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An excellent product with clean, concise rules and formatting. I especially enjoyed the treatment of Lovecraftian creatures. It should provide an excellent reference for anyone wanting to add a little horror aspect to their games.
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I really love this book. I'm also hoping that Wildstar produces a few more supplements.
The plus side is that they integrated Traveller with Lovecraftian horror quite well. The minus is that they didn't provide enough creatures and those they provided are a bit too easy to kill IMNSHO. And they didn't define Shoggoths! :)
I am about to run a Traveller campaign with Lovecraftian elements and this book helped a lot.
One thing I suspect is that this book would mix well with the Orbital setting for Traveller.
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Great artwork, as per usual.
I'm a little disappointed though. Allow me to explain.
I have been eagerly awaiting this product for a LONG time. I understand that it was delayed because of production issues. But now that I have it, it's a little underwhelming. No real fault if the product, just anticipation outweighing reality.
Also, I don't like the 'new' way the "adventures" are presented. I much prefer the formula in Damnation View. This, I know, is ironic because the editors come out and say they switched to the new style format because of constructive criticism from the fans.
All that said, I did get a little out of it. Mostly the new fighters and rules for space combat.
In the absence of this book for so long, my campaign moved in a slightly different direction then the meta-plot presented here and so I didn't get much use out of it. I knew that before I bought it, and still purchased it anyway because I love this game, love the fiction and love the art and wanted to support it.
Thank you.
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I received my print copy in the mail on December 12th, 1012. The packaging was good. The book in great shape. And had no printing errors in it at all.
This was my first experience of doing a print on demand book through RPGNOW. And the experience was entirely a positive one. And it definitely has convinced me to buy more print on demand books from here in the future.
Keep up the great work!
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I liked the mood set by the Opening Fiction for The Void.
I love science fiction horror mashups and this gives a good picture of a rich setting to send my players into! The Void and the related materials are of particular interest to me because of their connection to H.P. Lovecraft's rich lore. The void should be an intersting product. Take a look at this free read for yourself!
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This setting combines hard SF in the vein of 2300 AD and Transhuman Space with quite an original use of the Cthulhu Mythos, this is most definitely not CthulhuTech 2.0! Interestingly for a setting with fantasy and magic the technology seems entirely plausible, no warp drives, the setting takes place in the Solar System and if you want gravity on a spaceship you need centrifugal force. It captures the look and feel of sf horror classics like Event Horizon and Aliens nicely with its claustrophobic setting. I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment
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I stumbled onto CthulhTech through an event listing at GenCon a couple of years ago and fell in love with the idea sight-unseen. I bought the core book and that instant attraction was reinforced. The book is orderly, well written and lavishly illustrated. There are many pieces of quality fiction to help share the flavor of the game and setting. And I don't care.
The game itself is more attractive than the sexy way it's presented. No, really, it is. The Framewerk mechanic is a fun twist on dice pool mechanics. The skills are well thought out and the mechanics work.
Mecha and Lovecraft may not seem like a natural fit but in CthulhuTech it works brilliantly. Grau and McKay have written a rich setting and sensible history.
Now for my complaint. Man, it is HARD to run this game and keep the stories properly balanced between horror and action. What make the setting and fiction great is the tension, fear and detail, all of which are hard to maintain in actual game play. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't it's only slightly above average.
I'd say CthulhuTech is money well spent, buy this game.
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Buy this, it's cheap and it is the single most complete setting I've read, and that says a lot considering how many influences are combined. It's simply awesome. Dice mechanics are unique, fair, and fluff-fitting. Plus it's like you're getting two games in one, future Call of Cthulhu and GIANT MECHS! It's awesome!
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This is an excellent game setting with a great deal of background material.
At first impression I had misgivings at game designers trying to have so many influences in one game.
Yet the developers did it, and did it well with great attention to detail.
You have anime-style (re:Guyver) over the top monsters and heroes in a Lovecraftian future cyberpunk setting with mecha, magic, psychics and more. I already have every book in hardcover. I'm gradually building up my pdf library.
This is definitely a must have in my book. Even if you don't play the system, I'd get the books for the setting :)
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You enjoy your sci-fi, but you also have a hankering for horror. Maybe your Delta Green campaign just didn't have heavy enough weapons for your taste. Well, someone put your Cthulhu in my Traveller, and the combo is awesome!
