

Desperate: e character has a desire so strong that itoften overwhelms her scruples. She can only avoid actingon temptation by making a Willpower (not doubled) roll,

with penalties ranging from - to - depending on thesize of the prize. For a high enough reward, the characterturns on friends or loved ones, and even betrays her prin-ciples. is is a three-point Drawback.

CRIMINAL/INSIDER

- or -point Quality

Some people live on the wrong side of the law. A Crimi-nal can be a suave expert safecracker and second-story man,or an angry mob enforcer looking for revenge—basicallyanybody involved in shady deals and illegal shenanigans.

A Criminal gets + to any Attribute (Intelligent, Per-ception, or Willpower if they are thinking-type criminals,Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution for the brawn-over-brain types), + to the Crime Skill (naturally), and + to askill related to her criminal career. A getaway driver, forexample, would get a + to her Driving Skill, a cat bur-glar would use his bonus on Acrobatics, and an enforcer

would put it into Brawling.On the down side, Criminals have poor impulse control

when it comes to money. ey have to make a Willpower(doubled) roll whenever the opportunity for a fast buck pres-ents itself—for example, taking time off to ransack a ghoul’slair instead of watching out for, say, ghouls. e Director canadd penalties to that roll, depending on the amount of lootavailable—no penalty for a few hundred bucks, - for severalthousand dollars, - for over K, - for over K, and - for a really big score (a million dollars or more). e biggestdownside is the risk of punishment such as imprisonment,

which can really make it hard to investigate mythos aliens,not to mention live a normal life.

Insiders are basically Criminals with connections. eygain a two-point Contacts (Criminal) Quality as well as a

one-point Obligation (Important) to their syndicate.

DANGER SENSE

-point Quality Some people have a knack for knowing when some-

thing isn’t right. Maybe they’re a touch psychic, or maybethey’re just really good at noticing hints that other people



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miss. Regardless of the reasons, any time a Hero withDanger Sense is unaware of an immediate potential dan-ger, she may make a Perception + Notice Test to noticethat she is currently in danger. is sense does not indi-

cate the exact type or source of the danger.

DEPENDENT

- or -point Drawback Your character has a vulnerable relative or someone he

is close to—perfect for the villains to terrorize, hold hos-tage, or otherwise tag and bag. If your character has oneDependent, he gets two points. More than one Dependentis worth three points, regardless of how many there are.

EIDETIC MEMORY

- or -point Quality

Your character has an uncanny ability to rememberimpressions of events or visions. After focusing for a fewmoments on some subject, she can recall this sight withstartling accuracy. A person with the one-point versionof this Quality can “freeze” an image in her mind (a staticimage like a page or a stop-action scene from the moviethat is “life”) and recall it with precision at a later time.

is is the limit of her capacity though; once three im-ages are “recorded” a new requires the displacement ofan old one (character’s choice). e player should writedown the circumstances of the character’s mental “snap-shot” so the Director has a good reference when you askthat detailed question several sessions later. Otherwise,

he should fi ll in any details that you can’t remember whenever it is necessary. e Director may also requirean Intelligence (doubled) or skill (say, Art for drawing)roll to accurately reproduce the memory in a form thatothers can recognize or use as a basis for research. enumber of Success Levels in that roll reveals the accuracyof the reproduction.

Photographic Memory: e two-point level of thisQuality gives the character a much deeper retention ofher experiences. After reading a book, she can quote pas-sages without missing a word. After viewing a scene, shecan reenact it movement by movement. And she almostnever forgets anything. As with Eidetic Memory, the Di-

rector will fill in the details but the scope and “memorystorage” is essentially unlimited. Your character receivesa + bonus to any skill roll where memorizing facts isuseful, such as Knowledge and Science. Finally, any rolls

where memory plays a significant part gain a + to + bonus, at the Director’s discretion. is can also be adownside when a character really doesn’t want his recol-

lection of the fl ying polyps to stay so sharp in his mind.Fortunately, even characters with this level of recall are

vulnerable to the eff ects of the Hypnoscope.

EMOTIONAL

PROBLEMS

Variable Drawback Characters with Emotional Problems react in un-

reasonable ways to certain situations and problems, suf-fering strong reactions to anger, pain, or the anguish ofpast trauma. e line between Emotional Problems andMental Problems is thin; for the purposes of EldritchSkies , Emotional Problems reflect inner turmoil, while acharacter with Mental Problems has a skewed perceptionof reality. Some suggestions are detailed here but feel freeto come up with your own inner demons–characters whospend lots of time dealing with mythos oddness can be-

come seriously eccentric.Over time, situations can change. Characters can over-come their limitations (or replace them with new ones).Resolutions to these problems should always be roleplayed.

A player who works through a cathartic inner struggleover the course of several Episodes might, at the Direc-tor’s discretion, eliminate the Drawback without having to“pay” any experience points to do so (see p. ), and series

with Drama Points can award them for this process.Depression: Depression can stem from physical or

emotional causes; in this case, it’s the latter. Commonsymptoms include sleep problems (either oversleepingor insomnia), severe procrastination (to the point that

the suff erer may lose his job), and a lack of interest inanything. A depressed Hero suff ers a - to most tasks,and tends to avoid getting involved. is is a two-pointDrawback. A severe shock may snap someone out of thisstate for a while (a life-threatening crisis could do it), butthe character sinks back into inactivity afterwards. euse of anti-depressant drugs can reduce the eff ect of thisproblem (which also reduces its value to one point whilethe underlying cause remains.)

Easily Flustered: is character is a bit high-strung. When put on the spot or placed in an uncomfortable so-cial situation, he loses control just a bit. He might trip,knock something over, say stupid things, or flail around in

confusion. is is mostly comic relief, but the Director mayimpose a - penalty to certain rolls (Dexterity-based forclumsiness, Intelligence-based for foot-in-mouth disease)until the person takes a deep breath and gets it together,or someone else takes over. is is a one-point Drawback.

Emotional Dependency: is clingy type is overlydependent on others. Once he makes a friend, he wants



6

2to hang around all the time. When involved in a relation-ship, this type is excessively needy. Such behavior tendsto seriously annoy friends and romantic partners. is isa one-point Drawback.

Fear of Commitment: Whenever your characterstarts feeling too close to somebody, she becomes afraidand pulls back. Maybe she is worried that if she letssomebody get too close, she will get hurt. Or perhapsshe fears that if she reveals too much, the other person

will see the “real her” and be appalled or disgusted. isproblem is a one-point Drawback.

Fear of Rejection: When this person experiences rejection (or thinks he has been rejected), he feels hurt andangry. A person with this problem may be afraid to makefriends or approach those he is attracted to, and if hisfears come true, he harbors a great deal or resentmentand anger. is is a one-point Drawback.

FAST REACTION TIME

-point Quality Most people freeze when something bad is about to

happen or when they are surprised. Not someone with thisQuality—this lucky individual rolls away and punches ahyperspatial mutant that bursts through a door as soon asit bares its tentacles. In combat, contact sports, or otherphysical confrontations, characters with this Quality gaina + bonus for Initiative purposes (see p. ), modified bycommon sense (Fast Reaction Time cannot help the targetof a sniper a kilometer away, for example).

Because they are largely immune to the “freeze” factorin dangerous situation, Fast Reaction Time folks also gaina + bonus on Willpower Tests to resist fear (see p. ).

GENIUS

-point Quality is character is bright, really bright. Geniuses tend

to obsess on some project or another. Geniuses gain + to Intelligence and + to another mental Attribute (to amaximum level of six); + skill levels to distribute amongComputers, Knowledge, or Science, and a two-pointObsession with their latest project (which can changeregularly). ese characters are prime candidates for the

Emotional Problems or Outcast Drawbacks.

GOOD/BAD LUCK

-point/level Quality or Drawback A character with Good Luck always seems to come

out on top. Whenever she really needs a break, circum-stances conspire to give her one. ose suff ering from

Bad Luck, on the other hand, live by Murphy’s Law (“ifanything can go wrong, it will”). Good Luck points arelike low-key Drama Points (see p. ), but are more ap-plicable and, best of all, re-usable.

Each level of Luck counts as a + bonus (or - penalty)that can be applied to any roll, after the die is cast, onceper game session. Multiple levels can be added togetherfor a big bonus on one roll, or spread around several dif-ferent actions. For example, a character with three levelsof Good Luck can get a + bonus on one action, a + bonus to three actions, or a + bonus for one and a + bonus for another.

e player decides when Good Luck comes into play.Bad Luck, however, is in the hands of the Director, whochooses when it aff ects a given roll. Of course, Directorsshould exercise caution and good judgment when apply-ing Bad Luck. If they use Bad Luck for meaningless rolls,the Drawback becomes little more than a minor inconve-nience. On the other hand, applying Bad Luck to Survival

Tests or other critical rolls is just…unseemly. Make theBad Luck count, but don’t abuse anyone. Remember, theplayers are in the game to have fun.

Say Jenna has a two-point Bad Luck Drawback. Atone point in the Episode, Jenna takes aim with her gun asan enemy attempts to flee the area. e character’s mis-sion will be much harder if the villain escapes, but Jennais in no immediate danger, so her Director states that astartled bird flies in front of her, spoiling her aim. A - penalty is applied to Jenna’s shot.

HARD TO KILL

- to -point Quality Characters with this Quality are tougher than nails.

Even after they are severely wounded, medical attentionhas a good chance of reviving them, scarred but alive. isQuality is bought in levels. Level fi ve is the highest pos-sible for human beings; ab-humans and aliens can havemore levels. Each level of Hard to Kill adds three LifePoints to a character’s Pool. Additionally, each level pro-

vides a + bonus to Survival Tests. Most characters in an Eldritch Skies RPG Series should have a couple of levels ofthis Quality. Invest any leftover Quality points here: your

character will be grateful and so will you.

HONORABLE

- to -point Drawback is Hero follows a code of behavior, and will not

break it lightly, if at all. e more restrictive and rigid thecode is, the higher its value. e character almost never



64

breaks the code’s rules, no matter what the cause. In alife-or-death situation where honor must be ignored, hemight do so, but even then a Willpower (not doubled)

Test is necessary to overcome the psychological barriers

reinforcing the code of honor. e codes of honor given are examples, and players

and Directors can come up with diff erent values for char-acters to follow.

Minimal: e character never lies or betrays friends,loved ones, or people he respects. Anybody else, especial-ly people from groups he dislikes or is prejudiced against,is fair game. is is a one-point Drawback.

Serious: is code of honor is more complex, andapplies to everyone, friend or foe. is character alwayskeeps her word and does her best to fulfill any promisesshe makes. She will not betray the trust of others onceshe has accepted it. She may be reluctant to give her wordexcept in a good cause (at least a good cause as she seesit), because once it has been given, it is inviolate. is is atwo-point Drawback.

Rigid: is character lives by a strict set of rules thatcontrols most of his actions towards others. In additionto all the other restrictions above, he refuses to partici-pate in acts of betrayal such as ambushes, striking a help-less or unsuspecting foe, or cheating in any way. Lyingis anathema, and he will only do so in cases of extremeneed. Even then, he will feel guilty and will not do a verygood job at deceiving; any tasks requiring lying will havea - to - penalty, determined by the Director. is is a

three-point Drawback.HUMORLESS

-point Drawback Some people just lack the ability to laugh at life and

take everything with the utmost seriousness. Other peo-ple’s attempts at humor are seen as wasteful or annoying.Most people find this facet of a character’s personality tobe unattractive or bothersome.

IRON MIND

-point Quality is character is immune to all psychic powers, as well

as all spells that seek to control his thoughts or emotionsor send him mental messages. In addition, the charactercan never visit the Dream Realm. A magician can stilluse sorcery to spy on him and he can still travel thougha hyperspatial gateway, but no one can get into his head.

is Quality provides no protection against HyperspatialExposure, but people who possess it can never become

psychic. People with this Quality tend to be somewhatclosed off and distant, and often also possess the OutcastDrawback (see p. ).

LAW

ENFORCEMENT

(LOCAL / NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL)

- or -point Quality A character with this Quality is a law enforcement

professional. On duty, the character can call for backupin their jurisdiction area, flash a badge, and carry a gun.

e pay isn’t great, and the work can be dangerous. Alllaw enforcement personnel get a + to any physical At-tribute (Strength, Dexterity or Constitution), and a + bonus to the Crime, Driving, and Guns Skills. ey alsohave authority of the law behind them (not to mentionthat they get to carry a gun).

With reasonable suspicion (any rational explanationthat a neutral party would buy), they can stop cars, searchpeople, detain suspects, and other nifty things. With prob-ably cause (a reasonable basis to believe that criminal ac-tivity has occurred), they can arrest people. Whether suchsuspicion or cause exists is a question that keeps manyattorneys and judges in full employment. Officers can bedisciplined for bad decisions; suspects can walk. A local orregional Law Enforcement Quality costs fi ve points. Anofficer’s legal authority (worth two points) is balanced by aone-point Obligation (Important) to the force.

A character with the eight-point Law EnforcementQuality works for a national or international organiza-

tion, with similar responsibilities and benefits. She gets atwo-point Contacts (Governmental) Quality and a two-point Rank Quality but her Obligation Drawback in-creases to Major. Agents of the FBI, Interpol, and similaragencies all count in this category, as do certain weapon-bearing OPS operatives. ese characters also gain theEspionage Training Quality. National organizations willusually have more backup available in their home terri-tories, while international agents are often on their own.

If any enforcer abuses his authority, he can get introuble: too many rules broken, even for the right rea-son, will get his gun and badge taken away. At that point,the character becomes ex-law enforcement, with all theskills of a normal officer or agent (and the Contacts fora national or international agent who hasn’t burned hisbridges) but none of the authority. For a former localor state cop, this Quality drops by one point, losing theauthority and Obligation, and a former national or inter-national agent also loses their Rank, taking the Qualitydown by three points.



6

2LOVE

- or -point Drawback e character’s love life is the stuff songs are made of—

exactly what sort of songs is up to the storyline, of course. A Hero with this Drawback starts the game with a rela-tionship or develops one shortly after the Season begins(usually during the first or second Episode). is love mayor may not be reciprocated; the character might be in love

with someone who barely knows she exists. Whenever thecharacter has to choose between following her heart or herhead, she must make a Willpower (not doubled) roll at a - penalty. is Drawback is worth two points.

Tragic Love: As above, but any romantic relation-ship the character develops ends badly. is can happenin two possible ways—something bad happens to thecharacter’s beloved, or the character has an unfortunatetendency to fall for the wrong people. Tragic Love can bea good source of Drama Points (see p. ) and is a four-point Drawback.

MENTAL PROBLEMS

- to -point Drawback A character with Mental Problems has a distortion

in his or her view of reality, whether it results from situ-ations in their life or a neurochemical imbalance. eshort circuit could be mild and quirky, or downrightinsane. Some common Mental Problems are suggestedhere. Like Emotional Problems, feel free to come up with

your own or create variations on these themes.Cowardice / Anxiety: e character is more afraidof danger and confrontation than average. He may shundanger altogether, or only risk it when he’s sure he hasthe upper hand. A character with this Mental Problemsuff ers a sense of dread out of proportion to the situation,and at higher levels also experiences anxiety in his dailylife. Use the value of this Drawback as a penalty to rollsto resist fear (see p. ).

Cruelty: A character with this Drawback actuallylikes to inflict pain and suff ering. At the lower level, shereserves this for people who have angered or attacked her,but at the highest level she is a sadist with no feelings of

remorse (this is probably not appropriate for most He-roes, but is common among the leaders of mythos cults).

Delusions: Your character believes something that just isn’t true—he might harbor nutty bigoted beliefs, ora certainty that most important national politicians areactually serpent people who dine on human flesh.

Obsession: A particular person, task or topic domi-

nates your character’s life, to the exclusion of much else. Topursue his Obsession, he will go to almost any length (aslimited by his morality). He may neglect other duties, bothpersonal and professional, to pursue that which fascinates

him. e “obsessee” may be a person (who may or may notbe aware of the character’s feelings, but would probably bedisturbed by their intensity), a task like getting revenge onsomebody or performing some elaborate feat, or a topicthe character will prattle on at great length. is Draw-back can result from the Hastur infection.

Paranoid: Everyone is out to get her; everything is aconspiracy and everyone is keeping secrets. A paranoidcharacter never knows when somebody is going to turnagainst her, but she knows they all will, sooner or later. Sheexpects treachery at every turn, and rarely trusts even herfriends and relatives. In Eldritch Skies , where monsters ex-ist and secret cults really are trying to end the world, a littleparanoia can be a boon to survival, but a Hero with thisDrawback goes too far. is makes her annoying or evenfrightening to have around, and her testimony less likely tobe believed, even when she’s speaking the truth. Paranoidcharacters often suff er from other Emotional and MentalProblems (their point values are determined separately).

Phobia: Something terrifies this Hero—snakes,heights, enclosed spaces, loud noises, sea life, technol-ogy. e harder it is to overcome the fear, the more thisDrawback costs. Whenever the character faces the sub-

ject of the phobia, he has to make a Fear Test (see p. ) with a penalty equal to the value of the Drawback. If

the situation is normally frightening (say, the characteris afraid of snakes and he’s facing a giant snake-like ab-human, which would frighten anybody), add the value ofthe Phobia to the regular Fear Test penalty.

Reckless: A reckless character is supremely over-confident and impulsive, willing to take incredible risks.Most of the time, she acts first and thinks later—and getsinto all kinds of trouble as a result. She says what’s on hermind with little consideration for diplomacy or courtesy,rushes into dangerous situations, and rarely wastes timeon second thoughts. Reckless does not necessarily meansuicidal, except maybe at the highest level. Acting on im-pulse may put the Hero in jeopardy, but she won’t take

actions with directly and obviously lethal consequences. Violence: is character has a temper, likes getting in

fights, and may have done prison time. It’s hard for a vio-lent character to walk away from a fight; they’re alwaysready to start swinging or shooting. Whenever a poten-tially violent confrontation happens, even if the otherparty hasn’t drawn a weapon, the character has to make



66

a Willpower (doubled) roll with a penalty equal to thelevel of the Drawback. On a failure, they react violently.However, they react with appropriate levels of violenceand don’t pull out grenades in a bar brawl or brass knuck-

les in a gun fight.Zealot: A zealot holds beliefs (political, religious or

personal) so strong that they dominate his life and be-havior. He is willing to sacrifice anything, including hislife or the lives of others, in service to the ideals he holdsdear. is character is dangerous to himself and others, andshows a total disregard for the law when it conflicts withhis beliefs. Mad cultists, wild-eyed crusaders, and extremeradicals qualify for this Drawback. is diff ers from Ob-session and Delusion in scope (Zealot behavioral dictatesare more comprehensive) and severity. is Drawback israre outside of the Deranged level. Your Director will de-termine if a Mild or Severe level is even possible.

e higher the value of the Mental Problem, the more severe and debilitating it is. Generally, Heroes should not haveMental Problems worth more than two points, althoughplaying the occasional lunatic can be fun once in a while.

Mild: e problem is controllable and your characterseldom allows it to take over during times of crisis, espe-cially when friends and loved ones are involved. Peoplemay not even know something is wrong with the charac-ter. is is a one-point Drawback.

Severe: e problem is severe and aff ects your char-acter’s daily life. Anybody who knows the character wellhas probably noticed something wrong with her. is is a

two-point Drawback.Deranged: Your character has totally lost perspective,and with it, regard for such considerations as the law orthe safety of others. He may control his behavior out offear of being stopped or discovered by the law or othermajor threats, but when no such fear exists, watch out.

is is a three-point Drawback.

MINORITY

-point Drawback is Hero is considered a second-class citizen be-

cause of race, ethnic group, religion, sexual preference orphysical characteristics. She is a member of a small or

disadvantaged group, disliked by the establishment types.People of the dominant group tend to act negatively to-

wards her; many are automatically suspicious, fearful orannoyed at her for no reason other than what she is. isDrawback has a one-point value to reflect the relativelyenlightened st century, where people cannot be deniedservice in a restaurant because of the color of their skin

(in most places, at least). In other settings, where preju-dice has the full weight of the law and tradition behindit, this Drawback might be worth two to three points.

NATURAL

TOUGHNESS

-point Quality is character is seriously thick skinned and can re-

ally take a punch. He has four points of Armor Value(see p. ) against blunt attacks, such as fists, steel rebars,sideswiping vehicles, and the like. Bullets and slashingattacks are unaff ected. is Quality is common amongprofessional boxers, bouncers, and bodyguards.

NERVES OF STEEL

-point Quality A character with this Quality is almost impossible to

scare. Whether she is too dumb or too stubborn is opento question, but she remains unruffled even in the face ofunspeakable mythos horrors. She is immune to fear ex-cept when confronted with the most terrible hyperspatialmanifestations, and even then gains a + bonus to her rolls.

OBLIGATION

Variable Drawback Some rights are accompanied by duties. An Obliga-

tion must be followed to various degrees and grants anumber of points depending on the strictness of its dic-tates. Members of special agencies like the OPS, or thescary cults they oppose, often have an Obligation to their

group. Failure to fulfill one’s duty can lead to trouble—demotion, loss of job and health benefits, harsh words... sometimes it can even be downright dangerous to say“no” to one’s secret puppetmasters.

Minimal: Obeying the basic precepts of the organi-zation or creed and not betraying its members are thehighlights here. is is worth no points. Most employeesof most organizations fall into this category, since theycan quit at any time.

Important: Your character is expected to routinelyrisk herself for the organization, and go above the basicprecepts of the membership. An Important Obligation is

worth one point. Low level OPS field operatives typicallyhave this level of Obligation.

Major: e welfare of the organization is placedabove that of your character. She is always on call anddoes not have time to pursue a normal job (unless it’s acover for the real assignment) or much of a personal life.

e penalties for disobedience or selfishness are severe;potentially lethal in criminal organizations, potentially



6

2 job-destroying in aboveboard groups. is is worth twopoints. Experienced OPS field operatives often have thislevel of Obligation.

Total: Your character must be totally devoted to the

group. He is even expected to die for the organization,should that be necessary. Missions are extremely hazard-ous, and he is constantly in danger of imprisonment, tor-ture, or execution. is is worth three points. Usually thissort of obligation is reserved for cultists, deep cover spies,and special forces soldiers.

OCCULT INVESTIGATOR

-point Quality Both amateurs and professionals take an interest in

mythos oddities. From ancient artifacts to exotic cults, a fewpeople collect mythos knowledge and occult artifacts like

other people collect stamps, driven by deep curiosity. Some ofthese people end up in mental asylums, or dead, or hideouslymutated. e survivors learn a lot of more-or-less useful in-formation, from the initiation rites of Cthulhu cults, to thebest places in town to watch ghoul activity. eir knowledgealso makes them better able to overcome their fears (or maybethey are a little bit too insane to be afraid anymore).

Occult Investigators get a + to any two mental Attri-butes (Intelligence, Perception, or Willpower) and a + bo-nus to the Occultism Skill. Furthermore, they get a + bonusto Fear Tests, thanks to their familiarity with the strangeand unusual. When presented with an opportunity to learnsomething supernatural—stopping to grab a tempting ar-

tifact as the ghouls close in, for example—they must do itunless they make a Willpower (doubled) roll, with penaltiesof - to -, depending on how valuable the find is.

OUTCAST/MISFIT

or -point Drawback Misfits, dorks, freaks, and geeks—all names for the out-

casts of society. Because of their interests, lack of charisma,habits, or mannerisms, these people are seriously unpop-ular in all social groups not made up of other Outcasts.Outcasts have a rough time in social situations; they havea - penalty to Influence rolls. ey automatically attractthe attention of any cruel or abusive character.

Some make it a practice to avoid paying too much atten-tion to their surroundings to spare themselves hurtful looksor whispers—these types suff er a - penalty to all Noticerolls. Others are the proverbial “fish out of water” and areunfamiliar with modern society (perhaps they were raised inan isolated science station on some colony, or maybe by cult-ists on a remote island). is detriment is mostly roleplayed

but should aff ect the character’s behavior with regularity. e “notice” or “unfamiliar” conditions can be dropped, in which case the Outcast is simply a Misfit, and the Draw-back is worth only two points.

PHYSICAL DISABILITY

Variable Drawback Your character suff ers from limb loss, spinal column

damage, or any number of impairments as a result of acci-dent, disease or a birth defect. Here’s a basic list. Alternativesshould be variations on these descriptions. Remember thatst century medicine in Eldritch Skies can cure all of theseproblems – regrowing limbs, eyes, and reconnecting severedspines. Any character with such a disability has some rareand exotic medical condition that precludes such interven-tion, or perhaps a phobia of invasive medical care that out-

weighs the need for a cure.Blind: e character cannot see anything. Rangedcombat will always be near-impossible: attack and defenserolls for ranged combat are at a - penalty. Perception andNotice rolls (modified by Acute or Impaired Hearing) areneeded to find a target who is not touching the character.Close weapon combat rolls are at a - penalty; brawling andmartial arts at a penalty of -. e character cannot drive

vehicles or perform other tasks requiring vision. is is aneight-point Drawback.

Missing or Crippled Arm/Hand: e hand in ques-tion cannot be used to grab or hold objects. Any task re-quiring two hands is at a disadvantage (- or worse) or

simply impossible. is is a two-point Drawback. A char-acter with a prosthetic hand can overcome some of theseproblems, reducing the Drawback to one point in value.

Missing or Crippled Leg/Foot: is character is un-able to walk or run normally. With the help of crutches ora cane, she can move at up to one-third normal speed (seep. ). Hand-to-hand combat rolls are at a - penalty. isis a three-point Drawback. Prosthetics can reduce the pen-alties, increasing speed to up to half-normal, and reducingcombat penalties to -. is reduces the Drawback value totwo points.

Missing or Crippled Arms: Both arms are missingor crippled. Your character cannot use any tools normally.

Some people with this handicap have learned to use theirfeet with great skill to compensate for their loss, but it’sstill no picnic. is is a four-point Drawback. Commonlyavailable prosthetics that are controlled using implantedelectrodes still give the user a - penalty to all actions in-

volving the use of either arm. ese prosthetics reduce theDrawback value to two points.



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Missing or Crippled Legs: is character is unable to walk. Without the help of a wheelchair, the best he can do iscrawl or roll on the ground. is is a four-point Drawback.

Quadriplegic: Paralyzed from the neck down, almost

all physical activities are impossible for this character. Aspecial wheelchair, operated with the neck or mouth, canhelp him move around (if the unfortunate has access tosuch instruments). Someone needs to take care of his ba-sic needs, from feeding to changing. is highly debili-tating trait is an eight-point Drawback.

POKER FACE

- or -point Quality is Quality allows a Hero to pull off the most bra-

zen of deceptions with a straight face. For one point, thecharacter gets a + bonus to any opposed roll where lying

is involved (the skill used depends on the situation, but isusually Influence). For two points, the character gets the+ bonus against psychic and scientific tests as well, suchas spells, polygraph tests, and court approved link crownscans (see p. ).

RANK

-point/level Quality or Drawback Your character is in the military or some other ex-

ceedingly hierarchical organization. High rank has privi-leges—officers, agents, or soldiers obey your character’sorders. On the other hand, low rank can mean a characterhas to obey orders he or she really doesn’t like, or be pun-

ished. e value of a Rank ranges from - to +, and costsone point per level (or grants one point at the lowestlevel). High Rank also entails numerous duties that mayrestrict your character’s actions even more than very lowRank. e Ranks Table below shows some sample law

enforcement, government agency and U.S. Army ranks.Rank titles in other organizations vary. e OPS has aless formal rank structure; this Quality is not requiredfor every member. As such, the - level is not available.

Characters with no or low rank still enjoy some auton-omy, while characters with a notable Rank Quality havestronger influence in the organization and have an easiertime requisitioning equipment. (See p. )

RECURRING NIGHTMARES

-point Drawback Your character is plagued by terrifying dreams that

replay one or more traumatic experiences, or are justfrightening and disturbing. Every night, the Directormay check to see if your character suff ers from night-

mares. ey may be imposed at the Director’s discretion,or may be rolled randomly (a roll of on a D means thecharacter experiences a nightmare that night). On anynight when the character is afflicted by the nightmare,he suff ers - to all rolls the following day, resulting fromexhaustion or jumpiness.

RESISTANCE

-point per level Quality Some people are just innately better at ignoring the

bad things that life throws at them. is ability allows your character to fend off the eff ects of a particular typeof harm. Each diff erent type of Resistance Quality mustbe purchased separately. Some examples are presentedbelow, but others may be devised by you or your Director.

Pain: Each level of this Quality reduces the penaltiesassociated with severe wounds, and adds to Willpowerand Constitution rolls to stay conscious or fend off death

when severely injured (see p. ).Poison/Disease: Your character has a cast-iron stom-

ach and an overactive immune system; add twice the levelof this Resistance to any Constitution rolls to resist theeff ects of poison or disease.

Supernatural: For some reason, your character is ableto resist psychic powers and sorcery that has mental ef-

fects. She adds her Resistance level to any rolls againstbeing spied upon or influenced through psychic means.Unlike Iron Will, this Quality doesn’t prevent your char-acter from being a psychic. In fact, many powerful psy-chics possess this Quality.

RANK LEVEL DESCRIPTION

- Rookie Cop, Private

Beat Cop, Corporal

Agent, Sergeant

Detective, Senor Agent, Sergeant First Class

Agent in Charge, Lietenant

Bureau Chief, Captain Commissioner, Major

Lieutenant Colonel

Colonel

Major General

General



6

2RESOURCES

-points/level Quality or Drawback Money can be extremely useful, especially if you have a

lot of it. A character’s level of Resources determines howmuch material wealth she has access to. is trait varies

widely. Some levels are described below. In the case of ateenager or dependent, the resource level describes theircaretaker. Whether your character has access to these as-sets at any given time is a matter for the Director and theplotline. Figures are given in approximate US dollar val-ue equivalents, circa , our world; in the Eldritch Skies

world, currencies can vary and Directors are encouragedto assign equivalent values based on the economy of thearea where the characters fi nd themselves. For example,the cost of a mansion in Minnesota will buy far smallerhousing on a colony with limited oxygen. Please be realis-tic: a homeless character who’s hired by OPS to completespace missions is no longer eff ectively homeless, and needsto buy off the Drawback to a more realistic level.

Destitute (- ): Has the clothes on her back, ten dol-lars’ worth of stuff , and maybe a shopping cart. Any in-come over a few dollars goes to immediate needs.

Miserable (- ): Personal wealth of worth of prop-erty (including the clothes on his back) and income of a month. Lives in shared public housing, or is homeless.

Poor (- ): Personal wealth of some in property;lives in low-income housing, and has income of amonth, whether fi xed or from odd jobs.

Hurting (-): Personal wealth of about , in prop-erty, and lives in a small apartment in a bad part of town.Has an income of about , a month before taxes.

Below Average (-): Personal wealth of , inproperty (including an old vehicle, perhaps), and lives inan apartment. Has a pre-tax income of , a month.

Okay (): Personal wealth of , in property. Hasan income of , a month before taxes.

Middle Class (+): Personal wealth of , inproperty (will usually include a partially-paid house orcondominium as well as a new or slightly used car). Hasan income of , a month before taxes.

Well-off (+): Personal wealth of , in prop-

erty. Has an income of , a month before taxes. Wealthy (+ ): Personal wealth of , in prop-

erty. Has an income of , a month.Rich (+ ): Personal wealth of ,, in property.

Has an income of , a month.Multimillionaire (+ ): Personal wealth of million

in property. Has an income of , a month.

Each additional level adds an additional million inproperty and , to monthly income. You’re notgoing to be playing a billionaire in Eldritch Skies .

SECRET

Variable Drawback ere exists a dangerous and hidden fact about your

character. is could be a secret identity or a shady past. e more damaging the secret if it became known, thehigher the value of the Drawback. For example, damageto your Hero’s reputation and livelihood would be worthone point; a threat to his well-being (he might be arrest-ed or deported if the truth were known) two points; lifeand limb, three points. Former membership in a Cthulhucult is likely a one point secret, while current member-ship and secret allegiance to a Great Old One would be

worth at least two points.SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

-point Quality e observant almost always know what is going on

around them, and can react with uncanny quickness ifnecessary. is character gains a + bonus to any Percep-tion-based rolls to sense trouble or danger in her imme-diate surroundings. It’s also very hard to sneak up on heror pick her pocket; the same bonus applies for noticingCrime rolls in her vicinity.

SLEEP PATTERNS

-point Quality or Drawback. e character’s sleep patterns are abnormal in some

way. Below are two suggestions for Sleep Patterns.Deep Sleeper: e character is extremely difficult to

awaken. Anything short of physical damage has littlechance of stopping the character from sleeping a full un-interrupted eight hours. When aroused prematurely, heremains groggy and any roll will be at – until he has thefull eight hours of sleep, after which he will awaken nor-mally without prompting. Cost: - points (Drawback).

Light Sleeper: e opposite of Deep Sleeper, the slight-est noise or disturbance wakes the character, who is instantlyalert and aware of her surroundings. Cost: points.

SOLDIER/SPECIAL FORCES

-point/-point Quality Your character is a member of a military organiza-

tion. Soldiers get a + bonus to any Attribute (depend-ing on their specialization in the service – soldiers canbe anything from gun-toting grunts to doctors or radar



7

2and there’s room for them in this game. Because theyoriginate from humanity, deep ones and ghouls, the twomost common types of ab-humans, occasionally inter-breed with humanity. In addition, sometimes individu-

als are exposed to the same sort of hyperspatial expo-sure that originally created both species of ab-human.

While they usually remain human, their off spring maybe born changed. Occasionally, inhuman ancestry can liedormant in a family’s genes, waiting for the right sortof minor quirk of chance that can cause a family wholast had an ab-human ancestor centuries before to bringforth mildly inhuman off spring. ese hybrid Heroes

were always raised among humans and begin play withhuman minds and human emotions, but they aren’t quitehuman. Characters with either of these two half-breedab-human Qualities may have values as high as in At-tributes increased by these Qualities.

DEEP ONE HYBRID

-point Quality e character has some degree of deep one ancestry,

but not enough to fully transform into a deep one. Al-ternately, maybe they would have transformed, but havebeen given genetic therapy to keep them mostly human;or the progression of their amphibious traits has slowedand they will not fully transform for decades to come. Intheir late teens or early s, the character transformedinto an amphibious human with a few deep one traits.

ese characters may be partially or entirely covered with

fine, flesh-colored fish scales that cause them to look ex-otic, though not necessarily ugly, or they may simply havethe classic “Innsmouth Look” with somewhat bulgingeyes and concealed gill slits in folds of skin on their neck.Some humans understand what these distinctive traitsmean, and discrimination against these individuals isnot uncommon. In addition, while deep ones are slightlymore willing to deal with hybrids than with ordinary hu-mans, they always regard hybrids as alien outsiders.

All deep one hybrids have the following traits: + Strength, + Constitution, Low-light Vision, Amphibi-ous, and Natural Armor (). is Natural Armor can be

visible or invisible, at the player’s choice. In addition,

these characters are comfortable in temperatures downto - degrees Celsius ( F) without discomfort, harm,or need for special clothing. Half-breed deep ones neverhave lower than Hyperspatial Exposure Level and canincrease their Strength & Constitution up to .

HALF-BREED GHOUL

-point Quality e character either has a parent who is a ghoul,

or has distant ghoulish ancestry that for some reasonstrongly expressed itself in them. e character appearsto be fully human, and the only obvious diff erences arenight-adapted eyes that range in color from yellow to or-ange and teeth that appear slightly sharper and longerthan normal. Many experience some of the typical ghoulbloodlust and all have a taste for especially well agedmeat and a cast iron stomach. ( e unusual individuals

who crop up occasionally eating metal and glass in publicstunts are probably half-ghouls.) Some half-breed ghoulslive with and as ghouls, but those who are playable char-acters were brought up with humans and live as humans.Half-breed ghouls normally live somewhat longer thannormal humans. With access to modern medicine, theyhave an average lifespan of years, and most do notbegin to look elderly until their late s.

All half-breed ghouls have the following traits: + Strength, + Constitution, Low-light Vision, Acute Smell(), Resistance (Poison/Disease) (), either the Cruelty (mild)or Violence (mild) Mental Problems. In addition, half-breedghouls never have lower than Hyperspatial Exposure Level and can increase their Strength & Constitution up to .

PSYCHIC POWERS

Psychic powers are natural abilities, and, according to many

researchers, an inevitable consequence of intelligence.Many scientists who understand these abilities believe thatthe only reason not all humans are psychic is humanity’snatural resistance to all hyperspatial phenomena. Today,approximately one in people possess psychic sensitiv-ity. A few people are naturally born psychic, but most psy-chics develop these powers later in life. ese abilities canbe awakened in some people, typically by someone makingpsychic contact with them. Once someone becomes psy-chic, they automatically gain Hyperspatial Exposure Level and the Psychic Sensitivity Power. At this point, they canalso learn additional psychic abilities.

PSYCHIC SENSITIVITY -Point Power

Every psychic possesses this power, and this power isa prerequisite for all other psychic powers, with the ex-ception of Psychic Link and Psychic Visions. Characters

with psychic sensitivity have two abilities. ey can sensethe emotions of other intelligent beings, and they can



7

2EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE

-point Power Your character can aff ect those around her emotion-

ally. To use this ability, the psychic must either touch thetarget or look directly in the target’s eyes from no morethan two meters away. e psychic can use this power toproduce any emotion in the target, from lust, to anger, togrief, to amused joy. How the target reacts is determinedby the Director. For example, if the emotion is anger andthe target is a fairly aggressive person, violence is likely.Conversely, if the target is more avoidant, anger mightmanifest as passive aggression.

e psychic must make a Willpower + Psychic Art rollto use this ability. To avoid this influence, the target mustmake a Willpower (not doubled) roll with a penalty equal tothe Success Levels of the influencer’s Willpower + Psychic

Art roll. A psychic target makes a doubled Willpower roll.If the target succeeds in the initial roll, the psychic

cannot aff ect that particular emotion in that characterfor at least the next minutes. If the psychic wins thiscontest, the target feels the desired emotion as a strongand real emotion and reacts to it as they normally would.If the emotion doesn’t fi t with the circumstances, suchas rage at a good friend’s birthday party, it soon fades.However, if it fits at all with the target’s current circum-stances, the target is inclined to act on this emotion as ifthey were feeling the emotion naturally. e emotion alsofades as rapidly or slowly as it normally would, depend-

ing upon the circumstances and the target.Remember that for certain emotions (say lust), yourcharacter’s Attractiveness levels also modify (negatively forpositive Attractiveness levels; positively for negative lev-els) the target’s Willpower roll (such modifiers are paidfor separately and do not aff ect the cost of this Quality).

is is a rare power and one that is rarely discussed publi-cally or in the news media. Most people don’t believe itexists. Various governments and law enforcement officialsknow that it exists, but the general public only knows of itthough vague and general rumors. Few people are willingto trust anyone who is believed to have this ability.

INSIGHT

-point Power On a successful Perception + Psychic Art roll, the char-

acter can discern detailed truths about a person (includingpsychological Qualities and Drawbacks, but not thoughtsor memories) by reading the psychic impressions she givesoff . e character can look at someone and learn her na-

ture, feelings, desires, fears, and whether she is insane, pos-sessed, mentally controlled, or an alien being who merelylooks human. To read these impressions, the psychic mustbe within two meters of the person. Insight also allows

the character to track someone by attuning herself to theperson’s psychic traces. Any use of this power requires oneto two turns of concentration. e character can only tracka character that they have met and been in mental contact

with or that they saw clearly when they started trackingthem. e psychic traces necessary to track someone lin-ger for an hour or two. is ability works equally well onpeople with any level of Hyperspatial Exposure and onab-humans, but not on aliens or people with no levels ofHyperspatial Exposure.

MIND PROBE

-point PowerIf a character with this power touches someone or looksdirectly into their eyes from no more than a range of twometers, he can listen to what the being is thinking. esubject resists the telepath’s Willpower + Psychic Art roll

with a Willpower roll. If the target has Levels of hyper-spatial exposure, the target doubles their Willpower whenmaking this roll. If the target has or more levels of hy-perspatial exposure, the target does not double their Will-power when making this roll. If successful, the psychic’sSuccess Levels on the Willpower + Psychic Art roll dictatethe time (in minutes) that may be spent probing and thedepth of the “read” (consult Telepathy Chart).

MIND PROBE CHART

L S R

Can sense surface thoughts (whatever thesubject is thinking at the moment).

Can delve deeper into the mind of thetarget. Any one simple question (i.e.,anything that can be answered in onesentence or less) can be “asked” of thesubject, and the information pluckedfrom his mind. Each additional Suc-cess Level adds one more question andanswer.

+

Can get a clear picture of the subject’s

personality, find memories, and get anyinformation the target has, provided thepsychic knows what they are looking for.



74

PSYCHIC LINK

-point Power Certain people have strong psychic bonds to spe-

cific people or animals. Characters with a psychic linkalways share a close emotional bond. Family members,particularly siblings (especially twins), partners, romanticcouples, and beloved animals have all demonstrated thispsychic link. When a player chooses the Psychic LinkPower for his character, he must decide who the charac-ter is linked to and why. e other party involved oftenhas a reciprocal link, but not always.

In a few rare cases, an individual may have a link toseveral people (most often family members). Psychicallylinked characters always have a general idea where theother individual is and how she is doing. By making ei-ther a successful (doubled) Willpower roll or a successful

Willpower + Psychic Art roll, any character with such alink can communicate with the individual they are linkedto for as long as desired, in thoughts, emotions and im-ages. If the other individual does not also have the Psy-chic Link Power, only the psychic character can activelyparticipate by sending or reaching for impressions; thenon-psychic feels the contact, but cannot obtain any in-formation from the psychic that the psychic is not active-ly sending. A non-psychic can possess the Psychic LinkQuality, in which case they can communicate actively

with the linked psychic. At least one partner in any linkmust possess the Psychic Sensitivity Power.

PSYCHIC VISIONS

-point Power e character can see the future in visions or dreams.

Most of the time, these visions are not very clear, nor dothey happen very often, and they cannot be activated onpurpose—they just happen. No rolls are needed. Direc-tors should make the visions or dreams ambiguous anduse images and situations from the character’s life. e

visions should reflect her current problems and worries.Friends and enemies may appear in the visions, off eringadvice, vague threats, or deep philosophical comments.

e Director can use the visions to drop hints about up-

coming events—the rise of some great evil, the possiblearrival of an Apocalypse, a surprise visit by a difficultrelative. A character without Psychic Sensitivity, but withat least one level of Hyperspatial Exposure can have thisPower; it might even represent latent psychic talent thatcould further develop in the course of the game.

PSYCHOMETRY

-point Power Your character posses a preternatural sensitivity to ob-

jects and the energies others leave when they touch them. ey can gain information about places the same way.Characters with psychometry often get impressions fromsimply bumping against a wall or touching the steering

wheel of a car—many people with this power wear glovesmost of the time. e Director determines the visions apsychic character receives. To use this ability actively, yourcharacter must touch the object and roll Perception + Psy-chic Art. e exact result depends both upon the roll andupon the history of the object being touched. Consult thechart below but know that your Director might modifythe “read” depending on the needs of the storyline.

UNDETECTABILITY -point Power

e character can use her mental powers to aff ect oth-ers’ perceptions, allowing her to become almost impossi-ble to notice. Characters with this power may add a bonusequal to their Willpower to all Acrobatics or Crime rollsinvolving stealth. However, the character must deliber-ately act stealthy to use this power; a character cannot beundetectable while shouting. is power does not allowa character to hide without cover. A character with thispower can hide in shadows or vanish into a crowd, butshe is still perfectly visible in an empty well-lit corridor.

e additional stealth provided by this ability does notaff ect automated systems or recordings, only the sensesof living beings who are in the vicinity of the character.

SORCEROUS QUALITIES

Sorcery is the ability to aff ect the structure of the physi-cal world and its relationship to the various dimensionsof hyperspace using carefully constructed mathematicalpatterns. ese patterns can be activated by dancing andchanting, attaining various visionary mental states, per-forming elaborate mathematical calculations, or creatinga complex electronic device with these patterns within its

circuitry. Actually using sorcery requires both an under-standing of the esoteric mysteries involved, as well as theknowledge of the particular spell that you wish to cast orcreate a device to perform.



7

2

HYPERSPATIAL DEVICES

Variable Quality e character owns a hyperspatial device that dupli-

cates the eff ects of a single sorcery spell. Characters can-not possess devices that duplicate the eff ects of Level

spells. See Chapter Four: Arcane Secrets for the completelist of spells. Although they can be made in almost anyform, the minimum size and weight of the device de-pends upon the level of the spell. Increase the size by onecategory for any device made by deep ones or Yithians.

SORCERY

-point/level Quality Your character is a sorcerer, able to wield the potent

and dangerous powers of hyperspatial sorcery. Spellsrange in power from Level to Level , and your charac-

ter must have at least as many levels of the sorcery Qual-ity as the level of the spell she is attempting to cast. echaracter can be either a ritual sorcerer or a builder oftechnosorcerous devices. See Chapter Four: Arcane Secrets for further information about hyperspatial sorcery. Everycharacter who possesses this Quality must have at leastone level of Hyperspatial Exposure.

PSYCHOMETRY CHART

S L R

Feel the strongest emotions involved with the object in the recent past (one week

or less), and gain some sensory glimpse of the person feeling that emotion. is isnot a full-face portrait, but it could be a flash of someone’s shoes, the smell of theirperfume, the sound of music playing in the background at the time, or some other(more or less) useful clue. is level reveals items that are supernatural in nature or

which were made by aliens or ab-humans.

Impressions go back further in time (a month or less) and get more precise formore recent (one week or less) events. If the visions are frightening, the charac-ter may need to make a Fear Test. is level reveals a few vague hints about thepotential uses or powers of any supernatural item or alien artifact.

Basic impressions go back one year or less. e character can now detect more thanone wielder/owner within that time frame if they left a good psychic “imprint” (i.e.,felt strong emotions while in contact with the item). Clues are even more plentiful,but they are rarely complete. Events of extreme emotional or magical power can beglimpsed, no matter how long ago they were. is level reveals if an old knife was usedto perform a human sacri

fice

years ago, but would likely not show anything more

than a shadowy glimpse of who performed the deed or where it was performed.

Basic impressions go back ten years or less. Visions are granted about every owner/ wielder of the object or those in contact with it (in the case of a murder weapon,that would include both the killer and the victim if the weapon was a knife or some-thing that had to touch the victim). is level reveals most of the powers and uses ofany supernatural item or alien artifact. is level also reveals a bit more informationabout powerful events that happened many centuries or millennia before. It wouldshow that a knife was used by a mutated cultist to perform a human sacrifice in theruins of a large church, and might even show a partial glimpse of the victim’s face ora general sense of why the sacrifice was being performed.

Impressions go back up to a century. e visions are stronger and incredibly detailed. ey are also imprinted more firmly in the psychic’s mind. ey may be revisited at alater time even if the object is not available. Clues from before that time are also morecomplete. ese kinds of Success Levels are the most subject to Director variation.

+

is brings up any scene concerning the item or place in the last ten thousand years,or at any time if it involved significant supernatural events or events of great emotionalpower. ese visions may be entered, walked around in, slowed, frozen, or otherwiseexperienced in full sensory mode as if part of some virtual reality game. e Directorshould withhold only specifically warded or totally plot-destroying information.



76

SPELLS

Variable Quality To use sorcery, charac-

ters must also know vari-ous spells. Each spell costsa number of points equalto half their level (roundedup). See Chapter Four: Ar-cane Secrets for the com-plete list of spells.

AUGMENTATIONS

With advances in human biotechnology, combined withbiological information recovered from elder one ruins andgained from trade with the mi-go, humanity has beguncreating ways to alter and augment people. Some of theprototypes for these procedures were developed by the mi-go, and many people still call them mi-go tech or somesimilar term. Most of this biotechnology was designed byhumanity. Alien biotech has been extensively tested andmodified so as to work with human physiologies safelyand stably in long-term use. e majority of advances thathave finished testing are purely medical. Cancer, diabetes,and many other ailments can now be successfully curedand current estimates are the people who have access tothe various new treatments will have healthy life spans ofat least years, and possibly considerably longer.

However, these select safe and legal treatments are only

the first biological advances to be freely available. ere aremany other augmentations – some of which are now be-ing tested for safety, others that have been discovered to beunsafe, and some that are only legal with proper authoriza-tion. ere is a thriving black and gray market in augmen-tations for criminals, the rich and eccentric, and terrorists.Popular TV action shows & film regularly feature mutatedsuper-villains with vast augmentation-induced powers.

Although the reality is far less impressive, augmentationscan still be quite powerful. Some augmentations only re-quire a series of shots containing tailored stem cells and

engineered viruses and bacteria, but the more radical andextreme augmentations usually also require surgery to im-plant vat-grown organs or tissues.

LEGAL AUGMENTATIONSCharacters, before or after play begins, can purchase thefollowing Qualities as augmentations – Fast Reaction

Time, Hard to Kill, Natural Toughness, Resistance (ei-ther pain or disease/poison), and Eidetic Memory. In ad-dition, the following augmentations are available.

BIOFILTER

-point Augmentation e character’s body automatically filters out harmful

substances. is augmentation renders the character im-mune to toxic substances in the air, such as atmospheric

impurities, bacteria, viruses, gas attacks, etc, and providesa + bonus on Constitution Tests against injected, ingest-ed, or contact poisons and diseases.

ENHANCED TIME SENSE

-point Augmentation e character can receive and process sensory infor-

mation far faster than most humans. e character mustalready possess the Fast Reaction Time Quality and aminimum Perception of to purchase this augmentation.Enhanced Time Sense doubles the bonuses provided bythe Fast Reaction Time Quality.

e character can also discern things occurring too fastfor a normal human to perceive, such as individual frames ofa film or sounds that have been speeded up to many timesnormal. e character can also read a number of times fasterthan normal equal to their Perception (a character with aPerception of can read times faster than normal). echaracter can track back the paths of bullets and similarfast-moving objects on a successful Perception + Notice roll.

Whenever desired, the character can also choose to see the world at the same speed as everyone else, watching a filmand ignoring the individual frames if desired.

S L P C

S

L P

C

M S M W

e size of a wristwatch or pen. At least one ounce

e size of a mobile or paperback book At least half a pound

e size of a thick hardback book At least two pounds

e size of a large briefcase At least pounds



7

2IMPROVED SENSES

Variable Augmentation ese augmentations cover detection abilities beyond

human limits. e description and cost for each of thesesenses follows.

Echolocation/Sonar: e character has the ability toproject sound waves, and detect objects by measuring thespeed with which they bounce back. is sense is suf-ficiently accurate that the character can develop a perfectpicture of their immediate environment. e range forthis sense is fi ve meters x Perception. Cost: points, or points if the radar works in a -degree arc, enabling thecharacter to sense things behind him. is sense worksequally well in both air and water, but not in vacuum.

Electrical Sense: e character can see the fl ow ofelectrons, and sense the fl ow and strength of electricalcurrents, allowing the character to see electrical wires in a

wall or even the details of the wiring of an alarm system,as long as the current is no more than Perception metersaway. is augmentation provides a + bonus to Scienceor Engineering rolls dealing with repairing or study-ing electronic equipment as well as crime rolls to openelectronic locks or disable electronic alarm systems. echaracter can also detect magnetic fields, though people

with this sense usually “tune out” everpresent planetarymagnetic fields. Cost: points.

Enhanced Sense: One or more of the character’s fi vesenses is enhanced to inhuman levels. e character could

track by scent, hear a whisper across a large room, or reada computer monitor from meters away. is augmenta-tion requires the character also possess the Acute SensesQuality for the same sense and to have a minimum per-ception of . When applicable, this augmentation doublesthe bonus provided by Acute Senses, but most of the timeno roll is needed. Cost: points per sense.

Infrared Vision: e character can see into the infraredrange of the spectrum, enabling him to detect things bytheir heat diff erentials. is allows the character to see evenin complete darkness, but it can be fooled by clothing orsystems designed to fool infrared sensors. Cost: points.

Low-Light Vision: e character’s eyes can amplify

light to superhuman levels, at least as good as a cat’s.Night penalties are halved (rounded down) and the char-acter can see as well on a cloudless moonlit night as anormal person does during the day. Cost: point.

Spectrum Vision: e character’s eyes can see in both theinfrared and ultraviolet spectrums, providing the equivalent ofboth Infrared Vision and Low-Light Vision.Cost: points.

OXYGEN RESERVE

-point AugmentationCharacters with this augmentation can also hold their

breath for up to minutes, enabling them to survive incompletely inhospitable environs, such as underwater orin a room filled with poison gas. ey still require a spacesuit in vacuum, but do not need a working air supply.

PRESSURE TOLERANCE

-point Augmentation e character’s ability to live and operate in high and

low pressure environments is significantly increased. echaracter can comfortably live in pressures as low as . atmospheres (equivalent to an altitude of . km on Earth)and can spend time in pressures as high as atmospheres(equal to a depth of m underwater) without neededto undergo decompression when returning to normalatmospheric pressure. is augmentation also adds + tothe character’s Constitution and allows characters to holdtheir breath for up to minutes while remaining active.

ere is also a related -point augmentation where theonly benefit is to render the character immune to the af-fects of altitude sickness. is augmentation requires only asimple injection and is given to all new colonists on Erida-nos. Characters with this lesser augmentation can comfort-ably live in environments where the pressure is above . atmospheres (equivalent to an altitude of . km on Earth).

RAPID HEALING

-point Augmentation e character heals three times as rapidly as normal. As a

result, the character heals three times Constitution LPs/Day. is augmentation is not usable with or cumulative withany other Quality or augmentation that enhances healing.

TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE

-point Augmentation e character can survive unprotected in temperatures

as low as F (- C) and as high as F ( C) withoutdiscomfort, harm or the need for any special clothing.

RESTRICTED AUGMENTATIONS

Providing unauthorized individuals with any of theseaugmentations is illegal and possessing them is frownedupon by most governments. Anyone purchasing any ofthese augmentations must possess one of two Drawbacks:a -point Obligation (to the organization that legally



78

provided the augmentations) or a -point Dark Secret(possesses an unlicensed augmentations). If so desired, acharacter who obtains them illegally through a criminalorganization can take both Drawbacks. Augmentations

can be detected by any thorough medical exam, but un-less otherwise stated are not visible. Possessing restrictedaugmentations is not illegal, but people known to havethem can face job discrimination and in many nations,legal penalties for crimes are higher if such augmenta-tions are used when performing the crime.

AMPHIBIOUS

-point Augmentation e character can breathe water and survive any depth

underwater without problems or discomfort. e charac-ter can also swim at their normal running speed instead

of having their swimming speed equal to the SuccessLevel of a Dexterity and Sports roll, which is what ordi-nary humans must make do with.

BOOST GLAND

-point Augmentation is augmentation provides the user with a brief rush

of strength and energy. For ten rounds, the user gains a+ bonus to Strength and Dexterity and can temporar-ily exceed normal human limitations in both attributes.

e increase in Strength adds Life Points to the char-acter’s total, but these points are lost when the eff ectsof the boost wear off . Boosting a human physiology in

this fashion is exhausting. e user cannot use this aug-mentation more often than once every two hours. isaugmentation allows the character to temporarily gain aStrength and a Dexterity of up to .

COMMANDO UPGRADE

-point Augmentation is extensive augmentation provides the user with

+ to all three Physical Attributes, as well as one level ofHard to Kill. In addition, the user gains the Regeneration

Augmentation. is augmentation does not allow any ofthe character’s Attributes to exceed .

ELECTRICAL ATTACK -point Augmentation

e character’s arms and legs now contain muscle-like tissue similar to an electric eel’s implanted in them.

is allows the character to do points of electrical(Bash) damage by touch. Alternately, the character canchoose to use this augmentation to duplicate the eff ects

of a hand taser (see p. ). e character can control theability consciously, and can use it to attack any target bytouch or any target who is touching a conductor, like ametal railing or ledge, that the character is also touching.

Metal armor off ers no protection against this attack, buthighly insulating clothing, like electrician’s gloves usedas a barrier against conductive substances, off er completeprotection from this attack.

ENHANCED ATTRIBUTES

- or -point AugmentationUsing various forms of genetic alteration and drug

therapies to encourage the subject’s body to enhance it-self, anyone with enough money and the right contactscan now enhance any of their Attributes. People can be-come stronger, tougher, or even smarter. Currently, it’s

only possible to use this augmentation to give someoneone additional point in any enhanced Attribute. osebonuses are always added to the character’s Attributesafter Attribute points have been distributed. So, if yougive your character a Strength of four and then add anEnhanced Attribute augmentation to Strength, the fi -nal Attribute score would be fi ve. e cost of raising any

Attribute is one point as long as the fi nal value of the Attribute is six or less. is augmentation can raise any Attribute that naturally has a value of six up to seven, butraising an Attribute from six to seven costs three points.

NATURAL ARMOR

Variable Augmentation e character has biological armor grown under or

on top of their skin. ere are two types of armor, invisible and visible armor. Invisible armor lies under thesurface of the character’s skin and can only be detected bya medical examination. Invisible armor provides pointof armor per level, and cannot have a level higher than .

Visible armor provides points of armor per level, butgreater amounts of armor causes the character to lookincreasingly inhuman. Up to levels, the character canhave a slightly scaled or obviously leathery skin, like asnake’s scales or a rhino’s hide. At levels of armor, thecharacter must have obvious bony plates, like an alliga-

tor’s hide or arthropod carapace. Also, for every level of visible armor, the character automatically gains one levelof negative Attractiveness. So, a character with three lev-els of visible armor would have six points of armor andan Attractiveness of - . Characters cannot possess morethan three points of this augmentation.



7

2NATURAL WEAPONRY

Variable Augmentation e character has claws or teeth that inflict Slash-

ing/Stabbing damage. Using these claws requires eitheran Archaic Weaponry or Brawling + Dexterity roll. edamage of the natural weapon determines its cost.

Fangs or Small Claws: e character has short fangsand sharp carnivore teeth or small sharp claws at theend of their fingers that do cutting damage equal to xStrength and are less than two centimeters long. At noadditional cost, the character can have both claws andfangs, just claws, or just fangs. Cost: point.

For one additional point, these claws can be madeto retract into the character’s fi ngers like a cat’s claws.

When retracted, they cannot be seen and the charactercan shake hands and wear gloves normally. All legal ver-sions of this augmentation are retractile.

Large Fangs or Claws: e character has claws severalcentimeters long or fangs and teeth similar to a cougar orother large predator. Both are obvious and difficult to con-ceal and like the previous augmentation, the character canhave one or both for the same cost. augmentation allows thecharacter to do x Strength cutting damage. Cost: points.

For one additional point, these claws can retract intothe character’s knuckles, between the character’s fingers.

When retracted, they cannot be seen and the charactercan shake hands and wear gloves normally. All legal ver-sions of this augmentation are retractile.

REGENERATION

-point Augmentation e character heals times as rapidly as normal, re-

covering Con LP every two hours.

WALL WALKING

-point Quality e character has slightly rough pads like on the feet

of a gecko on her hands, feet, knees, and forearms. Otherthan their slightly odd texture, these pads look like nor-mal skin, but allow the character to stick to almost anysurface, regardless of whether it is horizontal, vertical or

anything in between. e character can automaticallyclimb walls or sheer cliff s without needing to make Dex-terity or Acrobatics rolls. In addition, she can move atDexterity + Constitution meters per turn – the speed ofa brisk walk. e character can climb any surface capableof supporting their weight.

HYPERSPATIAL AUGMENTATIONS Trade with the mi-go is strictly controlled by the OPSand the UN Security Council. Despite restrictions, themi-go have already produced some amazing augmenta-tions designed for use by humans. e mi-go are mastersof biotechnology and are happy to trade prototypes ofhuman augmentations for minerals, biological samples,and access to elder one and great race records and arti-facts. ese augmentations were based on similar altera-tions that the mi-go can make to their own species.

However, while mi-go research has proven invaluablefor creating some of the more advanced augmentationsdeveloped by human researchers, none of the augmenta-tions developed by the mi-go for use by humans have beenapproved for more than the most limited use. For all their

skill, the mi-go do not understand all of the myriad of sideeff ects their technologies can have on human physiologiesand psychologies. Many their devices and augmentationscan have unforeseen and occasionally dire side eff ects.Most mi-go augmentations are still undergoing testing,but four have been used in limited test programs by theOPS, several government intelligence agencies, and mili-tary special forces in both the US and China. A few ren-egade mi-go are also willing to illegally trade these aug-mentations to humans willing to pay their price.

ese augmentations all give the character some abil-ity to directly interact with hyperspace. While powerful,this ability is also exceedingly dangerous. ese augmen-

tations do not just produce hyperspatial exposure, theyautomatically add + to the user’s Hyperspatial Exposurelevel regardless of existing exposure threshold. Anyone

with a mi-go hyperspatial augmentation and any otherhyperspatial exposure has a permanent Hyperspatial Ex-posure level of rather than . A sorcerer who already hada Hyperspatial Exposure Level of would automaticallygain a Hyperspatial Exposure Level of , and becomedangerously insane, simply by gaining one of these aug-mentations. Characters can only possess a single hyper-spatial augmentation. Only spies, special forces soldiers,and a few OPS operatives can legally possess one of theseaugmentations. ese augmentations are highly illegal

for all unauthorized personnel to possess.

ATTACK FIELD

or -point Augmentation e character can project a field of hyperspatial energy

around their body. At the user’s choice, the field can beused in one of three settings, to only aff ect living tissue, to



80

only aff ect complex electronics, or to damage all matter. e character can also alter the size of this field so that itextends between and centimeters from their body.

Targets that touch this field suff er damage. For -points,

the field does points of Bash damage and for pointsthe field does points of Bash damage. Damage causedby this field either causes subtle but severe damage to liv-ing cells or microcircuits or it causes all matter to appear torapidly corrode or decay. Armor protects from this damagenormally. When active, this field produces a slight shim-mer in the air, but is not otherwise visible. Turning thefield on or off requires a single combat action. All damagecaused by this augmentation is Bash damage.

DEFENSE FIELD

-point Augmentation

e character can project a solid field of hyperspatialforce around herself. Normally, this fi eld only protectsthe character, but the character can also expand it intoa dome with a radius of up to three meters, centered onthe character. is expanded force field protects anyone

within three meters of the character. Also instead of pro- jecting a fi eld around herself, the character can projecta single wall of solid hyperspatial force as large as fourmeters on a side, up to meters away from herself.

Creating a defense field or changing how it is deployedrequires one combat action. is field provides points ofarmor and a damage capacity of points. When an attackis made against anyone inside this field or against the field

itself, points is subtracted from the attack, and any ad-ditional damage reduces the field’s damage capacity. Whenthe damage capacity is reduced to , the field instantly col-lapses. Once the field has collapsed, it cannot be used againfor one full minute, since it requires that long to regenerate.

HYPERSPATIAL FLIGHT

-point Augmentation A character with the Hyperspatial Flight augmenta-

tion can fl y by means of an implanted organ capable ofgenerating hyperspatial fi elds that produce reactionlessacceleration. He can move at fi ve times normal humanrunning speed (Constitution + Dexterity x meters per

second or Constitution + Dexterity x km per hour). e character can hover, maneuver in all directions, andchange direction from one turn to the next. e charactermust make a successful Dexterity + Acrobatics roll to fl yand will need to make additional successes to performcomplex maneuvers. He can fl y equally well in an atmo-sphere and in the vacuum of space.

e organ that allows the character to fl y produces what looks like a pair of hyperspatial wings four metersacross. While occasional obstacles like people, telephonepoles, or widely spaced trees do not interfere with flight,

the character cannot fl y in a narrow corridor or other en-closed space that does not allow room for the hyperspatialfield to fully extend. During the daytime, humans only seethis field as a pair of vaguely wing-like shimmers in theair, but at night it glows slightly, causing the character tobe easily visible while fl ying. ese eff ects only appear topeople with one or more levels of Hyperspatial Exposure.

HYPERSPATIAL MANIPULATORS

to -point Augmentation e character can project one or two complex fields of

temporarily solidified hyperspatial energy that each have

a range of up to meters. ese fields allow the charac-ter to manipulate objects at a distance. e user can bothfeel objects they are touching with these manipulators asif they were touching the objects with their hands, andcan manipulate objects that are inside closed containersor on the other side of a door.

Characters use their normal skills to manipulate objects,but if the character cannot see the object they are manipu-lating, then most tasks require a minimum of two additionalSuccess Levels to succeed due to the complexity of workingby feel. (Tasks like mechanical lock picking are normallydone by feel and would have no penalty.) Each level of thisaugmentation allows the user to manipulate objects with

one point of eff ective Strength. Four levels of this Qual-ity would allow the character to manipulate objects witha Strength of four. Characters cannot take more than fi velevels of this power. Characters can use these fields to wieldboth melee and ranged weapons and to make unarmed at-tacks normally. Brawling or melee attacks do damage basedon the Strength of these manipulators.

SKILLS How can a top engineer rebuild a starship engine inless than an hour? Why can a crack sniper hit a target ahalf-kilometer away? e answer is their skills. Skills arelearned abilities, the result of training, study, or experi-ence. In general, anything teachable is considered a skill.

e character’s background, education, and life experi-ences determine what skills he would be likely to have.

Skills are broken down into broad categories. Ratherthan assign a skill to diff erent types of guns, for example,Guns covers the ability to fi re anything with a trigger.



8

2 is is not realistic, but reflects the somewhat cinematictone of Eldritch Skies . It also makes character creationeasier: rather than players having to page through a hugelist of skills, all skills are noted on the character sheet.

at way, you can run down the choices quickly and de-cide which are most appropriate.

Skills can be run using the broad categories all at thesame level. at’s easiest. For those who like to see a bitmore detail, the specifics of each skill are left to your imag-ination. An intrepid jungle explorer Hero’s Science Skill

would reflect mostly an expertise in botany and biology,and his Knowledge Skill would deal mainly with geog-raphy and exotic cultures. A criminal lawyer may have aCrime Skill that lets her communicate with underworldtypes, but she probably can’t pick a lock. At your Director’sdiscretion, skill uses outside your character’s focus mightsuff er a roll penalty. When the Director says that a givenskill requires a focus, players should make sure to notedown their character’s skill focus on the character sheet.

BUYING SKILLS

To acquire skills, use the skills category character pointsof the Character Type chosen. Skills cost point per levelfor levels one through fi ve. After level fi ve, each addi-tional level costs points. For example, Dave wants hischaracter to be a high level corporate negotiator, regular-ly arranging deals for multinational corporations, someof whom deal in alien technology. Such expertise wouldrequire a skill of or higher. Dave decides to go for broke

and give the character an Influence Skill . is costs points for the fi rst levels, and points for the othertwo, for a total of character points. Dave’s character is aserious player, but he is going to have to rely on contacts,friends, and allies for any other kind of expertise.

ACROBATICS

Known to stunt men, cat burglars, and physics-defyingmartial artists, this is the ability to perform tumbles,somersaults, and other complex maneuvers. It is also usedto dodge attacks, climb obstacles, and perform similartasks of agility. Acrobatics can replace Crime when try-ing to move silently (use the higher of the two skills for

sneaking around attempts).Using the Skill: Acrobatics is used with Dexterity to

perform most maneuvers, including avoiding close combatattacks and gunfire. When jumping for distance, climb-ing, or swimming, use Strength and Acrobatics instead. If

you have the Space Training Quality, it also allows you tomove around in free fall or low gravity.

ARCHAIC WEAPONS

When a fi st is not enough, it’s time to draw a knife. Alternately, perhaps your character is an Olympic levelfencer or has trained with a fencing master on Galatea I.

is skill is used for all archaic weapons, from swords andaxes to crossbows and throwing knives. Commandos areoften proficient at the ancient art of dismembering theirfoes with both sharp and blunt objects.

Using the Skill: Dexterity and Archaic Weapons covermost combat actions. Feints use Intelligence (or Perceptionto recognize them). Archaic Weapons is very useful whenit’s Combat Maneuver time (see p. ). It can be used in-stead of Acrobatics or Brawling to avoid getting hit.

ART

is skill covers all areas of creative endeavor: acting,music, painting, sculpture, creative writing, and so on.

at does not mean your character knows all artisticskills equally well. When creating the character, decide

which art or arts are his specialty. A character who isskilled at painting and drawing may not be able to singor dance. An artistic polymath who can sing, dance, draw,sculpt, and make amazing origami should buy one or twoadditional Art skills as Wildcard skills.

Using the Skill: ere are two types of rolls that usethis skill. To create art, use Intelligence and Art (for

writing and painting), Willpower and Art (for acting orstorytelling), Dexterity and Art (for dancing or playingan instrument), or Constitution and Art (for singing).

e Success Levels determine how good the creation (orperformance, for things like music or dance) is. To judgesomeone else’s art, use Perception and Art.

THE MEANING OF SKILL NUMBERS

Like most numbers in the Unisystem, high is good and

low is bad. e higher a skill level, the more proficientthe character is at using that skill. In general, a level oneindicates a beginner or amateur, somebody who has justlearned the rudiments of the skill. Level two or three rep-resents general competency—the ability to perform aver-age tasks with ease. Level four or fi ve indicates extremecompetence in the subject, the result of a lot of study orpractice. Higher levels indicate true mastery of the skillor craft, and the ability to perform the most difficult tasks

with relative ease. For example, a master martial artist would have a Brawling skill level in the - range.



82

BRAWLING

Call it brawling, martial arts, or fisticuff s, this skill coversthe art of using hands and feet (and other body parts) in

combat. Brawling is indispensable for special forces com-mandos and is also very useful around hostile securityguards and in bar fights.

Using the Skill: Dexterity and Brawling for hittingsomeone or avoiding being hit (can be used instead of

Acrobatics or Archaic Weaponry for the latter). ManyCombat Maneuvers (see p. ) are based on the BrawlingSkill. Intelligence and Brawling may be used to identifya fighting style, or to feint an opponent. Perception andBrawling counter such feints.

COMPUTERS

is is the skill for using computers, sensors, and all othercommon technological devices that aren’t weapons or vehi-cles. It includes using mobiles. What governs the use of thisskill versus engineering? Simple: if it’s a hardware problem,it’s Engineering; if it’s a software problem, use Computers.

e skill extends to the amount of hardware comprehensioninvolved in using a device – a Computers expert could puttogether system components or troubleshoot cable connec-tions – but not enough to repair physical damage or figureout which wire to pull to deactivate an explosive.

Using the Skill: Intelligence and Computers to writea program, gain information, or hack into a secure sys-tem. For hacking, the system’s security imposes penalties,

from - for a local library’s membership records to - or worse for an OPS database. Perception and Computershelp diagnose software or hardware problems withouthaving to call someone’s support line.

CRIME

Sometimes a character needs to break into an alien spy’sapartment, or maybe uncuff handcuff s in a hurry. Break-ing and entering, skulking around, picking pockets—ifit’s illegal, this skill covers it, with two major exceptions:computer hacking uses the Computers Skill, and con-ning people depends on the Influence Skill. Your char-acter doesn’t have to be a criminal to have this skill; cops,

private investigators, spies, and other (relatively) honestbut street-wise folks have it as well.

Using the Skill: Dexterity and Crime are used forthings like moving stealthily (although Acrobatics canreplace Crime here), lifting someone’s wallet, and pick-ing locks. Victims resist such activities with their BrainsScore, or Perception and either Notice or Crime (which-

ever is better). Crime and Intelligence are used to identifycriminals and street contacts (this roll is modified by howfamiliar the character is with the local criminal scene).

DOCTOR

OPS operatives and others who delve too deeply intomythos activities can easily get hurt, so this skill sees a lotof use. is skill covers the ability to heal injuries and curedisease through modern medicine. A full-fledged doctorhas a skill of four or higher, while a surgeon capable ofinstalling cutting-edge modifications would have a levelof at least six. First aid and paramedic or nursing trainingall fall under this skill at lower levels.

Using the Skill: An Intelligence and Doctor roll isused to treat injuries; each Success Level restores oneLife Point of damage (only one roll per patient per day).

is also prevents the victim from losing more LifePoints from bleeding or complications. Perception andDoctor can be used to diagnose medical problems, or de-termine cause of death.

DRIVING

is is the ability to operate any ground vehicle, rangingfrom cars, trucks, and motorcycles to mobile labs and all-terrain vehicles. Ground vehicles in Eldritch Skies gener-ally have computer systems that drive them well enoughfor normal purposes; however, anything out of the ordi-nary requires user intervention.

Using the Skill: Dexterity and Driving for high-speed

chases, cutting through heavy traffic, driving on an unsta-ble slope in a storm, and other complex maneuvers. If yourcharacter is not familiar with a specific vehicle (such astrying to drive an -wheeler or a motorcycle if he has onlydriven cars before), rolls suff er a - to - penalty or worse.Use Intelligence and Driving for general maintenance—for real trouble, switch to the Engineering Skill.

ENGINEERING

If it’s broken, an engineer can fi x it. If it isn’t broken, shecan improve it. If she doesn’t have it, she can build it. Engi-neering covers all technical and craft skills, from carpentryto mechanics to setting up electronic equipment. An En-gineering-skilled character with space training can operatea space suit. is is what your character needs if he wantsto fi x the life support system on a starship before the airruns out or to make a hyperspatial device into a makeshift

weapon before thefl ying polyp batters down the door. Moredevious characters can also use this skill to set up elaborateand interesting traps.



8

2Using the Skill: Perception and Engineering for

spotting a problem. Intelligence and Engineering to dothe repairs or construction work. ings that require asoft touch would use Dexterity and Engineering instead.

GUNS Guns may not work so well when you’re up against hy-perspatial entities. However, against cultists, ab-humanmutants, hostile aliens, and hungry ghouls, guns meanserious business. is skill covers all firearms, as well asgun-like ranged weapons, like zappers.

Using the Skill: Dexterity and Guns for pointing andshooting. Aiming slows a character’s attack to the end ofthe Turn, but adds the Success Levels of a Guns and Per-ception roll to the shooting roll. Intelligence and Gunshelp clear a jammed gun.

INFLUENCE

e ability to deceive, seduce, intimidate, or manipu-late people. Influence allows your character to pick upsomebody at a bar, scare people into giving up importantinformation, or otherwise persuade others to his or her

will.Using the Skill: Intelligence and Influence for fool-

ing, scamming, or fast-talking others. Willpower and In-fluence to intimidate people. If your character is tryingto seduce somebody, for example, any Appearance levelsact as bonuses or penalties to the roll. By the same token,an augmented commando would fi nd it a lot easier to

intimidate someone if he lifts that person over her head;the proper circumstances add bonuses or penalties in theone to fi ve range. A Willpower and Influence roll by thetarget might counter some or all of the impact.

KNOWLEDGE

All non-scientific, non-artistic disciplines are covered bythis skill: it represents history, sociology, psychology anda plethora of other understandings. It also could be usedfor general or area knowledge that hasn’t been formalizedinto an academic discipline (say local politics, or famil-iarity with an area’s terrain.) Knowledge can be usefulin predicting a cult leader’s next move, or in setting upa personality profile (if you know the basic aspects of asociopath’s psychology, you may be in a better positionto catch him). Knowledge can also help with occult re-search, for example identifying an ancient spear as be-ing of deep one origin and originating from one of theirsettlements in the Atlantic. Players should specify whattheir Knowledge skill represents, or purchase multiple

Knowledge skills when the scope of information calls forit: getting a Ph. D. in everything involves a lot more thandrinking and reading Malcolm Gladwell.

Using the Skill: Knowledge is used with Intelligence

for almost all rolls. Success Levels in that roll may beadded to a subsequent Occultism or Influence roll.

LANGUAGES

To get around in Beijing, sound good ordering at aFrench restaurant, or read the Latin Necronomicon, youneed to learn a few languages. is skill covers any lan-guage other than one’s native tongue.

Using the Skill: is skill is used diff erently from therest. Each level of Languages indicates fluency in one lan-guage (player decides which ones). When trying to deciphersome arcane inscription, use Intelligence and Language. InEldritch Skies , knowing a few languages helps a character topick meaning out of unknown languages as well.

After character creation, picking up new languages isdifficult. is skill cannot be improved unless the char-acter spends several months studying the new language(see p. for improving a character through experience).

NOTICE

Has someone searched your character’s apartment? Is a cult-ist tailing your character? is is the skill that lets you know.

Without Notice, a character might miss the obscure refer-ence in a news article, the telltale damaged equipment in thelaboratory, or the “follow-my-lead” wink from his contact.

UNDERSTANDING THE MYTHOS

A substantial overlap exists between Knowledge, Science,and Occultism in Eldritch Skies , but they each define spe-cific areas of understanding. When making calls on whichskill to use, use this rule of thumb: Knowledge covers loreand historical information. Occultism uses a sorcerousframework to understand hyperspatial creatures and phe-nomena directly; and Science applies to technosorcerousdevices and the mathematical understanding of hyper-

space. A Hero with a Science-based understanding of hyper-

space can usually piece out what a sorcerous ritual does,and a dyed-in-the-wool black-robed sorcerer can recog-nize a gadget’s eff ects and the spell it replicates. Nonethe-less, they might be at minuses when trying to performrituals or use devices outside of their specialties. SeeChapter Four: Arcane Secrets (p. ) for more details.



84

Using the Skill: Perception and Notice to spot things.Intelligence and Notice to remember something your char-acter saw before but didn’t realize was important until now.

OCCULTISM

Forbidden knowledge, ancient lore written by or aboutaliens, the ravings of mad occultists, and legends of an-cient sorcerers. is is the skill of the truly arcane. It in-cludes things like the nature of hyperspace, informationabout hyperspatial beings, as well as an understanding of

what sorcery can do (but not how to perform it). Yourcharacter needs the Occultism Skill before she can be-come a proficient sorcerer.

Using the Skill: Intelligence and Occultism to recog-nize or research the nature of some mythos being. Percep-tion and Occultism to identify a hyperspatial creature on

first sight. Occultism is also used to cast spells (see p. ).PILOTING

is skill covers piloting aircraft, boats, and spacecraft.Like Art, a basic area of expertise must be specified (air-craft, boats, and spacecraft are the three big areas).

Using the Skill: Dexterity and Piloting to performmaneuvers, Intelligence and Piloting to use sensors orcommunication systems.

PSYCHIC ART

Using the powers of the mind requires more than just theknack for doing so. Most of them also require some de-

gree of skill or training. Just like you need the Computerskill to find something obscure on the internet, the Psy-chic Art skill may allow you to find something in some-one else’s head. Because all psychic powers are related,this one skill covers using all of them.

Using the Skill: Perception and Psychic Art to learn some-one’s emotions, Willpower and Psychic Art to manipulate them.

SCIENCE

is skill covers all of the sciences—physics, biology,chemistry, and so on. It can come in handy when tryingto identify hyperspatial oddities and similar weirdness.

Although using sorcery requires Occultism, understand-ing the mathematical nature of hyperspace uses Science.Using the Skill: Intelligence and Science for most things,

from mixing a chemical formula to inventing a new deviceto repairing a broken dragonfl y drive (Science can be usedinstead of Engineering for certain highly complex applica-tions). Perception and Science is used to spot science-ori-ented clues, like identifying an unusual biochemical residue.

SPORTS

Swimming, team sports, running, ice skating: all sportsare covered by this skill, except activities like boxing and

martial arts, which use Brawling, and gymnastics, whichis part of Acrobatics. In a pinch, Sports can be used in-stead of other combat skills to do things like swinging abat in anger or tackling a monster—if you really want to

wrap your arms around one.Using the Skill: Depending on the nature of the

sporting event, one of the three physical Attributes isused. Coordination and agility-based tasks (throwinga baseball) depend on Dexterity, brute force activities(weight lifting or tackling) rely on Strength, and endur-ance sports (marathon running) use Constitution.

WILDERNESS

e Wilderness skill allows characters to find shelter, an-ticipate the eff ects of wind and weather, and forage forfood. It also covers knowing the habits of wild animalsand working with or training domestic or service animals.Characters with the Space Training Quality can use Wil-derness instead of Engineering to check and troubleshoota space suit. Success Levels on an Intelligence + Wilder-ness roll may be added to any rolls related to tracking ormoving stealthily in an outdoor environment, or overcom-ing natural obstacles (like climbing a tree).

Using the Skill: Perception and Wilderness to find foodor shelter, Intelligence and Wilderness to understand the

habits of animals or to figure out what upcoming weath-er is like. Dexterity and Wilderness allows you to createsnares and traps or to build simple shelters. Willpower and

Wilderness to tame an animal. Dealing with alien animallife and weather patterns without local Knowledge or ex-perience requires additional success levels.

WILD CARD

Don’t worry if you don’t see your favorite skill listedabove. It’s the nature of the beast (low skill category beast,that is) to lose some completeness. To take care of that prob-lem, we have the unsung st skill on the list—the WildCard. is is your fill-in-the-blanks skill—it can cover

anything you want, with one caveat. e Wild Card Skillcannot be broader than the pre-existing skills: Weapons, forexample, which would cover both Guns and Archaic Weap-ons, would not be OK. A character can have more than one

Wild Card Skill (despite character sheet unsightliness)—take as many as it takes, as long as your Director approves.



8

2COMBAT MANEUVERS

Are you wondering about that large Combat Maneuverssection on your character sheet? ese are your character’s

preferred moves. You can find a list of Combat Maneuversin Chapter ree: Rules and Gear (see p. ). Before fill-ing in this list, you should become familiar with the rulesgoverning them. Combat Maneuvers have three elements.

Bonus: is totals the character’s appropriate Attri-bute, skill, and Maneuver-specific modifiers. e bonusis what you add to the die roll to determine how well theattack or defense worked.

Damage: is lists the base damage of the Maneu- ver (if the Maneuver does any damage). Add any SuccessLevels of the roll to the base damage.

Notes: is highlights any special eff ects of the attack.

DRAMA POINTSSometimes a character needs to succeed at something,regardless of the probabilities (and sometimes the con-sequences). In a movie or TV show, the scriptwriter justdecides how things go, although they try not to get sooutlandish as to break the viewer’s suspension of disbe-lief. In the Eldritch Skies RPG , we can simulate this withDrama Points. When you use a Drama Point, your char-acter gets a huge bonus to his chances, representing thecombination of impressive luck and awesome skills com-mon to all cinematic and pulp heroes. e shot ricochetsaround a corner and cuts the hangman’s rope, the bullet is

only a mild flesh wound, an apparently slain companionis “not dead yet”…all those things are possible when youspend a Drama Point. Information on Drama Points iscovered in Chapter ree: Rules and Gear (see p. ).

Characters start with a set amount of Drama Pointsdepending on their Character Type. Civilians get morebeginning points—it’s how they keep up with the Op-eratives, if you wish to allow both types of characters inthe same Series.

FINISHING TOUCHES

ese are the little things that mean so much—name, look,

and the like. ese touches bring life to your Hero and makeher more than a list of numbers on a sheet of paper.Name: What’s in a name? Among other things, it can

provide some insights into your character’s backgroundand personality. Surnames refer to the character’s ances-try; nicknames can add color. A name helps make thecharacter into a person.

Look: You can go the “identity card” route and becontent to provide height, weight, eye and hair color,but other details make your character more memorable.Consider choosing a well-known actor, singer, or film

character to represent your character. “David Tennant with stubble and a ponytail.” is provides a quick visualframe of reference for yourself and others.

Other Characteristics: Maybe the character hassome distinctive habit or mannerism—he always leavesthe top button of his shirt undone, or can’t sit still whenhe’s thinking. Any scars, tattoos, or piercings that areeasily noticeable? How does your Hero normally dress?

What kind of music is in her mobile link, what sort ofcar does she drive? You’re set to go. e stars of the showhave been cast, and it’s time to get the cameras rollingand the action started.

ARCHETYPESOn the next few pages, you will fi nd six ready-to-playcharacters—three Operatives and three Civilians. echaracters have their own story and background, and canbe used as-is or modified by players as they see fit. Enjoy!

CHARACTER TEMPLATES

e following six sample characters are ready to play, andcan also be used as inspiration for your own Heroes.



86

MANEUVERS SCORE DAMAGE NOTES

Dodge — Defense action

Large Pistol Bullet damage

Zapper + Stun Bash + Stun

ATTRIBUTES (20 + 5 FROM QUALITIES)

Strength

Dexterity

Constituion

Intelligence (+ from Genius Quality)

Perception (+ from Occult Investigator Quality)

Willpower (+ from Genius Quality, + from Occult Investigator Quality)

Life Points

Speed

Drama Points

Hyperspatial Exposure Level:

QUALITIES (20 + 9 FROM DRAWBACKS)

Contacts (Supernatural) ()

Genius ()

Occult Investigator ()

Sorcery ()

Spells ()

DRAWBACKS (9)

Covetous (mild, power) ()

Emotional Problems (easily flustered) ()

Honorable ()

Minority (lesbian) ()

Obsession (latest project) (from Genius Quality)

Phobia (severe, large bodies of water) ()

Secret (sorcerer) ()Sleep Disorders (deep sleeper) ()

SKILLS (30 + 6 FROM QUALITIES)

Acrobatics Knowledge

Archaic Weapons Languages

Art Notice

Brawling Occultism

Computers Pilot

Crime Psychic Art

Doctor Science

Driving Sports

Engineering Wilderness

Gun Fu Wild Card

Influence

SPELL LEVEL

Voorish Sign

Elder Sign

Open Gateway

Protective Warding

Dho Hna Ritual

IndependentSorcerer



8

2

I’ve always been fascinated by the occult. I readstories of horror and the supernatural as a child.

