Lovecraft's Revenge - When things don't go your way!

You've seen different aspects of game play and last time, you say how things go when the dice are pretty-much on your side.  Sure, one character suffered a startling revelation at the end, but everyone pretty much made it through the game in one piece.

This won't always happen.

Here's a game I recently ran where things went really bad, really fast!  This is one of the fun parts of Lovecraft's Revenge; seeing IF you can survive, because although you do have a chance, if you go by Lovecraft's stories themselves, the odds are not in your favor!

So let's see if my characters have a chance . . .

Kim Stevens and Harold Steps are detectives who discover that a boat-house has been ransacked and several boats have been sunk.  While residents reported seeing someone in the area, they never heard any sounds, even sounds of items getting destroyed.

After spending some time exploring the beach-side, they are attacked by mysterious, masked individuals wearing cloaks and attacking with clubs.  Drawing their guns, Steps and Stevens take them out, but upon removing the masks and opening the cloaks, they find not people, but millions of worms and maggots.  Steps is noticeably shaken by this revelation.

Searching the pockets, they find a note with the word; "Drouning."

Later, the duo find a dog, Rowlf, who follows them around.  After several hours, they encounter a group of cultists near the pier.

With crazed expressions, the cultists attack, but Stevens, Steps, and Rowlf take them out.  In the leader's pocket, they find another piece of paper, again with the word, "Drouning."

After questioning a local fisherman, they learn Captain Drouning died when his ship, caught in a horrible storm, crashed into the side of a cliff.  He was buried in a cemetery across the bridge.

(At this point, the Darkness Level has risen quickly; if it gets any higher, that could mean the appearance of something Very Very Bad!)


Deciding to play things safe, the three enter the cemetery in the morning, just as the sun is rising.  Safe enough, right?  Not quite.  almost immediately, two glowing figures appear; Wraiths.

One of them passes right through Steps, and the detective turns pale white, his eyes bulge, and he drops to the ground in a lifeless heap.  Seeing all of this, Rowlf vanishes into the woods.

Left on his own, Stevens takes off running.  Racing past the various tombstones, he trips and falls, landing in a recently dug-up grave.  Staring at the open coffin and the decayed corpse inside, Stevens also sees a torn-up diary detailing Captain Drouning's jealousy of other, more-successful fishermen.

All of a sudden, each page changes so the word, "Drouning," appears.  Climbing out of the grave, Stevens figures out what was going on.  Whoever robbed the grave found the diary and was possessed by the former captain to destroy as much as possible in the harbor.

Breaking any hold the ghost might have had on him, Stevens closed the coffin's lid, refilled the grave, and walked away, satisfied that he had solved the mystery and more-importantly, survived.

Not so fast!

(With the Darkness Level as high as it is, I roll on the Aftermath Table.  It's not pretty.)

Suddenly the ground opens up and a screaming Kim Stevens is dragged into the darkness, right before the hole closes again, leaving no sign of the hapless detective.

(Yep, everything went to hell, but at least the dog probably lived.)

Your own adventures could go one way or another.  And it all depends on what happens in the game.  In Lovecraft's Revenge, no two games will be the same, and not all will be pleasant.  Although your chances of survival to lie somewhat in your hands, your fate ultimately depends on the whim of the game itself, and whether it allows you a happy ending.

Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.

Once you start your first game, good luck.

You'll need it!

Lovecraft's Revenge - No map? No Minis? No problem!

For the past few previews of Lovecraft's Revenge, I've used maps and miniature figures from various games, like Mage Knight, Horror Clix, and Call of Cthulhu, since any figures can be used for the game.  But what if you don't have any miniatures?  What if you can't afford game maps?

Well none of that's a problem because you can play Lovecraft's Revenge with just paper and dice.  In some aspects, the lack of a game board is actually better for a horror game since most people can create terrors far worse in their minds than they can see.

But how does it work?

Well game-play is based on what is called a Battle Board.  When you encounter others, you place your figures, or anything you have to represent your characters, on the board opposite your opponents.  You don't need measurements as there is no range.

There are two types of boards.

The first is called Clear:

This board, represented here by white paper, is terrain in which you are out in the open, such as in the middle of a street or an open field.  You don't normally have places to hide, but at least you can see your opponents coming.

The other is cover:

This terrain, represented by construction paper, is used for those places where vision is blocked, even a little.  These could be inside buildings, the middle of a forest, or just a street at night.  Enemies are harder to see and shoot, but at least you have better chances to hide.


Here's an example of game-play, using the Battle Board.  I rolled up this adventure as I played it, meaning there was very little to set up.  I just created my first character and randomly rolled for the Investigation.  After getting a result of ,"Search for Person," I rolled University as my starting point and set off from there.

