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CthulhuTech: The Shadow War Quick-Start Rules (V2)
by Keenan C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/04/2023 22:47:57

The newly released quickstart rules are a massive step up from the previously available V2 material. The quickstart includes an easy to use dice pool system, 6 pre-made characters, a simple adventure to showcase the basics, and a section that lists what will be available in the full release. It gives you enough to know if you will be interested in taking a deeper look at the game, which is exactly what a quickstart should do.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CthulhuTech: The Shadow War Quick-Start Rules (V2)
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CthulhuTech: The Shadow War Quick-Start Rules (V2)
by Philip F. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/01/2023 09:10:20

We all worked super hard to take all of the feedback we have recieved over the past nearly 20 years and build the best version of CthulhuTech possible. We hope people can take the time to give our updated world a look and let us know what they think!

For anyone who wants to give us direct feedback or to participate in the discussion we encourage everyone to join us on our official Discord https://discord.gg/punU6J3

  • Op (Other Philip) F.

    Wildfire Community Manager



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CthulhuTech: The Shadow War Quick-Start Rules (V2)
by Darya S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/09/2023 14:21:26

The original «CthulhuTech» had its own controversies (a lot of), both with the rules and the setting. It wasn’t my favorite game (not even close…), it looked a little bit too chaotic in concept and style (anime-mecha fighting Lovecraftian monsters!) to me, but I loved it with some twisted love nonetheless. So, it’s a pity that we’ll never get the complete second edition. Rest in peace…



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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The Void Core PDF
by Darya S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/17/2023 10:29:17

Average game. Mostly unremarkable space horror where you can replace Lovecraftian monsters and themes with just about anything and lose little or nothing at all in the process. But this corebook is free, so you can get a first impression of the game without spending any money, which in my opinion is a good reason to give this book at least a chance.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
The Void Core PDF
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The Void: Opening Fiction
by Ty P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/03/2021 19:31:53

Fabulos! Drew me in for more! A have read and aquired all I could find. Thank goodness DriveThru RPG has a pring on demand for the Traveller companion media!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Void: Opening Fiction
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The Void Core PDF
by Steven B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/02/2020 22:45:52

Hello oh brave delvers into that which should never be seen. I have already lost track of just how long ago it was when I first picked up this book, and several of the others for the setting and dithered for quite some time after that before an opportunity came to finally run a session for my normal crew. To be brief, the low rating is for the seemingly abandoned nature of the system while there is still a significant amount that mechanically and setting-wise needed to be addressed. It is a shame, really, upon acquiring it the setting itself hooked me but attempts to run the pre-made adventures/missions left me having to wing major questions such as how much/little various player archetypes should know about what they're dealing with, the functions of the commonplace organizations and why, at the time of play, a setting like this appeared to lack the iconic flamethrower for toasting zenos with. Honestly, I hope that the abandoned nature ceases to be a thing, I'm sure I'll end up redownloading all the books once again sometime this year to poke at fleshing things out.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
The Void Core PDF
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CthulhuTech Core Book
by ERICK S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/31/2018 19:48:35

I purchased the PDF and hardcover premium heavyweight copy.

The PDF is decent, but it has a few issues in the layout. There are tables where the text is off, with characters from the beginning of a word found a decent way to the right of it: "Charge eam B", "Average r Ca", "Enduring ear F", "Serious njury I", and there are some parts where the text is actually under the pictures on the page. You can still select the text with a mouse and copy + paste the text to a text editor to see what the text is, so it is not too detrimental. The PDF in the initial credits shows "First Printing (Rev. C)" and credits Catalyst Game Labs. Past these few problems, the PDF is great. The content is great, and the pictures are of a high quality. I have no problems with the game itself, though I have not gotten the chance to play the game myself yet.

The hardback credits section shows "First Printing (Rev. D)", and credits Sandstorm Studios instead of Catalyst games. I have so far not seen any layout problems. This fourth revision seems to be complete. Print job: The paper is non-glossy, and it has some of the same problems with printing at home; the book is in full color, which requires a lot of ink and the paper acts like it has water damage. The paper ripples where the picture is the darkest, and there are pages (Usually on chapter beginnings) where the page seems to be curled in the wrong direction because of the amount of ink required to be printed on the page. Another issue is with the artwork; with the non-glossy paper, the pictures have come out darker, which reduces the clean contrast of the pictures between their darkest shadows and brightest highlights. This makes it a little bit harder to tell what the pictures are compared to the PDF where the pictures seem perfect.