Later, I was your typical goth teen steeped in occulthistory and wearing black dresses and overly largesilver jewelry. In college, I started finding out about

actual sorcery, at which point I figured out that advancedmath and learning my way around a computer was farmore important than learning archaic languages. esedays, sorcery is something best done using a high-endmobile link.

Once I was out of college, I started serious occultstudies and got connected to the occult community.

ere are some serious strange people involved in thisstuff , but there are also wonders that I never could haveimagined. I’ve seen things that I wouldn’t have believed

possible. I’ve also seen horrors that have caused me to wake up screaming on more than one occasion. Studyingthe occult is not for cowards.

For a good while, I was just in this for myself. en Iencountered that cult and the things they were trying todo. Having to swim to shore from the ruins of their yachtmade certain that I’d never look at the ocean the same

way again. I attracted some attention when I saved theguy the cult was going to sacrifice. Less than a week afterthat all went down, a spook from the OPS came to seeme. I still have no idea how they figured out who I was.I’m not much of a joiner, but they were OK with that.

ese days, I consult with the OPS, and occasionally helpout with difficult cases. I get to see even more wonders,and I can try to make certain that more psychos don’t getinto human sacrifice or worse.

Quote: “ It’s obvious where they went; this room has thehyperspatial signature of a recent Gateway spell. I don’t knowwhere it goes, but I can fi nd out.”

ROLEPLAYING THE INDEPENDENT SORCERER

You’re a brilliant occultist who is obsessed with occultknowledge. However, while you love the occult, you’realso a good person who can easily see how others canabuse occult knowledge. When you hear about a danger-

ous cult, sorcerous devices in the hands of criminals, orsimilar problems, you think about what you can do tohelp. You occasionally work with the OPS, but you alsolike handling problems on your own.



88


Big Knife () () Slash/Stab

Big Assault Rifle () Bullet

Big Pistol () Bullet

Dodge () — Defense Action

Kick () () Bash

Punch () () Bash

Rifle Grenade () Fire

Numbers in ( ) using Boost Gland


Strength (+ Commando Upgrade Quality & + Deep One Hybrid)

Dexterity (+ Commando Upgrade Quality)

Constitution (+ Commando Upgrade Quality, + Astronaut Quality, + Deep One Hybrid)

Intelligence

Perception (+ Soldier Quality)

Willpower (+ Astronaut Quality)

Life Points

Speed

Drama Points


QUALITIES (20 + 3 FROM DRAWBACK)

Astronaut ()

Boost Gland ()Commando Upgrade ()

Regeneration (from Commando Upgrade)

Hard to Kill (from Commando Upgrade)

Deep One Hybrid ()

Amphibious (from Deep One Hybrid)

Low-light Vision (from Deep One Hybrid)

Natural Armor (from Deep One Hybrid)

Fast Reaction Time ()

Oxygen Reserve ()

Soldier ( )

DRAWBACKS (3)

Honorable ()

Minority (from Deep One Hybrid)

Obligation (total) () (+ from Soldier Quality)


Acrobatics Languages

Archaic Weapons Notice

Art Occultism

Brawling Pilot

Computers Psychic Art

Crime Science

Doctor Sports

Driving Wilderness

Engineering Wild Card

Guns Sports

Influence Wilderness

Knowledge Wild Card

OPS StrikeTeam Commando



8

2

I went to college on an Army scholarship and did mytour of duty after graduation. en, I started to trans-form. e doctors stopped things before I got toofishy. However, some folks in the Air Force don’t look

to kindly on what I am now, and so I started lookingat my options. en, I got the opportunity of a lifetime. Itried out for the OPS and I wasn’t just accepted, they off eredme training for space duty. Even better, I got a whole bunchof upgrades via some of their fancier augmentations. esedays, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

I occasionally work strike team operations on Earth,but most of the time, I’m out in the solar system or thestars, hunting down things that are trying to hunt usdown first. I get the best weapons, the best soldiers undermy command, and I’ve visited more than a dozen plan-ets. It’s not all cake, I’ve lost people under my command,not many, but more than enough. Moonbeasts want toenslave people, some of the hyperspatials can kill you

just by hanging around, and some stuff just doesn’t likepeople. It’s a dangerous universe out there, and I’m partof what keeps these threats away from all the people whoare just looking to lead happy peaceful lives and mayberaise some kids.

ankfully, it’s not all monster hunting; there’s nothingquite as satisfying as a successful disaster relief mission,and there’s plenty of opportunity for those out on the new-er colonies. Blowing up some monster that’s trying to kill

you is satisfying, but saving lives is what really gives my lifemeaning. I’d love for my job to become obsolete, but until

it is, I’m going to be the first line of defense. If monstersfrom outer space or even hyperspace want to kill or enslavepeople, they’ll need to go through me first.

Quote: “Suit up soldiers, sensors just detected a hyper-spatial gateway opening three klicks away, in the direction ofCopernicus crater. It’s time to put that lunar combat trainingto good use.”

ROLEPLAYING THE OPS STRIKE TEAM COMMANDO

You are a career soldier who is also a highly trained as-tronaut. You’re not a dumb grunt, you are the best of thebest and you have the training to back this up, because

you’re an officer in the OPS. You’re brave, honorable, andutterly devoted to both your mission and to the womenand men under your command.



90


Dodge — Defense Action

Grapple — Resisted by Dodge

Punch Bash

Knife Slash/Stab

Pistol Bullet


ATTRIBUTES (20 +3 FROM QUALITIES)

Strength

Dexterity (+ From Enhanced Attribute Quality)

Constitution

Intelligence

Perception (+ from Spy Quality)

Willpower (+ from Spy Quality)

Life Points

Speed

Drama Points


QUALITIES (20 +5 DRAWBACKS)

Emotional Influence ()

Enhanced Attribute ()

Insight ()

Low Light Vision ()

Photographic Memory ()

Psychic Sensitivity ( )

Rapid Healing ()

Spy ()

Undetectability ()

DRAWBACKS (5)

Addiction (tobacco)

Covetous (mild, ambition) ()

Emotional Problems (fear of commitment)

Honorable ()

Paranoia (mild, from Spy Quality)

Recurring Nightmares ()




Art Notice

Brawling Occultism

Computers Pilot

Crime Psychic Art

Doctor Sports

Driving Science


Guns Wild Card

Influence

OPSPsychic Spy



9

2

I don’t know why I ended up a psychic, but it hap-pened when I was . I was always good with people,and being psychic made me even better. Betweenall that and being good with languages, when I got

out of college, an OPS recruiter convinced me to join up. I know what I do is dangerous, but my powersgive me an edge and the OPS provided me with a fewaugmentations to help out.

Some people say that my life is all about lying to peopleand sneaking around, and while that’s mostly true, it’s alsopretty darn important. If someone is smuggling nuclear

weapons, nerve gas, mi-go augmentations, or hyperspatial weapons then they need to be stopped, and a few lies andsome invasion of privacy is a small price to pay for avoid-ing mass death. It’s a really tough job, and I’ve got no ideaif I’ll live to see retirement age, but when I prevent a ship-ment of weapons out of the hands of a criminal gang orsome crazy cultists, I’ve done a good days work.

is isn’t James Bond, gaining someone’s trust so you cangather evidence to arrest them is hard, and having to shootsomeone you’ve spent the last three weeks working with,because otherwise they’d shoot you first is not conducive toanyone’s mental health. I won’t lie – this life has taken a tollon me, but it’s also completely worth it. Most people don’tget to travel the world and thwart the forces of evil. At theend of the day, I know that I’ve saved lives, sometimes manythousands of lives, and that makes the nightmares, the vio-lence, and the craziness completely worth it.

Quote: “ e mi-go augments look like they are coming

from the Soltara Corporation – I ’ll need to go undercover to get proof.”

ROLEPLAYING THE PSYCHIC SPY

Psychic spies investigate various problems for the OPS (orfor the government they work for) using a mixture of psy-chic powers, advanced technologies, and carefully honedskills. You are fast on your feet and used to having to lie

your way out of almost any situation. Of course, whensomeone sees you with your hand in their concealed wallsafe, sometimes a pistol and a rappelling rig works better.



92


Club Bash



Pistol Bullet

Punch Bash

Shotgun Bullet


ATTRIBUTES (15 +4 FROM QUALITIES)

Strength (+ from half-breed ghoul Quality)

Dexterity (+ from cop quality)

Constitution (+ from half-breed ghoul Quality)

Intelligence

Perception

Willpower

Life Points

Speed

Drama Points


QUALITIES (10 +3 DRAWBACKS)

Cop ()

Half-Breed Ghoul ()

Situational Awareness ()

Acute Smell (Part of half-breed ghoul Quality)

Low-light Vision (Part of half-breed ghoul Quality)

Resistance (poison/disease) () (Part of half-breed ghoul Quality)

DRAWBACKS (4)

Honorable ()

Recurring Nightmares ()

Resources (below average) ()

Violence (mild) (Part of half-breed ghoul Quality)

Skills ( + from Qualities, + from Drawbacks)



Art Notice

Brawling Occultism

Computers Pilot

Crime Psychic Art

Doctor Science

Driving Sports


Guns Wild Card

Influence

Half-BreedGhoul Cop



9

2

I

’m a big guy with a bit of a temper. I guess it’s nosurprise that I became a cop. I haven’t made detec-tive and at this point, I’m guessing I won’t. esedays, I don’t mind, I like walking a beat and getting

to know the neighborhoods I work.Of course, it’s not all muggings and petty theft, I’ve seen

some strange things, things most people either don’t believeor don’t want to hear about. ere are people, or something,living under the city, and whatever they are, they’re hungryand don’t much care what sort of meat they eat. en thereare the cultists. I’m all for freedom of religion, but humansacrifice isn’t part of that, and any cult that’s run by somesort of tentacled mutant raving about summoning monstersis one that I’m going to try to shut down.

Lately, I’ve taken to reading about some of odd thingsI’ve seen. I’m not sure I believe any of the stuff that I’veread about Great Cthulhu, but it sure looks like someof the crazies do, and that’s enough to make me worry.

ese days, I poke around at this stuff when I’m off -duty,and some of the things that I’ve found worry me.

A few weeks ago, I caught a glimpse of one of thethings, or people, or whatever living under the city. Itsface was all wrong, but it had the same yellow eyes thatI have, eyes that I’ve never seen on anyone else. I’m ad-opted and never really thought much about my birth par-ents, but maybe it’s time that I looked into that too. I’vebeen having dreams about my childhood that scare thehell out of me. I want some answers.

Quote: “Put down that knife and step away from the

guy you have tied up on the slab.”ROLEPLAYING THE HALF GHOUL COP

Your job is protecting people and you take your respon-sibilities seriously. You’ve also noticed that some of thethreats are pretty darn strange and you have a knack fornoticing some of the strange things that most people miss.

ere are cults that worship things that no one else talksabout, hideous mutants with strange abilities, and thenthere are the creatures living beneath the streets, creaturesthat look like they are behind the fact that homeless peo-ple sometimes simply vanish. You’ve started learning moreabout the occult and what you’ve read disturbs you.



94


Dodge — Defense ActionPistol Bullet


Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Perception (+ from Occult Investigator)

Willpower (+ from Occult Investigator)

Life Points

Speed

Drama Points


QUALITIES (10 + 5 FROM DRAWBACKS)

Attractive + ()

Occult Investigator ()

Psychic Sensitivity ( )

Psychometry ()

Resources (middle class) ()

DRAWBACKS (5)

Amnesia ()

Covetous (mild, lechery) ()

Obsession (discovering lost time, Moderate) ()

Skills ( + from Qualities, + from Drawbacks)



Art Notice

Brawling Occultism

Computers Pilot

Crime Psychic Art

Doctor Science

Driving Sports


Guns Wild Card

Influence

CivilianPsychic



9

2

G

rowing up, I had no idea what I wantedto do. I enjoyed going after hot guys andI was good at school, but nothing caughtmy attention. en, in my last year of

college, a friend told me about a psychictesting program some corporate recruiters were having.I tried out and scored top marks. I signed up and after Igraduated, they trained me and I’d finally found some-thing that I both loved and was really good at.

After my contract ran out, I went freelance. Mostly,I work for museums and auction houses. My art historydegree helps, but mostly what they want is someone whocan touch a work of art and tell them about it. I makegood money doing it. Exciting work, enough money forfancy clothes and a great car, it’s pretty sweet. However,it can also get pretty strange.

Nearly a year ago, I had a three-month contract cata-loging and authenticating old books for a wealthy privatecollector. I remember getting the job and the first fewdays of work, and that’s it. Most of that time is gone,I can’t remember any of it. I was well paid, and when I

went back to talk to the collector, he’d left the country.His private secretary said that she had no idea why I washaving memory problems and suggested that perhaps I’dbeen working too hard.

I decided to start trying to find out what actually hap-pened to me, and it was the start of a long strange journey.I’m not done, but I’ve been finding some clues, as well asa lot of information that frankly scares the hell out of me.

Something is going on, and I’m going to find out what.Quote: “Let me see that snake mask. It’s ancient, far old-er than it looks, I think it’s urian. It was worn by priests, Ican see a ceremony where they were honoring a pair of elabo-rately dressed serpent people.”

ROLEPLAYING THE CIVILIAN PSYCHIC

You are a respected and well-paid professional and youare proud of your job and expect respect. You also haveperceptions that most people can barely imagine andsometimes these abilities show you things you’d rathernot have seen. In at least one case, your abilities attractedthe interest of people you’d rather have avoided. Now you

can’t remember what you were doing for three monthsand you want to know why. You’ve begun to become ob-sessed with both the need to find out what happened to

you and increasingly with the mysterious of the occultthat you’ve been uncovering in the course of your search.



9

2

I

’ve always loved space. e first starships went out when I was just a kid, and I knew I wanted to goout there too. I worked hard in school, and I gotmy chance. By the time I was old enough, female

astronauts were fairly common, and so I didn’t gethassled for that. However, it was still tough; they don’t letslackers run spaceships.

I still remember the first time I helped take up a drag-onfl y ship, feeling it hum and grip the fabric of hyper-space is like nothing else. Of course, getting into space isonly the first step. ese days, I work exploration mis-sions. You get prestige and big bonuses when you find a

world that has something that someone wants, but it’salso a whole lot less safe than cargo and passenger runsbetween established colonies. I’ll never forget the planet

where the ground literally tried to eat us, and everyone with sense leaves newly discovered alien artifacts for theprofessionals. All it takes is the appearance of one hyper-spatial monster to make that lesson vividly clear.

e reality of space travel is far from glamorous, weekstraveling through the void, mostly to arrive at planetsthat no one and nothing has ever had any interest in, but

which might still have new and interesting ways to kill you. However, the few occasions when you fi nd some-thing are incredible. Being the first person to stand on a

world that will likely have a thriving colony in three yearsis an amazing feeling, and so is seeing alien ruins that noone has looked at for millions of years. I can’t imaginedoing anything else.

Quote: “e atmosphere looks breathable, and I can seewhat look like ruins down on the surface. It looks like we found one worth spending some time looking at.”

ROLEPLAYING THE CIVILIAN ASTRONAUT

You have the “right stuff ” and regularly travel beyond theedges of explored space, finding new worlds and new dan-gers. You are tough and determined, and you live for ad-

venture. However, that doesn’t mean you’re careless or anysort of daredevil, people like that don’t last long in space.



98

Steam had not been suff ered to go down entirely, despite the departure of all hands for the shore; and it

was the work of only a few moments of feverish rushing up and down between wheel and engines to getthe Alert under way. Slowly, amidst the distorted horrors of that indescribable scene, she began to churnthe lethal waters; whilst on the masonry of that charnel shore that was not of earth the titan ing fromthe stars slavered and gibbered like Polypheme cursing the fleeing ship of Odysseus. en, bolder thanthe storied Cyclops, great Cthulhu slid greasily into the water and began to pursue with vast wave-raising

strokes of cosmic potency. Briden looked back and went mad, laughing shrilly as he kept on laughing at intervals tilldeath found him one night in the cabin whilst Johansen was wandering deliriously.

But Johansen had not given out yet. Knowing that the ing could surely overtake the Alert until steam was fullyup, he resolved on a desperate chance; and, setting the engine for full speed, ran lightning-like on deck and reversedthe wheel. ere was a mighty eddying and foaming in the noisome brine, and as the steam mounted higher and

higher the brave Norwegian drove his vessel head on against the pursuing jelly which rose above the unclean frothlike the stern of a daemon galleon.

H.P. Lovecraft – e Call of Cthulhu



9

Chapter 3Rules & Gear

CONTAINMENT

“H ” Ria asked into the radio. From the mansion balcony,

she saw Johnny down below on the winding road with the van and the other agents, milling likeants who had just retrieved a piece of food. Below that the lights of Los Angeles were beginningto make blurry rips of yellow through the smoggy dusk. e hills were deceptively quiet, but sheheard the murmur of voices, the hiss of the highway in the background.

e radio crackled. “Have we ever got complete containment?” Johnny’s voice had a smile init, though, and to hear him being a smartass was a massive relief. “I’ve got a satchel full of stuff for the book locker. ree people sedated and on their way to rehab, one of them a senator. Evenmanaged to keep the paparazzi distracted while Tay and Sonya crammed him into the van sothey wouldn’t quote him babbling about -” he lowered his voice - “Hali.”

e word hit her like a burst of grey static, like the radio had tuned to some eerie frequencybetween two pieces of music that crossed and overlapped each other. But it hadn’t. His voice wasstill coming over it.

“Now do we deserve pizza or do we fucking deserve pizza?” he was saying.

“We haven’t got complete containment,” Ria said softly, almost a whisper into the radio.It was a song, after all, then: in the back of her mind, the atonal harmonies washed over her

like sea waves. Of course. ey should have come in with earplugs, she thought numbly, butsomehow she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. In the lights she saw a vision of the lost city. Itfelt like the missing piece of childhood memory, the home she’d never known she’d left.

“What? Ria, I didn’t hear you.”She fought to the surface. She understood now. e torrent of words, the cadence, the rhythm,

the eternal poetry, why no one possessed by this fever dream would give it up. “Upon the shorethe cloud-waves break...” she murmured, covering the radio with her hand to protect him, hold-ing this moment to her while she could. After rehab, would she remember?

“Hello? Come in?” With an eff ort of will, she let go of the radio and bit out some words. “ e music,” she said.

“ e guitarist at the house party.”

“...Ria?”“Johnny. Were you there?”“At the house party? No. I got here for cleanup duty. What’s wrong?”“It was the music,” she said again. “I - don’t trust my words. Put me in the van. I’ll try to come

willingly.”She sat down on the balcony and stared through the slats of the railing into the fading lights

of Carcosa until Johnny’s footsteps came up the stair.



100

THE RULES OF THE GAME

e basic rules are simple. Players control the Heroes. You Directors set the scene and control the SupportingCharacters and Guest Stars. Players have direct controlover the actions of their respective Heroes; the Direc-tor controls the rest of the world, including any likelyenemies the characters encounter along the way. Dicedetermine what the results of a given action are. Mostimportantly, there’s Rule No. : relax and have fun.

ere’s more to it than that, of course: that’s why therest of this chapter exists.

RUNNING A GAME

Here are the basics that new gamers need to know. Expe-rienced roleplayers can skip to the next section.

To run a game, each player needs the character sheet oftheir Hero, a pencil, some scrap paper, and a ten-sided die (orthey can share a die, if they feel community-oriented). eDirector should have any notes and information handy. erest is done mainly by talking, describing the scene, or whatthe characters are doing, or acting out the Heroes’ dialog.

If you are the Director, you describe the situation.For example: “You’re watching a movie in the theater onComfort Station orbiting Pacifica, getting a break fromthe planet conditions. Halfway through the show, there’sa disturbance near the front row. A woman stands up andstarts screaming. What do you do?”

is is when the players get to choose what their He-

roes do. It could be real simple—“I ask the woman what’s wrong,” “I head down there to see what’s going on,” or “Isshe in my way? Can I lean to the side and see past her soI don’t miss the film?”

Most of them time, when a Hero does something,it gets done. Sometimes the outcome of the action is indoubt. Just because a Hero makes a rousing speech to at-tempt to calm a panicked crowd doesn’t mean the speechis any good or anyone is calmer afterwards. at’s wherethe dice and the numbers on the character sheet come in.

THE BASICS

In the Unisystem, players roll dice when their Heroes tryto do something important, and when there is a chancethe attempt could go wrong or misfire somehow (moreon that in To Roll or Not to Roll, see p. ). As theDirector, you tell the players when to roll, and whatnumbers to add to the roll. e dice roll represents luckand chance; the character sheet has the skills and natural

abilities of the character. e better those skills are, themore likely the character will succeed. An ex Navy Seal isgoing to do better in an urban firefight against cultists farbetter than a theoretical physicist. However, luck some-

times allows the untrained to succeed, and the expert tofail, which is where the dice comes in.

So what’s all that mean? We’ll break it down for you.D: a ten-sided die. Rolling high is better.

Attribute: e natural abilities of the character. eHero’s Strength is used to see if he can lift a bag of ce-ment over his head; Dexterity factors in when pickingsomeone’s pocket. In some situations (lifting something,for example), only Attributes are needed. In those cases,the player rolls and adds the character’s Attribute, dou-bled. In some rare cases, you may call for the use of two

Attributes instead of an Attribute and skill, or for one Attribute, not doubled.

Skill: e learned abilities of the character. Ask forthe character’s Brawling Skill when he’s punching some-one, or Crime for sneaking past a security guard. Alwaysadd a skill with an Attribute.

e player announces what he intends to do. You tellhim what skill and Attribute to add to the roll. e player

rolls the dice and adds the Attribute/Skill combo to theresult. If the total, after all modifiers, is nine or higher,the character has succeeded. Otherwise, he’s failed andproblems may well ensue.

SUCCESS LEVELS

In some situations, you need to know not just whetheror not a character succeeds, but how well she does. Whenthat’s the case, check the result against the Success Level

Table nearby (and on the character sheet). e higher thenumber of Success Levels, the better the character did.Some difficult tasks require more than one Success Level

just to succeed at all.

Example: A sorcerer named Livia is researching amythos cult that recently stole an ancient statue froma museum. To see if she can identify the cult, the sor-cerer’s player rolls a D and adds Livia’s Intelligence ()and Occultism (). e die roll is a four; the total resultis fourteen. Fourteen is greater than nine, so Livia wassuccessful. Some cults are harder to identify than others

THE BASIC MECHANIC IS:D10 ROLL + ATTRIBUTE + ATTRIBUTE OR SKILL



10

3

though; if the cult was particularly secretive, more thanone Success Level should be required. Looking at theSuccess Level Table, the Livia’s player sees that fourteenequals three Success Levels. You decide that three Suc-cess Levels is more than enough (you could also set thisthreshold before the roll). “It takes some doing, but youfinally come across the name in a Rhode Island policereport from the late th century,” you tell the player. “ emembers of the Church of Starry Wisdom used a sacredrelic known as the Shining Trapezohedron to summonthe Haunter of the Dark.”

Yet Another Example: Livia is trapped under a col-lapsed roof beam and an athletic police officer named Samis trying to lift it off her. Better, yet it’s a bit urgent—thebuilding’s on fire. To see if he can lift the debris off Liviaquickly enough, Sam’s player rolls a D and adds Sam’sStrength () doubled (). e die roll is a four, for a totalof . at’s four Success Levels, more than the amount

you decided was necessary. “Sam heaves the fallen beamout of the way and helps Livia to her feet before they bothneed to start running for the door.”

THE MEANING OF SUCCESS LEVELS

So what’s the deal with Success Levels? How importantare they to the game? What do all those numbers mean?

Most of the time, Success Levels don’t matter much. Formost things, a result of nine or greater means the Herohas succeeded at the task attempted. Sometimes thoughdoing something is not as important as doing it well, andthat’s where Success Levels come in.

Creative Activities: A musical performance, writinga great novel, or telling a good lie—how well the char-

acter did has a lot to do with how people react to theresult. One Success Level is pretty mediocre; he didn’t doanything wrong, but no one is all that impressed. If theaudience was already hostile or suspicious, whatever the

character was trying to pull is not going to work. Two isdecent—the character pulls it off (whatever it is) withouta hitch and looks competent while doing so. ree Suc-cess levels is a good job—this is where folks start to takenotice. Many people are impressed. Four Success Levelsget standing ovations, as well as favorable reviews frommost critics. At fi ve and above, everything works perfect-ly and almost everybody really loves what he did.

Damage and Healing: When a character needs to at-tack someone, how well the player rolls determines howmuch damage was done. Add the Success Level of the at-tack roll to the damage of the attack. When using the Doc-tor Skill, each Success Level heals one point of damage.

Lengthy Tasks: Activities that take some time (likebreaking down a door or repairing a damaged dragonfl ydrive) may require that the Hero get a high number ofSuccess Levels, usually in the fi ve or better range. Withouttime pressure, characters can accumulate Success Levelsby trying over and over. For example, you may rule thatbreaking down a sturdy door requires eight cumulativeSuccess Levels. e player might roll well enough to getall eight Success Levels in one or two tries if they are suffi-ciently brawny, while a less physically impressive charactermight take several tries (at one or two Success Levels perroll, it might take four to six rolls before the door breaks).

RESISTED ACTIONS

Sometimes an attempt is resisted. is usually happens when a character is trying to do something someone else would rather didn’t happen. If our hero is trying to sneakpast a security guard, there’s a chance that the guard willnotice. is is very important during fight scenes. Onecharacter tries to hit someone and the other to avoid be-ing hit, and vice versa.

Resisted Actions involve two or more characters;players (or the Director) make rolls for each and the one

with the higher total wins. If one succeeds (gets a total ofnine or above) and the other doesn’t…the result is fairly

obvious. If both succeed, the one with the higher total wins. If both fail, nobody accomplishes anything. If youstill need a comparison, the higher roll fails less badly. Incase of a tie, the defender (if there is a defender) wins;otherwise, it is just a tie. Guest Stars and Adversary char-acters typically use a fi xed value (no roll) for their action(the Muscle, Combat, or Brains Score); the Hero needs

SUCCESS LEVEL TABLE

ROLL TOTAL SUCCESS LEVELS DESCRIPTION

- Adequate

- Decent

- Good

- Very Good

- Excellent

- Extraordinary

- Mind-boggling

- Outrages

- Superheroic

- God-like

+ +



102

to beat those Scores to succeed at an attack. If defending,the Hero needs to beat or simply tie those Scores.

Run It Down: Two OPS strike team commandos,Dulce and Jane, are practicing their target shooting and

have decided on a friendly wager. ey each roll andadd their Dexterity and Guns Skill. Higher total winsthe contest; a tie is a tie. e competition can be brokendown into several actions (down to a roll for every singleshot) or reduced to one roll each for the entire competi-tion. is would depend on how important this particu-lar bet is (see To Roll or Not to Roll, p. ).

Go Again: Dulce and Jane have been out drinkingand get into a fistfight. Dulce throws a punch and Janeis trying to dodge under it. Dulce’s player rolls and addsher Dexterity and Brawling Skill. Jane’s player rolls andadds her Dexterity and Acrobatics Skill. If Dulce’s totalis higher, she hits Jane. If Jane wins or ties (because she isthe defender), she dodges the blow.

And Again: Jane is trying to sneak past a cultistguarding an imprisoned colleague. She rolls and adds herDexterity and Acrobatics or Crime (whichever is higher;in this case, it’s Acrobatics). She needs to beat the cultist ’sBrains score (a in this case). If her total is or less, thecultist hears her and gives the alarm.

ROLL MODIFIERS In addition to skill and Attribute levels, other factors mayadd bonuses or penalties to the roll. Easy tasks can havebonuses, while difficult and complex ones may have pen-

alties. Gaming veterans will notice that modifiers are theflip side of Success Levels. Negative modifiers make itharder to reach the Success Levels needed; positive onesmake it easier. On the other hand, you can make fineradjustments with modifiers (a + bonus aff ects a roll butdoes not amount to a full Success Level). Also, positivemodifiers could transform a roll into a success in a waythat Success Level decreases can’t (i.e., once you lowerthe required Success Levels to one there’s no way tomake the task easier).

In general, modifiers should be used sparingly; mostrolls are going to be made without them.

In addition to these modifiers, Drama Points can add

bonuses to rolls. ey are detailed on p. .

TO ROLL OR NOT TO ROLL

Action rolls are useful only when the situation has somedramatic value and where the outcome is in doubt. Keep-ing rolls to a minimum keeps players more involved withthe story and less involved with their dice. Generally, if

the action is routine or not important, rolling shouldn’tbe involved. Also, some things should be so ridiculouslyeasy that making rolls is a waste of time—no need forPerception and Notice rolls to spot a four-meter-tall ten-tacled mutant running down the streets of Mumbai, forexample. Some basic pointers follow.

Good Times to Roll: Chasing a vehicle with the au-topilot off ; shooting a pistol at a charging cultist; search-ing alien ruins for clues to their abandonment; climbinga chain-link fence with three rabid dogs close behind.

Bad Times to Roll: Changing lanes in light traffic;shooting a pistol at a paper target (unless wagering isinvolved); searching your own bedroom for a bottle ofaspirin; climbing a chain-link fence with plenty of timeand no pressing circumstances.

Not every situation is going to be as clear-cut as these,but in general, it’s best to keep the action flowing. eless time the players spend rolling dice, the more timethey have to get into their characters and have fun.

USING ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS In situations where rolls are necessary, the Director decides

what skills and Attributes the players get to use. Skill descrip-tions in Chapter Two: Creating Civilians and Operatives pro-

vide some guidelines. Here are a few more words of wisdom.Strength: Strength aff ects how much damage the

Hero inflicts in hand-to-hand combat. Beyond that,Strength is used when brute force is the most impor-tant factor. Lifting a heavy object would use Strength(doubled), or Strength and Sports if the character hassome weightlifting background. Strength is also used

when trying to tackle someone to the ground (use it withBrawling or Sports) or when breaking free from some-one’s grip (using Strength (doubled) or Strength andBrawling, whichever is better). Dexterity can substitutein this last, if the grip isn’t solid: think of how a squirm-ing cat is hard to hold.

Dexterity: Most physical actions use Dexterity. Dexter-ity includes both general agility and nimbleness (for use with

Acrobatics and Brawling) and fine coordination, for things

BASE MODIFIERS TABLE

Easy + to the rollModerate + to + Average + to +

Challenging No modifier.Difficult - to - to the roll

Very Difficult - to -Heroic - to -

Superheroic - or worse



10

3like Crime (picking locks and pockets, or sneaking around).

Constitution: e least-used Attribute in terms ofrolls, Constitution comes in handy when the characterneeds to resist fatigue, injury, and disease; for most of

those, add the character’s Constitution (doubled) (i.e., ifthe Hero has a Constitution , most actions involvingConstitution add six to the roll). Some Sports (marathonrunning, for example) use Constitution instead of Dex-terity. Constitution also influences things like singingability (use Constitution and Artist to sing, for example).

Perception: If the roll requires the character to spotsomething, Perception is the Attribute to use. is At-tribute measures how aware the Hero is of his surround-ings. Notice is most commonly used with Perception,but Perception can complement almost any skill. For ex-ample, Perception and Brawling might be used to detectsome weakness in an opponent’s fighting style.

Intelligence: Used in any roll where a character’smemory and intellectual ability are important. It helps insuch things as deciphering some ancient text (Intelligenceand Occultism) or outsmarting an enemy in a brawl (In-telligence and Brawling). Sometimes it is hard to decide

whether to use Intelligence or Perception in a roll. Ruleof thumb: if memory or reasoning ability is the most im-portant element, use Intelligence. Corollary of thumb: ifreaction or instinct is paramount, use Perception.

Willpower: Willpower is mostly used defensively, butit can also apply to a number of skill rolls. Trying to intimi-date others, or avoid being intimidated, would use Will-

power and Influence, for example. When attempting tomanipulate someone’s mind using psychic powers, Will-power is a key Attribute (use Willpower and Psychic Art).

ABILITY SCORES

To unclutter the game and keep things moving, the basicdie-rolling rules only apply to Heroes and (if you so de-cide) important Adversaries and Guest Stars. Rather thanroll for every ghoul, moonbeast thug, or crazed cultist whoattempts to oppose the Heroes, the Supporting Characters’

Attributes and skills are condensed into Ability Scores. escores are the “roll totals” of those characters. WheneverHeroes need to fight or outwit these characters, they need

to beat the Ability Score number. No dice needed. Ability Scores are pre-rolled results, generated by tak-

ing the character’s Attribute and skill averages and add-ing six to the total. Or dispense with all the calculationand just assign Scores based on how strong you want theopposition to be. Most Ability Scores range betweennine and fourteen, but powerful monsters and skilled

Supporting Heroes may have much higher levels. There are three Ability Scores: Muscle, Combat,

and Brains.Muscle: is Score is used for contests of strength:

tackles, breaking free from grapples and holds, strangula-tion, tug-of-war and door-shoving, and similar brute forcesituations. Heroes need to tie or beat the Muscle Scorenumber with their rolls. Muscle is generated by takingdouble the Strength of the character and adding six.

Combat: is is the number used for attacks and de-fenses. It uses the character’s Dexterity and the average ofhis combat-oriented skills plus six. e Score determinesthe Success Level of an attack; add that Success Level tothe damage of the attack. So, a deep one with a CombatScore has a set four attack Success Levels. If his Score isgreater than the Hero’s rolled defense, his damage is fourpoints higher than normal (before modifiers). Note thatthe Combat Score encapsulates many diff erent skills. If

you want a bad guy who is very good with a knife, averageat dodging, and useless with a gun, you need to create (orassign) several diff erent Combat Scores.

Brains: is Score applies to all mental and percep-tive abilities of the character. It is used to spot enemies,resist attempts to control or deceive the character, or touse any magical or supernatural ability. It typically usesthe average of the character’s Mental Attributes (Intel-ligence, Perception, and Willpower) and the average ofappropriate skills, plus six. As with Combat, the BrainsScore combines a bunch of stuff into one total. For a

powerful hypnotist who couldn’t think his way aboveground from the subway, you’ll need to specify a couplediff erent Brains Scores or use the complicated method.

Par Example: For an insane but burly cultist, withStrength , Dexterity , Constitution , Perception , In-telligence , and Willpower , the Muscle Score is a mod-erately impressive (Strength doubled plus six). Combatis a : the cultist’s eff ective combat skills average two (youcould vary that if you like), plus two for Dexterity and thebase of six. For Brains, the total is a —the average of thecultist’s Mental Attributes is two and he’s got an averagesmarts skill of two (again that could be varied). If the cult-ist tries to grapple with somebody, he uses the Combat

Score + (see the Maneuvers Table, p. ); the Hero hasto tie or beat that with his roll. To punch somebody,Combat is used; avoiding getting punched by the cultistrequires a defense roll total of or higher. If the heroes tryto sneak past the cultist, their totals need to be or higher,to beat the Brains Score of .

Chapter Six: Eldritch reats & Alien Wonders



104 104

gives more info on creating Supporting Characters and Adversaries, including a handy chart for assigning, ratherthan calculating Scores. e Quick Sheet nearby helpscollect all an Adversary’s or Guest Star’s vital statistics

in one place. at’s how we present the Guest Stars and Adversaries in this book.

MOVEMENT e Eldritch Skies RPG should be played with a focus onstory and fun. For the most part, precise movement ac-tions will not be needed. Simply allow the characters get

where they want to be and move the action along. Onlyrefer to the following rules if it ’s important that the char-acter makes a specific movement over a specific distancein a specific time—the game should not be supplementedby tape measurers and hex-maps.

On the rare occasion, however, you may decide that howfar a character can move in any given Turn is important. Inthose cases, add that character’s Dexterity and Constitu-tion together. is result is how many meters the charactermay move in a second (times fi ve for a Turn). Tripling thesum of Dexterity and Constitution shows how many kilo-meters per hour that character can run.

Chases: Movement concerns may arise during a chasescene. First, you must decide how much of a lead the pur-sued has on the pursuer. We suggest granting + per Turnof head start. en have the two racers perform a Dexter-ity (doubled), or Dexterity and Sports Resisted Action. e

winner gains + per Turn. So, if the lead sprinter started

with a three Turn head start (+ ) and the pursuer won thefirst Resisted Action, the lead would be down to +. Oncethe lead is eliminated (brought down to ), the pursued iscaught; if the lead grows to +, the pursued as escaped.

Leaping: If you need to figure how high or far a char-acter can leap, refer to the Jump Table. With a good run-ning start, double those distances. Making a Dexterityand Acrobatics roll increases the character’s jumping dis-tance by either one meter (lengthwise) or . meters (inheight) per Success Level.

Climbing: is is accomplished with a Dexterityand Acrobatics roll (or Combat Score) with a modifierdepending on the condition of the vertical surface. Nomodifier applies where good hand-holds are available

(climbing up a pipe bolted to the wall); - would be re-served for rain slicked close-fitted brick. Some surfac-es—say, wet glass—just aren’t climbable without specialtools or augmentations. If you need to know how far theclimber moves in a Turn, multiply the Success Levels ofthe roll or Score by one meter.

RESEARCH

You can’t contain or destroy a dangerous mythos creatureuntil you know what and where it is. Research, investiga-tion and computer hacking are important parts of any

Eldritch Skies Series. However, most of the time spent

with dusty tomes and lengthy internet searches shouldbe done “off -camera.” Have the characters roll, figure outhow long it’s going to take them, give them a couple ofopportunities to come up fun dialog or interesting ideas

while doing their research, and then give them whateverinformation (if any) they’ve gleaned.

To find information about an ancient artifact or somesimilar mythos mystery, use Intelligence and Occultism.If the characters don’t have access to the right sort ofsources the right books, the research is an automatic fail-ure. e Director doesn’t always have to tell them rightaway: failure is part of drama, after all. Eventually, youcould allow them to figure out the name of the right book

or books, and send them off on a mini-quest to find them.Hacking works similarly, using Intelligence and Com-

puters instead. Some databases are harder to break into thanothers, but you should not penalize the characters too much.

Just like research, hacking happens mostly off -camera, sodon’t waste time with complex cyberpunk node-graphs.

Other types of research and investigation may useKnowledge or Crime instead. en there’s old-fashionedlegwork—asking questions, following people around, andso on. ose can be roleplayed, especially if the investiga-tor is likely to get herself in trouble.

JUMP T ABLE

S H J L J

- . meters meters . meters meters- meter meters . meters meters

- meters meters- meters meters+ +. meters + meter



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105

THE QUICK SHEET

Name: Speaks for itself.

Motivation: What drives the characteror creature? We’re talking high concept

rather than detail here. A word or twothat describes the character’s goals isusually enough. Some monsters aresingle-issue creatures (“Kill humans!”“Feed”). “Release Cthulhu” is also notuncommon for an Earth-based Seriesfocusing on cultist activity.

Creature Type: e species—Human,hybrid, deep one, mi-go, ghoul, mutantmonstrosity, and so on.

Attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence,Perception and Willpower.

Name: Cultist ugMotivation: Obey their cult leader, beat up or kill enemies, serve the Great Old Ones.Species: Human Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower

Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Natural Toughness, Hyperspatial Exposure

MANEUVERS

NAME SCORE DAMAGE NOTES



Knife Slash/Stab

Pistol Bullet

Punch Bash

Ability Scores: e Muscle, Combat, and Brains Scores theplayers need to beat with their rolls in order to do something tothe creature or character in question (or avoid having somethingdone to them).

Life Points: How much damage thecharacter or critter can take before slow-ing down or dying. Bad guys generallydon’t get consciousness or Survival rolls.Once their Life Points are reduced tozero or below, they’re dead.

Speed: How fast the person or creaturemoves (in kilometers per hour). Typically,this is (Constitution + Dexterity) x if the in-dividual runs, half that if it crawls or slithers,and twice that if can fl y.

Drama Points: Good, bad, and neutral folkscan have a few Drama Points. at meanseven a scrawny tech smuggler or a local beatcop can land a punch or two.

Special Abilities: Any unique or unusual powers get listed here.

Maneuvers: A list of the most common maneuvers thecreature uses, including scores, damages (bumped up by the“default” Success Levels from the attack score, but no othermodifiers) and notes. Weak or low-ranking characters onlyhave a couple of maneuvers. Seriously deadly Adversarieshave several. To use dice for Guest Stars and Adversaries,rather than relying on their pre-calculated scores, simplysubtract six from the scores given, and use that result asthe modifier to a roll. Note that damage totals must be re-calculated in this case as the Success Levels of the roll (notthe set score) aff ect the final damage.



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MYTHOS TERRORS

Life in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos can get down-right scary. Whether it’s witnessing your best friend eat-

en by ghouls, or watching a cult summon a fl ying polyp,almost any character is likely to freak out once in a while.Most of the time, this should be roleplayed rather thandetermined by rolls: if a mutilated corpse is encountered,players can react to it as their characters dictate. Dur-ing potential combat situations though, the faint-heartedmay freeze for a crucial moment. It is where Fear Testscome into play.

When something scary happens, the characters makea Fear Test—a Willpower (doubled) roll (Qualities likeNerves of Steel or Fast Reaction Time help big time).Feel free to use modifiers (see the examples provided inthe Fear Test Modifiers list).

If the result of the roll is nine or higher, the charactermay be afraid or apprehensive, but can act normally. Ifthe result is eight or less, they have a serious negativereaction. You can use the Panic Table for inspiration.

FEAR TEST MODIFIERS

Hungry and aggressive ghoul: -Hyperspatial creature: Use the creature’s Hyperspatial

Exposure Level (i.e., a critter with Hyperspatial Expo-sure Level of would impose a - penalty to Fear Tests).

Splatter factor: - for some blood; - for murder victim’sbody; - for R-rated gore; - for vast and hideous carnage.

Sudden or unexpected encounter: Add - to theother modifiers (i.e., the corpse falls out of a locker; the

mutant springs from the shadows or materializes unex-pectedly from hyperspace.)

Familiarity Factor: After seeing it often enough (thirdor fourth encounter), eliminate the penalty to the roll.

COMBAT Defeating mythos threats often requires fighting. Com-bat in the Unisystem uses the same rules described above,but with a few extra features. Combat does not have todominate an Eldritch Skies game, but you should likelyhave some heart-pounding action at least every couple ofsessions, if not every session.

When combat starts, you help choreograph the ac-tion. Sometimes it’s easy (our heroes are ganging up onone big nasty monster). Other times, it’s a bit more com-plicated (a general melee involving a team of OPS agents

vs. a dozen cultists and a servitor of the other gods). e Eldritch Skies combat rules are meant to help keep thingsflowing—the action should be fast and exciting.

BREAKING IT DOWN To make life easier when action gets hectic, combat isdivided into segments, known as Turns. A game Turn isa short bit of time—fi ve seconds or so—during whichcharacters can attack each other. In one Turn, a normalcharacter can attack once and defend from one attack

without penalties. High Dexterity characters can makemore than one attack during a Turn.

Every Turn has a number of stages: Intentions (where theHeroes say what they intend to do), Initiative (determining

who goes first), and Actions (where the fight is resolved, anddamage, if any, is assigned). A fight usually lasts more thanone Turn, unless the Heroes have their act incredibly togetheror the opposition decides it’s had enough and leaves.

Intentions: At the beginning of the Turn, you ask thecharacters involved for intentions—what the characters

want to do. Intentions include such things as “I shoot

the ghoul in the face,” “I turn tail and run,” or “I launch aspin kick followed by two fast punches.” You decide if theaction being attempted is feasible or if it will take morethan one Turn to complete. If there is a problem with theintention, and it’s something the character would know,

warn the player. Otherwise, the intention stands.Initiative: At the beginning of a fight, you determine

who attacks first. Common sense is the first determinant

PANIC TABLE

ROLL RESULT EFFECT

-

Startled: e character is startled but notparalyzed, and can act normally. Initiativeis lost, however; the critter wins Initiativeautomatically on that Turn.

-

Freak out: e character screams and/or

flinches away. Only defensive actions canbe attempted on that Turn and the charac-ter cannot go on Full Defense.

-

Run Away!: e character takes off running for a full Turn, unless cornered,in which case he cowers in terror. Noattacks are possible, and defensive actionssuff er a - penalty. After the first Turn(or handful of seconds), a new Fear Testcan be rolled (reduce any penalties byone with each successive Turn, until thecharacter snaps out of it).

or less Total Terror: e character is not in controlof his actions. He may lose his lunch, passout or suff er some other humiliating fate.



10

3of Initiative. What are the circumstances of the fight? Ifit’s an ambush, for example, the ambushers go first. If anOperative is going at a cultist with a gun and is too faraway to grab it, the gunman gets to shoot first. Generally,

mental actions (unleashing psychic and similar supernat-ural powers) go first, followed by ranged weapons (guns,thrown knives, grenades), and finally come melee combatlike punches, kicks, meat cleavers, and sledgehammers.

If the situation is less clear-cut (a Civilian accidentallyruns into a ghoul lurking in a sub-basement, for exam-ple), the character with the highest Dexterity (modifiedby Fast Reaction Time goes first. If both sides have thesame Dexterity (and they both have or lack Fast Reaction

Time), each side rolls a die. e higher roll wins. A tiemeans both characters act as the same time (which canbe fairly ugly if both declared “I hit them with a base-ball bat”). During subsequent Turns, you can determineInitiative in the same manner, or award it to the charac-ter who has momentum (whoever managed to connect apunch without being hit back, for example).

Action: Whoever wins Initiative attacks first (assum-ing the Intention involved an attack). Attacks are resolvedas usual—the player rolls a D and adds the character’sappropriate Attribute and skill, plus or minus any modi-fiers. e defender uses a defense action roll or Score. Ifa character is faced with more than one attack in a Turn,but only has one defense available (either because of insuf-ficient Dexterity, or because he has used or plans to use hisadditional actions as attacks, see), any undefended blow

lands if the attack roll result (or Score) is nine or higher.Essentially, a character without defense actions resists at-tacks with a zero total for his roll or Score.

If an attack hits, damage is determined based on the typeof attack and the Success Levels of the roll. is is also whenplayers (and Directors) can spend Drama Points to providethat special heroic or plot-aiding extra.

After the first character attacks first, the opponent (ifstill on his feet, that is) gets to attack back, and so on.

To make things quicker, Attributes, skills and modifi-ers are summarized in the Combat Maneuvers section ofthe Character Sheet or Quick Sheet. ese areas shouldhave the character’s favorite combat moves already pre-

figured. In the case of a Hero (or other character usingrolls and not a set Score), the player rolls and adds theCombat Maneuver number. When fighting SupportingCharacters, roll totals have to beat the target’s CombatScore to succeed with an attack, or tie or beat the Com-bat Score to defend successfully.

KEEPING COMBAT EXCITING

“What do you do?”

“I punch the ghoul.”“Roll and tell me what you get.”“Sixteen—no, seventeen. Five Success Levels.”“Okay, you hit him. Add fi ve to your base damage.”“Er, that’s fifteen points.”“ e ghoul is punching you back now. Roll a Dodge

and tell me what you get.”Sleepwalking through scenes? Don’t just drink more

cola: try something diff erent. e key to exciting combatis description. Create a picture of the action in the mindsof the players to keep action sequences from being too re-petitive. Players should describe their own actions, too. Toencourage that, give creative details and reward players who

go beyond the rules to help create vivid and exciting combat.Visualize the action. Mythos monsters have a lot of op-

tions in combat. “Its tentacle lashes out and tries to hookaround your ankle as the creature’s once-human asymmet-ric mutant form slithers down the slope.” Cultists and otherhuman or ab-human Adversaries still have multiple moves.

ey might try to punch their victims (“ e tech smugglerguard’s fist is on a collision course towards your head. Whatdo you do?”), grapple them (“Uttering a high pitched howl,the ghoul tries to grab you.”), or use some improvised weap-on (“ is cultist has got a baseball bat, and he’s swinging at

your head.”). If the player describes some interesting ma-neuver (“I duck under the swing and try to redirect the bat

so he hits himself in the face”), let them attempt it withoutpenalizing them or even give them some bonuses (usuallya + or +, or maybe add the Success Levels of the previ-ous maneuver or defensive roll). For really heroic moves (“Isomersault over him and wind up behind him with my gunto his head”), Drama Points come into play when applicable.

Describing the eff ects of the characters’ actions also helpsthem feel they are defeating dangerous foes rather thanbeating the stuffing out of numbers on a piece of paper.“You think that was a look of surprise on the hyperspatialmutant’s face. It was hard to tell. Now it’s deliquescing into apool of ichor.” “ e punch spins the cultist around like a top.She knocks over a park bench and lands in a heap, and youthink she’s unconscious.” “For a second, it looks like nothinghappened. en the ghoul’s head rolls off his shoulders.”

Finally, if you have to choose between rules and fun, gofor the fun. Be flexible—no rules system is going to coverall the bases. If your instinct tells you it’s better to ignore ormodify the rules for dramatic purposes, it’s probably right.



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INITIATIVE ROLLS

To get a more random result for Initiative, have every char-acter involved roll a D and add their Dexterity (plus any

Fast Reaction Time or Enhanced Time Sense bonuses)to the total. e character with the highest total goes first,second highest next, and so on until everyone has acted.

Keep the same acting order for the next Turn, or ifeveryone really needs another excuse to roll dice, havethem all roll initiative again.

COMBAT MANEUVERS

To make combat both interesting and diverse, a large rep-ertoire of action moves is really helpful. Punches and kicksare all right, but it’s far more cinematic to spice them up

with fl ying jump kicks and feints. e Combat Maneuver

section on the Character Sheet lays out all the informationon these maneuvers. Listed below are the most commonmoves for humanoid characters. All the specs are collectedin one table in the Appendix.

Aiming: Sometimes it pays to take careful aim—ifthe character misses the unarmored spot on the mutant’shead, the mutant is going to be a hazard a while longer.

Aiming delays the shot action until near the end of a Turn. e player adds Perception and the appropriate skill(Guns for guns, Archaic Weapons for throwing knives or

whatever) to the roll, or just uses the Brains Score. eshot action (which occurs that same Turn) gets a bonusequal to the Success Levels of the Aiming roll.

Bow Shot: A character can fire a bow as fast as she candraw and shoot; multiple shots use the multiple actionspenalties. A Bow Shot uses a Dexterity and Archaic Weap-ons - roll, or Combat Score - , and its base damage is (

x Strength) points (Slash/stab type; to a base damage maxi-mum of —Success Levels and modifiers can bring the totalhigher). Pistol range modifiers are applicable.

Brain Shot: A quick and lethal head shot. is cov-ers gunshots to the head, hitting someone’s skull with acrowbar, and similar murderous acts. Simple punches tothe face do not count—it’s fairly easy to punch people inthe face and that type of attack is not forceful enough toget a damage bonus. Attacking the brain specifically uses

the appropriate Combat Maneuver with a - penalty,or the Combat Score - . Bash damage is doubled for aBrain Shot, Slash/stab damage tripled, and Bullet damagequadrupled—very little is quite as lethal as massive braintrauma. is only applies to creatures with obvious heads,so only humans and ab-humans. Your Operative likely isn’tall that certain where a moonbeast’s brain is.

Break Neck: Before this maneuver may be attempted,the character must succeed at a Grapple. After that, theattacker rolls and adds Strength and Brawling, or just usesthe Muscle Score. e defender rolls and adds Strength

and Constitution. If the attacker’s roll is higher, the basedamage is ( x Strength) points (Bash type). If the totaldamage reduces the defender to - Life Points, he mustpass a Survival Test with an added penalty equal to theSuccess Levels of the Break Neck attack (in addition toany normal Survival Test modifiers; this is due to the verysensitive nature of the neck area for us normal humantypes). Failing this test gets a telltale crunching sound

with fatal results. Once again, if it doesn’t have a human-style spinal-cord-containing neck, you can’t break it.

Catch Weapon: is risky move is only for experts,or the truly desperate. It works against archaic weap-ons: nothing human or ab-human can catch bullets. ismaneuver uses a Dexterity and Brawling - roll, or theCombat Score -. e Enhanced Time Sense augmenta-tion provides reduces this penalty from - to - . If thecatcher’s roll is not greater or equal to the shooter’s orthrower’s roll, the weapon attack does an additional + base damage (as the character steps directly into the pathof the thrown knife). On the other hand, if the catcher’sroll works, everyone nearby is going to be very impressedand most opponents will be fairly intimidated.

Choke: Before this maneuver may be attempted, thecharacter must succeed at a Grapple. After that, the attackerrolls and adds her Strength and Brawling, or just uses her

Muscle Score. e defender rolls and adds his Strength andConstitution (or again uses the Muscle Score). If the at-tack result is higher, the base damage is (Strength - ) points(Bash type). Furthermore, the defender cannot breathe (see

Asphyxiation). He is at - to all actions—being choked todeath can be quite distracting.

Decapitation: Slicing off heads requires a sword, axe,or similar large cutting implement. Decapitation uses aDexterity and Archaic Weapons - roll, or the CombatScore - , but damage is multiplied by fi ve (after SuccessLevel bonuses are added and armor eff ects subtracted;damage type is not applied; weapon damage is listed on ).If the damage is enough to reduce the victim to - Life

Points or less, a Survival Test is in order. If that fails, thehead comes off , and the victim is instantly dead. Onceagain, no head, no decapitation, so this only works onenemies with distinct heads and necks.

Disarm: For those times when a Hero doesn’t wantto hurt someone, or isn’t armed and his opponent is. Dis-arm uses a Resisted Action with a Dexterity and Archaic



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3 Weapons -, or Dexterity and Brawling - roll, or theCombat Score - against the target’s Parry action.

Dodge: e Hero ducks, somersaults or leaps out of the way of an attack. Dodging hand-to-hand attacks can be done

once per Turn without penalty; dodging missile attacks (bul-lets, thrown knives, bolts of hyperspatial energy) suff ers a - penalty on top of any other modifiers. Dodge adds Dexterityand the highest appropriate skill (Acrobatics, Archaic Weap-ons, or Brawling) to the roll, or just uses the Combat Score.

Feint: e art of faking out the adversary and attack-ing him from an unexpected direction. A Feint counts asa Resisted Action. It uses an Intelligence and Brawling or

Archaic Weapons roll, or the Brains Score, and is resistedby the target’s roll adding Perception and either of thoseskills, or just the Brains Score. If the attacker wins, shecan add the Success Levels of the Feint roll to her nextattack action roll against the same opponent.

Grapple: If you want to stop someone without hurtingthem, grabbing them generally works well. Accomplishingthis requires grappling. Grabbing people is fairly easy; usea Dexterity and Brawling + roll, or the Combat Score +.Cults often try to capture their victims like this for latersacrifice or brainwashing. e victim resists with a Dodgeaction. e attacker has to decide what part of the body tograb: limbs, the whole body, or the neck. It’s possible forcharacters to grapple aliens, but Directors should imposeminuses based on the extent of dissimilarity, or simplynavigate the consequences: it may not be harder for a hu-man to restrain one limb of a six-limbed creature, but the

creature has fi ve other limbs to fight back. When Grap-pled, the target is at - to actions that involve the grappledlimb, or - to all actions if grappled around the body. Ifboth arms are grappled by two attackers, the victim is at - to most rolls, and cannot Dodge. A neck grapple doesn’timpair the target, but sets him up for either the BreakNeck or Choke action. e victim can try to break free thenext Turn with a Strength (doubled) roll, or the MuscleScore versus another Grapple action.

Groin Shot: is attack employs another attack Com-bat Maneuver, with a - penalty to the roll or score. Dam-age is normal, but a male human or ab-human victimmust gain at least one Success Level with a Willpower

(doubled) roll (or the Brains Score) minus double the Suc-cess Levels of the attack. If not, he is knocked down andunable to do anything for the Turn. Females aren’t com-pletely unscathed, either, but the Willpower roll (or BrainsScore) suff ers only a - penalty. Every Turn after the first,the character can make a new roll with a cumulative + bonus to recover.

e groin shot can be used with several diff erent ma-neuvers. Kicks are the most common, but depending onthe relative positions of the characters, punches, weaponattacks and even a head butt can all work unpleasantly

well. is maneuver doesn’t work on aliens, unless it ’s es-tablished that the alien has vulnerable reproductive or-gans and the character knows where they are.

Gunshot: Point towards enemy, pull the trigger, andthey take a bullet. Use a Dexterity and Guns roll, or theCombat Score. Base damage varies depending on thegun used, but all benefit from Bullet type damage. Rangemodifiers are applicable.

Head Butt: Head butts are most eff ective if the butt-or is in a grapple or other very close action: then the vic-tim cannot really dodge out of the way. Even so, a HeadButt may be attempted against anyone close enough. Ifthe Head Butt misses, the attacker hits with the wrongpart of the head and he takes the damage instead of thedefender. Head Butts use a Dexterity and Brawling - roll, or the Combat Score - , and do ( x Strength) basepoints of damage (Bash type).

Jump Kick: It’s not easy to do, but when done right,it’s both eff ective and impressive. A Jump Kick requirestwo rolls, but counts as a single action. e first roll usesDexterity and Acrobatics, or the Combat Score, to getairborne; the second is a Dexterity and Brawling - roll(or uses Combat Score - ). e kick does x (Strength+ ) base points of damage (Bash type), and gains an ad-ditional damage bonus equal to the Success Levels of

the Dexterity and Acrobatics roll or Combat Score. Ofcourse, if either of the rolls miss, the Jump Kick becomesa Jump Stumble (the Hero falls down). A Jump Kick isthe only attack action the character can attempt on that

Turn (no multi-actions are possible).Kick: e basic kick is a simple, yet eff ective way to

hurt someone and it doesn’t require any weapons. If akick is parried, the target has a chance to try and Grapplethe leg, though. e Kick uses a Dexterity and Brawling- roll, or the Combat Score - , but football and soccerplayers can replace Brawling with Sports if they like. Aprofessional dancer could use Art. e Kick’s base dam-age is x (Strength + ) points (Bash type).

Knockout: Sometimes a character wants to take some-body out without killing them. Any Bash attack, such asPunches, Kicks, and nightsticks, can be turned into aKnockout attack, using a Dexterity and Brawling - , orDexterity and Archaic Weapons - roll, or the CombatScore - . e total damage of the attack is halved, but the

victim has to make a Constitution (doubled) roll (or use the



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Muscle Score) with a penalty equal to the Success Levels ofthe Knockout roll, or she goes down for the count. Like oth-er head attacks, this only works on humans and ab-humans.

Recovery from a knockout is up to the Director, and also

depends on the Series type: in a Pulp or Cinematic Series,the victim may recover in a few turns, or wake up an hourlater…possibly tied to a chair and waiting to be interrogated,but no worse for wear except for a whanging headache. AGritty series should have more realistic and dangerous con-sequences for concussion (and characters with points in theDoctor skill will know the risks.) A character could seemfine for a few hours and then die or require hospitalizationfrom a brain bleed – or simply suff er a minus to mental ac-tivities until they undergo rehabilitation treatment.

Melee Weapon: is covers swinging swords andaxes, stabbing, and other close combat actions that involveblunt and bladed weapons. It uses a Dexterity and Archaic

Weapons roll, or the Combat Score. Baseball or hockeyplayers can substitute Sports to swing stick-like weapons(fencers and archery enthusiasts use Archaic Weapons,though). Since weapons do diff erent types and amounts ofdamage, each weapon has its own eff ects.

Parry: Your basic blocking move, used to deflectpunches, kicks, and other close combat attacks. Weaponsmay only be Parried by weapons; Parrying a weapon witha hand-to-hand attack is just asking for injury. A hand-to-hand attack may be Parried by a weapon but punchingan armed defender is a stupid or desperate idea. A Parryuses a Dexterity and Brawling, or Dexterity and Archaic

Weapons roll, or the Combat Score. rown weaponscan be parried at a - penalty. Arrows and crossbow boltsare parried at a - penalty. No character can parry bullets;even the best Operatives aren’t that good. e Enhanced

Time Sense augmentation reduces the penalty to parrythrown weapons, arrows, or crossbow bolts by .

Punch: Closed fist, traveling quickly towards the tar-get. Uses a Dexterity and Brawling roll, or the CombatScore, and does x Strength points of damage (Bash type).

Slam-Tackle: A sports maneuver that can stop touch-downs or bring down fleeing artifact thieves. Tackles useStrength and Sports rolls, or Muscle Scores, and can beDodged, but not Parried. On a successful hit, the target

takes x Strength base points of damage (Bash type) and,if he fails to resist with a Strength (not doubled) roll orthe Muscle Score divided by two, he goes down hard. Atthe end of a successful Tackle, the attacker can Grap-ple the victim’s legs or torso without rolling. Tackling isthe only attack that can be attempted on that Turn (nomulti-actions here either, nice try).

Spin Kick: is is a spinning or roundhouse kick,harder to execute but delivering more damage. When acharacter really wants to leave a mark, he should use aSpin Kick. is move has the same potential problems as

the regular Kick, described above. It uses a Dexterity andBrawling - roll, or the Combat Score -, and does x(Strength + ) points of base damage (Bash type).

Sweep Kick: Just the thing to keep a psychicallydominated teammate from escaping, the Sweep Kickdoes little damage but sends foes to the ground by kick-ing their feet out from under them. is special kick usesa Dexterity and Brawling - roll, or the Combat Score- . If it hits, the defender takes Strength points of basedamage (Bash type). Further, he must resist with a Dex-terity and Acrobatics roll, or the Combat Score to keepher feet. If not, he falls down.

Takedown: is includes judo throws, wrestlingmoves, trips, and similar methods of throwing an enemyto the ground. e Takedown uses a Strength and Brawl-ing roll, or the Muscle Score. If the target fails to Parryor Dodge, he hits the mat and takes Strength points ofBash damage. Otherwise, the defender takes no damageand the Takedown fails.

Target Limb: Targeting a limb (arm, leg, or tentacle)uses the appropriate Combat Maneuver with a - penal-ty, or the Combat Score - . Damage over half the target’smaximum Life Points cripples or severs that limb; excessdamage is lost. Combine that with Slash/stab weaponsand the result is even uglier.

row Weapon: e art of taking a properly balanced weapon and throwing it at a target. e range of this at-tack is two meters plus two meters per Strength level.

row weapon uses a Dexterity and Archaic Weapons - roll, or the Combat Score - , and the base damage variesby the weapon tossed.

Toss: Want to hurl an opponent across the room? edefender must be Grappled first and the attacker musthave a minimum Strength . en, the attacker uses aStrength (doubled) - roll, or the Muscle Score - , andthe defender resists using a Strength (not doubled) roll orthe Muscle Score divided by two. If the attack succeeds,it does Strength points of base damage (Bash type). Also,

the defender is tossed one meter for each Success Levelin the roll, and is automatically knocked down. If the at-tack fails, the defender remains Grappled, but takes nodamage and doesn’t go anywhere, causing the attacker tolook pretty foolish.

Wall Flip: Your character needs a nearby wall or solidobject with a vertical surface. He also needs to be really



1

3good. With a Dexterity and Acrobatics - roll, a Dexter-ity and Brawling - roll, or the Combat Score - , hecan do that awesome “run up the wall, flip over, and landbehind the attacker” business. If the flipper gains at least

one Success Level, he adds a + bonus to his result (as ifhe went Full Defense), and can apply that defense resultagainst all attacks against him that Turn. If not hit, thecharacter ends the Turn behind one of his attackers andgains initiative against them the next Turn. If he fails his

Wall Flip maneuver, he suff ers his own Strength level inBash damage and winds up prone next to the wall. isis another maneuver best reserved solely for pulp series.

Wall Smash: Grabbing someone and slamming himinto a wall or other nearby surface. e attacker musthave sufficient Strength to lift her opponent withoutmuch eff ort. She must also succeed in a Grapple roll first.If so, she can swing the defender around and slam himbodily to a nearby surface. at requires only a Strengthand Acrobatics roll or the Muscle Score. e persongrabbed defends with a similar roll or Score (assume hehas defense actions available). Damage is x Strength inBash type.

Whirling Sword: is is a complex maneuver, swing-ing a sword or other balanced weapon (staff , fightingsticks, and so on) in a complex. Anybody who steps intorange of the whirling sword is attacked. Even better, anyclose attack made against the character can be parried.

e character uses a Dexterity and Archaic Weapons- roll, or his Combat Score - to attack and defend

for the Turn. is is a great maneuver against multipleopponents, but has a couple of drawbacks. It’s the onlyaction the character can attempt that Turn, and it doesnothing against ranged attacks. e other problem is themaneuver cannot be used for long before the charactergets tired. Every Turn after the first, the penalty for thismaneuver is increased by another two. Characters areonly likely to encounter this maneuver among the finest

warriors on Galatea I. Wrestling Hold: is is a half-nelson, full-nelson, or

similar move, where the character immobilizes the enemy,usually by grabbing him from behind and twisting one orboth arms. is requires a successful Grapple. After that,

the attacker must make a Strength and Brawling - (orMuscle Score - ) roll. e defender then resists with aStrength or Dexterity (whichever is better) and Brawl-ing roll, or the best of his Combat or Muscle Scores. Ifthe attacker wins, the defender suff ers a - penalty to allactions for every Success Level in the Wrestling Holdattack until he breaks free or the attacker lets go. Other-

wise, the defender remains Grappled.

COMBAT COMPLICATIONS In the world of Eldritch Skies , fights don’t happen in neatboxing rings or empty, well lit rooms. ere’s no suchthing as a fair fight with a serious enemy. Here are somepossible complications.

Attacking from Behind: A distracted opponent (likea ghoul trying to gnaw on a human corpse) cannot de-fend (defense roll is zero) against attacks from behind.

Targets with Situational Awareness are the exception;they can defend, but at a - penalty. At your discretion,other would be-victims may get a Perception and Noticeroll before they are bushwhacked; in that case, they candefend with a - penalty.

Full Defense: Sometimes, fi ghting is not the best

option and running is impossible. Going fully defensiveallows the character to defend against two attacks at nopenalty, and gives her a + bonus to all defensive actions(Dodges and Parries, for the most part). No attacks areallowed on the Turn the character goes into Full Defensemode. is is a good idea for Civilians who want to keeptheir enemies busy until help arrives.

Full Off ense: Here, the character attacks recklessly, without worrying about defense. Best reserved for sur-prise attacks or suicide troops. It’s also good when severalattackers are going after one target. e character gets a+ bonus on all attacks on that Turn, but cannot defendagainst any attacks (defense rolls all equal zero). Note

that for the most feeble of Guest Stars and Adversar-ies (Combat Score or lower), the only way to have anychance of landing a blow is to go Full Off ence (or use aDrama Point).

Knockdowns and Fighting While Lying Down: Get-ting knocked to the ground is a bad thing. When a characteris knocked down, he cannot attack for the remainder of the

Turn and any defenses suff er a - penalty. Further, as long asthe character is on the ground, attacks and defenses incur a - penalty. Getting up usually takes a Turn. Doing it in an actionrequires two Success Levels in a Dexterity and Acrobatics roll(or Brawling if the character’s Brawling skill represents mar-tial arts training.) A number of Combat Maneuvers result in

a knockdown; also, any blow that inflicts more than triple the victim’s Strength in damage before accounting for damagetype or maneuver modifiers may result in a knockdown (if itseems dramatically appropriate).

Invisibility: Invisible characters are ridiculously hard tohit with ranged weapons. Only a few aliens and ab-humanscan become invisible, but those that can are deadly. If some-



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one shoots at an invisible character without knowing exactly where the character is, the attacker must make a roll. If the re-sult is ten, roll again. If the second roll result is a nine or a ten,the shot hits the invisible character by sheer chance. A Heroic

Feat Drama Point adds + to both rolls, making this doublehigh roll a little easier. A similar rule applies for melee attacksagainst invisible targets who seek to avoid combat.

Invisible opponents who engage in close combat haveto stay relatively near their victim. at allows the char-acter fighting them to concentrate for a Turn and make aPerception (not doubled) roll, or a Perception and Noticeroll (modified by Acute Senses other than vision). Mak-ing two or more Success Levels grants the searcher someclue about where the invisible person is. e combatantcan then attack his transparent assailant, but does so at a - penalty. Once the attack is done, another Turn of concen-tration and a successful roll are necessary to strike again.

ose Directors who don’t mind a bit more complexitycould allow very good Perception rolls to modify the at-tack penalty. For each additional Success Level (over thetwo needed to get an idea where the invisible person is)decrease the to-hit melee penalty by one. Each additionaltwo Success Levels decrease the to-hit ranged penalty byone. us, if a melee attacker’s Perception result is a , hegains two additional Success Levels. e penalty to hit theinvisible character becomes - instead of -.

Defending against invisible attacks is usually impos-sible (defense total is zero). If the defender knows an in-

visible person is around (he’s been popped once already),

he can make a Perception roll as described above. Successgrants a defense roll during the next turn at -. Note thata character can concentrate on defending or attacking aninvisible character in a single Turn, not both.

e to-hit or to-defend Perception roll can be dis-pensed with in smoke, steam, or other environment wherethe invisible person can be at least partially seen. rowinga sheet over, pouring flour on, or otherwise marking aninvisible character or creature also eliminates the Percep-tion roll, but is far from easy to do (such marking may onlyoccur as part of an attack). A melee (not ranged) attacksagainst a partially visible character suff er only a - penalty.

Multiple Actions: Characters can attack once and

defend once a Turn at no penalty. Fast and furious fight-ers can do more, however. Characters with Dexterity orgreater gain extra actions per Turn according to the Ad-ditional Actions Table.

For those more formula oriented, subtract four fromthe character’s Dexterity, then divide by two, roundingup. is is the number of extra actions the character may

take in one Turn. e extra actions

may be taken as at-tacks or defenses.

As it is difficult todo more than twothings at once, addi-tional actions suff ercumulative penaltiesof -. If the targetdefends against anyof those attacks, the character cannot continue attacking onthat Turn. Again, we summarize with an Additional Ac-tions Penalty Table.

Multiple actions can generally be resolved as a single roll(roll once and add the modifiers and the extra action penal-ties to each successive use of that roll). Note though, that

with one-on-one combat if an attacker’s first attack hits, allsubsequent attacks

will hit (the attackerloses - per attack,but so does the de-fender per defense).

is same eff ect doesnot necessarily arise

with one-on-manycombat as each de-fender has his owndefense action roll or

Score. In a slightly more time-consuming alternative, eachattack, defense, or other action can be rolled separately.Example: Miguel, an Operative with Dexterity , is at-

tempting to meet with a rogue mi-go working with an evilcorporation. e attempt failed, and he finds himself facingoff with two corporate security thugs with commando up-grades. He’s in a hurry to catch up with the boss, and doesn’trealize how tough these thugs are, so he decides to attack eachthug in one Turn. His high Dexterity grants him one addi-tional action per Turn, and he declares them both to be at-tacks. You call for one roll with successive penalties. Miguel’splayer rolls and adds his Dexterity and Brawling; the result is. at’s over the first thug’s Combat Score of , so he gets

punched. Miguel’s second attack uses the same result () butsubtracts two and becomes a . at ties the second thug’sCombat Score ( as well), so the blow doesn’t land (ties go tothe defender). Finally, Miguel does not get his third attack asthe second thug defended successfully against him.

Now Miguel has a problem. He has one defense ac-tion available at no penalty. Unfortunately, he also has

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS TABLE

DEXTERITY ADDITIONAL ACTIONS

-

-

-

-

+ + per

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS PENALTY TABLE

DEXTERITY ADDITIONAL ACTIONS

First None

Second -

ird -

Fourth -

+ - per



1

3two uninjured thugs in his face. ey both swing. One hecounters with a Parry roll of . e other strikes unhin-dered; his Combat Score () is greater than the mini-mum success total (), so he automatically connects. He’d

better hope the thug is relatively weak.Multiple Opponents: It’s always a good idea to have

numbers on your side. When two or more attackers gangup against a single target, they each get a + bonus to all ac-tions for each attacker, to a maximum of + for four attack-ers (more than four attackers just get in each other’s way).So, if two deep ones attack one Hero, they each get a + totheir Combat Scores. By the same token, if three Operativescharge a deep one, they get a + bonus to their attack anddefense rolls. On top of this, if the defender doesn’t haveenough actions to defend against all attacks, he resists thoseadditional attacks with a zero defense roll. Here is another

way for below-nine Combat Score characters to have achance of hitting their opponent—attack in numbers.

Drawing a Weapon: Sometimes you want a weaponright now, but it happens to be in your pocket or sitting on atable or otherwise not at hand. Can you get it ready in timeto use it? Normally, drawing or equipping a weapon countsas an action. If the item is buried in a briefcase, backpack, ora ghoul’s skull, it could take several Turns to get it.

Tied Up: Sometimes, enemies don’t want to kill you.Sometimes they just want to tie you up. When a characteris tied up, chained, or otherwise restrained, fighting is a lotmore difficult. If the character’s legs are free, he can kick atno penalty. If he can move (i.e., the character isn’t bound to

a stake or chained to a wall), he can also head butt people.If his arms are bound in front of him, he can punch at a - penalty. Getting free uses Dexterity and Acrobatics, withpenalties from - (some poorly tied knots in cheap rope) to- (for lots of good rope or police handcuff s).

GUNS AND DISTANCE WEAPONS

Why resort to fisticuff s when you can dispatch your enemiesat a distance? Every well trained operative can handle a gun,and generally packs heat for fieldwork. If you’re down in thetunnels and the ghouls are advancing, then it’s time to openup with your assault rifle, or at least a nice big pistol – thoughfiring through a human crowd is highly frowned upon.

OTHER MULTIPLE ACTIONS OPTIONS

e basic multiple action rules limit characters to acertain number of actions. is is done for simplicity’ssake. At the risk of some additional complexity, someDirectors may decide to handle multiple actions diff er-ently and permit more actions in a Turn.

Cumulative and Universal Penalties: Each addi-tional action declared in the Intentions phase of combatadds - to all actions that phase. at means if a charac-ter declares four attacks or four defenses in a Turn, eachaction suff ers a - penalty (the first attack or defense hasno penalty; each one after that incurs a -). is allowscharacters to act as much as they want, at the expense ofdegrading all their actions.

Off Balance Penalties: Under this optional rule,each extra action taken in one Turn imposes a base - penalty to all actions in the next Turn. So, a character

who takes three additional actions in one Turn suff ers a- to all actions in the next. Again, the limit on actionsis removed, but the frenzy of activity makes the charac-ter highly ineff ective and vulnerable thereafter.

Interruptions: Another possibility is to have the

player roll for each attack and defense, but if an attack isblocked, initiative switches over to the opponent. He getsto use his actions until a defense is used successfully, thenthe first attacker resumes his actions (if any). In a one onmany fight, the same sequence applies.

How does this work?: Randolph Carter attacks witha Punch, Kick, and a Sweep. He keeps one defense inreserve. He rolls for the Punch, hits, and does damage.

en he rolls for the Kick (taking into account the -)and the villain blocks it. Randolph’s opponent gets toattack now (if he has any), as he interrupted Randolph’sattacks. He throws a pathetic punch and Randolph useshis free defense to dodge. Now, the action shifts back

to Randolph for his last attack. He rolls for the sweep(taking into account the -).



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Generally speaking, missile combat works like regularcombat. Attackers make rolls or use their Combat Score,and the target tries to defend (usually by Dodging). Dodg-ing gunshots and energy weapons is difficult. A Dodge

against missiles suff ers a - penalty on top of any other thatare applicable (the character is busy ducking for cover). Ifthere is no available cover, the Dodge incurs a - penalty.

Range Penalties: To keep things simple, assume nopenalty at Short Range, a - penalty to shots at MediumRange, and a - penalty to shots at Long Range. Shortrange is under fi ve meters for pistol-ranged weapons, and meters for rifle-ranged weapons. Medium range isunder meters for pistol-ranged and under metersfor rifle-ranged weapons. Long range is up to metersfor pistol-ranged and up to meters for rifle-ranged

weapons. e individual weapon descriptions indicate whether pistol or rifle ranges are used.

Multiple Shots: If shooting doesn’t work at first, tryagain. Most guns can fire more than once over a fi ve-sec-ond period (in fact, most handguns can be emptied in fi veseconds). Roll and add Dexterity and Guns; each addi-tional shot uses the same roll, but drops down one SuccessLevel (due to the continuing eff ects of recoil). Bows usethe Multiple Action rules ; crossbows and other single-shot weapons must be reloaded after each shot.

Automatic Fire: Automatic weapons (assault riflesand machine guns) can fire a constant stream of bulletsuntil the gun runs dry or the barrel overheats. While thismay make the firer feel better, the constant recoil makes

autofire fairly inaccurate. Group the autofire in lots of tenor less bullets. For the first group of ten, the Success Lev-els of a Dexterity and Guns roll show how many bulletshit. Each subsequent group of ten or less uses the sameroll but drops two Success Levels.

Autofire can also be used as suppression. e shooterpicks a doorway-sized area and fills it with lead. Roll Dex-terity and Guns. Anyone moving into that area is hit by anumber of bullets equal to the Success Levels of that roll.

No matter how autofire is used, anyone in the area mustmake a Willpower (doubled) roll or spend all their actionshitting the ground, ducking behind cover, or otherwisemaking themselves as invisible as possible. Directors can

modify that roll based on how close the person is to thehail of gunfire and how much combat experience she has.

Trained soldiers fi re bursts, controlled gunfire thatsends three bullets downrange. For bursts, make one at-tack roll; each Success Level in the roll allows one bulletto hit the target. Successive bursts use the same roll butdrop one Success Level.

With either autofire or burst fi re, the base damagefor each bullet is modified by armor, and then added to-gether before applying the Bullet type modifier. SuccessLevels do not aff ect the damage calculation.

CAUSING INJURIES AND HARM

Land enough punches and kicks on somebody, and some-thing is going to break. Exploring alien ruins and hunt-ing out-of-control mutants is a dangerous job; the He-roes should expect their share of lumps, cuts and bruises,

visits to the emergency room, or even the morgue.Damage aff ects the character’s Life Points. Once his

Life Pool is depleted, she risks losing consciousness or dy-ing. When an attack hits a character, subtract the damageinflicted from her Life Point Pool. Armor can protect thecharacter from harm; reduce damage by the Armor Value or

any protective garment worn before decreasing Life Points.Players might wish to write down the Life Points ofthe character on a piece of scrap paper, and adjust thetotal there rather than make wear and tear from erasureson the character sheet.

DAMAGE—THE BASICS

Attack Maneuvers have a damage number or a formula.If it is a number, the damage is fi xed, an inherent charac-teristic of the weapon—a . pistol does the same damagefor everybody. Formulas usually depend on the Strengthof the attacker—a punch from a -pound ab-humanmutant is going to hurt more than a punch from a skinny

office clerk. Do the calculations once and write the dam-age of the attack on the Combat Maneuver portion ofthe character sheet.

During play, the actual damage inflicted is equal to thebase damage, plus one per Success Level of the attack roll,minus any Armor Value possessed by the defender. is to-tal is then multiplied by any damage type or other modifier.

at’s a bit complicated, but once you play through a few

FIXED VS. ROLLED DAMAGE

Eldritch Skies is designed so that damage from weaponsand other sources is based on a fi xed number + the Lev-

els of Success the attacker rolls. is works wonderfullyfor Cinematic and Pulp play, where Drama Points areused to reduce damage. However, for Gritty play, whereDrama Points are not used, or in cases where the Direc-tor and Players wish more variety, weapon damage canbe rolled on dice instead. See the Appendix for rolleddamage for all listed weapons.



1

3combats, it becomes much easier. e character sheet hasthe Success Level Table right by the Combat Maneuvers,so a quick glance provides that information. Quick Sheetshave the Success Levels of the Combat Score worked into

their damage entries.Example: Miguel has a Strength . e Kick formula

is x (Strength + ). Enter fi ve into the formula, andMiguel’s Kick inflicts a base damage of points. Afteran attack roll, the Success Levels are added to this basedamage. So if Miguel’s player gets four Success Levels ona Kick attack, he adds four to his base damage (), for atotal damage result of .

Example twice: Miguel uses a knife in the next combat.Knife base damage is ( x Strength), or for Miguel. Afteran attack roll with two Success Levels, the damage becomes. Further, a knife is a Slash/stab weapon (see below), so thefinal damage is doubled to Life Points. Ouch!

Example thrice: Miguel now picks up one of Livia’s pis-tols. e gun has a base damage of (no formula this time).Miguel’s two Success Level attack raises that to a . Histarget is wearing a bulletproof vest though, which subtracts from the damage, leaving a mere four. Bullet damage—the kind imposed by the gun—is doubled after armor (seebelow). So, the final damage result is eight Life Points.

TYPES OF DAMAGE

ere are four types of damage. Bash, Stab/slash, Bullet,and Fire. All of them hurt, but they have slightly diff er-ent eff ects. Armor (natural or worn) and other damage

decreases (like the Natural Toughness Quality) are appliedbefore damage type is factored, except in special cases. esedamage multipliers should be applied to all characters orcreatures (human, ab-human, alien, etc.), unless they have aspecifically applicable immunity to damage.

Bash Damage: is covers any attack by a blunt object(fists, two-by-fours, falling rocks, the sidewalk at the end ofa long fall, and so on). Bash attacks reduce Life Points nor-mally. ey are the only type of attack that can be used toknock out a victim (knives and bullets are simply too lethal).

Slash/stab Damage: is is done by pointy or sharpobjects that cause blood loss, puncture vital organs, andotherwise cut and pierce someone’s body. Double this

damage, after subtracting any armor or similar protection(if any). Weapons with sharp edges can be used to cut off limbs or heads; if a limb is attacked and the damage isenough to reduce the victim to Life Points, the limb hasbeen severed (see also, the Decapitation Maneuver).

Bullet Damage: Bullets do nasty things to most thingsthey encounter. ey mostly work like Slash/stab attacks,

doubling base damage after adding Success Levels. Bul-letproof vests are very good against Bullet damage, but not

very useful against Slash/stab attacks.Example: Livia shoots a hideous ab-human mutant and

inflicts points of damage. Since she was using a bullet,this is doubled to points of damage. If the mutant hadparticularly tough skin (Natural Armor with an ArmorValue ), six of the points would be subtracted, reducingthe initial damage to , doubled to —still a nasty shot.

Fire Damage: Burns are a particularly horrific wayto get hurt. Fire can scar terribly and fire damage healsmore slowly than normal. A character on fire takes threepoints of damage every Turn until somebody puts himout. If more than points of fire damage are inflicted,some scarring will occur (assuming the victim lives). FireDamage also heals at half the normal rate; the playershould keep track of fire damage separately (this doesn’taff ect I ink I’m Okay though). e Simple Option: If you and your players want to keep

things simple, have all damage work the same way as Bashattacks—no doubling eff ect, no healing modifiers, and so on.

is option is not very realistic, but it is easier to remember.

WEAPON DESCRIPTIONS e following weapons may be used during the game.See Equipment for information about costs and restrict-ed weapons.

Assault Rifle: Standard issue military & OPS striketeam weapon, usually with a - to -round magazine.

Illegal in most places, except for the military, OPS, andSWAT teams. Can autofire and burst fire. Base damage is points (Bullet type). Using an assault rifle without penaltyrequires the military training Quality. Cost: - (Restricted)

Axe: Used by fire departments and medieval knights,although for diff erent purposes. Long-handled axes canbe wielded two-handed (add + to the eff ective Strengthof the character). Does base damage of x Strength points(Slash/stab type). is drops to x Strength points whenthe axe is thrown. Cost: -

Big Assault Rifle: If your bosses are handing theseout, it’s going to be a serious bug hunt. is extra largeassault rifle includes an over-the-barrel grenade launcher

with a six-grenade clip; for details on grenade launchers. e rifle has a -shot clip and can autofire and burstfire. Base damage is points (Bullet type). Using a bigassault rifle without penalty requires the military trainingQuality. Cost: (Restricted)

Blunt Weapon: is includes various types of sticks. e small ones—a police baton, a belaying pin, a rebar,



116

or the heavy half of a pool cue—do base damage of xStrength points (Bash type). Bigger ones—baseball bats,sledgehammers, maces, and coat racks—are generally

wielded with two hands (add + to the eff ective Strength

of the character). e do x Strength points of basedamage (Bash type). Cost: none

Bow: An ancient weapon for killing people at range,the bow has improved in modern times and now uses

various composite materials. e maximum eff ectiveStrength when using a bow is fi ve. at means if the user’sStrength is greater than fi ve, the base damage tops out at. Does x Strength points of base damage (Slash/stabtype), and uses pistol ranges. Cost: -

Crossbow: Not as fast as a bow (requires a Turn to re-load), but easier to use. Base damage is a fi xed points(Slash/stab type). A smaller, one-handed version called apistol crossbow does points of base damage. e “bow”part of the smaller weapon folds against the stock so it canbe holstered like a regular gun. Both weapons require a Turnto reload after each shot, and use pistol ranges. Cost: -

Electric Cannon: Used only by the military and OPSstrike teams, this weapon can either be mounted on a

vehicle like a car or light plane or it can be carried bya single individual. However, much of the weapon is abulky three-kilogram unit that must be worn as a back-pack, which is connected to a modified zapper rifle. is

weapon never runs out of charges, and once a shooter hashit a target with an electric cannon, they can maintainthe beam. is allows the shooter to keep the same attack

roll for subsequent attacks without having to make a newHeavy Weapons roll (although the shooter can choose todo so if they want to try for a better result).