Logan Bell, a professor at Miskatonic University, entered the office of his colleague, Dr. Borne, to find the room torn to pieces with the instructor missing.  Concerned for his friend, Bell grabbed his pistol and set out to find Borne.

University - Night - Outdoors - Puzzle.

Wandering the campus, Bell found Borne's dog, Toby.  Toby followed Bell and the two continued to search.  Finding footprints, Bell recognized Borne's and followed them toward a classroom.

(Since nothing out of the ordinary occurred, the Darkness Level remained the same.)

University - Night - Classroom - Search.

On the way to the classroom, Bell encountered some archaeologists.  One of them, Glenda, offered to help as she's good friends with Borne.  Arriving at the classroom where Borne taught his most-recent class, the three began their search.  Eventually, they found notes left behind, in which Borne planned to visit one of the labs.  This was their next destination.

University - Night - Classroom - Question.

(Once again, nothing out of the ordinary occurred, but this time the Darkness Level dropped.)

Arriving at the labs, the group encountered some police officers.  After some questioning, the officers mentioned someone had broken into several of the labs.  With supervision, Bell and the others began to search the labs themselves.

(And again, the Darkness Level dropped.)

University - Night - Labs - Search.

Bell found that several cadavers were stolen from the labs.  Glenda mentioned stories about students performing experiments in the nearby graveyards, so they headed there next.

(The Darkness Level reached 1, activating the, 'It's quiet, too quiet,' rule, and raising it way Way up!)

Travel Scene - Morning.

On the way to the graveyard, the group was ambushed by cultists who appeared from behind the trees.

Here's where we used the Battle Board for the first time:

The green dice represent Bell, Toby, and Glenda, while the red dice represent the cultists.  The numbers represent their Reputation, this is the main stat used in Lovecraft's Revenge.  Finally, the white d6 at the top represents the current Darkness Level, which affects what appears, when, and how badly the situation is going.  In this case, things went bad, but they could be worse.

Pulling out his pistol, Bell shot the first cultist dead and wounded the second.  The remaining turned and fled into the forest.  That wasn't so bad.

Graveyard - Morning - Final Scene

The group entered the graveyard just as the sun appeared gleaming through the trees of the forest that surrounded the place.  As the three explored the grave sights, they heard rustling above and noticed a number of shapes quickly blocking the sun.  As the shapes suddenly plummeted from the trees, Bell, Toby, and Glenda took off running.

The group encountered creatures known as Black Winged Ones.  Rarely seen, they were believed to exist only in tales to frighten little children.  Turns out the real things work rather well on adults!

I placed the creatures on the boards opposite Bell, Toby, and Glenda.  However, seeing as we're outnumbered, I chose for Bell and his group to run.  This resulted in an opposed Escape roll.  Unfortunately, the Black Winged Ones remained right behind the group as they fled past tombstones and over hills.  Eventually, they did escape, running into a mausoleum and locking the door.

Finding one of the tombs torn open, the group noticed a cavern leading downward.  They followed it and eventually found Dr. Borne among a group of Ghouls who were munching on human body parts.  In fact, Borne was chowing down on a human arm as well.  In fact, Borne was also a ghoul!

The group checked for Insanity and no one was really shaken, strangely enough, by this sight.  Bell tried to speak with Borne, but the former instructor raised the bone above his head and attacked, along with his brethren.

In this case, the clear d6 represents Borne, while the red represent the remaining ghouls.  Since they are in a cave, I'm using the construction paper, representing covered terrain.

After a round a combat, Bell shot both Borne and one of the ghouls, while Toby injured one.  The last one charged Glenda before she could get a shot, but she smacked it over the head with the butt of her pistol.

After a round of battle, the remaining ghouls had their Reps lowered due to injury, for the rest of the round.  The next round began with Bell missing his shots, but Toby injuring one ghoul while Glenda shot the last one.  Spitting out grayish blood, the injured ghoul turned and vanished through a tunnel.

The group emerged having completed their investigation.  They couldn't save Borne, but at least they knew what happened.

Aftermath:

Sometimes an Investigation ends in an aftermath, in which one or more characters come upon a startling revelation or worse.

As the three exited the tomb, Bell opened the doors to the mausoleum to find the sun shining brightly with no terrors in sight.  Breathing a sigh of relief and wondering how he was going to explain this to the authorities, he glanced back and noticed Glenda still staring at the tomb.  As he approached, he noticed why.  The name on the tomb was Sether, Glenda's last name.

Glenda gains 1 Insanity Point for the startling discovery.


Keep watching for more news on Lovecraft's Revenge, coming soon from Two Hour Wargames!