Overall, I am definitely happy with my purchase, and I don't regret anything. There are problems, but that should be expected with smaller companies and smaller consumer bases. It is a good product, and worth supporting the companies involved in design, layout, printing, and distribution. It is definitely a good piece to add to a game collection/shelf.

While my expectations are low because of the dates provided, I do hope that one day they finish and release the second edition of the game; if they did, I would definitely be buying both the PDF and print copies of the game. The setting is simply fantastic.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
CthulhuTech Core Book
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The Void Core PDF
by Alexander W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/25/2018 06:15:02

I'm really digging it. The setting perfectly hits all of the touchstones in my opinion, and reminds me why I loved all of them. I'm also very happy to see the intiutive mechanics, with the small summary tables, as well as the more in-depth explanations. Will definitely be recommending to my friends.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Void Core PDF
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The Void – Stygian Cycle I
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/19/2017 22:14:02

I have never played the Void RPG but I'm always on the look-out for adventures that I can adapt to use in my ongoing Dark Heresy/Deathwatch gaming group and with its setting of sci-if influenced by Lovecraft, I found the Void Stygian Cycle adventures to be great for my needs. The author of this and other adventures ("Go Towards the Light and "Venusian Sunset") in the setting are well paced and written, providing a great blend of investigation and combat.

While I have yet to modify this particular adventure for my needs, after reading it I can see it being run as is with modifications to make it a Dark Heresy Rogue Trader mission, or with some work, the hidden enemies could be revealed to be a newly awakened Necron threat, Chaos cultists or perhaps the earthquake revealed a long concealed portal to the Eldar Webway and now Dark Eldar slavers are plaguing the mining town.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Void – Stygian Cycle I
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CthulhuTech Core Book
by C S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/27/2017 08:50:08

This review is for the Softcover Color Book (Standard).

The CthulhuTech setting is fantastic. It's a terrific mash-up of all my favorite tropes. Lovecraftian horror, mecha, super-powered combat, kaiju... It's all in there. And yet, somehow, it works. Somehow it makes sense to run a game where you're investigating cultists one week, and piloting a giant robot the next.

The background descriptions and brief bits of narrative in the Core Book go a long way towards making this happen. They do a great job of paintinting the picture. They really make the setting come to life. It was very easy to get my players engaged with the setting just by having them read a few of those descriptions.

The rules themselves seem a bit odd to me, coming from a couple decades of Dungeons & Dragons. It's nice not to need a whole pile of different dice... But I'm still getting used to the D10 pool system. It works just fine. It's just not very familiar at this point.

If I were rating just a PDF of these rules and setting, it'd be getting a 5/5 easily. The print version that I purchased, however, leaves some things to be desired...

It's printed on non-glossy paper, which is a bit odd for an RPG rulebook. The fantastic artwork simply doesn't pop the way it could on glossy paper. And the pages feel noticably rough. I suspect this is purely cosmetic... But I can't help wondering about the long-term durability of this book.

A bigger problem is the lack of an inside gutter, which means the inner edge of the page is very hard to read. I'm having to very carefuly bend the pages back as far as they'll go so that I can read everything without damaging the spine.

I know that V2 is currently in beta, and I sincerely hope that these issues are resolved when that goes to press.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
CthulhuTech Core Book
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Chthonian Stars Core Setting
by Tom P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/20/2016 17:25:13

This is a great product, I've been playing Traveller for almost 7 years nw and its one of my favorite systems, and this setting seems to fit the game fairly well. some aspects dont work, for example, the social attribute makes more sense with the landed nobility of Traveller, but can easily be fixed. However, i do wish more books were made, certain aspects of the setting are lacking, but in comparison to its successor, The Void, it contains as much information as those books without requiring you to buy 5 or 6 books. Overall i really like this product.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Chthonian Stars Core Setting
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The Void Core PDF
by Alex P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/01/2016 12:58:33

Impressive! Heavy 'Alien' influence. I like the 'free to play' model (small core book, many expansions). This book leaves the setting very mysterious, which is part of the theme.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Void Core PDF
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CthulhuTech: The Shadow War Quick-Start Rules (V2)
by Stephanie K. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/29/2016 21:53:15

Hello Wildfire. I do hope you read these reviews and take heed of them, because the following are not only my personal opinions as a fan of CthulhuTech, but my professional opinions as a writer and game designer.