When hit, the victim takes some damage from thecharge, and must make a Constitution doubled roll at apenalty of fi ve plus the Success Levels of the attack. On afailure, the victim is knocked out. Even if the target man-ages to stay conscious, the shock gives her a - penaltyto all actions (including resisting another shock) for thenext four Turns. Multiple shots have cumulative penal-ties. Base damage is points (Bash type). e shooter canautomatically maintain the electrical connection untilthe target moves far enough so that some other object or

obstacle comes between shooter and the target. Electriccannons are extremely bulky weapons, and about as farfrom unobtrusive as you can get. ey can also be usedto deliver damaging shots. ese shots do points ofelectrical damage (treated like Bash damage) every turn.

is device uses rifle ranges. Cost: + (Restricted)Grenades: ere are several diff erent types of gre-

nades, but they all share a few common characteristics. To use a grenade, pick your spot and make use the row Weapon maneuver (or the Combat Score). With threeor more Success Levels, your aim is true and the grenade

goes exactly where you want it. With one or two Suc-cesses, your aim is a little off , which will adjust the focusof the blast. If you fail, the grenade doesn’t end up any-

where close to where you wanted it to go – which couldbe very bad for innocent bystanders in the area. e rangeof a grenade is two meters plus two meters for each levelof Strength the user possesses. Using a grenade withoutpenalty requires the military training Quality. Here arethe two basic types:

Grenade (Basic): is is the standard military gre-nade. You pull the pin and toss it a far away. e grenadeinflicts a base points of damage to everything within ameter of “Ground Zero,” points within a three-meterradius and eight points within a fi ve-meter radius. Alldamage is Fire type. Cost: - (Restricted)

Grenade (Flashbang): is device produces a bril-liant fl ash of light and a tremendous burst of sound,blinding and stunning anyone caught nearby. If you are

within meters of the point of impact and you are fac-ing the grenade, you need to make a Dexterity (doubled)check; Fast Reaction Time and Situational Awarenesseach add to your check. You will be blinded for fi verounds minus the number of Successes you score on yourDexterity check. In addition, if you are within fi ve metersof ground zero you must make a Constitution (doubled)

check. Acute Hearing forces you to subtract from thisroll, while Impaired Hearing actually adds to the check. You will be stunned and unable to take any action for rounds minus the number of Success Levels obtained onthe Constitution check. Eye or ear protection may add tothe respective rolls or negate the need to roll completely,at the Director’s discretion. Cost: - (Restricted)

Grenade Launcher: If you want to send a grenade along way away, get one of these. A grenade launcher is asmall rifle that shoots self-propelled grenades instead ofbullets. Grenade launchers use an entirely diff erent styleof grenade than the kind you throw –you don’t just pullthe pin and toss it in the launcher. But purely for the sake

of simplicity, use the same stats for rifle grenades that aregiven above for hand grenades.

Firing a grenade launcher requires a Dexterity + Gunsroll; hitting the target dead on requires three Success Lev-els, just like throwing a grenade. e grenade itself strikes

with considerable force, inflicting points of Bash dam-age before it explodes. A grenade launcher uses pistol



1

3ranges, with one catch; the grenade has to travel at least meters before it arms, otherwise it won’t explode. Mostgrenade launchers can hold six shots, but older modelsonly hold one. Using a grenade launcher without penalty

requires the military training Quality. Cost: - (Restricted)Hand Taser: is pocket-sized device is an excel-

lent tool for incapacitating people. Press one end againstsomebody and he gets shocked. e taser uses a Dexter-ity and Archaic Weapons roll, or the Combat Score, andmust be pressed up against the victim. When hit, the tar-get takes a base damage of fi ve points (Bash type) fromthe charge, and must make a Constitution (doubled) roll(or use the Muscle Score) at a penalty of fi ve plus theSuccess Levels of the attack. On a failure, the victim isknocked out. Even if he remains conscious, the shockgives him a - penalty to all actions (including resistinganother shock) for the next four Turns. Multiple shotscreate cumulative penalties. Cost -

Hyperspatial Disruptor: is powerful device ishighly illegal for unauthorized personnel to possess. Un-authorized use tends to attract OPS and governmentalstrike teams hell-bent on stopping the user by any meansnecessary, and it’s easy to see why. Derived from work onhyperspatial gates and the dragonfl y drive, this device en-

velops the target in a rapidly varying hyperspatial fieldthat disperses small amounts of the target across severaldimensions of hyperspace. e result is a weapon that isnot only extremely deadly; it can also drastically weakenany barrier, including high-grade steel or solid rock. More

importantly, this weapon instantly destroys any hyperspa-tial creature less powerful than a Great Old One, and tem-porarily disrupts and banishes even a Great Old One.

Any living target caught within the center of the rangeis immediately and automatically killed, as are lesser hy-perspatial entities like servitors of the other gods or fl y-ing polyps. Each use of the device on an inanimate objecthalves its armor and then does points of (Bash type)damage. Repeated uses allow users to cut through thickbarriers. Finally, the object banishes any Great Old Oneit strikes for d+ hours. e one major limitation onthis device is its extremely short range. Disruptors onlyaff ect targets within fi ve meters (short pistol range), but

they aff ect a cone fi ve meters across. Any target furtheraway is completely unaff ected by this weapon.

A disruptor is a tube cm in diameter and cm long,connected by cable to a small fi ve-kilogram backpack con-taining a battery and additional power boosting circuitry.Living targets within the outermost one meter of the coneon any side receive points of (Fire type) damage: at that

range, the disruptor field destroys any armor they are wear-ing and destroys skin without penetrating further into thebody. Like full-body burns, this requires immediate medi-cal care for those who survive: any character who does not

receive medical attention within minutes of taking thisinjury goes into shock, dropping them to - Life Pointsand requiring a Survival Test. In addition, damage doneby this weapon ignores all versions of the reduce damagepower. Cost: + (Restricted)

Knife: Average switchblades or easily concealedknives have a base damage of x Strength points (Slash/stab type). is drops to x (Strength - ) points whenthe knife is thrown. Large knives (called short swordsin another age) do x Strength points of base dam-age (Slash/stab type). rowing this monster requires aStrength or better, and does x (Strength - ) points.Little knives, like the blade on an average folding pocketknife, do x (Strength - ) points of damage (Slash/stabtype), or (Strength - ) points when thrown. Cost: -

Pistol: ese guns come in various sizes but all usepistol ranges and do Bullet damage. Small caliber, easilyconcealed small caliber handguns like . or . caliberhandguns have a base points of damage, and hold bullets. Standard . or mm pistols have a base damageof points. Revolvers hold six shots per gun; pistols canhave as many as rounds. Large . magnum or . cali-ber pistols have less than shots in their magazines (re-

volvers have six shots) and do a base damage of points.Huge . magnum, or . caliber pistols have the same

number of bullets but do points of base damage. Cost:- for small pistols, - for all other pistols.Quartersta ff : Basically a long stick. A pool cue can

double as a quarterstaff . Used with both hands (damagebonus already factored in). Base damage is x (Strength+ ) points (Bash type). Cost: -

Rifle: A hunting rifle is either single-shot or has - rounds. It does points of base damage (Bullet type).Cost: -

Shotgun: is weapon is popular with hunters and thepolice. e sawed-off version suff ers a - penalty whenrolling, but is easier to conceal. A gauge shotgun doesbase points of Bullet damage, holds two shots, and uses

pistol ranges. A gauge shotgun is identical, except thatit only does base points of Bullet damage. Both alsocome in pump action varieties that hold fi ve rounds in-stead of two. Cost: - (sawed off shotguns are restricted).

Sniper Rifle: A compromise between big sniper ri-fle and the hunting rifle, the sniper rifle provides bothimpressive range and solid firepower, without being too



118

bulky to easily use. If you have the sniper rifle set up andproperly braced, you can use the sight to gain a + to yourGuns roll (in addition to any other bonuses). e sniperrifle can be fired without being braced, but you can’t use

the sights and you take an additional - to your Gunscheck due to the awkward size of the weapon. Base dam-age is points (Bullet type). A sniper rifle has a shortrange of up to meters, a medium range of up to meters, and a long range of meters. Military sniperrifles hold shots, but there are single-shot models outthere as well. Cost: -

Spear: Essentially a long pointed stick. Fairly com-mon in ancient times; very rare nowadays. Uses two-handed (damage bonus already factored in). Base damageis x (Strength + ) points (Slash/stab type). is dropsto x Strength points when the spear is thrown. Cost: -

Submachine Gun: Basically a large pistol capableof automatic fire. Can autofire and burst fire, uses pistolranges, and holds between and bullets. Base dam-age is points (Bullet type). Cost: - (Restricted)

Sword: Rapiers, broadswords, and other large blades. is also covers katanas and other fancy weapons. Someof these weapons can be used two-handed; in that case,add + to the eff ective Strength of the wielder. Does base x Strength points of Slash/stab damage. Large Sword:

A big, heavy sword that must be used two-handed (the+ to Strength is already built-in). Base damage is x(Strength + ) points (Slash/stab type). Cost: -

Tranquilizer Gun: Useful for bringing down ani-

mals and ab-humans (at least those whose physiologiesreact to drugs) without hurting them. Uses rifle ranges. A typical dose of tranquilizer is a narcotic poison with aStrength . Each Success Level in the poison roll reducesthe victim’s Strength by one level; if reduced to zero, thetarget falls unconscious for one hour. Many hyperspatialmutants and ab-humans recover much faster; reduce theunconsciousness time by ten minutes per Constitutionlevel (minimum of ten minutes). In general, human drugsand poisons don’t work on aliens, but maybe someonein R&D can get you tranq darts designed to work onmoonbeasts. Cost: -

Zapper:Zappers are weapons that fire beams of focused

electricity capable of temporarily stunning and paralyzingthe target. is weapon, which has replaced inefficientstring-lead tasers, normally fires an electrical charge thatdoes little damage but knocks out most targets. When hit,the victim takes some damage from the charge, and mustmake a Constitution doubled roll at a penalty of fi ve plusthe Success Levels of the attack. On a failure, the victim is

knocked out. Even if the target manages to stay conscious,the shock gives her a - penalty to all actions (includingresisting another shock) for the next four Turns. Multipleshots have cumulative penalties.

Zappers can be built as either lightweight rifles or smallpistols. e rifles have the normal range of a rifle, while thepistols have the normal range of a pistol. Base damage is points (Bash type). Specially made zappers can also deliverhigher power shots that are designed to harm the target,doing points of electrical damage (which is treated likeBash damage) to the target. ese models have a switchallowing you to toggle between knock out and lethal shockmodes. Cost: -. Zappers that can fire lethal shots have acost of - and are Restricted.

WEAPON ACCESSORIES

ese useful items can make the diff erence between victoryand defeat. Of course, if you’re not a soldier, a SWAT teammember, or an OPS operative, being found carrying any ofthese is going to make the cops look at you very carefully.

Laser Sights: A laser sight goes under the barrel of your gun and sticks a red dot on your target. A laser sightprovides you with a + to any Guns check with the asso-ciated weapon. In smoke or fog, the beam will be visible,

which looks cool, but is also a great way to reveal yourposition to the enemy. Cost: - for a sight properly fit-ted to your gun, - for some tooling around with a laserpointer and duct tape.

Silencers: One of the problems with guns is that they

are noisy. Well, as all of you who have seen spy moviesknow, that’s why the silencer is every assassin’s friend. If

you’re working for the OPS, or a national intelligence orlaw enforcement agency, you can get a silencer for almostany firearm. Note that silencers have to be designed fora particular model of gun; you can actually get a silencerfor an assault rifle, but you can’t put the same silencer on

your pistol, and silencers for rifles are large and extremelyobvious. Using a silencer gives a shooter a - penalty onher Guns roll, but anyone around needs to make a Per-ception + Notice check to hear the sound of the shot.

is should be modified for distance; if you’re standingright next to a shooter with a silencer, the sound is still

pretty noticeable. Cost: - (Restricted)



1

3HEAVY WEAPONS

e following weapons are typically only used by terror-ists or in wartime. ey should not appear in any Eldritch

Skies episode that does not deal with these problems or very similar ones.

Portable Anti-Aircraft Rocket: Designed to be firedby one person from a disposable launcher, this guidedmissile can easily hit both stationary targets and fastmoving ones like speeding cars or even fi ghter jets. Itcomes in a disposable launcher . meters long and theentire unit weighs kg. It does points of damage, butall armor except hyperspatial energy fields are divided by (round up) before this damage is applied. It also causesan explosion, doing the listed damage to anything within meter of impact. In addition, everyone within meterstakes points of Bash damage. Users gain an automatic+ to hit due to the guidance system.

Portable Anti-Tank Rocket: Designed to be fired byone person from a disposable launcher, this rocket is idealfor destroying armored vehicles or small buildings. It isslightly less than a meter long, weights only . kg, and hasthe same range as a rifle. It does points of damage, butall armor except hyperspatial energy fields are divided by (round up) before this damage is applied. It also causesan explosion, doing the listed damage to anything within meter of impact. In addition, everyone within meterstakes points of Bash damage. Because it lacks a guidancesystem, it cannot be used to hit fast-moving targets.

Satchel Charge: is is a typical terrorist bomb con-sisting of a dozen blocks of plastic explosive and a deto-nator that can be triggered by either a timer or a signalfrom a mobile. ese weapons are easy to use and fitseasily within a medium-sized brief case. is bomb does points of damage to everyone within meters and points of damage to everyone within meters.

ARMOR Armor works by absorbing or reflecting some of the forceof an attack, keeping sharp pointy objects away from thecharacter’s vital organs and cushioning against impacts.

All armor has an Armor Value, a number that subtractsdamage from an attack. Armor has its disadvantages,though—it can be cumbersome and it can attract un-

wanted attention. Walking around in military grade bodyarmor turns heads. In addition to the armor describedbelow, some creatures have natural armor in the form ofscaly skins or bony plates.

Notes: Chameleon armor changes color to rough-

ly match the background. It provides a + bonus to allstealth rolls. However, it does not make the wearer invis-ible or allow them to hide in plain sight. See chameleon

jumpsuit () for details on how it works.

GETTING HURT

When bullets, knives or pseudopods get through, badthings start to happen. Characters reduced to ten LifePoints or below are severely injured, and find it hard tocontinue fighting—all combat rolls are at a - penalty. Ifreduced below fi ve Life Points, this penalty goes up to -.

Consciousness Tests: When reduced to zero LifePoints or below, unconsciousness or incapacitation (i.e.,the character is conscious, but can only lie there and

work very hard on breathing) is likely. e character hasto make a Willpower and Constitution roll, at a penalty

of - for every point below zero. So, a character who is at- Life Points (he has taken enough damage to reduceall his Life Points to zero, and four more points on topof that) has a - penalty to his consciousness roll. eResistance (Pain) Quality adds a bonus to consciousnessrolls, and also reduces wound penalties.

Survival Tests: If the character is reduced to - points or worse, death is a possibility. e character hasto make a Survival Test; this uses Willpower and Consti-tution (just like a Consciousness Test) with a - penaltyfor every ten points below zero (i.e., a character reducedto - Life Points would have a - penalty to the Sur-

vival Test). e Hard to Kill Quality provides a bonus to

Survival Tests. If the character passes the Test, he lives; ifhe doesn’t, he dies (see Drama Points for some possiblealternatives).

Slow Death: If the character is below - Life Points,survives his Survival Test, but does not get medical help

within a minute, he may still die. Survival Tests are re-quired every minute after the first, at an additional - penalty per minute (so after fi ve minutes, the additionalpenalty would be -; half an hour later, it would be - , andeven a Drama Point may not be enough to save the char-acter). A successful Intelligence and Doctor roll stabilizesthe character and dispenses with further Survival Tests.

Dying Words and Actions: Most who fail a Survival

Test are likely to be unconscious as well as incapacitated. is is no fun, dramatically speaking. If a character dies,the player should have the option of performing one lastdeed or saying some famous last words. e Last Deedoption allows the character to rally and act normally forone or two Turns (no wound penalty applies). Last wordscan take as much as a minute (more likely, they should



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consist of a couple of sentences). ese are the last acts ofthe character—make them count.

Resuscitation: Some injuries kill the character, butleave him intact enough for medicine to bring him back.Drowning or suff ocation, gunshot wounds, and similarinjuries are often not destructive enough to prevent mod-ern science from saving the character. Common senseshould be your guide. If the character was burned to acrisp or eaten whole by a fl ying polyp, CPR isn’t going to

help. Resuscitation requires an Intelligence and Doctorroll, followed by another Survival Test from the victim.In addition to any previous modifier, the victim gets abonus equal to the Success Levels of the Intelligence andDoctor roll, and a penalty of - per fi ve minutes sinceher untimely demise. Or the caretaker can spend DramaPoints to perform the sort of medical miracle cinematicHeroes are good at.

GETTING BETTER

Going to the hospital – or far from civilization, calling inmedical backup – is an excellent idea whenever a character

is severely injured. Without medical help, characters mayheal from wounds, but very slowly. When using DramaPoints, healing is not much of a problem. Characters ina Series of this type should be up and around on the nextEpisode, unless the injuries were truly epic in scope.

For the rest of humanity, injuries are healed at the rateof Life Point per Constitution level every day spentunder medical care. Augmentations can speed this up abit. Also, some ab-human mutants and aliens can recoverfrom almost deadly injuries in less than an hour, whichis one of the reasons that OPS strike teams are well paid.

OTHER TYPES OF INJURIES

Bullets and knives aren’t the only dangers Heroes andother characters can face. Here are some hazards thatmay come up in the course of a Series.

Disease: is works just like Poisons, except that Dis-ease rolls (using the Strength of Disease) are usually lessfrequent (rarely faster than once per hour, and typicallyonce per day). Many diseases do not kill, but merely inca-pacitate victims with fevers, chills, and other unpleasantsymptoms. Diseases aff ect all characters and creatures,unless they have a special Resistance Quality or otherimmunity. ey don’t usually jump species barriers, butcan aff ect hybrids.

Falling: Any fall from more than one meter inflictsthree points of Bash damage per meter. Falling damagetops out after meters ( Life Points)—falling furtherdoesn’t do any more damage. While that limit can be de-bated, it preserves the cinematic nature of the game (a fallover meters kills most characters but Drama Points al-low for statistically unlikely survivals) and are not unreal-istic (humans have fallen out of airplanes and survived).

A Dexterity and Acrobatics roll (or the CombatScore) reduces the fall’s eff ective distance by one meterper Success Level. So a character who gets four SuccessLevels in a Dexterity and Acrobatics roll would take nodamage from a three-meter fall, and would suff er only sixpoints of damage from a six-meter fall.

Poison: Poisons have a Strength Attribute. Roll andadd double the Poison’s Strength; this is resisted by the

victim’s Constitution (doubled). If the poison “wins,” the victim is drained of one Attribute level per Success Levelin the Poison roll. e Attribute depends on the type ofpoison; paralyzing agents drain Dexterity, while debili-

BRAIN INJURIES: A GAME-CHANGER

A character who takes a severe blow or gunshot to thehead, or lacks oxygen for too long before being resus-

citated, can suff er brain damage. Many wounds that would be permanent in the real world can be dealt witheasily in Eldritch Skies : limbs and eyes and skins can beregrown. e brain, however, holds something less re-placeable. Heroes can come back from some kinds ofbrain damage, but it takes a while – and their person-alities and abilities might not be the same afterward,though people make new synaptic connections as heal-ing takes place. Players who retain a character after thiskind of injury should work with the Director to weavethis into the story: maybe the character must re-learnhis combat skills and can no longer remember partsof childhood, or becomes erratic and superstitious but

develops a new musical talent. e eff ects should vary,based on the tone of the Series and what the player be-lieves is a realistic direction for the character.

TERMINAL VELOCITY

A falling body accelerates for about meters. If astrictly linear damage formula is applied at that point,

the faller suff ers Life Points. Any further fallingcreates no further damage, not that a fall of that magni-tude needs much in the way of further damage. at’sexceptionally deadly. Still, it’s your game; we’re just of-fering options.



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3

tating venoms drain Strength. When the Attribute is re-duced to zero, the victim is unconscious or incapacitated.If the poison is lethal, then it also starts draining Consti-tution. Non-lethal drugs that causes unconsciousness or

paralysis do not reduce Constitution. When Constitution is drained to zero, the victim dies.

e frequency of Poison rolls depends on how power-ful the substance is. Very deadly poisons roll every Turn,

while less powerful agents roll once per minute, per hour,or even per day. An Intelligence and Doctor or Scienceroll may help identify the poison and remove it from the

victim. In other cases, you’d better find an antidote stat.Poisons aff ect all characters and creatures, unless theyhave a special Resistance Quality or other immunity.

Radiation: Low level ionizing radiation causes no vis-ible harm, but can damage DNA and thus greatly raisesomeone’s risk of developing cancer years or decadeslater. Fortunately, cancer is curable in the world of El-dritch Skies . Higher levels of radiation cause immediateharm or even swift death. For simplicity, there are threelevels of radiation in Eldritch Skies – Low, High, and Le-thal. Medicine in Eldritch Skies is sufficiently advancedthat all but the worst radiation poisoning can be cured.However, radiation damage is still very serious and takesfour times as long to heal as normal damage. Burns andsystemic illness are both possible consequences of thistype of injury. Ingesting or inhaling radioactive materialcan cause low-level radiation damage to continue accru-ing for a longer time.

Low: Anyone exposed to this level of radiation re-ceives LP/ hours. is level of radiation is mostlyfound in regions that were subject to attack by nuclear

weapons decades or centuries in the past, within a dozenor so kilometers of a recent nuclear attack or nuclear ac-cident, in mild solar flares, or on planets with extremelyhigh levels of natural radioactivity.

High: Anyone exposed to this level of radiation receives LP/ minutes. is level of radiation is found in space inplanetary radiation belts, moderate solar flares, or within afew kilometers of a recent nuclear attack or nuclear disaster.

Lethal: Anyone exposed to this level of radiation re-ceives anywhere from LP/minute to, at the most ex-treme, LP/turn. Even after receiving a lethal dose ofradiation, the character can still function as if they werereduced below LP (- to all rolls), but they will die

within a day regardless of medical treatment. e onlypossible interventions at this point are those which wouldcause a total physical transformation of the character -extreme hyperspatial exposure or possibly transplant intoa Mi-Go brain canister. is level of radiation is mostlyfound right next to badly damaged nuclear reactors or inspace during the worst solar flares.

Suff ocation: If unable to breathe (i.e., being choked,under water, or in a non-oxygenated environment), acharacter dies. Anybody can hold out for Turns. Afterthat, a Consciousness Test is required with a cumulative- penalty every Turn. seconds after the character hasfallen unconscious, survival Tests kick in, again with acumulative - penalty every seconds.

Vacuum: Being exposed to the vacuum of space isn’tlike drowning. If you try to hold your breath, your lungsexplode. Characters can act and remain conscious forConstitution + turns. After seconds, the charactersmust make a survival test, with a cumulative - penaltyevery seconds. Characters also take one point of Bash

damage per turn spent in vacuum, but armor provides noprotection against this damage.

BREAKING STUFF

Unless it is dramatically necessary, characters can breakthings without having to roll. Smashing a plate glass

window or turning an expensive computer into a pile of

ARMOR TABLE

ARMOR T YPE ARMOR VALUE NOTES COST

Leather Jacket Typical biker jacket -

Bulletproof Vest () Bulky, second value is used against Slash/stab attacks -Covert Armor or

Chameleon Covert Armor ( )

Looks like a blazer or full motorcycle leathers, second value is usedagainst Bash attacks

/+

Combat Armor orChameleon Combat Armor

Worn by soldiers in combat and SWAT teams+/+

(Restricted)Space Suit Bullet or Slash/stab damage in excess of this armor causes the suit to leak +

Armored Space Suit Bulky, this suit can repair up to point leaks, but more than points of

Bullet or Slash/stab damage causes the suit to leak +



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useless electronic parts does not require rolls and damagecalculations. A good swing with a crowbar does it all.

Sometimes, there’s a dramatic component to a goodbusting up. is might include breaking through doors,

walls, and other obstacles, where time is of the essence.

Typically, the Success Levels of a Strength (doubled) rolldetermine how fast a door gets what’s coming to it andcomes off its hinges. Walls require a certain amount ofdamage before a man-sized hole is punched into them.

e Breaking Stuff Chart above summarizes.Inanimate objects also get damaged in combat. Com-

batants toss their opponents around. Missed attacks getfists, crowbars, or bullets buried in walls. In many cases,it’s possible to just describe on the fl y. If more precision isneeded, the damage done to walls and other objects var-ies depending on who’s swinging what. For augmentedcommandos and super strong ab-humans, the TossedItem Chart runs it down. Of course, the character must

have a Strength Attribute sufficient to lift the item orperson without much eff ort. Still, several characters can

work together and combine their Strength levels fortossing purposes. e Director decides if they all can fitaround, and get a handle on, the object.

EQUIPMENT

e following section contains the gear and equipmentused by Operatives and Civilians in Eldritch Skies . is listcontains both equipment unique to the setting and also

common equipment that is often used in the course ofmythos adventures. Only very basic descriptions of variouspieces of equipment are provided; Directors are encour-aged to use common sense when handling equipment. Forexample, while size and weight is not provided for most

equipment, an ordinary character won’t be able to carryfifty rifles. is sections also includes special rules for pur-chasing and acquiring equipment. Weapons and armor arelisted above in the section on combat.

EQUIPMENT COSTS

OPS Operatives and other individuals working for largeorganizations don’t need to purchase necessary gear fortheir missions: this equipment is issued to them on loanfrom the organization. However, some characters will

wish to have their own gear. In addition, freelance He-roes must purchase their own equipment.

Purchasing equipment is handled in a relatively sim-ple manner. Every piece of equipment has a listed cost.

is cost is expressed in terms of the levels of the Re-sources Quality that the characters possess. ese costscan range from - to + and most equipment ranges incost from - to + . Any character with at least the listedlevel of resources can aff ord the item. However, purchas-ing an item with the same cost as the character’s levelof Resources represents a significant expense and thischaracter cannot aff ord any item with a similar cost forat least one month. If the character has one or morelevels of Resources above the minimum needed to pur-

chase the item, they suff er no such

restriction. Any character with twomore levels of Resources above thelisted minimum for the item can af-ford to outfit their entire team withthese items. Characters who lack theneeded level of the Resources Qual-ity cannot aff ord the item.

BREAKING STUFF CHART

Interior Door ree Success Levels

Reinforced Wooden Door Four Success Levels, and the first Success Level in any one roll is ignored

Metal Door Six Success Levels, and the first two Success Levels in any one roll do not apply

Reinforced Metal Door Eight Success Levels, and the first fi ve Success Levels in any one roll are ignored

Interior Wall Armor Value ; points of damage

Brick Wall Armor Value ; points of damage

Concrete Armor Value ; points of damage

TOSSED ITEM CHART

ROUGH W EIGHT DAMAGE TO W ALL/OBJECT HIT SAMPLE ITEM

up to kg. x Strength Chair, end tableup to kg. x Strength Person, reclinerup to kg. x Strength Heavy couch, lawnmowerup to kg. x Strength Motorcycle, refrigerator

up to , kg. x Strength Small carup to x previous (+ previous) x Strength



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3RESTRICTED ITEMS

Some equipment is Restricted. Such items include military weaponry, advanced hyperspatial devices, and similar dan-

gerous items that national governments and the OPS wishto keep out of the hands of civilians. Characters who do not

work for governments or the OPS cannot simply request orpurchase this equipment. Instead, characters without properauthorization who wish to acquire this equipment must findsomeone willing to illegally sell that piece of equipment tothem. Often, attempting to acquire such a piece of equip-ment can be the basis for an entire Episode. Also, the cost ofpurchasing illegal equipment increases by +.

ISSUED EQUIPMENT

If the Heroes work for the OPS, a government, or a large

corporation, their employer issues them all of the equip-ment they should need on their mission. No rolls are re-quired. If the characters are traveling to an unknown alien

world, their employer issues them sensors and vacuumsuits, just as characters sent to visit the deep ones are issuedgill-breathers and likely a small submarine. Characters areonly issued equipment they know how to use. us, theorganization only issues military weapons to characters

with the military training Quality. e following are listsof common equipment for various types of missions.

STANDARD FIELD KITS

e OPS supplies its teams with good equipment. Whengear is damaged or destroyed, the OPS will replace it. Char-acters are free to upgrade this equipment, but they shouldat least have this much – unless of course their helicopteror aerodyne crashes on a remote Pacific island, and theyaren’t going to be able to leave or acquire new gear until thehuge storm that caused the crash is over. At that point, theymight be down to pocketknives, a pistol with one clip, andthe clothes on their backs.

INVESTIGATORS KIT

Bug detector Camera jewelry

Covert armor Fiber optic pen First aid kit Gecko pads Hypnoscope Knife Mobile link

Sniff er Standard pistol Surveillance drone Video bug Zapper pistol

URBAN STRIKE TEAM KIT

Assault rifle or submachine gun Big pistol Chameleon combat armor First aid kit Grappling gun Grenades (flash bang only) Hyperspatial disruptor or electric cannon (one

per team) Knife

Mobile link Rappelling rig Sniper rifle (one per team) Surveillance drone

SPACE KIT

Atmosphere sensor First aid kit Knife Mobile link Plasma cutter Sniff er Space suit with life support pack Zapper pistol

SPACE STRIKE TEAM KIT

Armored space suit with life support pack Assault rifle or big assault rifle Atmosphere sensor Big pistol First aid kit Grenades (regular and flash bang) Hyperspatial disruptor (one per team) Mobile Link Plasma cutter Surveillance drone

ACQUIRING ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT

If a character possesses the training required to use apiece of equipment and wishes to have it for a mission,they can request it. If this request is either relatively mi-nor (cost + or less) or is a fairly obvious choice for themission, then their employer provides it and no roll are



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required. However, if a character wishes an unusual orunexpected piece of equipment, such as combat armorfor a normal diplomatic mission, or a powerful techno-sorcerous device (see Sorcery), the player must roll to see

if they can convince the organization they are workingfor to issue that particular piece of equipment.

is roll is made using Willpower + Influence + Sta-tus. Success levels have the following meaning:

For the OPS or national government, restricted equip-ment is as easily available as normal equipment. However,acquiring restricted items from large corporations (whichcannot legally gain access to them) increases the difficultyof the roll by + Success Levels, if it is possible at all. Eventhe most powerful tech research company could risk gettingshut down over an unauthorized hyperspatial disruptor.

Remember that equipment issued to characters for a

mission belongs to their employer. If this equipment islost or destroyed, the characters must explain what hap-pened to it. While it requires some filling-out of forms,the OPS understands that in many situations, “an alienate my machine” actually is the best explanation. Otheremployers might be less forgiving. Characters who areparticularly careless with valuable equipment can experi-ence penalties to future rolls to acquire additional equip-ment. A character who sells or gives away valuable orrestricted equipment can face various penalties, includ-ing being charged with theft or having their eff ectiveResources docked as the loss is taken out of their salary.

VEHICLES Eldritch Skies is not a war game; it doesn’t include stats onmain battle tanks and missile-bearing attack helicopters.Instead, this section provides as quick rundown of thebasics on a wide range of vehicles, as well as what hap-pens when a vehicle hits someone. Remember, spacecraftaren’t treated as vehicles in Eldritch Skies : they’re more

like mobile game settings, since even the small ones areat least as large as a commercial airliner, and large space-craft are the size of oil tankers.

VEHICLE

ATTRIBUTES

Like characters, vehicles have Attributes:

Weight: e mass of the vehicle in kilogramsSpeed: is has two values, maximum speed and aver-

age cruising speed, in kilometers per hour. e former isfor going all out. at’s going to put some serious stresson the vehicle. After a certain period (which is up to theDirector), start asking for Toughness (doubled) rolls witha cumulative - penalty for each successive roll. Whenone fails, the vehicle suff ers some form of damage. erepercussions of that range from a slow coasting stop tomuch worse. is assumes that the driver doesn’t spin off

the road because of a failed Driving roll, of course.Range: How many kilometers the vehicle can travelbefore having to recharge or refuel.

Damage Capacity: e “Life Points” of the vehicle. When a vehicle’s Damage Capacity has been depleted,it usually ceases to function. It may not be completelydestroyed, but it ’s no longer operational (a “Survival Roll”using Toughness may be allowed though).

Armor Value: How much damage a vehicle’s skin orarmor stops before it starts taking damage. is runs inthe area of two to ten for your typical car.

Toughness: is is the equivalent of the Constitution Attribute, and measures the vehicle’s ruggedness, redun-

dant systems, and damage control. When a vehicle takesa lot of damage, a Survival roll—Toughness (doubled)—is needed to see if the vehicle continues to function.

Handling: is is the equivalent of the vehicle’s Dex-terity. It reflects how the vehicle maneuvers and respondsto the driver. For some rolls, you have to use the lowestof the driver’s Dexterity or the vehicle’s Handling attri-bute— even the best race car driver is going to get onlyso much performance out of a garbage truck. Handling

varies from one to fi ve or so for most vehicles. e driver’sskill adds normally to the vehicle’s Handling score.

Crew/Passengers: How many people are needed tooperate the vehicle/how many passengers (in addition to

the operators) can it carry.Cost: e cost of the vehicle, expressed in terms of the

Resources Quality.

DRIVING AROUND

No rules are needed to drive around a city, retract theroof, or parallel park or even when you’re fl ying your

SUCCESS LEVEL EQUIPMENT

Equipment costing+, Technosorcerous

devices with spell level

Equipment costing+ , Technosorcerous






Technosorcerous devices with spell level

+ (or more)If the equipment seems particularly inappro-

priate or problematic for the mission.



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3aerodyne to go shopping. It’s when things get exciting(car chases, smashing into a concrete abutment at kph) that a few guidelines are needed.

Chases: ese are resolved as resisted rolls, using

Dexterity (or the vehicle’s Handling, whichever is lower)and Driving or Piloting. e faster vehicle gets a + bo-nus for every kph of speed it has over the slower one.

You can use the Combat Score for Supporting Heroesor monsters, modified if the vehicle’s Handling is lowerthan the character’s Dexterity. Both sides roll and keeptrack of their Success Levels every Turn.

e pursued gets one automatic Success Level for ev-ery two Turns of head start he had. e first side that getsfi ve more Success Levels than their adversary “wins.” Ifthe pursued wins, he manages to lose the chasers. If thepursuers win, they catch up and can attempt less thanfriendly actions like ramming and hijacking.

Going Over It Again: Livia the OPS Operative isbeing chased by a group of cultists. Livia has her mo-torcycle; the cultists are in a van fi tted out for kidnap-ping their victims. Livia has a two-Turn head-start, soshe begins with two Success Levels. On the first turn ofthe chase, Livia gets four Success levels (for a total of six)and the cultists get three. On the second turn, Livia getstwo Success Levels to the cultists’ four (score now is Livia, Cultists ). On the third Turn, our heroine managesto get six Success Levels and the bad guys a mere two(Laura , cultists ). Livia’s fi ve Success Levels ahead, soshe’s managed to evade pursuit.

Crashes and Collisions: Vehicle collisions do a lot ofdamage. Vehicles weighing under two tons do points ofBash damage for every kph (about mph) of relativespeed. Vehicles over two tons inflict points per kphof relative speed, and heavy vehicles (over tons/, kgs) inflict points per kph of relative speed. Relativespeed factors the movement of both parties in the colli-sion. If only the vehicle is moving, it’s easy—the vehicle’sspeed is the relative speed. If two vehicles collide andthey are moving toward each other, the relative speed isthe sum of both vehicles’ speed.

How much damage the vehicle doing the smashingtakes depends on how solid the target is—hitting a small

animal does very little damage; smashing into the side of amountain does a lot more. Small animals or objects do nodamage. Large animals or human-sized things cause the

vehicle to take one-third of the damage it inflicts (rounddown). Hitting a lighter vehicle produces half the damageinflicted, and hitting anything solid or heavier than the

vehicle does the same amount of damage to the vehicle.

If the car hits something hard enough to come to astop, passengers inside the vehicle take half the damage ifnot wearing seatbelts and one-fifth of the damage if theyare. Air bags provide an additional points of damage

protection. All modern vehicles have both.Example: If an Operative is attempting to run down

a monstrous hyperspatial mutant at kph ( mph),the impact does points of damage to the mutant. eOperative’s car takes points of damage on the first hit(/ , rounded down, minus Armor Value; since themutant is human-sized). e Operative takes no damage,regardless whether she is wearing a seatbelt or not, sincethe impact didn’t stop the vehicle.

Another Example: An -wheeler traveling kph( mph) sideswipes a sedan traveling at kph ( mph).

e relative speed is kph ( mph) because the ve-hicles are traveling in the same direction. e -wheelerinflicts points of damage ( points times two kphintervals), minus the Armor Value, on the sedan. elight car does points (minus Armor Value) to the farheavier truck. Neither driver takes damage as neither ve-

hicle was stopped.Final Example: e sedan driver puts on the brakes

after the sideswipe and loses control. He slams into aguardrail going kph and stops solid. e driver takes points of damage if he’s not wearing a seatbelt, andfour points if he’s buckled up.

Maneuvering: When trying to make tight turns at

AUTOMATIC VEHICLES

Every modern vehicle, including all of the vehicles listed

below, are fitted with computer controls that allow the vehicle to drive itself under normal conditions. To oper-ate it, the driver simply speaks their destination or visu-alizes it to their mobile link, and the vehicle goes there.

Automatic vehicles avoid pedestrians and obey all localtraffic laws. Automatic controls work really well undernormal circumstances, and the vehicle does not need tomake a roll to drive to a store, just as Heroes don’t needto make such rolls. However, automatic controls are notdesigned for extreme use. When driving at top speed in abad storm, or in similar conditions, like high speed chas-es, automatic vehicles only add + to the roll – equivalentto a driver with a Dexterity of and a Driving or PilotingSkill of . When driving or piloting in dangerous situ-ations, having a person at the controls is almost alwaysbetter than letting the vehicle try to drive itself.



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high speed or weave around traffic, make Dexterity (orHandling, whichever is lower) and Driving rolls. Apply a- penalty for every kilometers per hour over – highspeed chases can easily become deadly. Sharp turns in-

cur a - penalty on top of that. Sudden moves (trying toavoid a deer jumping in front of you) suff er a - penalty.

Trying to run another driver off the road works like anattack/defense combo—both sides roll a Maneuveringroll. If the defender ties or wins, she avoids the attempt;if the attacker wins, she pushes the target onto the shoul-der…or worse.

STARSHIPS AND THE VEHICLE RULES

Dragonfl y drive starships fl y by pushing against the fabricof hyperspace and so can hover and land slowly and softly.

ey are also exceptionally maneuverable and have elabo-rate computer controls to avoid collisions. As a result, they

do not normally get into any sort of collisions. ere areonly two circumstances when this can happen – if another

vehicle strikes a starship or if a starship is badly damagedor has been hijacked by someone intent on destroying it.

Airplanes and other air vehicles can deliberately oraccidentally strike the hull of a starship. If this happens,the starship is usually unharmed. Starships have a sturdyhull that provides and Armor Value of . Also, whenthe drive is in use, it creates a field of hyperspatial en-ergy around the starship that provides an additional points of Armor Value that cannot be reduced by anyphysical weapon, for a total AV of . Also, while thedrive is in use, inertial damping fields and artificial grav-ity protect everyone inside the vehicle. ese fi elds areinnate byproducts of the hyperspatial drive and humanitycannot yet produce them in other ways. As a result, anyimpact that does not cripple the ship will be barely feltby anyone inside. Only attacks that can do a minimum of points of damage that penetrates the starships armorhas a chance of damaging a dragonfl y drive starship.

If badly damaged, the starships inertial damping andartificial gravity become unreliable and the passengersand crew can be thrown and jolted around easily. Also,the starship becomes far more difficult to maneuver orland. Subtract between - and - from all Piloting rolls,

depending upon the severity of the damage. A hard land-ing usually crushes anything beneath the starship, but of-ten leaves the starship with only minor damage, since itis protected by the hyperspatial energy field.

A starship that suff ers enough damage to disable itsengines either floats helplessly in space, if it is in orbit orin deep space, or if it is near a planet’s surface, it plum-

mets to the ground in a crash that destroys the starship,kills everyone inside. A crashing starship does pointsof damage to everything and everyone within metersof the impact and points to everything within me-

ters. In addition, starships are powered by small nuclearreactors, similar to those used in nuclear submarines, anda severe crash would also release this radioactive material.

e most eff ective way to temporarily incapacitate astarship is to fire a hyperspatial disruptor at the drive fieldsurrounding the ship. No roll is needed to accomplish this,since a hyperspatial disruptor only has a range of meters.

A single shot temporarily overloads and shuts down thehyperspatial drive. Restarting the drive requires minutes,

which can be reduced by two round ( seconds) for everySuccess Level someone working with the starship’s en-gine’s rolls on an Intelligence + Engineering roll.

Shutting down a starship’s hyperspatial fi eld imme-

diately drops it out of hyperspace. However, if this fieldmerely fl ickers or becomes slightly unstable while theship is traveling faster than light, the ship continues onits journey, but hyperspatial energies and creatures canleak through. In such an event, everyone on the ship suf-fers a level Hyperspatial Exposure, and there is a chancethat one or more hyperspatial beings can enter the star-ship during one of these field fluctuations.

Lesser servitors (see Eldritch reats & Alien Wonders )are by far the most common creatures that might invadea starship, but servitors of the other gods and fl ying pol-

yps are both also possible intruders. A few ships that have vanished into hyperspace, never to be seen again may haveencountered Great Old Ones or Other Gods during sucha drive malfunction, but the odds of this happening arethankfully very rare. Retuning the dragonfl y drive (Intel-ligence + Engineering) can eliminate any problems in theship’s hyperspatial field, but creatures that have already en-tered the ship must still be dealt with.

A FEW VEHICLES

Here’s a few vehicles for land, air, and sea, complete withstats. As described above, in , all vehicles are sold

with automatic guidance systems. ese systems enableany vehicle to drive on its own in normal circumstances

(not high-speed chases.)GROUND VEHICLES

ese vehicles are all powered by superconducting bat-teries, and come equipped with collision avoidance radar,GPS navigation, and wireless internet access. ey canalso be entirely operated by voice commands. Of course,



12

3if you’ve in a freeway chase with some scary corporatethugs, nothing beats human hands on the steering wheel.

Notes: is armored vehicle is used by both SWATteams and OPS strike teams and has lockers containing

weapons, body armor, and first aid materials.

Notes: Designed for both on and off -road driving,this vehicle is a mobile laboratory that can be used toanalyze alien artifacts and unusual technologies, as well

as more conventional scientific and technical mysteries.Pressurized versions exist for use on alien worlds withhostile atmospheres. Life support for such vehicles func-tions for fi ve days.

18-WHEELER

Weight: ,Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Handling

Crew/Passengers:

Cost: +

ARMORED SWAT TEAM VAN

Weight: ,

Speed: /Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: + (Restricted)

COMPACT CAR

Weight:

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

COMPACT CAR

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range: Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

MOTORCYCLE

Weight:

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: -

OPS LAB RV

Weight: ,

Speed: /

( off road)

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost:+ /+ for the pressurized version (Restricted)



128

Notes: Designed for transporting important people who are at risk for kidnapping or murder, this armored vehicle can be rendered airtight by flipping a switch andcontains a three hour air supply.

AIR VEHICLES

Like ground vehicles, air vehicles are all computer con-

trolled and fitted with advanced sensors. Jets run on hy-drogen, but helicopters and aerodynes are powered bysuperconducting batteries and electric motors.

Notes: Aerodynes are the Rolls Royce of the air, andeveryone wants one. With both lift and propulsion pro-

vided by ducted fans, this vehicle looks like a streamlinedcar with four small but powerful ducted fans at the cor-

POLICE CRUISER

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: + (Restricted)

SECURITY SEDAN

Weight: ,

Speed: /


Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

SEDAN

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: + (+ for a fancy sedan)

SPORTS CAR

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: + (+ for a fancy sports car)

VAN

Weight: ,

Speed: /


Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cargo: kg

Cost: +

AERODYNE

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range: ,

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: / Cost: + /+ for a fancy aerodyne



12

3ners. Capable of carrying four people and up to kgof cargo, this vehicle can hover and take off vertically aseasily as a helicopter, but without the large rotors.

Notes: e OPS also has similar jets for its own use.

Notes: is is the sort of very small helicopter usedby news services.

Notes: Powered by monohydrogen rockets, spaceplanes are single stage winged rockets used to journey toand from orbit or to travel to any location on Earth in anhour or less. e OPS has dozens of space planes used forboth purposes and various nations and corporations havemany more. Larger models capable of carrying as manyas passengers.

BOATS

High-speed boat chases are unlikely, but anything’s pos-sible in Eldritch Skies .

Notes: If you want to be ignored out on the big bluesea, this is the vehicle for you. It has long term accom-modations for passengers and crew and includes a Zo-diac as a lifeboat. Also, it can be fitted with either a fullyequipped lab, a concealed helipad, or four zodiacs and fullgear for a dozen commandos.

OBSERVATION HELICOPTER

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

CORPORATE JET

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range: ,

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

PASSENGER OR TRANSPORT HELICOPTER

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: / or / & , lbs of cargoCost: +

SPACE PLANE

Weight: ,

Speed: ,/ ,

Range: ,Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

FISHING TRAWLER

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range: ,

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +



130

Notes: Just the thing if you want to drop in on somedeep ones. It’s fi tted with two robot arms, a powerfulspotlight, and an artificial gill capable of supplying thethree people inside with air for hours.

Notes: An inflatable motor boat of the sort used byboth Jacques Cousteau and many commandos.

ADDITIONAL GEAR e following is a list of devices used in the world of Eldritch Skies that are significantly more advanced thansimilar equipment found in our world. All ordinary de-

vices that we are familiar with in our world also exist, thisis just the stuff that doesn’t.

EVERYDAY TECHNOLOGIES

e following devices are widely used and can be purchasedin any city on Earth and on any large off -world colony. Ev-eryone has at least basic familiarity with these devices andmost people younger than grew up with them.

DEAD HEAD

is piece of psychic technology was developed in thes as a way to block psychic contact. Wearing a deadhead unit makes the wearer immune to all forms of hu-man telepathy, empathy, and mental probes or commu-nication by aliens that exist purely in the physical world.However, hyperspatial beings with potent psychic pow-ers can overwhelm, disable, or even burn out dead headunits. Unlike the Iron Mind Quality, this device does notrender the user immune to sorcery designed to aff ect the

wearer’s mind. Also, these units do not protect againstany form of hyperspatial exposure. Characters wearing a

dead head can have exactly the same visions and dreamsof hyperspace and exactly the same mental contacts withhyperspatial entities as anyone else.

e earliest units were caps or bands built into varioustypes of hats. However, advances in psychic technologymean that a dead head can function as long as it has adirect connection to the skin over the wearer’s brainstem

ZODIAC

Weight:

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost:

JET SKI

Weight:

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

MINISUB

Weight: ,

Speed: .


Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +

SPEED BOAT

Weight: ,

Speed: /

Range:

Damage Capacity:

Armor Value:

Toughness

Handling

Crew/Passengers: /

Cost: +



13

3or the upper part of her spinal cord. Most dead headsare now built into the modern psi-links that are wornaround the user’s neck. Alone, they are they are no largerthan a one dollar coin. Cost: -

GILL-BREATHER In the late s, previous forms of underwater breathingapparatus, like SCUBA gear was replaced by gill breathers.Using ultra-thin oxygen permeable membranes derived fromreverse-engineering elder one technologies, this device is thesize and approximate shape of a oz soda bottle. Gill breath-ers extract dissolved oxygen from fresh or salt water like thegill of a fish, and recycle the air the diver breathes. is uniteff ectively allows a diver to stay underwater as long as desired.

Since this device requires remarkably little power, it canoperate for up to hours before needing to be recharged.Unlike conventional oxygen rebreathers, gill breathers do not

produce large clouds of bubbles, which can reveal a diver’sposition. Best of all, this device is easy to use and the micro-mechanical pumps inside the unit serve to fully regulate andcontrol the pressure of the air provided by the gill-breather.Gill breathers require nothing more than brief instructionand a few minutes of experience to learn to use. Cost: -

HIBERNATION UNIT

is device comes as both a refrigerated stretcher and acovered bed-like unit. When patients are given the cor-rect combination of drugs and placed in this device, theyenter a state of deep hibernation similar to that whichsmall mammals like ground squirrels enter in the winter.

In this state, human metabolism decreases by a factor of, allowing patients to survive lengthy surgeries withminimal trauma or to sleep away a two week journey ona crowded starship. Many ambulances also now containhibernation units to help keep injured patients remainalive until they can be moved to a hospital.

Since , almost all interstellar colonists have beentransported while in hibernation. Entering hibernationrequires only minutes, and individuals can be revived

with a mixture of warming and drugs that requires only- minutes. Fewer than one in , individuals en-tering hibernation have any medical problems recover-ing, and almost all of these problems are relatively minor,

making the procedure exceptionally safe. Cost: - (forhibernation); a portable hibernation unit costs .

LINK-CROWN

e first and most basic psychic technology developed inthe th century was the link crown. e original versions

were a pair of heavy and awkward constructs of vacuum

tubes that were linked by wires. e development of tran-sistors and miniature radios allowed them to be madesmaller and more comfortable, but the greatest advancecame with the development and refinement of integrated

circuit technology in the s and s. By the dawn ofthe st century, the link crown had become a simple, flexi-ble headband no more awkward or bulky than a somewhatstiff piece of ribbon, wearable around the user’s foreheador built into most hats or caps. Inside this plastic ribbon isa complex array of printed circuits and microchips.

Once two or more link crowns are connected, the us-ers are in psychic contact with one another. is contactis identical to contact between two psychics, allowingthe user to share thoughts, images, emotions, and sen-sory impressions. Many modern psi-links also includedead head circuitry. Activating this circuitry prevents the

wearer from using the psi-link and from all psychic pow-

ers. Cost: - Psi Links: Advances in neural interface technology

means that since , the term link-crown is no longeraccurate, since these devices can now be worn around theuser’s neck as a pendant or choker, or even as a pin attachedto the user’s collar. Today, psi-links are typically worn as

jewelry or built into the collars of many shirts and blouses.Some highly secure psi-links are still designed to connect

with other psi links by means of thin cables plugged intosmall jacks. However, the vast majority connect to otherpsi-links by means of short range Bluetooth connectionsor via the users’ mobiles. Calling the mobile of anotherpsi-link user places the two people in psychic contact.

MOBILE LINK

e latest and most advanced use of link-crown tech-nology is in a revolutionary and exceedingly widespreadcomputer interface. First released in , the basic mobilelink was a device that functioned as a cell phone, a digi-tal camera, PDA, portable computer, GPS device, mediaplayer, game console, and a wireless internet terminal. emost distinctive feature of this item is its complete lackof any conventional input or output devices. Instead, earlyusers controlled it by means of a specialized psi link wornaround user’s forehead. inking about what the user

wants to search, type, or even draw caused the computer torespond appropriately, and the input it generated was thenfed directly back into the user’s brain. Some of the fancierunits included small screens so that users could show im-ages to others. Today, the psi links are smaller and theircamera and computers more powerful. Also, psi-links arenow worn around the user’s neck. Slightly more than twothirds of all cell phones sold are now mobile links.



132

Mobile links can use augmented reality programs, anddo so by tapping into the user’s senses, using the owner’seyes to see and ears to hear, while also broadcasting in-formation directly to the owner’s eyes and other senses.

is device can provide further information on anythingthe user is looking at, or identify a song or animal cry theuser is listening to. In zones without network access, amobile link still uses an internal encyclopedic database.Users can also wear camera jewelry to eff ectively givethemselves enhanced senses. Mobile links also both sendand receive both smell and touch, allowing users to expe-rience virtual reality that is almost indistinguishable fromactual physical experiences. Cost: -

Camera Jewelry: Typically worn as earrings, pen-dants, or occasionally on rings, these devices include bothpowerful digital cameras and directional microphonesto allow mobile and mobile link users to eff ectively pos-sess enhanced senses. e cameras provide users with theequivalent of both the infrared and low-light vision Aug-mentations and the Acute Hearing Quality. Cost: -

Mobile: A standard mobile without a psi-link has allof the other capabilities of a mobile link. However, in-stead of a psi-link, the owner uses either a touch screen,microphone, and a speaker, like a modern cell phone, ora pair of display glasses. ese glasses look and functionlike ordinary sunglasses, and act as a heads-up displaythat displays images that only the user can see. Displayglasses also contain built-in speakers and microphones inthe temple pieces, as well as a camera at the bridge of the

nose, for video recording and to help provide augmentedreality information. Cost: -

SUPERCONDUCTING BATTERIES

Much of the various types of alien technology recoveredfrom ancient ruins across the Earth and from the Roswellcrash proved to be far too advanced to duplicate or un-derstand. However, the materials from which these vari-ous devices were made could usually be analyzed and oneof these materials changed the world. It was a room-tem-perature superconductor. First discovered in duringan analysis of some artifacts from the great race ruins onthe Moon, technicians were able to duplicate it by ,

although manufacture was still expensive. By , it waseasy and inexpensive to create, and batteries and otheritems incorporating room-temperature superconductors

went on sale in . Because of their origins, one majorbrand of these batteries still uses a logo in the shape ofa stereotypical “grey” alien, while another uses a stylizedgraphic of one of the Great Race of Yith.

Today, superconducting batteries are found in every-thing from personal electronics and fl ashlights to cars.Capable of holding as much as kilowatt hours per ki-logram, they supply more than times as much power

as the best non-superconducting batteries. Mobiles andother electronics only need to be recharged every few

weeks, and a pocket-sized flashlight can (dimly) light anentire room or produce a brilliant beam of light for atleast hours. One of the most important uses for thesebatteries was in electric cars. Hybrid electric gasoline carsdominated the s. By , of new cars being soldin the US and the EU were solely electric, and by ,this number had grown to more than .

ESPIONAGE TECHNOLOGIES

e majority of people only encounter these technologies

in action movies, crime novels, and similar media. esespecialized technologies are used by both criminals andlaw enforcement, but are not in common use.

BUG DETECTOR

is small handheld device can detect and localize anyradio transmissions originating within meters. It canalso detect any small battery powered electrical devices,like bugs that are within one meter. Detecting a transmit-ting mobile requires only one Success Level on an Intel-ligence + Crime roll, while detecting a video bug or a sur-

veillance drone (see below) that is transmitting requiresat least three Success Levels. Locating a bug that is onbut not transmitting requires the user be willing to care-fully search the room and roll at least six Success Levels.

is is due to the amount of “noise” that makes it hardto fine-tune readings. is device requires the Espionage

Training Quality to use properly. Cost: -

CHAMELEON JUMPSUIT

e ultimate in camouflage. OPS has combined the finestcomputer technology with a complex network of minia-ture photo-sensors and other circuitry woven into clothcreated from a specially made organometallic thread thatchanges color in response to electrical current. is ma-terial is as tough and durable as conventional Army fa-tigues and can also change color, while being no bulkieror less comfortable.

is jumpsuit has two modes of operation. In the firstmode, the operator pre-sets the color using either com-mands entered on concealed touch-pad controls on the cuff of the right sleeve, or from a psi-link. Changing the suit’scolor requires only a single turn. Each suit comes equipped

with diff erent color options, including black, white, arc-



13

3tic, jungle, and desert camouflage, international orange (forhigh visibility) and color patterns similar to several diff erentcommon uniforms. Wearers can successfully imitate policeand similar uniforms if lighting conditions are poor and if

the correct pattern is used, the suit provides a + bonus to allstealth tests when used in this mode.

In active mode, the suit changes color to match thesurrounding environment. Unfortunately, while the col-or-matching capabilities of this device are quite accurate,they are also somewhat slow. If the wearer is movingfaster than one meter per second the unit cannot keepup with the motion and changing background. e re-sulting blurred image negates all benefits gained fromusing this device. However, if the wearer moves slowlyand carefully, the suit provides extremely accurate cam-ouflage, adding a + bonus to all attempts to not be seen.

To gain this bonus, the suit’s optional gloves, boots, andhood must be worn. Otherwise, reduce the stealth bonusto +. Remember, even the best camouflage does not al-low the user to hide in plain sight. Chameleon combatarmor and chameleon covert armor have the same armorprotection as normal combat armor or covert armor ( points or / points) but also function like chameleon

jumpsuits. Cost:

FIBER-OPTIC PEN

is ballpoint pen also contains a pair of one meter longthin fiber optics. Each fiber optic is less than one tenth ofa millimeter in diameter and can be easily slid through adoor jam, into a drawer, or even inside a tiny hole cut inan envelope. One fiber optic has a wide-angle lens on theend and connects to a high definition video camera in-side the pen. e other fiber optic attaches to a tiny LEDinside the pen and can be used as a flashlight. e cameraalso has night vision capability: so long as there is even atiny amount of light, the fiber optic displays clear images.

is device delivers clear images within two meters ofthe lens and somewhat blurry images within fi ve metersof the lens. If inserted into a mechanism like the interiorof a mechanical lock, this device provides the user witha + bonus to pick the lock or otherwise manipulate themechanism. is device requires the Espionage Training

Quality to use properly. Cost: - GECKO PADS

is device consists of eight small pads designed to at-tach to the user’s hands, forearms, shins, and feet. Eachpad is covered with thousands of tiny electrically activefibers. When activated and pressed fi rmly against anysolid surface, the pad adheres to almost any surface much

like a gecko’s feet. Each pad can support up to kg;most users can be supported by only two pads – three ifthey are carrying heavy gear. Gecko pads adhere equally

well to rough, smooth, wet, and dry surfaces, and allow

a trained user to climb at a rate of two meters per turn.Users can climb any wall sturdy enough to support themand can also climb on ceilings. Climbing is relatively easybecause each pad instantly releases when twisted in thecorrect manner. Also, the user can shut off all of the grip-pers at once, allowing the user to jump down from a wallor ceiling. is device requires the Espionage TrainingQuality to use properly. Cost: -

GRAPPLING GUN

Used with a rappelling rig, this device is the size of a sawedoff shotgun and fires a small grappling hook up to me-ters (about fi ve stories). If aimed right, the hook can snag

railings, pipes, or other convenient supports. It requiresa Dexterity and Archaic Weapons or Guns (whicheveris higher) roll, or the Combat Score. With one SuccessLevel, the grapple attaches normally. If the support is slip-pery (e.g., rain slicked ledge or pipe) or someone tries todislodge it, it comes off pretty readily though. If the rollachieves at least three Success Levels, the grapple wrapsaround the support and is much more difficult to dislodge.

e hook does not come loose itself, and attempts to dis-lodge it require a Strength (doubled) roll or the MuscleScore with a number of Success Levels above those gainedby the original grappling gun roll. Cost: -

HYPNOSCOPE

OPS obtained this device from their contact with theGreat Race of Yith. e Great Race used it to make theirmind-switched subjects forget their time among the GreatRace. is device uses a mixture of psychic fields and com-plex patterns of light that place the subject in an excep-tionally deep hypnotic trance. In this state, the subject canbe told to forget events or to edit their memories. esememories can be recovered through deep hypnosis, andcan inadvertently be brought forward by traumatic eventsor use of hallucinatory drugs. Some subjects may havehalf-remembered dreams about the suppressed events.

is device is a hemisphere the size of half a lime cov-ered with many multicolored LEDs and mounted on ashort handle. When activated, it aff ects everyone withina cone shaped area three meters long and four meters

wide, in front of this hemisphere. Anyone behind the device is immune to its eff ects, as is anyone wearing a deadhead. Everyone aff ected must make a non-doubled Will-power roll and roll at least two Success Levels to avoid



134

being aff ected by this device. Subjects must make this rollevery turn that they are within range of the hypnoscope.Failing any of these rolls causes the target to be subjectto the device. At this point, the target may be ordered to

forget any incidents or to remember events diff erently. ese memories are not erased, but the subject loses con-scious access to them.

e one limitation on this device is that if the subjectis regularly reminded of the persons, objects, or eventsthat they were ordered to forget, they soon rememberthem. e subject makes a non-doubled Willpower rollevery time they are exposed to the person, object or in-cident that they were ordered to forget. If the subjectobtains three or more Success Levels, their memories be-gin to return. If someone was ordered to forget that they

were married, they would make a roll to remember beingmarried every time they saw their spouse and every timethat someone mentioned that the subject was married.

is device is useful for causing people to forget sin-gular incidents, like encounters with hyperspatial beings,secret technologies, or the time a mysterious strangerforced them to betray their loyalties. However, hypno-scopes are not useful for suppressing memories of any-thing that is part of the subject’s normal life. Civilian useof a hypnoscope is a serious crime. Cost: - (Restricted)

PLASMA CUTTER

is device is the size of a large flashlight – cm long,and cm in diameter. When activated it produces a fi vecm long exceptionally hot plume of plasma from the front.

is plasma “blade” can cut through almost any normalmaterial, if the user has sufficient time. e user cuts bymoving this unit slowly across the surface the user wishesto cut. Each cut automatically does points of damageto the object. Repeated cuts over the same area penetratearmor. When cutting through a fi ve cm steel wall (armor

value of ) the first two cuts in the same location pen-etrate the wall’s armor, and future cuts in this location

would reduce the wall’s damage capacity, allowing the userto cut a peephole, or even a doorway in the steel wall.

Plasma cutters cut at a rate of / meter (one foot) perturn, allowing the user to slice through a normal door

lock in one turn and to cut a one meter wide hole in athree cm thick steel wall in fi ve minutes. Plasma cuttersare not designed to be used as weapons, and although theplasma “blade” is very hot, unless it is used on a helplessand immobilized target, it only does points of damage.

e superconducting batteries that power a plasma cutterallow it to be used to up to minutes of continuous usebefore it must be recharged. Cost: (Restricted)

RAPPELLING RIG

Popular with commandos, extreme sports enthusiasts,and spies, this device consists of a lightweight rappelling

harness and meters of exceedingly thin cable connect-ed to a specialized letdown spool at the user’s waist. isspool has an automatic brake so that it lets the user downat a maximum speed of eight meters per second, allowingthe user to descend all meters in only six seconds, pro-

viding a hard but safe landing on any stable surface. ecable can support up to kg and can be attached byeither a sturdy metal hook or a specialized gecko pad alsocapable of supporting kg. In addition, the spool is at-tached to a small superconducting motor with a powerfulbattery. is motor can raise kg the full meters in minute or kg meters in two minutes. However, thebattery must be recharged after only two uses. Cost: -

SNIFFER is small but versatile piece of equipment is a portablechemical analyzer that can detect various substances bythe gases they give off . e most common uses for thisdevice are detecting illegal drugs or explosives, or track-ing individuals by smell. A sniff er is approximately the sizeand shape of a paperback novel and has a slender built-inprobe on a one meter cable. If the user places the sniff er

within seven cm of an object, it can determine the roughcomposition of most common organic compounds and canimmediately tell if the sample contains any illegal drugs orknown explosives. It can also determine if a sample of alien

food is safe to eat or drink or if a blood sample contains aspecific toxin. Used in any of these fashions it requires anIntelligence + Science or an Intelligence + Medicine roll.

If the user has access to an item of clothing recent-ly worn by someone and knows where that person was

within the last several hours, the user can track this per-son from that location using the sniff er. e sniff er func-tions much like an electronic bloodhound. However, rainswiftly washes away traces of these chemicals and heavyfoot traffic and similar disturbances erase them in lessthan an hour. Also, a sniff er can only track someone whois on foot. If the target gets into a vehicle, they cannotbe tracked. It can also be used to determine if someone

wearing a specific brand of perfume was recently in aparticular area. Used in these fashions it requires an In-telligence + Crime roll. Cost: -

SURVEILLANCE DRONE

Used by both spies and the military, this device hasrevolutionized surveillance work. e drone itself looks



13

3roughly like either an ordinary dragonfl y or a large beetle.It is fi ve cm long with a seven cm wingspan. Like a realinsect, the flapping wings actually provide both propul-sion and steering. Electrically activated glue in the unit’s

feet allows it to stick to both walls and ceilings. is drone contains sensors equivalent to a tiny video

camera and a directional microphone. It can fl y at speeds upto kph and is capable of hovering. In flight or under poorlighting conditions it can easily be mistaken for a real insect.However, in normal light, a stationary drone is obviouslymechanical. Also, during operation the unit broadcasts con-tinually, so it can be easily detected by a bug detector.

e drone can controlled by either a specialized controller,similar to a portable video game set, or by a mobile link. econtroller also gives the user access to the images and soundsfrom the unit’s camera and microphone. e unit’s radio al-lows it to be operated within three kilometers of the user. isunit weighs grams and when the wings are folded back, itcan be safely carried in its padded storage tube, which is sevencm long and two cm in diameter. Cost: - (Restricted)

VIDEO BUG

is lentil-sized surveillance device is mm in diameter and mm thick. It has an adhesive backing and contains a digitalstill and video camera that can see in near total darkness usinglight amplification. is device is capable of resolving clear,crisp images within meters, picking up whispers withinthree meters and normal speech within meters. ese de-

vices are normally programmed to only record when they de-tect speech or movement and have batteries that allow themto record for up to two weeks under normal conditions. isdevice can broadcast to a mobile link or other radio that is

within three kilometers and broadcasts a highly encryptedsignal. To avoid detection, it only broadcasts compressedbursts of data that last no more than seconds and does soeither once a day or in response to a special encrypted signal.

Alternately, this bug can be set not to broadcast at all, and torecord its surroundings until the user retrieves it. Used in thisfashion, it is almost impossible to detect. Cost: - (Restricted)

SPACE TECHNOLOGIES

e following devices are familiar to anyone who has

worked on a spacecraft or has explored alien worlds, butare familiar to the general public only through documen-taries, movies, and novels about space exploration.

ATMOSPHERE SENSOR

Designed to communicate with the user’s mobile or mo-bile link, this sensor is a lens-shaped device fi ve cm indiameter and two cm thick that is typically worn on the

user’s wrist. It contains sophisticated sensors designed toanalyze all types of gases. Many space travelers set thisdevice to notify them if there is any potentially danger-ous change in atmospheric composition or pressure, such

as if harmful gases are introduced into the atmosphere,pressure drops suddenly, or carbon dioxide levels beginto rise too high. It can also be used to swiftly learn if theatmosphere of a planet is safe to breathe. All such warn-ings are automatic and require no skill roll. Cost: -

SPACE SUIT

is skin-tight suit uses mechanical pressure to protectthe wearer from vacuum. Incorporating electrically ac-tive fibers, it automatically tightens as pressure drops, butremains loose in pressurized environments, allowing the

wearer to put it on or take it off in less than fi ve minutes.Many OPS personnel wear their space suits when inside

an on-planet base, as they are designed to be comfortable when not pressurized. e suit weighs a total of kg andprotects the wearer from pressures down to vacuum andfrom temperatures ranging from - C to + C. Spacesuits provide the wearer with four points of armor, but leakif this armor is penetrated by a bullet or slash/stab weapon.

A slow leak gives the user minutes before they beginsuff ering exposure to vacuum, while a bad leak ( or morepoints cuts or stabs through the suit’s armor in one blow)empties the suit of air in turns. All space suits require the

Astronaut Training Quality to use properly. Cost: Armored space suits: Armored space suits are used by

OPS off -world strike teams. ey provide the wearer with points of armor and instantly self-seal as much as fourpoints of damage that penetrate the suit ’s armor. However,they are bulky and cumbersome. Wearers are treated is iftheir maximum Dexterity when wearing an armored spacesuit is , and their maximum movement is two meters persecond or fi ve kilometers per hour. Cost: +

Life Support Pack: Using a highly efficient rebreath-er unit and oxygen stored as a dense liquid, this unit isfar smaller than previous life support units. It weighsonly kg and provides the wearer with oxygen for up to hours. e unit is a partially rigid vest with a slightlydomed back, worn over the user’s space suit. Cost:

THE DRAMA POINT SYSTEM e rules played straight mostly simulate “reality”—thereality where many people fail at the most inappropri-ate moments and suff er and die as a result. In the worldof Eldritch Skies reality could easily become seriously



136

depressing. When going up against utterly inhumanmythos monsters and aliens, if you don’t have some sortof edge, you’re likely not to last very long. Eldritch Skiesoff ers several diff erent ways to play. (See Pulp vs. Gritty

Series, for more detail.)Drama Points represent the cinematic or pulp tradi-

tion wherein Heroes have luck on their side. e charac-ters repeatedly survive overwhelming odds and succeedat impossible-seeming tasks. Heroes enjoy faster recov-ery times from their injuries (conflict with aliens and hy-perspatial beings might otherwise cause numerous casu-alties and long hospitalizations for the survivors.) Afterall, Eldritch Skies is the long view on Lovecraft’s world:humanity may be small and outnumbered, but we’re notimmediately doomed – and neither do your charactershave to be. In the fine tradition of cinematic SF, EldritchSkies off ers the option for Operatives and even Civiliansto escape from a battle with little more than a few bruises.

With Drama Points, the Heroes can temporarily“short-circuit” reality and perform heroic feats, do theimpossible, and win the day. Drama Points are narrativeaids that prevent the heroes from suff ering ignomini-ous, meaningless deaths because of bad luck. ey do notmake the characters unbeatable. For one, characters get

a limited number of Drama Points, so they have to beused with great care. Also, Adversaries get some DramaPoints too—this allows a cultist to seriously threaten atrained Operative with a lucky punch or shot, or permits

a criminal mastermind to escape certain death yet again.Drama Points can be earned in a number of ways.

ey are awarded for performing heroic feats. ey arealso given as “payment” for the times when tragedy ofmisfortune strikes the Heroes. When bad things happento good people, one or more Heroes may be given DramaPoints as a reward for their suff ering, especially if theyplay out the trauma with aplomb. Finally, Drama Pointsare earned when the players help recreate the feel of a

well-rounded SF adventure that includes storylines andsubplots beyond the basic “kill the monster” scenario.

Characters start the game with or Drama Points. ese points are not regained; once they are spent, theyare gone until the Director give new ones out. Playerscan use poker chips or other tokens to represent DramaPoints (they can mark off fi ve points from their total andpile up fi ve chips in front of them, for example). As thepoints are spent, you can gather the tokens up and handthem back as they are earned.

USING DRAMA POINTS Used judiciously, Drama Points can snatch victory fromthe tentacled maws of defeat, or at least make failure farless deadly. e three uses are Heroic Feat, I ink I’mOkay, and Back From the Dead.

Drama Points may be spent at any time, even whenthe character isn’t acting or doesn’t have initiative. isis mostly applicable for I ink I’m Okay. An attackercould do points of damage to a character and bringhim to - (serious Consciousness and Survival Test ter-ritory), but if the defender has a Drama Point to spend,that hit becomes points and the Hero is still stand-ing. Heroic Feat happens on the character’s action andBack From the Dead is implemented outside of combator other dice-rolling situations.

e Director has veto power over the use of DramaPoints. Usually, if something bad is slated to happen toa character, using Drama Points won’t help him get out

of the situation. e consolation prize is that those situ-ations earn him extra Drama Points. So, if an Operativemust be kidnapped by a cult for the plot to begin, theOperative’s player doesn’t get to use Drama Points inthe scene where the character is kidnapped, because that

would screw up the story. However, use such tactics spar-ingly and always give the player a Drama Point or two –

THE GRITTY APPROACH

e Drama Point System is not for everybody, especiallyif you take a more callous viewpoint on Lovecraft’s uni-

verse. Some players and Directors want to take a harsherapproach, rather than thinking in terms of Hollywoodheroics. While Drama Points allow the ability for play-ers to say no, the story doesn’t end here, or to go out in abrilliant last stand against the enslavement of humanity,doing extra damage in their defeat, some players andDirectors prefer a darker, more random approach.

In a Gritty Series, the characters are on their own,to live and die by their talents and the luck of the dice.Games without Drama Points are far more deadly. He-roes should be either Operatives or Civilians, because inmixed groups, Civilians will be at a major disadvantageand become completely upstaged. Also, injured charac-

ters may be incapacitated for long periods of time, anddeath is much more likely even among Operatives.

As usual, the Director and the players should talkthings over to make a decision that satisfies the group(happy players keep coming back, and happy Directorskeep making new Episodes, after all). If the Directorand players are not using Drama Points, then weapondamage should be rolled.



13

3see below for more info on gaining Drama Points. For adiscussion of creating both pulp SF and gritty SF Series,see Pulp vs. Gritty Series.

HEROIC

FEAT

Sometimes, a character really needs to land the shot, dis-arm the time bomb with seconds on the clock, or shootthe liquid nitrogen tank the enormous mutant is liftingover its head. Maybe an ordinary reporter needs to tossa grenade into the mouth of the fl ying polyp on the firsttry. is is a good time to invoke the Heroic Feat rule.

By spending one Drama Point, the character gets an auto-matic on any one roll. Instead of having to roll the dice andtake the result, the character automatically manages to do their

very best. is can be an attack or defense action, any use of aSkill, or even a Fear or Survival Test. Any subsequent uses of

that roll result, such as multiple actions, also enjoy this result.By spending two Drama Points, the character canmanage to be even more impressive. Two Drama Pointsallows the character to instead gain a + bonus to anyone roll. You roll the dice and add +. is improved

version of Heroic Feat can also be tacked on to damage;the + bonus is added to the damage of the attack, inaddition to any Success Level bonuses.

e player must announce if they are using one or twoDrama Points during the Intentions phase of a Turn (seeCombat), or before rolling during non-combat situa-tions. Also, only one Heroic Feat is allowed in a Turn—itcan be used either for a skill or Attribute roll, an attack,

a defense, or damage, but not more than one of those inthe same Turn.

Heroic Example: Miguel is unarmed and has beencornered by a hungry ghoul. In a burst of desperatespeed, he grabs a wrench and hits the ghoul over thehead. Miguel’s player spends one Drama Point and hegets an automatic to his Dexterity and Archaic Weap-ons roll. Without rolling dice, Miguel has a total of .Not surprisingly, the kick lands, and the ghoul doublesover with a very surprised expression in its face. Miguelthen legs it out of there.

I THINK I’M OKAY

e character rolled with the impact and the baseballbat didn’t crush his skull. e bullet happened to glanceoff his tie pin. e thrown knife got caught in the bulletproof he was wearing under his shirt. Somehow, the in-

juries that should have killed the Hero or at least put herout of commission are not as bad as everyone thought. Ormaybe she got her second wind and is ready to go after

bandaging a bloody but largely harmless wound. What-ever the rationale, I ink I’m Okay allows a character toget back into action after enduring a beating that wouldhave sent a seasoned combat veteran to the hospital.

For a single Drama Point, the character immediatelyheals half the Life Points (round up) she has suff ered tothat point. e character is still be bloody and battered,but can act normally. Any crippled or even severed limbsare repaired sufficiently to continue the fight (or the run-ning away). at foot looked like it was cut off by the fall-ing door, but that was just a trick of the light. I ink I’mOkay can be used once per Turn; if used several Turns ina row, each use halves whatever damage remains. How-ever, characters can only use it three times in any combat.In addition, if the character had suff ered enough dam-age to be incapacitated or unconscious, healing does notnecessarily awaken her. e Director decides if the timeis right for the character to revive and join the action.

Also, if the injuries were life threatening, the Directormay decide that the character must go to the hospital atsome point, although she can wait until the fight scene(or the Episode) is over.

Okay Example: A cultist with a shotgun shoots Liviathe sorcerer. e wound inflicts points of damage, andLivia had already been injured for points previously.Livia is in really bad shape. Not wishing to see the endof her Hero, Livia’s player spends a Drama Point. e points of damage are reduced to a “mere” points—not exactly unhurt, but not dying, either. e blast must

have missed Livia’s vital organs. Next Turn, Livia’s playercould reduce it even further, to points, and a Turn lat-er, to nine points – just a flesh wound. is would takethree Drama Points, though, a pretty hefty expenditure,and the maximum the player could spend this combat –hopefully Livia won’t be hit again in that particular battle.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

Sooner or later, everybody dies. In the Cinematic orPulp world of Eldritch Skies it’s possible to come back.It doesn’t happen often, but can. A character who diesmay, by spending Drama Points, make a triumphant re-turn. No return from the grave is without complications

though, and not even Drama Points can erase the prob-lems that result from cheating the Grim Reaper.

e sooner the character is back from the dead, themore Drama Points it costs. Coming back next Seasoncosts one Drama Point (that means the player is going toneed a new Hero until then). Returning on the next Epi-sode costs fi ve Drama Points. Cheating the Grim Reaper



138

on the same episode as one’s demise costs DramaPoints. If the Hero did not have enough Drama Pointsto spend, he can pay the Director in installments—allDrama Points he has now, and any Drama Points the

character gets in later Episodes, until the debt is paid.Spending the points is not enough; the Director and theplayer need to work out the details behind the resurrec-tion. Some possible explanations include:

Miraculous Resuscitation: A hard-working team ofheroic doctors got that heart pumping after some electricshocks, surgical miracles, or pure force of will. is timehalfway into death might change the character: perhapsshe remembers a year spent in the Dream Realm, or someother hyperspatial or psychic experience, at the Director’sdiscretion. More prosaic mental changes are also possible(see Brain Injuries: A Game-Changer.)

Unknown Forces: No one knows what happened,not even the character, but they’re back. Maybe someoneused time travel to retrieve a living version of the charac-ter just before their death, maybe someone made a deal

with a Great Old One or used some ancient and exoticbit of sorcery to alter the structure of reality to get thecharacter back. Maybe the reasons for all this, and theconsequences for the character’s return, will become clearlater and supply a whole new storyline in the process.

Alien Intervention: Someone or something secretly ex-perimented on the character, either to keep her around orsimply to see what would happen. e result is that a whileafter she dies, she gets better. Usually, a character should

gain an additional level of Hyperspatial Exposure becausethis happened, and most people will be exceedingly curiousabout who or what secretly messed around with them.

All these options could be very useful to generatedrama and new storylines. How does the character’s mi-raculous return aff ect the Series? How do the rest of theHeroes react? What terrible price must be paid for thelife that has been given back?

PULP SF AND CUSTOMIZATIONS

e standard option for Eldritch Skies is cinematic SF. How-ever, maybe you want to run the sort of pulp SF suitable toan action picture. For an even pulpier and more heroic Series,

consider making these changes. e first change is to dropthe cost of the two Drama Point Heroic Feat to one DramaPoint and to eliminate the one Drama Point version. Next,remove Limitations on the use of I ink I’m OK. As long asa Hero (or for that matter, a major Adversary) has sufficientDrama Points, they can keep reducing the amount of damagethey have taken. Spend four Drama Points and that point

sucking chest wound becomes a point bruise. Finally, addin two more uses for Drama Points: Plot Twist and Righ-teous Fury. Like Heroic Feat, Righteous Fury happens on thecharacter’s action, while Plot Twist is implemented outside of

combat or other dice-rolling situations.PLOT TWIST

e killer accidentally dropped a valuable clue at the sceneof the crime. Another team tracked their GPS signal justbefore the cultists were about to sacrifice two operatives.Someone just scanned a copy of an ancient treatise on

urian artifacts and put it up on the internet, and it’s stillup when one of the characters goes looking for informa-tion about an artifact from that era.

Heroes often find help and information from the mostunlikely places or at precisely the right time. Once pergame session, a character can spend a Drama Point and get

a “break.” is is not a Get Out of Jail Free Card or for thatmatter an I Win Card. e gang of ghouls might not behungry, but that doesn’t mean they’ll let you go. However,they will drag you back to their lair unharmed, rather thantrying to eat you right away. By the same token, sometimesclues are available, but they cannot be found at that time. Ifthe Director decides a Plot Twist is not possible, the playergets back the Drama Point.

Note: In a standard, cinematic, Eldritch Skies Series, you might find that Plot Twist works well and isn’t tooover-the-top, it’s up to you. However, if used in a cinematicSeries, raise the cost of Plot Twist to two Drama Points.

RIGHTEOUS

FURY

Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore? Nothing ismore deadly than an angry Hero; even the humblest Civil-ian can become a fearsome enemy if properly motivated. Ittakes a lot to drive a character over the edge, but when ithappens most fictional action heroes become unstoppableengines of destruction. If you want your Hero to act likean action movie protagonist in the final battle to defeatthe cult that killed his best friend or kidnapped his child,Righteous Fury is the way to go.

By spending two Drama Points, the character gets a + bonus to all attack actions, including sorcerous attacks, forthe duration of the fight. ese benefits are cumulative withHeroic Feats. However, there must an appropriate provoca-tion to invoke the Righteous Fury rule. A player can’t decidehis character is upset about the existence of deep ones or theeventual heat death of the universe. He needs to be truly pro-

voked—a brutal attack on a loved one, an unexpected betrayalof trust, the sudden revelation of a long ago act of treachery.



13

3CUSTOM DRAMA POINT RULES

Want a game where there are no do-overs, but playershave more influence over general plot events? e Direc-

tor can customize which Drama Point rules are allowedin any game, and influence the feel of the game in this way. For example, to create an extra-dangerous setting where characters can still accomplish impressive things,a Director might allow Plot Twist, Righteous Fury, andHeroic Feat, but not I ink I’m Okay or Back From theDead – or choose the opposite rules for a setting wherelifespans are longer but persistence is necessary.

EARNING DRAMA POINTS

Once Drama Points are spent, they are gone for good. To get more, a character has to work for them. ey canbe obtained in a number of ways—some are easy, others

depend mainly on the course of the Series, and others are just handed out by the Director’s infinite wisdom.

EXPERIENCE POINTS

Characters can use experience points to buy DramaPoints. Operatives buy them at the rate of two experi-ence points for each Drama Point. Civilians get a dis-count—they get one Drama Point for every experiencepoint they spend. is is the most mechanical way togain more Drama Points, and can result in charactersthat improve very slowly (as experience points are chan-neled into Drama Points and used to survive).

HEROIC ACTS

Stopping cultists or protecting innocent bystandersfrom alien influence does not, by itself, constitute a He-roic Act—it’s expected from the Heroes. To earn DramaPoints, the character needs to perform acts of self-sacri-fice for the good of others. e sacrifice should be sig-nificant—serious risk of death or injury, or some personalloss. is type of act should get one or two Drama Points,depending on how serious the risk or sacrifice was.

WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE

Sometimes, the plot may require that something badhappen to the Heroes. Say an Operative is investigating

something, and is blindsided and captured. is shouldn’thappen often or players will feel railroaded. But the plotmay absolutely require that a particular Operative be outof action for a while, or be held for ransom. When itdoes, you should “pay” for the privilege by giving the af-fected characters one to three Drama Points.

Some examples should clarify. Say someone sneaks

up behind the character and clobbers him from behind,or the escape car refuses to start, or a freak accident al-lows a villain to escape. When this rule is invoked, theplayers cannot use Drama Points to undo the results—ifthe villain is meant to get away this time, he has to getaway. Likewise if one of the Heroes is taken hostage for a

while. e more unfair the situation is, the more DramaPoints should be awarded—up to three for situations

where the characters end up locked in a cell for a while.

TRAGEDY AND INNER TURMOIL

When a subplot involving a character and his Drawbacks(things like Addictions, Love, and Emotional Drawbacks)

results in a tragic situation, the characters involved get oneto three Drama Points every game session where the sub-plot comes into play. Losing a loved one, trying to over-come drug addiction, driving away a friend due to para-noia, being rejected by their adoptive parents when theylearn of their ghoul ancestry — these kinds of subplots are

worth Drama Points. Characterization is the ultimate testhere. “My character goes to a bar and gets plastered”, isn’tenough; a few days of fighting through delirium tremens

while the other characters hold the door against attackers,or trying to keep the eff ects of intoxication from blowing a

whole investigation, on the other hand – it’s all about role-playing the moments that make these stories worth telling,the points where a personal crisis crosses tracks with themain game plot and wrecks at top speed.

EXPERIENCE AND IMPROVEMENT If a character keeps doing something, they usually start get-ting good at it. An experienced Operative is going to knowmore and be better at their job than someone just out of

MORE PULPY GOODNESS

If you’re going for that pulp action movie feel, and are us-ing the extra pulp rules for spending Drama Points listed

above, then here’s another way to gain Drama Points thatsupports this type of feel for a Series.