I really enjoying working my way thru the Chthonian Stars Core Setting for Traveller. It's not a mash-up I would have thought up on my own, but its a very good match. The books is full of short fiction, which normally I can't stand, but in this case it is very evocative of the setting and a good tool to engage the reader.
It scales down the default Traveller setting to just our (now fully colonized) solar system, and I think the change in scale works very well in making the horror more immediate.
Character generation is changed a bit from regular (Mongoose) Traveller, as many careers have been adjusted to the new setting. New space ships, which makes sense, as they are made for traversing the solar system.
We are given three short adventures, which is nice, but I would have appreciated a page or two of adventure seeds. Maybe I missed them, as flipping thru a PDF does have disadvantages over print.
Overall, I'm very excited by the Chthonian Stars Core Setting. I might find a use for my Traveller core rulebook now. If nothing else, the setting book deserves a second read thru.
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Let me start with saying that I am a lover of nearly all things Cthulhu but that I have never played Traveller (in any of its incarnations). All the same I was very excited to see this release and hoped that I could use the material in a space themed CoC game. I have read a couple of the Miskatonic University imprints and liked those but found them lacking for building a campaign. After having read Chthonian Stars I find my review barely creeping into four stars (to my surprise as much as any one's). Let me clarify and say that the writing is great, the art very well done, the layout professional and easy to use. Yet...what I feel I got was a Traveller book with a little Mythos dashed in. Not the other way around. It is never fair to compare one game to another but in this case I think it is appropriate. Cthulhutech (while dismissed by some) is a science fiction setting infused with the mythos. Chthonian Stars seems to have it tacked on. Short of the fiction the Mythos doesn't even appear until nearly the end of the book. The "section" on magic is basically "make up some rules on magic that fit your game. Player characters shouldn't use magic." The horror check system seems very thin. Where in games that are horror themed (particularly Mythos games) sanity loss is an integral part. Most of the fiction from Mythos stories illustrates the erosion of the protagonist's mind. The creatures were ok but brief. A mere single page write up. For a core book that may assume you have never played a Mythos game before there seems to be many creatures missing, perfect for extraterrestrial games (Moon Beasts, Byakhee, Chthonians, Dimensional Shambler, Formless Spawn oh I could just go on and on). At the same time the inclusion of some creatures that have no fictional origin (Seethari, Terofex, Nyphelous???) and seem more like typical sci-fi baddies. Planets and moons get a scant two page write up with mostly hints of "dark goings on". In conclusion I would definitely say there is stuff I will use. It seems this idea could very cool with more development. The upcoming release of The Void may rememdy all this and thus you may want to wait for that release. If you wanted a different take on a Traveller game still confined to the Sol solar system this would probably be a direct hit. On sale the price makes this pretty good to mine for ideas, even for just a basic hard sci-fi game. For hard core Cthulhu nuts wanting a alternative to Cthulhutech wait for The Void.
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I have to admit to coming to Chthonian Stars with a low expectation. I disliked a lot about the Cthulhutech line but thought that there might be a few things I could rip out of Stars. I was wrong. It's blooming brilliant. My read through (OK I admit to not having played it yet) convinced me that this was written by someone who loves both the Mythos and the Traveller universe. Reasonable ficltion, good artwork, and a whole lot of good ideas about what happens when the dark stars are almost right.
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the best thing about this book is the spells and artifacts the fiction is also very well done in this novel as well.
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Cthonian Stars is Cthulhu in Space. The premise is the arrival of a "Cthonian Star" which is emitting a strange energy which is awakening the slumbering Cthulhu Mythos creatures.
It uses the Mongoose Traveller system, and requires that you own the Traveller Core rulebook.
I always like the excellent writing and artwork in Wildfire products. Cthonian Stars is no exception.
This product would have received 5 Stars from me, except for the following issues:
The problems I have with Cthonian Stars: For one, it gives almost zero information on the colonies your characters are supposed to be investigating. With the Traveller world building rules in place, this should not have been a problem for them. Perhaps it will come out in an update.
Another problem was, when I sent two questions to the creators on their website, they never responded. Both questions were setting related, and I thought, important enough to be answered.
No answer. So I put Cthonian Stars away, even though I bought the Traveller Core Rulebook just to run it, and will focus my Sci-fi Horror attention elsewhere.
I also tried to join the forums for this game, but was never admitted by the admins. Perhaps they are all on vacation?
The price is right, and it is nice, but do not expect support from its creators. You are on your own!
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I´m completley satisfied with it. Cthulhu (-tech) goes Space Opera.
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