ST Forge: Storytelling for Cthulhu Dreamnt

Well creatures upon this ball of rock we call earth. I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is we can confirm the existence of T.R.A.C.E. Entities haunting our void and now walking among us. The good news is, the hardworking, and perfectly normal soldiers over at EDGe have indeed discovered that good ol’ human ingenuity and copius amounts of firepower still do the trick. We think.

Okay… we aren’t sure. So here’s a bucket of money, a suit that is fancier than you need, a Salien-Welf rifle pack and a one-way plane ticket to the Springfield Nocturne. Everything is perfectly normal.

Watch this training video and orientation below and we’ll be on our way with the field handbook.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

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Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. 〰️

How Mario Kart Paves The Way To Madness.

Indie TTRPG’s are the life blood of our gaming community, particularly for creators. I’m fully aware that it’s comfortable playing D&D and PF2E with our regular groups for weeks on ends. I get it. It’s fun and easy. But there are a wealth of independently created games out there filled with amazing content and stories that offer people new experiences, enhanced immersion, and by storytelling for these systems (even a little bit) you’ll pick up plenty of new tricks as an ST and find other material to draw upon in your custom house games.

This blog post is mostly centered around Action Fiction’s latest creation: Cthuhlu Dreamnt. An original near-future Sci-Fi tabletop campaign with accompanying metal soundtrack that’s now live on Kickstarter (and coming out next year). However, the tips and tricks below are still handy for diving into other game systems you haven’t heard of.

The ‘Shinji, Get in the Robot’ Guide to Zero-Prep Storytelling.

I’ve heard many times that starting a new system from scratch is a daunting experience no matter how cool the book is…and not all of us have the luxury of time. So go ahead and buy Cthulhu Dreamnt, plop in the metal soundtrack, and chuck the book at your players. It’s called improvisation, and for a proper mindbending experience—go into Cthulhu Dreamnt with zero prep. You’ll only lose a few sanity points along the way.

I’m actually being serious though. New systems can be overly daunting and storytellers and players often stick to what is a comfortable system to them. Pluck the sample character sheets from the back of the book or print them out for your players. Have everyone in your party create names and character backstories set in basically today. Then flip to a random T.R.A.C.E. (Terrestrially-Residing Abstract Cosmic Entity) and have that bloody ugly chocobo show up randomly in one of the PC’s backyard - and press the go button.

As an entire group, learn the rules together and PLAY together with your friends. As the encounter folds out or they need a new power, just flip to a different section of the book and give it to them. Need to figure out how the dice system works? Do it as a group as the murder chicken is devouring the paint on the side of a midwestern house. Here's the chaotic beauty of it: when was the last time your whole playgroup plunged into a new system, all at once?

The session will be rough. You’ll make mistakes. Things will feel chaotic at first… yet the more you flip through the book together you’ll find random puzzles, ARG’s, and even back-up support in the form of EDGe soldiers who can help the PC’s out. If someone dies horribly, well… it’s Cthulhu - it was bound to happen. More likely though, everyone will be left at the table with serious questions, and that’s when you can sit back and have Salient-Welf actually guide the characters into being an EDGe trooper (and over the next week you have reading time).

Whoever this in went on to become a very successful romance writer. Or they died. No clue, but we both know you can tell an entire story around this art alone.

Plot Twists For The Ultimate Boss: Scheduling and Office Space.

One particularly important thing about Cthulhu Dreamnt is a unique side-story element to the main campaign. Most often, playing TTRPG’s stick to the same game because it’s the one night of the week everyone can friggin’ meet. There’s investment. What if there was a game that allowed you to tell a story with whoever showed up to the table that evening? (Or even who survived the last session).

Indie TTRPG’s allow a unique opportunity to be ruthless with your dice, create characters just to play for fun and have a story unfold. Every session after the first, you, the ST, weave in references about what happened at the last session through media outlets to the new players. Perhaps it’s a news report, or perhaps the characters hear new pop-songs inspired by what happened in a small midwestern town and a government cover up. This trick works for just about any system I’ve ever dabbled in for learning. Plan around a 3-5 week run, and just invite anyone who wants to play to sit down. Don’t worry about who can show up the next week.

Doing this allows you to run a storyline and also introduce new friends to your other gamer buddies - or hear insane stories about what shenanigans the last group pulled off. It’s a fantastic way to dive into a new system from scratch and also see which of your friends gravitates to wanting to play more. If your group had an amazing time and everyone shows up by week 4—congrats! You’ve got a new campaign to run.

Which means you promptly kill them all and make proper characters from scratch and the whole experiment is a prologue. Brutal? Absolutely. Metal? Check. Corporate cover up incoming? …just sign here.

Okay, jokes aside. The innovation and fresh perspectives that come from indie creators keep this whole TTRPG world alive and evolving. For every blockbuster, there are dozens of hidden gems that risk never seeing the light of day without your support. Think of it as a patronage to the arts, but instead of marble statues and oil paintings, you’re sustaining entire universes tucked between the pages of a game manual. For that reason alone, you should check out Cthulhu Dreamnt or another Indie RPG you’ve been eyeing up for a while and dive right in.

That's it, mortals. Thanks for joining this eldritch convo. May your dice rolls stay high and your sanity intact.

Featured Images: Cthuhlu Dreamnt by Action Fiction