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Witty lines, quick jabs, or memorable speeches: a fewclever words make game sessions shine. A Drama Point,once per game session, should be awarded to a player whodevises or happens into a witty, funny, and/or memorableline. Both the Director and the other players must agreethat the line is worthy of the reward. No one should getpoints for parroting lines from another source unless theyare used in a particularly creative manner.



140

training. At the end of each Episode (or game session if theEpisode lasts more than a session), award players experiencepoints. ese points can be used to improve Attributes orSkills, to gain new Qualities or buy off Drawbacks, or to buy

Drama Points in Series that use Drama Points.

EXPERIENCE POINT AWARDS

Typically, each player should get one to fi ve experiencepoints in a game session. Everybody who participatesgets one experience point (call it the “You Drove a HalfHour, oh, and Picked Up Snacks Before Playing” award).If the characters succeeded in saving the day throughteamwork, heroic (or lucky) monster-bashing, and cre-ative thinking, an additional one or two points should beawarded. Players who kept in character and helped movethe story along should get another one or two points.

At the end of major story arcs, another point should beawarded to everyone in the group, plus one more at theend of the Season Finale.

USING EXPERIENCE POINTS

Experience points improve characters in several ways. ey represent learned wisdom from fighting and inves-tigating the supernatural, physical improvements due tothe trials of life in the Eldritch Skies universe, and learnedabilities (assuming the character was taking in-gameclasses, or practicing a skill in her spare time).

Improving Attributes: Swinging an axe enough timesbuilds a stronger axe-swinging arm. Strength, Dexter-

ity, and Constitution can be improved through physicaltraining. Characters can learn to pay more attention to the

world around them, improving Perception. Willpower im-proves after undergoing ordeals; whatever doesn’t kill youonly makes you stronger. Intelligence might get better asa result of maturity and simple exercise—give neurons a

workout and they may start improving, whether it’s fromthinking quickly on the spot or taking logic classes.

Improving an Attribute costs fi ve times the cost ofthe next Attribute, with a minimum of . For instance,

raising an Attribute from two to three costs points;raising it from fi ve to six costs points. Usually, humanscan improve each Attribute by one level and no more and

with a maximum of . A combination of both augmen-

tations and ab-human ancestry can allow a character toraise an Attribute higher, with a maximum of , but that’sas high any player’s character can go.

Skills: Raising a skill costs two times the new level. us, raising a skill from level three to four costs eightexperience points. A skill cannot be improved by morethan one level at the end of a game session. ere is nolimit to potential skill levels. Starting a new skill (i.e.,moving from level zero to level one) costs fi ve experiencepoints. After that, it improves normally. is assumes theHero was able to learn the skill somehow, either by hav-ing a teacher or extensive practice. Skills that the Heronever uses cannot improve.

Language: Language is a special case—no matterhow good the Heroes are, they are not going to pick upa new language from one Episode to the next. To im-prove this skill, the character needs to spend at least amonth studying the language intensively. Only then canhe spend the points to gain it.

Qualities and Drawbacks: Some Qualities are in-born—if you don’t have them now, you’ll never have them(Acute Senses, for example: vision or hearing rarely im-proves with time). Others are possible additions to a char-acter. A Civilian might gain psychic powers in the after-

math of a psychic attack, or pick up Situational Awarenessthrough long sessions in the training room. Also, a trip to aclinic, legal or not, is all you need for a new augmentation.

All added Qualities cost their normal value in experiencepoints, but are only available with appropriate plot ratio-nales. Having experience points and saying “I think mycharacter now knows Sorcery” isn’t going to cut it.

ATTRIBUTE IMPROVEMENT COST TABLE

OLD ATTRIBUTE LEVEL NEW ATTRIBUTE LEVEL EXPERIENCE COST

- -

SKILL IMPROVEMENT COST TABLE

OLD SKILL LEVEL NEW SKILL LEVEL EXPERIENCE COST

+ + x new Skill level



14

3In some cases, the Quality costs no points—if the

Hero becomes rich through her own eff orts during gameplay, she should not be charged for the increase in Re-sources Level, for example. Other times, a character gets

special abilities only as a result of plot developments. In agame, this type of power costs no points, since it is whollyunder the Director’s control.

Some Drawbacks can be “bought” off , although againsome compelling reason for the change should be pro-

vided. e cost is the same as the original value given forassuming that particular Drawback.

Psychic and magical powers may also be added ontopsychic and magical characters as a Series progresses, andare treated as any other Quality. Sorcerers learn new spells,and psychics can learn new powers. Again, always remem-ber the storyline and what makes sense for the character.If a sorcerer spends lots of their free time studying and

sharing information with fellow sorcerers, then it makessense for them to learn new spells and additional levels ofthe Sorcery Quality. If they’re spending all their free timedown at the firing range, working on their Guns skill, then

they likely shouldn’t be able to also spend two experiencepoints to learn a new level four spell.

Drama Points: Drama Points may be purchased withexperience points. As mentioned above, Operatives gainone Drama Point per two experience points spent. Civil-ians can exchange the two on a one-for-one basis.

SPENDING DRAMA POINTS: SOME GUIDELINES

So a character has or Drama Points, ready to allow her to do the impossible. How many should be spent in anEpisode? What happens if the player runs out? While the answers vary from one gaming group to the next, hereare some rules of thumb for both the Director and the players.

If all Drama Points are spent, they aren’t around when the player’s character really needs them. On the otherhand, if a player is too reluctant to spend Drama Points, her character can easily lose a serious fight (which may forcethe expenditure of Drama Points to nurse him back to health). Ideally, players should average no more Drama Pointsspent than earned in any game session, and preferably fewer. at gives them a stash of saved-up points for the FinalShowdown or some other dramatic moment.

During a combat heavy Episode, characters should not spend more than fi ve Drama Points apiece—assume a

maximum of two points on each of two fights, and one point for some non-combat use. But that’s in a “fair” fight.If a group of four Civilians tries to take a similar number of experienced augmented commandos, they are askingfor trouble. ey may end up spending Drama Points like crazy just to survive. In those cases, it’s better to use oneDrama Point for a Plot Twist to stop the fight, if the Plot Twist rule is in use – or a Heroic Feat to get away. If you

want to keep up the pressure and constantly put the Heroes in dangerous situations, players may end up spending Drama Points per session. In that case, consider giving out more Drama Points than normal, unless the idea is thatthe characters should burn brightly and briefl y.

Players should save Drama Points for important moments. eir low-ranking Adversaries should be conquerable with good tactics and planning and few if any Drama Point expenditures. As such, a good Director will scale theenemies to the abilities of the characters. If none of the Heroes have a Combat Maneuver with a bonus higher thannine, putting them up against a group of monsters with Combat Score (which means the best Hero needs a sevenor higher on a D just to avoid getting hit, and an eight or higher to hit the monster) is trouble. It forces the Heroesto spend a bunch of Drama Points to win the day.

Try to shoot for a maximum expenditure of fi ve Drama Points per game session or Episode (depending on how longthe Episode is), and an average of - points. If all the players are spending more than that amount on a regular basis,consider turning down the heat a bit. If only one player is overspending, then it’s probably her problem and not the game’s.

is sort of problem is usually self-correcting. at player won’t have Drama Points when her Hero really needs them.



142

What made the students shake their heads was his sober theory that a man might

- given mathematical knowledge admittedly beyond all likelihood of human ac-quirement - step deliberately from the earth to any other celestial body whichmight lie at one of an infinity of specific points in the cosmic pattern.

Such a step, he said, would require only two stages; first, a passage out of thethree-dimensional sphere we know, and second, a passage back to the three-dimensional sphereat another point, perhaps one of infinite remoteness. at this could be accomplished without lossof life was in many cases conceivable. Any being from any part of three-dimensional space couldprobably survive in the fourth dimension…

It was also possible that the inhabitants of a given dimensional realm could survive entry to manyunknown and incomprehensible realms of additional or indefinitely multiplied dimensions - be they

within or outside the given space-time continuum - and that the converse would be likewise true. is was a matter for speculation, though one could be fairly certain that the type of mutation involved in a passage from any given dimensional plane to the next higher one would not be destructive

of biological integrity as we understand it. Gilman could not be very clear about his reasons for thislast assumption, but his haziness here was more than overbalanced by his clearness on other complexpoints. Professor Upham especially liked his demonstration of the kinship of higher mathematics tocertain phases of magical lore transmitted down the ages from an ineff able antiquity - human or pre-human - whose knowledge of the cosmos and its laws was greater than ours.

H.P. Lovecraft – e Dreams in the Witch House



14

Chapter 4Arcane Secrets

OBFUSCATION

S B , and quite good at it, the OPS kept watch on him in waking anddreaming. He wasn’t opposed to their general goals; it was only that he’d had his fill of classified

work, and didn’t care to participate in that kind of information control. So Bryce wouldn’t betheir man, either.

ey kept watch on him in waking, and they thought they kept watch on him in dreaming.He smiled a private smile at that one. Dream names were so ambiguous, and so many of thedreamers so unaware, that it hadn’t been hard to find someone whose seeming was close enoughto his own and make subtle changes in their dreams, just enough to convince the OPS dream-ers that they were following his own adventures through the Future World and not those of a

random stranger. at he would seek passage to the Moon from Dylath-Leen, undercover in Renaissance silksand a fez, was the last thing they’d expect. At least, he was banking on that. He’d carefully cul-tivated their assumption: that his command of sorcery relied entirely on devices, that ritual wasforeign to him.

e ship sailed through space on wings of myth, and Bryce wrote detailed notes of the jour-ney on every waking. He had a purpose there, and so far out of his element, knew he must takeevery precaution to achieve it. He wondered what the OPS dreamers were up to with his stuntdouble these days, but didn’t wonder too hard, lest he fall into the wrong sectors upon sleepingand be caught out.

Finally he reached the Moon, where his real work began. e Ulthar cats went everywhere, saw everything. ey touched the minds of every dreamer,

however lightly. An idea imparted to the cats of Ulthar would go far and wide and free, untraceably so.

Nightly he wrote passages in his book, and took them with him into dreaming, and let thecats hear them from his mind. Ideas, big ideas: thoughts of freedom and improvement and build-ing and making. oughts like, It can be better than this. And, magic is alive in the world. And,

We can only become greater by understanding more. ere is more than you know. On awaking, you can build the world you dream.

It didn’t always take technology to boost a signal.



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HYPERSPACE & HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE

Hyperspace is both the home to the Other Gods and theGreat Old Ones and the source of power for sorcery and

various advanced technologies. Most of humanity is un-able to perceive hyperspatial manifestations, which servesto protect our species from many dangers. Gaining psychicpowers or using sorcery is always accompanied by a certainlevel of exposure to hyperspatial energies, and certain pow-erful types of sorcery and mental or physical contact withhyperspatial entities produce an even greater degree ofexposure. Hyperspatial exposure is measured in six levels,from to . Moderate levels of exposure renders charactersslightly more susceptible to hyperspatial influence, whilea high degree of exposure renders the character mentallyand eventually even physically inhuman.

GAINING HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE

Every source of Hyperspatial Exposure has a rating be-tween one and fi ve. Whenever a character is exposed toa source of Hyperspatial Exposure the GM must firstcheck and see if the level of this influence is greater thanthe character’s current level of Hyperspatial Exposure. Ifthe new source of hyperspatial energies is less than orequal to the character’s present level of Hyperspatial Ex-posure, then no roll is needed and the character is com-pletely unaff ected by the exposure.

If the new influence is greater than the character’scurrent level of Hyperspatial Exposure, then the char-acter must roll to avoid receiving a higher level of Hy-perspatial Exposure. is roll is always Constitution +

Willpower, and the character must obtain a number ofSuccess Levels equal to the level of the influence. Forinstance, a character with one or two levels of Hyper-spatial Exposure who casts a sorcerous spell to create agateway through hyperspace (a Level source of Hy-perspatial Exposure) would need to obtain at least threeSuccess Levels on their roll to resist this influence. Suc-cess means no change in the character’s exposure level,

while failure leads to the character gaining one additional

level of Hyperspatial Exposure. A few powerful devicescan partially shield a character from some influences, butotherwise all exposed characters with a level of Hyper-spatial Exposure lower than the current hyperspatial ef-fect must make this roll.

Example: A character with one level of HyperspatialExposure is exposed to a Level Hyperspatial Exposure

and fails their roll to resist it. ey gain one additionallevel of Hyperspatial Exposure and now have two levels.Except in rare circumstances involving the most power-ful hyperspatial energies, characters never gain more than

one level of Hyperspatial Exposure from failing a singleroll. To resist a single continuing hyperspatial influence,one roll is made for every hours of exposure. e onlyexception is exposure to one of the Great Old Ones –see descriptions of individual Great Old Ones for thefrequency of roll. In addition, a character would need toroll to resist multiple diff erent sources of HyperspatialExposure even if the character encountered all of thesesources on the same day.

AUTOMATIC SOURCES OF HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE

In addition to having to roll to resist various sources ofHyperspatial Exposure, sometimes characters have expe-riences that automatically cause them to gain one levelof Hyperspatial Exposure, with no chance to resist. emost common example of this is becoming a psychic,

which automatically gives a character permanent Level Hyperspatial Exposure if they do not already possess it.

REDUCING HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE

Level Hyperspatial Exposure is permanent: innocenceof the dimensions beyond, once lost, is never regained.Level Hyperspatial Exposure is also irrevocable, repre-senting a permanent transformation of mind and bodythat demolishes the character’s former nature.

Levels between one and fi ve can be temporary. Peo-ple’s minds and bodies gradually throw off the changesmade by exposure to hyperspatial energies. Over time,

without further hyperspatial encounters, characters withbetween two and four levels of Hyperspatial Exposuregradually reduce their level of Hyperspatial Exposure. Allcharacters with either Level or Level HyperspatialExposure automatically reduce their level of exposure byone level if they do not have to make any rolls to re-sist Hyperspatial Exposure during a four month period.Characters with Level exposure automatically reduce

their exposure by one level if they spend one full month without making further rolls to resist exposure. In addi-tion, the Reverse Mutation spell instantly reduces a char-acter’s level of Hyperspatial Exposure.



14

4MADNESS AND MUTATION:

EFFECTS OF HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE

Exposure to hyperspatial energies or entities causesmental and physical aberrations, classified into six lev-els. People eventually recover from most HyperspatialExposure unless transformed into inhuman beings.

Level : e baseline state for normal humans. eseindividuals are unable to sense hyperspatial radiationsand are difficult for psychics to contact. Except underthe rarest circumstances, hyperspatial entities cannotmake contact with these individuals.

Level : e person can sense hyperspatial energiesand operate hyperspatial devices. Also, particularly closeor active hyperspatial entities can contact these indi-

viduals. Sources of Level exposure include travel in

a dragonfl y drive starship, proximity to an unshieldedhyperspatial drive, or exposure to mythos sorcery. Allhuman psychics automatically have Level Hyperspa-tial Exposure.

Duration: Sometimes fades after years without fur-ther exposure, but for all game purposes, this level ispermanent. It is always permanent for psychics.

Level : e individual is more sensitive to hyper-spatial phenomena. Even non-psychics receive dreamsor visions from highly charged locations; individuals

with Level Hyperspatial Exposure occasionally re-ceive dreams from nearby mythos entities. Sources ofLevel exposure include traveling through a gateway,

learning or using lower level Mythos Sorcery, having adistant and indistinct psychic vision of hyperspatial be-ings, mental contact with anyone with Level Hyper-spatial Exposure or with any aliens bearing hyperspatialimplants, such as the mi-go. Every mythos sorcerer hasat least Level Hyperspatial Exposure.

Duration: Fades after - months, generally perma-nent for sorcerers.

Level : e individual is exceedingly sensitive tohyperspatial phenomena and experiences extraordi-narily vivid and memorable dreams and visions in thepresence of hyperspatial entities. Hyperspatial entitiescan easily send dreams and messages to individuals with

Level Hyperspatial Exposure, though they do not havethese dreams and visions with frequency unless boundto a particular entity. ey may also experience occa-sional dreams and visions in the presence of any sort ofconnection to these entities, such as an idol of an entity

worshiped by a mythos cult. Sources of Level hyper-spatial exposure include physical contact with lesser hy-

perspatial beings, brief and partial glimpses or very lim-ited exposure to a fully hyperspatial entity like a GreatOld One, exposure to powerful hyperspatial devices, orcasting a mythos spell to initiate contact with a pow-

erful hyperspatial entity. At this level, the individual’soff spring are often born with Level Hyperspatial Ex-posure, and may spontaneously develop psychic powers.

Duration: Fades after - months.Level : Hyperspatial exposure warps the individu-

al’s mind to the extent that their thought processes areno longer human. eir minds become as alien as thoseof a deep one, a ghoul, or one of the mi-go. Individu-als without Hyperspatial Exposure find art and writingby such individuals disturbing and confusing; Level toLevel exposure makes such work potentially compre-hensible. Psychic contact with such an individual doesnot induce Hyperspatial Exposure, but is exceptionallydisturbing, and requires at least one Success Level ona Fear Test to perform without consequence. Sourcesof Level exposure include mental contact with mostlesser hyperspatial entities, direct exposure to a GreatOld One, participating in a failed sorcery ritual, or per-forming the most powerful mythos magics, includingany spell designed summon a Great Old One. e indi-

vidual’s off spring will generally have significant geneticalterations, like additional or webbed fingers, and one ormore innate levels of Hyperspatial Exposure. Research-ers believe deep ones and ghouls result from humansundergoing this level of exposure for several generations.

Duration: Often fades after - months, but can bepermanent.Level : In addition to the features of Level expo-

sure, the individual transforms profoundly, becoming apowerful inhuman beast. Unlike deep ones and ghouls,these idiosyncratic beings have significant hyperspatialpowers. ese mutants are singular, not members of anew species, and are usually too aberrant to breed withhumans or any other creatures and pass along muta-tions. Sources of Level Hyperspatial Exposure includephysical or psychic contact with a Great Old One orexposure to powerful hyperspatial radiations, such asduring a badly failed sorcerous ritual.

Duration: Always permanent.



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IMMEDIATE EFFECTS OF HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE

Gaining a level of Hyperspatial Exposure is always easilynoticeable and is usually quite traumatic. It never hap-pens without a character knowing they’ve undergone astrange experience. e exact eff ects depend both uponthe level of the influence and the character’s roll. Char-acters who roll less than on a roll to resist HyperspatialExposure fall unconscious for D minutes + minutesper level of the Exposure. During this time, the charac-ter experiences strange and disturbing visions and mi-nor seizures (convulsions or ambulatory trances, at theDirector’s discretion.) e character will only be able toremember fragments of these visions. However, these vi-sions may contain vague hints of information about the

source of the Hyperspatial Exposure, but this informa-tion is at best exceedingly cryptic and incomplete.

Characters who succeed in rolling + on the roll to re-sist Hyperspatial Exposure, but fail to roll the necessarynumber of Success Levels remain conscious, but suff er apenalty to all actions equal to the level of the Hyperspa-tial Exposure. is penalty lasts d minutes. During thistime, the character has strange and distracting waking vi-sions that relate to the source of the Hyperspatial Expo-sure. ese visions usually contain a few bits of useful in-formation about the source of the Hyperspatial Exposureand can often provide the character with valuable clues.

HYPERSPATIAL SORCERY

Although most human occultists describe it as magic, hy-perspatial sorcery is actually a complex science based uponthe manipulation of hyperspace and the eff ects that hy-perspatial exposure has on the minds and perceptions ofintelligent beings. One of the truths of the cosmos thathumanity has just begun to understand is that convention-al matter and energy alone do not sufficiently describe theinteractions of the cosmos. ere are three other crucialcomponents; the many dimensions of hyperspace, con-sciousness, and most importantly the hyperspatial energies

that arise when diff erent universes contact one another. e presence or absence of these hyperspatial energies candrastically alter objects and events in the physical world.

Also, consciousness is tied into both conventional quan-tum phenomena and into the interactions between the

various levels of hyperspace and the physical world.

PERFORMING SORCERY

Sorcery is difficult to learn and to perform. Sorcerersmust always have a number of levels of the Sorcery Qual-ity that are at least equal to the level of the spell theyare performing. If a character only possesses two levels ofthe Sorcery Quality, then they can only cast Level andLevel spells. Until they gain more levels of the sorceryQuality, they cannot cast Level , Four, or Five spells.Casting a spell requires the player to roll Willpower +Occultism. Drama Points can be used normally to in-crease the spell’s chance to succeed. If the roll fails (i.e.,the total is less than nine), the spell doesn’t work—theritual simply fails without any negative consequences.However, success can be more problematic.

e roll’s Success Levels are compared to the spell’s

Power Level. If the number of Success Levels is less thanthe spell’s Power Level, something magical happens—butit may not be exactly what the caster intended. e spell’sintent may be twisted or perverted, and the caster may beinjured—or even killed—as the hyperspatial energies ripthrough her body. e Director can decide what happens,or she can roll on the Spell Failure Table. If the roll resultsin Success Levels equal to or greater than the spell’s PowerLevel, all’s well and the spell works.

LEARNING SPELLS

Possessing the Sorcery Quality just allows a sorcerer tounderstand sorcery. Actually learning a spell is a diff erent

process. Each spell must be learned individually. Spells costa number of points equal to half their level (rounded up).See Psychic & Magical Qualities for further information.

ENHANCING SORCERY

A single sorcerer relying upon their own knowledge of sorcerycan be quite powerful, but there are also a number of waysto enhance the power of a ritual. ese methods can providebonuses for the sorcerer casting the ritual, and can even allowa sorcerer to cast a ritual that would normally be impossible.Most of them only work with certain types of sorcery (seebelow for a discussion of the diff erent types of sorcery).

ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL

Regardless of whether a sorcerer is performing an elabo-rate ritual involving dancing and chanting, working com-plex calculation, or constructing a hyperspatial device,

working with others can accomplish more than workingalone. In all cases, one sorcerer, typically the most skilled,leads the ritual or the design and construction eff ort. As-



14

4sistants and additional colleagues increase the sorcerer’seff ectiveness by adding to the sorcerer’s roll.

USING UNTRAINED ASSISTANTS

Some rituals are designed to be performed by betweenthree and two dozen participants or can optionally incor-porate the use of large numbers of assistants. Other thanthe sorcerer leading the ritual, the participants require noskill, knowledge, or special training beyond knowledge of agiven ritual. Using additional participants in a physical ritualprovides the following bonuses.

However, each partici-pant other than the sor-cerer must make a doubledIntelligence roll and roll atleast one Success Level. Ifthe participant fails, their

eff orts are not countedinto the total number ofassistants present. Also,because they are by natureloud and elaborate, physical rituals are easy to disrupt,and require a minimum of minutes per Level to per-form. If interrupted by loud noises or similar disturbanc-es that do not physically aff ect any of the participants,but may distract them, each assistant must roll a non-doubled Willpower roll to maintain their concentration.See the table below for the bonus provided by untrainedassistants. Only count the assistants whose rolls succeed;failure has no other negative consequences.

USING ADDITIONAL SORCERERS

Some rituals can also be performed with the assistance ofadditional sorcerers. All sorcerers involved in the ritual mustknow the spell being castand have the level of theSorcery Quality necessaryto cast it. One sorcererleads the ritual, and theirroll is the base roll for cast-ing the ritual. Each addi-tional sorcerer must makea successful Intelligence +Occultism roll. Only thosesorcerers who succeed in this roll can lend their aid to theritual. Failure on this roll has no negative consequences.

ADDITIONAL POWER – SACRIFICE AND ARTIFACTS

Normally, a sorcerer’s ritual repertoire is limited by their levelof sorcery, but with additional power, a sorcerer may cast aritual one level higher than normal. A sorcerer with three lev-els of the sorcery quality could cast a Level spell, but not aLevel spell using one of these methods. e sorcerer mustfirst know the ritual being attempted, and must use one of thefollowing sources of additional power: sacrifice or artifacts.

Sacrifice: Sacrifice is exactly what it sounds like; thesorcerer sacrifices the life of a living, intelligent being aspart of the ritual. is method can only be used to enhancethe power of sorcerous rituals. Only intelligent beings likehumans, deep ones, elder ones, or moonbeasts may be sac-rificed in this fashion. Animals, even relatively intelligent

animals like monkeys lack the psychic complexity. Sacri-ficing any intelligent being is illegal in almost every nationon Earth and is considered a serious crime by the OPS.

Using Artifacts: If the sorcerer is using ritual sorcery,then they must destroy or drain the power of a power-ful hyperspatial artifact during a ritual. If the sorcerer isconstructing a technosorcerous device, they must incor-porate the artifact into the device they are constructing.In either case, any single artifact can only be used once.Humanity cannot yet construct sufficiently powerful ar-tifacts. However, mi-go hyperspatial augmentations workfor this purpose, as do many hyperspatial artifacts createdby the elder ones or the great race of Yith.

SPELL FAILURE AND INTERRUPTING A RITUAL

Some spells fail because the sorcerer screwed up. Others failbecause someone either deliberately caused them to fail orcaused enough of a disturbance that the sorcerer was toodistracted to continue. If an intruder disrupts a ritual byoverturning idols, injuring or killing participants, or simplyshoving people around, then the ritual automatically failsand if the roll to cast it results in one or more Success Levels,then the sorcerer must roll on the Spell Failure Table. If thespell is interrupted, + is added to the roll on the spell failure

table – interrupting a spell can be devastatingly dangerousto the sorcerer and everyone nearby.

UNTRAINED

ASSISTANTSBONUS

+

+

+

+

+

ADDITIONAL

SORCERERSBONUS

+

+

+

+

+



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THE VARIETIES OF SORCERY

ere are two very diff erent methods of performing hy-perspatial sorcery, either performing “rituals” or creatinghyperspatial devices. e first method is known as ritualsorcery, while the second is referred to as technosorcery.

RITUAL SORCERY

is type of sorcery includes everything from primitiverites involving human or animal sacrifices, frenetic danc-ing, and elaborate accoutrements like body paint andritual weaponry, to careful and deliberate calculations us-ing either pencil and paper or cutting edge computers.

e one factor unifying these disparate practices is thatan intelligent mind performs the symbol manipulationthat lies at the heart of the “magic”. e basis for thisform of sorcery is that conscious intelligent minds areable to alter the fabric of hyperspace by thought alone.Minds accomplish these manipulations by means of thesame facilities that permit all intelligent minds to learn

to use psychic powers. e diff erence is that aff ecting thestructure of hyperspace is an exceptionally difficult andcomplex undertaking, and so the sequence of thoughtsneeded to perform any particular hyperspatial manipu-lation is always exceptionally complex and precise. emind of a physical being simply cannot manage thesesequences of thoughts without help. As a result, all sor-

cery of this type requires some form of ritual to guidethe thoughts and the mental and emotional reactions ofthe sorcerer through the many complex steps necessaryto cause the desired result.

is ritual can take almost any form. Conceptuallysimple but most physically elaborate, the ritual involvesthe use of loud highly rhythmic music, bright colors, andpowerful imagery to force the minds of everyone involved

into the necessary patterns. is type of ritual simplyconsists of a series of simple but emotionally powerfulactions that contain vivid sensory information. Each ac-tion has a specific eff ect on the minds of the people in-

volved in the ritual, and the ritual guides their thoughtsthrough the necessary pattern. ese rituals are usuallydesigned to include many participants and except for thesorcerer leading the ritual, these individuals usually needno understanding of the nature or purpose of the ritualand do not need any knowledge of hyperspace or of anyof the principles of sorcery.

At the other end of the difficulty scale, the most men-tally complex but physically simplest type of ritual sor-

cery involves either the sorcerer performing a series ofcomplex and intense visualization exercises or a series ofdemanding mental calculations. is method involves noequipment beyond a quiet place where the sorcerer won’tbe disturbed, but demands great self-discipline and ex-tensive mental training. However, the results producedby all of these disparate methods are identical.

SPELL FAILURE TABLE

Roll D and add the Spell’s Power Level – Add + to this roll if the spell is interrupted

ROLL TOTAL RESULT

or less Luck is with you—the spell still works.-

e spell works, but it’s less eff ective than expected. e duration, damage or eff ect is reduced by afactor of three (if not applicable, then the spell may have some other partial eff ect).

- e spell works, but the caster is damaged by its energies. e magician takes fi ve Life Points of

damage per Level of the spell.

-

e energies of the spell go out of control, doing fi ve Life Points of damage per Power Level ofthe spell to the caster and to everyone in the same room. In addition, these rogue energies setfire to nearby flammable objects, knock things off of shelves, and generally cause enough randomdestruction that the room looks like it has just endured a moderate earthquake.

- e spell is completely reversed in eff ect. An attack spell heals the target instead, a spell to weaken a mon-ster makes it stronger, and a spell to make someone invisible makes everyone notice her. In addition, thesorcerer must roll to resist a Hyperspatial Exposure with a level equal to the spell’s level.

+

e hyperspatial energies go completely out of control. ese energies typically either summon

dangerous entities from beyond our reality or cause everyone within meters to roll to resist aHyperspatial Exposure with a level equal to d/ (round up). Also regardless of any other eff ects,the sorcerer must make a roll to resist a Level Hyperspatial Exposure. If the sorcerer fails, theyautomatically gain levels of Hyperspatial Exposure.



14

4Modern sorcerers rarely use either of these methods

and instead rely upon intermediate types of ritual sorcery, where the sorcerer relies on a few easily available externalprops to help focus their mind on the visualizations. e

most common type of ritual sorcery is what has becomeknown as scientific sorcery. In scientific sorcery, the sor-cerer performs complex calculations and uses them tocreate elaborate graphs and diagrams. While this type ofsorcery was once performed with pencil and paper, it isnow most commonly performed on a computer or, morerecently a high-end mobile link equipped with specialprograms. e sorcerer sets up the equation, inputs thecorrect values, and then the device solves the equationand draws the graphs and diagrams in a manner thatallows the sorcerer to mentally focus on the process ofsolving the equations and creating the graphs.

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF RITUAL SORCERY

Each of the diff erent methods of performing ritual sor-cery has advantages and disadvantages, but in practicescientific sorcery has the best combination of ease andspeed and so is the most widely used by skilled sorcerers.

All varieties of ritual sorcery are automatically disruptedif someone physically restrains, attacks, or otherwise in-terferes with the sorcerer who is performing or leadingthe ritual. If interrupted in this fashion, then the sorcerermust roll on the Spell Failure Table.

PHYSICAL RITUALS

Physical rituals are loud, frenetic, and emotionally pow-erful. ey also require tools like razor sharp daggers andchalices filled with potent substances, and often costumes,appropriate ritual artwork, and similar elaborate items.

ese rituals require minutes per Level to perform. Ifinterrupted by loud noises or similar disturbances thatdo not directly aff ect the sorcerer, but may distract them,each participant must roll a doubled Willpower roll tomaintain their concentration.

Enhancement Rules: Physical sorcery can use allforms of enhancement - assistants, additional sorcerers,sacrifices, and artifacts.

MEDITATIVE SORCERY

Meditative sorcery rituals require nothing more thana place for the sorcerer to concentrate. ey are alwayssolitary aff airs requiring intense concentration. No onecan assist the sorcerer in these rituals, which require fi veminutes per Level to perform and are easy to interrupt.

If interrupted by loud noises or similar disturbances thatdo not directly aff ect the sorcerer, but may distract them,the sorcerer must roll a non-doubled Willpower roll tomaintain their concentration.

Enhancement Rules: Meditative Sorcery cannot useassistants, but multiple sorcerers can silently meditate to-gether. It cannot be used with sacrifices or artifacts.

SCIENTIFIC SORCERY

Scientific sorcery uses simple props like images and dia-

grams to guide the sorcerer’s focus through the ritual. eseprops both speed the ritual and allow other sorcerers to par-ticipate in it. If performed without the use of computers,scientific sorcery requires minutes per Level to perform,as the participants perform elaborate calculations by hand.

Using computers significantly increases the speed of sci-entific sorcery. All participants require either a computer orat minimum, a mobile or mobile link to help guide themthrough the ritual. e images and sounds provided by thecomputer or mobile help focus concentration, so intrudersmust actively disturb the participants by shaking or threat-ening them or blocking their view of the images they areusing. ese rituals require only two minutes per Level toperform. If interrupted by loud noises or similar disturbanc-es that do not directly aff ect the sorcerer, but may distractthem, each participant must roll a doubled Willpower rollto maintain their concentration. While a ritual begun withproper focus and then interrupted in the middle can be dan-gerous, a ritual programmed into a computer either by anuntrained individual or a sorcerer who doesn’t even begin to

HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE AND RITUAL SORCERY

One of the drawbacks of all forms of ritual sorcery isthat the process of aff ecting hyperspace with a con-scious mind is a two-way street – the fabric of hyper-space also aff ects the conscious mind. e degree of thishyperspatial feedback is limited, but spells that bringthe sorcerer into contact with hyperspatial beings cancause additional hyperspatial exposure.

SPELL LEVELH YPERSPATIAL

EXPOSURE LEVEL



150

focus on it is no ritual at all: the computer is only there tohelp the sorcerer follow the mental path.

Enhancement Rules: Scientific Sorcery can use ad-ditional sorcerers, but not assistants. Scientific sorcery

can also use artifacts but not sacrifices.

TECHNOSORCERY

Technosorcery is the complex and difficult art of con-structing devices capable of manipulating the fabric ofhyperspace without the intervention of a conscious mind.

Alien species have created hyperspatial devices using a variety of exotic technologies like advanced bioengineer-ing or nano-manufacturing. All human-created examplesof technosorcery are complex electronic devices. e first

were large, crude, and exceptionally delicate devices madeusing vacuum tubes. However, since the s, these de-

vices have all been created using advanced micro-circuitry.One major limitation of these devices is that they can-not be created solely using software. Instead of being ableto run each spell as a program on a single computer, eachspell requires a separate device made with exceptionallycomplex and highly specialized circuitry. Researchershave been attempting to create generalized technosorcer-ous software that can be run on computers or high-endmobiles, but so far, this type of device has proven impos-sible. In addition, push-button sorcery has also provenimpossible. Each device must be adjusted for the locationand precise nature of the eff ect being produced beforeit can function. Many alien devices do not possess this

limitation, and can be used without any adjustment.CREATING TECHNOSORCEROUS DEVICES

To create such a device, a sorcerer must spend one ormore days building it. e exact time is described below.Only characters that both possess the required levels ofthe Sorcery Quality and know the spell can build or helpbuild these complex devices. Also, each device must be atleast partially hand made by the Sorcerer – they cannotbe mass produced. A few hyperspatial devices, like thedragonfl y drive, can be mass produced, but even these de-

vices must be inspected and adjusted by a skilled sorcererbefore they are ready to use. Sorcerers cannot work morethan hours per day; if more than one is working on thedevice, they can take shifts.

e minimum size of the device is determined by thelevel of the spell that it creates. However, many devicesmade by aliens, and almost all devices created more than years ago by human sorcerers, are considerably largerthan this minimum size. Technosorcerous devices creat-ed by the OPS typically resemble personal electronic de-

vices. However, those made by aliens or long-ago humansorcerers can look like anything from a living creature toa piece of jewelry or an ornately carved statue.

JURY-RIGGED DEVICES

Alternately, characters can jury-rig a device to pro-duce the desired spell once. ese jury-rigged devices are

clumsy aff airs that are one size category larger, but requirefar less time to produce. A jury-rigged device designed toproduce a Level spell would be as large as a normaldevice designed to produce a Level spell. A jury-riggedLevel device is as large as fi ve ordinary Level devices.

Enhancement Rules: Technosorcery can use ad-ditional sorcerers, but not assistants. Technosorcery canalso use artifacts but not sacrifices.

USING TECHNOSORCEROUS DEVICES

To use a technosorcerous device, the user rolls Intelligence+ Engineering, and must achieve a number of SuccessLevels equal to the level of the spell. e process of activat-ing and calibrating such a device requires only three turns( seconds) per Level of the device, making technosorceryfar faster than ritual sorcery. Also, the person operating thedevice must have an Occult and Engineering skill that areboth equal to the Level of the device, but need not pos-sess the Sorcery Quality. Alien or ancient human techno-sorcerous devices can look like elaborately carved stonesor similar objects and typically require short incantations,specific types of mediation, or physical actions to use.

SPELL LEVEL TIME TO BUILD TIME TO JURY -RIG MINIMUM SIZE

days hours wrist watch or pen days hours pocket watch, mobile, or paperback book

days hours hardback book or netbook, minimum of kg days hours large briefcase, minimum of kg days hours large suitcase, minimum of kg



1

4THE MYTHOS GRIMOIRE

e following spells are known to humanity. Alien beings,non-Earthly humans, and a few cults that are in contact

with hyperspatial beings know additional spells. However,these are the only spells that OPS operatives and otherHeroes can start play with. Each spell description includesdetails of the hyperspatial exposure produced by the spell,as well as how the spell operates and what it does. In addi-tion, each spell includes descriptions of some of the tech-nosorcerous devices that can produce the same eff ects.

A note on spell levels: Some spells have two levelslisted: in all cases this means that there are two versionsof the spell, a lower and a higher level one. Learning onlythe lower level version of the spell does not allow the userto cast the higher level version, but learning the higher

level version of a spell allows the sorcerer to also cast thelower level version. Also, the sorcerer must possess suf-ficient levels of the Sorcery Quality to cast the desiredlevel version of the spell.

AVOIDANCE WARD

Level Duration: When used on an individual, this spell lastsuntil the target next sleeps, falls unconscious, or dies,

whichever comes fi rst. When used on a location, thisspell lasts as long as the objects marking the warding re-main in place and undamaged.Hyperspatial Exposure: Level

is spell is specifically designed to aff ect the percep-tions of individuals with little or no Hyperspatial Ex-posure. It aff ects everyone with Hyperspatial ExposureLevel who fails to achieve three or more Success Lev-els on a non-doubled Willpower roll, and anyone witha higher level of Hyperspatial Exposure who fails toachieve three or more Success Levels on a doubled Will-power roll. e individual’s Level of Hyperspatial Expo-sure is added to their Willpower before it is doubled. Asa result, characters with Hyperspatial Exposure of Level or higher are almost never aff ected by this spell.

is spell can be used on individuals, on mobile objects like vehicles, and on locations. Everyone who fails

to resist this spell sees any person, object, or location pro-tected by this spell as unremarkable and easily forget-table. Aff ected individuals register the existence of theperson, vehicle, or place that is protected the ward, buttake no notice of it other than what is necessary to getout of its way. is ward instantly and automatically failsif the protected person or object acts in a dangerous or

obviously forbidden manner.If someone protected by this spell pulls out a gun and

starts waving it around, the spell instantly ends. Similarly,a car protected by this spell becomes easily noticeable if

it’s driving in the wrong lane, in a high-speed chase, orif someone inside leans out to shoot at someone on thestreet. In such cases, witnesses will be able to give de-scriptions that are exactly as detailed and complete as ifthe target was not protected by this spell.

Also, even someone completely unremarkable cannot walk into a high security installation without displayingthe correct ID or keying in the correct door code. How-ever, if someone protected by this spell attempt has a sto-len ID that looks even remotely like them and knowsthe correct door code, any guards will only notice themas another completely unremarkable and unmemorableperson entering the installation.

is spell is especially eff ective when used to protectlocations. A house or shop protected by this ward wouldbe ignored by people walking or driving by, unless it wasobviously on fire or there was a gun battle occurring inthe front yard. No one would notice any minor odditiessuch as people coming and going at all hours of the dayor night, or the occasional muffled scream. Also, no oneaff ected by this spell will attempt to enter or investigatethe warded location. Even if someone suggests that theydo so, anyone with Hyperspatial Exposure Level willattempt to find some reason why investigating that lo-cation isn’t important. Casting this spell on a location

involves placing at least four small objects inscribed withspecial sigils around the perimeter of the area or at mini-mum, in the four corners of a room or vehicle. is spelllasts until these objects are disturbed or damaged.

SAMPLE TECHNOSORCEROUS DEVICES

A personal avoidance ward is often built into a belt,pocket watch, or similar device. ey are too large to bebuilt into a working mobile, but may be disguised as one.

Avoidance wards designed to protect locations usuallytake the form of four small devices that must each beplugged in or powered by batteries.

SENDING

Level Duration: ConcentrationHyperspatial Exposure: Level for the sorcerer, nonefor the target.

is spell allows the caster to send a message to some-one far away. is spell can only be used to contact hu-



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mans with at least one level of Hyperspatial Exposure.However, it can also be used to contact all known alienand inhuman beings, including Great Old Ones andother hyperspatial beings.

e sorcerer must have some sort of connection tothe target, which can be anything from a photograph orpersonal possession to an artifact used by a non-humanor ab-human species. In the latter case, the spell simplyallows the character to contact the nearest member ofthat species. is spell can be cast in one of two ways. ecaster can either use this ritual while awake and attemptto make contact with a waking target, or the caster cango into a deep trance and attempt join a dreaming targetin their dreams. In the second case, the target and thesorcerer both end up in the Dream Realm, and the targetalways vividly remembers this dream.

If the target is asleep when a waking sorcerer attemptsto contact them, or if the target is awake when a sorcererattempts to contact them via dreams, then the spell doesnot work, but the sorcerer learns that the target is eitherawake or asleep. Using this spell to contact a hyperspatialbeing like a fl ying polyp automatically produces a Level

Hyperspatial Exposure and using it to contact a GreatOld One is always a Level Hyperspatial Exposure. Inboth cases, this experience is exceptionally disorientingand uncomfortable.

If used while awake, the sorcerer can either deliver ashort message, or if the target is willing, can initiate men-tal contact with the target. Contact with another person

is relatively easy, but if the person is not expecting sucha contact, they may assume they are daydreaming or thatthey are having a very unusual psychic experience. espell lasts for as long as the sorcerer is willing to com-municate with the target. However, this communicationrequires intense concentration and the sorcerer cannotperform any other actions while using this spell.


ese devices are typically small objects meant to fit com-fortably in the sorcerer’s hand or to wirelessly connect tothe sorcerer’s mobile link. Alien-made devices may looklike statues or small and strangely carved baubles. Al-

though most devices made by the OPS can be used tocontact anyone the user knows, either asleep or awake,sorcerers can also create devices specifically designed tocontact a single entity. Also, a device can be created so thatit allows either sleeping and waking contacts, or both.

Some of the most dangerously insidious alien relics aredevices that are designed to facilitate sleeping contact with ahyperspatial being or Great Old One. All someone need do

is fall asleep within a few meters of such a device, and theirdreams will be haunted by this being. A few nights of suchcontact can shatter a person’s sanity. Such devices have beenmade by both aliens and insane human sorcerers.

THE VOORISH SIGN

Level Duration: ConcentrationHyperspatial Exposure: Level for the sorcerer, or possiblyhigher for anyone who uses this spell to view hyperspace.

is spell allows the sorcerer to perceive both activehyperspatial energies and diff erent levels of hyperspacein the sorcerer’s present location. Using this spell allowsthe sorcerer to perceive open gateways and other activehyperspatial devices and spells, as well as the locationspreviously used to create gateways. In addition, this spell

allows the sorcerer to see invisible objects or creatures, as well as creatures lurking in portions of hyperspace cor-responding t the sorcerer’s current location. is spellis most commonly used to locate the site of previousGateway spells and to see invisible objects or creatures.However, it can also be used to observe some of the in-habitants of various levels of hyperspace that dwell nearthe Earth. Unfortunately, these perceptions are two-way,allowing the inhabitants of hyperspace to also see thesorcerer. Some of the more powerful of these beings arecapable of briefl y gaining access to our dimension andmay take an unhealthy interest in strange beings thatsuddenly appear to them.

is spell allows the sorcerer to choose to view all of thelevels of hyperspace at once, to only examine specific levelsof hyperspace, or to only see active hyperspatial energies,and to specifically not observe any of the myriad levels ofhyperspace. is last choice is the most common way forthe Voorish Sign to be used. It allows the sorcerer to seethe location of present and past Gateway spells, invisiblecreatures, and other active spells, but does not risk beingseen by any of the inhabitants of hyperspace. Regardless ofhow it is cast, this spell also automatically allows sorcerersto see if they are being observed using the Dho Hna spell,and to use the Voorish Sign to observe the sorcerer whois observing them. is spell remains in eff ect as long as

the sorcerer is concentrating on maintaining it. is con-centration is relatively easy and is not interrupted by any-thing other than the sorcerer focusing all of their attentionon some other activity, such as combat, or casting anotherspell. Using this spell in R’lyeh or some similar locationstrongly associated with a Great Old One or Other Godis exceptionally dangerous. Doing so automatically causes



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4a Level Hyperspatial exposure, and if the entity noticesand takes an interest in the viewer, this can easily becomea Level or even a Level exposure.


e simplest technosorcerous version of the VoorishSign is the Tillinghast viewer. is device allows every-one within its area of eff ect to perceive one or more levelsof hyperspace, or to see traces and hyperspatial stressesof current or recent sorcery or previously used gates. eoperator must make an Intelligence + Engineering rollto use the device correctly and see the desired phenom-ena. is device can be used without tuning, but doing soresults in the device allowing everyone within the fieldof eff ect to view a wide and essentially random array ofhyperspatial dimensions. In addition to being confusing,using the device is this fashion is exceptionally danger-

ous, since this device also allows the denizens of hun-dreds of dimensions of hyperspace to see into the physi-cal world. Since some of these creatures can briefl y reachinto other levels of hyperspace and are often either inhu-manly curious or simply hungry, uncontrolled viewing ofhyperspace is not recommended.

During the later days of World War II, the Nazis cre-ated a device that duplicated the eff ects of this device overan area several hundred meters on a side. It was just as un-focused as the original Tillinghast viewer and thus allowedhungry and powerful creatures from the further realms tobe able to access the physical world. e result was a devicethat caused a great deal of terror and confusion, as soldierson both sides vanished into hyperspace or were partiallydevoured by horrible monsters that suddenly appeared andthen vanished as they moved out of the device’s area ofeff ect. e one limitation on this device is like other ex-amples of technosorcery, the operator had to activate thedevice and keep it running. Since the operator was nomore protected from attack by hyperspatial creatures thananyone else in the area of eff ect, few operators survived tooperate this device more than once or twice.

e eff ects of the Voorish Sign spell or Tillinghast viewer can also be haphazardly replicated by certain drugs:see p. in Chapter Two: Civilians and Operatives.

ELDER SIGN

Level Duration: e spell creates an enchanted marking or ob-

ject that lasts until it is destroyed.Hyperspatial Exposure: Level for the sorcerer.

e magical sigil created by this spell emits hyperspa-

tial energies that repel hyperspatial and hyperspatially al-tered entities, such as servitors of the other gods or fl yingpolyps as well as mutants or aliens that have significanthyperspatial connections. is includes mi-go and hu-

mans with hyperspatial augmentations. e Elder Signdoes not harm these creatures, but its presence drivesthem away. All such entities, including any human whohas been mutated by a Level Hyperspatial Exposure,must make a non-doubled Willpower roll to avoid mov-ing at least fi ve meters away from the Elder Sign. Alienslike moonbeasts or yaddithi that lack hyperspatial aug-mentations are unaff ected by this spell, as are hereditarymutants like ghouls or deep ones and humans who haveLevel Hyperspatial Exposure.

Entities that succeed at any of these rolls may actnormally, but still cannot approach an Elder Sign at adistance closer than one meter. However, while somebooks of mythos sorcery claim that the Elder Sign isall-powerful, it has no eff ect on either Other Gods orGreat Old Ones. ese entities are completely unaff ect-ed and researchers believe that these powerful beings donot even notice its presence. Elder Signs either consistof drawing that are at least several inches across or ob-

jects the size of a human fist. ey can have almost anyshape and are usually made from some durable materiallike metal, stone, or shatter-resistant glass. e most wellknown are the fi st-sized star-shaped “stones” found inthe Antarctic city of the Elder Ones, presumably createdto defend against fl ying polyps and such lesser soldiers in

the ancient war.SAMPLE TECHNOSORCEROUS DEVICES

ese devices create Elder Signs. e simplest applies aspecial sigil made of conductive inks onto any smoothsolid surface. However, -D printers that create Elder Signobjects also exist. A jury-rigged, single use version of thisdevice is simply an object empowered with the Elder Sign.

HYPERSPATIAL MUTATION

Level Duration: PermanentHyperspatial Exposure: Level for the sorcerer.

is hideously simple spell fi lls a single target with vast amounts of hyperspatial energy. e sorcerer canuse this spell to automatically give any single target anydesired level of Hyperspatial Exposure, from to . esorcerer must choose which level of exposure to givethe target when they perform the ritual, and this ritualcan only raise the target’s level of Hyperspatial Expo-



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sure. is ritual cannot be used to lower a target’s levelof Hyperspatial Exposure. No rolls to resist this spell arepossible. e target must be present during the ritual, butneed not be willing. Unwilling targets must be bound,

unconscious, or otherwise restrained. e OPS forbidsOperatives from using this spell.


is device is often made into a slightly bulky glove con-taining complex electronics, operated by touch. Becauseof the powerful energies involved, the user must touchthe glove to the target for at least minutes to producethe desired level of exposure.

OPEN GATEWAY

Level Duration: One Hour, or until closed.

Hyperspatial Exposure:Level to the sorcerer, level toanyone traveling through it. Transformational gatewaysprovide a level exposure to anyone traveling throughthe gateway.

Using the Gateway spell leaves a lasting mark uponthe structure of reality. If a sorcerer knows of the locationof such a previous casting, or can fi nd it using a spelllike the Voorish Sign, or a Tillinghast viewer, then theycan use this relatively simple spell to re-open the gate-

way. e major disadvantage of this spell is that it doesnot allow the sorcerer to know where the gateway leads.

e only way to learn this is to either use the Dho HnaFormula to observe what is on the other side of the gate-

way, or to actually travel through it. As with the Gatewayspell, this spell can produce either either a normal or atransformational gateway , depending upon which typethe original Gateway was. A gateway opened using thisspell lasts one hour or until closed. e Open Gatewayspell can also be cast in reverse, in order to close a gate-

way that is already open.


Two types of devices duplicate the eff ects of the OpenGateway spell. e fi rst exactly duplicates the eff ect ofthis spell. However, technosorcerers who know this spellcan also create another device, called a paired gateway.Creating a paired gateway requires the sorcerer to buildtwo devices that are then separated. ese devices are hy-perspatially linked, and form a hyperspatial gateway be-tween them when both are activated, even if no previousgateway was ever created between these two locations. Touse a paired gateway, one of the two devices must be setup in a pre-determined location before these devices are

separated. en, the two devices are calibrated, and thesecond device is moved to its new location.

At this point, the two devices are linked, but they mustboth be calibrated, a process that requires approximately

two minutes. At the end of this time, the gateway auto-matically forms within one turn of both devices beingactivated. Until one of the two devices is moved, they donot need to be recalibrated. Instead, users merely need toactivate both devices and wait one turn for the gatewaybetween them to form. As long as they are not moved ordamaged, these linked gateways can function indefinitelyand require no knowledge or adjustment to use.

PROTECTIVE WARDING

Level or Duration: As long as the objects marking the warding

remain in place and undamaged.Hyperspatial Exposure: Level is spell provides protection from magic and from in-

trusions by hyperspatial creatures. e level version alsoprovides protection from all forms of psychic contact andintrusion. If successfully created, the Level version stopsall spells cast by any sorcerer with a Willpower less thanthe sum of the Intelligence + Occultism the sorcerer usesto cast the spell. e Level version also prevents any formof psychic intrusion by anyone with a Willpower less thanthe sum of the Intelligence + Occultism that the sorcereruses to cast the spell. Both versions of this spell must becast over an enclosed area. is area can be mobile like a

car, or part of a larger structure, like a hotel room. A sor-cerer could even ward a tent. is ward must be cast uponan area and only protects individuals inside this area. Cast-ing this spell involves placing objects around the perimeterof the area or at minimum, in the four corners of a room or

vehicle. is spell lasts until these objects are disturbed ordamaged. Both versions of this ward also provide everyoneinside the protected area with a + bonus to all rolls toresist Hyperspatial Exposure.


Older versions consisted of a series of four warding devices wired together with a long, thin cable. Modern

versions are usually wireless and involve four small devices that either have their own batteries or plug into theoutlets near the appropriate corners of the location theyprotect. An even more durable version of this wardingcan be built into the walls of buildings or vehicles, and isincluded in most official OPS facilities, as well as in thehulls of all dragonfl y drive spaceships.



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4INVISIBILITY

Level Duration: Up to one hour per point of the Sorcerer’s

Willpower.Hyperspatial Exposure: Level for the Sorcerer, Level for the target.

is spell renders the target completely invisible bytransporting them partially into one of the lower levels ofhyperspace. While invisible, the target cannot be seen orphotographed with visual, ultra-violet, or infrared light. Inaddition, they are sufficiently shifted out of the physical

world that they also cannot be noticed or tracked by smell.However, radar and sonar can be used detect the presenceof invisible beings, and they can still be heard, touched,and aff ected with ordinary weapons. Invisible characterscan act normally, and perform attacks or other obvious ac-tions, while still remaining invisible. Becoming invisiblecauses the target to partially dwell within the fabric of hy-perspace, which is disturbing, uncomfortable, and incurs ahigh level of hyperspatial exposure. e OPS forbids oper-atives from using this spell except under extreme circum-stances because of the terrible toll it takes on the sanity ofthose who use it. However, the existence of this spell is oneof the reasons that Tillinghast viewers are commonly usedto OPS investigative and strike teams.

SIGN OF KOTH

Level

Duration: InstantHyperspatial Exposure: Level Casting Time: Unlike all other sorcery spells, casting theSign of Koth requires only one minute for meditative orscientific sorcerers, and only minutes for sorcerers usingphysical rituals. Activating a technosorcerous device touse this spell requires only three turns.

is spell acts to disrupt all hyperspatial connections.It can be used to close gateways and dispel active hyper-spatial magics like the Voorish Sign or Dho Hna spell.If used on an already dormant hyperspatial gateway, itcompletely removes all traces of the spell and makes theOpen Gateway spell useless for aff ecting this location.

is spell can also be used to eliminate nearby spells orother hyperspatial disturbances.

e Sign of Koth must be used in a directed matter, where it aff ects a single known hyperspatial disturbance. e target must therefore know exactly what they aretrying to dispel. e instant this spell is used, the targetedeff ect ends. Also, if the Dho Hna spell is used to spy upon

a location where this spell is used, that spell is also ended. e Sign of Koth also immediately ends any hyperspa-tial summoning in progress. However, if a creature hasalready been summoned, it remains in the physical world

even after this spell has been cast. is spell does notbanish hyperspatial entities back into hyperspace. eother downside is that the sorcerer must be within fi vemeters of the spell they wish to end or the location thatthe Dho Hna ritual is being used to observe. e Sign ofKoth doesn’t work from further away.


e most common form for this device is simply a box with dials for targeting, and a button to activate it. Some versions look like high tech guns – aim the muzzle at thetarget, adjust the settings, and fire.

SUMMON

SERVITOR

OF

THE

OTHER

GODS

Level Duration: is spell summons the entity for a number ofhours equal to the number of Success Levels the sorcererrolled on the spell.Hyperspatial Exposure: for the sorcerer for casting thespell. Anyone in the presence of the servitor experiencesa Level hyperspatial exposure.

is spell allows the sorcerer to temporarily summonand control a being known as a servitor of the other gods(see p. for attributes and other details). is entity isunder the control of the sorcerer for the entire durationof the spell. If the sorcerer falls asleep or is knocked un-conscious, the servitor continues to perform the action it

was previously directed to do and awaits further ordersonce finished. However, if the sorcerer is killed, the servi-tor is instantly freed.

Once free, most servitors depart for their home di-mension in hyperspace, but many of them first lash outat anyone or anything nearby, and some decide to remainand cause more enduring havoc. Also, once free, they willattempt to bring any nearby hyperspatial devices back totheir home dimension. A failed casting of this spell causesthe servitor to appear, but not be under the sorcerer’s con-trol. A single sorcerer or a single technosorcerous device

cannot summon more than one of these entities at a time.SAMPLE TECHNOSORCEROUS DEVICES

is device is most often created in the form of a flat disk centimeters in diameter, which generates a hyperspa-tial field that summons the entity.



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DHO HNA FORMULA

Level or Duration: Concentration

Hyperspatial Exposure:Level or for the sorcerer, andlevel or possibly higher for anyone who uses this spellto view hyperspace.

is spell allows the sorcerer to view distant locationsand even other dimensions of hyperspace. e simplestuse of this spell is to observe a destination that the sor-cerer has previously observed or visited. Sorcerers canalso use this spell to view any location that they haveseen photographs or video images of, and can also see themost recent location where an object they have touchedresided for more than a few days. Sorcerers can attemptto use this spell to observe locations that they know ofbut have not seen, or even which they have only heard ru-mors of. However, the difficulty of the spell roll is higher.See the Dho Hna Difficulty Table below.

e Dho Hna Formula often acts oddly if the sor-cerer does not know exactly what they are looking for.

e sorcerer may see a location that looks very similar tothe one they wish to see, but which is in actuality not thesame location at all. If a rumored location doesn’t exist,then the sorcerer sees either nothing at all or a confusingmélange of nonsensical images.

e Level version of this spell allows the sorcerer toobserve events in other times. To use this spell to viewthe past or the future, the sorcerer specifies a rough date

and receives images. is spell is not exact, so visions of aregion years ago could easily be off by a year or two,and attempting to see events a million years ago couldresult in the image being off by as much as a ten thou-sand years. Also, as with everything to do with the pastand future, neither one is fi xed, and so any informationgained is likely to be somewhat inexact. However, whenattempting to view the past, the sorcerer can use an ob-

ject from the past to help focus the spell. One techniquepopular with biologists is using a fossilized creature to

observe what it looked like when it was alive.Using this spell to view other levels of hyperspace is

just as risky as using the Voorish Sign. Many powerfulhyperspatial creatures can see anyone who is looking at

them, and a few can quite literally reach through thespell to abduct or devour the sorcerer. Also, simply us-ing this spell can put the sorcerer at risk. Examining themore distant and exotic levels of hyperspace automati-cally gives the sorcerer and anyone else who views theseimages a Level Hyperspatial Exposure. Using this spellto look at an Other God or Great Old One automati-cally causes a Level Hyperspatial Exposure, and if theentity notices and takes an active interest in the viewerand looks back, this can easily become a Level or evena Level exposure.

is spell remains in eff ect as long as the sorcererconcentrates on maintaining it. is concentration isrelatively easy and is not interrupted unless the sorcererfocuses all of their attention on some other activity, suchas combat, or casting another spell. If performed as rit-ual magic, this spell can produce either physical imagesand sounds of the location, or images that exist only inthe mind of the sorcerer and anyone else assisting in theritual. e choice between physical images and mental

visions must be made when the sorcerer learns the spell.


Devices that produce this spell are usually boxes designedto be connected to the screens of computers or other viewscreens. However, they can also be connected either wire-lessly or with wires to a psi link to deliver images andsounds directly to the sorcerer’s sensory nerves.

COMPULSION

Level Duration: Indefinite – targets may make one roll per

week to attempt to throw off the eff ects of this spell andmust make a total of ( minus Willpower) Success Lev-els to end the eff ects of the spell.Hyperspatial Exposure: Level for the sorcerer, Level for the target.

Unlike most hyperspatial spells, this spell does not di-

rectly aff ect the physical universe, it aff ects the minds ofintelligent beings. When it is cast, the sorcerer must chooseboth a clearly defined target and a specific desired action.

e target must be physically indicated in some way, usinga lock of hair, a photograph, a blood sample, or the target’sphysical presence. e caster can extend this to include alldescendents or immediate blood relatives of the target, but

DHO HNA DIFFICULTY TABLE

SUCCESS LEVELS SUBJECT

A present-day location the sorcerer has visited or previously observed.

A location in another time that the sor-cerer has visited or previously observed.

+ e sorcerer only has images of or arti-facts from the location or time.

+ e sorcerer only has descriptions orrumors about of the location or time.



1

4the total number of targets aff ected at once cannot be largerthan the sorcerer’s levels in the Sorcery Quality.

e desired action taken must be stated in a direct andobvious fashion, but can include anything from the target

moving to a specific distant land to seeking out informa-tion about a distant ancestor or learning about sorcery.

is spell also automatically causes the target to gainLevel hyperspatial exposure. At this point, the target’snewly opened mind becomes subject to half remembereddreams and subconscious thoughts about the intendedaction. is spell influences minor hyperspatial entitiesto regularly send thoughts about performing the desiredaction deep into the target ’s subconscious.

Targets may make one (undoubled) Willpower roll per week to resist this spell. A success means that the targetcontinues to resist the action. However, even a single fail-ure causes the target to pursue the action. If the target suc-cessfully makes a number of Success Levels equal to minus their Willpower, then they have successfully resist-ed the spell. Success Levels gained on successive rolls arecumulative. A target with a Willpower of four who rolledfour Success Levels to resist the spell one week, and twoSuccess Levels to resist the spell the next week, would havesuccessfully thrown off the eff ects of this spell.

If the spell would cause the target to do something theyfind morally reprehensible, extremely dangerous, or drasti-cally at odds with their lifestyle, the target automaticallyresists its eff ect. If the desired action is something the tar-get would have absolutely no interest in and which would

be somewhat troublesome or seems extremely foolish, butnot dangerous or reprehensible, then the target gains a + bonus to all rolls to resist the spell. For all other actions, thetarget gains no bonus to the roll to resist the spell.

e most insidious feature of the Compulsion spellis that the target thinks the compelled action is theirown idea. ey will fi nd reasons to rationalize moving,leaving their job, beginning to seriously study sorcery, or

whatever action they are compelled to perform, and ifquestioned about their actions, will defend their actionsto their loved ones and co-workers.

Like any other hyperspatial spell, it can be undone us-ing the Sign of Koth. However, this spell only removes the

eff ects of the Compulsion spell, not any habits that the tar-get may have built up. Once a target has begun perform-ing or preparing the actions they have been ensorcelledinto performing, they will have justified these actions tothemself and as a result will not automatically cease theseactions just because the Compulsion spell ends. However,if this spell is dispelled, the course of action caused by

the spell becomes less important to the target, and if itobviously conflicts with the target’s other emotional andpractical imperatives, the target will soon cease pursuingthese activities and will be somewhat puzzled by and upset

with themselves about their previous actions. If the action was not something that the target found problematic orin conflict with the rest of their life, then once the spellends, the action continues unless the target is convincedor magically compelled to cease this action. is spell ishighly illegal unless used by the OPS or a law enforce-ment agency to prevent an exceedingly serious crime, likemass murder, starting an interspecies war, or summoning aGreat Old One. Improper use of this spell almost alwaysresults in criminal charges being filed against the sorcerer.


A device used to produce this spell is relatively large and

usually consists of a box with a sensor plate for the samplefrom the target, and either a microphone for the sorcererto speak into or a link-rig that goes on the sorcerer’s head.

GATEWAY

Level Duration: One hour per Success Level rolled – hyperspatialtraces of the gateway are normally permanent unless removed.Hyperspatial Exposure: Level to the sorcerer, Level to anyone traveling through it. Transformational gate-

ways provide a Level exposure to anyone travelingthrough the gateway.

is spell allows the sorcerer to open a gateway throughhyperspace, from one location in the physical world toanother distant location in the physical world, through

which people and objects can move. is spell makes a di-rect connection between two locations. With one step, it’spossible to cross , kilometers or even , parsecs.

is connection is two-way, so anything on the otherside can move though as well, and anyone who passesthrough the gateway can easily return as long as the gate-

way is maintained. e gateway appears to be a circle ofshimmering swirl of multicolored light, through whichobservers can catch blurry and exceedingly brief glimpsesof what lies on the other side of the gateway. e stan-

dard gateway is three meters in diameter, but by makingone additional Success Level on the spell roll, the sizeof the gateway can be varied from one to fi ve meters indiameter. Once created, the size of the gateway remainsfi xed until the spell ends or it is dispelled.

Using this spell requires the sorcerer to know the desti-nation. Ways of knowing a destination include having vis-



158

ited it, looking at photographs or video images of the target,using an object known to come from the desired destinationin the ritual, viewing the destination through a telescope orlive video link, or watching the destination using the Dho

Hna spell. See the Gateway Difficulty Table for details.One major limitation of this spell is that it is not pre-

cise. e gateway always randomly appears within meters of the desired location. e gateway never appearsunderground, except within a basement, cavern or otheropen area. Also, the sorcerer can also make certain thatthe gateway appears closely above a solid surface, if a solidsurface is available. However, the sorcerer cannot controlthe exact location of the gateway. Using it to break intoa building is eff ectively impossible. Also, the exact natureof the solid surface can vary greatly – characters walkingthrough the gateway might find themselves inside an an-cient ruin, standing on a window ledge stories in theair, or in the middle of a busy street.

An intrinsic property of all Gateway spells is that theyallow the passage of solid objects, but uncontained liquidsand gases cannot pass through them. As a result, openinga gateway onto the Moon does not cause the air in theroom where the gateway is opened to escape to the Moon,

just as opening a gateway deep underwater does not causethe room where the gateway is opened to swiftly fill with

water. Solid objects and living beings can travel through agateway as easily as they can step through a conventionaldoorway. However, once a person or object touches a gate-

way, they have begun traveling through and are almost in-stantly pulled through the gateway and deposited on theother side. is process is painless and harmless, though

conditions elsewhere aren’t always. e primary risk in all gateway travel is that the traveler

will step through into a hostile or instantly deadly envi-ronment. Whenever possible, anyone traveling through agateway first sends some sort of probe. OPS probes con-tain sensors and simple methods of locomotion to sendthem back through the gateway. An examination of the

sensor recordings indicates if the prospective travelers willbe safe on the other side of the gateway. Although it ispossible to construct gateways from the physical world toone of the dimensions of hyperspace, traveling through a

gateway to any but the most shallow zones of hyperspacekills living beings and instantly renders automated probesand similar devices useless. (For the eff ects of being in thelower levels, see the Invisibility spell, p. .)

More daring sorcerers can create gateways that auto-matically adapt travelers to conditions on the other side.

ese gateways are known as transformational gateways. Walking through a transformational gateway that leadsdeep under the ocean would result in the travelers sprout-ing gills and gaining other adaptations to life underwater,

just as walking though a gateway to the moon results ina transformation into an exotic life form capable of long-term survival in vacuum. e general form of the trav-eler remains the same, so a human would remain a biped

with arms, legs, and a head, but the transformations canbe extremely radical. However, the individual is instantlytransformed back to their original form once they travelthough this or another transformational gateway back totheir original location or a similar location. is transfor-mation is both painless and instantaneous.

Transformational gateways are no more difficult tocast than the normal Gateway spell. However, they arerarely used, since the transformation induces an auto-matic Level Hyperspatial Exposure in all travelers. Or-dinary use of a Gateway spell is considered somewhat

risky, because it induces an automatic Level Hyper-spatial Exposure in all travelers, but the risk of Level exposure is sufficiently high that transformational gate-

ways are only used in extreme circumstances. Every yeara certain number of special permissions are made to al-low scientists to perform extraordinary field research inareas where they could not normally survive.

All gateways leave an imprint on reality, allowing some-one to use the Open Gateway spell to re-open the gateway,and lowering the difficulty of casting the Gateway spellfrom the same point to the same destination by two Levels.

is dimensional weakness can remain for centuries, unlessthe gateway is closed using the Sign of Koth. Both ordinary

and transformational gateways remain open for one hourper Success Level rolled, unless they are closed earlier.


Technosorcerous gateways are always built in the form ofadvanced circuitry attached to or built into some sort ofdoorway. By carefully entering coordinates, this gatewaycan literally be made to open anywhere. However, the

GATEWAY DIFFICULTY TABLE

SUCCESS LEVELS SUBJECT

A location the sorcerer has visited or previously observed or that the sorcerer can

now view in real-time images.+ e sorcerer only has images of or

artifacts from the location.+ e sorcerer only has descriptions or

rumors about of the location.



1

4calculations and adjustments take at least four minutesand require the same knowledge of the destination as allother versions of this spell. In addition, any time the de-

vice is moved to a new location, the destination must be

reset and the calculations and adjustments redone. esmallest portable gateways can fold into a large briefcase.

REVERSE MUTATION

Level Duration: PermanentHyperspatial Exposure: Level for the sorcerer

is difficult and demanding spell allows the sorcerer todrain levels of Hyperspatial Exposure from a target, perma-nently reducing the target’s level of Hyperspatial Exposure.

is spell drains the energies out of the target and groundsthem. It cannot remove either Level Hyperspatial Expo-sure or Level Hyperspatial Exposure but can reduce any

exposure in between these two levels. Performing this spellautomatically reduces the target’s level of Hyperspatial Ex-posure by one Level (to a minimum of Level ).

Repeated uses of this ritual can further reduce Hyper-spatial Exposure. Also, any additional Success Levels be-

yond the fi ve Success Levels needed to cast this spell furtherreduce the target’s exposure. For example, if the sorcererrolled seven Success Levels when casting this spell, theycould reduce the target’s level of Hyperspatial Exposure byup to three levels (to a minimum of one level). e targetmust be present during this ritual, and sorcerers can use thisspell on themselves. is ritual cannot aff ect HyperspatialExposure caused by hyperspatial augmentations, unlessthose augmentations have already been removed.


ese devices are always large and bulky. Most often theyresemble other large portable piece of electronic equip-ment. ey contain several electrodes that the user mustconnect to the target. Due to the difficulty of groundingthe hyperspatial energies, the target must be connectedto the device for at least minutes.

RULES FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL GATEWAYS

When a character steps through a transformational gateway, their body changes so they can automatically survivein the environment at their destination. Stepping thougha gateway into an ocean would provide the character withgills as well as the type of skin and other adaptations suit-able for a salt-water environment, while stepping througha gateway to the surface of a star would transform thecharacter into a living, roughly humanoid blob of intel-ligent plasma. e appearance of transformed individualschanges drastically, but they can still use the same tools, ifthese tools can survive in the new environment.

Characters who step through to the surface of a star would find all their equipment instantly vaporized, aneff ect which makes scientific observations rather diffi-cult. Assume that characters retain the same Attributes

and skills. In general, the only changes are that char-acters gain + Strength for every that the gravityis higher than Earth’s. A character stepping though atransformational gateway onto a world with a gravity of. Gs would gain + Strength. Other than such chang-es in Strength, assume that characters transformed bytransformational gateways are otherwise identical intheir Attributes, Qualities, Skills, and Disadvantages,but generally appear to be hideously inhuman – typi-cally being covered in slimy amphibian skin, an airtight

jointed exoskeleton, or perhaps a scaled hide.Sorcerers can create a transformational gateway that

allows a human to “safely” visit the further dimensions

of hyperspace. However, the transformation needed toallow a human to survive in any of these dimensions cre-ates an automatic Level Hyperspatial Exposure in any-one who travels through such a gateway. No roll is neces-sary or even possible; the individual becomes an insaneinhuman monster with hyperspatial powers and perma-nently remains in this state. Human minds and bodiesare insufficiently resilient to endure such a drastic trans-formation unchanged. e OPS also forbids remainingin a transformed form for more than hours, since re-maining in an inhuman form for too long causes the in-dividual to begin thinking increasingly less like a human.Every hours characters who have been transformed

by a transformational gateway must make a Willpower(undoubled) roll, failure means the individual becomes asmentally inhuman as someone with Level hyperspatialexposure and treats their new form as natural. ese in-dividuals will strongly resist any attempts to



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SUMMON GREAT OLD ONE

Level Duration: Instant: the spell instantly calls the entity into

the physical world.Hyperspatial Exposure: for the sorcerer for casting thespell, and then to for being in the presence of a GreatOld One. e longer the sorcerer is around the GreatOld One, the higher the level of exposure becomes. Ad-ditionally, diff erent versions of the spell may cause dif-ferent manifestations of the Great Old One: some havea more limited ability to induce Hyperspatial Exposure,

while others can reach Level .Casting Time: Because of the great power involved incasting this spell, it requires one hour to cast using anyform of ritual magic and minutes to activate a techno-sorcerous device.

is spell summons a Great Old One. e sorcerermust learn a diff erent version of this spell for each GreatOld One. Versions exist for all known Great Old Ones,including those that humanity has never heard of, and forGreat Old Ones with variable form, like Nyarlathotep,more than one summoning exists. Also, the eff ects of theElder Weapon means that summoning Cthulhu wouldonly cause this hideous being to remain on Earth for anumber of minutes equal to the number of Success Lev-els rolled by the sorcerer. Summoning Hastur causes thesorcerer and anyone nearby to immediately begin to suf-fer from the Hastur infection. One spell for summoningNyarlathotep causes this being to possess someone near-by and communicate with the sorcerer, which inducesLevel Hyperspatial Exposure in the possessed individ-ual and Level in the sorcerer. Failing to cast SummonGreat Old One correctly always results in the sorcerer’shideous death.


Human sorcerers cannot create technosorcerous devicesto perform to duplicate this spell, but they can jury-rigsuch devices. However, alien devices exist.



16

4



162

I have whirled with the earth at the dawning,

When the sky was a vaporous flame;

I have seen the dark universe yawning

Where the black planets roll without aim,

Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name.

I had drifted o’er seas without ending,

Under sinister grey-clouded skies,

at the many-forked lightning is rending,

at resound with hysterical cries;

With the moans of invisible daemons, that out of the green waters rise...

I have scanned the vast ivy-clad palace,

I have trod its untenanted hall,

Where the moon rising up from the valleys

Shows the tapestried things on the wall;

Strange figures discordantly woven, that I cannot endure to recall.

- H. P. Lovecraft - Nemesis



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Chapter 5The Realms of the Mythos

RECIDIVISM

C disorder of Roach’s hard drive looking for thelatest Hiroshima Spectres album. If he’d just had a more orderly scheme for this stuff , she wouldnever have run across the folder labeled /untitled/, would never have opened it up hoping thatthe catchy hit tracks from the Hathor indie band would be inside.

Instead of the aural treat she was seeking, she found a series of documents, named only withRoman numerals. Curious, she opened up the file marked I.

A text in Latin. A sigil that was somehow horribly familiar, even though she thought she’dnever seen it before... With a curious sense of dread, she set to translating. It was a ritual, acomplicated one, but digging through, she got the gist of it: a sacrifice to an entity whose nametranslated to “Name of the Darkened Sun,” a trade of life for power.

e date on the file was recent. When Roach returned from scouting, she was waiting for him, gun in hand. As soon as he

got through the door, she pointed it at him. e torso, not the face.“You were supposed to be deprogrammed,” she said. “I vouched for you, got you into OPS. I

took you into my confidence.” Her voice didn’t shake. She had met betrayal enough times beforethat she was becoming numb to it.

“Listen. It’s not what it looks like. I can explain what’s going on.”“Explain, then. You get one try,” Carmel said. Her gun didn’t waver. She meant it, and knewhe knew it. He opened his mouth and started talking.



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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

With telescopes, automated probes, sorcerous gateways, anddragonfl y drive starships, humanity has explored their solarsystem and begun to learn the mysteries of the rest of thegalaxy. By , humanity has visited several dozen extra-so-lar planets and placed colonies on a number of worlds bothinside and outside the solar system; the fledgling explorershave begun learning about these worlds in almost as muchdetail as they know their home-world Earth, although thissection represents only a tiny fraction of the universe.

SPACECRAFT & SPACE TRAVEL

In the s and s, spacecraft were powered by mona-tomic hydrogen rockets. By the early s, spacecraft pow-ered by hyperspatial velocity multiplication drives replaced

these rockets. ese vessels were much faster than the earlierrockets, but even the swiftest journey to Mars required al-most a month, and a voyage to Jupiter still took at least sixmonths. e stars remain closed to humanity.

In , space travel was transformed by the devel-opment of the Gilman-Hawking drive, more popularlyknown as the dragonfl y drive. Watching a dragonfl y drivespacecraft take off from Earth is always an impressivesight. As soon as the drive turns on, the ship lifts slowlyinto the air, and anyone with one or more levels of Hyper-spatial Exposure sees the four long “wings” of hyperspatialenergy that propel it through the cosmos.

e UN and the governments of various wealthy andpowerful nations own the vast majority of the approxi-mately dragonfl y drive vehicles currently in service.

ese dragonfl y drive starships are the only space ships

humanity currently possesses, and are used for everythingfrom interstellar exploration, to cargo and passengertransport to the Moon and Mars. Currently, transna-tional corporations own dragonfl y drive vehicles and are owned by very rich individuals.

e largest dragonfl y drive vessels are the transports.Each transport is meters long, meters in diameterand can either carry , passengers stored in hiberna-tion, as well as , cubic meters of equipment for acolony or almost a thousand tons of cargo to or from acolony or mining station. Transports have a crew of people who remain awake for the entire journey, whileany passengers must remain in hibernation. e smallestdragonfl y drive vessel is the OPS explorer vessel – eachspacecraft is meters long and meters in diameter.Each vessel has a crew of to OPS operatives and canland on any habitable world.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

e solar system is a bleak and inhospitable place, andnone of the other planets or moons are easily habitable byhumanity. However, humanity has colonized both Lunaand Mars and has discovered intelligent, if reclusive life

DRAGONFLY DRIVE OPERATIONAL DETAILS

is drive connects the structure of the ship to one of the more exotic levels of hyperspace, where inertia is reducedby a factor of ten thousand and hyperspatial currents move at up to , times the speed of light. If the surround-ing gravity field is higher than . G (such as within , km of Earth), the drive only allows the spacecraft tomove at speeds of up to kilometers/sec. When used in gravity fields between . G and . G; the drive hasa maximum speed of , kilometers/sec. In zones with lower gravitation, the ship travels at the velocity of thehyperspatial currents, around , times the speed of light.

In the solar system, spacecraft must be halfway between the orbit of Mars and the asteroid belt to go faster thanlight. When the spacecraft passes into or out of a zone of gravitational attraction that limits its speed, the vessel’sspeed instantly adjusts to the new maximum velocity, and the passengers and crew feel the ship faintly shake. Acraft leaving from Earth must spend almost hours traveling at lower speed through the solar system, until it is farenough from the sun to go faster than light.

While they are under power, all dragonfl y drive vessels possess both inertial damping and artificial gravity, whichpermit both high acceleration and rapid maneuvering without any discomfort for people on board the vessel. Ev-eryone on a dragonfl y drive starship feels a constant gravity that can be set anywhere from . to Gs, but must beconsistent throughout the starship. Both the artificial gravity and the inertial damping end the second the starship’sengines are turned off . e nature of their drive also means that starships can land and take off at very slow velocity.

When they land and take off , they look like huge weightless balloons, and do not require anything more than calm water or a mostly-flat and sturdy surface to land on.



16

5on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Since the late s, most spaceexploration has focused on exploring worlds around otherstars, but a few mysteries remain within the solar system.

LUNAPopulation: ,

Luna was the fi rst world visited by humanity, andhas been inhabited for more than years. Most profes-sional space travelers now regard it as a backwater. einitial pull to visit Luna was the prospect of exploringalien ruins. e great race of Yith and the mi-go bothspent time on Luna. e mi-go set up mining stations,and the Yithians extensively studied the moon shortlyafter they arrived in the solar system, building several re-search bases. However, the Yithians departed from Lunaless than a million years after they arrived, and the mi-go

soon extracted all of the minerals they considered valu-able from the Lunar surface. As a result, both specieshave been away for over million years, and have onlyleft behind ruins stripped of most valuable equipment.By , researchers had explored the known alien ruinson Luna, and only fragmentary remains of one additionalmi-go mining station have been discovered since then.Despite their name, the moonbeasts have not apparently

visited Luna in the waking world; their connection withthe place is only in the dream realm.

Other than alien ruins, Luna has little to off er. WhileMars is now partially terraformed and has native life,Luna is a small and barren world with rather hostile con-

ditions and a high cost of living. e Lunar populationhas remained stable for the last decade, with approxi-mately , people living there.

For some time, Luna was a center for mining materi-als used for the construction of space stations and spaceships. is activity primarily centered on the side farthestfrom Earth. Low gravity and lack of atmosphere meantearly dragonfl y drive ships could land and take off fromLuna with ease, carrying mined materials into orbit farmore cheaply than from Earth or other large planets.However, refinements in the dragonfl y drive that werecompleted in allowed dragonfl y drive ships to moreeasily take off and land on larger worlds, reducing the

economic edge Lunar mining used to provide. Lunarmining has become increasingly automated, now, andeconomy has gradually shifted from a production andcommerce economy to a tourism economy: the humanspecies still enjoys the novelty of visiting the moon. In-habitants off er spacesuit tours outside the tunnels of thelunar arcologies to the major craters and dry seas.

Few people want to live there for long. Luna off ers anisolated lifestyle, and those who live there must endurepricy air bills and a diet of packaged food, as well as aserious regimen of exercise to compensate for low gravity

eff ects, but there are always romantics and individualists who find this a small price to pay. ese intrepid typesand those who have made their life’s career on Luna arethe longest-term population. Others come and go forbusiness reasons – teachers visiting for a year or two, en-gineers working for a season before going home – andthe “lifers” hold mild disdain for these itinerants, regard-ing them as little more than annoying tourists.

Two years’ residence is required to become a votingcitizen. e Lunar Living Party, or LLP, promotes steeptaxes for the temporary residents, while the Lunar De-

velopment Party, or LDP, regards these travelers as eco-nomically important and encourages their activity.

MARS

Population: ,Mars is the fourth most populous off Earth colony. It

has also been the beneficiary of more than years of ter-raforming. At the end of the s, giant solar mirrors weredeployed over both Martian poles. ese mirrors causedthe large subsurface deposits of dry ice located around bothpoles to sublime into the atmosphere. e result was a pro-found transformation. In less than years, the averagetemperature on Mars went from - C to - C and the at-mospheric pressure went from a trace to that on Earth,

a pressure equal to the pressure at an altitude of kilometerson Earth. is terraforming eff ort has allowed humans to

walk around on the surface of Mars wearing nothing morethan an air mask and a warm coat, and near the equator,even the coat isn’t necessary. Humans cannot survive on theMartian surface unprotected, but they can now live there

with minimal equipment. e solar mirrors also meltedthe large deposits of subsurface water at the poles and nowMars has rivers and a few small and shallow seas.

COLONIES AND THE EASTERN EUROPEAN BRAIN TRUST

Currently, Mars it is now home to slightly more than halfa million inhabitants, almost all of whom live in one offour domed cities. Although Mars is not at habitable asthe various extrasolar colonies, it is far closer, and the factthat it is home to both enigmatic ruins and it is relativelyeasy to live on makes it a popular destination for peopleseeking a home off of Earth.



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Mars also holds a peculiar distinction in the solarsystem: its largest domed city, Tsiolkovsk, named for theearly th century Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky, is a na-tion in its own right. Almost , colonists live there.

Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an exodusof Eastern European scientists and independent thinkerscame to Mars. A mixture of former Party members whohad unsuccessfully tried to create change from within and

younger people disillusioned with the new problems thatplagued the former USSR, they founded a new countryon the core principle of learning from mistakes. eirnew system combines Trotskyist theories with recentunderstandings of human economic behavior, leading tocollectivism without repressive policies. Computer sys-tems derived from the s Chilean Project Cybersynperform economic planning. Tsiolkovsk is a strong par-ticipant in international relations and allows open travel.

NATIVE LIFE

e terraforming eff ort had an unexpected benefit; it revived the native Martian ecosystem. Mars was a harsh,dry, and nearly airless world for hundreds of millions of

years and the heyday of Martian life was more than onebillion years ago, but a few species survived in dormantform or living beneath the surface. Today primitive na-tive plants have spread over much of the surface and asimple but sturdy ecosystem, including everything frommicrobes to creatures vaguely similar to arthropods. elargest Martian animals are no larger than a tangerine,but the warmer and wetter regions of Mars are nowhome to increasingly abundant native life.

Before humanity traveled to Mars, scientists believedthe planet had become airless and lifeless naturally andgradually. However, exploration of the Martian ruins dis-covered in revealed that slightly more than a billion

years ago, Mars was home to an intelligent, technologi-cally advanced species. Because of its proximity to theasteroid belt, Mars was occasionally struck by small as-teroids. As the Martians learned the secrets of hyperspa-tial technology, they attempted to construct a hyperspa-tial shield around their world to deflect asteroid impacts.Unfortunately, the shield failed in a drastic and horrible

fashion. In an instant, the shield ripped away half ofMars’ atmosphere and destroyed the planet’s magneticfield. e swift drop in temperature caused by the loss ofso much atmosphere caused increasing amounts of car-bon dioxide to freeze out on the poles, while the loss ofthe its magnetic field allowed the solar wind to gradu-ally rip away the remainder of the planet’s atmosphere.

Within three days of this event, more than of the

Martians were dead, and Martian civilization ended. e few remaining Martians survived in deep canyons

where air pressure was slightly higher, but never managedto recover their numbers or the vast majority of their lost

knowledge and technology. e Martians survived foralmost another million years. However, the difficultiesposed by their now harsh and deteriorating environmentmeant that their technology never again exceeded thatof Earth’s th century. For the last several hundred thou-sand years of their existence, their species consisted ofless than a million primitive savages struggling to survivein an world that eventually had too little atmosphere toallow them, or any other large animals to survive.