First of all let me say it was really hard to give this an in-betweener rating. My first impulse is to rate Good. I love CthulhuTech. I have loved it ever since I was first introduced to it many years ago, and I probably will continue to do so no matter how this project goes. But the game is not without its problems, and some of them are glaring. I'm going to address the negative first, then the positive so that we can end on a high note.

Need of a Third Party Editor

This can be expensive, but in regards to this book - and honestly, the books that came before it - the project is in desperate need of some professional editing. Not just for typos and paragraph layout (I understand this is not the final product), but the formatting of the book is all over the place. Even at the point of still being in beta, there should be some sort of framwork in place that helps the information flow naturally from one aspect to the other. The order of chapters should be consistent, and go in order with what the player needs to know from first to last thing. As well as that, the professional language of the book slips a lot . One moment I am engaging in an intelligent descrpition of something, and the next I'm at a pub talking with my mates. It's great to try and have more of a casual relationship/connection with the reader, but there is a way to do that without sharing personal opinions, and a way to do it with impulse control.

I'm actually going to refer back to your original Core Rulebook for a good example of this, and no, don't duck and hide before hearing me out! Lads, your 'Let's Tslk Pronouns' info box. Now, CthulhuTech is clearly a world where gender and sexual diversity is abound. Those sorts of barriers from our current day societ don't matter anymore - you make that very obvious, especially with giving Nazzadi gender-neutral pronouns. This is all very progressive stuff, and it's lovely to see it implemented so effortlessly. So why? Why would you put in that little info box strssing that you're only using male pronouns and basically, 'bad luck' to whoever doesn't like it because you 'can't please everyone'? Guys, you could have totally forgone that entirely personal-opinions-driven box and I wouldn't have batted an eyelash. I've been playing tabletop for years, the books tend to be written in male pronouns, it's a thing. It doesn't really bother me. I appreciate it when other games (like Pathfinder for instance) just switch between player pronouns seamlessly between chapters anc class descriptions, but I'm a big girl, I can go without. I can see what you might've been trying to do, with that info box, but in the end - and possibly due to the writing of it being unprofessional and very tunnel-visioned as well - it turned a non-issue into an issue. You brought politics to the table in an attempt to avoid politics. The irony is disappointing, no? In the end, it's just a bad design choice that could possibly damage the reach of your target audience. A good editor would have quietly omitted that little box of personal issues that someone just had to get into final print. You have beautiful representation in the books, guys. There's female vignettes, NPCs of all colours and shapes and genders. It's an inclusive world. You shot yourselves in the foot. I have spoken to you in messages before and I have no doubt you're good people who had the best intentions with some of that writing, but it doesn't always come across that way. Which is where editors are great!

(on that note, someone who reviewed before me made a note that the 'chinadoll' reference to albino people is terrible. This is actually okay. In the book it's stated that white Nazzadi do not like being called it. It's racial slang and it's given across as such. You're supposed to be offended. This is worldbuilding, and in case you haven't noticed, CTech is not a nice place. It has nothing to do with the creators being insensitive.)

TL;DR a third party editor/revisionist is worth the money. If you even wanted to crowdfund it, I know I would sink sooo much money I don't have into helping you release a truly top-notch and professional book.

Need of Updated Art / Need of designer

And I'm not just saying this because I want to provide art for the book, haha. Not all, but A lot of the art is dated, stretched, pixelated, and of low resolution. I'm not sure if what you've got there is just placeholder for the final version of the book - but I've seen this before. That poor hooman character art, all stretched and chopped up. It hurt to see. This is your baby, guys! Take some pride in its presentation. Which Im' sure oyu do, don't get me wrong; but there are some visual design choices/mistakes/rushed-bits that make my heart hurt.