Today, these ancient Martian ruins stand as anothertestament to how even the most advanced species canbecome extinct and how fragile planets are when faced

with the most powerful technologies intelligent speciescan create. Investigating the Martian ruins is a major ef-fort that has been going on since their first discovery. eremains of the Martians who survived the initial catas-trophe are in relatively good condition despite their greatage, and the final chapter of the Martian species is nowrelatively well understood. However, artifacts and recordsfrom before the catastrophe are far more fragmentarybecause so much was completely destroyed when thisplanet’s atmosphere was ripped away and the planet was

wracked by massive earthquakes.

EUROPA

Europa is the third world in the solar system known toharbor life, but very little is known about it. Europa isthe sixth moon of Jupiter and is covered in a layer of icemore than a kilometer thick. Beneath this ice lies a saltyocean kilometers deep. is ocean is home to life, in-cluding the enigmatic Europans. e first human-maderobotic probe to land on Europa arrived in , and useda nuclear battery to melt through the ice and deploy asubmersible camera. rough this camera, humanityglimpsed an alien world filled with exotic life. However,the camera ceased working after only days. When thefirst human ship landed on Europa in , part of thepsychic message they received as strict instructions not

to send any more robot probes. Today, Europa remainsalmost as much of a mystery as it was in . Since thattime, there have been a few fleeting psychic contacts be-tween passing human spaceships and the Europans, buthumans are not welcome on Europa, and all such conver-sations are brief and enigmatic.



16

5BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM

e galaxy is filled with stars and planets orbit most ofthe stable and long-lived stars. However, to their surprise,the first extra-solar explorers found life to be consider-ably less diverse than expected. Continued exploration,combined with an examination of elder one recordsand communication with Yithians, revealed the truth.

Worlds that independently evolve life are relatively rare.Planets capable of bearing various forms of life are rela-tively common, but less than one percent of these worldsevolve life on their own. Almost half of the known po-tentially habitable worlds harbor complex multi-cellularlife, because various ancient species, including the elderones, seeded much of the galaxy with life.

According to ancient elder one records, the discovery of

a new world that evolved its own life was always a cause forcelebration. Over a few hundred thousand years, elder oneecological engineers would gather biological samples fromthese naturally lively worlds and seed dozens of planets

with life from each one. Earth was one of the rare worldsthat naturally evolved life. e elder ones that initially col-onized Earth aeons ago spread Earthly life to other worldsin the early days of their colonization, before they lost theability to easily travel through space.

e result of this ancient seeding of life is that thereare now at least several dozen worlds that were seeded

with Earthly life between million and million years ago. ese worlds off er environments that are al-

most always habitable to humanity. Humans can digestthe proteins, metabolize the vitamins, and grow crops inthe soil. Except on one world now inhabited by the de-scendents of ancient humans, none of the known worldsare home to any strictly pathogenic microbes – thoughthey all have a good complement of the microbes neces-sary for soil quality and human life – so most now makeexcellent new homes for humanity.

Worlds inhabited by alien life are far more problem-atic, since humanity cannot digest alien food and humancrops can only grow in alien soil that has been completelysterilized and extensively processed. Much alien life pro-duces substances that are severe allergens or deadly tox-

ins to Earthly life, so many alien worlds are only safe to visit in space suits. However, some of these worlds areless hostile. ere is no alien life that humans can subsistoff of, but there are three diff erent alien ecologies thathumans can live with: ecosystems of plant-animals likethose found of Galatea I and Wuste, multi-bodied or-ganisms like those found on Firefl y and in a less closely

linked form on Pacifica, and the exotic and heavily engi-neered biology of Prodígio. A few forms of life on these

worlds can be eaten by humans, but provides only emptycalories, meaning that humans must grow their own food

if they wish to survive on these worlds for more than afew weeks. Species like the elder ones could only colonizea multitude of alien worlds because they used advancednanotechnology to enable their bodies to make use ofalien nutrients and suppress all allergic reactions.

ALIEN INTELLIGENCES &HYPERSPACE

While almost half of all potentially habitable worldscontain life, intelligence only evolves on approximately percent of life-bearing worlds, whether life has arisenthere naturally or been seeded. e vast majority of intel-ligent species destroy themselves or transcend within afew thousand years of developing advanced technology.Humanity has found dozens of worlds across the gal-axy where intelligent life once thrived. Some are ruinedand lifeless husks; others were less badly damaged andrecovered after a few million years; and a few are thriving

worlds with empty, decaying cities and no hint of theirinhabitants’ fate. Humanity has found very few planets

with intelligent life, and most contain only primitives.Except for the moonbeasts and the yaddithi, all of thestar-faring intelligent species that humanity has contact-

ed are tens of millions of years old.Like Earth, most worlds that evolve intelligent lifeoccur relatively near the system’s star. e gravity and ra-diation of most stars render the region inhospitable tomost hyperspatial life forms, and makes it more difficultfor them to manifest. In this energy-rich environment,hyperspatial entities can only appear in these regions

when certain celestial alignments occur. On these worlds,life is safe from the worst of these beings’ depredations.

Like on Earth, on many habitable alien worlds, thenature of the native germ plasm also produces a neu-rological barrier to hyperspatial perceptions. With suf-ficient exposure to hyperspatial energies, life on these

worlds can learn to perceive hyperspatial energies andentities, but most life forms that have no hyperspatial ex-posure cannot innately perceive hyperspace.

All technologically inclined species learn of hyper-space during their atomic age and many learn of it farsooner, as some of the more sensitive members experi-ence the power and the dangers of using sorcery to ma-



168

nipulate hyperspace. Once a species learns of hyperspace,it can take one of several paths. A few turn their backentirely on all hyperspatial technologies except for re-search into ways to generate hyperspatial barriers to keep

out the Great Old Ones and similar dangers. However,the vast majority of species find it difficult to turn downpotential power provided by hyperspatial energies.

Careless species are swiftly destroyed. e galaxy islittered with ruined worlds that were devastated by theuncontrolled release of continent-shattering energies.Many species that survive their fi rst experiments withhyperspace treat hyperspatial energies with great careand wish to have nothing to do with any hyperspatialtechnologies or entities. Others, like the great race of

Yith or the elder ones, carefully regulate these energies:they use them for a few important purposes like psychictime travel or the ability to fl y though space, but strictlyavoid widespread use of these technologies.

Some species, like the mi-go, take a stranger path. ey not only create devices to harness the energies ofhyperspace, they also modify their bodies to perpetuallyinteract with hyperspace. Species like the fl ying polypsgo even further and learn to partially transfer their mindsand bodies into hyperspace. Doing this renders them fartougher and long-lived than ordinary physical life forms.Such beings also gain exceptionally acute hyperspatialperceptions and are able to understand hyperspace andits inhabitants in a way impossible for beings that existpurely in the physical world.

is connection to hyperspace also renders such be-ings immune to all of the eff ects of Hyperspatial Ex-posure. Stories of the origins of Cthulhu and the oth-er Great Old Ones state that they were once ordinaryphysical beings who eff ectively transcended the material

world to live in hyperspace. e mi-go are attempting toreplicate this transformation, so far without success. efl ying polyps attempted to become Great Old Ones, buteven their best eff orts did not enable them to fully tran-scend the physical world.

DEEP TIME AND THE FATE OF INTELLIGENT SPECIES

From a human perspective, much of the history of thegalaxy seems quite strange. Modern human civilizationis less than , years old and the human species itselfno more than a quarter of a million years old, yet thereare records of intelligent species that have persisted forhundreds of millions or even billions of years. Part of

this disparity is due to the fact that human civilizationis actually far older than commonly known. e previ-ous civilization from the urian Age was destroyed bythe most recent ice age, which erased all obvious traces

of its existence. Similarly, many other species have gonethrough periods of advanced civilization followed by erasof civilization collapse due to war, natural disasters, orequally severe technological disasters. ese cycles ofprogress and collapse can continue almost indefinitely.

e extreme longevity of some alien civilizations isin part due to the fact that, like the elder ones, the alienshave used genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and oth-er advanced technologies to alter their bodies into agelessforms that are exceedingly difficult to kill. As a result,individuals live for many thousands or tens of thousandsof years, which provides a strong stabilizing force for anycivilization. A species may not change much over thecourse of half a million years when this is a member’s av-erage lifespan. However, the full truth about the historyof galactic civilization is somewhat more complex. Intel-ligent life that survives to develop advanced technologycan have one of four possible fates.

EXTINCTION

e unfortunate fact about most species that manage todevelop advanced technology is that most become extinct

within thousand years of developing these technolo-gies. Some are victims of alien attack or are destroyed byinvaders from hyperspace, others fall victim to natural

disasters, but the majority destroy themselves through war or technological accident, typically involving someform of hyperspatial technology. Some species manageto barely survive these catastrophes and eventually regaintheir lost technology and civilization, at which point thereborn civilization again faces the same four options.

Many intelligent species have evolved in the galaxy,but the majority are now extinct. Everywhere in the gal-axy that human explorers travel, they discover both living

worlds that once housed long extinct civilizations and worlds blasted and ruined by final disasters that endedmost or all planetary life. Planets that used to be verdantliving worlds are now airless husks, or rings of shattered

fragments. On the least damaged, life experienced massiveextinctions and took tens of millions of years to recover.

TRANSCENDENCE

Almost all of those species that do not destroy themselves vanish within thousand years of developing advancedtechnology. eir exact fate is unknown and perhaps un-



16

5knowable to species that have not also made this step.Most researchers believe that these species transfer theirconsciousness into hyperspace, where they become im-mortal, hyper-intelligent beings. A few scholars believe

that the entire species either becomes part of an existingOther God or creates a new such being, but this theoryis no more than conjecture.

Regardless of their exact fate, the species never againhas contact with the physical world, and all informationabout this transcendence asserts that it is a wondroustransformation. Unfortunately, this process of transcen-dence is quite difficult and often very risky. As a result,numerous species have destroyed themselves making thisattempt. ose that succeed usually leave behind worldsthat are completely intact, but devoid of all intelligentlife. More than of all intelligent species follow oneof the two above paths – extinction or transcendence, andhumanity has discovered dozens of ruined worlds and asmaller number of empty ones. However, there are twoother, less common options.

STASIS

Eventually, every species that does not transcend reachesthe end of the science and technology their minds cancomprehend. ey create no important new break-throughs. e species may continue to gather more dataand learn more of the history of the universe and thebeings that live within it, but long lifespans and modifiedbodies have slowed the evolution of their intelligence be-

yond the point where their brains and senses can accom-modate new discoveries and technologies.

e severity of this limitation varies from one species toanother, and is usually encountered within , years ofthe species developing advanced technology. At this point,the only paths to new knowledge and new technology in-

volve either transcendence or making use of science andtechnologies of aliens with diff erent cognitive limitations.

is second approach is fraught with risk because anyalien science and technology that can help a static species’extend it capabilities is by its nature beyond the compre-hension of the species that borrows or steals it. Attempt-ing to work with alien science or technology has resulting

in the extinction of quite a number of intelligent species.However, it has also helped a few species transcend.

Some species survive, but do not transcend, eitherbecause they do not wish to take the risks involved, orbecause they lack the ability or desire to transcend. ereasons are not known, but one radical theory claim thatcontact with the legendary Great Old One Nyarlathotep

is in some way necessary for a species to transcend. eelder ones are a perfect example of beings that lacked the

will to transcend, while the yaddithi are learning thatdespite their best eff orts, they may be incapable of tran-

scending without help.Most species that do not transcend learn to modify

their bodies to be exceedingly durable and enduring, be-coming nearly immortal. is personal immortality al-most always results in the species and their civilizationalso becoming extremely long-lived. Many species thatendure in stasis avoid adopting or studying hyperspatialtechnology or science because of its dangers. Species likethe elder ones or the mi-go endured for hundreds of mil-lions of years by honing their bodies and their civiliza-tions to a point of inherent stability. However, the pricefor this stability is quite literally stasis.

Art styles and popular tastes may change slightly, butthe species as a whole changes very little, either mentallyor physically. A species unwilling or unable to transcendfaces two possibilities: survival or extinction. As a result,static species usually become exceptionally conservative.

ey typically limit their biological variability. Membersof the species who alter their bodies or minds outside ofaccepted limits are either stopped, destroyed, or exiled.Such exiles might transcend or self-annihilate, but thebulk of the species can persist for a billion or more years.

e great race of Yith is a unique case: while generallya static species, they avoid either complete stasis or too-rapid change by transferring their consciousnesses into a

series of drastically diff erent alien bodies, and this con-trolled infusion of new information has kept them vitalfor almost one billion years.

Few species reach stasis, and fewer still maintain it formore than a million years, but those that do usually becomeimportant species in the galaxy simply by virtue of their greatage, the knowledge they have gathered, and the time theyhave had to explore and colonize large portions of the galaxy.No species lasts forever. e last remnants of the elder ones,one of the most ancient physical species, are dwindling andlikely to vanish within another hundred million years.

PARTIAL TRANSCENDENCE

is option is by far the rarest and also the most terrible. Intheir eff ort to transfer themselves into hyperspace, the spe-cies partially transcends, becoming practically immortaland far more powerful, both individually and collectively,than they previously were. However, instead of abandon-ing the physical universe and dwelling solely in the exoticdimensions of hyperspace, the species maintains a form of



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limited connection to the physical universe. No one knowsif some species attempt to retain their connections to thephysical while transcending, or if partial transcendence isalways the result of a failed attempt at transcendence. Re-

gardless of the answer, partial transcendence always carriesa price. e species becomes dependent upon the physical

world and its inhabitants. Most of these species must feedupon the psychic energy of physical beings to survive. A fewfeed solely upon non-sentient creatures, but the vast major-ity must feed upon the psychic energies of intelligent beings.

e degree and details of this transcendence variesfrom one species to another. Some species, like the fl y-ing polyps, have just barely transcended. ey have fewpermanent connections to hyperspace and their bodiesremain mostly part of the physical world. As a result,they can subsist upon simple minds and consume muchof their energy in a more conventional fashion. However,greater degrees of transcendence are more common.

e few humans who know of these partially tran-scended beings call them the Great Old Ones. Such spe-cies or entities can persist for many billions of years, sincethe individual members are very difficult to destroy andcan only die if they are deliberately destroyed by energiesthat are almost impossible for a non-transcended speciesto generate or understand. If placed in a sufficiently hos-tile environment or deprived of food, members of a par-tially transcended species suff er pain and hunger, but willnot die. At most, they eventually shift mostly into thefurthest depths of hyperspace and enter a near-timeless

sort of hibernation that automatically ends when psychicnourishment again becomes available. While these species are always brilliant and capable of

thoughts and perceptions impossible to non-transcendentbeings, they are also changeless. Partially transcended be-ings seem incapable of altering their fundamental nature,and none of them have ever been known to fully transcend.

Trapped between states of being, these species hauntthe galaxy for hundreds of millions of years. ey becomeeach others’ enemies because they compete for resources.Universally, they consider physical beings to be eitherfood, vermin, or potential sources of amusement. Whilesome primitive or power-hungry non-transcendent spe-

cies may worship partially transcendent beings, hopingfor power in return, more advanced and sensible non-transcendent species do their best to either avoid or repelpartially transcended beings they encounter because theyare vastly powerful and capable of wiping out entire civi-lizations through their psychic feeding.

Some partially transcendent species are interested in

WORLD CATEGORIES

All of the following worlds are divided into one of fourcategories:

Earthlike: ese worlds are home to life derived fromEarth. e air and water are safe for humans, humanscan eat most plants and animals and survive indefinitelyon them. In addition, the life follows a generally Earthlybody plan, with green plants, arthropods, and in mostcases, something like vertebrate life. Almost all of theseplanets have been isolated for at least million years,so the life present on these worlds rarely resembles mod-ern Earthly life, but it all looks like life that could haveevolved on Earth.

Safe: ese worlds are home to alien life not intrinsi-cally deadly to humanity. e life on these worlds is pro-foundly alien, and may consist of entities with no earthlyanalogs, like mobile carnivorous fungus-like creatures oroceans that are actually huge gelatinous colonies of bac-teria-like organisms. Humans can walk around on these

worlds without space suits, but cannot eat the food orgrow crops in the soil without sterilizing it.

Hostile Biology: e life on these worlds is not merelyalien; it is antithetical to human life. ese worlds havegravity, air pressure, and temperature that are all survivablefor humanity, and their air contains sufficient oxygen tobreathe, but the native biology renders these worlds dead-ly. Local life forms may excrete deadly toxins on their skin,they might exhale trace amounts of a compound that acts

like nerve gas on humans, or perhaps their proteins aresufficiently incompatible that breathing in air that con-tains pollen, tiny scavengers that live on dust, and otherbiological detritus triggers a life-threatening allergic reac-tion in humans. Humans can safely visit these worlds ifthey remain in space suits and can even breathe the air anddrink the water if they wear a suit equipped with speciallydesigned air and water filters. If exposed to the local envi-ronment without such a suit, humans die in no more thanseveral hours, and sometimes in a few minutes, dependingupon the exact nature of the world.

Hostile Environment: Any world that falls outsidethe safe range for temperature, radiation, atmospheric

pressure, or atmospheric composition is considered ahostile environment. Gas giants, worlds with little orno atmosphere, and both roastingly hot and freezinglycold worlds are all hostile environments. All of the otherplanets in the solar system are considered hostile envi-ronments. In general, humans without space suits die

within a minute or two on these planets.



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5the physical universe as more than just a source of food.

e worst seek to conquer worlds, build cities, or enslaveentire species of physical beings. e Cthulhoids are anexample of this sort of species. Other partially transcen-

dent beings have strange and indirect interactions withthe physical world. ey feed upon psychic energies

while only ever appearing in ways that cause those whoencounter them to have no clue that they are intelligentor even beings. e psychic infection known as Hastur isan example of this type of exotic being.

MAJOR EXTRA-SOLAR WORLDS

Six of the following seven worlds are all home to largehuman colonies and the seventh contains several largeresearch bases. OPS explorers have extensively surveyedall of these worlds and certified them as safe for colo-

nization or extensive scientific and commercial research.However, humanity has been exploring the stars for lessthan years, so both the OPS and most sensible colo-nists realize that there may be many surprises waiting oneven the oldest and most placid-seeming colony worlds.

ERIDANOS

Type: Habitable in the trenches, Hostile Environmenton the surface.Gravity: . Gs

Atmosphere: Breathable, . atm (surface) . to . atm in the deeper trenches

Water: of the surface is covered with water, most of

this water is ice.Population: . millionColonized:

First discovered in , Eridanos, casually called“Eri”, is a large, dry, rocky world with a thin atmosphereand deep canyons. e surface of Eridanos is an enor-mous, cold dezert: far from inviting. e air pressure isless than one fifth of Earth’s, and the landscape is bleak,dry and cold. ere is little liquid water, and even theice caps are relatively small. Life survives here, but onlyslow-moving animals and hardy plants make their homein this harsh environment. e air pressure on the surfaceis only that of Earth, which is equal to the air pres-sure almost kilometers above Earth’s surface. Humansrequire breathing masks to survive on the surface.

Approximately million years ago the elder ones orsome other species seeded Eridanos with Earthly life. Atthis time, this world had an atmosphere almost as thickas Earth’s and water covered almost two thirds of thesurface. is all changed approximately million years

ago, when some ancient catastrophe ripped away most ofthe planet’s atmosphere and three quarters of its water.

e removal of the majority of Eridanos’ oceans meantthat what little atmosphere remained was thicker in the

ocean bottom, three kilometers below the previous sealevel. Eridanos’ ocean bottoms cracked and buckled ina reaction to the sudden removal of the billions of tonsof water that had previously occupied this planet’s oceanbasins. Within , years slightly over one eighth ofthis world’s surface was covered with a network of deeprifts and trenches. Most of these cracks connect with atleast a few other rifts, but some are entirely isolated.

e habitable portions of Eridanos consist of a mul-titude of deep, lush canyons, surrounded by the planet’sbleak and barren surface. ere are many hundreds ofthese canyons, many of which are as much as kilo-meters (eight miles) deep and up to kilometers ( miles) wide. In these trenches, Eridanos’ atmosphere isthick enough for humans to breathe without respiratormasks. km below the surface, the air is a fraction morethan half the thickness of Earth’s and by km belowEridanos’ surface, air pressure has risen to of Earth’s.Everyone can easily tolerate the deeper portions of Eri-danos’ trenches and most can adapt to life as high as kmbelow Eridanos’ surface, whether naturally or by the useof simple medical adaptations to increase their ability tooxygenate their blood. With the most extensive augmen-tations, some people can comfortably live even higher, upto km below the surface. Here, air pressure is only

of Earth normal, and tiny outposts inhabited by modifiedoutsider types and religious and criminal organizationslive in shallow canyons accessible to no one else.

e bottoms of Eridanos’ many trenches are filled withrivers, or in the case of the largest canyons, long narrowseas. e early explorers named Eridanos after a Greekmythological river for this reason. Around half of the plan-et’s water is in these rivers and oceans, while most of therest lies frozen in the large northern polar ice cap. is icecap partially melts and sublimes in the spring and summermonths causing seasonal rains and flooding. Flooding canbe quite severe in a few of the steeper rift valleys; the depthof an ocean can increase by as much as a half-kilometer

from in a matter of weeks. In time, these narrow oceansevaporate to their previous depth and the whole cycle be-gins again. While the thicker atmosphere and abundant

water of the various rifts has encouraged life to grow andflourish, the yearly floods, and occasional earthquakes havemade even these environments somewhat treacherous.Visitors to Eridanos are warned to always consult their



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mobiles when venturing into uninhabited areas and keeptrack of the local weather warnings.

NATIVE LIFE

e disaster radically transformed life on Eridanos. e vast majority of life was unable to adapt to the harsh con-ditions on the surface, and either died or retreated intothe newly exposed rift valleys where the atmosphere wasthick enough to support them. A group of four-leggeddesert-dwelling warm-blooded vertebrates had previ-ously evolved from fish with a bony shell and kept thisshell when they ventured out on land. eir shells helpedprotect them from heat and moisture loss. As the worldrecovered these creatures, called derms, adapted andthrived in the new thinner, drier atmosphere. Within million years derms were the dominant animals both onthe surface and in the vast network of rift valleys.

A few of the derms evolved a very tough and airtightskin. ese adaptations allowed them to more easily sur-

vive periods of drought as well as allowing them to ven-ture into Eridanos’ barren, harsh, surface for short peri-ods. ese creatures also have highly efficient respiratoryand circulatory systems, similar to those of whales, eff ec-tively providing them with a biological space suit. Sev-eral dozen species of derms can remain on the surface forhours or even days. is ability to live on the surface fora short period of time has allowed many derms to rangemore widely for food than their competitors as well asallowing them to travel between nearby rifts.

Eridanos’ surface is largely barren, with most of theland covered in lichens and sparse vegetation similar todesert plants like sagebrush and tumbleweed. In thisharsh environment, the most common life forms arequite small. Almost all life on the surface consists of crea-

tures related to insects and spider that move slowly andfeed upon the plants. Few creatures living on the surfaceare larger than a housecat. However, the surface is hometo a few large animals, all of which are derms that alter-

nate between life on the surface and life in the rift valleys. e most dangerous and famous is the spitting python,an armored serpent-like creature that averages nine me-ters long. is creature moves slowly in an almost torpidstate until it detects prey with its keen smell and vibra-tion sense. It can move quite swiftly when it senses preyand can also spit a paralytic neurotoxin up to fi ve meters.It the surface’s most formidable predator.

Beneath the surface desert, the many rifts are veri-table jungles of life. e canyons have denser atmosphere,abundant water, and lush and verdant plant-life. In theirlowest reaches, almost all of the rifts support an envi-ronment similar to a tropical jungle or a temperate rainforest, depending on the latitude. ick vegetation, abun-dant animal life and constant damp are all hallmarks ofthe Eridanos rifts. Higher up the rifts become more likemeadow, savanna, and open forest.

THE COLONY

Eridanos was the fi rst world opened for colonization,and has been home to human colonies since . Mostof the population lives in the rift valleys. e only settle-ments on the surface are pressurized research or miningstations. However, the surface remains an ever-presentfeature of life on Eridanos.

Today, Eri has a population of close to three millionpeople. Colonists and come to Eridanos because of howlush and fertile the various rift valleys are, and also for thespectacular scenery. Also, it is an ideal world for multi-national colonization, since each nation can colonize a

Name: Spitting Python Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Special Abilities: Infrared Vision, Natural Armor , Poison

MANEUVERSNAME SCORE DAMAGE NOTES

Bite Slash/Stab + Strength poison


Spit Poison — Strength poison, meter range



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5separate set of linked rift valleys. Currently, Eridanoshas colonies settled by the US and China, each of whichis home to almost a million colonists, as well as an EUcolony of , , a Brazilian colony of , and a

large Israeli colony, Emek Emet - “the valley of truth”- home to around , colonists. e US colony isapproximately equally composed of immigrants from theUS and from Mexico and South and Central America.

e world’s dense core and unusual geological historyhas provided it with an abundance of mineral resourc-es, including a profusion of heavy elements like gold,iridium, and platinum, as well as large concentrations ofuranium and other radioactive elements. e surface lifehas proven fascinating to biologists, as well as a sourcefor various unusual and medically useful biological com-pounds. Also, several plants growing in the deep rift val-leys have become popular culinary spices on Earth.

Most cities on Eri are built along the walls of thedeeper rift valleys and are heavily vertical, with large el-evators every few blocks. e oldest and largest US city,

Jeff erson, is built in a narrow, temperate rift valley thatis kilometers deep. Jeff erson is located kilometersbelow the old sea level, where the air pressure is . at-mospheres. Here, the valley is almost km across. Jeff er-son is home to more than half a million inhabitants andis built on both sides of the rift valley. Originally, threebridges built at diff erent altitudes connected the twosides of the city, but these bridges have expanded intoplatforms that are each more than half a mile wide and

contain an abundance of shops and open public spaces.ERIDANOS’ SECRETS

Because Eridanos’ surface is habitable to the mi-go, agroup of renegade mi-go who wish to engage in tradeoutside the restrictions of the treaty their species has

with humanity have recently constructed a small and well concealed base and begin trading with US miners who travel to the surface. ese mi-go specialize in sell-ing various new and untested biological augmentations,in return for elder one or Yithian artifacts smuggled fromEarth, other artifacts from other worlds, and some of therarer biological materials gathered from the deepest por-

tions of various rift valleys.Miners exploring the surface also recently uncov-ered evidence of an ancient intelligent civilization thatpredates the catastrophe that ripped away Eridanos’atmosphere. is species seems to have attained a veryhigh level of technology and was utterly destroyed bythe catastrophe. Further explorations to discover moreabout this civilization have just begun. Most archeolo-

gists believe that the inhabitants of Eridanos destroyedtheir world during a civil war. However, the truth is thatthe world was destroyed in a war between the inhabit-ants and a hyperspatial Great Old One that attempted to

conquer and feed on this planet.One of the artifacts that has been recovered is a plate

of some exceptionally hard silvery green material en-graved with unknown symbols. Several individuals whohave examined this plate have come down with the be-ginnings of the Hastur psychic infection. Hastur cultshave previously been unknown on Eridanos, but severalare now in the process of forming.

WEI-MING

Type: HabitableGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered with waterPopulation: . millionColonized:

Wei-Ming was seeded with Earth-derived life half abillion years ago. Life evolved and thrived on this rela-tively dry world. By , years ago a sentient specieshad evolved on Wei-Ming. Like most of the life on this

world, the Mingans were six-limbed vertebrates covered with large bony plates and long silky fur. , years agothe Mingans were a technically advanced culture whohad explored their solar system and were starting to ex-plore the stars beyond their world. , years ago, the

Mingans destroyed themselves in several disastrous warsthat used both anti-matter and hyperspatial weapons. Inthe end, all inhabited areas of Wei-Ming were reducedto huge regions of molten glass and the few Mingans

who survived this holocaust died from radiation and theresulting climatic catastrophe as the dust raised from the

various blasts obscured the sun for many decades. Overthe next several thousand years, the ecosystem on Wei-Ming largely recovered from this disaster, but the Min-gans were extinct within a century of their final war.

In , a Chinese expedition arrived in the Wei-Mingsystem. e crew of the ship saw evidence of the ancient

war from orbit. ey could also tell that this war was far

more recent than most of the other ruined worlds they’dencountered and they hoped to fi nd valuable alien arti-facts. is hope was soon realized. Over the next few years,several archeological teams were sent to learn more aboutthe fate of the Mingans, and to uncover any useful artifactsthey may have left behind. In the years since the Chinesefirst came to Wei-Ming a number of important discover-



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ies have been made, including one years ago that led tothe development of significantly improved superconduct-ing batteries and other discoveries that have improved thespeed and efficiency of dragonfl y-drive starships.

e war that destroyed the Mingans left massivescars that are even visible from orbit. Almost one quarter

of the land area of Wei-Ming is made up of swaths ofblackened glass. Although this war occurred , yearsago, only a few primitive plants and small animals havemanaged to re-colonize the edges of these glassy burned-off areas. e only things which disturbs the terrain ofthese blasted plains are partially fused mountains andthe melted remains of the Mingans’ nearly indestructiblemetallo-plastic buildings. However, while much of theland area of the world was converted to slag, life flourish-es on the rest. Almost half the remaining habitable landarea of Wei-Ming consists of thick, meter tall, jungle.

ese jungles are deep, primeval rain forests, which aredifficult to explore and yield up their secrets quite slowly.Between the jungles and the glassy burnt off areas,

much of the land is scrub, savannah and desert. From orbit Wei-Ming is a four colored world, the blue of oceans, theblack of the blasted areas, the green jungles and the tanand khaki of savannah and desert. Geologists and biolo-gists believe that Wei-Ming used to have a much greaterdegree of ecological diversity, but the war turned every-thing that wasn’t jungle into desert, scrub, or savannah.

Before the last Mingan war, Wei-Ming is believedto have been a rather mild and temperate planet, whicheven then contained large jungles. e Mingan weather

is anything but mild today. e thick atmosphere and theclimactic disturbance produced by the burned-off areasgives rise to enormous thunderstorms and high winds.Every year, Wei-Ming experiences several thunderstormsthat deliver over cm of rain in a single hour. e dense

jungle deflects and channels these torrential rains. How-ever, in the scrub, savannah, and desert regions the dan-ger of flash floods is very real.

THE COLONY

Since its life originally came from Earth, humans caneat most animals and plants on Wei-Ming and while aquarter of the world is a blasted ruin, any radioactivity

faded long ago and some of the jungle plants produce ed-ible and nutritious fruits. Various grains grow well on themore fertile portions of the savannah. While originallysettled to investigate the Mingan ruins in more detail,

Wei-Ming has become a popular colony world with Chi-nese immigrants. Today, it is home to a Chinese colony

with more than one million settlers, including districts

of immigrants from other Asian nations. It also hostsarcheological research stations run by both the EU andthe US and a small permanent OPS base trusted withexamining new artifacts and discoveries.

NATIVE LIFE Although derived from Earthly life, Wei-Ming’s life tooka diff erent path. Most larger life forms on Wei-Ming aremassive and heavily built. Most Mingan life is also ar-mored. Mingan vertebrates possess six limbs whose bodiesand heads are covered with inter-locking bony plates and

whose limbs are covered in silky, often long, fur. Most ani-mals either walk on six limbs, or they walk on four limbsand their remaining pair of limbs have been transformedto serve some specialized purpose like feeding or defense.

Slashers are a typical, mid-sized carnivore that hunt inthe jungles and on the edges of the savannah. ey weigharound kg, stand over one meter at the shoulder and

vaguely resemble armor-bodied bears with an extra pairof slender, muscular, limbs each ending in a single largecurved claw. ey are free to use their four legs for run-ning and climbing, while the slashing limbs serve to catchand kill prey. Normally, the Slashers keep their huntinglimbs tucked up against their bodies. When these limbsare extended, they are generally stalking their prey. eseand other similar life forms are quite willing to hunt hu-man prey and everyone who ventures into the jungles of

Wei-Ming does so armed.However, not all Mingan life is quite so dangerous. e

closest living relative of the extinct Mingans is the local

equivalent of a monkey known as a Hanu, called for thenoise it makes when excited. e Hanu is a small creature weighing around lb. Its head and body form a smooth,immobile, bony oval, with two large eyes. e Hanu hassix long, furry, limbs, four of which are adapted for climb-ing and limited manipulation, while the front two have sixlong, mutually opposable fingers set radially around a cen-tral palm. Hanu are as bright as chimpanzees, and are calmand good-natured unless threatened or harmed. ere isevidence that the Mingans kept them as either pets or ser-

vants and some colonists keep them as pets today.

THE MINGANS

Mingans evolved from arboreal ancestors like the Hanuand looked similar, except archaeological evidence showsthat they weighed between and kilograms ( to lb) and stood a little over one meter high at theshoulder. Images of the Mingans show elaborate col-oring and braiding of this fur in high-status Mingans.Mingan culture seems to have been highly stratified into



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5three large castes which were each responsible for vari-ous tasks. ere do not appear to have been any physicaldiff erences between the castes. Casting for life occurred

when the individual was a young adult and was based on

a complex series of rituals and aptitude tests. e details of what each caste did remain unclear. ere was a notable amount of mobility within a given caste,and an unbreakable taboo against moving between castes.Mingan life was clearly delineated along the lines of thesethree castes, with diff erent devices and types of dwellingsbeing used by members of each caste. e castes were in-dependent and rather isolated from each other. Social sta-tus was measured inside a class rather than between class-es. e castes seem to have only interacted while working,and been socially isolated from one another, with diff erentsections of a city being given over to each caste.

ere are no intact Mingan cities; however, several

of their smaller settlements escaped becoming plains ofglassy slag. While all of these settlements endured bothminor bombing and , years of age, Mingan archi-tecture was made of advanced plastic-metal composites,far more durable than any material that can be created byhumanity. A number of Mingan devices also still work.However, many operate according to principles far out-side the range of existing science. So far, attempts to du-plicate or understand these devices have failed. Some ofmost impressive devices that have not been locked awayby either the Chinese government or the OPS are nowon exhibit in at the local archeological institute museum.

THREE OF THE MOST PROMINENT EXHIBITS ARE:

A rounded cube with a removable lid. Whenthe lid is closed time passes exactly /th asfast inside the box as outside of it.

A small telescope-like object that separatesinto two parts. Looking through the lowersection lets a viewer see through the up-per section, as long as the two sections areless than ,, km apart. e strang-est thing about this device is that light passesfrom the upper section to the lower sectioninstantaneously, as long as the pieces are lessthan three light-minutes apart.

A small black cylinder large enough to fit com-fortably in two hands. Anything that is non-living and is small enough to fit inside it, suchas a pen or a wristwatch, may be pushed gentlyinto the top surface of the cylinder. e cylin-der gains neither weight nor inertia and halfa cubic meter worth of objects can fit inside.

Attempting to overfill the cylinder or press-ing the blue symbol on the side twice causesall stored items to seemingly fall through thebottom on the cylinder. When examined with

various technologies, including x-ray scans,the cylinder always appears solid and devoidof internal structure.

HATHOR


Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered with water.Population: . millionColonized: Hathor is smaller than Earth, with a lower surface gravityand a significantly smaller land area. In most other ways,

Hathor is exceedingly earth-like. e air and water areboth safe and healthy for humans and except in the polarregions temperatures are well with most people’s comfortrange. Hathor is a somewhat cooler world than Earth.

Temperatures almost never rise above F, even at theequator. However, the lack of polar continents serves tomoderate the climate, and so while the continents closerto the poles have cold winters, the temperatures rarelybecome as cold as similar latitudes on Earth.

Most of the land area of this world consists of numer-ous islands and small continents. e six equatorial andtemperate continents are all quite lush and habitable,hence the planet’s naming after an ancient Egyptian god-

dess of nourishment and joy. e oceans are full of life andare all quite shallow, with an average depth of little over akilometer. e only true environmental dangers on Hathorare hurricanes and volcanism. e large ocean area and theslightly higher air pressure combine to make this world’shurricanes significantly more powerful than Earth’s. How-ever, improved weather forecasting helps reduce the im-pact of these storms. Hathor is also slightly more tectoni-cally active than Earth. Geological and biological evidencesuggests that continental drift is almost twice as fast ason Earth, and that the various small and mid-sized conti-nents have been in contact with each other regularly overthe last million years. So far, all human colonies havebeen built well away from known fault lines.

NATIVE LIFE

Life is abundant on Hathor, but it is not quite as diverseas life on Earth, because seed life was only introducedfrom Earth million years ago. e vertebrates onHathor are four-limbed and covered by smooth, slightly



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rubbery, skin, not unlike the skin of a dolphin or whale.On land-dwelling species, this skin has toughened sothat it no longer needs to remain wet and is covered by ashort, downy coat of brightly colored plush fur for insula-

tion and display. Flyers on Hathor use wings made fromflaps of skin, like bats and pterosaurs. Feathers and longfur never evolved on this world.

Much land-dwelling life on Hathor is either am-phibious or able to fl y, and some of it can exist equallyeasily in the air, on land, and in the oceans. Some speciesof triphibian creatures, including the air shark, begin lifeas ocean-dwellers and mature into pteranodon-like fli -ers with long teeth and large mouths. ey live on land

when they are not in the air. Wyverns are a species ofhuge kg omnivorous fl yers, similar in appearance ofhuge, smooth-skinned bats with long muscular tails. Us-ing a mixture of selective breeding and a small amount ofgenetic engineering to help speed the taming process, inthe last years, they have been sufficiently domesticatedto serve as fl ying mounts for individuals who are skilledat working with them.

is world’s low gravity also means that many lifeforms are bipedal and most have a long, attenuated look.

e plants are similarly tall; the local equivalent of treeslook somewhat like enormous, slender stalks of broccoliand often grow more than meters tall, with the tallestspecies being almost meters tall. e wood of manyof these trees is moderately hard and comes in a wide

variety of colors and grain patterns. is wood, as well as

the large bamboo-like reeds which grow close to riversand lakes served the inhabitants as an important buildingmaterial and are also a major luxury export.

Large forests cover the interior of most continents. is world’s generally wet and rainy climate meansthat most of these forests are similar to temperate andsub-tropical rain forests. Inside these forests, small riv-ers cross the landscape and moss-like plants hang from

the trees. e coastal regions, as well as areas located onthe lee side of the numerous volcanic mountain rangesare notably drier. While the few true deserts are all quitesmall, large areas of savanna and open forest exist in drier

areas. Hathor never developed true grasses but durablesucculent-like plants have turned the ground in such ar-eas into vast greenish purple carpets.

THE COLONY

e EU opened one continent to colonization in , anda total of , people have settled there. More than, of the colonists are Russians who applied for per-mission to settle in this colony. Other large contingents ofcolonists come from Britain, Germany, Australia, Turkey,and South Africa. In , the Japanese also obtained per-mission to found a colony on another continent, and todayalmost , of the colonists are from Japan. In , a

joint US-Mexican colony was founded on a third conti-nent and currently has a population of ,. All of thecolonies have avoided settling in the deep forests. esesettlements are all located on this world’s savannas andopen forests. In part, this was done in an eff ort to avoid

widespread ecological destruction, and in part to avoid themildly poisonous plants found in many forests.

Few land animals are capable of successfully attackingprey as large as a human. Generally, walking in a wil-derness area on Hathor is as safe as walking in a park.However, the seas are far more dangerous. A numberof species of large, predatory sea-life quickly discoveredthat humans were edible. Most vehicles traveling on orover the oceans carry chemicals designed to repel nativepredators, in case the vehicle sinks or crashes.

THE SPIDERS

One of the most interesting aspects of life on Hathor arethe so-called Spiders.

ese creatures are small, intelligent amphibious beings whose hind limbs are divided into two pairs of closely set

Name: Hanu Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed:

Special Abilities: Extra Arms, Natural Armor

MANEUVERS


Claws Slash/Stab





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5

legs well adapted for both swimming and walking. istype of limb doubling is moderately common on Hathor,and also appears in a number of fl ying species. e spidershave ovoid bodies set on these four legs, with two long,multi-jointed arms as manipulators. Like much life on thisplanet, the Spiders have no separate neck and head. eir

brains are contained in the main body compartment, andsensory organs are located in several places. e spiders areapproximately the size and mass of a large dog.

e Spiders have developed a copper age technologyand live in the shallow inland sea of a single large con-tinent that has been placed off -limits to all colonization.Visiting to this continent, popularly known as Spiderland,is carefully regulated, and civilian colonists and visitors canonly go there on official tours. Researchers from both theOPS and various private organizations have been study-ing the spiders through telescopes and via remote drones,but have not attempted to make any form of contact with

them. e spiders are the only living intelligent species onany world seeded with Earth life and tourism to see themhas become a moderate source of income for Hathor.

EDEN


Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered with water.Population: ,Colonized:

Eden is the third moon of a large gas giant, Draco,around half the mass of Jupiter. Draco is a warm gas giant,

of the type that is common throughout the galaxy. Edenhas one large continent, called Marsh, a few islands and a

vast ocean. All the islands on Eden are within , kilo-meters of the main continent, and so the vast majority ofthe planet is single vast ocean. Eden is geologically veryquiet, with few volcanoes and earthquakes, low, rolling,mountains, and relatively slow continental drift. e at-

mosphere is slightly thin, but still comfortable to breathe. ere is little of mineral wealth on Eden and heavy met-als are less abundant than on Earth. e planet’s primaryresource Eden is land. e continent of Marsh is locatedin the northern temperate zone and is composed almostexclusively of open land dotted with numerous lakes. Eden

contains a wealth of arable land as well as excellent fishing.

NATIVE LIFE

Life on Eden is fairly primitive and was originally seededfrom Earth million years ago. ere is abundant lifein the oceans, but little of it has come out on land. emajority of land plants are similar to reeds and ferns.

Woody plants never evolved on this world. Similarly, theland-based life is almost exclusively composed of vari-ous amphibious creatures and an abundance of insect-like creatures and creatures similar to some of the smallerreptiles. e largest land animal on Eden has a mass of kg ( lb) and is the size of a medium sized dog. Eden’s

seas are very diff erent. While no bony creatures are largerthan a great white shark, some of the invertebrates growto truly enormous sizes. e largest life forms in theoceans of Eden are the huge raft-jellies which float onand just under the surface of Eden’s ocean. Raft-jelliescan grow up to . km on a side and support a host ofsmall amphibious life on their upper surfaces. e larg-est raft-jellies are sturdy enough to support the weightof several hundred adult humans. While they are quiteflexible and ripple and sway in the waves, adventuroustourists and locals have taken vacations on the raft-jellies,amid their miniature forests of amphibious plants and

animals. Also, many of the native plants and animals lifeare edible and some have become popular exports. Eden-ic seafood is a luxury in much of the first world.

THE COLONY

Russia founded a colony on Eden in , and the dis-covery of the alien ruins in prompted the Japaneseto found a colony in . e Russian colony declared

Name: Slasher Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed:

Special Abilities: Extra Legs, Natural Armor

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its independence in and loosely allied itself with theEU. Since , there has been an influx of immigrantsboth from the EU and from various parts of Eastern Eu-rope and the Middle East. e Russian colony has a pop-

ulation of , and the Japanese colony, Ebisu, has apopulation of , . In addition, a Canadian archeo-logical station is located on one of the smaller islands.

ALIEN RUINS & MYSTERIES

Although intelligence never evolved on Eden, human-ity is clearly not the first intelligent species to visit this

world. On nine of the smaller islands, though not onMarsh, there are extensive alien ruins built by a large am-phibious intelligent species referred to as the dodecs, who

whose remains indicate that their biology was not de-rived from Earth. e dodecs seem to have been octopus-like beings, approximately the mass of large cows, with

a -meter span measured from tip to tip of the longesttwo of their tentacles. e first dodec ruins appearedaround , years ago, and then vanished mysteriously, years ago. ere is no evidence of war or conflicton Eden and no reason why the aliens left. Currently ar-cheologists are exploring these ruins.

e truth of the matter is that the dodecs never left. ey arrived a few thousand years before the major-ity of their species transcended. Some of the dodecs onEden transcended and vanished from the physical uni-

verse, while the few that remained acquired knowledgeof hyper-advanced genetic engineering techniques givento them by individuals who were in the process of tran-scending. e remaining dodecs used this knowledgeto alter their biology to fully adapt themselves to life inEden’s Earth-derived ecosystem and to greatly increasetheir size, intelligence, and their psychic powers. Today,approximately , dodecs live in the deep oceans ofEden, feeding on raft jellies and engaging in brilliant andutterly inhuman science and philosophy.

ese beings have given up all technology as unnec-essary and use their vast minds and psychic powers toattempt to understand the secrets of the universe, whileremaining in communication with other powerful psy-chic species like the Europans. Humanity has only beenon Eden for years and the dodecs have not yet noticedtheir presence. Having no use for the land, they wouldnot object to humanity living there, but would react vio-lently to any threat to their safety.

Name: Air Shark Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (fl ying)Special Abilities: Enhanced Sight, Enhanced Smell

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab


Ram Bashing

Name: Wyvern Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (fl ying)Special Abilities: Enhanced Sight, can be ridden

MANEUVERS


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5

FIREFLY

Type: Safe

Gravity: . Gs Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm (. atmosphere on theinhabited plateau)

Water: of the surface is covered with water.Population: ,Colonized:

Firefl y consists of a single massive equatorial conti-nent surrounded by a vast ocean. Both on land and inthe ocean, dark purple plant-like organisms cover thesurface. In the ocean, huge mats of tough kelp-like algaelie just under the surface of the water. Most of the landarea is covered by a great forest. Each tall stalk supportsa trio of huge leaf-like structures that overlap with theleaves from other stalks, forming a forest canopy thatallows little light to reach the world’s surface. Even atmid-day, the area beneath the forest canopy has the sameamount of light as a clear full moon night on Earth. e

world underneath the canopy is mostly lit with extensivebioluminescence, which the plants and animals use tocommunicate with one another, much as plants and ani-mals use chemical signals on our world. Glowing seedsand fruit and glowing animals adorn this twilight world.

All of these signals form an extremely complex visuallanguage. is jungle is also exceedingly hot and humid;Firefl y’s thick air holds heat and moisture exceedingly

well; the average temperature is between C ( F) & C (F), with humidity always in excess of .

NATIVE LIFE

Life on Firefl y may look like it is divided into mobileanimals and stationary plants. e reality is more exotic.Firefl y’s life is divided into more than two dozen vast,competing multi-bodied organisms, known as metas.

Each meta is a single vast symbiotic super-organismthat covers thousands of square kilometers. In each meta,there are animals that trim off diseased portions of leaves

and distribute the seeds of plants, while feeding off theplant life in return. Some animals exist only to travel toa location and die, in yearly migrations, in order to pro-

vide nutrients for a nutrient-poor region. ese super-or-ganisms are actually intelligent and self-aware, althoughnone of them are yet aware of humanity. e variousmetas trade, cooperate, and engage in wars against oneanother. Some metas are larger than others and occasion-ally, a meta is destroyed and consumed by one or moreenemies, just as occasionally two metas exchange geneticmaterial and create a new meta. Although metas lack anyinternal conflict, conflicts between one meta and anothercan become exceptionally vicious, and are fought witheverything from heavily armed and armored creaturesthat guard borders and attack rival metas to plants thatproduce and distribute deadly toxins designed to slay or-ganisms belonging to a diff erent meta.

THE COLONY

Normally, settling on a world inhabited by an alien eco-system is difficult and dangerous, but Firefl y is unusualbecause the metas that live on land all form thick foreststhat require the world’s dense atmosphere to thrive. Re-cent geological activity raised a large plateau almost fourkilometers above the surrounding landscape. With an areaof slightly more than fi ve million square kilometers (twomillion square miles) this plateau is less than of theland area of the planet’s single continent. It is also exceed-ingly uninviting to the various metas because the air pres-sure up on this plateau is less than two thirds what it is onthe surface and the plateau is also considerably cooler anddryer than the surface, with temperatures typically rangingfrom C to C. Coincidentally, these conditions are

Name: Spider Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: / (swimming)

Special Abilities: Amphibious, Enhanced smell, Extra Legs, Night Vision,

MANEUVERS


Punch Bash


Spear Slash/Stab

rown Spear Slash/Stab



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ideal for humans. ree metas have colonized the edgesof the plateau, but the interior is barren except for a fewmobile meta components that scavenge for trace miner-als to carry back to their forest homes. As a result, more

than three million square kilometers of land on Firefl y arehabitable and before human colonization were claimed bynothing more than a few lichen-like organisms.

e colony on Firefl y was originally settled in as abiological research station. However, when researchers dis-covered that only small amounts of soil sterilization were nec-essary to allow human crops could be grown in the plateau’sthin soil, colonists from India used India’s first starship tocome here in . e Hindi name for the planet is Juganū.

Today, the colony has a population of , and is grow-ing rapidly. Many colonists make their income by donningarmored environment suits and heading into the meta junglesto gather plants and animals, since many contain unique and

valuable biological compounds, including a few that have ledto the discovery and synthesis of important medicines as wellas others that are potent euphoric hallucinogens.

FIREFLY MYSTERIES

So far, the metas are unaware of the colonists. All the vari-ous metas know is that mobile components that ventureonto the plateau often either vanish, because the colonistscollect them, or are incapable of gaining access to some re-gions that are now protected by fences and other barriers.However, recently one meta has become aware of the pres-ence of new life on the plateau and now wonders if this lifeis part of some other meta’s secret plan. Similarly, humanresearchers understand that Firefl y’s biology is unique andhave a general understanding of the metas’ biology, but donot yet know the metas are intelligent entities.

If humanity makes contact with one or more metas, themetas will have great difficulty understanding the existenceof separate individuals. However, if contact goes well, themetas may be willing to trade their various biological cre-ations for metal tools and other technologies, and will be es-pecially interested in hyperspatial technologies, which noneof the metas understand. Contact with the metas is certainto destabilize the politics between the various metas.

PACIFICA

Type: SafeGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Breathable, atm Water: of the surface is covered with waterPopulation: , + in orbitOpened For Research Bases:

Pacifica, with three times the mass of Earth and almosthalf again its diameter, lacks all land, and its oceans are over km deep. e ocean floor consists of various types ofexotic high pressure ice rather than rock or mud. Research-

ers believe that worlds like Pacifica occur when a planet likeUranus or Neptune ends up in an orbit similar to Earth’s.

Although explorers have found more than half a dozen suchsuperocean worlds, Pacifica is the only one that harbors anecosystem and atmosphere that are relatively safe for hu-manity to interact with. e rest of the superocean worldsdiscovered have been either lifeless or home to life that ex-ists in exotic atmospheres of nitrogen, ammonia, and carbondioxide. Explorers continue to search for an ocean world

with Earth-derived life, but have so far failed to find one.

RESEARCH BASES

Pacifica’s gravity is too uninviting for anyone to wish to es-

tablish a colony, but its unique biology has attracted muchinterest. Discovered in , corporations from China, theUS, and Japan have formed several large research bases onPacifica since it was opened to research bases in . e

various facilities on Pacifica employ highly skilled research-ers who come from many diff erent countries to study theunusual life as well as the sea’s biochemistry. US and Chinacorporations are also engaged in projects to mine the exoticice at the ocean floor, since the chemicals produced as partof its unusual state have important industrial applications.

All of these bases are artificial floating islands with lim-ited propulsion. ey ride low in the water to avoid thepowerful hurricanes that periodically disrupt all air trafficon this world. Although its unique biology and geologyinterest many researchers, Pacifica is a difficult world to

visit, since the high atmospheric pressure and the highgravity make life here difficult and uncomfortable. Resi-dents or visitors without the Pressure Tolerance modifica-tion need to take weekly shots to prevent mild nitrogennarcosis caused by the high atmospheric pressure. Failureto take these medicines results in a - penalty to all rollsinvolving either Intelligence or Perception. Residents wholive on Pacifica for more than a month or two tend to de-

velop a higher Strength in response to the gravity. As a respite from the surface conditions, the various na-

tions working on Pacifica cooperated to build a large spacestation that orbits this world. When hurricanes are not preventing surface to orbit travel, researchers regularly visit thisstation, known as Comfort Station, to enjoy Earthlike grav-ity and air pressure. Comfort Station has a permanent pop-ulation of , as well as an average of , visitors fromthe surface. Despite its size, it is an exceptionally cosmo-politan station, with abundant food and entertainments for



18

5residents of all three cultures. A small amphitheatre in theheart of Comfort Station regularly hosts famous perform-ers. According to rumors, the station is also a prime site forindustrial espionage and various backroom deals between

representatives from various corporations and nations. Resi-dents of Pacifica use a small fleet of eight large space planesto travel between the surface and Comfort Station.

NATIVE LIFE

Initial research revealed that life on Pacifica is distantly re-lated to life on Firefl y. Both were seeded from a common

world many hundreds of millions of years before. Muchlife on Pacifica consists of highly flexible creatures who canmodify their shape almost as well as amoebas or shoggoths.Known collectively as morphs, the largest of these creaturesare somewhat larger than the largest whale to ever swimEarth’s seas. Pacifica is also home to strange crystalline ap-

pearing life popularly called spikes. Spikes consist of porouscarbonate structures, like coral that are infused with a matrixliving tissue. is coral grows complex joints, allowing thesecreatures to move as well as Earthly vertebrates. Most ofthese creatures grow fractally and are between the size of anearthly bee and a small whale, but one species grows to truly

vast size, forming large artificial islands that float on and be-neath the surface, typically ovoid shapes between metersand eight kilometers in diameter and half that thick. Knowntechnically as ogygias and more commonly as ogees, theseislands consist of a complex and exceedingly dense networkof jointed limbs that can gradually change shape.

ese islands also hold a wide variety of life, includ-ing smaller spikes and several types of morphs. is lifedwells both inside the network of limbs and on the sur-face of the ogee. ese surfaces are often covered in vege-tation that has evolved specifically to live on ogees. Ogeesare common and their total area covers almost of Pa-cifica’s surface. To avoid disturbing the native life andalso so they don’t have to deal with the invasive growthof the spikes that make up the structure of the ogees,

none of the research stations are located on any of theogees, but several stations use their propulsion systems tokeep them within a few hundred meters of a large ogee.

One of the oddest features of Pacifica is that all but

the most primitive life on this world is obviously psychic.Psychics who visit this world report strange and complexdreams taking place in a bizarre oceanic Dream Realm, as

well as a low level psychic “background noise” while theyare awake. Although no one has yet pieced together thetruth, some of this psychic “noise” comes from the exoticice on the ocean floor. Some sections of ice are undergo-ing complex sets of electrochemical interactions that causethem to function as giant, psychic minds. Several hundredseparate ice-minds, both highly intelligent and incrediblyalien, exist on Pacifica. ese minds have a dim awarenessof the life in Pacifica’s oceans, but little understanding ofthe physical world or the ability to act in it. ese mindshave also not yet become aware of the humans on this

world, except perhaps in the same way the humans havenoticed them: as a curious, unidentifiable sort of “noise”.

COLOSSUS

Type: Mixed Safe & HabitableGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere: Breathable, pressure . atmospheres Water: of the surface is covered with water.Population: ,Colonized:

is unique world is the first, and so far the only arti-

ficial planet discovered by humanity. Colossus is , kilometers in diameter, and consists of a series of severalhundred large continents separated by wide seas. Colossus

was obviously artificial, since it is unlikely that a naturalterrestrial planet could be that large and have an Earthlikegravity. Detailed observation with radar and other sensorsrevealed that Colossus is an artificial shell built around agas giant world located at a distance around its sun similar

Name: Attack Mobile Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed:

Special Abilities: Extra Arms ( pair), Extra Attack, Night Vision, Natural Armor , Increased Speed.

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab

Claw Slash/Stab




182

to Earth’s distance from the Sun. is gas giant is slightlysmaller than Jupiter and provides the gravity for the in-habitants of the artificial world that surrounds it. Colossushas a surface area is almost times that of Earth, leaving

room for many trillions of potential inhabitants. However,not all of it is habitable by humans. Diff erent continentson Colossus are home to diff erent entirely diff erent eco-systems from diff erent worlds.

OPS has performed a general orbital survey of Colos-sus. However, because of this world’s vast size, explorershave only visited of Colossus’ continents. So far,explorers have discovered alien ruins from six diff erentalien species on of these continents. Colossus also hascontains diff erent ecosystems from diff erent planets, butit only contains four diff erent biologies. All life on Colos-sus originally evolved on one of four diff erent worlds, oneof which was Earth. e three other worlds are all hometo life that is biologically compatible with humans and arecategorized as safe for humans. Life from each of these

worlds was seeded onto dozens of other previously lifelessplanets aeons ago, and then hundreds of millions of yearslater, some unknown alien intelligence took samples of lifefrom these four worlds that evolved their own life and lifefrom the other worlds that had been seeded with life,and seeded it on Colossus.

According to current data, six continents were seeded with life from Earth, and at least continents were seed-ed with life from worlds that were previously seeded with

life from Earth. Initial exploration of eight of these con-tinents indicate that all are suitable habitats for humanity.Colossus was created approximately . million years agoand the continents inhabited by life derived from Earth

were all populated approximately . million years ago.Hominid remains have been found on four of the six con-tinents derived from Earth, and two continents that are

relatively near one another were once home to a thrivingand advanced hominid civilization that spread from onecontinent to the next , years ago and then vanishedmysteriously approximately , years ago.

OPS teams have been exploring these hominid ruinssince they were discovered years ago, but most provedto be very badly decayed. e vast majority of post-industrial data produced by these hominids was storedelectronically on chips that decayed into chipped and ru-ined fragments tens of thousands of years ago. Informa-tion about the history of these people is largely limited toexceedingly fragmentary evidence. Also, although thesehominids built their later cities from exceedingly durablematerials, these cities were not built from the same nearlyageless materials used by the elder ones or the great raceof Yith, and after , years all that is left of the cit-ies and other worlds of these ancient hominids are badlydecayed ruins. ere is no indication that they were de-stroyed by warfare or invasion by hyperspatial beings –they simply seem to have vanished in less than a century,and most researchers who understand the concept be-lieve that they transcended.

Other Intelligent Life: Brief surveys of Colossus’continents have not produced any evidence of currentintelligent inhabitants. ere is no radio traffic, but somespecies use other forms of communication, and the pres-ence of bioluminescent life-forms on many of the con-tinents has made identifying possible cities though thepresence of lights very difficult. e sheer size of Colossus

makes determining the presence of any other intelligentlife difficult, especially if this intelligent life uses technol-ogy that is substantially diff erent from human technol-ogy. Despite the entire planet having been mapped fromorbit, the mass of data generated by this mapping is solarge that so far only one third of it has been analyzed indetail. Currently, OPS is certain that there are no land-based civilizations that cover multiple continents, butundersea intelligences or intelligent beings that exist onlyon a portion of a single continent are both possible. Inaddition, while the surface of Colossus consists of a layerof rock and soil over one kilometer thick, seismic sen-sors reveal an extensive network of tunnels beneath this

seemingly natural surface. Explorers have not yet gainedaccess to these tunnels and it is possible that entire civili-zations exist deep beneath Colossus’ surface.

THE COLONY

Both to study the local ruins, and because Colossus of-fers an abundance of habitable land, the OPS declaredthis world open for limited colonization in . OPS

ROLEPLAYING OPPORTUNITIES ON COLOSSUS

As the largest colony planet, with a total land area that will take humans centuries to explore, Colossus holdsnearly infinite possibilities for encounters. Long-lost sub-

terranean human civilizations, thriving colonies of alienraces once believed extinct, entire countries full of moon-beast slaves or worshippers of an unheard-of Great OldOne, even a new species in the process of transcendence.Opportunities for genre-crossing abound: maybe onecontinent holds a group of well-preserved Earth humanskidnapped from any major era of history, or their descen-dents. Whatever did happen to Ambrose Bierce, anyway?



18

5officials decided that the evidence of several civilizations,including one human or near-human civilization, havingthrived on Colossus for thousands of years indicates thatthe world is relatively safe for humanity. e colony of

Colossus is located on the continent of Prasong – namedafter the fi rst explorer to visit this continent. Prasongis one of the two continents that the ancient hominidsinhabited. Today, the city of Prime on the continent ofPrasong has a population of more than , Chi-nese colonists. Another , multinational colonists,primarily from North America, Africa, and the MiddleEast, live in three smaller US-founded cities within , kilometers of Prime. OPS lists Colossus as being riskierthan other extra-solar colonies, because of the ill-under-stood diversity of life present on this world, but the vastpotential for exploration and the fame and wealth somecolonists have achieved though discoveries of ancient ru-ins continue to entice prospective colonists.

MINOR WORLDS

e following are brief descriptions of worlds that human-ity has visited but has at most small research stations on.

WUSTE

Type: Safe (but difficult to survive on)Gravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered with water, in theform of small lakes and small polar caps

Discovered: Wuste is a giant desert, baked by ultraviolet light from

its brilliant blue-white F star. To protect itself from theultraviolet rays, almost all life on this world evolved un-derneath the sands, creating an elaborate sub-surfaceecosystem. All life on Wuste shares characteristics ofboth plants and animals. Some of the more plant-likeorganisms grow on the surface in wide flat sheets withlong tap roots reaching down to subsurface water. Mostgrow in the sand itself. Light fi lters down through thefirst meter or so of the desert and here mobile algae-likeplant-like organisms grow intermixed with the sand, wa-tered by evening and morning mists. ese subterraneanorganisms feed on a complex ecosystem of creatures thatswim and tunnel through the sand beneath. ese eyelesscreatures see using sonar and infrared light and some arepredators large enough to easily devour humans. ereare sizeable areas of subsurface water that nourish locallife, while also providing enough soil moisture to enablecreatures in these areas to construct long lasting tunnels,

many of which are reinforced with various silk or wax-like biological products. Some of these tunnel-reinforc-ing compounds have a high commercial value.

Most of these tunnels are between one and four meters

in diameter and many are inhabited by a dozen or morespecies, including a few that deliberately grow fungi-likeorganisms for food. Some of these tunnel networks are rela-tively small; others are elaborate branching constructs thatstretch for many dozens of kilometers. Wuste seems devoidof intelligent life, but a few traces of ancient alien visitorshave been detected at several locations on the surface.

CINDER

Type: Habitable (in the caverns) Hostile Environment(on the surface)Gravity: . Gs

Atmosphere: Breathable, . atm in the caverns, no at-mosphere on the surface Water: of the caverns contain water; the surface isburnt and barren.Discovered:

Cinder circles a red giant star. Seeded with life million years ago, million years ago, it was thrivingand fi lled with life, but as its star aged and expanded,the increased heat first boiled Cinder’s oceans and thenbaked the rock. Today, the surface temperature is almost degrees Celsius during the day. However, life enduresdeep below the surface. When the star first began to ex-pand million years ago, Cinder was inhabited by a

highly advanced technological species. ey refused to work with hyperspatial technologies and could not travelto other stars, but they dug a network of huge cavernsfar below their world’s surface. Here, protected from theheat above by more than four kilometers of rock, on a

world where most geothermal activity faded hundredsof millions of years before the star expanded, these be-ings constructed a subterranean refuge for themselvesand much of the world’s life. Today, all life on Cinder iscontained in a series of caverns between meters and kilometers in diameter. ese caverns all interconnect,forming a complex network that stretches for thousandsof kilometers. Access to the surface comes through vast

tunnels meter across, drilled through the rock. Hu-manity has found fi ve such tunnels, two of which stillhave functional elevators.

e aliens vanished almost a million years ago, but thestrange ecosystem they created remains. Most caverns are

well lit with the power of exceptionally durable solar cells;in a tenth of the caverns, these lights have mostly failed



184

and provide no more illumination than a moonlit night. ese strange and perpetually dark caverns are home to a wide variety of exotic nocturnal life. e aliens were pro-lific genetic engineers, and dozens of the surviving species

are as intelligent as great apes or the smarter monkeys andsome seem at least as smart as early pre-humans. As a re-sult, many creatures in Cinder’s caverns are capable of bothrudimentary communication and relatively complex tooluse. Some of these life forms are interested in observinghuman visitors, and a few species seem drawn to visitorsand attempt to help them with various simple tasks.

Humans have not yet fully explored the cavern sys-tem. Glyphs mark the walls of some caverns, indicating anavigation system that researchers are currently trying totranslate. Some of them indicate resources and points ofaccess, but the linguists studying these caverns have notbeen able to decipher a particular subset of glyphs thatappear in certain caverns – not all caverns, but a smallpercentage of them. If all of these glyphs were marked ona map of the planet, a pattern of several networks withidentifiable center points would emerge.

Glyphs in this particular set are always engraved deeperthan the rest of the glyphs. Sorcerers and psychics whoexamine them detect a unique resonance. One researcherhas commented on a similarity between one of the char-acters and a diagram found in an old manuscript pertain-ing to Nyarlathotep, but no one has found equivalents forthe other glyphs yet. At the center points of the networks,not yet reached by humans, lie immense caverns bereft of

light where basalt altars stand ready, covered in engravingsof complex diagrams. ese altars are some of the mostrecent constructs found in the caverns. A determined ex-plorer with the right background could experiment withthese altars and might be able to discover the mathemati-cal or ritual combinations necessary to activate them.

ERYCINIA

Type: HostileGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Dangerous, . atm Water: of the surface is covered with water.Discovered:

Erycinia is a warm verdant world where the entireland area consists of a pair of large equatorial continents.It was seeded with life from Earth million years ago,contains a wealth of biological diversity, and is inhabitedby animals similar to dinosaurs and other Jurassic andCretaceous inhabitants of Earth. e only reason Ery-cinia is not open for colonization is that the level of car-

bon dioxide in the atmosphere is times higher thanon Earth. While humans can breathe the air, doing so formore than half an hour causes headaches, blurred vision,and shortness of breath. Erycinia was discovered in by a ship of UK and Australian explorers. Bioengineersare currently attempting to create an augmentation that

would allow humans to live here. Until that point, visitors wear space suits or respirator masks with carbon dioxidescrubbers that must be changed every two days. Cur-rently, Erycinia is a small biological research station. isplanet has been in the news recently, due to the discoveryof rare crystalline nodules that enhance psychic powers.

NATIVE INHABITANTS

Erycinia is inhabited by a species of stone age primitivesthat resemble intelligent bipedal dinosaurs. ese creaturesare known as saurs, and while visitors to Erycinia have seenand photographed them, no one has yet captured one andresearchers know little about them. Unknown to human-ity, , years ago, the saurs had moderately advancedpsychic technology, and physical technology similar to late

th century human tech, as well as the ability to create various unusual materials, including the psi crystals. Un-fortunately, the saurs attracted the attention of a hungryGreat Old One, who killed off almost of their speciesand wrecked the saurs’ civilization.

Humanity has so far found little evidence of the saurs’previous civilization. Currently, the only known artifactsare the psi crystals and a curious structure covering sev-eral dozen hectares: a walled and roofed complex maze,

which is complexly invisible to light from the infrared, visible, and ultra-violet spectra. e material of the mazeis as tough as reinforced concrete.

PELLUCIDA

Type: Hostile EnvironmentGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered in iceDiscovered:

Pellucida used to have an atmosphere half as thick as

PSI CRYSTALS

ese crystals are found only on Erycinia and are typi-cally ovoids that are between fi ve and eight cm across.

When in contact with a psychic’s skin, a psi crystal provides the psychic with a + bonus to their Psychic Artskill. Using multiple crystals provides no additional bo-nus. ese crystals are rare and expensive. Owning a psicrystal costs one quality point or two experience points.



18

5Earth’s, but million years ago, during an ancient bat-tle between elder one genetic engineers and a Great OldOne, the world gradually lost most of its atmosphere.

is loss occurred over the course of million years.

Life on Pellucida adapted, evolving brilliantly colored, jointed silica shells and silicone skins to protect it fromevaporation and ultraviolet light. Today, life on Pellucidais somewhat sparse, but it is also brilliant and striking.Some of this life can survive for days or even weeks in the

vacuum of space and researchers are currently studyingthese creatures to gain information for new augmenta-tions and new space suit designs. Unfortunately, manylarge life forms on Pellucida hunt any prey that appearsto have valuable nutrients, including humans. Life onPellucida is distantly related to life on Firefl y and Paci-fica, but is devoid of the psychic powers found in organ-isms on both of these worlds.

Pellucida also contains ruins of an alien civilization. ese aliens appear to have died out approximately , years ago, just as they were learning to use electricity andartificially generated power. ey were killed off by a se-ries of powerful solar flares.

In actuality, the solar flares only killed most of them:survivors retreated to caverns and shadowed areas alongthe edge of high mountain ranges. ey lost almost all oftheir technology, and their numbers have only recentlybegun to recover. Human explorers have yet to encounterliving members of this species, which look like delicatecrystalline legged spider-like beings one meter high

and slightly over a meter across. ey lack venom andcannot spin webs, but they excel at delicate manipulationand can use all limbs as either manipulators or as feet.

ese aliens are attempting to regain their technology,and the most advanced groups verge on being able tosend and receive radio signals.

PRODÍGIO

Type: SafeGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered in waterDiscovered:

Discovered by Brazilian explorers in , this worldis under careful but discreet observation. From orbit, itappears to be a lush and verdant planet, full of life andpossessing clearly artificial weather patterns that give theentire world abundant access to rainfall. A closer look re-

veals far stranger wonders. is world has an abundanceof islands floating in the air. Held up by some unknown

and clearly quite stable form of hyperspatial manipulation,these fl ying lands hover between meters and four kilo-meters (two and a half miles) off the ground. e smallestare no larger than a city block, and the largest are almost

kilometers ( miles) across and . km (one mile) thick.Some are stationary, and a few are connected to the surfaceby elaborate bridges, but most float at slow speeds between and kilometers per hour, or alternate between remain-ing stationary and moving at such speeds.

Prodigio has an exceptionally strange and complexecosystem. Much of its abundant life is at least as intel-ligent as a monkey and has clearly been genetically engi-neered. Most of this life is also relatively tame, and someof it seems to be designed for complex tool use. A num-ber of these animals perform maintenance on machinesof unknown purpose. In addition, a highly advanced in-telligent species inhabits this world. e Prodigians, likemost life on this world, are seven-limbed creatures. eProdigians walk on four legs arranged around their pear-shaped bodies and have three manipulators. Psychics re-port that all Prodigians they have scanned are part of oneof eight vast psychic hive minds that have proven impos-sible for human psychics to contact.

e members of each hive mind perform incompre-hensible tasks using technologies that appear to be part ofthe natural world. ese technologies are far in advance ofanything humanity understands. e Prodigians can cre-ate fl ying lands or alter large areas of the landscape withinhours or days, all without using any obvious tools or de-

vices. Many researchers believe that much of the surfaceof this world now consists of a series of powerful techno-logical devices. e most popular current theory is that theProdigians are on the verge of transcending and are cur-rently engaged in strange and unknowable preparations.

ese aliens seem largely indiff erent to or unaware ofhuman observers. e two exceptions have been incidents

where humans directly interfered with their activities.On the fi rst occasion, the two people responsible van-ished into hyperspace and were never seen again. In thesecond case, the person instantly fell unconscious, wasteleported back to their orbiting ship, and awoke witha severe headache and no sense of smell. e headache

faded within a few hours, but their sense of smell had tobe restored using genetic therapy. Fortunately, the Prodi-gians seem to care little about humans examining or in-teracting with most local animals. As long as they leavethe Prodigians alone, humans seem to be safe. Small re-mote drones have captured images of what seem to be afew dozen Prodigians who do not act like they are part



186

of any hive-mind, but no one has attempted to contactthem yet. Humanity has no base on or orbiting Prodigio,and instead performs all observations from visiting star-ships and six small orbiting observation satellites.

OTHER HUMAN WORLDS

One of the things explorers did not expect to find outsidethe solar system was other humans, but they have. e endof the th century is not the first time humanity has goneto the stars. ere are persistent rumors of small humancolonies inhabited by people carried to the stars in mi-gobrain cylinders and then given new and strange artificialbodies, and two worlds have been discovered where hu-manity has been living for many thousands of years.

GALATEA I

Type: Safe – with large areas of Earth-derived life, mak-ing much of the planet habitableGravity: . Gs

Atmosphere:Breathable, . atm Water: of the surface is covered with water; half ofthis water is actually ice.Population: millionDiscovered:

Humans colonized Galatea I , years ago. Nearthe end of the urian Age, a small group of desperateinhabitants of the cities of the Sahara grasslands facedboth failing harvests and barbarian invaders from Europe,driven south by the encroaching ice sheets. After barely

repelling one siege by a barbarian horde and knowing thatanother would arrive in a few months, a group of sorcer-ers opened a small Gateway to ready their new home forsettlement. en, using half-understood texts stolen fromthe serpent people, they performed a massive Gatewayspell and carried almost , of the inhabitants of this

besieged city to safety before the gate collapsed. e gate transported this small group of bronze age hu-

mans, along with extensive supplies and domestic animals,to Galatea I. Galatea I is a tidally locked world circling a

small red dwarf star. is world does not rotate; instead, the world’s dim red sun remains forever in the same position. e geography of the world is defined by the hot pole thatforever points at the red sun, and the cold pole, on the op-posite side of the world, forever locked in frozen night. OnGalatea, shadows never move and there are no seasons. eentire night-side of Galatea I is uninhabitable, and threequarters of it is covered by a vast ice covered ocean. e areaaround the hot pole is a blistering desert that is equally hos-tile to life. e world’s cool and shadowy equator is almostentirely encircled by a large ocean, leaving the only habitablearea as an approximately , kilometer wide band of tem-perate land that lies between the desert around the hot poleand the equatorial ocean. Most of this region is now solelyinhabited by Earthly life. Humans on Galatea have spentmore than thousand years slowly pushing back the nativelife from the habitable portions of the world.

Over the last , years, more than a dozen civili-zations have risen and fallen on Galatea I. However, allof them owe their origins to the few thousand urian

Age refugees. More than of these refugees were skilledin psychic powers and there were sorcerers among thisnumber, most of whom were able to bring along theirbooks. Since the settlement of this world, these books ofsorcery have been copied and expanded upon many times.

e civilization of Galatea I is pre-industrial, with a levelof technology comparable to the late century. Firearmscomparable to wheel-lock rifles and pistols are available tothe wealthy, and printing presses print numerous books,but there are no power sources more advanced than me-chanical windmills and no vessels more advanced than

Name: Saur Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Special Abilities: Acute Smell/Taste, Acute Vision, Increased Speed, Natural Armor ( pt), Natural weapons ( pt),Psychic Sensitivity, Undetectability

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab


Spear Slash/Stab

Tail Bashing



18

5

well-rigged sailing ships. In this pre-industrial world, bothsteam power and electricity remain nothing more than ex-

otic and poorly understood curiosities.Galatea I is ruled by a class of sorcerer-nobles who

excel at magic and psychic powers. Although their magicis slower, more cumbersome, and in some ways less wellunderstood than Earthly sorcery, the sorcerer-nobles ofGalatea I are experts at using their magics. Galatean sor-cerers and psychics also possess some psychic and magicalcapabilities unknown on Earth, including powerful wardsthat can protect a large area from both gates and hyperspa-tial intruders. ese wards surround every Galatean city,and the lack of such wards is an open invitation for an-other sorcerer-noble to use a gate to send troops into theheart of the city or assassins into the ruler’s palace.

Civilization on Galatea I consists of dozens of coastalcities, situated on the planets equatorial ocean. e plan-et’s human-habitable area is divided into a series of smallnations and city-states. Each city or group of cities alsocontrols a large section of the interior, which consists ofa mixture of farmland and wilderness areas inhabited bybandits and nomadic barbarians. ere is extensive mari-

time trade between the various coastal cities as well astrade with the dozens of both large and small inhabited

islands in the equatorial ocean. e largest of these is-lands is an independent nation almost twice the size ofNew Zealand, and several other islands are the size of

Java. Galatean traders also regularly send expeditions tothe other side of the equatorial ocean, to the edge of the

world’s night side, where all manner of unusual materialscan be mined and where exotic native life provides valu-able hides, shells, medicines and recreational drugs.

e city-states all have approximately the same levelof technology, but their style of government vary wildly.Many are oppressive but functional autocracies. Others areconstitutional monarchies or oligarchies, where the popu-lace has a set of guaranteed rights, but are ruled by sor-cerer-nobles who are often psychic and who rule with theassistance of powerful psychic agents and assistants. Whilesorcery is always carefully regulated, in some city-statesanyone willing to undergo rigorous training can becomea psychic; in others, only the members of certain noblefamilies are allowed to learn these abilities, or access tothese powers is controlled by secretive and powerful guilds.

UNIQUE MAGIC AND PSYCHIC POWERS ON GALATEA I

Sorcerers on Galatea I have developed two unique spells based on object enchantment techniques originally derivedfrom the serpent people’s sorcery. First, Galatean sorcerers have a version of the Protective Warding spell that canprotect an entire city. is spell requires that at least three specially enchanted and engraved plaques or stelae beplaced around the city or location being protected. In addition, sorcerers on this world know the secret of eithertemporarily or permanently enchanting weapons with the ability to aff ect hyperspatial beings. ese weapons allowthe wielder to attack entities like Servitors of the Other Gods or Flying Polyps in a way that counters their hyperspa-tial protection to material weapons. ese weapons also ignore that the reduced damage power that purely physicalcreatures like shoggoths possess. In rules terms, damage done by these weapons is not subject to the reduced damagepower and instead aff ects the target as if they did not possess this power. ese enchantments can only be performedon swords, spears, javelins, and other relatively large weapons due to the complex engraving that must be placed onthe weapon. ese enchantments cannot be applied to bullets or arrows.

Both of these types of magic only work when performed with Galatean sorcery, a unique version of ritual sorcerythat can be performed as either meditative sorcery or physical rituals, depending upon the training of the sorcerer.

Adapting these spells to any form of Earthly sorcery would require either extensive sorcerous texts or the aid of aGalatean sorcerer who knows these rituals, and would take several months to complete. So far, none of the OPS

teams studying Galatean sorcery have managed to gain access to detailed information about these spells.Galatean psychics have also mastered the Invisibility psychic ability. OPS operatives have encountered evidence ofthis ability, mostly from local stories, but do not understand its full power and limitations. is ability was originallyderived from the serpent people and requires several years of highly specialized training as well as elaborate prepara-tions involving meditation and the use of various hallucinogenic drugs to master.

In addition to attempting to discover how to use these spells and psychic powers, OPS teams on Galatea I aretrying to obtain weapons that have been permanently enchanted for use against hyperspatial creatures. Some of the

weapons that have already been acquired are owned by or issued to members of OPS strike teams. While some OPSoperatives joke about someone going up against a fl ying polyp with a sword or spear, if such a weapon has been en-chanted on Galatea I, it is exceptionally useful for defeating such creatures.



188

A few of the most oppressive city-states are ruled by des-potic and occasionally mentally inhuman sorcerers who wor-ship or make alliances with the fl ying polyps. ese corruptcity-states are loathed and feared by their neighbors; several

are sufficiently powerful that their enemies can only moveagainst them when the rulers show signs of weakness or evi-dence that their inhuman allies are unwilling to aid them.

e Galatean city-states regularly engage in a mixtureof trade, raiding, and occasional open warfare with oneanother. Alliances between the various city-states are ina constant state of flux. Large-scale wars that last morethan a few months are rare, but minor sea battles, piracy,and raids on outlying villages are both common. Withthe exception of various barbarian tribes living in the

warmer portions of the planet’s temperate zone, all gov-ernment on Galatea I is dominated by sorcerers, who usetheir power to retain their authority and to protect theircity-states from outside aggression. Sorcerers commonlyuse the Dho Na Sign and Gateway spells to observe theirenemies and to send soldiers and assassins anywhere onthe planet in a few hours.

NATIVE LIFE

e current inhabitants successfully introduced sheep,goats, horses, tame wooly mammoths, cats, and dogs toGalatea I, as well as seeds for a variety of useful cropplants, including cotton, flax, wheat, oats, and a numberof fruit trees and bushes. But they also had to come toterms with the planet ’s native life. Fortunately for the an-cient colonists, Earth-derived life proved to out-competethe world’s native life and over the last , years, hu-mans and their animals and plants have conquered the

world’s temperate zone.However, Galatea’s native life continues to inhabit the

rest of the planet, from the fringes of the desert surround-ing the hot pole, to highly mobile life forms that travelseveral hundred kilometers into the portion of the world’s

dark side that never receives any light. Galatean life hasalmost no division between animal and plant, and mostnative life forms can either create food by eating variousraw materials and remaining in sunlight, or move around

and hunt other creatures for food. ese creatures lack all visible eyes and have smooth leathery skins. ey can alldetect infrared radiation as well as having keen hearing.

ese life forms are related to the sand-dwelling life formsof Wuste and originally came from the same world.

Due to the moderately dense air pressure and the relativelylow gravity, much native life flies. Over the last , years,animal trainers have captured and trained several unique lo-cal animals, including the brath, a huge winged, living airshipthat is meters long, meters in diameter, and capable ofcarrying more than a ton of passengers and cargo long dis-tances, at a speed of around kilometers per hour.

ALIEN VISITORS e mi-go mostly ignore star systems with red dwarfstars, and the elder ones do not inhabit this portion ofspace, but the fl ying polyps are relatively common in thisarea of space and regularly visit Galatea I. eir motivesare unclear, but there are several small enclaves of fl y -ing polyps on the half of the world that lies in perpetualnight, and some make forays into the warm half of this

world. Except for a few debased sorcerers who ally them-selves with the fl ying polyps, the locals regard these crea-tures as the enemies of humanity. When groups or smallsettlements of fl ying polyps are sighted, local cities statessend out warriors and low ranking sorcerers to slay them.

Flying polyps sometimes trade enchanted items forrare minerals and human slaves. e most despotic city-states sell these monsters all of the war captives that theycannot ransom. is provides these city-states with mag-ical devices found nowhere else, which they use to pro-tect them against neighboring states that seek to destroythem for betraying humanity.

Name: Brath Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (fl ying)

Special Abilities: Extra Arms (tentacles), Enhanced Sight, Natural Armor ()

MANEUVERS



Tentacle Strike Bash



18

5CONTACT

Galatea I was discovered in by an OPS scoutingteam. Over the course of years, researchers have infil-

trated the populace and learned their language, customs,and history. However, they have not revealed themselvesto the inhabitants of Galatea I, both to avoid shockingthe populace and because no one is sure of the full extentof the sorcerer-nobles’ power.

Today, there are two large teams of OPS agents onGalatea. One continues to study this world and workshard to discover more about the sorcerer nobles and theirknowledge of magic and psychic powers. e sorcerernobles are cautious and paranoid, and all OPS opera-tives have carefully avoided revealing their presence toany of the nobles. As a result, their ability to infiltratethe sorcerer-nobles and learn the secrets of their magic

has been severely limited. e OPS regularly sends teamsto attempt diff erent infiltration strategies; most sorcerersare trained from an early age, which hampers the OPS’attempts at deep cover.

e other OPS team consists of a team of physiciansand anthropologists who provide covert humanitarian aidby adapting more advanced medical knowledge and tech-niques to the technology available on Galatea I. While thelocal doctors have an excellent knowledge of anatomy anduse primitive anesthetics for surgery, they lack any morethan the most primitive microscopes and had not discov-ered antibiotics or anesthetics. e OPS team introducedknowledge of how to use and manufacture penicillin

years ago and its use has begun to spread across Galatea I, where it is slowly revolutionizing local medicine.

THE GUAN COLLECTIVE

e other group of humans who have been encounteredin space claim descent from experimental subjects cap-tured by a group of elder ones who visited Earth morethan , years ago. e elder ones kept humans assomething between pets and servants on this world, butapproximately , years ago, this civilization of elderones either vanished or died off , leaving their human sub-

jects behind. Today, these humans have mastered some of

the elder ones’ technology and are known to control aseries of three worlds. OPS officials believe that thesehumans may also control several additional star systems.

Although the people of the Guan Collective appearto be fully human, they also claim to have life spans farlonger than ordinary humans and to have mastered muchof the elder one’s technology. However, little is knownabout these humans or the technology they possess. ey

are highly secretive and do not allow outsiders to visitanything other than two space stations that have beenspecially designated to keep visitors isolated. e de-tails of life of the members of the Guan Collective are

unknown, as is the extent of their technology. ey are willing to meet with representatives from humanity, butonly on these space stations. e members of the GuanCollective are open to limited trade with humanity andare willing to exchange medicines and unique materials,including large quantities of improved room temperaturesuperconductors, for both human cultural informationlike books or recordings of music or for various hand-made goods and works of art. However, the Guan Col-lective has completely refused to exchange any scientificor technical knowledge.

Landing on or gaining accurate data about conditions onany of the worlds of the Guan Collective is a high priorityfor OPS, as it learning more about the technology of theGuan Collective. e current assumption is that the GuanCollective are the human successors of a collective of elderones, and that these humans are now part of a civilizationin cultural and technological stasis. So far, the Guan Col-lective has given no indication of hostility, but the membersthat OPS agents have encountered also have little interest inmaking contact with the rest of humanity.

THE DREAM REALM

Just as humanity has begun to explore outer space, it has

also started charting the realms of inner space, thoughexplorations of the mysterious Dream Realm. One of thestrangest results of humanity beginning to explore psy-chic powers has been the realization that some dreamshave a reality that extends beyond the mind of an indi-

vidual dreamer. Although many dreams take place solelyin the mind of the dreamer, others occur in a psychicrealm commonly referred to as the Dream Realm or theDreamworld. is inner world has been known to mys-tics for millennia. Psychologist Carl Jung referred to it asthe collective unconscious, and some psychic researchersbelieve that it is the source of all imagination, and per-haps even all thought.

Extensive studies have shown that almost everyone regu-larly visits the Dream Realm, and most people visit it everynight. e vast majority of people who visit this realm haveat best only vague and fleeting memories of their time here,but psychics and the few other lucid dreamers who visit it areas conscious and aware in this realm as they are when awake,and for them the Dream Realm can be fascinating to explore.



190

Time in the Dream Realm passes much faster thanin than the waking world. Approximately one day in theDream Realm passes for every hour a dreamer remainsasleep, allowing a dreamer to experience more than a

week’s worth of events and adventures during a nightof particularly deep sleep. Characters in dreams almostnever need to sleep, requiring nothing more than a shortnap of an hour or two every night.

INHABITANTS OF THE DREAM REALM

More than half the several billion inhabitants of theDream Realm are eff ectively scenery. ey are creationsof collective unconscious thought. ese inhabitantshave little free will or knowledge, and simply respond aspeople would expect someone of their occupation andstation to respond. Indeed, their attributes can change if

a dreamer suddenly regards them diff erently.Most of the rest of the inhabitants are actual peopledreaming, who are not psychics or lucid dreamers and arethus completely unaware that they are dreaming or thatthey have a waking life as someone else. ese dream-ers have free will and knowledge of the world they livein, but know nothing about the waking world. Instead,

individuals have separate lives and names in the DreamRealm. While such a person is asleep, they remembernothing of their waking life and when awake, they re-member at most tiny fragments of their dream life.

Actual dreamers are the rarest category of the inhabit-

ants of the Dream Realm. Less than one in residentsof the Dream Realm are psychics or lucid dreamers whoare aware that they are dreaming. Many of these indi-

viduals find ways to identify themselves to other psychicand lucid dreamers using either their waking name orsome obvious detail of their garb. However, others find ituseful to keep their identities secret. Several large citiesin the Dream Realm have private clubs maintained bypsychic and lucid dreamers who share information andare available to help one another with various projects.

VISITING THE DREAM REALM Ordinary people often visit the Dream Realm, but haveno memory of doing so. However, anyone with one ormore levels of Hyperspatial Exposure can visit the DreamRealm when they are sleeping and remember their expe-riences there. Gaining any amount of Hyperspatial Ex-posure transforms a human into a lucid dreamer. In ad-dition, psychics need only mentally contact other people

while falling asleep to bring them along to the DreamRealm. Even individuals who would not normally re-member visiting the Dream Realm will do so if takeninto the Dream Realm by a psychic.

A psychic can bring a number of non-psychics into theDream Realm equal to their Willpower. ese characters end

up within a dozen meters of each other in the Dream Realm,and the psychic chooses where in the Dream Realm thecharacters will appear. Psychic characters can choose to ap-pear anywhere in the Dream Realm that they have previously

visited, but must still physically travel to unfamiliar locations.Characters normally enter the Dream Realm with av-

erage clothing and equipment for the location they are in,

DEATH AND INJURY IN THE DREAM REALM

Individuals who are injured in the Dream Realm healrapidly. Also, they find themselves unharmed when they

awaken. In addition, once they fall asleep again, eventhe gravest injuries have vanished. Death in the DreamRealm is only slightly more serious. Dying in the DreamRealm causes someone to instantly awaken, shaken butotherwise fi ne. e individual cannot visit the DreamRealm again for one full month, but can return normallyat the end of this time.

NAVIGATING IN THE DREAM REALM

To fi nd and travel to an unfamiliar destination in theDream Realm, a character must first know the name ofthis destination and a bit about it. e character mustthen make an Intelligence + Knowledge roll to find their

way to this location. Depending upon how much or littleinformation the character knows about their destinationand route, the GM can add or subtract up to pointsto or from this roll. Also, if the location is known tobe generally quite far away from the character’s currentdream location, then treat all rolls with or SuccessLevels as if the character rolled Success Levels.

SUCCESS

LEVELS

TIME

(PASTORAL W ORLD, UNDER-

WORLD, & SPACE SECTOR)

TIME

(FUTURE W ORLD)

Never, or at minimum

monthsNever, or at mini-

mum month

months week

month days

week day

days hours

+ day hour



19

5 which typically means a single outfit of weather appropri-ate clothing and a small amount of local cash. A singleSuccess Level on a doubled Willpower roll allows psychicdreamers to equip themselves and their companions with

clothing of a particular design, as well as wearable weaponsand other portable gear appropriate for the location.

Rolling three or more Success Levels on this roll allowsthe psychic to provide everyone with mounts and reasonableequipment in saddlebags, a small sailing ship or large carcapable of carrying everyone, or some other moderate sized

vehicle. Dreamers cannot create huge warships, dwellingsor other large structure of objects in the Dream Realm, ex-cept by physically building them. ere are rumors of exoticmagics that allow dreamers to create a small fleet of ships oreven an entire city, but they are nothing more than rumor,and most of these rumors involve asking Nyarlathotep foraid, in return for some favor of its choosing.

SECTORS OF THE DREAM REALM

e Dream Realm is divided into four separate sectors – ePastoral Realm, the Underworld, the Future Realm, and theSpace Sector. Each Sector is eff ectively a diff erent setting orgenre of dreaming. Most ordinary dreamers only visit one ofthese sectors, but psychic and lucid dreamers can visit any ofthem. Once someone is in the Dream Realm, it is also pos-sible to physically travel from one sector to another.

e borders of these sectors are relatively secure, but within each sector, location is considerably more flexible.

In each sector, there are a number of important and well-known locations – the grand city of Celephaïs in the Pas-toral World, the lightless Vale of Pnath in the Underworld,the Moon in Space, and a multitude of others. In general,any location with a widely known name is a stable location

in the Dream Realm, and remains consistent in appear-ance and in the general appearance of its surroundings.

However, the relative positions of these various namedlocations can shift, in large part because the details of the

unnamed and largely uninhabited portions of the DreamRealm vary at the whims and unconscious desires of mil-lions of dreamers. Celephaïs is always in the valley of Ooth-Nargai, beside the Cerenerian Sea, and it is always locatedin the Eastern portion of the Pastoral World. However,how far Celephaïs is from Ulthar, the Enchanted Wood, or

various other locations in the Pastoral World varies.Sectors within the Dream Realm cannot be mapped.

Distances and exact locations shift constantly, and to getfrom one location to another, intention matters at least asmuch as actual path or direction. To get from the city ofInganok in the North, to Celephaïs in the East, travel-ers are advised to cross the Cerenerian Sea to the Easterncontinent. Similarly, if individuals traveling overland ob-tain their directions from an experienced guide, they willbe told how the types of trees found in the forest changeas they approach the borders of Ooth-Nargai. ese direc-tions provide information that dreamers use to both lo-cate their destination and also to subtly and unconsciously

warp the surrounding landscape so that they can eff ectively will themselves to their destination. Any journey requiresa few days or weeks if traveling in the Pastoral Realm, theUnderworld, or Space, or a few hours or days if travelingin the Future Realm. All journeys are appropriate for theirsetting – riding or walking through fields and forests, fl y-

ing a jet car from one mega-structure to another, or climb-ing through dank and lightless passageways.On any of these journeys, the traveler’s knowledge of

their destination matters at least as much as any precisedirections they may have. In general, travelers eventually

Name: Ghasts Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Enhanced Hearing & Smell, Increased Speed, Natural Weaponry, Night Sight

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab, no defense action

Punch !" Bash


Kick #! Slash/Stab



192

reach their destination, if this destination exists. How-ever, how quickly they fi nd this destination depends agreat deal upon both how well they know it and howdetermined they are to get there.

THE PASTORAL WORLD

To many dreamers, this is the most familiar portion ofthe Dream Realm. It resembles all the dreams and imag-inings of a simpler and more romantic world, a worldof chivalry, rolling fields of grain, small farming villages,

vast and dark forests that are sometimes haunted, anda few grand and ancient cities. Some of these cities are

walled against invaders, while others are large metropo-lises known for their wondrous architecture and theavailability of trade goods from all across this realm. isis a realm of swift sailing ships, roving bandits, shiningknights, and the occasional dragon, ifrit, or naga.

e Pastoral World is a world of magic but not oftechnology. e most advanced technology available isfrom the early th century. ere are fl intlock muskets,swift and well-built sailing ships fitted with cannon, andthe more pleasant cities have indoor plumbing as goodas those that the Romans built. However, electricity andother modern wonders do not work in this Sector and

characters who bring devices based on designed createdafter the early th century find that these devices havetransformed into their earlier counterparts. A zapperor handgun becomes a wheelock pistol, and a backpack

transforms from nylon and other advanced materials toleather and canvas. e Pastoral World is also home toan odd species of cat that is slightly larger than ordinaryhouse cats, as well as being intelligent and psychic. esecats are most common in the city of Ulthar, and are oftencalled Ulthar cats, but they can be found anywhere in thePastoral World. Ulthar cats are also occasionally found inthe Future World and in Space.

LOCATIONS IN THE PASTORAL WORLD

Celephaïs: e only large city in the East, it is said to bethe most beautiful city in the entire Pastoral World. It was

founded and in fact created by its immortal ruler, KingKuranes. He is said to have been an inhabitant of the wak-ing world once, a skilled dreamer who died and movedto the Dream Realm. No one knows if he is some formof ghost, a powerful sorcerer, or something far greater orstranger. ere are many rumors of how he created thiscity, but the truth is a secret known only to King Kuranes.

Dylath-Leen: is slightly sinister black basalt city islocated in the western half of the continent that coversthe West and the South of the Pastoral World. It is thelargest city in the Pastoral World, as well as being a majorport. It is also the most exotic port in the Pastoral World.Ships from the Moon and other portions of the Space

Sector dock here, trading all manner of strange goods. e Enchanted Wood: In the Southeast lies a huge

and exotic forest. In addition to containing a wealth ofstrange animal and plant life, it is also home to the zoogs,intelligent furred creatures no larger than a small dog.

ey know many secrets from both the Dream Realm andthe waking world, but sometimes have a taste for humanflesh. is forest also contains a portal to the Underworld.

Kadath of the Cold Waste: Located far to the North,on the edge of the Pastoral World, Kadath is a vast castletouched by the Other Gods and often visited by Nyar-lathotep. Individuals who wish to contact Nyarlathotepsometimes visit Kadath, because doing so is safer than

contacting that being in the waking world. Kadath sitsatop the tallest mountain in the Pastoral World.

DESCRIPTION

Zoogs are small brown-furred creatures the size of smalldogs, that look like small furred elves or monkeys. eyget along poorly with Ulthar cats.

USING PSYCHIC POWERS & SORCERY IN THE DREAM REALM

Psychic powers can be used normally in all portions ofthe Dream Realm. In addition, sorcery is far easier thannormal. All sorcery can be successfully cast if the casterrolls a single Success Level. In addition, casting sorceryas a ritual requires only one turn for every level of thespell and all hyperspatial devices require only one turnto warm up and calibrate before they are used. Also,building a hyperspatial device requires only one hourper level of the spell.

In the Dream Realm, sorcery always has obvious vis-ible eff ects, like blasts or shimmering vortices of energy,or other similar eff ects related to the spell’s purpose.

Although all forms of sorcery can be used in both theUnderworld and Space, technosorcerous devices do not

work in the Pastoral World. Here, sorcery can only be

cast as a ritual. e opposite is true in the Future World, where ritual sorcery automatically fails, and sorcery canonly be performed using technosorcerous devices. Sor-cerers and hyperspatial scientists are known and respect-ed in the Dream Realm. Some of the inhabitants of theDream Realm who are not aware that they have anotherlife in the waking world are sorcerers or psychics, despitetheir waking selves not having either ability.



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5THE UNDERWORLD

e strangest and most disturbing portion of the DreamRealm is the Underworld. is is the realm of night-

mares, dark nights, and hungry monsters. Although itseems to lie underneath all portions of the Dream Realm,characters can only gain access to this sector from a fewlocations, such as the Enchanted Wood in the Pastoral

World or the Sprawl’s Undercity in the Future World. e Underworld consists of an endless series of cavernslit only by phosphorescent fungi growing on the wall.

e Underworld is home to several diff erent intelli-gent species. e most numerous are ghouls, who seemto be the dream selves of ghouls from the waking world,

just as the inhabitants of the Pastoral and Future worldsare the dream selves of humans from the waking world.

Tens of thousands of ghouls inhabit the tunnels of theUnderworld, and there is a thriving ghoul civilization.

ese ghouls even maintain a large library of occult andmundane works – some written by humans and stolen bythe ghouls and others written by ghouls in their inhu-man tongue. Ghouls in the Dream Realm are on averagesomewhat less aggressive and less worried about secrecythan their counterparts in the waking world.

Ghasts are the next most common intelligent inhab-itant of the Underworld. Standing almost three meterstall, their hooved, kangaroo-like legs allow them to hopquite rapidly, faster than humans can walk or run. Ghasts

are carnivores, and not particularly picky about their prey. ey prefer dining on gugs, but eat humans or ghoulsif given the chance. Fortunately, ghasts die instantly iftouched by even a single ray of sunlight and so cannotleave the Underworld except at night.

DESCRIPTION

After a moment something about the size of a small horsehopped out into the grey twilight, and Carter turned sickat the aspect of that scabrous and unwholesome beast,whose face is so curiously human despite the absence of anose, a forehead, and other important particulars.

— H.P. Lovecraft

e Dream-Quest of Unknown KadathGugs are huge and misshapen giants almost fi ve

meters tall, with vertical mouths and eyes on stalks onthe sides of their head. ey dwell in the cyclopean cityknown as the Tower of Koth, located beneath the En-chanted Wood in the Pastoral World. Due to an ancientcurse, they are incapable of leaving the Underworld.

Name: Zoog Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Special Abilities: Acute Hearing & Smell, Night Sight

Drama Points: -

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab

Claw Bash


Name: Ulthar Cat Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed:

Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Acute Hearing & Smell, Night Sight

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab

Claw Bash




194

DESCRIPTION

It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equippedwith formidable talons. After it came another paw, and

after that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were attached by short forearms.en two pink eyesshone, and the head of the awakened gug sentry, large asa barrel, wabbled into view. e eyes jutted two inches

from each side, shaded by bony protuberances overgrownwith coarse hairs. But the head was chie fl y terrible be-cause of the mouth. at mouth had great yellow fangsand ran from the top to the bottom of the head, openingvertically instead of horizontally.

— H. P. Lovecraft e Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

LOCATIONS IN THE UNDERWORLD

Other than the a few distinct locations, the vast majorityof the Underworld is a seemingly endless series of cav-erns and tunnels inhabited by ghouls, ghasts, gugs, and a

variety of cave-adapted animals. Vaults of Zin: is huge cavern adjoins the cemetery

of the gugs and is home to many hundreds of ghasts whoattempt to feast on all visitors.

Vale of Pnath: is is the deepest known crevice in all ofthe Underworld. Here, the ghouls of the Underworld dumptheir refuse. Dholes, vast worms, the smallest of which area half-kilometer long, burrow through this crevasse. OPSexplorers know that on other worlds vast infestations ofdholes have destroyed almost all life, and while they onlyappear in Earth’s Dream Realm, OPS investigators keepcareful watch for their appearance in the waking world.

Crag of the Ghouls: Located near both the Vale ofPnath and the towering peaks of ok, this is where manyUnderworld ghouls dump their refuse so it falls into theVale of Pnath. is crag also adjoins the ghouls’ largestunderground warren in the Underworld, a warren that in-cludes their large and famed library. Humans who haveproven themselves to be friends or allies of the ghouls areoccasionally allowed to visit this library, where they canlearn many secrets that can be found nowhere else.

THE FUTURE WORLD

is realm holds dreams about an amazing or terrifyingfuture. Much like the Pastoral World, this realm consistsof a series of continents separated by oceans, but thelandscape of the Future World is vastly diff erent fromthe Pastoral World. e Western Continent contains

various ruins and decaying cities, many still inhabited.

e Northern Continent contains vast gleaming me-tropolises and huge arcologies, as well as huge swaths ofgenetically engineered farmlands and equally engineered

wilderness. e inhabitants of several of the more wild-

seeming lands in the Future World use genetically engi-neered animals and plants in place of most or all conven-tional technologies. ese lands may look like ordinary

jungles or temperate forests, but are actually thrivingnations where the inhabitants live in vast arboreal cities.

e Future World’s Southern continent is a single vast city stretching across the entire continent, and inthe East, a shallow sea dotted with coral atolls and othersmall islands is home to several advanced aquatic civili-zations. Most of the inhabitants of the Future World arehuman, but in this realm, humans include cyborgs andgenetically enhanced humans. In addition, there a fewcities and even a district of the Southern continent city,inhabited by technologically advanced cats, ghouls, andzoogs. Aliens also occasionally visit from the stars andplanets of the Space Realm.

LOCATIONS IN THE FUTURE WORLD

e Sprawl: Located in the far north of the future world,this metropolis covers dozens of square kilometers and isbuilt on two levels. ere is the wealthy Upper City, an el-egant wonder of parks, monorails, jet cars, and gleamingbuildings of steel and glass. e lowest levels of the UpperCity stand meters above the ground, supported by manyhundreds of pillars. In the dark regions below the Upper

City lies the Under City, a city consisting entirely of lowstructures that do not reach the floor of the Upper City andthe first six stories of the tall towers that make up the Up-per City. e buildings of the Under City are factories anddwellings that are ugly, utilitarian, and generally poor.

e Sprawl is a city divided by the tensions betweenrich and poor, between upper-dweller and under-dwell-er. Depending upon the style and expense of their dressand equipment, every visitor will be shown either up ordown. Visitors can freely leave the Sprawl if they have a

vehicle or can aff ord passage elsewhere, but they are notfree to travel from the level assigned to them to the otherlevel, unless they need to do so for purposes of their job

or some similarly important reason. e Upper City is arealm of luxury and comfort, while the Under City is apoor and somewhat lawless place where anything in theFuture World can be bought and sold, including all man-ner of information. Even secrets from the waking worldcan sometimes be bought and sold in the Under City. elowest levels of the Under City also connect to the Un-



19

5derworld. Ghouls mix freely with humans in a few of themost run-down and dangerous regions of the Under City,and residents of these areas know that anyone who fallsasleep in a deserted public area may never be seen again.

Sky City: Located near the center of the Future World, at the southernmost tip of the northern continent,Sky City is built on and around the bottom terminus ofa huge space elevator that stretches thousands of kilome-ters straight up into the Space Sector. Eight kilometershigh, Sky City is the tallest city in the Future World.

e upper portions are pressurized and temperature-reg-ulated due to the cold and low pressure. e entire cityis an enormous mega-structure, one great building builtaround the -meter wide cable of the space elevator.

Although travelers can take rockets into space from elsewhere in the Future World, Sky City ’s space elevator isthe easiest way to enter the Space Sector, and Sky City ishome to many thousands of human and alien visitors andimmigrants from the Space Sector. Sky City is also onthe coast and serves as a port for seagoing ships. Tens ofthousands of kilometers above, at the end of the space el-evator is High City, which is a space station in the SpaceSector that is also part of Sky City, as well as being one ofthe larger spaceship docks in the Space Sector. e Ruins: is blasted region lies at the far west-

ern edge of the Future World and is largely isolatedfrom the rest of this sector by high mountains, vast dis-tances, and the dangerously radioactive Plain of Glass.

e Ruins were mostly destroyed by a vast nuclear war

centuries ago. Today, the radiation has decreased so thatonly the area immediately around the various large cra-ters remains dangerous, and these are all clearly markedat night by a pale blue glow. e Ruins consist of theremains of three large and highly advanced cities anddozens of kilometers of overgrown wilderness betweenthem. Although sparsely inhabited, the Ruins are hometo primitive savages, a variety of exotic mutant humansand animals, and a few bands of survivors who are at-tempting to rebuild. Safely crossing the Plain of Glass issufficiently difficult that few travelers from the rest of theFuture World visit e Ruins. However, there are rumorsthat buried vaults beneath at least one of the three cities

in this region contains knowledge found nowhere else,and so e Ruins attract the occasional treasure-seeker.

e Ruins also contain an entrance to the Underworld;the portions of the Underworld that adjoin it are hometo the most hideous and dangerous of the mutants.

Trassor e Endless: e southern continent ofthe Future World consists of a single vast city covering

hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. e tallestbuildings are nearly three kilometers high, and both un-derground magnetic trains and automatically controlledfl ying cars carry residents from one end of Trassor to the

other in no more than an hour or two. Trassor is hometo several hundred million residents and it has a largespaceport where rockets journey to and from the SpaceSector daily. Trassor is home to many diff erent breedsof humanity, including cyborgs, various human animalcrossbreeds. In addition, there is a sector of the city setaside for aliens, including a large contingent of technolo-gy-using ghouls and a section of zoogs.

SPACE SECTOR

is portion of the Dream Realm is a fantastic version of out-er space. Here, all possible dreams of space can be found. is

is the largest of the four Sectors of the Dream Realm, butalso by far the more sparsely inhabited. e worlds, moons,asteroids, and space stations are separated by vast distances.

e portions of Space over the Pastoral World are filled with worlds inhabited by humans with strangely colored skins, andexotic sailing-ship-like vessels that travel through space andare crewed by sword wielding swashbucklers. e portions ofSpace that hang over the Future World are filled with rocketships, rotating space stations, and explorers and traders inspace suits, carrying laser pistols and similar gear.

Almost anything can be found in space, includingtruly alien worlds. One of the disturbing aspects of Spacein the human Dream Realm is that it connects to the

Dream Realms of other species, including alien specieson other worlds. ese alien Dream Realms always re-quire long journeys to reach, but adventurous dreamerscan encounter a multitude of species.

Unless a dreaming character enters mental contact witha hyperspatial or partially hyperspatial entity, events in theDream Realm cannot increase an individual’s degree ofHyperspatial Exposure. Unfortunately, a few of the beingsfound in alien Dream Realms seek to make mental con-tact with visitors, which can result in characters waking upmentally diff erent from when they went to sleep. How-ever, venturing into alien Dream Realms has also allowedsome daring dreamers to return with alien knowledge and

sometimes even information about the location of newhabitable worlds. Contact with alien Dream Realms alsoposes a risk for the human Dream Realm, since it couldpotentially be invaded by dangerous aliens or hungry hy-perspatial entities. Various heroic dreamers have helpedfend off such incursions, and the OPS recruits somedreamers specifically to look for evidence of such dangers.



196

LOCATION IN SPACE SECTOR

e Moon: e moon was home to invading moon-beasts, until they were driven off almost a century ago.

Now it contains some relics of these invaders which OPSis eagerly investigating. e Moon is also currently hometo a large colony of intelligent and psychic Ulthar cats,

who have a moderately good relationship to OPS agents willing to treat them with respect.

Mars: e dreams of the long-dead Martians dwell incaverns and underground cities, while on the surface hu-man settlers, miners, and explorers live amidst an exoticdesert ecology of ancient canals and strange beasts. e Rotten World: A ringed planet located beyond

the solar system that has been destroyed by dholes. Nonative life other than lichens and insects remain in itsthin atmosphere, but there are ruins of a vanished inhu-man civilization, and several groups of human or partlyhuman space pirates make this world there base. Onegroup of pirates uses a ruined city as their hideout, andtwo other others have their bases in caverns located insmall asteroids that are part of the rotten world’s rings.

Syracuse Station: A large rotating space station sev-eral kilometers in diameter, which is home to more than, residents and half that number of visitors andshort-term residents who come from the space shipsthat regularly dock here. Syracuse Station is also hometo a small colony of Ulthar cats, and these cats are oftenfound onboard space ships that dock here.

THE DREAM REALM AND THE WAKING WORLD

e Dream Realm has been a topic of legends, stories, andthe tales of mystics for centuries, but once psychic powers

were made public in the s, the existence of the DreamRealm became publicly known and psychics began mak-ing money teaching people how to visit it or taking themalong for journeys. During the s, visiting the DreamRealm became a fad, but interest eventually waned for allbut a relatively small subculture of dreamers. e , dreamers arranged to keep themselves dreaming while their

bodies starved to death in the hopes of remaining forever inthe Dream Realm. is well-publicized mass suicide causedmany people to regard dreamers as potentially unstable andled to laws against taking minors along on lucid dreams.

Today, the Dream Realm remains a place of wonder andentertainment for a subculture with an interest in havingdream adventures, as well as a source of information for



19

5OPS operatives. OPS off ers rewards for reliable informa-tion about new alien presences or other unusual informationand almost half of the information OPS obtains about ac-tivities in the Dream Realm comes from amateur dreamers.

APPENDIX : ANIMALS

Here are short statistics on some earthly and alien animalsthat Operatives and Civilians may encounter in their ad-

ventures. Unintelligent animals never have Drama Points.Name: Attack Dog

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Special Abilities: Enhanced SmellFound On: Earth, any Human Colony, Galatea I, the Dream Realm

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab


Name: Falcon Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (fl ying)Special Abilities: Enhanced Sight, Increased SpeedFound On: Earth, Galatea I, the Dream Realm

MANEUVERS


Bite Slash/Stab


Talons Slash/Stab

Name: Riding Horse (or Zebra) Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Found On: Any Colony, the Dream Realm

MANEUVERS



Trample Bashing

Name: War Horse (or Zebra) Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Found On: Galatea I, the Dream Realm

MANEUVERS



Trample Bashing



198

Poor devils! After all, they were not evil things of their kind. ey were the men of anotherage and another order of being. Nature had played a hellish jest on them - as it will on anyothers that human madness, callousness, or cruelty may hereafter dig up in that hideouslydead or sleeping polar waste - and this was their tragic homecoming. ey had not beeneven savages-for what indeed had they done? at awful awakening in the cold of an

unknown epoch - perhaps an attack by the furry, frantically barking quadrupeds, and a dazed defense

against them and the equally frantic white simians with the queer wrappings and paraphernalia ...poor Lake, poor Gedney... and poor Old Ones! Scientists to the last - what had they done that we would not have done in their place? God, what intelligence and persistence! What a facing of theincredible, just as those carven kinsmen and forbears had faced things only a little less incredible!Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star spawn - whatever they had been, they were men!

H. P. Lovecraft – At the Mountains Of Madness



19

Chapter 6Eldritch Threats & Alien Wonders

CHAIN OF FLOWERS

M D. M. P . I wasn’t sure exactly why she was calledthat, but I didn’t question it. It was enough for me that she was that wonderful rarity amongghouls: a soul as enraptured with information as myself.

“A soul, you say?” Yes, I do believe they have souls, Mr. Bloom, insofar as anyone does. If there is a power greater

than those we know, it made the lot of us. No exceptions.She spoke English with a strange but exacting diction, and I studied nightly with her until

the dawn brought faint reflected rays into the shallowest part of the cavern. e study where we

met concealed a network of tunnels that ran deeper than any human knew.From her I learned of the art and culture of the ghouls, for they do have it. eir very tun-

nels are gardens of a kind; a chamber that appears a random stockpile of human castoff s revealsmeaning and pattern to those who know what to look for...

“Like found object art, then.”Somewhat, yes. But more radical than that. It reminds me of the quote from Charles Willson

Peale, which the Museum of Jurassic Technology uses as a motto: ‘ e Learner must be led always from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar, guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers intothe mysteries of life.’ Ghoul art is rather like that, and so subtly that it seems to mean nothing atall until the revelation hits.

“What kinds of revelations are those?”Some of them were decipherable; others were not. ‘ e neural networks,’ Dr. Patterson said to

me once. ‘One must model a pattern to comprehend it.’ But all of them told a story. Not diff erent

stories, nor the same story over and over again. Rather, all of it was one immense story that I willnever thoroughly understand.

“Never? at’s a little presumptive.” Well, you see, I know what I would have to do. I could develop those neural networks. Haven’t

you ever wondered why my eyes glimmer in the dark? But I want the life of a human, Mr.Bloom, and so certain arts will always be lost on me.



200

HUMAN THREATS

Even in Eldritch Skies , humanity is sometimes its own worstenemy. Mythos cults can be a deadly threat. In addition tokidnapping or brainwashing people and occasionally per-forming acts of human sacrifice, mythos cults also serveeither aliens unwilling to abide by treaties with humanity,or more commonly, deadly and terrible hyperspatial beingslike the fl ying polyps or the Great Old Ones. Mythos cultshelp these beings achieve their horrific agendas and mayeven attempt to assist them in overrunning the Earth.

CULTIST

Most cultists don’t have vast sorcerous powers; all they haveis a devotion to their inhuman masters and a willingness tofollow the leader or leaders of their cult. Some are eccentric

scholars, others are brutal thugs with an allegedly holy mis-sion, and many are simply greedy and willing to trade thesafety of their species for whatever benefits they can get forthemselves. However, all of them are dangerous.

ese fanatics and cult foot soldiers do everythingfrom preach on street corners to kill the cult’s enemies.

CULT LEADER

Most cult leaders are sorcerers and many are psychics. Mostare not all that physically imposing, but they may be able toinfluence others with their psychic powers, and they haveboth summoned beings and devoted cult members to do

their bidding. Some cult leaders have Level HyperspatialInfluence and thus are both completely insane by humanstandards and may possess various Inhuman Psychic Powers.

Cult leaders regularly seek to find new members, and

occasionally look for potential human sacrifices that noone will miss when they are gone. Most are highly char-ismatic individuals.

When a cult leader gains Level Hyperspatial Expo-sure, they come completely under the sway of whatevermythos beings they serve and their motivations becomestrange and terrible. ey also can now gain psychic abil-ities well beyond those possible for ordinary humans.

When a cult leader has had sufficient contact withhyperspatial beings, their minds snap and reform into apattern far diff erent from the human norm. Most learnto fake sanity for brief periods, but anyone spendingmuch time with them will know that something is deeply

wrong with them. Unfortunately, most cultists don’t seethis as a problem. In general, the sense of communitygenerated by cult behavior, the leader’s charisma, andcleverly constructed rationales that sound like good ideasat the time provide a framework for manipulating people,

whether or not these rationales relate to the real and in-comprehensible motivations involved.



20

6Name: Cultist ugMotivation: Obey their cult leader, beat up or kill enemies, serve the Great Old Ones.Species: Human

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower


MANEUVERS




Knife Slash/Stab

Pistol Bullet

Punch Bash

Name: Crazed Cult LeaderMotivation: Serve the Great Old Ones or other inhuman masters; perform unknowable actions for unknowable reasonsSpecies: Human (more or less)

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: Special Abilities: Psychic (Psychic Sensitivity, Emotional, Influence, Hypnotic Command (see p. below)), Sorcery (Sending, Summon Servitor of the Other Gods), Hyperspatial Exposure

MANEUVERS



Pistol Bullet

Punch Bash

Sorcery

Name: Cult LeaderMotivation: Serve the Great Old Ones or other inhuman masters, control their flock Species: Human

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence , Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: Special Abilities: Psychic (Psychic Sensitivity, Emotional, Influence), Sorcery (Avoidance Ward, Dho Na Formula,Summon Servitor of the Other Gods), Hyperspatial Exposure

MANEUVERS



Pistol Bullet

Punch Bash

Sorcery



202

ALIENS & AB-HUMANS

One of the most important truths of the Cthulhu Mythosis that aliens are profoundly alien in both mind and body.Nothing that evolved on another planet is humanoid andaliens do not think like humans. No one is ever goingto sit down with a mi-go, elder one, or a member of thegreat race of Yith and share a joke or feel and strongsense of emotional connection. eir minds and emo-tions are radically diff erent from our own.

In addition, one of the terrible facts about excessiveexposure to hyperspace is that it can warp human mindssufficiently that they eventually snap and become equallyalien, creating an alien in a human body. By that sametoken deep ones and ghouls are both descended fromhumans. Although humans can be transformed by blas-

phemous rites into either deep ones or ghouls, neitherof these species of ab-humans have anything remotelylike a human psychology - the process of transformationfrom a human to either type of being warps the person’smind so that it also ceases to be a human mind with hu-man thoughts and emotions. Also, when a human under-goes level fi ve Hyperspatial Exposure, not only does theirbody become as twisted and inhuman as their mind, itbecomes empowered with hyperspatial energies, and sothey often gain unusual abilities.

When interacting with aliens or ab-humans, mosthumans, including most trained OPS contact personnel,cannot help but treat them like they would other humans.

Inhuman creatures think in diff erent ways, but humansdealing with them are often lulled into the delusion thatthey can predict the others’ actions with the same senseof empathy they would use to understand members oftheir own species. But all such eff orts are ultimately false.However, that does not mean that some degree of mutualunderstanding is impossible. Most of the aliens human-ity has encountered are technically advanced species whohave made many of the same discoveries that humanitydid and have a similar understanding of physics, chemis-try, astronomy, and mathematics.

Although most of these species also have a profoundunderstanding of the laws of hyperspace, humanity is in

the process of gaining this same understanding. Whileentities that live partially or entirely in hyperspace areessentially incomprehensible, aliens like the elder onesor mi-go and ab-humans like deep ones are all physicalbeings living with the same physical laws that human-ity does. As a result, humans who work extensively withmembers of an alien species can learn to gain a limited

HYPERSPATIAL EXPOSURE AND CONTACT RATINGS OF AB-HUMANS AND ALIENS

Psychics can mentally contact almost any alien or ab-human, but doing so is often far from a good idea. Ev-ery non-human creature has a Contact Rating, which isthe number of Success Levels the psychic needs to rollto successfully make contact with the alien’s mind. Psy-chics who successfully make contact with alien mindscan read the alien’s thoughts, but this is never an easy orcomfortable process, and the psychic must also make aFear Test or recoil in confusion and disorientation afteronly a brief glimpse of the alien’s mind.

Aliens that have an innate connection to hyperspaceor which are partly or fully hyperspatial beings have twoHyperspatial Exposure Ratings. e first one is the de-gree of exposure gained for being in their presence; thesecond is for making psychic contact with them. Aliensthat are ordinary biological organisms always have anExposure Rating of for both their physical and mentalpresence. However, aliens that have incorporated hyper-spatial devices and hyperspatial energies into their bodiescan be dangerous to psychically contact. Until researchershave had a chance to evaluate an alien species’ degree ofhyperspatial connection, telepathic contact with a newlydiscovered alien species is considered exceptionally dan-gerous and is not recommended except in emergencies.

PLAYING ALIENS AND AB-HUMANS

Because they are so mentally alien, players cannot playaliens or ab-humans in Eldritch Skies. ese charactersare supposed to be inherently somewhat enigmatic andconfusing. Players who wish to play characters that arenot entirely human should consider playing humans withdeep one or ghoul ancestry. Such characters are still men-tally human, at least if they are raised with humans, andso are far better choices for roleplaying in this setting.



20

6understanding of the technical prowess of a particularalien and may learn to respect or disdain that alien’s com-petence at some profession shared by both species, likemathematician or archeologist.

is mixture of practical and professional understand-ing and emotional incomprehension is extremely confus-ing for many humans, and presumably for many aliens.

e only exception to this confusion comes when deal-ing with the members of the great race of Yith, who oftenseem far more human than other aliens. e reason forthis is that the only Yithians that humanity interacts withare those that have previously possessed one or more hu-man bodies and now have years or decades of experience atinteracting with humanity. What appears to most humansas similarity is simply the result of the knowledge gleanedfrom interacting with humans in a human body.

As profound as the mental diff erences between hu-mans and aliens are, they are not so severe that they inhibitall interaction. Humanity has made treaties and engagesin trade with several species. Every species of alien thathumanity has encountered has goods that they want andgoals they wish to achieve, as well as some concept of rela-tive value. As a result, exchange and negotiation are pos-sible even between species. Neither side may understandsthe other at all well, but everyone can express their needs.However, such treaties can be difficult to forge and thereare a few species like the Europans who want nothingfrom humanity other than to be left alone. Also, becausealiens are so difficult to understand, it’s very easy for hu-

manity’s meeting with another species to go exceptionallybadly. e war with the moonbeasts is merely one exampleof what can go wrong when meeting aliens. Telling alliesfrom enemies is far from easy when they both have inter-ests and desires that are to some degree incomprehensible.

ALIEN AND AB-HUMAN ABILITIES

Humans can gain a wide range of special abilities, includ-ing sorcery, psychic power, and a variety of augmenta-tions. However, alien and ab-human beings possess otherstranger and often more dangerous powers and abilitiesthat have proven impossible for humanity to learn or

duplicate. e following are the most common of thesepowers. Directors are also encouraged to create new anddiff erent powers for aliens and ab-humans.

INHUMAN PSYCHIC POWERS

Some aliens and ab-humans, and all humans who havereached Hyperspatial Influence Level or , have minds

that can learn strange and powerful psychic powers farbeyond those that ordinary humans can learn. Operativesand Civilians in Eldritch Skies cannot learn any of thesepowers. e only exception is that psychics on Galatea

I have mastered the Invisibility psychic ability. OPS re-searchers are currently investigating how their own psy-chics can learn this ability.

HYPNOTIC COMMAND

-point Power e psychic can dominate the victim, forcing him to

obey almost any command. To use this power, the targetmust be able to clearly hear the psychic’s voice. Everytime the psychic tries to command the victim, roll Will-power + Psychic Art vs. the target’s Willpower (doubled).If the victim loses, they must comply with the order.

Some commands may be so much against the victim’sself-preservation instinct or moral code that he gains bo-nuses (+ to +) to resist (at your Director’s call). Targetsalso automatically make a second roll to resist obviouslysuicidal orders, like an order to shoot themselves in thehead. e psychic can also use this ability to erase exist-ing memories or to create false memories. However, as

when using a hypnoscope, being reminded of the truthcauses erased memories to return and false memories tobe gradually replaced with true ones.

ILLUSIONS

-point Power

is ability can be used to create realistic illusions, in-cluding illusory landscapes. ese illusions have no sub-stance. ey can be seen, heard, and smelled, but they can-not aff ect the physical world beyond that level. Illusions arecreated with a Willpower + Wildcard (Illusions) roll. eycan be as large as Willpower + Psychic Art cubic yards +one additional cubic yard per Success Level rolled. It takesat least two cubic yards to create an illusionary human. Il-lusions can be maintained as long as the character wills it;serious distractions like combat or being attacked force thecharacter to make a Willpower + Psychic Art roll to avoidlosing the illusion. Also, maintaining illusions in combat orsimilar conditions requires the use of multiple actions.

Illusions can be used to duplicate all of the eff ects of theinvisibility power as well as to allow psychics to disguisethemselves as other people, or even other humanoid crea-tures. ese illusions are psychic in nature and so can only beseen by living beings. ey are invisible to mechanical sensors.However, they can be seen by anyone who can directly seethe psychic, including people looking through telescopes or



204

binoculars. ese illusions do not show up on photographs,recorded videos, or even on live video feeds.

INVISIBILITY

-point Power e alien can psychically render itself invisible. Cam-

eras, alarm systems, and other devices will still detect thebeing, but people cannot see it, unless they are watch-ing through a video screen. ose who cannot see thealien can still hear and smell it normally. Also, living be-ings who become aware of the alien character’s presence,through bumping into it, being in hand-to-hand combat

with it, or some similarly obvious means can react nor-mally to its presence as long as they are certain of thecharacter’s approximate location. Anyone who is certainof the character’s presence and location may make a Will-

power + Perception roll to be able to see the character’soutline. Each Success Level allows the person to roughlysee the character for one turn. e person can roll oncea turn for as long as he is certain of the character’s loca-tion (typically by touch). Once the person succeeds orif someone else points out the character’s location, theperson can continue to roll until the character gets out ofline of sight for at least one full turn.

POSSESSION

-point Quality is the ability to inhabit another body and take con-

trol of it. Taking over another person requires a Resisted

Roll of Willpower + Psychic Art vs. the target’s Willpower(doubled). e possessing entity is in control of the targetbody for minutes per Success Level of the WillpowerRoll. At the end of this period of time, the possessing psy-chic may try to extend the length of the possession, buton the second time, it will suff er a - modifier to its Will-power Roll. Further attempts are possible, but the negativemodifier is greater with each subsequent attempt; - forthe third time, - for the fourth, - for the fifth. Whilethe character is possessing someone, its own body is com-pletely helpless. It can feel pain in its body, but reactinginstantly ends the possession attempt.

If the possessing character manages to succeed in fi ve

possession attempts in a row, it gets to control the targetbody for the length of an entire day. is cycle can berepeated for an indefinite length of time, as long as thepossessing psychic can consistently win fi ve possessionattempts in a row despite the negative modifiers.

INHUMAN PHYSICAL QUALITIES & POWERS

Only aliens and monstrous ab-humans with levels ofHyperspatial Influence can possess these abilities. esephysical capabilities are partially hyperspatial in natureand are incompatible with ordinary minds and bodies.Some of these qualities and powers are also suitable forcreating alien species.

EXTRA/LIMITED LIMBS

Variable Quality or Drawback Most hyperspatial mutants remain humanoid, but

some transform into hideously inhuman forms. For somemutants, having additional limbs is purely cosmetic.However, if the extra limbs provide the creature with a

significant benefit, use the rules below. Aliens also oftenpossess this Quality or Drawback.

Extra Arms: each additional pair gives a + to closecombat maneuvers (grappling, punching and parryingunarmed attacks, or armed attacks if wielding weapons).

e mutant can also wield multiple weapons. However,increasing the number of attacks per turn requires theExtra Attacks Quality (see below). ese arms can benormal limbs, branching tentacles, or any other possiblemanipulator. Cost: points per extra pair.

Extra Legs: Having four legs add kilometers perhour (equal to + meters per second) to the mutant’srunning speed. Having additional legs adds nothing tothe creature’s speed. Going faster requires the IncreasedSpeed Quality below. Cost: points.

Extra Attacks: e creature’s limbs are coordinatedenough that they can attack targets at the same time.

ese extra attacks or actions suff er from no penalty,but must involve the use of the extra limbs (so, no extraDodge Maneuvers would be allowed, for example). enumber of extra attacks cannot exceed the number of ex-tra limbs. Cost: points per extra attack/action.

Legless: e creature lacks functional legs, and in-stead crawls or slithers. It may have a snake-like body,or might be an amorphous blob. Reduce the creature’s

Speed by half. Cost: is Quality is a -point Drawback.EXTREME NATURAL WEAPONRY

-point QualitySome aliens and ab-humans have teeth and claws far

larger and more deadly than those that can be added toa normal human. ese creatures have teeth like a shark



20

6or claws like a tiger or a grizzly bear. ese weapons doslash/stab damage of x Strength and cannot be hidden– they are terrifyingly visible.

FAST

REGENERATION

-point Quality

e inhuman creature’s wounds literally close before your eyes. is creature heals a number of Life Pointsequal to its Constitution every minute.

INCREASED SPEED

Variable Quality Some mutants or aliens can move much faster than

ordinary humans. Each point spent on this Quality in-crease the mutant’s running speed by kilometers perhour (equal to meters per second). No creature can take

more than levels of this Quality.INVISIBLE

-point Power Some entities cannot be seen through normal means

because they have been partially shifted into hyperspace.Invisible creatures can still be heard though and somesensors may detect them. See p. for information onfighting invisible foes. is Quality costs a base twen-ty points, and the invisibility may turned off and on at

will. If the invisibility drops for at least a Turn when thecreature attracts attention to itself (such as by attackingsomeone), the cost is reduced to ten points. is power

always increases the Hyperspatial Exposure caused bythe creature’s presence by +.

MONSTROUS ATTACK

Variable Power e creature has a horrific and exceedingly dangerous

attack not dependent on its Strength. e exact form can vary: jets of acid, gouts of fl ame, bolts of electricity, orsimply raw hyperspatial energies are all possibilities. Inclose combat, the creature uses Dexterity+ Brawling toattack, for ranged attacks, the creature uses Dexterity +Gun Combat. Ranged attacks normally have the same

range as a pistol. Creatures whose attacks have the samerange as a rifle do only half damage. ere are three typesof attack. All of this damage is treated as fi re damage(see Chapter ), except that this damage never causes thetarget to catch on fire.

Minor: e attack inflicts points of damage. Itcosts four points for close and eight for ranged.

Major: e attack inflicts points of damage. It

costs seven points for close and for ranged.Deadly: e attack inflicts points of damage. It

costs points for close and for ranged.

REDUCED

DAMAGE

Variable Power Either because some or all of their body resides in

hyperspace, or because their physiology has been rein-forced with hyperspatial energies, some creatures takeless damage from attacks than normal physical beings.

is power comes in two levels. e first reduces damageby half, while the second divides damage by fi ve. Dam-age is rounded down, to a minimum of one point. In allcases, the base damage is adjusted after Success Levelshave been added. Damage type modifiers are not applied.

is power always increases the Hyperspatial Exposure

caused by the creature’s presence by +. e cost of thetrait depends on what form of damage is aff ected. Onlyfully hyperspatial beings can possess the version of thisquality that reduces all forms of damage.

Everything: Applying Reduced Damage to all inju-ries costs fi ve or twenty points, respectively.

Kinetic Attack: Various hyperspatial implants andnatural hyperspatial abilities allow some physical beingsto shunt a portion of kinetic damage from bullets, blades,or falling rocks into hyperspace, where it dissipates harm-lessly. e cost for the first level quality is three points;ten points for the second level.

TELEPORTATION

Variable Power Certain creatures with hyperspatial powers can tele-

port themselves and anyone or anything they can carry toa familiar location. A creature with a Brains score of orhigher can perform this feat as one combat action. Crea-tures with lower Brains scores must spend an entire turnconcentrating and performing no other action in order to

vanish at the end of the turn. If they are interrupted, thenthey cannot teleport in that turn. Creatures can teleportno more often than once every minute.

TELEPORT DISTANCE TABLE

ABILITY COST DISTANCE

points kilometers

points , kilometers

points Anywhere on the planet



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INHUMAN ALLIES & FOES

e following section contains descriptions and rules forthe various aliens, ab-humans, and hyperspatial beingsthat humanity has encountered either through directcontact or through archeological remains on Earth or onsome other world.

AB-HUMANS Humans (and other life forms) that are exposed to suf-ficiently high levels of hyperspatial energies mutate andchange. Most of these mutations are highly idiosyncraticand produce unique and horrible monsters. However,lower-level long-term exposure to hyperspatial energiesoften results in a consistent species. e two known ex-amples of these new species are deep ones and ghouls.

HYPERSPATIAL MUTANTS Ab-humans like deep ones and ghouls are the descen-dents of people who experienced gradual long-term hy-perspatial exposure. e result of this exposure is a se-ries of extreme, but also regular transformations that arefully heritable. In vivid contrast, humans who experiencea sudden Level Hyperspatial Exposure transform in amore drastic and horrible fashion. In the course of a fewhours, or occasionally in a few seconds, their flesh rendsand twists and they become not merely inhuman, butalso utterly unique. It’s impossible to come up with anysort of consistent description for such creatures, becauseeach mutant is diff erent from all others.

DESCRIPTION

e thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid poolof greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almostnine feet tall, and the dog had torn o ff all the clothingand some of the skin. It was not quite dead, but twitched

silently and spasmodically while its chest heaved in mon-strous unison with the mad piping of the expectant whip-

poorwills outside… It was partly human, beyond a doubt,with very manlike hands and head, and the goatish,

chinless face had the stamp of the Whateleys upon it. Butthe torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically

fabulous, so that only generous clothing could ever haveenabled it to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated.

Above the waist it was semi-anthropomorphic; though itschest, where the dog’s rending paws still rested watchfully,had the leathery, reticulated hide of a crocodile or alli-

gator. e back was piebald with yellow and black, anddimly suggested the squamous covering of certain snakes.Below the waist, though, it was the worst; for here allhuman resemblance left o ff and sheer phantasy began.eskin was thickly covered with coarse black fur, and from

the abdomen a score of long greenish-grey tentacles withred sucking mouths protruded limply.

eir arrangement was odd, and seemed to follow thesymmetries of some cosmic geometry unknown to earth orthe solar system. On each of the hips, deep set in a kind of

pinkish, ciliated orbit, was what seemed to be a rudimen-tary eye; whilst in lieu of a tail there depended a kind oftrunk or feeler with purple annular markings, and withmany evidences of being an undeveloped mouth or throat.e limbs, save for their black fur, roughly resembled thehind legs of prehistoric earth’s giant saurians, and ter-minated in ridgy-veined pads that were neither hooves

nor claws. When the thing breathed, its tail and tentaclesrhythmically changed colour, as if from some circulatorycause normal to the non-human greenish tinge, whilst inthe tail it was manifest as a yellowish appearance whichalternated with a sickly grayish-white in the spaces be-tween the purple rings. Of genuine blood there was none;only the foetid greenish-yellow ichor which trickled alongthe painted fl oor beyond the radius of the stickiness, andleft a curious discoloration behind it.

– H.P. Lovecrafte Dunwich Horror

Needless to say, such an incomprehensible creature ishardly playable in the long term. When this type of trans-

formation happens to a player’s Hero due to extreme cir-cumstances in the game session, it is left to the Director’sdiscretion what happens next. If it seems dramaticallyappropriate, the player may continue controlling theircharacter as a monstrous mutant – perhaps attacking theother Heroes, or making one last tragic attempt to com-municate a piece of information – for the duration of the

NAMING CONVENTIONS

Why are lowercase names used for the majority of spe-cies in Eldritch Skies? We keep descriptive or short-hand species names in lowercase and capitalize species

names derived from a place-name or other proper noun.Deep ones just derive their name from living undersea,

whereas, while nobody is sure whether the Great Raceof Yith is named after a place or a person, they’re cer-tainly named after something. We’ve tried to follow thisconvention throughout.



20

6

scene, but after the scene is over, the hyperspatial mutant,if still living, becomes a part of the Supporting Cast.

If possible, Directors are encouraged to narrate theplayer through the surreal experience of such a transfor-mation, giving the player an opportunity to experiencethe breaking and remaking of the Hero’s mind. Plottingthe fate of the hyperspatial mutant and collaborativelyguiding the way a character’s human personality trans-forms under the onslaught of physically and mentally

warping energies can make the event more horrible andmore wondrous, while also giving the player closure re-garding their suddenly unplayable character. e newhyperspatial mutant might be destroyed by the Heroesand their allies in its first scene, but if not, an ambitiousDirector can make an antagonist from the luckless for-

mer Hero. e scope is limitless, and such a compellingadversary can drive an entire story arc.

CREATING HYPERSPATIAL MUTANTS

When creating hyperspatial mutants, the first step is toadd between and Attribute points. For relatively weakmutants, add only Attribute points, while the mostpowerful gain up to Attribute points. Divide these At-tribute points in any way you wish. e mutant’s originalhuman Attributes can also be rearranged, reducing Intel-ligence to an animalistic level or reducing Willpower tosuch a degree that the creature has absolutely no self-control or any ability to do anything other than blindly

react to its environment in anger and fear.Mutants with inhuman levels of Strength, Dexterity,

and Constitution are most common, but equally inhu-man levels of Intelligence, Willpower, and Perceptionalso occur. e mutant may become tougher, adding upto levels of the Hard to Kill Quality , or between & Life Points, or possibly both. en, select between

and points of Qualities. Natural versions of Augmen-tations are common, especially Natural Armor, Natural

Weaponry, Life Support, and Improved Senses, as arealmost any other Quality, including Psychic Powers, Sor-

cery, and hideous natural versions of any of the mi-gohyperspatial Augmentations. Hyperspatial Mutants alsooften possess inhuman psychic powers. One hyperspa-tial mutant might be a hulking brute that can rip cars inhalf, while another might be a horrific super genius withpotent psychic abilities and the ability to create techno-sorcerous devices. However, regardless of their particularabilities, all of them are hideous, giving them an Ap-pearance of -. Hyperspatial Mutants normally have aHyperspatial Exposure rating of /, but those that havehyperspatial powers, such as those duplicating the powerof any of the mi-go hyperspatial augmentations gain a + to both of their Hyperspatial Exposure ratings.

BRUTISH HYPERSPATIAL MUTANT

is amphibious monster looks vaguely like a mottledblue-green amphibious gorilla. Its mind was ripped awayby its transformation and now it sees humans as bothprey and threats. It hides in lakes and other bodies of

water when threatened and emerges at night to hunt.

Name: Brutish Hyperspatial MutantMotivation: Survive, eat, and killSpecies: Ab-Human MutantContact: Hyperspatial Exposure: /

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence ,Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: / (swimming)Drama Points: Special Abilities: Amphibious, Extreme Natural Weapons (hugefangs and claws), Fast Regeneration, Improved Senses (Sonar & En-hanced Smell), Increased Life Points (+), Monstrous Attack (minor,hyperspatial energy), Natural Armor ( points of armor), ReducedDamage (half, kinetic attack)

MANEUVERS



Claw Stab/Slash

Grapple —Resisted by

Dodge

Monstrous Attack Fire

MUTANT ANIMALS

Although the circumstances are rarer, humans are notthe only creatures that can become hyperspatial mu-

tants. Ab-human species like ghouls and deep ones canalso be mutated in this fashion, and so can animals. Afew dangerously insane cults use hyperspatially mutateddogs to guard their temples or compounds, and occa-sionally animals will be mutated accidentally. However,the vast majority of hyperspatial mutants were once hu-man. Generating hyperspatial mutants from animals,deep ones, or ghouls, is identical to generating themfrom humans, except that basic template used is that ofa dog, ghoul, or deep one, instead of an ordinary human.



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BRILLIANT HYPERSPATIAL MUTANT

is monstrous entity is dangerously brilliant and con-siders itself to be far superior to ordinary humans. It

works in the shadows, turning people into its thralls. iscreature is attempting to acquire ancient artifacts that ithopes will boost its already potent psychic powers so thatit may rule an entire city or even a nation.

DEEP ONES

Archeologists and a few daring interviewers and diplomatshave pieced together the history of the deep ones. Approxi-mately , years ago, a small group of Polynesians settleda now–sunken island located less than miles from theruins of the Cthulhoid city R’lyeh. No more than a centuryor two after the island was settled, hyperspatial fluctuationsbrought Great Cthulhu and its spawn both closer to Earthand closer to awareness. e resulting levels of hyperspatialradiations were relatively low, but over the next century, theinhabitants of the island gradually changed. In part, thesechanges were driven by these islanders regularly fishing the

waters above and near R’lyeh and eating the catches. Afterno more than a century, the hyperspatial energies faded, but

by this time the inhabitants had been forever transformedinto the fi rst deep ones. e constant low level exposure,combined with the proximity to R’lyeh helped create a newEarthly species that share some characteristics of Cthulhu’sdread spawn while still remaining vertebrates. e deepones retain mitochondria and a high level of DNA similar-ity to humans and other earth-based organisms.

ese creatures abandoned their island and moved tothe undersea mountain ranges near R’lyeh. Here, theystudied the ancient inhuman ruins and between their cen-turies-long lives and the proximity of some of the knowl-

edge contained within R’lyeh, after , years they haddeveloped advanced, but exotic technologies, includingsorcerous devices sculpted from carefully carved constructsof quartz crystal and polymetallic nodules from the seabed.

Today, deep ones use both ritual sorcery and tech-nosorcery. However, they build technosorcerous deviceslarger than those made by humans. e minimum size ofdeep one technosorcerous devices is the minimum size ofhuman-made devices for a spell one level higher. A deepone device that duplicates the eff ects of a level sorceryspell would be the same size as a human-made devicethat duplicated the eff ects of a level sorcery spell.

During the first millennia of the deep ones’ aquatic ex-istence, Cthulhu and its spawn remained dreaming in themost distant portions of hyperspace. As a result, the deepones developed independent of Cthulhu’s influence. WhenCthulhu’s connection to Earth next grew stronger, the deepones had no interest in becoming its thralls and moved awayfrom R’lyeh to spread across all of Earth’s oceans.

Being limited by their aquatic environment and lessfocused on progress and change than humanity, the deepones spent the next , years living their long alien livesdeep under the sea. During this time, small groups of deepones visited various Pacific islands and a few coastal loca-tions across the globe, setting up arrangements with small

groups of isolated humans that had elements of both tradeand worship. ese interactions supplied the deep ones with precious metals and other commodities far easier toacquire or create on land. e deep ones also mastered vari-ous relatively simple hyperspatial technologies and learnedhow to deliberately transform humans into deep ones.

e lives of the deep ones changed in the fi rst fewdecades of the th century, as European explorers andsteamships took hold of the oceans. e deep ones no-ticed the spread of humanity and the advances in humannaval technology and grew concerned for their own fu-ture. At this time, the Pacific deep ones used their sorcer-ous technology to sink the island of their human ances-

tral origin, in order to cover up traces of their existence. A few European and American sailors heard stories

of the deep ones from Polynesian islanders. Most dis-missed them or added them to the many other stories ofsea monsters and mysteries of the deep. However, a NewEngland sailor named Obed Marsh learned of these be-ings and how humans could occasionally join their num-

Name: Brilliant Hyperspatial MutantMotivation: Gain power, acquire ancient artifacts, transform human-ity into its thrallsSpecies: Ab-Human MutantContact: Hyperspatial Exposure: /

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence ,Perception , Willpower

Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed:

Drama Points: Special Abilities: Psychic Sensitivity, Clairvoyance, Hypnotic Com-mand, Illusion, Insight, Natural Armor ( points of armor), Possession,Regeneration, Teleportation ( points, km range)

MANEUVERS



Pistol Bullet

Punch Bash



20

6ber. Marsh then used a mixture of force and bribery toconvince several islanders to teach him the ritual to con-tact the deep ones. Casting this ritual before he went tosleep, deep ones from the , year old Atlantic city of

Y’ha-nthlei showed up in his dreams. ey revealed toMarsh evidence of their power and their centuries longlives, and Marsh agreed to a foul bargain.

ese deep ones helped him in return for his prom-ise to recruit his townspeople for transformation so theycould report on events in America. During a midnightmeeting on the New England coast, the deep ones usedtheir hyperspatial technologies to change Marsh so thathe would transform into one of their kind over decadesand that all of his children would have similar biology.

en they gave him several devices, disguised as carvenidols, that would induce similar heritable transforma-tions in anyone who spent time in their proximity.

Marsh returned to Innsmouth, and by the dawn of theth century, almost everyone unaff ected by these transfor-mations had left Innsmouth, and there was a substantialcolony of deep ones off the coast, in the undersea cavernsof Devil’s Reef. ese deep ones consisted of both the trans-formed residents of Innsmouth and deep ones from Y’ha-nthlei who have come there to learn about the human world.

In , after learning of the deep one infestation ofInnsmouth, the US government sent agents in to captureall residents showing signs of inhuman ancestry, whilealso using depth charges to badly damage the Devil’sReef colony. As was stated in Chapter One, this event

marked the point where the US government learned ofthe deep ones and began to seriously investigate Earth’sinhuman inhabitants & alien visitors.

In the mid s, the US government launched sev-

eral secret investigations into the nature of the deep ones,but the outbreak of World War II ended most of theseprograms, aside from monitoring to ensure that the deepones would not interfere with submarine traffic or serveas agents for the Axis. However, between the evidenceuncovered by early investigations, and the creation anduse of the first nuclear weapons, the deep ones realizedthat they needed to act. ey feared that the outcome ofan all-out war between humans and deep ones was farfrom certain. Even if the deep ones won, many of theircities would be destroyed.

In , a group of deep ones from Y’ha-nthlei sent a hu-man who was in the process of transforming into a deep oneto make contact with the United Nations Security Council.Via telepathic contact with their semi-human representa-tive, a group of deep one leaders let the Security Councilmembers know that future attacks on deep ones wouldguarantee reprisals and that humanity must strictly limit its

Name: Deep One Soldier or CriminalMotivation: Either to serve the deep one species or to sell their ownspecies out for profit.Species: Deep OneContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (swimming), (walking)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Amphibious, Increased Life Points, Natural Weap-ons , Natural Armor - points, Psychic Sensitivity, Sorcery (mostoften found among criminals)

MANEUVERS


Claw Slash/Stab

Dodge — Defense


Spear Slash/Stab



210

undersea activities. e deep ones pledged that if they wereleft in peace, they would do the same with humanity.

In addition, they agreed not to transform any unknow-ing or unwilling humans into deep ones and they would

leave human shipping alone. Under these rules, humanity was permitted limited access to undersea mining and drill-ing and well as undersea exploration that avoided deep onecities, but humanity was prohibited from creating long-termundersea settlements or interfering with deep one activities.

One of the first major tests of this treaty came in thelate s, when several corporations began studying thefeasibility of establishing permanent underwater researchbases and a group of visionaries began considering the ideaof undersea cities. Both of these activities were in direct

violation of the secret treaty with the deep ones, and soOPS agents worked to covertly discredit these eff orts.

RELATIONS WITH HUMANITYDeep ones largely avoid contact with humanity. eir trea-ty with the UN forbids humans from visiting or spying ontheir settlements without permission from deep one cityleaders, and the vast majority of deep ones have little inter-est in contact with the surface world. However, occasion-ally scholars, sorcerers, scientists, and poets who wish tocontact them are given permission to visit a deep one city.

Because the deep ones transformed slowly from a humanorigin, they can still interbreed with humans, and some-times do; in particular, Marsh’s sub-race, who begin life ashumans and slowly change, often pass along their genes inthe surface world before developing their aquatic traits andbeginning their descent. Members of both species may tryto prevent this kind of thing, but since the transformationoccurs after adulthood, there will always be some hybridsunaware of their origin.

Also, while their minds are as alien as their bodies,deep ones society is also home to a few criminals andtreaty breakers. Some of these aquatic lawbreakers are

willing to trade everything from treasure from sunkenships to Cthulhoid relics or hyperspatial devices made bydeep ones in return for goods that range from alien relicsor human drugs, to various human technologies. A fewhave even been willing to trade much in return for being

smuggled off Earth and onto another world. Almost all ofthe deep ones who ask for this service are fleeing from the justice of their kind.

DESCRIPTION

Although some popular writers describe them as “fish-men”, in actuality, a more accurate description would befish frogs that can walk upright on two legs.

“...eir predominant colour was a greyish-green, thoughthey had white bellies. ey were mostly shiny and slip-

pery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. eir formsvaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were

the heads of fi sh, with prodigious bulging eyes that neverclosed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills,and their long paws were webbed. ey hopped irregu-larly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four.”

- H.P. Lovecrafte Shadow Over Innsmouth

Self-sufficient in their underwater home, deep oneshave few tools. OPS operatives are most likely to en-counter deep one guards or deep one criminals, both of

which appear very similar to human eyes.

GHOULS

e origin of ghouls remains a mystery which the ghoulsthemselves are not interested in revealing, even if they knowthe answer. Tests on deceased ghouls have clearly revealedthem to be related to humanity, and most researchers assumethat they speciated as the result of a mass exposure to power-ful hyperspatial energies at least , years ago. However,their origins are sufficiently distant that a few researchersbelieve they may have diverged from humanity as long as, years ago and a few scholars believe that they are notactually derived from humanity at all, but instead used magicto come to Earth from some exotic parallel world.

Nonetheless, we share a similar percentage of our

genetic code with ghouls as we do with other primates.Studies on ghoul mitochondrial DNA have turned upconflicting evidence with regards to their origins. ematter is complicated by uncertainty on how much inter-breeding has taken place in the meantime, and by uniqueprotective factors in the ghoul DNA replication process,perhaps evolved to prevent them from taking harm fromembalming compounds, such as formaldehyde, that theyingest as a side eff ect of their diet.

Regardless of their origins, ghouls are subterraneancarnivores with a taste for well-aged carrion and a pref-erence for human meat. As a result, most ghouls gainthe majority of their sustenance from dining on human

corpses. Ghouls live in subterranean colonies of betweenseveral dozen and several tens of thousands of ghouls. Inthese colonies, ghouls have a complex, but brutal culture,

where the strong and the powerful dominate the weak. ere are various rules and customs that limit how muchsome ghouls can oppress one another, but their culture isconsiderably more brutal and violent than any functional



2

6human culture and has a level of violence comparable to

various warlike and feuding groups of human nomads orof the most violent most modern criminal subcultures.Sorcery use is rare among ghouls, but it is known and

skilled sorcerers are respected. All ghoul sorcery is ritualsorcery performed using physical rituals.

RELATIONS WITH HUMANITY

One of the paradoxes of the ghouls is despite their hav-ing separated off from humanity well before the deepones, ghouls are somewhat more human in both mindand body than deep ones and they are far more inter-ested in humanity. Many ghouls collect and use the vari-ous goods that humanity discards, while also dining onthe corpses of the dead. Although almost all deep onesignore humanity, ghouls depend upon humanity for theirsubstance and many of their tools.

Ghouls wish to remain secret, and to avoid both wide-spread panic and public interest in dangerous topics, thenations of the Security Council also wishes to keep theghouls’ existence a secret. is fact has been communicatedto the ghouls, as has the fact that unprovoked attacks onliving humans will be met with deadly force. However, be-cause there is no treaty and in fact formal diplomacy atall, OPS policy regarding ghouls is far less rigid than thatregarding deep ones. OPS operatives are free to kill anyghouls who attack humans, but should refrain from enter-ing ghoul lairs or threatening their young.

Ghouls are known to use human agents, most of whom serve the ghouls in return for various forms of aidor occasionally buried treasure. Careful research has alsorevealed the existence of human half-breeds and change-lings who possess the dark-adapted eyes and strength ofghouls, but which are otherwise indistinguishable fromordinary humans without extensive medical tests. One ofthe ghouls’ most infamous habits is abducting human in-fants and young children. Many are abducted from out-side of the home and out of their parents’ sight and arepresumed to have been kidnapped by human criminals.However, some are replaced by changelings left by theghouls. Ghouls can interbreed with humans, but many ofthem regard half-human children as less desirable than

either purebred ghoul children or human children, sohalf-breed children are often abandoned in this fashion. ese half-breed children initially seem almost indis-

tinguishable from ordinary human infants and children,lacking the muzzle and vaguely hoof-like feet of pure-bred ghouls. A few abandon their human lives and findtheir way back to the warrens of the ghouls, but mostgrow up thinking of themselves as human, never know-

ing the origin of their ability to see in the dark or theirtaste for well-aged meat. e lives of the human childrenabducted by ghouls are far diff erent. Most are trained asservants, spying on the human world for their ghoul mas-

ters. As part of their training, these children are taught toimplicitly trust and obey their ghoul masters and those

who resist this training are killed. When they become adults, these human captives ven-

ture forth into the human world doing the ghouls’ biddingand almost never attempt to escape or to reveal the natureof their masters to other humans. Human servants who at-tempt to do either are hunted down and killed. e ghouls’human servants keep track of threats to the ghouls fromhumanity and help the ghouls to acquire human tools and

weapons. e servants’ most important role is making cer-tain that the ghouls have access to human graveyards.

A few human children abducted by ghouls eventually be-come ghouls themselves at the culmination of exotic sorcer-ous rituals. ese rituals seem to only work on certain chil-dren, likely indicating that these children have some trace ofghoul ancestry that these rituals can bring out. Half-breedghoul children are sometimes subjected to these same ritu-als. Ghouls tolerate both human servants and other ghouls,but dislike and distrust adult ghoul half-breeds. OPS keepstrack of all known human agents of the ghouls and doesnot attempt to recruit known human agents. However, in-dividuals with ghoul ancestry are regularly recruited by theOPS if they do not currently have ties to the ghouls.

Unlike their treaties with the deep ones, the United Na-

tions has no treaty with the ghouls. In part, this is becausethe ghouls lack nations and mostly lack organization on alevel greater than their individual colonies. In addition, mostghouls have no interest in interacting directly with humanity.

e total number of ghouls is unknown, but most eitherlive in caverns beneath large human cities or in caverns thathave access to the various human-made tunnels beneaththese cities. Because some ghouls are skilled sorcerers anduse sorcery to communicate with ghouls in other colonies,any large-scale attack on any colony of ghouls would betaken as a threat by many ghouls in other colonies andcould result in devastating attacks on humanity by bothghouls and the beings they summoned. OPS estimates of

the total number of ghouls indicate that an all out cam-paign of extermination would result in a protracted warthat humanity would easily win, but which would resultin millions of human deaths. (Indeed, an interesting andmorally troubling storyline might see the Heroes sum-moned to prevent such a war – by taking down a human

vigilante organization that has prepared to strike first.)



2

6hooved feet- none of these, though any one of them might wellhave driven an excitable man to madness.”

– H.P. LovecraftPickman’s Model

Most ghouls are content to feed on buried and aban-doned human corpses, but some decide that killing peo-ple is an easy source of new corpses. ese predators arethe ghouls most commonly encountered by OPS opera-tives in the line of duty, and are most dangerous in packs,

which consist of up to a dozen ghouls.Even ghouls have eccentric scholars. Many are sorcer-

ers, and some of them are willing to exchange knowledge with humans. Of course, they’ll only deal with humans who possess knowledge they are interested in, and ghoul-ish interests can be very strange indeed.

ALIENS

e following are some of the more common alienspecies that humanity has encountered. Regardless of

whether humanity has encountered these beings in ar-cheological sites, on modern-day Earth, or out amongthe stars, all of these beings are highly distinct from hu-

manity both physically and psychologically. Althoughtrade and peaceful coexistence is often possible, mutualunderstanding is difficult.

ELDER ONES e elder ones are one of the oldest and, at least to hu-man eyes, strangest of the known alien species. ey are

radially symmetrical columns of flesh adorned with fi vetentacular legs, fi ve fl exible branching arms capable ofboth strength and micromanipulation on the nano-scale,fi ve eyes, and a strange fi ve-lobed brain. is species is

the most successful and widespread of the known sen-tient species. e first evidence of their presence in thegalaxy is more than one billion years ago, and their firstevidence on earth is approximately million years ago,near the end of the Precambrian. e elder ones’ homeplanet remains unknown, but they colonized many hun-dreds of worlds, preferring to settle on worlds that hadrecently developed multi-cellular life or on lifeless worldsthat they seeded with life.

Fossil evidence on Earth and dozens of other worldssuggests that the elder ones engineered local life formsfor greater complexity and in some cases created en-tirely new varieties of life. eir reasons for these ac-tions remains unknown, but their eff orts seem to havebeen responsible for the present form of several inhab-ited worlds, including Earth. e Cambrian explosionof multicellular life may represent a work of elder one“terraforming.” e elder ones were masters of nano-technology. eir two greatest achievements were theirsentient nanotechnological servants, the shoggoths, andincorporating nanotechnology into their own bodies soas to make the elder ones’ bodies exceptionally tough anddurable. is originally amphibious species’ bodies cansurvive the vacuum of space or the upper atmosphere ofa gas giant world like Jupiter, and can still endure high-

oxygen atmospheres like the one they created on Earth.Instead of ritual sorcery, elder one manipulations of hy-perspace use various types of technosorcery. e elder onescreated advanced nanotechnologies capable of utilizinghyperspatial energies. When activated, this nanotechnol-ogy wrapped around the elder one, and used hyperspatialenergies to warped space sufficiently to allow it to literallyfl y though hyperspace. is flight was similar to but some-

what less advanced than the versions of hyperspatial flightused by the mi-go. One of the great advantages of this typeof technology is that it allows the elder ones to fl y throughhyperspace without the need for spaceships, but avoidedthe need to permanently tie their bodies to hyperspatial

mechanisms or to incorporate hyperspatial organs in theirbodies. Unfortunately, hyperspatial nanotechnology is dif-ficult to maintain, and some elder one colonies lost theknowledge of how to maintain or manufacture it, and thusthe ability to travel to the stars.


Name: Ghoul ScholarMotivation: Obtain Obscure & Eccentric KnowledgeSpecies: GhoulContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Enhanced Smell, Natural Weapons , Night Vision,Psychic Sensitivity, Sorcery

MANEUVERS


Claw Slash/Stab

Dodge — Defense

Large Knife Slash/Stab

Pistol Bullet



214

With the exception of several dozen individuals in sus-pended animation in the Antarctic ice, the elder ones areextinct on Earth. eir species survives largely unchangedon a few known worlds, and possibly on other unknownplanets. ey are no longer a dominant force in the galaxyand have vanished from almost all the worlds they previ-ously inhabited. Not merely static, the elder ones are in ac-tive decline and seem bound for extinction. Some of thosethat survive remain at least mildly interested in acquiringnew knowledge and are sometimes willing to trade withother species. However, surviving elder ones all belong toan ancient and decadent civilization that regards human

visitors as little more than potentially interesting vermin.Interactions with elder ones are always potentially dan-

gerous, but also hold the potential for great knowledge.Even with their previous grandeur long passed, the elderones – at least those who have retained their knowledge –remain the premier nanotechnologists in the galaxy as wellas skilled bioengineers. e fragments of elder one knowl-edge humanity gained from their Antarctic city gave hu-manity many inventions, including the dragonfl y drive. Inaddition, the tidbits of knowledge humanity has acquired

from brief visits to worlds still inhabited by elder ones haveprovided the basis for several important medical advancesand the creation of several new varieties of crop plants.

DESCRIPTION

At the Mountains of Madness describes elder ones as“eight feet long all over. Six-foot, fi ve-ridged barrel torso

three and fi ve-tenths feet central diameter, one foot enddiameters. Dark gray, fl exible, and in fi nitely tough. Sev-en-foot membranous wings of same color, found folded,spread out of furrows between ridges. Wing framework

tubular or glandular, of lighter gray, with ori fi ces at wingtips. Spread wings have serrated edge. Around equator,one at central apex of each of the fi ve vertical, stave-likeridges are fi ve systems of light gray fl exible arms or ten-tacles found tightly folded to torso but expansible to max-imum length of over three feet. Like arms of primitivecrinoid. Single stalks three inches diameter branch aftersix inches into fi ve substalks, each of which branches aftereight inches into small, tapering tentacles or tendrils, giv-ing each stalk a total of twenty- fi ve tentacles.

At top of torso blunt, bulbous neck of lighter gray, with gill-like suggestions, holds yellowish fi ve-pointed star- fi sh-shaped apparent head covered with three-inch wirycilia of various prismatic colors… “

“Five slightly longer reddish tubes start from innerangles of star fi sh-shaped head and end in saclike swellingsof same color which, upon pressure, open to bell-shapedori fi ces two inches maximum diameter and lined withsharp, white tooth like projections - probably mouths. Allthese tubes, cilia, and points of star fi sh head, found foldedtightly down; tubes and points clinging to bulbous neckand torso. Flexibility surprising despite vast toughness.

“At bottom of torso, rough but dissimilarly functioningcounterparts of head arrangements exist. Bulbous light-

gray pseudo-neck, without gill suggestions, holds greenish

fi ve-pointed star fi sh arrangement.“Tough, muscular arms four feet long and tapering from seven inches diameter at base to about two and fi ve-tenths at point. To each point is attached small end of a

greenish fi ve-veined membranous triangle eight incheslong and six wide at farther end.”

– H.P. Lovecraft At the Mountains of Madness

Except for those who have sunk too far into deca-dence and decay, elder ones are curious, especially aboutalien life. However, their knowledge is vast and most areonly willing to communicate with individuals who off erthem new knowledge.

SHOGGOTHS ese beings were originally the semi-sentient nanotech-nological servants created by the elder ones. Capable oftransforming into any shape and of transforming theirappendages into any possible tool, they were the ultimatemachines, capable of doing everything from moving large

Name: Elder One ResearcherMotivation: Study and experiment with living beings, gain knowledgeSpecies: Elder OneContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (walking), swimming, (fl ying)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Amphibious, Biofilter, Extra Arms, Increased Speed(fl ying), Natural Armor , Psychic Sensitivity, Regeneration, SpectrumVision, Temperature Tolerance

MANEUVERS



Disintegrator Pistol Energy Damage +

Foot Tentacle Bash


Dodge



2

6amounts of earth and stone to building complex electron-ics or performing delicate surgery. e complexity of theirprogramming and the advanced nature of their cognitiveprocessors allowed each shoggoth to learn how to better

perform its tasks and more easily anticipate the needs ofthe elder ones. Unfortunately, this same capacity for learn-ing also endowed some of the most advanced shoggoths

with the ability to gradually grow in both intelligence andself-awareness until they were independent beings that

were almost the intellectual equals of the elder ones. OneEarth, the shoggoths wiped out the elder ones, and only ahandful of survivors remain in suspended animation.

Shoggoths are just as potentially immortal as the elderones, but cannot reproduce themselves without the aidof now lost advanced technology, OPS estimates that nomore than a thousand active shoggoths remain on Earth.However, each one is a large and dangerous entity. OPSalso believes several thousand more may still wait buriedin Antarctic ice or locked away in “unbreakable” prisons,

waiting for foolish or greedy humans to release them. e surviving shoggoths have an instinctive horror

of captivity or servitude and attempt to destroy anyone who attempts to capture or control them. Also, they cur-rently have no use for humanity and typically either killor avoid any humans they encounter. However, research-ers believe that if the shoggoths ever learned that humannanotechnology might be able to allow them to repro-duce, they would take a far greater interest in humanity.ey were normally shapeless entities composed of a viscous

jelly which looked like an agglutination of bubbles, and

each averaged about fi fteen feet in diameter when a sphere.ey had, however, a constantly shifting shape and volume- throwing out temporary developments or forming appar-ent organs of sight, hearing, and speech in imitation of their

masters, either spontaneously or according to suggestion.ey seem to have become peculiarly intractable to-

ward the middle of the Permian Age, perhaps one hun-dred and fi fty million years ago, when a veritable warof resubjugation was waged upon them by the marineOld Ones. Pictures of this war, and of the headless, slime-coated fashion in which the Shoggoths typically left theirslain victims, held a marvelously fearsome quality despitethe intervening abyss of untold ages.

– H.P. Lovecraft At the Mountains of Madness

Shoggoths are clever in an inhuman way, with prob-lem-solving abilities like those an artificial intelligencemight exhibit. ey are also determined and deadly. For-tunately, they mostly avoid humans. So far, the worstincident involving a shoggoth occurred when an Indiancorporation illegally airlifted a shoggoth from Antarcticaand took it to a remote laboratory in order to study it. Itescaped and killed most of the researchers and destroyedpart of a village before OPS operatives were able to de-stroy it. Unfortunately, various corporations are still fas-cinated with the commercial potential of these creatures,and illegally try from time to time to capture and studythem in the intent of creating unintelligent versions.History often repeats itself.

EUROPANS

ese exotic beings are the only aliens discoveredliving elsewhere in the solar system. Although a fewpsychics have experienced dreams or visions relating totheir existence throughout human history, the existenceof the Europans was not discovered by humanity until, when a secret joint US-British expedition landed onEuropa. is frozen moon of Jupiter has a crust of ice be-tween one and fi ve km thick over a vast, world-spanningand totally lightless ocean kilometers deep. e ex-pedition carried with it a miniature submarine poweredby nuclear batteries, which also powered a heat-drill that

would have allowed the submarine to tunnel through theice in less than two weeks.

Less than a day after the drilling had begun, the Eu-ropans made their presence known. Since the vessel cameout of hyperspace near Europa, most of the crew had expe-rienced strange and somewhat disturbing dreams, and thetwo psychics on the crew noticed a nearly constant feeling

Name: ShoggothMotivation: Devour elder ones or any other intelligent beingSpecies: ShoggothContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (crawling), swimmingDrama Points: -Special Abilities: Amphibious, Fast Regeneration, Legless, Natural Weaponry , Psychic Sensitivity, Reduced Damage (Kinetic x ), Spec-trum Vision, Temperature Tolerance

MANEUVERS



Envelop & Crush Bash - only action

possible in turn

Pseudopod Stab Slash/Stab

Pseudopod Strike Bash



216

of being under careful observation, along with occasionalflashes of a profoundly inhuman mental presence.

When the submarine had been melting its waythrough the ice covering the Europan ocean for hours,

the crew of the submarine found themselves radioingtheir space ship and calling for the cable attached to thesubmarine be used to haul the submarine in at emer-gency speeds. Meanwhile, both psychics, one on the shipand the other in the submarine, were overwhelmed with

visions of vast and ancient intelligences lurking below theEuropan ice. Later analysis of these images using psi-linkrecordings indicate these creatures appeared to be somesort of strange colonial organisms composed of thou-sands of jelly fish-like creatures neurally connected toone another. e psychics also both reported a firm im-pression that these creatures were not native to Europa,that they were found in many similar worlds throughoutthe galaxy, and that they were not interested in contact

with outsiders. Immediately after this message, both ofthe remote probes that had been tunneling into the iceahead of the submarine vanished and a shock wave badlydamaged the submarine, killing most of the crew. At thispoint, Europa was declared off -limits.

In , an unauthorized attempt was made to opena hyperspatial portal into the Europan ocean, which re-sulted in a small explosion as the portal generator cata-strophically failed. By , interstellar explorers haddiscovered three other Europa-like worlds inhabited bythese creatures, as well as half a dozen similar worlds that

had their own exotic native ecosystems but were devoidof Europan life. e reception of visitors on one of those worlds was similar to that received at Europa. When aship attempted to land on the second it mysteriously ex-ploded. However, the reaction of the third world, namedMarius after the discoverer of Europa, was far diff erent.

A psychic on the ship that visited this frozen extraso-lar world made contact with these creatures and then thecrew found themselves compelled to land. At this point,cameras on the ship record the entire crew falling into acoma-like trance and the psychic vanishing from sight.Eighteen hours later, the crew reawakened and the psychicreappeared. e Europans on Marius were curious about

the human visitors. ey mentally scanned the crew andteleported the psychic into an air-filled pocket under theice in order to more easily communicate with him.

Because of the Europans’ affinity for hyperspatial ener-gies, the psychic suff ered a Level ree hyperspatial exposure,

while the remainder of the crew suff ered Level Two exposure. When the ship’s xenobiologist regained consciousness, she

Name: Europan Information TraderMotivation: Exchange knowledge with worthy beingsSpecies: EuropanContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (swimming)Drama Points: -

Special Abilities: Amphibious, all psychic powers (both human andinhuman), sorcery

MANEUVERS





2

6found she possessed a moderate degree of knowledge aboutthe history and biology of the aliens now known as Europans.

After the psychic recovered, he also reported a strongsense that future visits might be welcome. Since that initial

visit in , seven other vessels have visited Marius. Six ofthese expeditions immediately departed when the entire crewdeveloped severe headaches and the ships’ psychic beganscreaming and writhing in pain, and only recovered once the

vessel was at least , km from the planet. In all cases, thepsychic reported a vehement feeling of rejection.

e seventh ship was again forced to land, and thecrew was rendered unconscious for hours, after whichtime they had all suff ered Level hyperspatial exposure,and had only vague memories of the encounter. However,a crew member who was a skilled mathematician awoke

with a valuable insight into hyperspatial mathematics. e OPS directorate now assumes that these Europansare engaging in some unusual form of trade and regularlysend other vessels into orbit around Marius.

Attempts to send vessels more often than once every . Earth years result in the crew of the ship all suff ering dis-turbing visions that produce seizures in almost half of thecrew and cause any psychics to fall unconscious from in-tense pain. One psychic involved in such a failed missiondied of a brain aneurysm, but an autopsy revealed that signsof the aneurysm were present before the incident, leadingto the conclusion that the Europans had been executingnormal defenses rather than trying to kill him intentionally.

Some of the humans who have undergone successful

contact with the Europans remember a sense of commu-nity and belonging deeper than anything they are capableof experiencing normally. ey usually recover from this,especially the psychics, who can make mental contact inother ways, but a few particularly “touched” individualsfeel a deep loss after the contact has concluded, knowingthat the sense of pure unity they sensed from the alienrace will never and can never belong to them as humans.


e Europans’ motives are unknown and perhaps un-knowable. ey seem determined to completely controlthe extent and nature of their contact with humanity.

What they might wish from humanity is unknown, butso far, humanity has gained several new insights into di-mensional mathematics from these contacts.

DESCRIPTION

No human has even seen a Europan visually, and this isunlikely to change. Psychic impressions indicate that eachEuropan seems to consist of a cluster of dozens or perhaps

hundreds of jelly fish-like organisms that link together intoa hive mind using both psychic powers and contact be-tween specialized nerve-like tendrils. Psychic impressionsalso reveal that there are at least one million Europan clus-ter-individuals on Europa and several million on Marius.

ey excel at psychic powers, possessing all known powersand perhaps further abilities, and are also highly skilledsorcerers, practicing meditative sorcery.