Font - the font is really difficult to read in places. Yes, it looks cool! But so difficult to read. At some point you've got to pause and go off to find something that still looks cool, but that we don't have to squint at to understand.

The book could really benefit from a once-over by a professional designer. Again I have no doubt you're doing everything you can to do right by your product, and I understand it's a side project that you obviously don't want to spend and arm and a leg on. Again, this is why a crowdfund would be a good idea to scrape in some extra funds to be able to afford these sort of things. You've struck out on your own without appealing to any of the big tabletop publishers, and that's admirable - though the product is suffering a little from corners that have been cut due to lack of funds. When I was younger, I was always surprised at how few people knew about the game - I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread! As an adult (I think?) with experience in game industries now, I see where design and marketting fell through and wasn't as air-tight as it could have been.

TL;DR - get designer if you can, update the art, go for different more readable fonts.

NOTE: Myself and a friend who are currently running a game togetherwork in design. We would be absolutely delighted to give some free design advice, as we love this setting very much. I won't include any in this review other than what I've already said because I think it'd be rude to do so without it being asked first. :)

GOOD NEWS TIME~

- The system is looking a little more friendlier. I haven't looked into it in too much depth because my main concern is the design, the writing and the lore. But I recall the friend who introduced me to CTech running a holiday game a few years ago that was a little wince-worthy with some of the mechanics we had to deal with. I'd recommend doing a call for anyone who wants to help test the systems and running some one-shot games online with pre-prepared characters sheets. You can do this on skype, or Raid-type mediums, and hold a Q&A after!

- More background information on the setting, on the races, on the lore. My sweet, sweet Odin, it's beautiful. Keep it coming. Gobbling up this extra information in your Betahas made me fall in love with the world all over again.

- You're doing really well handling delicate topics. Again, this isn't a nice place, the Strange Aeon. You know it, I know it. It's based on Lovecraft (amongst other things), it was always going to have heavy themes and such. Even with that knowledge though, there is a right and a wrong way to get across the information that the GM and players need to know. You manage to do this with admirable finesse, both in explaining the system and stories and in the vignettes. Don't lose that! It's so important, and especially as a female fan of the game it comes very much appreciated. A lot of the critisism I've seen so far of people not liking how topics were handled, seems to be of the opinion that they shouldn't be there at all. I'm not sure these people understand the world with which they are dealing.

Question Time!!

  • It was touched on briefly in the book, though mostly in regards to new character sheets and systems - as these new books will be used in conjunction with the Core book (that's what I understood at least, as there's still a lot of information missing), there is a risk of cross-contamination of new and old information becoming quite confusing. How do you plan to combat this? Or is this book, The Shadow War, and the upcoming one concerning Engels and Mech supposed to be used without need for the original core rulebook?

That's all I have for now. Again, thanks so much for returning to this world, and I look forward to the future release of this book and the other. I think one has to be able to give critisism to something they like as much as something they do not, so please understand even with my critisisms that I am still behind CTech and its team 100%. Please don't hesitate to respond to me here if you have any answers or queries for my feedback.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
CthulhuTech: The Shadow War Quick-Start Rules (V2)
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The Void Core PDF
by Jefferson L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/10/2016 12:01:00

Muito bacana, dá a sensação de ser um sucessor espiritual do CthulhuTech. O que seria da Humanidade caso a Guerra do Eon não tivesse acontecido...

Com certeza será um dos jogos que vou jogar nesse ano de 2015!

Recomendo a todos que comprem/baixem a versão digital, e se possível, comprem a edição fisica. Vale a pena cada centavo.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Void Core PDF
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The Void Core – Character Sheet
by Stephen Y. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/17/2016 17:14:15

Seems to look OK on the PDF reader, but printing it to such a quality that you can read EVERYTHING on the sheet is a totally different matter. While the Summary Data box looks OK, the Bruised, Battered, Hurt, and Incapacitated text at the bottom half of the sheet is unreadable (and I've wasted many sheets trying different printer settings). White text in black boxes for this sheet just doesn't seem to work. So it gets 3 for looking nice, but nothing more for being a pain in the butt for printing clearly on some parts of it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
The Void Core – Character Sheet
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