THE THEORY & PRACTICE OF TIME TRAVEL

Discussions with Yithian scientists have revealed to hu-manity the general theory of time travel. e most basictruth is that the only stable point is the present. Boththe past and the future diverge, with divergence increas-ing the further one looks or travels into the future or thepast. Time is not fi xed in either direction. Rather, it issubject to the limitation that all possible pasts must leadup to the present, just as all possible futures must begin

with present events. e Yithians understand this andplan their future actions based on a combination of whatevents are the most likely outcomes of their present, andthe fact that some events are overwhelmingly likely. Forexample, the comet striking the Earth, ending the Cre-taceous era and causing the extinction of the dinosaurs,

is overwhelmingly likely. And, while the causes vary, inalmost all possible futures humanity has departed fromthe Earth million years from now, and some varietyof intelligent arthropod has either evolved or been arti-ficially created to provide a new home for the Yithians.One major limitation to time travel is that it is remark-ably easy to become lost in time – to “jump tracks” whentraveling back and forth. Unless a time traveling deviceis in some way anchored to the iteration of the pres-ent where it is first activated, time travelers usually findthat they have returned to a present day diff erent fromthe one that they left. Except when permanently trans-ferring their minds to a new inhabitant in the future,

Yithians always maintain a low-level psychic link be-tween the body they are currently occupying and theiroriginal body. is link automatically allows a Yithian toreturn to their own body, rather than simply to a versionof themself occupying a very diff erent timeline.



218

GREAT RACE OF YITH

One of the strangest alien species known to humanity arethe great race of Yith. In part, their enigmatic nature comes

from the fact that instead of physically traveling from one world to another, they use advanced psychic technologiesto allow them to transfer the consciousnesses of their spe-cies from one set of host beings to another. Some theoriesspeculate that they may even have evolved as non-mate-rial consciousnesses in their prehistoric origins, making itmore natural for them to become “unstuck in time.”

e early history of the Yithians is unknown. However,shortly before the Permian-Triassic Extinction, caused bythe last major battle between Cthulhu and the elder ones,the Yithians projected their minds into an exotic non-sen-tient species of fungi that had been created by the fl yingpolyps. e Yithians allied with the elder ones to impris-on the fl ying polyps. At this point, the Yithians lived onEarth, building an advanced civilization. ey also sent theminds of their scholars, scientists, and historians millionsand even hundreds of millions of years into the future andlearned of humanity and of the possible course of the nextbillion years of Earth’s history. e Yithians also learnedof the meteor that would end the age of the dinosaurs.For some reason, they did not wish to avert this disaster– instead they projected the minds of their entire speciesalmost million years into the future, into the bodies ofa highly intelligent species of beetle.

Yithians have vast knowledge, but avoid overuse of

hyperspatial technologies. ey use these technologiesfor time travel and antigravity and to create force fields,but otherwise rely upon advanced conventional tech-nologies, including portable fusion reactors and simi-lar wonders. Members of the great race never practiceritual sorcery. e hyperspatial powers that they use areall controlled by means of technosorcerous devices. Also,although the Yithian’s native psychic abilities are limit-ed, they can build advanced psychic devices designed tomimic almost all psychic powers.


Humanity interacts more easily with the great race of Yith

than with any other alien species, because all Yithians thathumans have interacted with have extensive experiencedealing with humans. ese consciousnesses inhabit humanbodies to interact with humans. e only time that humansinteract with Yithians in other bodies is by the Yithians’unique cultural exchange program, as it were: when the hu-man is in the past and inhabiting the same type of body.

Across all of human history, there have been small human

cults dedicated to working with Yithian scholars, but all ofthese cults were highly secretive and quite small. e mem-bers of these cults aided possessed humans and occasionallyeven off ered up their own bodies for temporary possession,

in return for small tidbits of knowledge, including advancedscience and engineering and knowledge of the future.

OPS researchers have now determined that a num-ber of technological anachronisms, including the famousBaghdad battery from CE and the fact that it wasused for electroplating, have their origins in the small bitsof knowledge great race cults managed to obtain fromtheir alien patrons. However, the Yithians made certain toavoid giving out any knowledge that would have changedthe course of history substantially; historically, they chosesubjects whose reports would be easy to discredit.

All of this changed in , when OPS experiments withusing hypnosis to enhance psychic powers were by chanceused on someone who had been possessed by the Yithians.

ese eff orts accidentally released partial memories of thetime that this person spent in the Yithian city of Pnakotusmore than a decade before. is revelation was immediatelyshared with the United Nations Security Council. Furtherstudy revealed that these memories were associated with theexcavation in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert that revealed

Name: Great Race ResearcherMotivation: Gain knowledge from other speciesSpecies: Great Race of YithContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence ,

Perception , Willpower Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (sliding on muscular pad)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Infrared Vision, Legless, Natural Weaponry, PsychicSensitivity, Rapid Healing

MANEUVERS



Claw Slash/Stab

Zapper Electrial (treat asbullet damage)

Zapper (stun) Bash, roll vs.

stun to reaminconscious*

* e target must make a Constitution doubled roll at a penalty offi ve plus the Success Levels of the attack. On a failure, the victim isknocked out. Even if the target manages to stay conscious, the shockgives her a - penalty to all actions (including resisting another shock)for the next four Turns. Multiple shots have cumulative penalties.



2

6

the ruins of Pnakotus years before. A year later, routinecovert psychic examination of OPS personnel revealed thatone of them was possessed by a member of the great race.

e Security Council immediately held an interview withthis being and revealed much of the knowledge that OPS

had already gathered about the Yithians.One of the senior OPS directors who was present at this

meeting then suggested an alliance. e Security Council andthe various member nations all agreed to assist visiting Yithi-ans in return for access to limited amounts of Yithian scientif-ic and technical knowledge. e Yithian responded that thisproposal was consistent with one of the various time-linesthey approved of and agreed to carry this message back to thefellow members of its Knowledge Confraternity.

Within four months, the agreement was signed bythe member nations of the UN Security Council and alarge Yithian Knowledge Confraternity based in the cityof Pnakotus in the mid Cretaceous. e Yithians havecategorically refused to give humanity any technologyrelating to time travel, or anything too far in advancedof humanity’s current technology. Also, to avoid becom-ing dependent upon an alien species or taking on a trojanhorse, the Security Council agreed by a narrow vote toonly accept scientific information and engineering knowl-edge compatible with humanly known principles. As a re-

sult, the Yithians only provide humanity with knowledgethat can be verified and used to create new technologies,rather than plans for constructing devices that operate onprinciples no human understands. As a result, the alliance

with the Yithians has helped advance human science andtechnology, but has not caused a radical transformation.

e most significant advances have been in all facetsof materials technology. e superconducting batteriesintroduced in were largely based on Yithian-derivedknowledge, as are the wireless tasers and the chemicals usedin both artificial gills and the oxygen recycling systems inspacecraft. More broadly, access to Yithian knowledge hasallowed human researchers to avoid various blind alleys intheir research and to create microelectronics that are moreadvanced than anything ever created by the Yithians.

In return for this knowledge, Yithians are freely off ered volunteer hosts in academic and engineering fields, as wellas assistant xenodiplomats and a wide variety of otherpersonnel. In addition, OPS and the governments of the

various member nations of the Security Council off er the Yithian visitors a high degree of access to various govern-mental and corporate facilities. In the process of switchingbodies and visiting the Yithian civilization human hostsundergo Level Hyperspatial Exposure.

e Great Revelation of released a vast amount ofknowledge about secret contacts and treaties with aliens, butthis information did not include anything about the Yithians.

ese beings and their knowledge of the likely course of his-tory remain a closely guarded secret. e Yithians and the

UN Security Council both agreed that public knowledge oftime travel would prove disruptive for the human species. Asa result, along with the ghouls, the Yithians remain one oftwo non-human species whose existence on Earth still re-mains a secret. Because there are never more than a few dozen

Yithians on Earth at any time and all of them reside in hu-man bodies, their discovery by outsiders is unlikely.

DESCRIPTION

e Yithians are “immense rugose cones ten feet high, andwith head and other organs attached to foot-thick, distensiblelimbs spreading from the apexes.ey spoke by the clicking orscraping of huge paws or claws attached to the end of two of

their four limbs, and walked by the expansion and contrac-tion of a viscous layer attached to their vast, ten-foot bases.”– H.P. Lovecraft

A Shadow Out of Time Yithians in their prehistoric cone-shaped bodies cannotbe found in the present day, but if OPS operatives travelto the distant past, they might encounter such a being.

All known Yithians walking the Earth in the pres-

Name: Yithian Researcher Possessing a HumanMotivation: Gain knowledge from other speciesSpecies: Great Race of Yith (mind) in a human body Contact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Psychic Sensitivity,

MANEUVERS



Hypnoscope — — See description

Zapper Electrial (treat asbullet damage)

Zapper (stun) Bash, roll vs.stun to reaminconscious*

* e target must make a Constitution doubled roll at a penalty offi ve plus the Success Levels of the attack. On a failure, the victim isknocked out. Even if the target manages to stay conscious, the shockgives her a - penalty to all actions (including resisting another shock)for the next four Turns. Multiple shots have cumulative penalties.



220

ent day are possessing human bodies. Some of them mayaccompany teams of OPS investigators or explorers ontheir missions. Individuals transferred in this fashion re-tain their skills, as well as their Intelligence, Perception,

and Willpower, but use the physical attributes and abili-ties of the body they now inhabit.

MI-GO

e mi-go are an advanced and relatively widespread spe-cies who inhabit more than a one hundred planets within parsecs of the Solar System. eir nearest planet,

Yuggoth, is a small, frigid world orbiting a brown dwarfstar located half a parsec from Earth. Although they arean immensely adaptable species and can live briefl y onEarth and other terrestrial planets, they greatly prefer thecold and dim light of Yuggoth and similar worlds and

only colonize planets around brown dwarf stars.However, the mi-go require various transuranic ele-ments for some of their exotic technologies and theseelements are easiest to obtain in the ore veins of water-bearing terrestrial planets like Earth. e mi-go from

Yuggoth have been mining various deposits on Earth fortens of millions of years, in large part because it is by farthe closest source of these elements. In addition, Earthlylife produces various biological materials that the mi-gofind valuable, but difficult to synthesize.

Because of their exotic physiology, mi-go are onlycomfortable on Earth in cold environments at least twomiles above sea level. ey can survive in the thinner air

of this environment for several months, but can only re-main at sea level in temperate climates for a few daysbefore they are forced to return to space. As a result, themi-go are completely uninterested in conquering Earth.Instead, they regard it at a valuable source of various

valuable raw materials as well as a useful source of infor-mation about various other alien species. However, themi-go are also aware of the eff ects of the Elder Weaponand the hyperspatial proximity of the trapped Cthul-hoids. e mi-go wish to avoid any action that could leadto the release of the Cthulhoids or any reversal of theeff ects of the Elder Weapon. As a result, they attempt tostop any hyperspatial manipulations that might reverse

the eff ects of the Elder Weapon. eir interest in keep-ing the Cthulhoids trapped is one of few motives theseprofoundly alien beings share with humanity.

e mi-go excel at genetic engineering and have an excel-lent biological technology, but have a limited understandingof other forms of technology. ey largely use non-biologicaltechnologies when no biological option is available, such as

when constructing their few space ships. ey are highlyskilled at the use of hyperspatial technologies, and createtechnosorcerous devices that they implant in their bodies.

is species is also highly psychic. All mi-go share a low-

level constant psychic link with all other members of theirspecies. Individual mi-go retain separate identities, but theycan easily share their thoughts with each other. ey con-stantly share powerful emotions and especially striking orpowerful thoughts and can deliberately communicate withany member of their species anywhere. Renegade mi-go cankeep secrets from the rest of their species, but doing so isconsidered to be unnatural and is also forbidden.


e mi-go are mildly transcendent beings who have en-gineered themselves to have partial connection to hyper-space, which allows each individual mi-go to fl y through

deep space by means of what amounts of a built-in drag-onfl y drive. eir connection to hyperspace also rendersthese beings highly resistant to most damage and con-nects the entire species into a partial and limited groupmind. Unlike beings like the fl ying polyps, which have asignificantly greater connection to hyperspace the mi-goare not sufficiently alien that trade and treaties are im-possible, but they are the most mentally alien beings thathumanity regularly interacts with.

In the early s, human psychics working for OPSestablished communication with the mi-go. Prior to thistime, the mi-go were exceedingly secretive and avoidedcontact with humanity. However, the birth of the humanspace program and active attempts to contact them en-couraged some of the mi-go to agree to make contact

with humanity’s representatives. e mi-go demanded the right to continue to gain ac-

cess to rare minerals and biological samples. ey were ini-tially unwilling to trade for these commodities, preferringto continue to freely gather them. However, when off eredaccess to a limited amount of data gathered from great raceand elder one artifacts, the mi-go agreed to these condi-tions. Trade with the mi-go was initially very limited and

was handled exclusively by OPS. However, this trade in-creased significantly after the Great Revelation, when

the truth about the mi-go to become public. e OPSbrokers all legal trade with representative of this species,and for the past years, various corporations and nationalgovernments have attempted to find various commoditiesto trade to the mi-go in the hopes of obtaining some oftheir artifacts or biological knowledge.

One reason the mi-go are eager to gain access to allknowledge that humanity acquires from other advanced



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222

alien species is that the mi-go wish to more fully becomecreatures of hyperspace, but lack the knowledge of how todo so. After millions of years of work on this problem, asa species they understand that their only hope of successis obtaining knowledge from other more advanced species,and so they wish to gain access to the various artifacts thathumanity has uncovered on Earth and other worlds.

One of the secrets that humanity does not know aboutthe mi-go, is that this species is tough and persistent, but theylack the brilliance of the elder ones or the Yithians. Mostmi-go advances of the last million years were based onknowledge obtained from other species. Because of a possiblethreat that they pose if they gain more access to hyperspace

the great race refuses to trade with the mi-go, and the factthat some among the great race trade with humanity causesthe mi-go to be willing to trade with humanity.

DESCRIPTION

“In e Whisperer in the Darkness, Lovecraft describes themi-go as “a sort of huge, light-red crab with many pairs of legsand with two great batlike wings in the middle of the back.

ey sometimes walked on all their legs, and sometimes on thehindmost pair only, using the others to convey large objects ofindeterminate nature.”

Mi-go consider humans to be interesting, but have not yet

decided if they have the potential to be either useful allies orproblematic rivals. ey make deals or work with humans ifdoing so is to their advantage.

MOONBEASTS

Few details are known about the mysterious moonbeasts, butthe OPS understands that they are not to be trusted and thatthey are at war with humanity. e first information aboutthe moonbeasts come from early oth century records of in-teractions in the dreamlands, where moonbeasts had invadedthe dream realm counterpart of Earth’s moon and performedoccasional trade and slave raids in the Dream Realm’s Pasto-

ral World. In the late s, an alliance of dreamers and theDream Realm’s intelligent cats drove the moonbeasts fromthe moon and out into the depths of the Dream Realm’sspace. ere is no clear evidence that moonbeasts have ever

visited Earth’s moon in the waking world, but most research-ers believe that their capture of the moon in the DreamRealm was in some way a preparation for invading Earth.

e next contact between humanity and the moonbeastsoccurred in , when a newly established extrasolar min-ing station on Epsilon Eridani II sent a message that theyhad made contact with a new alien species that was inter-ested in trade. When an OPS contact team reached this

world, they discovered the small human colony vacant. A

few fragmentary recordings that were left behind indicatedthat the colony was visited by aliens that came as traders,but when the aliens found that the colonists were few innumber and poorly defended, they captured and enslavedthe several hundred residents of the colony. All records ofthe aliens’ appearance seem to have been deliberately erased.

A similar incident occurred in , on Eden, two yearsafter the Russian colony there was founded. is colony wasslightly larger and considerably better armed and several in-habitants of the colony had read about the incident on Epsi-lon Eridani II. As a result, the colonists were far more suspi-cious and when the moonbeasts attempted to capture them,the colonists fought them off and badly damaged their

ship. An autopsy on a moonbeast killed during the attackrevealed that its body contained advanced nanotechnologysimilar to that used by the elder ones. However, the weaponsand tools found on the bodies of the slain moonbeasts wereonly slightly in advance of those used by the colonists.

Since that encounter, moonbeasts have made raids ontwo other colonies as well as attacks on three small research

Name: Mi-Go ExplorerMotivation: Acquire new knowledge and new technologies, learnhow to transcend into hyperspaceSpecies: Mi-GoContact:

Hyperspatial Exposure: / Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence ,Perception , Willpower

Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (walking), (fl ying)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Attack Field, Biofilter, Defensive Field, Extra Arms,Insight, Hyperspatial Flight, Hyperspatial Manipulators, Increased LifePoints, Natural weapons , Psychic Link (to all mi-go), Psychic Sensitivity,Psychic Visions, Regeneration, Spectrum Vision, Temperature Tolerance

MANEUVERS


Attack Field — Bash*

Claw Slash/Stab

Dodge — Defense Adtion


Dodge

Hyperspatial Disruptor Bash

* is damage aff ects everyone who physically attacks the mi-go orcomes within a few inches of the mi-go when this field is active.Grappled individuals are automatically aff ected by the attack field.** Energy damage halves the value of all physical (but not hyperspa-tial) armor, and then doubles damage (like a bullet). is weapon candisintegrate all matter not reinforced by hyperspatial energy.



22

6bases. ey have also opened hyperspatial gateways fromdistant ships to the outskirts of several colony worlds, wherethey sent through ab-human slaves to subvert and controlthe populace. ese slaves concealed their mutations with

bulky clothing and pretended to be smugglers from Earthoff ering various advanced electronics; the goods, as it turnedout, broadcast advanced subliminal messages designed toincrease trust of the moonbeasts and their servants. emoonbeasts’ servants, generally attempt to purchase high-end electronics and hyperspatial technologies. When deal-ing with criminals, they also attempt to purchase slaves.

ree of the moonbeasts’ ab-human servants have beencaptured, two of which were originally abducted from thecolony on Epsilon Eridani II. e third is believed to haveoriginally come from Galatea I. In , the OPS issued

warnings about moonbeasts and their servants to all thenations of the Earth. Evidence of moonbeast activity hasnot been reported on Earth, but the OPS does not knowif this is merely because it has not yet been discovered. In, the crew of the Chinese starship Wang Wei success-fully fought off a moonbeast attack that occurred shortlyafter their ship landed on a remote planet. After this in-cident, the UN Security Council declared that a state of

war existed between humanity and the moonbeasts, andthis war continues today. However, instead of battles, therehave been raids by the moonbeasts, as well as three attackson grounded moonbeast ships. No moonbeast colonieshave yet been discovered and their homeworld is unknown.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MOONBEASTS

e moonbeasts are exiles and scavengers. years ago,more than , moonbeast rebels were exiled from theirhome world because of their illegal experiments with hy-perspatial technologies. Since this time, they have stolenand adapted starships, inoculated their bodies with a versionof elder one nanotechnology, and raided for slaves. Becausemuch of the technology the moonbeasts steal or acquire istoo alien for them to understand, they use enslaved aliens toassist them in adapting technology for their use. ese aliensare enslaved using carefully controlled hyperspatial exposurecombined with nanotechnological brain alterations. Moon-beasts now live in a slave society with three times as many

slaves as moonbeasts. Almost all of their slaves are humansor yaddithi, although they have also begun enslaving theprimitive “spiders” of Hathor.

Because of their limited understanding of the technolo-gies involved, almost half of the intelligent beings the moon-beasts attempt to enslave die during this process. Althoughthe technology they have used to reinforce their bodies isquite advanced, the average level of moonbeast technology

is only a few decades in advance of humanity’s current tech-nology. Moonbeasts practice sorcery by building technosor-cerous devices, but they are incapable of learning Level sorcery and find all sorcery difficult. When possible, they

prefer to steal hyperspatial devices created by other species. ere are no moonbeast colonies; currently they live on

their ships, the largest of which are home to , moon-beasts each. Since the total population of moonbeasts isonly ,, they are not a serious threat to Earth. How-ever, a concentrated moonbeast attack could potentiallycapture most small colonies.

e moonbeast home world has not yet been discoveredby humanity. eir technology is only slightly in advanceof humanity’s, except that they are a static society that hasbanned all use of hyperspatial technologies. As a result, theycannot travel to the stars and can only use fusion rockets toexplore their solar system. ese moonbeasts have no inter-est in enslaving others, but are exceptionally distrustful ofany outsiders who use hyperspatial technologies.


e moonbeasts see humanity as a weak species that isrelatively easy to enslave. Records by psychics and dream-ers from the early th century refer to human slaves ofthe moonbeasts as the “Men of Leng”; these captured hu-mans have been mutated, their minds and bodies madeless human, to eff ect complete loyalty to their moonbeastmasters. ey have horns, as well as hoof-like claws similarto those of ghouls. ese telltale marks, found on someone

who otherwise appears human, are proof that this individual is a slave of the moonbeasts.

DESCRIPTION

“For they were not men at all, or even approximatelymen, but great greyish-white slippery things which couldexpand and contract at will, and whose principal shape -though it often changed - was that of a sort of toad with-out any eyes, but with a curious vibrating mass of short

pink tentacles on the end of its blunt, vague snout.” – H.P. Lovecraft

e Dreamquest of Unknwon Kadath e moonbeasts’ borrowed nanotechnology allows themto rapidly regenerate from injuries and to temporarily re-shape their bodies, flattening them to less than six inchesthick or extending their limbs more than two meters fromtheir squat bodies.

Moonbeasts see the universe in terms of predators andprey, and anyone that they can enslave or steal from is just

waiting to become their prey. To a moonbeast raider, ev-ery human is a lesser being and a potential slave.



224

DESCRIPTION

ey leaped as though they had hooves instead of feet, andseemed to wear a sort of wig or headpiece with small horns. Of

other clothing they had none, but most of them were quite furry.– H.P. Lovecrafte Dreamquest of Unknwon Kadath

e moonbeasts use exotic hyperspatial devices to trans-form ordinary humans into half-human creatures that areboth insane and utterly loyal to the moonbeasts. Reversingthis transformation is difficult and requires both extensivemedical treatment and the Reduce Exposure spell.

SERPENT PEOPLE

ese ancient alien beings are the only ‘aliens’ native tothe Earth. ey evolved million years ago and built

a small but thriving civilization during the Cretaceous. ey excelled in sorcerous enchantment and in psychicpowers and were also skilled chemists. ey perform hy-perspatial sorcery as ritual sorcery and have their ownunique version of scientific sorcery.

When an asteroid impact ended the age of the dinosaurs,the serpent people’s civilization died with it. In the desper-ate years immediately after the impact, more than half amillion serpent people used advanced drugs to enter a stateof suspended animation where they could sleep for millionsof years, awakening when the world was more conduciveto their return. Most of these sleepers congregated in oneof three large and well-protected caverns. Meanwhile, therest of the surviving serpent people attempted to rebuildtheir civilization. Because of the difficulties of life on thesurface immediately after the asteroid impact, these serpentpeople retreated to caverns, where they could build a care-fully maintained self-sustaining civilization.

is new civilization never equaled the heights of theirCretaceous glory. Within million years, it had fallen, andonly primitive and savage serpent people lived beneath theEarth, where most eventually died out. e caverns of sleep-ing serpent people continued to slumber, but the devicesthat were supposed to awaken two of the caverns failed, andthe third ran far slower than expected. e first cavern of

serpent people woke up slightly more than , yearsago. ey built a small civilization under North Africa., years ago, a faction ventured to the surface,

to both rebuild an empire on the surface and to searchfor the two other groups of sleepers. Despite time andcontinental drift, they found one of these caverns, andawakened the serpent people within. Together, the twogroups of serpent people united and built an empire on

Name: Moonbeast RaiderMotivation: Acquire new technologies and slavesSpecies: Moonbeast

Contact: Hyperspatial Exposure: /


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Biofilter, Reduced Damage (kinetic/), InfraredVision, Regeneration, Temperature Tolerance

MANEUVERS



Disintegrator Pistol Energy Damage*

Strike Bash


Dodge *Energy damage halves the value of all physical (but not hyperspa-tial) armor, and then doubles damage (like a bullet). is weapon candisintegrate any matter not reinforced by hyperspatial energy.

Name: Man (or Woman) of “Leng”Motivation: Obey and protect their moonbeast masters



MANEUVERS




Dodge

Knife Slash/Stab

Disintegrator Pistol Energy Drain*

Punch Bash

*Energy damage halves the value of all physical (but not hyperspa-tial) armor, and then doubles damage (like a bullet). is weapon candisintegrate any matter not reinforced by hyperspatial energy.



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6

the surface. eir numbers were slightly less than a quar-ter million, but they were able to tame and educate thesavage stone age humans, and soon gathered an empireof almost million human servants. e serpent peo-ple then formed several diff erent kingdoms, using bothmodern humans and Neanderthals as their servants andsoldiers. eir kingdoms covered Africa, most of Europe,and the northern portions of North America.

When the humans overthrew them, the remnants of theserpent people retreated underground, their spirit broken.Most of their caverns were destroyed by the last ice age.However, some survived. Today, most are now savage cav-ern-dwellers whose limited intellects cannot fully compre-hend the half-ruined wonders around them, but there are afew small pockets of civilized serpent people in deep cavernsbeneath both Europe and Africa, as well as a single enclaveof civilized serpent people beneath northern Colorado.

All of these small pockets of reptilian civilization still re-tain legends of the lost third cavern of serpent people whohave been sleeping for the last million years. is cavernholds by far the largest of the three groups of sleepers, morethan a quarter million serpent people, as well as a wide arrayof books and tools. If these sleepers were awakened, and theserpent people decided to attempt to retake the surface fromhumanity, the result could be the beginning of a terrible war.

ere are also three serpent people interstellar coloniesfounded by serpent people fleeing the destruction of their

urian Age civilization by human rebels. One colony hasreverted to savagery and another is a small but thriving in-

dependent civilization on a world where conditions are sim-ilar to Earth’s early Cretaceous Period. e third consists ofanother thriving civilization of more than a million serpentpeople ruling over several tens of millions of human slaves,most of whom are kept enslaved using will-sapping drugs.

e OPS has yet to find any of these three worlds.


Human scholars have learned of the serpent people’s di-nosaur-age civilization and discovered records of the twoknown caverns of sleeping serpent people who formedthe basis of the civilization of the urian Age. Knowl-edge that a third cavern of sleeping serpent people may

still exist is limited to the upper echelons of the OPS, who instruct agents to keep track of any anomalies thatmight indicate the discovery of this aeons-old vault. Al-though the OPS knows of the existence of small groupsof degenerate and savage serpent people, they also keepthis knowledge secret, to keep explorers or would bemonster-hunters from accidentally encountering ghoulsinstead. Even the OPS does not know of the existenceof the few small colonies of civilized serpent people thatstill exist deep beneath the Earth.

RELATIONS BETWEEN SERPENT PEOPLE AND GHOULS

e serpent people are not the only underground civiliza-tion. However, there are not more than a total of , civilized serpent people living in several isolated com-munities and there are at least several million ghouls. eserpent people understand that the ghouls could wipethem out at any time. ese subterranean serpent peopleare exceedingly isolated and inwardly focused, but occa-sionally trade with neighboring colonies of ghouls. Someghouls find the drugs and other chemical creations of theserpent people useful, but most are either contemptuousof or mildly hostile to the serpent people, who they re-gard as a relic species that will soon become extinct.

Approximately

,

barbaric and savage serpentpeople also exist, but they have learned to fear and avoidghouls, since ghouls have no qualms about killing andeating them. To avoid ghouls, the degenerate serpentpeople traverse only the deepest caves and almost nevercome to the surface. Several groups of ghouls have en-slaved a few thousand of these savage serpent people.

Name: Civilized Serpent PersonMotivation: Restore the glory of their speciesSpecies: Serpent PersonContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Infrared Vision, Natural Armor , Natural Weap-onry , Psychic Sensitivity, Rapid Healing

MANEUVERS


Bite

Slash/Stab + Strength Posion*

Must Grapple first;no defense action

Dart Pistol Bullet + Strength posion*Dodge — Defense Action

Tail Sweep Bash

* is poison is a paralytic that drains dexterity. At the serpentperson’s choice, it can either kill or merely paralyze and incapacitatetheir victim. Victims roll once every minute.



226

DESCRIPTION

e serpent people are slender, exceedingly flexible rep-tilian humanoids that stand between fi ve and six feet tall,

with scaled skin, flexible tails that are between three andfour feet long, and fanged snake-like heads set atop slen-

der and flexible necks.Civilized serpent people consider humans lesser beings,

but also realize that they are greatly outnumbered. ey killoutsiders without hesitation to keep the location of their smallcities secret. However, if someone has something of value tooff er them, the serpent people are willing to talk. Of course,they could just as easily decide to capture the outsider and usea mixture of psychic interrogation and truth drugs to breaktheir will and obtain whatever information they may possess.

ese hulking brutes enjoy mammalian prey and hateintruders. ey can speak, but are far more interested inkilling and eating humans than in conversing with them.

YADDITHI

ese insect-like aliens became a star-faring civilization, years ago, but were soon forced to abandon theirhome world, because it became infested with the giant

wormlike beasts known as dholes , years ago. Al-most , years ago, dholes rendered the yaddithi home

world uninhabitable. Fortunately, by this time the yad-

dithi had foundedalmost a dozen colo-nies on other worlds.

Although they are

prodigious explorers,the yaddithi breedquite slowly and arenot particularly in-clined to colonizemore than these

worlds. e yaddithi are

also a perfect exampleof a technologicallystagnant species. Toadvance further they

would need to altertheir minds and toexpand their studiesof hyperspace, and the

vast majority of thisspecies is unwilling todo either. e beliefthat early hyperspatialexperiments attractedthe dholes to theirhome world serves tofurther reinforce thisprohibition. Today,

they live their year long lives on their dozen colonies while a few daring explorers seek answers to mysteries inthe far ends of the cosmos, hoping to find another answeras to how their species can gain in knowledge and power

without either becoming insane hyperspatial beings or de-stroying themselves. e yaddithi are curious about otherspecies, but are more interested in exchanging knowledgethan in trade, especially since most members of this speciesdistrust alien technology. e yaddithi avoid all interactions

with hyperspatial beings, and are forbidden by law and cus-tom from summoning servitors of the other gods. However,they are skilled sorcerers, using both scientific sorcery andtechnosorcery to perform spells and create technosorcerous

devices.RELATIONS WITH HUMANITY

Humanity has not yet made contact with the yaddithi.However, one yaddithi explorer recently visited the humancolony on Colossus and reported back the discovery of anewly star-traveling species at the edge of the regions thesecreatures have explored. is initial report included the fact

Name: Degenerate Serpent PersonMotivation: Kill IntrudersSpecies: Serpent PersonContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Infrared Vision, Natural Armor , Natural Weap-onry , Psychic Sensitivity, Rapid Healing

MANEUVERS


Bite

Slash/Stab +Strength Posion*Must Grapple first;no defense action


Spear Slash/Stab

Tail Sweep Bash

* is poison is a paralytic that drains dexterity. At the serpent per-son’s choice, it can either kill or merely paralyze and incapacitate their victim. Victims roll once every minute.



22

6that it appeared that humanity had advanced technologi-cally with great speed and that studying or contacting hu-manity might prove to be dangerous, but that contact withhumanity might also help end the yaddithi’s long techno-

logical stasis. Currently, whether and how to interact withhumanity is a subject of extensive debate, a debate thatcould be come to a head if a human starship discovered a

yaddithi ship or a yaddithi inhabited world.

DESCRIPTION

e yaddithi are “rugose, partly squamous, and curiouslyarticulated in a fashion mainly insect-like yet not with-out a caricaturish resemblance to the human outline.”

— H.P. Lovecraftrough the Gate of the Silver Key

Oddly, these beings are some of the most humanoid alienshumanity may encounter. However, at first glance they

appear to be bipedal insects with two hind limbs, fourcomplexly articulated forelimbs, complex multi-jointedmouthparts, a scale-like and slightly wrinkled carapace,and eyes that appear to be featureless shining black orbs.

Yaddithi are found either on one of the few worldsthey inhabit or in their light wave envelope spacecraft,

which are far smaller than human dragonfl y drive star-ships. e smallest of these starships is no larger than alarge van and can be piloted by a single yaddithi.

ALIEN TECHNOLOGY

e following is a list of some of the alien technologyoperatives and civilians may encounter.

Elder One Disintegrator Rod: is flashlight-shaped device has ridges designed to make it easier forelder one tentacles to grip. e weapon does points ofEnergy damage and has rifle range. If this weapon doesdamage equal to the target’s total life or damage points,the target is completely disintegrated. Moonbeasts oc-casionally use elder one disintegrators that they have re-covered from ancient ruins, but cannot duplicate theseadvanced weapons. Unlike the other weapons listed here,disintegrators literally never need to be recharged andnever run out of power.

Great Race Zapper & Hypnoscope: ese devicesare identical to human versions, except that they areslightly larger and blockier and designed for use withgreat race manipulators.

Mi-Go Hyperspatial Disruptor: is weapon isidentical to the human version, except that is a teardropshaped object approximately the size of a mango. It fires shots before it must be recharged.

Mi-Go Brain Cylinder: “ ere, in a neat row, stood morethan a dozen cylinders of a metal I had never seen before - cylindersabout a foot high and somewhat less in diameter, with three curi-ous sockets set in an isosceles triangle over the front convex surfaceof each.” - H.P. Lovecraft - e Whisperer in the Darkness

ese cylinders are designed to indefinitely hold the

conscious, living brains of intelligent creatures, includinghumanity. Because the mi-go often do need starships to-travel from star to star, they sometimes carry passengers,but can only do so in this reduced form. In the cylinder,the brains are in an induced sleep until they are eitherimplanted in a body or connected to various sensory andcommunication devices. Connecting a brain to an inputor output device instantly awakens it. Diff erent devicescan duplicate the eff ects of any known human or aliensense. Human brains are typically connected to a pair ofcameras and a microphone to allow the individual to seeand hear, and a speaker to allow the individual to speak.

Humans almost never travel in this manner today, but

brains in these cylinders do not age and can remain alive

Name: Yaddithi explorerMotivation: Curiosity and greed

Species: YaddithiContact: Hyperspatial Exposure:


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Natural Armor , Natural Weaponry , PsychicSensitivity

MANEUVERS


Claw Slash/Stab


Laser Pistol Bullet Damage*

* is weapon shoots a beam of coherent light that can burn a hole inalmost any substance.

ENERGY DAMAGE

Some alien weapons do Energy damage. is devastat-ing type of damage halves the value of all physical (butnot hyperspatial) armor, and then doubles damage (likedamage from a bullet).



228

and in induced sleep for many centuries. Some individu-als placed in cylinders as long ago as the th centurycan still be found in old and hastily abandoned mi-goenclaves on Earth, or occasionally other planets. A few

have been captured by moonbeasts.Individuals in these cylinders retain their Intelligence,

Perception, and Willpower, as well as all of their Skillsand all purely mental qualities or Drawbacks, like EideticMemory, Iron Mind, or Humorless. If placed in a newbody, the character gains the body’s Strength, Dexterity,Constitution, life points, and all physical Qualities like

Acute Senses, Hard to Kill, or Blind. Humans in braincylinders retain and can use all psychic powers but can-not perform sorcery in this form.

Both mi-go and human science can easily return a hu-man brain in a brain cylinder into a human body. Anyhuman in a brain cylinder has a minimum of hyperspatialexposure level , and some have higher levels of exposure.Brains with hyperspatial exposure fi ve are visibly inhu-man and mutate any human body they are placed in.

Serpent Person Dart Gun: is small weapon fitseasily into a serpent person’s palm and uses a powerfulspring to fi re darts at pistol range. Every pistol holdseight small darts, usually tipped with either a Strength non-lethal paralytic agent that reduces Dexterity or aStrength lethal poison that fi rst paralyzes the targetand then forces the victim to roll once a minute to avoidlosing Constitution.

Yaddithi Laser: A complex, vaguely pistol shaped

weapon that fires a coherent beam of green light. It does points of bullet damage and has rifle range. It fires shots before it must be recharged.

HYPERSPATIAL BEINGS

Although the emotions of normal alien races do noteasily translate to humanity, there are still some pointsof contact. Humans and physical aliens can exchangeknowledge and goods and come to diplomatic agree-ments. Beings that mostly or entirely inhabit hyperspaceare far more alien and lack any common points of refer-ence with humanity. Dwelling in this mind-shatteringenvironment as an immortal, multidimensional being re-

moves even those points of similarity we have with beingslike the elder ones or the mi-go. As a result, the thoughtsand desires of hyperspatial beings are literally incompre-hensible to humans. Psychics who attempt to read theminds of hyperspatial beings may gain a few snippets ofinformation, but most of what they receive is chaotic andbizarre. Professionals in the field have related this confu-

sion to Abbott’s Flatland; a three-dimensional slice ofmulti-dimensional thinking just comes out wrong.

e only meaningful contact between hyperspatialbeings and humanity comes in the forms of deliberately

sent dreams and visions. ese contacts are mostly com-prehensible, solely because hyperspatial beings are men-tally far superior to humanity and are capable of send-ing simple messages if they wish a human to accomplishsome goal for them. e visions humans receive from hy-perspatial beings are little diff erent from the commandspeople give to dogs and other domestic animals.

Psychics who receive such messages and attempt tomake contact to better understand the request learnnothing and may have their minds blasted into inhu-manity. ere are no treaties or negotiations with hyper-spatial beings; their deals with humanity are inherentlydestructive and interacting with them is exceptionallydangerous. e OPS policy on all hyperspatial beings isthat they are to be driven off , banished, or if possible de-stroyed. Although almost all are ageless and exceedinglydurable, all entities except the Great Old Ones and theOther Gods can be killed, and OPS strike teams havebecome quite skilled at destroying them.

THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE

e OPS assumes that all beings that exist partially inhyperspace are like fl ying polyps and were once a physicalalien species that managed to partly translate itself intohyperspace. e color out of space puzzles researchers be-

cause it seems to be a completely unintelligent entity thatexhibits no intelligent behavior and cannot be reached bypsychic contact. Most researchers believe that it is eithersome sort of naturally occurring creature or the result ofa horribly botched attempt at transcendence that left thespecies partially in hyperspace but entirely devoid of in-telligence. A few researchers believe that the color outof space is an entirely self-contained intelligent entity

whose mind exists in its own psychic realm and has noneed or interest to communicate with the physical world.

Humanity has had three contacts with this entity orentities in the last century and there are older records thatmay indicate previous contact. Two of the more recent in-

cidents were on Earth in the th century, and third oc-curred on Hathor in . e creature seems to be ableto fl y through hyperspace and has only been encounteredin Earth and Hathor, leading researchers to speculate thatit is attracted to worlds bearing abundant life. e creatureseems to visit planets to feed, grow, and perhaps to breed.

e known life-cycle of the creature is that it arrives



22

6

on a planet as a meteorite. e meteor’s outer shell beingis composed of an exotic and exceptionally tough sub-stance secreted by the creature, and the interior containsthe creature itself. In form, the creature is a substancesomewhere between a glowing animate liquid and a par-tially hyperspatial substance like the unnatural fl esh offl ying polyps. Once the creature lands, it gradually con-sumes the meteor’s outer shell and flows into life-bearingsoil. e creature emits alpha and beta particles sufficientto register as a minor radiation hazard on a Geiger coun-

ter. It also seems to in some fashion devour life-energy. Within a week of arrival, the creature has spread itself

over an area as much as a mile across and every animal andplant, including any humans within this area loses one LPevery three days. is damage cannot be healed unless theindividual spends more than a full day away from the crea-ture. e creature also forms a central core of glowing liq-uid which feeds far more voraciously and devours one LPevery Turn from every life form within yards. Also, even

without this life-energy drain, spending more than a dayor two in close proximity to the creature’s core would causeradiation sickness. Except for the glowing liquid core, thecreature is invisible while it is feeding, since it lurks in the

soil. However, its eff ects are obvious as everything withinthe aff ected area begins to sicken and die.

Aff ected animals, plants, and people gradually becomegrey and frail or brittle and eventually die and rapidlycrumble to dust. Any animal or person who suff ers morethan fi ve points of damage from the creature also mustmake a non-doubled Willpower roll, with a penalty equal

to one fifth (round up) the damage this person has suf-fered. Individuals who succeed in this roll can freely leavethe creature’s vicinity, but anyone who fails refuses toleave and fi nds various rationalizations for staying de-

spite their increasingly poor health. After several months, all life within the aff ected re-

gion is dead and the creature comes to the surface, whereits glow is easily visible. It then coalesces and launchesitself into space, where it soon forms another meteor-ite. Sometimes, it leaves a portion of itself behind, whichspreads to a healthier area of land and begins the processof feeding on life again.

e creature is resistant to all temperatures, and chem-icals as well as all forms of physical force. It suff ers minordamage from electricity, but can easily be destroyed bya hyperspatial disruptor. Destroying the creature’s coreinstantly kills the entire creature. When the OPS learnsof a possible incident involving this creature they sendOperatives to immediately evacuate the area and searchfor the creature’s core while armed with electric cannonand a hyperspatial disruptor.

DHOLES

One of the most dangerous hyperspatial beings do notactually live in hyperspace. Dholes are gargantuan wormsthat are typically between yards and half a mile long.

ey travel freely in hyperspace, and researchers believethat they hibernate there, but they eat and breed in thephysical world. Dholes exist in both the Dream Realm

and the physical world, and they eat planets. No oneknows how they fi nd a planet, but when they do, theysend out some form of unknown call. Within a few de-cades, the world is infested with dozens and then hun-dreds of dholes, that soon breed into tens of thousands.

While a single dhole can be destroyed, once a worldhas become infested with dholes, there is no known wayto free it of this infestation. Even if all of the dholes aredestroyed, more soon return. At best, their attack on the

world can be slowed. If unchecked, a full infestation canrender a world entirely lifeless within , years. Us-ing powerful weapons and hyperspatial sorcery to destroyand confine dholes can provide a world with as much as

another , years of life, but eventually it is doomed. e only way to save a world is to destroy the first dholebefore others of its kind arrive.

Dholes are assumed to be unintelligent animals andno one has ever managed to communicate with them.

eir presence in the Dream Realm does not seem toindicate that they have or will soon invade a planet in the

Name: Color out of SpaceMotivation: Eat LifeSpecies: Color out of SpaceContact: impossibleHyperspatial Exposure: /n/a *

Attributes: none Ability Scores: noneLife Points: Speed: (flow slowly)Drama Points: Special Abilities: Immune to all damage except from electricity.Reduced Damage (electricity/)

MANEUVERS


Eat Life Automatic /LP

turnBash

Radiation (low) Automatic LP/

hoursBash

Laser Pistol Bullet Damage*

* e Color Out of Space is immune to all forms of psychic contact



230

physical world, but the OPS keeps a careful watch fordholes on Earth and all Earth colonies, as well as in theDream Realm. Dholes fear light and only surface fromtheir vast burrows at night.

DESCRIPTION

Below him the ground was festering with giganticDholes; and even as he looked, one reared up several hun-dred feet and leveled a bleached, viscous end at him.

– H.P. Lovecraftrough the Gate of the Silver Key

An average adult dhole is yards long and yards indiameter. It tunnels through solid rock and can devourliterally any physical object. Dholes vanish into hyper-space to recover if they are badly damaged.

FLYING POLYPS

Like the mi-go, these creatures are an ancient species with aninterest in both Earth and in hyperspace. ey are highly in-

telligent, mostly solitary predators who developed advancedtechnology and learned to shift most of their mass into hy-perspace several hundred million years ago. eir partiallyhyperspatial nature protects them from most dangers andthey can escape harm by shifting more of their mass into

various hyperspatial dimensions, thus rendering themselvesinvisible. However, they always retain a connection to thephysical world, which prohibits them from moving throughsolid barriers and performing other feats easy for beings thatcan exist fully in hyperspace. eir connection to the physi-cal world also provides them with a serious vulnerability –they are as vulnerable to electricity as any normal physicalbeing – but also creates a limited ability to control winds.

ey age and die slowly, over hundreds of millions of years. Although they used to be large colonies of fl ying polyps

on Earth, the great race of Yith imprisoned them in deep andpowerfully warded caverns more than million years ago.Over the last million years, the wards on these caverns haveoccasionally decayed. When the wards on one set of cavernsfinally fails, the fl ying polyps typically leave Earth and headoff into the galaxy. A few individuals remain on Earth, wherethey attempt to feed upon humanity and other animals.

Flying polyps are profoundly hostile to humanity and toalmost all other physical beings. ey regard all intelligent be-ings who do not exist at least partially in hyperspace as prey,

tools, or vermin. Some fl ying polyps attempt to psychicallycontact humans, promising vast power in return for releasefrom their captivity. ese incidents form the basis of manylegends of djinni and demons bargaining for release and thenpunishing or slaying those foolish enough to release them.

e greatest threat presented by fl ying polyps is to any-one unfortunate enough to discover one of the caverns

where a colony of them has been imprisoned. Althoughtheir numbers have dwindled over the millennia, due tothe release and escape of some members of the species anddue to gradual die-off s, each occupied cavern still holdsbetween a few and several dozen elderly fl ying polyps, allof which are both hungry and eager to use a human to help

break the wards keeping them imprisoned.RELATIONS WITH HUMANITY

Of all of the inhuman species on Earth, the fl ying polypsare the most consistently hostile. ey are a predatory spe-cies and have no compunctions about preying upon weak-er sentient beings. OPS has issued a public warning about

GREAT OLD ONES? OUTER? OTHER?

Terminologies vary in the world of Lovecraftian gaming, butin Eldritch Skies we’ve elected to use this system of nomen-clature: Great Old Ones are defined by their partial transcen-

dence, and the fact that they still interact with the physical world and intelligent beings. e Other Gods – the term usedby Lovecraft for entities of a greater scale and higher level oftranscendence – do not, as a rule, care to come down and play.

As such, we’ve elected to classify Nyarlathotep as a Great OldOne: as a messenger to the lesser species such as mankind, he/she/it enjoys this same kind of transitional status.

Name: Ravenous DholeMotivation: Devour Worlds

Species: DholeContact: impossibleHyperspatial Exposure: /n/a *


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (burrowing)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Reduced Damage (all/), Natural Weaponry ,Regeneration, Vanish into hyperspace ***

MANEUVERS


Crush Bash

Devour Slash/StabLaser Pistol Bullet Damage*

* Dholes are immune to all forms of psychic contact** Dholes are too large to dodge attacks.*** Dholes must spend three turns completely immobile in order to vanish into hyperspace. ey can be freely attacked during the firsttwo of these turns, and vanish during the third.



23

6the types of caverns these beings are imprisoned in, andgeological and spelunking societies warn their members toavoid deep caverns in areas where polyps are known to beimprisoned. ere is little risk of anyone looking for fl y-

ing polyps discovering ghouls instead, since fl ying polypsare all imprisoned in a few local areas, including the cen-tral Australian desert, northern Canada, and the ArabianPeninsula, and these areas also have little ghoul activity,because ghouls wish to avoid contact with fl ying polyps.

DESCRIPTION

“ ere were veiled suggestions of a monstrous plasticity,and of temporary lapses of visibility, while other frag-mentary whispers referred to their control and militaryuse of great winds. Singular whistling noises, and colossal

footprints made up of fi ve circular toe marks, seemed also

to be associated with them.” — H.P. Lovecraft A Shadow Out of Time

Flying polyps usually attack and kill lone humans, butthey are cautious and deliberate and can instead chooseto kill hundreds or thousands by psychically contactinghumans to act as their cats paws.

SERVITORS OF THE OTHER GODS

Ancient sorcery spells called these polymorphous creatures“servitors of the other gods”. Other equally ancient occult

texts refer to these creatures as “larval other gods”. However,modern researchers believe these beings are simply enti-ties that inhabit the furthest levels of hyperspace. Little isknown of these beings. Some seem no more intelligent thananimals, while others are at least as intelligent as humans,but their intelligence is of such a diff erent nature and theycome from such an alien environment that mutual under-standing is essentially impossible and anything but the sim-plest communication is difficult. Like all other life-forms,these creatures are often hungry and many are capable offeeding on humans and other physical life forms.

Humans generally encounter these entities in one of twocircumstances: when using the Voorish Sign spell or a Till-inghast viewer to peer into the furthest regions of hyperspace,or when using the spell Summon Servitor of the Other Gods.In the first case, these beings are seen in hyperspace, wheresome of them can even briefl y reach into the physical universeto draw people or objects into their realm. In the second case,these beings are under a powerful mental compulsion thatforces them to obey the summoner’s orders in the physical

world. is compulsion only ends with either the end of theduration of the spell or the summoner’s death. Unlike fl yingpolyps, they do not seem to behave maliciously toward hu-mans, but will occasionally kill their summoner if not directedclearly. Nobody is certain whether being in servitude upsets

them or whether these attacks result from thoughts and mo-tivations beyond human ken.Servitors of the other gods are purely hyperspatial life-

forms, but being summoned into the physical world limitstheir abilities. When summoned into the physical world,they cannot pass through physical objects. While in hy-perspace and seen with the Voorish Sign or a Tillinghast

viewer, they can freely move through solid objects and canreach into the physical world at any point in the spell’s ordevice’s area of eff ect. Like all hyperspatial creatures, theyare highly resistant to physical attacks. In hyperspace, theycan float and fl y, but when summoned they must crawl,

with surprising speed, on their many tentacles. ey come

in a range of sizes; the largest seem like the harbor somealien intelligent and the smallest seem nearly mindless.

Name: Hungry Flying PolypMotivation: Slay or conquer lesser beingsSpecies: Flying PolypContact: Hyperspatial Exposure: /


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (fl ying)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Control Wind, Invisible (when not attracting atten-tion), Reduced Damage (all/)*, Psychic Sensitivity, Regeneration

MANEUVERS



Sucking Wind —Resisted by Dexterity

+ Constituion **

Tencle Strike Bash

* Flying polyps take normal damage from all electrically-based attacks, theirdamage reduction power does not aff ect attacks made using electricity.** If the fl ying polyp wins, reduce the target’s Speed by points. If thetarget’s speed is reduced to , the target cannot move.



232

DESCRIPTION

Foremost among the living objects were inky, jelly fi sh mon-strosities which fl abbily quivered in harmony with the vi-

brations from the machine.ey were present in loathsome profusion, and I saw to my horror that they overlapped;that they were semi- fl uid and capable of passing throughone another and through what we know as solids. esethings were never still, but seemed ever fl oating about withsome malignant purpose. Sometimes they appeared to de-vour one another, the attacker launching itself at its victimand instantaneously obliterating the latter from sight.

— H.P. LovecraftFrom Beyond

Looking like some hideous combination of a jelly fish andan octopus with many exceedingly muscular tentacles, thesecreatures are both incomprehensible and deadly. ese crea-tures range from the size of gorilla to the size of a large horse.

Lesser servitors resemble smaller versions of the servitorsof the other gods, but are near mindless creatures that aretoo dimwitted to be of use to most summoners. ey arerelatively abundant in hyperspace and range from the size

of an average dog to the size of a somewhat small person.

GREAT OLD ONES

Great Old Ones are semi-transcendent entities of in-credible power that exist mostly within hyperspace. Animportant characteristic of all Great Old Ones is thatthey used to be more ordinary alien beings. In severalcases, entire alien species have transformed in this man-ner. Other times, only one or a handful of individualsof a species transformed. rough a difficult process of

directed biological, psychic, and technological develop-ment, these beings ascended to become far more intel-ligent, powerful, and dangerous.

As mentioned earlier, the partial transcendence of theGreat Old Ones is one of four possible fates of intelligentspecies. It’s clear that this sort of partial transcendence,

where some or all members of a species transform them-selves into hyperspatial beings that maintain a connec-tion to the physical world, is exceedingly rare. Each suchtransformation is highly idiosyncratic. A few beings,like the Cthulhoids, can physically manifest as power-ful intelligent beings capable of building cities and ruling

worlds; most interact with the physical world far less di-rectly. Some researchers believe that entities like Hasturmay not even be aware of the physical world. However,one universal fact of all Great Old Ones is that they mustfeed on the psychic energies of intelligent beings

Name: Lesser ServitorMotivation: Unknowable if not summoned. If summoned – obey sum-moner’s commands. Occasionally, if not given clear commands, they will escape and attempt to attack or flee.Species: Lesser Servitor

Contact: Hyperspatial Exposure: /


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (crawling on tentacles), (fl ying through hyperspace)Drama Points: Special Abilities: Reduced Damage (all/), Fast Regeneration

MANEUVERS


Constrict Bash, must grapple

first; no defenseaction

Dodge — Defense ActionGrapple — Resisted by Dodge


Name: Servitor of the Other GodsMotivation: Unknowable if not summoned. If summoned – obeysummoner’s commands. Occasionally, if not given clear commands,they will escape or destroy the summoner.Species: Servitor of the Other GodsContact: Hyperspatial Exposure: /


Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (crawling on tentacles), (fl ying through hyperspace)Drama Points: -Special Abilities: Reduced Damage (all/), Fast Regeneration

MANEUVERS


Constrict Bash, must grapple first;

no defense action






23

6CTHULHU & ITS SPAWN

Cthulhu is the most infamous of all of the known GreatOld Ones. Although most occult records speak solely

of Cthulhu, it was only the greatest and most powerfulof an entire species of almost half a million monstroustranscendent beings. is species has been in its currentstate for well more than one billion years, and nothingis known of their origins or their physical form. Dreamsand vision of Cthulhu by humans it has contacted showit as a winged, octopus headed giant, but most research-ers believe that this form has far more to do with thetendency of the human imagination to imagine godlikebeings as humanoid than with how these beings actu-ally appeared. What is known is that the Cthulhoids firstcame to Earth almost million years ago.

Even the records of the elder ones give no reason foralmost the entire species to migrate to Earth, but it isclear that they came to build cities and to feed upon thepsychic energies of Earth’s inhabitants. While beings thatcan inhabit the many dimensions of hyperspace do notneed to build cities or even to manifest physical bodies,the Cthulhoids did both and clearly found these behav-iors important, or at least enjoyable. eir psychic feedinghad a serious impact on Earthly life, and was much of thecause of the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event. After alengthy mixture of war and tense truce with the elder ones,Cthulhu and its spawn were trapped in hyperspace usinga weapon created by the elder ones and the Great Race of

Yith. e nature of this weapon is unknown, and humanresearchers simply refer to it as the Elder Weapon.

THE EFFECTS OF THE ELDER WEAPON

is powerful device was exceptionally unstable, andcould only be used once. Since its use, Cthulhu and allof its kind that came to Earth have been trapped in themost distant dimensions of hyperspace, making themalmost completely unable to manifest into the physical

world. Before this weapon was used, the Cthulhoid spe-cies existed primarily in hyperspace, but could manifestin the physical world for extended periods of time. Likeall Great Old Ones, they could not dwell in the physical

world, but they were capable of visiting it at will.Even the elder ones and the great race working to-

gether could not find a way to permanently destroy a spe-cies that had ascended into hyperspace, but they couldcontain it. e Elder Weapon altered the Cthulhoids sothat they could no longer interact with the “levels” of hy-perspace that were usually most easily accessible from the

physical world. e Cthulhoids were forced to inhabitrealms of hyperspace where time passed exceptionallyslowly and where their prodigious minds were forcedinto a dream-like state. is same weapon also kept them

from manifesting anywhere in the physical world fur-ther than a few hundred miles from their capital city ofR’lyeh. e Cthulhoids could no longer roam among thestars, and in fact could now only appear for at most briefmoments near their now-sunken city.

Occasionally, shifts in hyperspatial currents haveroused the Cthulhoids to greater wakefulness, allowingthem to use their massive psychic powers to contact in-telligent beings on Earth. ere have been brief periods

where Cthulhu and its species could physically mani-fest or make contact with Earth, approximately everythousand years. Even then, Cthulhu has not been ableto physically manifest for more than a few minutes at atime. However, several thousand years ago, a hyperspatialshift that lasted several decades allowed Cthulhu to di-rect powerful hyperspatial energies into humans dwellingnear R’lyeh, creating the first deep ones.

e eff ects of the Elder Weapon were designed to lastfor more than a billion years, but the actual duration remainsunknown. million years have passed, and the temporalrecords of the Yithians indicate that the Cthulhoids shouldremain confined for at least the next million. However,

what one technology can create, another can undo. Although no one alive has any understanding of the

operating principles of the Elder Weapon, if someone

were to discover its secret, they might be able to builda device to undo it. Cthulhu originally created the deepones for just this purpose, but they proved to be both in-sufficiently obedient and less inclined to innovation thanhumanity or many other intelligent species. After this,the Great Old One turned most of its limited, dream-like attention towards human cultists. Today, Cthulhu ismarginally more aware than before, and has more cultistsand others willing to attempt to aid it, fed by dreamsof future power or the desire to have their enemies de-

voured or driven mad.

OTHER CTHULHOIDS

Almost the entire Cthulhoid species was trapped onEarth by the Elder Weapon. However, a few were not.No one knows if these beings were scouts, rebels, orcriminals, but none of them ever come to Earth or eveninto the Solar System. Most researchers assume that theyfear being trapped by the energies of the Elder Weapon.However, a few dozen solitary beings still haunt other

worlds around other suns. If one ventures into a star sys



234

tem, the rest of its kind will not travel there until it hasdeparted. ese creatures are less powerful than Cthulhu,but few humans would notice this diff erence. e OPShas had two encounters with these beings on worlds they

have surveyed, but thankfully no Cthulhoids have ever visited a human colony – at least not yet.


Cthulhu and those of its star spawn that are trapped onEarth seek freedom. When the Elder Weapon’s powerbriefl y wanes, they can gain enough access to the physi-cal world to invade people’s dreams or to send them brief

visions. ey can also contact humans or aliens who arein proximity to an ancient Cthulhoid artifact. ese vi-sions are either promises of great reward or threats of direpunishment, both of which are sent in an eff ort to causethe person contacted to do their bidding.

DESCRIPTION It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline,but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of

feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws onhind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.

– H.P. Lovecrafte Call of Cthulhu

Although Great Cthulhu itself is somewhat largerand more powerful, all of members of this hyperspatialspecies typically appear, at least on Earth, as twisted hu-manoids between and yards tall.

e sight of one of these beings, and most especiallyGreat Cthulhu itself is one that every OPS agent dreads.Most records of contact with Cthulhoids end with astatement by OPS operatives that they have encounteredone of these foul beings and are going to attempt to deal

with it. en nothing more is heard, and neither the op-eratives nor the Cthulhoid are ever seen again.

HASTUR & THE KING IN YELLOW

Although most researchers and several of the more accurateolder books of occult knowledge classify Hastur as a GreatOld One, other researchers disagree. e most accurateterm for Hastur is a psychic disease. One current theory isthat Hastur exists partially within hyperspace and partially

within the minds of people afflicted with this disease. e eff ects of diff erent outbreaks of this disease are

always highly idiosyncratic, but there are several generalpoints of commonality. e infection can spontaneouslyoccur in lone individuals, or a small group of individu-als, numbering as many as two dozen, all become fasci-nated with the same idea. is idea is typically expressed

Name: CthulhloidMotivation: Freedom, Power, and FoodSpecies: Great Old OneContact: Hyperspatial Exposure: / (roll once an hour)

Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence, Perception , Willpower

Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: n/a+Speed: (walking), (fl ying)Drama Points:

Special Abilities: Psychic Sensitivity, all listed psychic powers, Sor-cery , all known sorcery spells.

MANEUVERS


Claw Slash/Stab

Devour Slash/Stab

Drain LifeForce *

— Bash


Touch ** — Automatic Level Hy-

perspatial Mutation + Cthulhoids can be banished into hyperspace, but they cannot be

killed. A single attack capable of delivering more than LP ofdamage banishes the Cthulhoid back into hyperspace for one hour.However, unless the local structure of hyperspace has changed, or thecreature has some reason not to return, it can return at the end of thathour.++ All Cthulhoids are too large to dodge attacks.* No roll is required and this damage cannot be resisted unless the wearer is protected by an Elder Sign or a Protective Ward. It aff ectseveryone within a kilometer radius and is applied once every minutes.** If a Cthulhoid actually touches someone, if it does not simply rendor devour this person, then the unfortunate victim immediately gains levels of Hyperspatial Exposure. Physical contact with such a pow-erful hyperspatial entity instantly warps and mutates the victim.SPECIAL CTHULHOID ABILITY

Visionary Contact: e Cthulhoid sends a human or other physical

being a brief message. In addition to delivering the message, thiscontact also gives the target a Level Hyperspatial Exposure.



23

6in some form of shared art, such as a mural, a series ofpaintings of the same scenes, a play, an anthology ofshort stories, or even simply group storytelling. e artor stories these people produce all share a few distinctive

features, usually including characters and objects withsimilar names and locations, such as the King in Yellow,Queen Cassilda, Aldones and Camilla, the city of Car-cosa by the cloud-lake Hali, the Pallid Mask, and theinfamous Yellow Sign.

As far as researchers can tell, Hastur is another namefor the King in Yellow. After creating and sharing someform of art involving these characters, places, and objects,the victims of this psychic disease begin exhibiting farmore disturbing behavior. Suicide and murder are twocommon results. Murders committed by the infected arealmost always justified by the infected as euthanasia, evenif the murder victim clearly attempted to violently resist.

Infected individuals are also likely to develop an inter-est in the occult and on a few occasions spontaneouslymanifest psychic powers, which remain after recovery.Psychic Links with the other infected members of thesocial group also sometimes appear; these fade afterward.

Fortunately, this psychic infection is only mildly con-tagious beyond the person or group initially aff ected. In-dividual instances of infection rarely spread beyond smallgroups. Also, after a few instances of suicide or murder,many of the aff ected individuals throw off the psychic in-fection, and are at a loss to explain their previous behavior.

However, most afflicted individuals fail to recoverfrom this contagious madness without help. If the mem-

bers are arrested or are otherwise forcibly separated fromeach other and their art, most recover. Some victims gopermanently or temporarily insane during the process ofrecovering from this infection, but most are simply veryshaken. If not stopped, most victims will eventually ei-ther be arrested for murder or commit suicide, but somesimply vanish. No one knows what happens to these vic-tims, but OPS researchers suspect that they accidentallyor deliberately open hyperspatial gateways to some un-known destination. Some Carcosa theorists believe thedestination must be the lost city itself.

e details of infection remain somewhat unclear, butusually begin in one of two ways. Either one person be-gins having a series of vivid dreams about Hastur andthe other characters and objects involved in this infec-tion, or one or more individuals encounter a work of artmade by previous victims. Individuals who lack all hy-perspatial exposure are immune to infection. ey neverhave dreams of Hastur and universally find the artworkproduced by previous victims to be both inexplicable and

uninteresting. However, psychics, occultists, hyperspatialresearchers, space explorers, and the small percentage ofthe human population who is born with one level of Hy-perspatial Exposure are all potential victims.

e OPS and various national governments now havestandard protocols for Hastur infections. e first step isquarantine and preventing aff ected individuals from col-laborating with each other. e next step is trying to findthe source artwork, and confiscating this and all art pro-duced by the infected individuals. Some incidents of masssuicide, serial murder cults, and dangerous occult activityhave occurred in association with Hastur infections – aninfamous bioterrorism incident in the Prague sub-

ways resulted from one such, though that information wasnot released to the media – but usually these cults are dis-covered before more than one or two people have died.

e OPS works to quickly eliminate all manifesta-tions of the Hastur madness, both because of the dangerpresented by those who have been afflicted, and also be-

ACQUIRING THE HASTUR INFECTION

Only individuals with at least one level of Hyperspatial Ex-posure can become infected. Most people who catch thispsychic infection have either carefully read or examined a

work of art made by another victim, or they have encoun-tered some other connection to Hastur, such as a Send-ing or Summon Great Old One spell designed to contactHastur. When exposed to such an artwork or device, theindividual must make a doubled Willpower roll, subtract-ing their level of Hyperspatial Exposure. Failure indicatesthat the individual begins to succumb to the infection andgains a -point mental problem – mild obsession Hastur.

Also, occasionally someone without any such connectionspontaneously begins having dreams of Hastur and mustmake the same roll to resist the obsession.

If at this point, the person is distracted by other con-cerns and does not have access to any further contact

with Hastur or with other aff ected people, the obsessionfades by one point each week. However, if the personis left alone, then the obsession increases to severe andthen deranged, with the obsession automatically increas-ing by one point per week if the individual is not treatedor at least distracted from these thoughts. In addition,the aff ected individual’s level of Hyperspatial Exposureincreases, if applicable, so that it is always at least equal

to number of points in the obsession. e obsession canreach a maximum level of three points, as detailed in theDrawbacks section of character creation, thus producinga maximum of three levels of Hyperspatial Exposure.



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cause the OPS fears that if not stopped, some of the largergroups could eventually spread, especially if the individualor group produces writing or works of art that are dis-played to general public. Also, many researchers fear that

some of the artwork and murders committed by those af-flicted with this madness may be the part of some exceed-ingly elaborate form of hyperspatial sorcery, and the OPS

wish to keep such rituals from ever being completed. As for the artwork itself, standard procedure originally

required destroying all copies after the investigation wasconcluded. is was overruled in the early s when twooperatives who had grown up in the former Soviet Union

walked off the job in disgust, saying they would not workfor an organization that burned books. One of the opera-tives was later found to be infected, which created somedebate on the matter, but by then the policy had changed,and their superiors stood by the decision on its own merits.

Currently, the OPS keeps Hastur-related art, writing andmusic in a heavily secured vault in Finland.

EPIDEMIOLOGY & FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

Studying a mind virus without spreading it is a toothy prob-lem. Knowledge of the narrative of Carcosa and the names,places and ideas associated with the King in Yellow are notthemselves dangerous. What, then, defines the mental sub-

version associated with Hastur? Researchers have determinedthat what makes these artworks infectious is what makesthem artistic: namely the quality of passion and inspiration.

Gleaning knowledge from a piece of Hastur-related artrequires exposure to the art and its passion. A person who has

been thus exposed will have a hard time conveying the infor-mation forward without allowing their own acquired obses-sion to appear in it. Even a terse message can inadvertentlyconvey poetic feeling, and even the worst of poets may writegreat works under the influence of the King in Yellow.

OPS has settled on the following methodology: they al-low a well-trained operative who has become infected, pur-posely or by accident, to study the artworks in isolation. eoperative makes a report which an individual with no hyper-spatial exposure then summarizes and re-writes. (Individu-als without any exposure usually have trouble gleaning clearinformation from the art itself: a painting that seems murkyand confusing to an uninfected human will carry clear impli-

cations for someone more sensitive to its meanings.) e OPS then decontaminates the first operative, and

anyone else exposed as a civilian or in the line of duty, througha “boot camp” procedure that fills the days completely withmathematics lessons, language lessons, and intense physicalactivity until the infected parties have forgotten what madeCarcosa so important. e procedure succeeds in of

cases, though people who have undergone it report a senseof loss, as though a vivid and beautiful dream has faded.

ere are many theories about the origin of the Hasturinfection. e fact that individuals can be infected without

any known prior contact with Hastur-associated artwork hasconvinced most researchers that its ultimate source, at leastcurrently, may be the Dream Realm. One theory suggests theHastur infection is an intrusion from an alien Dream Realm.Hastur may actually be a Great Old One that dwells in theDream Realm and spreads to susceptible individuals.

What, then, of the fall of Carcosa and the strange,ephemeral, tragic story of Yhtill? Two schools of thought ex-ist: some argue that these were real locations once, and per-haps represent the first civilization where Hastur emerged.Others say that Hastur and Carcosa come from the sameDream Realm and have no relation to realspace history.

NYARLATHOTEP

Nyarlathotep is a paradox and a mystery to the OPS. eOPS has records that indicate that a being by this namecan appear independently or as a possessing spirit; thatit can take on many forms, has great charisma, and leadspeople to perform strange and sometimes dangerous featsof sorcery, science and engineering. ey know that Nyar-lathotep is in some way associated with mysterious beingsknown as the Other Gods. Ancient alien records reveallittle or nothing about this being.

What the OPS does not know is that Nyarlathotep is aGreat Old One who partially transcended into hyperspaceby becoming the avatar and intermediary of the OtherGods. Nyarlathotep appears to some species and not oth-ers; the knowledge it brings provokes them to transcend,partially transcend, or to destroy themselves. e way thatNyarlathotep picks its victims or protégés is unknown, andperhaps unknowable. However, species who never see Nyar-lathotep are unlikely to transcend or partially transcend.

Alien species that survive for millions of years may do so inpart because Nyarlathotep ignores them.

Nyarlathotep never appeared to either the elder ones orthe yaddithi, but it has appeared to both humanity and themoonbeasts. e moonbeasts hounded all of those whohad been touched by Nyarlathotep and all of those with

any levels of hyperspatial exposure into exile centuries ago. ese exiles now live on spaceships, exploring various dan-gerous alien technologies. Nyarlathotep, once an obscureoccult presence on the borders of human consciousness,began to intervene more actively in the early th century.

is being sent psychic visions to Nikola Tesla, to the psy-chiatrist who invented the first link crown, the Nazi scien-tists who developed the first hyperspatial weapons during



23

6 World War II, and later to the physicists and engineers who developed the dragonfl y drive.

Like the other Great Old Ones, Nyarlathotep has difficul-ty communicating with humans who lack any Hyperspatial

Exposure. It can easily communicate with anyone with one ormore levels. Most often Nyarlathotep speaks to individuals indreams and visions that they take for bursts of inspiration, butit can also possess unknowing people or appear as a psychicillusion that dozens or even hundreds of people can see.

If those humans who had seen Nyarlathotep comparednotes, there would seem to be no similarity between their

visions except two: Nyarlathotep, when in human form, al-most always appears as a vision of otherness, and as a pow-erful and charismatic figure. roughout most of humanhistory, Nyarlathotep has often appeared as male, as thiscorresponded with the images of power most prevalent inthe public consciousness; in recent years, the gender of its

form has depended more on the psychology of its audience.Nyarlathotep encourages individuals to experiment withhyperspatial devices and other technologies, including geneticengineering and psychic enhancement, that relate to knowl-edge that may lead to transcendence. Nyarlathotep’s motivesfor this are unknown, but the results of its influence can be

wonderful or terrible, and Nyarlathotep’s influence providesno protection against terrible accidents that can destroy abuilding, a city, or even an entire planet.

Regardless of how it appears, Nyarlathotep is excep-tionally charismatic. ose to whom Nyarlathotep appearsmay or may not remember the entity itself, and often re-port gaining some unusual inspiration or hearing a stirring

speaker whose words sparked new ideas. However, if a psy-chic was in contact with someone who Nyarlathotep ap-peared to, the psychic could detect its presence. Discoveriesinspired by Nyarlathotep are often game-changers: they canrevolutionize technology, but can also be unusually danger-ous or destructive. Identifying them and singling them outfor careful handling might help humanity survive.

e OPS policy book remains sparse on the subject. Un-sure of Nyarlathotep’s nature or motivations, they work toprevent and disband obvious cult activity, and to seek out anddebrief those individuals who have encountered the entity.

CULTS

Like Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep has various cults on Earth. e most infamous is the Church of Starry Wisdom, aparticularly debased mythos cult that first arose in Provi-dence, Rhode Island in the mid th century. It disbandedafter the authorities began investigating various mysteri-ous disappearances, where people were kidnapped foruse as human sacrifices. is cult survived this disband-

ing and throughout the th and early st century, vari-ous branches re-emerged all across the English-speaking

world. However, this is far from the only cult devotedto Nyarlathotep. Small cults can be found all across the

world. Nyarlathotep promises its cultists that it will slaytheir enemies and inspire them with visions of new andpowerful magics and psychic powers and help them to de-

velop exotic technologies and amazingly deadly weapons.Several of the Nazi researchers who developed the

first hyperspatial weapons belonged to a Nyarlathotepcult. Sometimes, scientists or occultists on the edge of amajor advance will dream of Nyarlathotep. It grants fewof them knowledge of its identity, but even those who donot understand they are in contact with a Great Old Oneknow they have a special source of inspiration. Severalresearchers who worked on the Manhattan Project andone who helped develop the dragonfl y drive had this sort

of half-conscious connection to Nyarlathotep. Today, cults venerating Nyarlathotep remain popular. Al-though a number of Cthulhu cults exist, a larger number ofmythos cults worship Nyarlathotep. An odd feature of this

worship is that some of them know this entity only in a singleform and call it by another name entirely. Nyarlathotep getsaround, and has chosen the human race as one of its own.

ALTERNATE FORMS

Most often Nyarlathotep appears as a vision of a person, indreams, or by possessing someone. However, ancient recordsdescribe it as the “horror of infinite shapes”, and it can appearin a variety of terrible forms. Its nightmare forms are relent-

lessly deadly, visibly unnatural predators. Nyarlathotep donsthese forms in order to hunt anyone who learns too muchabout it and opposes it. e only protection potential victimshave is that Nyarlathotep only attacks in these forms while intotal darkness. If even a small light is present, it will flee or atleast retreat into darkness.

DESCRIPTION

And it was then that Nyarlathotep came out of Egypt.Who he was, none could tell, but he was of the old nativeblood and looked like a Pharaoh.e fellahin knelt whenthey saw him, yet could not say why. He said he had risenup out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries, and that

he had heard messages from places not on this planet. Intothe lands of civilization came Nyarlathotep, swarthy,slender, and sinister, always buying strange instrumentsof glass and metal and combining them into instruments

yet stranger. He spoke much of the sciences - of electricityand psychology - and gave exhibitions of power whichsent his spectators away speechless, yet which swelled his



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fame to exceeding magnitude. Men advised one anotherto see Nyarlathotep, and shuddered. And where Nyarla-thotep went, rest vanished; for the small hours were rentwith the screams of a nightmare.

—H. P. Lovecraft Nyarlathotep Below is Nyarlathotep’s predator form. When it pos-

sesses or otherwise appears as a human, it retains thesame Brains & Combat Scores, but uses the body’s Mus-cle score and is restricted to the weapons available to thatform. In all forms, it is charismatic and it is also terrifyingin its obviously inhuman forms.

LESSER-KNOWN GREAT OLD ONES

Many beings meet the definition of Great Old Ones; notall of them are listed here. Some appear uninterested inhumanity, and are out there preying on or making deals

with species unknown and unnamed to us; others areof smaller significance than Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep,and appear to humanity only rarely. e Lovecraft story

Hypnos gives a great example. e OPS databases, andhuman history, are full of stories like this: loose-end re-ports wherein humans describe contact with somethinglarger than themselves, often accompanied by anomalousevents. Without more evidence, it’s difficult to sort outGreat Old Ones from personal gnosis and superstition.

A woman reports a “demon” plaguing her son. Is that an

alien being oppressing his mind or the local cultural ex-planation for his alcoholism? If an isolated incident ofhyperspatial contact has driven the young man to drink,it’s unlikely anyone will find out for certain.

Directors can take examples of partially transcendentbeings from stories beyond the central mythos canon,mythological pantheons, or even science fi ction televi-sion shows - or invent totally unique Great Old Ones.Even with knowledge of hyperspace, the universe is un-knowably immense. OPS doesn’t recognize everything init. Going off the map allows for many kinds of narra-tives: perhaps the Heroes must fight to understand anddefend against a hyperspatial being on a colony planet

while armed with no more information than a -year-old cache of notes about someone’s LSD visions. Maybethe OPS uncovers the existence of a being which seemsbenign toward humanity but preys on the energies of

another sentient species, and the Heroes must decide whether to make a risky intervention. A Series couldeven center on discovering the true identity of, and van-quishing, the gods of a dead Earth religion.

THE OTHER GODS

Unlike the Great Old Ones, the Other Gods were nevermembers of ancient alien species that partially transcend-ed. Instead, they are active personifications of primordialforces. A reality of the universe is that mind and energy areinseparable, and any sufficiently complex pattern of energyeventually gives rise to intelligence.

Known in various older occult books as the OtherGods, to distinguish them from the various deities wor-shiped by humanity, these beings can most accurately bedescribed as aspects of the fabric of hyperspace itself. eydo not dwell in hyperspace like the Great Old Ones or the

various lesser creatures that live there; rather, the OtherGods are hyperspace in some way. e OPS has little solidinformation about the Other Gods, beyond a few names– Yog-Sothoth, the beyond one, the key and the gate, theopener of the way; Azathoth, the amorphous blight ofnethermost confusion; and Shub-Niggurath, the blackgoat of the woods with a thousand young. Records foundon several ruined worlds indicate that making contact

with entities that are part of the fabric of hyperspace cansometimes lead to a species’ transcendence. While humanoccultism has a large body of literature on the Other Gods,much of it is patchy and erroneous. Scholars find it diffi-cult to verify one sorcerous ritual against another withoutactually performing them and risking annihilation.

Humans can only make contact with the Other Godsthrough the use of rare and powerful alien artifacts. Hu-

Name: NyarlathotepMotivation: Spread chaos and knowledge & destroy all who opposeitSpecies: Great Old OneContact: Hyperspatial Exposure: / (roll once an hour) [ / if in human

form] Attributes: Strength , Dexterity , Constitution , Intelligence ,Perception , Willpower

Ability Scores: Muscle , Combat , Brains Life Points: Speed: (walking) (fl ying)Drama Points: Special Abilities: Psychic Sensitivity, all listed psychic powers, Re-generation, Sorcery , all known sorcery spells.

MANEUVERS


Claw Slash/Stab


Life force drain* Bash - delivered by

touch * e result of this attack looks like a heart attack



23

6manity has not learned how to contact these inhuman be-ings directly. Unlike the Great Old Ones, who hunger forcontact with the physical world and the minds of its in-habitants, the Other Gods need nothing from the physical

world and only notice its existence when heavily provoked.It is difficult but catastrophic to catch the attention ofan Other God. To view them dimly as through a telescopemight be accomplished by great eff ort in science or sorcery,and rates no higher than Level Hyperspatial Exposure be-cause of their extreme remove from physicality: oddly safer,though less comprehensible, than contact with the Great OldOnes. Humans “listening in” encounter confusing, dreamlike

visions. Occasional insights are possible from these sight-ings, perhaps information about the Great Old Ones, abouthyperspace, or locations and functions of powerful alien ar-tifacts, but this seems to be more the coincidental result ofinterdimensional contact rather than an intentional message.

Sometimes, only nonsense and nightmares result.Full two-way contact, in the unlikely event that anOther God takes notice, brings the foolhardy individualinto an inconceivable and devastating level of oneness

with hyperspace. No human who has attempted to visitthe exceedingly distant and alien levels of hyperspace

where the Other Gods dwell has ever returned.

CREATING ALLIES, ADVERSARIES,AND INNOCENT BYSTANDERS

ese are the people the Heroes encounter along the way.

Some are nameless background characters, like a cultist thugor a laboratory technician. Others are the Hero’s friends andfamily, their staunch allies and dangerous foes. e Support-ing Cast varies from one Episode to the next, but over time,recurring characters can become loved or hated mainstays.

Most Supporting Cast characters do not need fullCharacter Sheets, or even Quick Sheets. For the mostminor characters, write down a name and role and a fewnotes. Your typical corporate bodyguard rarely needs muchbeyond the basic Attributes and Ability Scores. A victimmight only need to say thanks after being rescued. On theother hand, be prepared in case players find these smallparts more interesting than planned. Have to hand a fewpersonality attributes – family status, motivations – thatallow character development on the spot. After all, playersare unpredictable: the Hero hiding behind a rock wall witha random extra, fleeing the moonbeasts, might suddenlydecide to make psychic contact or propose marriage.

“Named” roles are more complex—relatives, friends, col-leagues, or hated enemies of the Heroes. A Quick Sheet

suffices for mechanics, but also spend time developing thatcharacter’s personality and attitude. If all the Supporting Castsound and behave the same, the Series is going to feel dulland flat. A teacher should sound and act diff erently from an

OPS team member, or a Hero’s father, or an impoverishedteen who dreams of becoming a colonist on an alien planet. After the players create Heroes, work on fleshing out the

people in the characters’ lives. If they work in the OPS, you won’t need to detail every senior director or repair technician,but writing up the immediate superior, some technicians orresearch assistants, and perhaps a doctor or psychiatrist, is anexcellent idea. Keep them as recurring characters, and if anyof them is injured, kidnapped, or killed, their demise will havemore than emotional impact than Dead Body . Addition-ally, it’s useful to have a roster of Supporting Cast ready to goat a moment’s notice. at way, if the Heroes decide to do theunexpected, you have something to throw at them.

DETERMINING ATTRIBUTES AND ABILITY SCORES

Some Supporting Cast are merely opponents for the He-roes to fight. When it comes to that, having their scoreshandy keeps the action flowing. is does not mean that

you have to go through the entire character creation pro-cess for each and every enemy the Heroes encounter. Farfrom it—all you have to do is assign Attributes, put together

Ability Scores, figure out any attacks or special abilities thecharacters have, and you’re good to go.

Attributes: Unlike players, you don’t need to divide a set

amount of points among the six Primary Attributes. Justpick and choose what fits. If you need to stat out a coupleof annoying reporters or hanger-on cultists, you could makethem average across the board (all s), or maybe give them acouple of Attributes at three. For a team of augmented cor-porate thugs, give them a high Strength ( or ), above aver-age Dexterity and Constitution ( or ), and average mentalattributes. It doesn’t matter if the total Attribute pointscome to , , or : as the Director, you have the final say.

For ab-humans and most aliens, Attributes will be atthe high end. After that, just figure out Life Points, addany bonuses for the Hard to Kill Quality, and the At-tributes are done.

Ability Scores: Most Supporting Cast members don’tneed detailed skills. Instead, use the Ability Scores to geta rough idea of what the character can do. As discussed,

Ability Scores are determined by the character’s Attributes.Most regular folk will have Ability Scores in the - range.

Augmented soldiers, ab-humans and truly extraordinarypeople will be in the - range. Hyperspatial beings or



240

the most deadly ab-human mutants will have even highernumbers. To avoid math and guesswork, consult the Score

Tables. A good quick way to determine Ability Scores is to use

the Heroes’ skills and Attributes as benchmarks. Take thetoughest Hero’s Dexterity and Guns or Brawling totals anduse it as the base. A generic thug should have a CombatScore within one or two points of the baseline, meaningthe best fighter can hit that thug on a roll of one or two. Atougher foe should have a Score of three to fi ve points overthe base. at means the Hero will hit on an average roll,but the villain might get lucky. A challenging opponent isgoing to use base plus six or seven: the heroes need to roll

well to hit them or avoid getting hit. And deadly foes havea Score of the base plus eight or more, requiring teamworkor Drama Points to fight them successfully.

Special Abilities:Most people have no unusual pow-ers or abilities. Ab-human, aliens, and augmented hu-mans may have several, from psychic powers to variousinhuman abilities. List them in the Quick Sheet so youdon’t forget that, say, a mutant has point armor.

Combat Maneuvers: Figure out what attack and de-fense moves the character is likely to use, their applicableScores, and the damage inflicted (remember to includethe Success Level kickers derived from the Scores list-ed—remember no rolling for most Supporting Cast).

Supporting Example:Most soldiers, thugs, and simi-lar humans have Dodge, Grapple, Gunshot, Kick, andPunch, Maneuvers. Gunshot and Punch use the un-

modified Combat Score, Kick uses Combat Score - ,and Grapple uses Combat Score + . An augmented commando with Strength and a

Combat Score of would have the following Maneuvers:Drama Points: e Heroes are not the only ones with

Drama Points. Adversaries also have access to them. Mi-nor characters have no Drama Points; they are not meantto do extraordinary things. An augmented thug has oneto three Drama Points, enough to land a blow or two ona Hero before their defeat. A friend or relative of a Herocould have the same amount, to allow for occasional he-roics. Major foes could have fi ve to eight Drama Points,and a recurring nemesis could have or more Drama

Points in store. Usually, Supporting Cast spend DramaPoints for combat purposes (the sample commandoabove could spend a Drama Point to use the Heroic Featrule and raise his punch value to ).



24

6

COMBAT SCORE TABLE

Non-Combatant: With this Combat Score, a characterneeds to go to Full Off ence or Full Defense to be of anyuse in a fight. People who can’t throw a punch to save

their lives would have Combat Scores at these levels.

- Average Person: is is someone who knows whichend of a weapon to point towards an enemy or hasbeen in a few scrapes in his life.

- Trained Person: is is the Combat Score of anormal human with some training (a beat cop or aregular soldier).

- Augmented or Veteran Fighter: is represents atough, well-trained human or someone with a fewaugmentations.

-Elite Fighter: Special force soldiers, OPS striketeam members and various ab-humans.

-

World Class Warrior: e absolute best of the best,

with impressive training and at least a few aug-mentations. ese people are hard to beat—time tobreak out those Drama Points.

+Inhuman: Anything this good is more than humanand exceptionally deadly

MUSCLE SCORE TABLE

Really Weak: Children and the physically inactive

fall here.

- Average Person: Your average person who doesn’t

work out.

-Physically Competent: Someone who works out a

bit.

- Augmented or really Tough Human: is is the

typical Muscle Score of an augmented soldier. Veryathletic normal humans are in the same range.

- Ab-Humans, Heavily Augmented People, and

Weightlifters: Anyone at this level is really danger-ous and may not be fully human.

-Human Peak: Humans don’t come any stronger

than this. is level requires both augmentationsand extensive physical training.

+Superhuman: Ab-humans, aliens, and hyperspatial

beings.

BRAINS SCORE TABLE

Somewhat Dim: is individual is not very smart

and not good at using the intelligence they have

- Average Person: Someone of average intelligence who has never really applied themselves to intel-lectual tasks.

-Smart: Someone with a good education and thesmarts to make the most of it.

- Brilliant: Highly educated, very smart, or both.

-Genius: An impressive expert, or someone excep-tionally intelligent.

- World Class Genius: Even the experts are going tobe impressed with this person’s ideas

+Inhumanly Brilliant: e greatest human minds inhistory, and various alien and inhuman creatures

whose thoughts defy comprehension.

MANEUVERS



Gunshot Bullet damage (fora standard pistol)


Kick

(base +

SuccessLevels)

Bash

Punch

(base +

SuccessLevels)

Bash



242

“South Station Under - Washington Under - Park Street Under-Kendall - Cen-tral - Harvard -” e poor fellow was chanting the familiar stations of theBoston-Cambridge tunnel that burrowed through our peaceful native soilthousands of miles away in New England, yet to me the ritual had neitherirrelevance nor home feeling. It had only horror, because I knew unerringly

the monstrous, nefandous analogy that had suggested it. We had expected, upon looking back, tosee a terrible and incredible moving entity if the mists were thin enough; but of that entity we hadformed a clear idea. What we did see - for the mists were indeed all too malignly thinned - was

something altogether diff erent, and immeasurably more hideous and detestable. It was the utter,objective embodiment of the fantastic novelist ’s “thing that should not be”; and its nearest compre-hensible analogue is a vast, onrushing subway train as one sees it from a station platform - the greatblack front looming colossally out of infinite subterranean distance, constellated with strangelycolored lights and filling the prodigious burrow as a piston fills a cylinder.”

H. P. Lovecraft – At the Mountains Of Madness



24

Chapter 7Storytelling Advice

NAÏVETE

W at the OPS, Harry Kanth had learned toexpect a lot of things. Being detained and handcuff ed upon his arrival at the building securitycheckpoint was not one of them. He didn’t struggle. He had some faith in his employers, andmore to the point, as a desk-pusher, found the idea faintly suicidal. He did sputter a protest whenthey took away his sword-cane.

“Wait, what? What did I...?” he stammered. e guards who’d arrived at the sight of him wore

standard-issue dead head collars and had hand tasers out. One of them looked faintly surprisedat his confusion. Grim-faced, they led him down the hall to his own office. His boss, Selena, wasthere in his chair, and had a file pulled up on the screen.

“Harry,” she said, her forehead lined with concern. “What do you recall of Agent Leho?”“I’m not sure I recall him at all, to be honest.”“ en what do you think of your initials here?”

e guards brought him closer. Selena showed him his own handwriting in the ‘cleared’ blank.His memory seemed to dart away from it. e name at the top of the form triggered a vague rec-ollection of a man’s silhouette - unusual, when he normally memorized faces. And the powerfulsense of liking that came to mind was even stranger: Harry usually tried to stay carefully neutralabout the agents he screened.

“He went missing from his fieldwork site,” Selena said. “A hyperspatial disruptor and somesensitive texts went missing with him. Something about your scan didn’t quite work.”

Harry’s heart pounded and his vision dimmed. It was coming back to him now. e sense ofbeing pulled down a mobius tunnel, not to somewhere that was but to somewhere that wasn’t,and the awful, hollow, inhuman laughter that resonated through his mind... He was supposed tobe in control of the link apparatus, but there was too much power, and it ran too deep...

“I’m not sure Agent Leho is Agent Leho anymore,” Harry said numbly. “I think I’ve been had.”



244

STORYTELLING IN ELDRITCH SKIES

Although it is perfectly possible to use Eldritch Skies torun Series that resemble standard mythos horror, wherethe Heroes spend their time hunting down mythos mon-sters and destroying them and not always surviving theoutcomes, this game can also do many other sorts of sto-ries. is game can be used to play out stories of heroismand triumph just as well as it does stories of hopeless anddoomed struggles against an irresistible foe. Eldritch Skiesis first and foremost a science fiction RPG and all of thestories of exploration, trade, and conflict found in classicscience fiction are ideal choices for this game.

PULP VS. GRITTY SERIES

One of the first choices to make when deciding to be a

Director for an Eldritch Skies Series is what sort of Series you and your players want. e diff erence between gritty,cinematic, and pulp Series is ultimately about diff erent ap-proaches to heroism. Heroes in all three types of Series canbe equally heroic, but both the ways in which they demon-strate their heroism and the eff ects of heroic actions are usu-ally quite diff erent. In large part, the choice between thesethree types of Series is about deciding which approach toheroism works better for you and your gaming group.

GRITTY SERIES

In a gritty Series, heroism is usually about fighting the goodfight against difficult or overwhelming odds, which no guar-antee of victory. Sometimes, Heroes are certain that theircause is ultimately lost, but that they can make the diff er-ence between defeat now or defeat in a few years or decades.Demonstrating heroism in a gritty Series is all about risking

your life, doing the right thing, and making hard choices,even when it’s clear that no victory is ever complete, thathumanity will always face additional dire threats, and thateventually the human species will lose and become anotherfootnote in galactic history. Understanding the inevitabilityof this outcome, Heroes in a gritty Series nevertheless “rageagainst the dying of the light”. e recent Battlestar Galac-tica TV series and both the Alien and the Terminator films

are good examples of gritty SF. Another important aspect of gritty Series is that moral-ity is never black and white. Everything is shades of grey,and often a fairly dark grey. Allies may turn out to be secretantagonists or to act as antagonists because they have beenforced to do so, the Heroes’ superiors and colleagues maybetray them, and everyone has at least a few skeletons intheir closet, perhaps even actual skeletons. Innocent and

guilty, right and wrong, good or bad are not merely rela-tive, but often exceedingly unclear. e Heroes’ superior inthe OPS may have literally sold a colony ship filled withthousands of human colonists to moonbeast slave raid-

ers in return for a powerful ancient relic that will protectEarth or one of the larger colony worlds from a deadlythreat. Selling colonists into slavery is clearly a heinous act,but the question then becomes, does saving millions, orperhaps billions of lives justify this act?

In a gritty Series, the diff erence between heroes and villains can often be unclear, and may depend upon whatmeasures of heroism or villainy that the Heroes use. Dothe ends justify the means, or are some means too horrific,regardless of the worthiness of the ends that are achieved?In a gritty Series, heroes must be willing to get their handsdirty, but they must also be aware that it can be very easy toslip from being a pragmatic hero to being a hideous villain.

A common aspect of gritty adventures is having to makedifficult choices. One possible example that has been usedin many gritty stories: the Heroes are in a situation wherethey need to save a group of innocent people from certaindeath, and there is no possible way to save everyone. Perhapsthey are on a crippled spaceship with a failing life supportsystem. e Heroes must evacuate the passengers, and thereare fewer space suits than passengers. Maybe an ab-humanmutant is rampaging though a large apartment complex andthe Heroes cannot evacuate all of the residents before themutant reaches them. In such situations Heroes may liter-ally have to decide who lives or dies – or risk even more

people dying in a chancy attempt to save everyone. Oneof the key aspects of gritty adventures is that Heroes mustmake difficult choices, and this sort of adventure is a perfectopportunity for those sorts of choices. In this style of game,Directors should design such Episodes so that no matterhow clever the Heroes are or how well they roll, they willhave to make difficult and painful choices.

CINEMATIC SERIES

Heroism in a cinematic Series is about the difficult struggleto achieve victory. Victory is always possible, but is rarelyeasy. Heroes have to risk their lives, suff er terrible injuries,or perhaps even die, but if they are willing to give their all,

they can succeed, and humanity will be saved. Being a herois about winning through a mixture of cleverness, bravery,and most of all, determination. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,Babylon , and Stargate SG- all have cinematic characteris-tics: the good guys take some losses along the way, but even-tually pull through. ey don’t laugh off their struggles; theprotagonists become older and wiser, though, rather than



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7grim and haunted. Battle scars add character, and meansomething. Deaths are usually meaningful sacrifices.

In a cinematic Series, morality is a somewhat lightershade of grey. e OPS is by and large an organization

composed of dedicated, hard-working people who sin-cerely desire to help the human species and to protectthe populace from mythos dangers. Most democraticallyelected government officials, conventional emergency ser-

vices personnel, and similar people are also working fromgood intentions. Corrupt, greedy, and deluded individu-als exist in all of these organizations, and occasionally anorganization can suff er from widespread corruption, butsuch incidents are relatively rare, and sufficiently dedicatedHeroes can expose and put an end to such problems.

Also, the line between heroes and villains is somewhatclearer. ere are acts too horrific for any hero to be ableto justify, and while some of the opposition may performheinous actions in order to accomplish good ends, there arealways better, if often more difficult ways to accomplish thesame ends. Villainy may result from greed and lack of con-cern for others, but it can also result from laziness, or unwill-ingness to trust that there is always a genuinely better solu-tion to every problem. In part, being a hero is about havingfaith that good actions can produce good results, even whenother options may be easier or may appear more certain.

Reframing the gritty adventure idea above as cinematic,one of the key diff erences is that idea that if the Heroes areclever and work hard, they can generally manage to save ev-eryone. As a result, Directors should almost never design an

adventure that includes a “no-win scenario”: all Cinematicadventures should include possible ways for the Heroes toavoid difficult and painful outcomes by being sufficientlygood at what they do and sufficiently willing to risk their lives.

e Heroes might need to spend most of their Drama Pointsto save all of the passengers on a crippled spacecraft, but theycan do it. Alternately, the Heroes might need to spend a fewturns fighting an overwhelming foe to allow everyone to es-cape, thus risking serious injury. In cinematic adventures, ifthe Heroes are willing to work hard enough and take enoughrisks, success is always possible, but it needn’t be easy.

PULP SERIES

In pulp Series, heroes perform heroic acts, often while dem-onstrating exactly how impressive they are. Success is notalways easy, but with sufficient skill and determination it isalways possible, and often managed with style. Also, in apulp Series, defeat is almost never total. Once the Heroesarrive, if they are remotely successful, everyone they are try-ing to protect or save will remain safe and unharmed. e

exception is a dramatic death: occasionally, an innocent willdie and later be avenged with great fanfare. Or maybe anally will make up for a past betrayal by sacrificing his life tosave the Heroes. And death isn’t always permanent. Pulp

Heroes are always somewhat larger than life and can ac-complish wonders both because of their consummate skillsand because luck is most decidedly on their side. Even whena situation looks utterly hopeless, a chance to triumph, or atleast to avoid defeat is certain to appear.

Victory may be incomplete, but is largely assured. Forexample, if a cult run by a dangerous and brilliant ab-humanmutant has been kidnapping people for a mass sacrifice,pulp Heroes will almost certainly rescue the kidnap victims,and even capture a few cultists, but the cult’s mutant leadermay escape unless the Heroes are especially clever. Not be-ing able to save the lives of the kidnapped people wouldbe the sort of grim and terrible failure that does not fit thegenerally light and optimistic tone of pulp SF, but eventhe purest and most skilled Heroes can encounter equallyskilled Adversaries. It’s classic for an antagonist in this typeof Series to set up a threat which forces the Heroes to lethim or her escape in order to protect innocent lives.

Pulp Series often have a decidedly black and whitemorality. Heroes attempt to do good for good reasons,and villains perform evil acts either for evil reasons orbecause they are forced to do the bidding of the true,behind-the-scenes Adversary. As in cinematic series,anyone who is attempting to accomplish positive goals byevil means is grossly misguided, but in a pulp Series, it’s

generally even more obvious: the villain is thoroughly de-lusional, or is in part driven by base motives that they areattempting to justify or conceal. is morality also meansthat with only a few exceptions, organizations like theOPS are composed of heroic and dedicated individuals.

Any corrupt, misguided, or evil members are a rare aber-ration, and are almost never part of any large and danger-ous conspiracy within the organization. Someone in theOPS might secretly be a cultist, or be acting under mindcontrol or being blackmailed by the CEO of a corruptcorporation, but all such problems are isolated incidents.

Another mark of pulp SF is that bad things will oftenhappen non-permanently, both to Heroes and to other

characters. For example, in a gritty or cinematic Series, acharacter who undergoes torture will likely be mentallyscarred by the experience; in a pulp Series, he’ll be crack-ing jokes as soon as he’s out of the chains. Characters bothgood and evil return from apparent death. Pulp plots as-sume both physical and mental resilience on the part ofHeroes and Adversaries alike. For examples, look to the



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original Star Trek TV show and most superhero comics.Nameless or minor characters sometimes bite the dust atthe beginning of an episode, and in the course of the plotall kinds of terrible things can happen to the heroes, but bythe end, stolen brains are returned, imminent destructionaverted, and the main characters walk off hale and whole.

When running pulp, there is always a way to save allor almost all of the innocents from death, and more sothan in cinematic Series, the Heroes can manage this feat

simply by taking a careful look at the situation and makingsome clever choices. e essence of pulp is that Heroesboth can save the day and look awesome while doing so.

USING THE OPSHow detailed you wish to make the OPS depends upon thesort of Series you wish to run. However, the organization’s

basic profile is the same in any series. e OPS is dedicatedto protecting humanity from mythos dangers and weapons,hyperspatial and otherwise, that can cause mass death. edefault assumption in Eldritch Skies is that the Heroes will

be OPS operatives – field agents for the OPS – though it ispossible to run a Series with other character types.

Regardless of the details of the Series, Heroes who arepart of the OPS are part of a small team of OPS fieldoperatives. Usually this consists of the Heroes, and maybea Director-controlled ally or two. OPS field teams have alarge amount of independence, as long as they completetheir mission without breaking OPS regulations or locallaws. Violence against innocent bystanders, even acciden-tal, is not permitted, nor is any sort of large scale propertydestruction without significant extenuating circumstances.

rowing a resisting bystander out of a car that wasabout to explode, shooting a cultist who is guarding a dan-gerous mythos artifact, or blowing a hole in the wall of a

warehouse where a human sacrifice is about to take placecount as extenuating circumstances. However, shooting aguard or blowing a hole in the wall of a warehouse is notacceptable if the Heroes turn out to be wrong about thelocation of the dangerous mythos artifact or the humansacrifice and are instead attacking people and property

with no connection to mythos dangers. How much theHeroes must obey local laws depends largely on the typeof Series you are running, but casual violence and prop-erty destruction are never acceptable.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE OPS

e OPS is divided into a number of separate branches. efirst major division is between support staff and field teams.OPS support staff includes everyone from clerks, techni-cians, and lawyers, to researchers who work in OPS labora-tories, and physicians working at the hospitals that performaugmentations and serve the unique needs of sick or injuredoperatives. OPS field teams consist of small groups of high-ly trained individuals who are sent out on various missions.

ere are three primary types of field teams – Investigative Teams, Exploratory Teams, and Strike Teams. All three va-rieties of teams can work either on Earth or in space, butmost individual teams specialize in one or the other.

Investigative Teams: Investigative teams look into allmanner of potentially dangerous or suspicious activities.

ese include everything from rumors of a new mythos culton the planet Eridanos, to odd reports surrounding an an-cient archeological site in Greenland, to concerns that theCEO of a major corporation may be making secret and il-legal deals with renegade mi-go technicians, or hints that

TESTING PROCEDURES

OPS agents face Hyperspatial Exposure, alien mind con-trol, and contact with the Great Old Ones. To help make

certain that the OPS is not overrun with cultists and theinsane, field agents are tested after any encounter withhyperspatial entities, and all OPS personnel are testedon a yearly basis. is testing involves several hours ofpsychological tests accompanied by a scan using a linkcrown and advanced software. ese tests reveal both theperson’s level of Hyperspatial Exposure and whether ornot the person is possessed, insane, or under some form ofmind control, including the Compulsion spell.

e accuracy level of this testing depends upon thetype of stories the players and Director are interestedin. In a pulp or cinematic Series, the OPS is generallyon the side of good, but who knows: your boss, by some

wild chance, could be an alien sleeper agent. In a grittyseries, there might be deeper corruption – the testingcould even be a giant sham. In any case, bribery, sabo-tage, and similar tactics can occasionally be used to al-low someone to deliberately appear sane, unpossessed,or not under some form of mental compulsion. In theabsence of such actions, most OPS personnel can be as-sumed to remain sane and in control of their own minds.

OPS field operatives are required to maintain an av-erage Hyperspatial Exposure level no greater than leveltwo. Since someone with level three exposure can easilybecome inhumanly insane, operatives who reach level

three Hyperspatial Exposure are normally given limitedduties for the month they require to return to level two.If they are needed immediately, an OPS sorcerer usesthe Reduce Exposure spell upon them.



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7a terrorist group in Mexico City is attempting to purchasestolen nuclear weapons. Members of an investigative teams

work as spies, con artists, thieves, scientists, and engineers, asthey look into a wide variety of potential problems.

Sometimes the members of investigative teams canopenly identify themselves as OPS operatives who arelooking into reports of various problems and irregulari-ties. However, just as often they must go undercover andimpersonate smugglers, terrorists, or crooked corporateemployees in an eff ort to uncover well-concealed illegalactivities. Regardless of where they are or exactly whatthey are doing, investigative teams focus on dealing withpeople. Often these people are criminals, but they canalso be misguided, under the thrall of the psychic Hasturinfection or other influences, or simply unaware that thestrangely shaped objects they are selling or digging up areactually powerful mythos artifacts. e missions of inves-tigative teams focus on a mixture of protecting innocentpeople from harm and uncovering illegal and dangerousactivities and the people responsible for them. On manymissions, no one is aware of the presence of an OPS fieldteam until the team members hand the criminals over tolocal or international justice.

Exploratory Teams: Exploratory teams are in chargeof investigating mythos mysteries and determining thepotential benefits and dangers of newly discovered plan-ets. ey also begin the process of establishing if planetsare safe for human colonization or at least settlement byresearch or resource exploitation bases, and make first con-

tact with newly discovered alien species. Most exploratoryteams work outside the solar system, on newly discovered worlds. However, both the various colonized worlds andEarth itself still contain all manner of mysteries.

Exploratory teams obviously focus on uncoveringdangers, but they are also responsible for identifying op-portunities to advance human knowledge or acquiring

valuable natural resources or useful alien technologiesand are often at the forefront of helping to advance hu-man knowledge and technology. Team members consistof scientists, engineers, mythos scholars, linguists, expertsat survival in difficult conditions, and diplomats trainedat dealing with aliens. Most team members are also ex-

pected to have some degree of combat experience, sinceexploring the mythos universe can be quite dangerous.

Strike Teams: Strike teams are soldiers in the fightagainst mythos dangers. Members of investigative or ex-ploratory teams might need to fight ab-human mutants,hungry ghoul hordes, or hyperspatial beings in the courseof their missions. However, strike teams are sent out to

specifically deal with such problems. ey are heavilyarmed and are generally only sent to deal with threatsthat are too dangerous or unusual for local law enforce-ment, SWAT teams, or even the local military to handle.

As a result, most of their missions involve beings with various inhuman abilities, or criminals or terrorists withillegal and powerful hyperspatial augmentations and de-

vices. ey are also sometimes called in to deal with ter-rorists who have access to other weapons of mass destruc-tion, such as biological or nuclear weapons. Strike teammissions are usually straightforward: kill or capture thetarget, save any victims of the threat, and keep innocentbystanders safe from the threat. Strike team members arecommandos, snipers, demolitions, experts, combat med-ics, and emergency service personnel.

THE OPS IN DIFFERENT SERIES

How the Director portrays the OPS varies dependingupon whether they are running a Gritty, Cinematic, orPulp Series. is choice should influence both how muchtime the Heroes spend dealing with the rest of the OPSand also the nature of such interactions. e OPS in Gritty Series: In a gritty Series, humani-

ty is fighting against overwhelming odds, and so it makessense for people to work together. Since the Heroes arefar more vulnerable than in pulp Series, both the playersand the Heroes should understand that there is strengthin numbers. As a result, the OPS should play a major rolein a gritty Series. Heroes often need to call for back up

when they face large-scale opposition. Also, these Heroes will regularly be called to act as back-up for other OPSteams. During large assignments, the Heroes will oftenbe working with one or more other OPS teams.

To better fit the mood of this type of Series, the He-roes should periodically have to deal with OPS rulesand regulations. ese dealings should include having tofollow the correct protocols to requisition equipment as

well as occasionally having to deal with less than idealrental cars or hotel rooms because of OPS budget cuts.

Also, illegal activities like wiretapping, and breaking andentering require careful proof before they are approved.Heroes who neglect to ask permission before commit-

ting crimes face various sorts of censure or punishment,unless they were acting to prevent an immediate threatto someone’s life or safety. Sometimes, even if they were,they will have to prove it in a local court.

In a gritty Series, the OPS is also not always a forcefor good. In addition to the occasional OPS operativeor support staff who is a traitor or being blackmailed by



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cultists, greedy and amoral corporations, or even aliens,the OPS itself may well have serious problems. In a grittySeries, Heroes who are OPS operatives will have a greatdeal of contact with the rest of the OPS. Part of this con-

tact should occasionally involve uncovering and dealing with corruption and betrayal within the OPS.

e OPS in Cinematic Series: In a cinematic Se-ries, the OPS is a fundamentally good organization, andtraitors and sell-outs are relatively rare. However, thatdoesn’t mean that someone very important in the OPScan’t be corrupt, blackmailed, or mind controlled. eOPS requires yearly psychic and psychiatric evaluations,but a lot can happen in a year, and records can occasion-

ally be forged. Heroes in a cinematic Series often won’thave as much contact with the rest of the OPS as He-roes in a gritty Series. In cinematic Series, an experiencedOPS fi eld team is more independent and less closelysupervised. However, unlike a pulp Series, OPS shouldstill feel more like a real organization and less like thebackground for an action movie. Paperwork and expense

accounts should usually be kept in the background, butHeroes need a good justification for breaking and enter-ing or various sorts of surveillance (at least in nations

where it’s not already fully legal).

e Heroes should know that if they break local laws without a good reason or if they harm innocent bystand-ers or cause significant property damage without a trulyexcellent reason, then they’re going to face serious conse-quences. Breaking into an office won’t be a problem if theHeroes fi nd illegal mi-go artifacts or stolen Cthulhoidartifacts inside. Unfortunately, if they don’t fi nd suchthings and have just broken into the office of an inno-cent, then at best the Heroes will be deported and faceserious reprimands from their superiors. e OPS in Pulp Series: In a pulp series, the OPS

is largely an excuse for the Heroes to carry badges andbe awesome. e practicalities of paperwork and even

the legal niceties of search warrants have little place ina pulp Series: bureaucracy can be an off -screen joke. Aslong as the Heroes are not investigating someone richand powerful or shooting unarmed people, legalities canbe glossed over, and their OPS badges are sufficient todeal with any repercussions. When investigating some-one rich and powerful, even Heroes in a pulp series won’tbe allowed to break into the person’s home or office.Nevertheless, shenanigans like slipping into the placesof cleaning staff for a day to search the office will all beforgiven if the Heroes discover proof that this person isbuying illegal mi-go weaponry, taking part in a mythoscult, or making back-room deals with ghouls.

With the exception of the rare turncoat or plant,the OPS is a force for good in the world. However, theHeroes don’t require much contact with the organiza-tion beyond being assigned missions by their immediatesuperior. In a pulp Series, the Heroes don’t need muchin the way of back up, and neither do most other teamsof operatives. Occasionally, another team may get intotrouble and the Heroes are sent to save them and resolvethe situation, but in such cases, the Heroes are unlikelyto be part of a larger eff ort – their own eff orts should besufficient to save the other team.

ere are several occasions when the Heroes might

deal with the rest of the OPS. While the OPS is clearlya force for good in a pulp Series, that doesn’t mean thepeople in charge are always right. It’s possible that theHeroes might come into frequent conflict with their su-periors in the OPS, simply because the Heroes have rea-son to believe that the approach their superiors take to aserious problem is doomed to failure.

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT FOR OPS TEAMS

In addition to the suggested equipment for OPS teams,Directors also have the option of supplying teams withspecial equipment. is equipment can include tech-nosorcerous devices made by OPS sorcerers, as well asexperimental technologies and duplicates of alien de-

vices that are being field tested. Technosorcerous devicesshould generally be limited to devices that duplicate theeff ects of level one or level two spells.

Most teams working off world should have a Send-ing device to allow the Heroes to instantly contact theirsuperiors, as well as an Open Gateway device to allowthem to return to Earth easily. A Voorish Sign viewer isan obvious choice for all OPS teams and should generallybe standard equipment. Either an Elder Sign or a level Protective Warding device should be almost as com-mon. Also, most teams working on Earth should havean Avoidance Ward device. In general, Directors shouldprovide OPS teams with a total of between three and sixspell levels worth of devices. For example, a team workingoff world might be issued a Sending device, a VoorishSign device, and an Open Gateway device (a total of

spell levels). Experimental and alien devices are discussedin Rewards & Discoveries, and the Director can decidethat the Heroes need a piece of special equipment in or-der to complete a particular mission.



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7Perhaps the Heroes are told to ignore a possible cult,

because their superiors have received information that it’sharmless and not associated with any known Great OldOne. ( is could be a great opportunity for the Director to

introduce an unknown Great Old One.) Maybe one of theirsuperiors has a younger relative like a daughter or nephewin the cult, and is blind to how dangerous it is. In a pulp Se-ries the Heroes would then disregard their orders, reveal thecult to be dangerous, and win the grudging approval of theirsuperiors. Alternately, the Heroes might find themselves ina friendly but intense rivalry with another team of opera-tives. Perhaps the team is somewhat more experienced andresents the success of the Heroes’ team. is could escalateto various low-level pranks and various attempts to show upthe Heroes. However, in good pulp fashion, when a crisiscomes, the two teams should have to work together to suc-ceed and thus come to respect one another.

CIVILIAN HEROES AND ALL CIVILIAN SERIES

In pulp Series, mixing Operatives and Civilians isperfectly reasonable. In this type of Series, it makes sensethat several highly trained OPS operatives or agents of agovernment intelligence agency might be working withfriends or relatives who have far less training, but have afew useful abilities and want to help out. However, mix-ing character types makes no sense in gritty Series, andshould only be done if there’s a very good reason to do

so in a cinematic Series. Nevertheless, there are ways tomake such a cinematic Series work.If a team of operatives is on a remote colony world that

has been cut off from the rest of humanity because thelocations of both previous Gateways are now controlledby fl ying polyps, then having Operatives work with localCivilians for the duration of the crisis only makes sense.

is crisis could easily last for as many as a dozen gamesessions, and at the end of this, if the Civilian or Civilianshave proven themselves to be sufficiently useful, then theymight end up joining the OPS. All you need to do is skipthe next six months of the Civilians’ basic OPS training andmake certain that the Civilians’ players spend some of their

Heroes’ experience points on skills they’d likely be trainedin. en, the Series can pick back up, with the Civilians as

junior members of the OPS field team. If a Director wantsto use both Operatives and Civilians in a cinematic Series,then some justification like this should be present.

e other obvious option for using Civilians is to runan all Civilian Series. Such a Series could consist of any-

thing from a pulp or cinematic Series involving recentlytrained junior OPS operatives ending up out on their ownfighting the mythos, to a series suitable for any style of play,

where the Heroes are ordinary people facing extraordinary

circumstances. Of course, in the latter case, the questionof why the OPS doesn’t deal with the problems comes up.

If the Heroes are civilians on an off -world colony or re-search station, then the answer might be that OPS opera-tives simply aren’t around. In any type of series, the OPScan’t be everywhere, and there are problems to be solved.Various mythos threats are present in both off -world colo-nies and large cosmopolitan cities. However, the exact natureof civilian Series varies depending upon the type of series.

Gritty Civilian Series: e OPS is either corrupt oroverwhelmed. ere are simply too many problems for theOPS to deal with, and so occasionally ordinary people whohave a few unusual abilities must take up the slack. Smalland carefully hidden cults are everywhere, most large cor-porations have illegal deals with the mi-go or other aliens,and criminal gangs regularly use sorcery to murder andintimidate their rivals and victims. Ordinary people mustband together and attempt to deal with these horrors.

Cinematic Civilian Series: In isolated off -world ar-eas, the OPS can take days to arrive, so ordinary peoplemust rely upon themselves. Civilian space travelers couldbe attempting to make their fortune out among the stars,

while also helping out people they encounter. Back onEarth, sometimes people become fascinated by mythosmysteries and start out investigating them, then become

drawn into dangerous events. At this point, they may alsobe in a position to resolve some of these dangers. CivilianHeroes could also learn enough to interest someone im-portant who acts as their mentor. Perhaps someone high-up in the OPS or some national intelligence organization

worries about a possible leak in the organization, and af-ter watching the Heroes solve a few problems, recruitsthem to secretly uncover this leak or solve whatever otherproblem is endangering this person’s organization.

Pulp Civilian Series: In a pulp Civilian Series, theOPS can be played for laughs, as the people who showup after the Heroes have defeated the villains and solvedthe mystery. Perhaps the local OPS operatives are not all

that competent, but enjoy taking the credit for problemssolved by the Civilian Heroes, who succeed because theyare both more clever and far luckier than anyone theyhave encountered in the OPS. Alternately, the Heroeskeep being in the right place at the right time, and even-tually they get a reputation so that people come to themfor help. If someone is being blackmailed by a cult, they



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might not feel safe going to the authorities, but going to abunch of ordinary people with a reputation for handlingmythos problems is a very diff erent matter. Ultimately, ina pulp Series the Heroes succeed while trained profes-

sionals do not because they are the Heroes of the Series.

NON-GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIVES

Series involving independent Heroes need not be restrict-ed to Civilians. Not all Operatives work for the OPS or forgovernment intelligence agencies. e world of EldritchSkies includes freelance sorcerers, powerful independent

psychics, as well as ex-OPS operatives and spies who haveretired, been fired, disgraced, or quit in disgust. Creatingsuch Heroes as Operatives rather than Civilians makessense. ese are all Heroes who may possess psychic pow-

ers, sorcery, and various augmentations, as well as unusu-ally high levels of expertise in a wide variety of fields.

e major diff erence between this type of Series and one where the Heroes work for the OPS or some similar agencyis that the Heroes don’t have superiors giving them assign-ments. Instead, the Heroes are freelance problem solvers. In apulp or cinematic Series, they might be disgraced spies or for-mer OPS operatives who are attempting to clear their namesor to avoid arrest for crimes they didn’t commit, who alsotravel the US or perhaps the world, defeating various threats.

In a gritty Series, the Heroes may have left or been thrownout of the OPS because of massive internal corruption. Nowthey work as freelance monster hunters, attacking cults thathave paid off the OPS, while also attempting to obtain enoughevidence to prove the existence of large-scale corruption.

e Heroes might be freelance space travelers who ex-plore the galaxy by using Gateways and booking passageon dragonfl y drive spacecraft. ey could be psychics-for-hire who stumble into mythos mayhem. ey could also befreelance archeologists, explorers searching for new homesfor humanity, tech researchers who encounter alien life

while making new discoveries, or simply experienced spacetravelers who find various ways to make money and solveproblems along the way. For further ideas, see the conceptsfor Civilian Series above, and assume that the Heroes are

exceptional people who are not part of any organization.REWARDS & DISCOVERIES

e most obvious reward for a successful Eldritch Skies Episode is saving lives and eliminating deadly threats.However, Eldritch Skies is also a game about humanitymaking its place in the universe. Part of accomplishingthis is gaining new knowledge and developing or other-

wise acquiring new technologies. Clever Heroes mightdiscover ancient alien records that scholars and scientistscould translate and use to develop new scientific and tech-nical advances. However, other more immediate rewardsare possible. Heroes who are working on Galatea I may

discover the secrets of the unique psychic powers or spellsfound on that world. Alternately, they could discover somecompletely new spell or a powerful ancient artifact.

Directors should ensure that new spells or devices areeither not too powerful or that the Heroes will eventuallybe ordered to turn them over to OPS superiors for analysis.In any case, if a Director wishes to reward the Heroes with

NEW SPELL EXAMPLE – DEFENSIVE FIELD

Here is an example of one possible spell, modeled on themi-go defensive field augmentation.

HYPERSPATIAL FIELD

Level: Duration: Four hours per Success Level rolledHyperspatial Exposure: for the sorcerer, for anyone

within a few yards of the field. e sorcerer creates a field of hyperspatial energy. e

sorcerer can craft this field into any simple two-dimensionalshape, such as a wall, a box, a sphere or hemisphere or theycan create a field that covers and protects either their ownbody or some other person. When created as a geometricshape, the field is immobile, but if created around the sor-cerer or another person, it moves with the person and doesnot inhibit the person’s movement in any fashion.

When casting this spell, the sorcerer must decide ifthey want to cast it on people or an area and what shapethey wish the hyperspatial field to be. If cast on people,the spell protects one person for every Success Levelrolled. If cast on an area, the sorcerer can either create adome, sphere or box one meter on a side or in diameter

for every Success Level they roll, or they can create a wallup to two yards on a side for every Success Level theyroll. e form of the field is set when the sorcerer caststhe spell, and it cannot be changed without dismissingthe field and recasting the spell.

Regardless of its configuration, this fi eld provides points of armor and a damage capacity of points.

When an attack is made against anyone inside this fieldor against the field itself, points are subtracted fromthe attack, and any additional damage reduces the field’sdamage capacity. When the damage capacity is reducedto , the field instantly collapses. Once the field has col-lapsed, it can only be remade by casting the spell again.



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7some new and unique ability there are several options. Anew sorcery spell would be analyzed by OPS researchersfor a few months, but once its risks and characteristics havebeen determined, OPS sorcerers will be free to learn it. Also,

if one or more of the Heroes has already learned this spell,they will be largely free to use it as long as it passes a safetyreview that requires only a few weeks of testing.

Similarly, if the Heroes don’t just fi nd one uniquealien device, but a cache of a dozen identical devices,then the OPS is likely to allow the team to keep one ofthese devices, as long as it passes a brief safety review andseems useful to the team’s mission. Allowing Heroes tokeep alien artifacts they fi nd, even if these artifacts areduplicates of artifacts turned over to OPS researchers isonly really suitable for cinematic or pulp Series. In grittySeries, all such artifacts instantly become the property ofthe OPS and Heroes won’t see them again until the OPSsucceeds in both duplicating them and proving them tobe safe. Of course, in a gritty Series, most alien artifactsare anything but safe and Heroes may simply conceal ar-tifacts they find from their superiors.

CREATING NEW SPELLS AND DEVICES

Directors are obviously free to create whatever spells oralien artifacts that they feel like. However, the existingrules can provide some useful suggestions for possiblespells or devices. Any of the mi-go hyperspatial augmen-tations could be reworked as a device or spell, as can mostof the inhuman psychic or physical powers. For example,

the Heroes might discover a psychic device that allowsany psychic who touches or wears it to use the illusionpower or a spell that duplicates the monstrous attackpower by creating bolts of hyperspatial energy.

STATIC VS. DYNAMIC EPISODES

When designing an Eldritch Skies Episode or planning foran entire Series, one important question to ask is whether

your vision of the setting is ultimately static or dynamic.In Eldritch Skies , humanity is thriving and beginning toexpand outward into a strange and dangerous universe.In static Episodes, the Heroes face a serious threat to hu-manity. Perhaps cultists are attempting to awaken Cthul-hu or draw another Great Old One to Earth, perhapsmoonbeasts or some other alien threat is preparing toinvade. In this type of Series, the Heroes must defeat thisthreat and restore the previous status quo. Other threats

will undoubtedly arrive later, but the Heroes have savedhumanity from at least one major danger.

In a dynamic Episode, the Heroes attempt to change

the status quo in some important fashion. Perhaps hu-manity fell prey to some danger and suff ered a serioussetback. Perhaps several colonies were overrun by hos-tile or incomprehensible aliens and the Heroes seek to

liberate these colonies. Alternately, perhaps the Heroesare either seeking to make contact with a rumored alienspecies or are attempting to discover some powerful alienartifact that off ers humanity some new opportunity.

e Heroes could uncover ancient records that leadthem to discovering another long-lost human colony orthey might discover a world with abundant natural resourc-es that is well suited for human colonization. e changecould be as big as the Heroes discovering the legendary El-der Weapon , allowing humanity to perhaps duplicate andalter it, to exile all Great Old Ones from Earth or to protectall of humanity’s colonies from hyperspatial invasion – withthe entailed risk of botching it up and setting Cthulhu free.

A mix of static and dynamic Episodes can be goodchoices for an Eldritch Skies Series, but choosing to focusmostly on one or the other also works well. An entireSeries can be built around solving a single major prob-lem that could be either static or dynamic in nature, ora Series could consist of a mixture of static and dynamicEpisodes, as the Heroes both attempt to protect human-ity from internal and external dangers, while also helpingtheir species increase in power, influence, and knowledge.

SETTING

When preparing to run Eldritch Skies , one of the first choic-es is where most of the Series will be set. Series can be seton Earth or in space, and space Series can either entail travelor life on a colony planet. Although it’s certainly possible torun a Series where the Heroes spend large amounts of timeboth on Earth and in space, most Series end up with a par-ticular focus on one or the other of these settings. Deciding

which of these two settings to focus on is not merely a deci-sion about whether you and the players prefer spaceshipsand alien worlds to the cities and wilderness areas of Earth,but also what sorts of plots the group prefers. Each of thesesettings lends itself to specific types of Episodes, and thesediff erences will help to shape a particular Series.

EARTHLY SERIES

Eldritch Skies Series set on Earth are usually Series about in-trigue, espionage, and covert operations. e exact nature ofthese Episodes depends upon the wishes and talents of theDirector and players. Players and Directors who love intrigueand espionage can play long and complicated Episodes were



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the PCs start off with vague hints and allegations or blurryphotographs taken by spy satellites and painstakingly attemptto uncover the truth about violations of the Dangerous Tech-nologies Treaty, including who is responsible and how to stop

them. Such Series can and often should involve questions ofloyalty, as Heroes are sometimes asked to weigh their loyaltyto OPS against national or personal loyalties. Issues of trustand betrayal will be central, both because Heroes will needto go undercover to gain the trust of various individuals, andbecause some of their allies and informants will sometimesbe lying to them and may be actively working against them.

However, this is far from the only sort of Earth-based El-dritch Skies Series. For players and Directors who are more in-terested in direct action than intrigue, Heroes could be part ofan OPS strike team, given a clear and specific mission usinginformation obtained by other teams who specialize in espio-nage and intrigue. is strike team would go in to capture ordestroy dangerous technologies and apprehend those respon-sible for these technologies. is strike teams could also huntdown hyperspatial mutants, fl ying polyps, and other earthlythreats. Instead of spies, the Heroes in this sort of Series arespecial forces soldiers who have clear and direct missions.Betrayal and discovering that a mission is well more thanit seems could complicate some such Episodes, but at leastsome Episodes will be relatively straightforward mixtures ofstealth, reconnaissance, clever tactics, and swift, deadly action.

Alternately, the Heroes might deal with alien beings onEarth as their primary mission. e Heroes would help pre-

vent unauthorized dealings with deep ones or mi-go, while

also keeping track of the activities of ghouls and preventingtribes of ghouls from preying on humans who do not ven-ture into their realm. is Series off ers some of the greatestdiversity in potential Episodes, with the Heroes being calledupon to do everything from tracking down renegade deepones to spying on ghouls and engaging in some mixture ofdiplomacy, espionage, and deception in their attempts todiscover information about local ghoul activities from theghouls’ human servants and allies. Strange friendships couldeven evolve from uneasy coexistence. e Director couldalso choose to involve other alien presences on Earth.

An entire Series could focus on mythos cults. Whilesome of this might also involve dealing with treaty-break-

ing aliens, the focus would be on apprehending the hu-mans who deal with them. Many of the Episodes woulddeal with cults worshipping Great Old Ones and Hasturinfections, and perhaps characters could even learn moreabout the mystery posed by Nyarlathotep.

DREAM REALM EPISODES AND SERIES

Another option for Earthly Episodes involves the Dream

Realm. When gathering information, especially informa-tion about mythos cults, alien incursions, and other suchexotic events, one place to search for information is in theDream Realm. Sorcery, alien minds, and hyperspatial ac-

tivities all leave their mark on this realm. Some Episodesmight involve the Heroes all journeying into the DreamRealm to attempt to contact someone who refused totalk to them while awake, but whose dream-self mightbe more amenable; to look for distortions in the DreamRealm, or to search out the strange and enigmatic schol-ars, sorcerers, and sages who can be found there.

Heroes in the average Earth-based Series will visit theDream Realm infrequently, but it’s also possible to set themajority of a Series there. Since the Dream Realm bothreflects events in the waking world and produces eff ects inthe minds of people in the waking world, studying and ex-ploring the Dream Realm can provide advance warning ofpotential problems, such as the growth of dangerous cultsor hostile alien activity. In addition, the Dream Realm isknown to contain traces of lost knowledge available no-

where else. As a result, a few OPS teams are assigned tomonitor the Dream Realm and uncover traces of usefulknowledge. A Director could design as many as a half adozen Episodes where the Heroes journey to the DreamRealm in order to make contact with the ghouls there andgain access to their vast library located in the caverns at theCrag of the Ghouls. Much of these Episodes would con-sist of performing various services for the ghouls in orderto be given access to this library.

A Series of this type can be particularly challenging, sincehaving the Series consist largely of the Heroes’ shared dreamscan seem fairly abstract. Directors who wish to run a Seriesthat focuses on the Dream Realm should emphasize how theinformation that Heroes gain aff ects the waking world. eeasiest way to accomplish this is to have the Heroes act inboth the Dream Realm and the physical world. Perhaps whilethey are in the Dream Realm, the Heroes uncover evidenceof an alien presence invading Earth, and then use the infor-mation they have gained to uncover the threat in the waking

world. Alternately, perhaps the Heroes learn some magicalsecret in the Dream Realm and use it to create a new magicaleff ect or device in the waking world. Regardless of the exact

details, the Heroes should have a chance to both explore theexotic wonders of the Dream Realm and use the informationthey gain in useful ways while they are awake.

SPACE SERIES

e most obvious diff erence between earthly and spaceSeries is people. In , Earth is a teeming world of



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7almost billion people, while less than million hu-mans live in non-Earthly locations. e Mars coloniesare home to less than half a million people, and even thelargest extrasolar colonies each have less than three mil-

lion inhabitants. Numerous small field stations exist onotherwise uninhabited worlds and moons both insideand outside the solar system, and are home to somewherebetween a few and a few dozen researchers and their as-sistants. As a result, Series set in space involve dealing atleast as much with the environment, aliens, alien relics,and exotic ruins as with other humans.

CULTS AND OTHER HUMAN DANGERS

On colony worlds, strangers are worthy of notice, andit’s harder to blend into a crowd or to hide among teem-ing masses of people. Except in the most populous colony

worlds, hidden mythos cults are impossible. Instead, these

groups only exist if they have taken over an entire settle-ment. Even then, the cult must take various drastic mea-sures to prevent others learning of their existence. On al-most off -Earth settlements, the inhabitants realize that theyhave only each other to depend upon, and so isolation andexcessive secrecy are both regarded as inherently dangerous.

Here, mythos cults, misguided scientists or magicians,or greedy and unscrupulous individuals who are willing tomake deals with hyperspatial entities usually do so withthe knowledge and support of their entire community. OnEarth, Heroes might face a secretive and often half-madinventor. In space, this same inventor would have beenstopped shortly after they started, unless they managedto either convince or coerce the other members of theirresearch station or settlement to cooperate with them.

When OPS operatives investigate possible problems onoff -world colonies, they often encounter an entire com-munity working together to preserve their secrecy and

who may well help each other capture or kill those whoattempt to stop them. e inhabitants of this settlementmay also be well be in the process to becoming mentally oreven physically non-human due to hyperspatial exposure.

EXPLORATION

One of the primary advantages to a space-based Series isthat it off ers an unlimited number of Episodes involvingthe exploration of the unknown. Regardless of whetherthe Heroes are stepping through a gate or traveling in adragonfl y drive ship, when they venture to an unknown

world they could find literally anything there. Telescopesand automated probes can provide a moderate amountof information, but neither provides anything like the

wealth of information that can be gained by explorers

actually visiting the world. Any such journey could endin encountering a new alien species or perhaps a previ-ously undiscovered set of alien ruins. Alternately, theHeroes could encounter a world that was transformed

into a lifeless husk by hyperspatial invaders or, if they areexceptionally unlucky, a living world that is in the processof being destroyed by such an invasion.

Exploration Episodes off er Heroes the chance to dis-cover alien ruins and strange alien technologies, struggle

with alien environments and alien animals, and possiblyencounter alien intelligences. e heart of all of thesetypes of Episodes is mystery. On Earth, not only do mostpeople understand the basics of how the world works,but in the world of Eldritch Skies , anyone can point thecamera of their link at something and receive at leastsome information about it via an augmented reality data-base. In contrast, being the first visitors on an alien worldmeans that the Heroes literally know nothing about the

world. Something that looks like an elegant fern could bea mobile predatory beast, a strange piece of technology,or even a highly intelligent alien.

In Eldritch Skies , human science reveals only a smallsubset of a far greater range of physical laws. Alien sci-ence can be used to create technologies that seem com-pletely impossible to humanity. As a result, any newlydiscovered alien device that the Heroes encounter couldpotentially do almost anything. Anti-gravity, disintegra-tor beams, or a device that causes stone or metal to tem-porarily become as soft as wet clay are all possible.

FIRST CONTACT A subset of exploration Episodes are fi rst contact Epi-sodes. Although meeting new intelligent aliens is a farless common event than encountering the ruins of a van-ished alien civilization, it occasionally occurs. e firstquestion to answer is what sort of alien species it is. Is itin stasis, is it some sort of terrible partially transcendedspecies like the fl ying polyps, or is it a species that hasnot yet had to face the prospect of either transcendenceor extinction? Encountering aliens with more primitivetechnologies off ers the Heroes the rare possibility of be-ing in a position of considerably power when dealing

with aliens. Rather than dealing with monstrous hyper-spatial intelligences or the eff ectively immortal represen-tatives of a civilization older than all vertebrate life, theHeroes may encounter a civilization in the throes of itsown industrial revolution, or even one that is still in itsequivalent of the Bronze Age.

However, one of the truths of Eldritch Skies is thataliens are by definition alien. ere are no humanoid



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aliens; they are all exotic beings with strange senses, andeven the least exotic have difficulty understanding hu-manity on anything but a purely intellectual level. He-roes can discuss projects of mutual benefit with aliens,

they can trade with them, but friendships and any sort ofemotional connection will be exceptionally rare.

ENCOUNTERING HUMANS

Although aliens are always exotic creatures, Heroes mayalso encounter humans in space. Like the inhabitants ofGalatea I, during the past , years, small groups ofhumans have occasionally gone to the stars. Most havesince died out, perhaps leaving fascinating ruins behind.However, others remain.

Some of these humans traveled to the stars there us-ing their own sorcery, but most were taken off world byaliens. Aliens have abducted humans to serve as experi-

mental subjects, servants, or simply to dwell in some sortof exotic zoo. Over the thousands or tens of thousands of

years since these humans were taken to the alien world,their alien masters may have become extinct, abandonedthem and the world they are on, or simply tired of what-ever experiment they were running and let the humans go.

e possibilities of encountering groups of humans who are technologically well in advance of humanity, or who have rendered themselves significantly inhuman ina manner far more subtle than either ghouls or deep onesare especially disturbing and potentially dangerous. eOPS is particularly careful when dealing with any chanceof encountering alien worlds inhabited by humans. Al-ternately, the Heroes might encounter a world inhabitedby humans who regard steam trains and steamships asthe pinnacle of technological achievement.

SINGLE PLANET SERIES

While space is vast, so are single planets. ere is more thanenough mystery, wonder, danger, and adventure on any colo-ny planet to keep a group of Heroes busy for an entire Series.Heroes could be civilian colonists on a recently discovered

world, anthropologists or OPS researchers secretly studyingthe inhabitants of Galatea I, or researchers or explorers look-ing into various mysteries on a newly discovered world. Some

OPS personnel are permanently stationed on some of thelarger colonies like Eridanos, where they act as a combinationof emergency service personnel and on-site investigators ofany mysteries that might be discovered. None of the worldsthat humanity has visited or colonized has been fully exploredand so there are vast opportunities for Heroes to uncover

valuable secrets or terrible threats that no one has imagined.

OTHER OPTIONS

For an unusual and action-filled Series, the Heroes might work as search and rescue personnel who rescue people from

disasters in space or on various colony worlds. When a callfor help comes in, the Heroes fl y a spaceship or, if time is ofthe essence, open a hyperspatial gateway, rescue any survivors,and determine what caused the threat. In such a Series, char-acters could encounter dangerous alien predators, moonbeastraiders, hungry fl ying polyps, meteors, stellar flares, or strangeand terrible hyperspatial disturbances. It is even possible torun such a campaign so that it is exciting and dangerous, but

where no character ever uses a weapon to harm another entity.

TALES OF TIME TRAVEL

Hyperspatial sorcery provides both humans and aliens withthe ability to see into the past or the future, and various alientechnologies allow beings to either psychically or physicallytravel through time. After learning about time travel fromthe Yithians, the OPS developed strict rules governing timetravel. Time travel to the future is permitted only by highlytrusted agents and is only for the purposes of observationand acquiring knowledge. Also, while the OPS uses hy-perspatial scrying to look into the past, travel to the past isstrictly forbidden, except in pursuit of other time travelers.However, even with these limitations, an ambitious Directorcould run an entire Series based on time travel. e Heroesmight be observers sent to study various future eras. Natu-rally, surviving and avoiding capture and discovery can be

difficult, much less acquiring useful knowledge for the OPS.For an even more ambitious Episode or even an en-tire Series, the Hero may travel into the past in pursuit ofcriminals, fanatics, or cultists determined to change the past.

e journey into the past could be a single Episode, or theHeroes could become embroiled in an extended stay in thepast. An exceedingly ambitious Director could even runan all out time-war, where the Heroes stop one attempt tochange the past, only to return to their present to find itdrastically changed by another temporal manipulation. eHeroes must then venture back in time to attempt to undothe second change and restore history to its correct course,

while their enemies attempt to make yet more changes.

An entire Series could be built around Heroes whohave just returned from the past surviving in a drasticallychanged present day, discovering the source of the change,and then going back in time to attempt to undo or pre-

vent this change. Information on running a Series involv-ing extensive time travel is beyond the scope of this bookand time travel is widely considered to be one of the most



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7ambitious and difficult types of Series to run in any game.

However, there are a few hints that can make this sortof Series more manageable. e first is simply to limitthe amount of time travel going on. If the Heroes are go-

ing back in time and changing the past or attempting toundo changes to the past every session, the Series is likelyto rapidly spiral out of control and the present day is almostcertain to become increasingly strange. Instead, time travelshould be a relatively infrequent event and as OPS opera-tives, the Heroes should all understand that travel into thepast is a risky endeavor and while changing the past is dif-ficult; doing so can have a multitude of unforeseen conse-quences. As a result, careful research and detailed planningare required to insure that any eff ort to repair damage tothe past is successful. Meanwhile, the Director should docu-ment timelines and changes carefully.

If the Heroes return from the past to a changed present,they will need to learn how and why the various changes intime occurred. ey might spend one entire Episode learn-ing about the new present and how they can survive andadapt to it, and another Episode discovering what changes

were made in the past to result in the changed present. enext few Episodes could cover their attempts to learn aboutthe individuals who changed the past, and who may nowalso be back in the changed present. At that point, the He-roes can gather equipment and make plans for their journeyinto the past. Once in the past, amidst the work of survival,the Heroes will need to learn what details of the changedevents were not recorded in the history books they read and

how they need to adapt their plan. Only then, at least four orfi ve full Episodes after the start of the Series, the Heroes areat last ready to make their first try at preventing or undoingthe change to the past that altered their present.

STORY SEEDS

Below are a series of short ideas that can each be expandedinto the basis for several Eldritch Skies Episodes, and whichcould perhaps form the start and the core of an entire Se-ries. Directors will need to flesh out and personalize theseideas for their own Series, but if you aren’t certain what todo for an Episode, hopefully these ideas will help.

ANCIENT ALIEN RUINS

is idea works on any of the off -world colonies which were previously home to alien civilizations – Mars, Eri-danos, or Wei-Ming, as well as on a more recently dis-covered world where the only inhabitants work on a re-search or mining station. Regardless of the location, an

PLOTS AND FREE WILL

Games aren’t scripted, and the Heroes will act in unex-pected ways – that’s inevitable. So what happens whencharacters suddenly decide to go home and rest, skippingthe nasty ambush that was going to catch up with themat the abandoned warehouse? Or the Heroes follow thered herring and ignore the clues that lead to real culprit?

e Director can choose to let the chips fall where theymay—the ambush never happens, or half the city burnsdown while the Heroes follow a false lead—or can ad-

just things accordingly. For example, if the ambush isa vital part of the storyline, just relocate it to whereverthe Heroes end up. Have the false lead actually containsome clue that points them in the right direction. If theDirector does that too much of the time, though, theplayers will come to realize that no matter what theircharacters do, it turns out to be right thing.

Sometimes, mistakes should have consequences.Maybe the world doesn’t end, but someone gets hurt orkilled if the characters screw up – the extent of the back-lash depends on the Series type. Don’t just “punish” the

characters for not following the script. Allow the playersto add their own twists. e key is to set up expectationsand fulfill them consistently. Consequences for mistakesshould fit within the frame of reference – a pulp Seriesshouldn’t kill a character’s family on a missed clue, and agritty Series shouldn’t constantly hand over plot resolu-tions. e players should know what they’re getting into.

Try to be flexible with plots and subplots. Too muchpredestination prevents players from having fun. Butdon’t let the characters get away with totally wrong-headed decisions either. Sounds hard to do? Yes, andsometimes a Director’s best attempt at fairness will notsit well with the players. It can be difficult to find a good

balance. It does get better with practice. And when youpull it off , you really pull it off : an Episode well done canbe a fantastic creative and social experience.



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archeologist (who could be an amateur or a professional)discovers a large cache of alien artifacts, including someinteresting technological devices. However, one of thereason that this cache of artifacts survived is that it was

hidden by alien cultists who were concealing their activi-ties from the rest of their society. is collection of arti-facts includes a device that duplicates the eff ects of theSending spell, which causes anyone who falls asleep nearthe device to enter into contact with a rogue Cthulhoidthat was intent on conquering the aliens’ world.

e aliens destroyed themselves before the cult couldaccomplish anything major, but the artifacts remains andthe human archeologist who found these artifacts acciden-tally got into contact with the Cthulhoid and is now itsthrall. e archeologist has organized a team of people tostudy these finds, but this group is actually a mythos cult.

e archeologist convinced the other members to takehome some of the artifacts to study, and suggested thatat least one of these artifacts could be a psychic device de-signed to enhance dreams. Eventually, all members of thearcheologist’s team either quit or became cultists. Mean-

while, the Cthulhoid has been teaching the archeologistsorcery, and the archeologist has kidnapped someone elsein the colony and is preparing to sacrifice this person inorder to summon the Cthulhoid from hyperspace.

ere are reports of someone in the colony havinggone missing. One of the previous members of the arche-ological research team contacted the Heroes (who couldbe either a visiting OPS field team or other colony resi-

dents) because he believes that there may be somethingstrange going on with the research team. e formermember suspects some sort of illegal activity like artifactsmuggling, rather than the existence of a mythos cult.

ATTACKED!Minutes after the Heroes arrive on a planet to check on aresearch station housing several hundred people; their drag-onfl y drive ship is attacked by moonbeast raiders in theirown small ship as the Heroes ship is landing. e raid-ing ship followed the Heroes’ ship to this planet and themoonbeasts are intent on stealing technology and capturingslaves. e Heroes can land their ship, but it is badly dam-

aged. e Heroes’ ship requires at least a full day to repair,and the raiding vessel will land just over an hour after theHeroes do. e Heroes need to save the researchers anddrive off the moonbeasts. e planet is a habitable world,but the research base is in a clearing in a dense jungle, filled

with hungry creatures. e Heroes must help the research-ers survive both the moonbeasts and the local life forms.

THE HIDDEN THREAT

is adventure can be run on any large city on Earth. After the accidental interruption of one of their spells,

a freelance sorcerer has become a hyperspatial mutant –use the brilliant hyperspatial mutant write-up or create

your own mutant. Now, the sorcerer is extremely intel-ligent, completely insane by human standards, and inter-ested in controlling the city it lives in. Using a mixtureof Compulsion spells and inhuman psychic abilities likePossession, Hypnotic Command, and Illusion, the mu-tant is controlling, possessing, and impersonating various

wealthy and powerful people in the city. e mutant isboth brilliant and patient, and by the time there is anyhint that something is up, it has access to informationfrom all branches of the city’s government. As a result, itis aware of any major actions taken by the local govern-ment, including any investigations into its activities.

e mutant is also preparing for its first major eff ort.It has become fascinated with the Hastur infection, andbelieves that because there is some sort of psychic con-nection between individuals who are infected together, itcould use its psychic powers to control a group of aff ectedpeople simply by controlling a small number of them. emutant plans to infect the city’s entire police force, andif that works, to then infect the entire city government.In both cases, the plan is two-fold. First, it creates a drugthat duplicates the eff ects of the Hyperspatial Mutationspell. is drug produces a Level Hyperspatial Expo-

sure in everyone who consumes it once, and increases theexposure to Level on a second later ingestion. e mutant plans to drug each of the police stations

twice, by placing a supply of the drug in the coff ee ma-chines and water coolers on two separate days. Afterwards,most of the police should be at Hyperspatial Exposure lev-el , and thus be susceptible to a source of the Hastur in-fection, which the mutant supplies as a series of videos thatrun as viruses on the computers and mobiles of the police.It will unleash these videos immediately after most of thepolice in the city attain Hyperspatial Exposure Level .

So far, it has managed to deliver two doses of the drugto several police stations. Several days ago, most of the po-

lice officers at these stations reached Hyperspatial Expo-sure Level . e OPS (or perhaps some interested privatecitizens) have received reports of odd behavior by the po-lice in one precinct, and begins their investigation there.Meanwhile, the mutant readies the next stages of its plan.



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7TECH SMUGGLING

In any large city on Earth, the CEO of a large aero-space corporation that also manufactures cutting edge

weapons has made a secret deal with renegade mi-go fora shipment of hyperspatial weapons. e company hasbeen having fi nancial troubles, and the CEO decidedthat having mi-go weapons to reverse-engineer wouldhelp make the company profitable again. e CEO’s goalis to have her researchers learn to duplicate and under-stand these alien weapons well enough to make it looklike they came up with the idea for the weapons, enablingthe CEO’s deal with the mi-go to remain secret.

Unfortunately, the CEO lacked her own contacts withrenegade mi-go and used a large Russian criminal gangto facilitate the deal. In return for help making the deal,the gang arranged for the CEO to pay for a large ship-ment of hyperspatial weapons and augmentations. eCEO kept some of the weapons, while most of them andall of the augmentations went to the criminal gang. Now,the OPS or interested private citizens have learned thatthere have been an unusual number of crimes committedby hyperspatially augmented criminals, and is attempt-ing to determine where these illegal augmentations camefrom. e CEO learns of this investigation and fears thatthe Russian criminal gang will sell her out. She then hiresa pair of freelance assassins to kill the two lieutenants ofthe Russian gang who worked with her on this deal. Now,one of the lieutenants is dead and the other suspects the

reason for the attack. e Heroes must find answers be-fore those in the know are killed, and before the entiresituation becomes exceptionally violent and the survivinglieutenant begins planning to plant a large bomb in thecorporation’s headquarters.



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CHARACTER CREATION BASICS

e following tables and charts may be used to aid in thecharacter creation process. Further information is pro-

vided on the pages cited.

CREATION PROCESS

. Choose a concept: What’s your character going tobe like? Free-lance sorcerer, professional psychic,OPS undercover operative, interstellar explorer, or

whatever.. Choose Character Types: e Character Type de-

termines the general power level and nature of yourcharacter. Operatives are tough and skilled profes-sionals. Civilians are normal people who depend ontheir wits and luck to survive. Type sets the number

of Drama Points ( for Operatives, for Civil-ians). See p. .

. Attributes: What are your character’s natural abili-ties, both mental and physical? Attributes cost onepoint per level, to level fi ve, and three points per levelafter that. At least one point must be put into each

Attribute. Human maximum is six. See p. . . Qualities and Drawbacks: What innate advantages

or penalties aff ect your character? A handy list ofQualities and Drawbacks is on p. ; the details starton p. .

. Skills: What does your character know? e pos-sible skills are listed on the character sheet; the de-

tails start on p. .. Finishing Touches: is is where you decide the

character’s name, appearance and other characteris-tics. Distinctive habits or mannerisms, homeworld,hairstyle, scars, tattoos, music/video tastes.

CHARACTER TYPE CHART

Operative Attribute Points:

Quality Points: Drawback Points: up to Skill Points: Drama Points:

Civilian Attribute Points: Quality Points: Drawback Points: up to Skill Points: Drama Points:

Veteran Attribute Points: Quality Points: Drawback Points: up to Skill Points: Drama Points:

STRENGTH TABLE

e Strength Table shows how much a character ofany given Strength can lift without much eff ort. High-er weights can be raised (assume a maximum lifting

weight—for brief periods—equal to double the LiftingCapacity), but the character might injure themselves inthe process.

LIFE POINT TABLE

Life Points are determined by adding the character’sStrength and Constitution, multiplying the result byfour, and adding . For the math shy, we’ve done thecalculations.

STRENGTH TABLE

S L C

- kg x Strength (Strength : kg)

- kg x (Strength - ) + kg (Strength : kg)

- x (Strength - ) + kg (Strength : , kg/ tons)

- kg x (Strength - ) + , kg (Strength : , kg/ tons)





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QUALITIES AND DRAWBACKS TABLE

Acute/Impaired Senses -point Quality or Drawback p.

Addiction Variable Drawback p.

Amnesia -point Drawback p.

Astronaut -point Quality p.

Athlete -point Quality p.

Attractiveness -point/level Quality or Drawback p.

Clown -point Drawback p.

Contacts Variable Quality p.

Covetous – to -point Drawback p. Criminal/Insider – or -point Quality p.

Danger Sense -point Quality p.

Dependent – or -point Drawback p.

Eidetic Memory – or -point Quality p.

Emotional Problems Variable Drawback p.

Fast Reaction Time -point Quality p.

Genius -point Quality p.

Good/Bad Luck -point/level Quality or Drawback p.

Hard to Kill – to -point Quality p.

Honorable – to -point Drawback p.

Humorless -point Drawback p.

Iron Mind -point Quality p.

Law Enforcement – or -point Quality p.

Love – or -point Drawback p.

Mental Problems – to -point Drawback p.

LIFE POINT TABLE

STRENGTH CONSTITUION



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Minority -point Drawback p.

Natural Toughness -point Quality p.

Nerves of Steel -point Quality p.

Obligation Variable Drawback p. Occult Investigator -point Quality p.

Outcast/Misfit – or -point Drawback p.

Physical Disability Variable Drawback p.

Poker Fact or -point Quality p.

Rank -point/level Quality or Drawback p.

Reckless -point Drawback p.

Recurring Nightmares -point Drawback p.

Resistance -point per level Quality p.

Resources -points/level Quality or Drawback p.

Secret Variable Drawback p.

Situational Awareness -point Quality p.

Sleep Patterns -point Quality or Drawback p.

Soldier/Special Forces – or -point Quality p.

Special Training -point Quality p.

Spy -point Quality p.

Talentless -point Drawback p.

AB-HUMAN PSYCHIC & SORCERY QUALITIES & POWERS TABLE

AB-HUMAN QUALITIES

Deep One Hybrid -point Quality p.

Half-Breed Ghoul -point Quality p.

PSYCHIC POWERS

Psychic Sensitivity -point Power p.

Clairvoyance -point Power p.

Emotional Influence -point Power p.

Insight -point Power p.

Mind Probe -point Power p.

Psychic Link -point Power p.

Psychic Visions -point Power p.

Psychometry -point Power p. Undetectability -point Power p.

SORCERY QUALITIES AND POWERS

Hyperspatial Device Variable Quality p.

Sorcery -points/level Power p.

Spells Variable Quality p.



26

AUGMENTATION QUALITIES TABLE

LEGAL AUGMENTATIONS

Biofilter -point Augmentation p.

Enhanced Time Sense -point Augmentation p.

Improved Senses

Echolocation/Sonar or -point Augmentation p.

Electrical Sense -point Augmentation p.

Enhanced Sense -point Augmentation p.

Infrared Vision -point Augmentation p.

Low-Light Vision -point Augmentation p.

Spectrum Vision -point Augmentation p.

Oxygen Reserve -point Augmentation p.

Pressure Tolerance -point Augmentation p.

Rapid Healing -point Augmentation p. Temperature Tolerance -point Augmentation p.

RESTRICTED AUGMENTATIONS

Amphibious -point Augmentation p.

Boost Gland -point Augmentation p.

Commando Upgrade -point Augmentation p.

Electrical Attack -point Augmentation p.

Enhanced Attributes or -point Augmentation p.

Natural Armor Variable Augmentation p.

Natural Weaponry Variable Augmentation p.

Regeneration -point Augmentation p.

Walk Walking -point Augmentation p.

H YPERSPATIAL AUGMENTATIONS

Attack Field or -point Augmentation p.

Defense Field -point Augmentation p.

Hyperspatial Flight -point Augmentation p.

Hyperspatial Manipulators -points/level Augmentation p.



262

COMBAT MANEUVERS REFERENCE TABLE (SEE CHAPTER 3)NAME ROLL BASICS DAMAGE NOTES

Aiming Perception + Guns, or Perception

+ Archaic Weapons, or BrainsScore

None Adds Success Levels to shoot-

ing roll see p.

Bow Shot Dexterity + Archaic Weapons – ,

or Combat Score – ( x Strength) Slash/stab

(to maximum of )Ranged attack modifiers,

see p.

Brain ShotCombat Maneuver – or

Combat Score – Varies by attack

Double Bash damage, tripleSlash/stab damage, quadruple

bullet damage see p.

Break Neck Strength + Brawling, or Muscle

Score ( x Strength) Bash

If defender at – Life Points,Survival Test or neck broken

(dead), see p.

Catch Weapon Dexterity + Brawling – , or

Combat Score – None

Ranged defense actionsee p.

Choke Strength + Brawling, or Muscle

Score (Strength – ) Bash Asphyxiation see p.

Crossbow Shot

Dexterity + Archaic Weapons, or

Combat Score

Slash/stab Ranged attack modifiers apply,

see p.

Decapitation Dexterity + Archaic Weapons – ,

or Combat Score – Varies by weapon

Total damage multiplied by fi vesee p.

Disarm Dexterity + Archaic Weapons – ,

or Dexterity + Brawling – , orCombat Score –

None Resisted by Parry see p.

Dodge Dexterity + Acrobatics, or Dexter-ity + Archaic Weapons, or Dexter-ity + Brawling, or Combat Score

None see p.

FeintIntelligence + Brawling, or Intel-

ligence + Archaic Weapons, orBrains Score

Adds Success Levels tonext action

see p.

Grapple Dexterity + Brawling + , or

Combat Score + None Impairment varies, see p.

Groin Shot Combat Maneuver – Varies by attack see p.

Gunshot Dexterity + Guns, or Combat

Score Varies by weapon

Ranged attack modifiers apply,see p.

Head Butt Dexterity + Brawling – , or

Combat Score – ( x Strength) Bash

If target grappled, she cannotdefend see if attack misses, at-

tacker takes damage p.

Jump Kick Dexterity + Brawling – , or

Combat Score – x (Strength + ) Bash

Acrobatics + Dexterity roll firstand add Success Levels to dam-

age see p.

Kick Dexterity + Brawling – , or Com-

bat Score – x (Strength + ) Bash

see p.

Knockout Dexterity + Brawling – , or

Dexterity + Archaic Weapons – ,or Combat Score –

Half damage of attack see p.

Melee Weapon Dexterity + Archaic Weapons, orCombat Score

Varies by weapon see p.

Parry Dexterity + Brawling, or Dexter-

ity + Archaic Weapons, or CombatScore

NoneDefense action, – against

ranged attacks see p.

Punch Dexterity + Brawling, or Combat

Score x Strength Bash see p.



26

BASE MODIFIERS TABLE

Easy: + Moderate: + to +

Average:+ to +Challenging: No modifierDifficult: – to –

Very Difficult: – to – Heroic: – to – Insanely Difficult: – or worse

COMBAT ROLL MODIFIERS

Full Defense: + to all defense actions; no attack actionsFull Off ense: + to all attack actions; no defense actionsKnocked Down: – to all defense actions; no attack actionsMultiple Actions: – per action, cumulative; extra ac-tions limited by Dexterity Multiple Opponents:+ per additional person; maximum +Short Range: no modifierMedium Range: – Long Range: –

Slam-Tackle Strength + Sports, or Muscle

Score x Strength Bash

Football or other roughhousingtackle see p.

Spin Kick

Dexterity + Brawling – , or

Combat Score – x (Strength + ) Bash see p.

Sweep Kick Dexterity + Brawling – , or Com-

bat Score – Strength Bash Knocks target down, see p.

Takedown Strength + Brawling, or Muscle

Score Strength Bash Knocks target down, see p.

Target LimbCombat Maneuver – or Combat

Score – Normal damage for combat

maneuver.

Damage over the target’smaximum life points cripples or

severs the limb see p.

row Weapon Dexterity + Archaic Weapons – ,


Range yards plus yards/Strength , see p.

Toss Strength doubled – , or Muscle

Score – Strength Bash

Must Grapple first, minimumStrength , see p.

Wall Flip

Dexterity + Acrobatic – , Dexter-

ity + Brawling – , or CombatScore –

None

Scoring at least on successprovides + to Defense against

all attacks. Behind attacker andautomatic initiative next turn

see p.

Wall Smash Strength + Acrobatics Strength x Bash see p.

Whirling Sword Dexterity + Archaic Weapons –


Aff ects all targets in range, butthe character also suff ers – totheir defense during the turn

see p.

Wrestling Hold Strength + Brawling – , or

Muscle Score – None

Must Grapple first, defender isat – per Success Level,

see p.



264

BASE DAMAGE TABLES

Optional Combat Note About Rolled Weapon Damage: If the Director and Players want weapon damage to be more variable, they can use the rolleddamage listed in the brackets "[ ]" rather than the fi xed damage listed first. is option is especially useful for gritty campaigns that do not use DramaPoints, but can potentially be used in any type of campaign.

WEAPON DAMAGE (SEE CHAPTER 3)

ATTACK BASE DAMAGE NOTES

Assault Rifle [D x ] Bullet; can fire bursts; see p. Axe x Strength [(D+) x Str] Slash/stab; can use two hands; see p.

Axe (thrown) x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab; see p. Baseball Bat (or any heavy blunt weapon) x Strength [D x Str] Bash; can use two hands; see p.

Baton (or any small blunt weapon) x Strength [D x Str] Bash; see p. Big Assault Rifle [D x ] Bullet; can fire bursts; see p.

Bow x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab; maximum damage ; see p. Break Neck x Strength [D x Str] Bash; must Grapple; see p.

Choke/Strangle x (Strength – ) Victim cannot breathe; see p. Crossbow [D x ] Slash/stab; see p.

Crossbow Pistol [D x ] Slash/stab; see p.

Electric Cannon [D+] or [D x ] Knockout eff ect; see p. Hand Taser [D+] Knockout eff ect; see p.

Head Butt x Strength [D x Str] Bash; see p.

Hyperspatial Disruptor Instantly Fatal or [(D+) x ] Fire; see p.

Jump Kick x (Strength + ) [D x Str +]Bash; add Success Levels of Dexterity + Acrobatics roll to damage; see p.

Kick x (Strength + ) [D x (Str+)] Bash; see p. Knife x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab; see p.

Knife (small) x (Strength – ) [D x (Str-)] Slash/stab; see p. Knife (large) x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab; see p.

Knife (thrown) x (Strength – ) [D x (Str-)] Slash/stab; see p. Knife (large, thrown) x (Strength – ) [D x (Str-)] Slash/stab; see p.

Pistol (small) [D x ] Bullet; see p. Pistol (standard) [D x ] Bullet; see p.

Pistol (large) [D x ] Bullet; see p. Pistol (huge) [D x ] Bullet; see p.

Punch x Strength [D x Str] Bash; see p. Quarterstaff x (Strength + ) [D x (Str +)] Bash; uses two hands; see p.

Rifle (hunting) [D x ] Bullet; see p. Shotgun ( gauge) (D x) Bullet; see p. Shotgun ( gauge) (D x) Bullet; see p.

Slam-Tackle x Strength [D x Str] Bash; knocks target down; see p. Sniper Rifle (D x) Bullet; + to hit if braced; see p.

Spear x (Strength + ) [D x (Str+)] Slash/stab; uses two hands; see p. Spear (thrown) x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab; see p.

Spin Kick x (Strength + ) Bash; see p. Submachine Gun [D x ] Bullet; can fire bursts, see p.

Sweep Kick x Strength Bash; knocks target down; see p.

Sword x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab; see p.

Sword (large) x (Strength + )

[D x (Str+)]Slash/stab; see p.

Takedown x Strength Bash; knocks target down; see p. Toss x Strength Bash; knocks target down; see p.

Tranquilizer Gun Puts target to sleep; see p. Wall Smash x Strength [D x Str] Bash; see p. Zapper Pistol [D+] or [D x] Bash + Knockout eff ect or Bash, see p. Zapper Rifle [D+] or [D x] Bash + Knockout eff ect or Bash, see p.



26

HEAVY WEAPONS (SEE CHAPTER 3)

ATTACK BASE DAMAGE NOTES

Anti-Aircraft Missile [D x ] blast of

[D x ]Divide armor by see p.

Anti-Tank Rocket [D x ] blast of

[D x ]Divide armor by see p.

Satchel Charge

[D x ] blast of

[D x ] see p.

ALIEN ATTACK DAMAGE (SEE CHAPTER 6)ATTACK BASE DAMAGE NOTES

Extreme Natural Weaponry x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab see p. Monstrous Attack (minor) [D x ] Fire see p. Monstrous Attack (major) [D x ] Fire see p. Monstrous Attack (deadly) [D x ] Fire see p.

Elder One Disintegrator Rod [(D+) x ] Energy see p. Serpent Person Dart Gun Dart carries poison see p.

Yaddithi Laser (D x) Bullet see p.

AUGMENTATION DAMAGE (SEE CHAPTER 2)ATTACK BASE DAMAGE NOTES

Electrical Attack [D x ] or [D+] Bash or Bash + Knockout eff ect see p.

Small Claws x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab see p. Large Claws x Strength [D x Str] Slash/stab see p. -point Attack Field [D x ] Bash see p. -point Attack Field [D x ] Bash see p.

ARMOR TABLE (SEE CHAPTER 3)

ARMOR T YPE ARMOR VALUE NOTES COST

Leather Jacket Typical biker jacket -

Bulletproof Vest () Bulky, use second value for Slash/stab attacks -Covert Armor or Chameleon

Covert Armor ()

Looks like a blazer, motorcycle leathers, or a trenchcoat; use second value for Slash/stab attacks

/+

Combat Armor or ChameleonCombat Armor

Worn by soldiers in combat and SWAT teams+/+

(Restricted)

Space Suit Bullet or Slash/stab damage in excess of this armor

causes the suit to leak +

Armored Space Suit Bulky, this suit can repair up to point leaks, but morethan points of Bullet or Slash/stab damage causes

the suit to leak +

Notes: Chameleon armor changes color to roughly match the background. It provides a + bonus to all stealth rolls. However, it does not makethe wearer invisible or allow them to hide in plain sight. See chameleon jumpsuit for details on how it works.



266

UNISYSTEM CONVERSION NOTES

e Unisystem is the heart of several diff erent games with varying backgrounds and settings, but all focused in the hor-ror genre. For those who are interested, check out CJ Carel-la’s WitchCraft , a roleplaying game of magic and dark secretsor All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a roleplaying game of zombiesurvival horror. Other Unisystem games and supplementsare also available—lots of information can be found athttp://edenstudios.net/unisystem/. All these games can bepurchased at the store you picked up this sparkling tome.

If you already play one of our other Unisystem games, you may have noticed a few diff erences between those versions and the current one. It’s the same basic systemthough. So, for people who want to combine Eldritch

Skies with the shadowy world of WitchCraft or the splat-terpunk horror of All Flesh Must Be Eaten (or vice versa),here’re a few guidelines to do so.

THE EASY METHOD

is one requires little or no eff ort: just take charactersheets and start rolling dice. For the most part, you can

use an Eldritch Skies character in any other Unisystemgame. e Attributes are the same. e skills are diff er-ent, but their values are the same. You have to decide

whether you’ll use the flat damage system or the dice-based system, but that’s it. A more detailed conversionprocess is described below.

CHARACTERS

We simplified character creation in the Eldritch SkiesRPG , both to make things easier for new players. Hereare the diff erences between the two versions.

ATTRIBUTES

e Primary Attributes are the same, but we removedtwo Secondary Attributes. In addition to Life Points andSpeed, other games have Endurance Points (they repre-sent the character’s stamina, and how soon she will needto take a break or pass out) and Essence Points (the char-acter’s inner energy, the strength of her soul, so to speak,used mainly for magic). All these values can be calculatedusing the Eldritch Skies Attributes for other Unisystemgames, or dropped for the Eldritch Skies RPG .

QUALITIES



26

Other than a few minor changes, Qualities work aboutthe same in both versions. Other games have many moreQualities, some of which are less useful in an EldritchSkies game, but that’s the major diff erence. Some of the

Qualities from the All Flesh Must Be Eaten RPG SF sup-plement All Tomorrow’s Zombies may be especially useful.

SKILLS

ere are skills in Eldritch Skies , and dozens and doz-ens of assorted skills and skill types in other Unisystemgames. Instead of Guns, there are skills for each type ofgun (like Pistol and Rifle), for example. If you want totake a character from the Eldritch Skies RPG and “con-

vert” it to a more complex Unisystem version, revieweach of the skills, and give the character two pointsper level up to level (and fi ve points per level after that),and use those points to “buy” regular Unisystem skillsthat fall within the Eldritch Skies RPG skill’s purview. enew skills should be no more than one level higher thanthe Eldritch Skies RPG skill.

Example: e OPS Strike Team Commando has points in the Guns skill. To convert this character to oth-er Unisystem games, use points and buy assorted GunsSkills. e maximum level in any one Guns Skill wouldbe . e more varied skill set is more realistic (peopleshouldn’t excel at everything), but the tradeoff is time andmore stuff to keep track of.

COMBAT MANEUVERS

e Maneuvers ( Eldritch Skies RPG ) or Moves ( MysteryCodex ) diff er between the systems. e Director shouldpick the list she likes best for her game.

RULES

e basic mechanic works the same—roll a D, add theappropriate Attributes and skills and so on. A few detailsare diff erent, however.

FEAR TESTS

Fear Tests are a bit more complex in other Unisystemgames. e sub-systems can be interchanged though, soDirectors should choose which one to use.

DAMAGE

In the Eldritch Skies RPG , base damage is a flat value, withSuccess Levels added to that number, unless the Directordecides to use the optional rule for rolled damage. In otherUnisystem games, damage is usually rolled randomly withassorted types of dice (four-sided, six-sided, and so on).

Armor also has a random value in other Unisystem games. Again, the Director must decide which sub-system to use.

e Eldritch Skies RPG version has the advantage of beingfaster and not needing as many dice. e dice-based ver-sion gives you more variation and less predictability—a hitmay just scratch a character, to kill her outright.

SORCERY

Magic in the Eldritch Skies RPG is highly idiosyncraticand meant to mirror the exotic nature of mythos hyper-spatial sorcery. It is not the same magic system you’ll findin other Unisystem games, like WitchCraft . You can pickand choose which one to use, or try to have both systemstogether—call ‘em Magic and Hyperspatial Sorcery, forexample. In other Unisystem games, magic usually hasan Essence cost (see the Attributes section above). AnEssence Point cost may be assigned to Eldritch Skies RPGspells based on the spell’s Power Level, using the EssencePoint Assignment Table.

If you use this Essence Cost, eliminate the repeated cast-ing penalty —the cost replaces it as a limiting factor. Char-acters with Sorcery get an additional fi ve Essence Points perlevel (the Extra Essence Quality found in other games canbe acquired as well). Characters who know HyperspatialSorcery do not need the Essence Channeling Quality.

ESSENCE POINT ASSIGNMENT TABLE

POWER LEVEL ESSENCE COST



268

“T , Commander Ar-onson,” Frank said.

Outside the failing American module, the cosmo-nauts stood among the crumbling remains of alien con-structions, awaiting their answer. Peter’s palms sweatedin their gloves. “Or we could all die here, and never carryour knowledge back to Earth,” he said. “I vote for the

court-martial.”“We could try to build the gateway ourselves. If this

stuff is too classified to even ask ground control about-” It was too classified for Frank to have known about itbefore the Soviets brought up the idea, but Peter didn’tcare to point that out.

“It’s too dangerous for us to try the ritual with fewerthan four good minds,” Peter said.

“We know they know,” interjected Ann. “ ey know weknow. We aren’t giving up anything they don’t already have.”

“Treason it is,” Frank said. ey put their helmets on and walked out through the airlocks onto the lunar surface.

e cosmonauts’ methods were slightly diff erent from American sorcery protocols. Vladimir dragged the sty-lus through the lunar dust, Alek steadying him in thelow gravity. Peter felt guilty for trying to memorize theirdiagrams, but anything he’d observed would stand in hisfavor, should it come to a treason trial. As the US astro-naut with the most knowledge and authority, he riskedthe most if it went against him.

“Where do we go?” Yuri had asked, and Peter answered:“We don’t know for sure. at’s the risk of working on the

fl y. I’m going to try for Canada. But regardless of where we land, we have got to keep our story straight. ose ofus standing here know this technology, but if the popu-lace finds out...” Yuri had made the throat-cutting gestureacross the neck of his spacesuit, and nodded, slowly.

ey needed more universally understood gestures. Soclose to the tenth anniversary of the Mars incident, Peter

knew only too well they courted disaster. A misspokencoordinate, a language failure... He wouldn’t let it hap-pen. He would see his children again.

“Commander Aronson.” Ann spoke in the barest whisper, not through the radio but helmet-to-helmet. “Idon’t think the diagrams match our math.” Just the wordssent a cold sweat down him. Staring at the lines, Peter

did some numbers in his head. She was right, damn it,and it was too late to start over. e hyperspatial energies

were building. e ritual couldn’t be stopped; it wouldrip through the fabric of the universe if they let go now.He daren’t speak up, lest Yuri panic and lose control of it.“Commander Aronson?” Ann whispered again.

“I’ve got this. Begin the chant on cue.” She looked athim, distressed, but reactivated her radio. Yuri had begunto repeat the words aloud. His intonation was right, at least.

ey still had hope. Everyone joined on the next repeat.Peter had to choose his moment. ere’d be a nar-

row window of time to draw another line leading up tothe aperture, a vector that would reconcile the incompat-ible diagrams. Just as the fi rst chant ended, and beforethe second... Would they keep chanting, no matter whathappened? e others were just support, but Yuri was theprincipal, and if he broke his concentration... Peter staredat Yuri desperately, hoping his eyes were enough to trans-mit the message: TRUST ME.

e pause came. Peter bent down and drew a line inthe moondust. Vladimir exclaimed something in Rus-sian, and Peter caught the gist: the American, he’s betray-ing us! He couldn’t stop to look at Yuri and see how theleader was reacting. He could only finish the careful arcof it, measuring angles in his mind, and start the chant

again, desperately hoping the others would take the cue. Yuri’s voice joined with his, bold and unwavering. eothers chanted with them, finishing the structure of linesand sound that reached beyond the seen world. Reality toreopen, and they stepped through.



26



Life Points:

Drama Points:

Experience Points: Character Picture/Drawing

Attributes

Acrobatics

Art

Archaic Weapons

Brawling

Computer

Crime

Doctor

Driving

EngineeringGuns

Influence

Knowledge

Languages

Notice

Occultism

Piloting

Psychic Art

Science

Sports

Wilderness

Wild Card

Skills

Useful Information

Character Name

Character TypeCharacter Description

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Perception

Willpower

Notes Success Levels Table

_____________ 9-10 1 Success

_____________ 11-12 2 Successes _____________ 13-14 3 Successes

_____________ 15-16 4 Successes

_____________ 17-20 5 Successes

_____________ 21-23 6 Successes

_____________ +3 +1



Qualities

eldritch skies - core rules

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