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Lost Souls: Live Action Role-Playing in the World of Mythos Cults and Conspracies

for Cthulhu Live

by Philip Salmon, Robert McLaughlin, Eric Kesler, Steven A. Dustin, Peter Devlin, and Christian Matzke

Fantasy Flight Games

2021 W. Country Rd. C Roseville, MN 55113

http://www.rpg.net/ffg http://www.cthulhulive.com ffg@rpg.net

158 pages, perfect bound, digest size

$17.95

ISBN: 1-887911-95-2

Grade: A-

reviewed by Lisa Padol

Lost Souls is a beautiful addition to the Cthulhu Live line. Much of the text is mechanics-free, and, therefore, easily portable to other systems. The material dealing with mechanics is well thought out and worth using in tabletop CoC.

The introduction defines a new term, "Revenant", as anyone who is aware enough of the mythos that sanity no longer applies to her. I wish a different term had been used, as "revenant" already has game-specific connotations, but the concept is excellent. For too long, the idea of 0 Sanity covered everything from drooling lunatics to urbane cultists to non-humans. Now, Lost Souls introduces the concept of Facade.

If you are an ordinary Joe, you have Sanity. This is true for most investigators. You have not accepted the Awful Truth of the mythos, and the barriers of rationality, however tenuous, are still in place. Once they break down completely, you are at 0 Sanity. Your mind has shattered. But, if you can embrace, or at least accept, the Awful Truth, you can move beyond Sanity and stay functional.

This is where Facade comes in. Facade is what helps Revenants function without ordinary folks thinking they are loons. It is what convinces the innocent victim to go walking with the serial killer. After all, he seemed so normal! Many things can reduce Facade, and GMs are encouraged to use them. Sleep and meditation can let someone regain Facade, so insomnia and hideous nightmares are real disadvantages.

Facade is a gorgeous mechanic, practically begging to be imported to CoC. Another mechanic that cries out to be used in the tabletop game is the concept of mythos proficiencies. What does a 20% mythos skill mean? Until now, that a book or PC had a 1 in 5 chance of knowing any mythos fact, regardless of what it was. It meant that a few lazy authors were prone to basing the PCs' success or failure in a CoC scenario on whether a generic mythos roll with abysmally low chance of success could be made.

The mythos proficiency rules encourage authors to avoid such sloppiness. Sure, the numbers are unchanged, but now they have a context. If I am a Delta Green scientist, my 10% mythos may mean that I have a mythos proficiency in Xenobiology: Ghouls. I do not know anything about the Outer Gods, but I know more than 10% about the anatomy of a ghoul. If I'm from a backwater town founded by refugees from Innsmouth, that 10% could mean I know a ritual to contact Deep Ones and I know the lore cycle of Mother Hydra and Father Dagan. The additional mechanics are nicely transparent, being descriptive, rather than proscriptive.

The new skills and templates are well thought out. I particularly liked the Party Girl / Party Boy. The description concisely explains how well the template fits into both the 1920s and the 1990s.

But the true heart of the book is the description of Cults and Veiled Societies. Roughly speaking, the former worship the Outer Gods while the latter fight them. The cults are categorized by which Outer God they worship, which woul be fine if the book had either an index or a more detailed table of contents. As it is, the table of contents shows only the categories, making it harder than it needs to be to find any particular cult. The Veiled Societies are listed by name and include the Pagan Publishing creation, Delta Green.

The descriptions themselves are excellent. The cults and veiled societies are not carbon copies of each other, but are unique entities. The small village of people who worship Tsathoggua are quite different from a loose group of sex magicians competing with each other for resources, even though they also worship the Black Toad. Most, if not all, of the material about the cults and veiled societies can be lifted into tabletop CoC, and much can be lifted into any other game, as the background is not tied to the system or the mechanics.

The layout is clean, and the art consists of cheerfully gruesome photos. Also, I find I like the digest size of the book.

If you are GMing Cthulhu Live, or any larp based on horror, grab this one. If you are running a non-CoC tabletop game involving conspiracy and horror, take a look at it. You will find material you can use. If you are running tabletop CoC, I recommend buying Lost Souls both for the background and for mechanics which can make CoC more flexible and enjoyable without sacrificing its essential simplicity.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Lost Souls: Live Action Role-Playing in the World of Mythos Cults and Conspracies
Author: Philip Salmon, Robert McLaughlin, Eric Kesler, Steven A. Dustin, Peter Devlin, and Christian Matzke Category: game Company/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Line: Cthulhu Live Cost: $17.95 Page count: 158 pages, perfect bound, digest size ISBN: 1-887911-95-2 Capsule Review by Lisa Padol on 10/18/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Science fiction Modern day Historical Horror Conspiracy Gothic Diceless Live-action	Lost Souls: Live Action Role-Playing in the World of Mythos Cults and Conspracies for Cthulhu Live by Philip Salmon, Robert McLaughlin, Eric Kesler, Steven A. Dustin, Peter Devlin, and Christian Matzke Fantasy Flight Games 2021 W. Country Rd. C Roseville, MN 55113 http://www.rpg.net/ffg http://www.cthulhulive.com ffg@rpg.net 158 pages, perfect bound, digest size $17.95 ISBN: 1-887911-95-2 Grade: A- reviewed by Lisa Padol Lost Souls is a beautiful addition to the Cthulhu Live line. Much of the text is mechanics-free, and, therefore, easily portable to other systems. The material dealing with mechanics is well thought out and worth using in tabletop CoC. The introduction defines a new term, "Revenant", as anyone who is aware enough of the mythos that sanity no longer applies to her. I wish a different term had been used, as "revenant" already has game-specific connotations, but the concept is excellent. For too long, the idea of 0 Sanity covered everything from drooling lunatics to urbane cultists to non-humans. Now, Lost Souls introduces the concept of Facade. If you are an ordinary Joe, you have Sanity. This is true for most investigators. You have not accepted the Awful Truth of the mythos, and the barriers of rationality, however tenuous, are still in place. Once they break down completely, you are at 0 Sanity. Your mind has shattered. But, if you can embrace, or at least accept, the Awful Truth, you can move beyond Sanity and stay functional. This is where Facade comes in. Facade is what helps Revenants function without ordinary folks thinking they are loons. It is what convinces the innocent victim to go walking with the serial killer. After all, he seemed so normal! Many things can reduce Facade, and GMs are encouraged to use them. Sleep and meditation can let someone regain Facade, so insomnia and hideous nightmares are real disadvantages. Facade is a gorgeous mechanic, practically begging to be imported to CoC. Another mechanic that cries out to be used in the tabletop game is the concept of mythos proficiencies. What does a 20% mythos skill mean? Until now, that a book or PC had a 1 in 5 chance of knowing any mythos fact, regardless of what it was. It meant that a few lazy authors were prone to basing the PCs' success or failure in a CoC scenario on whether a generic mythos roll with abysmally low chance of success could be made. The mythos proficiency rules encourage authors to avoid such sloppiness. Sure, the numbers are unchanged, but now they have a context. If I am a Delta Green scientist, my 10% mythos may mean that I have a mythos proficiency in Xenobiology: Ghouls. I do not know anything about the Outer Gods, but I know more than 10% about the anatomy of a ghoul. If I'm from a backwater town founded by refugees from Innsmouth, that 10% could mean I know a ritual to contact Deep Ones and I know the lore cycle of Mother Hydra and Father Dagan. The additional mechanics are nicely transparent, being descriptive, rather than proscriptive. The new skills and templates are well thought out. I particularly liked the Party Girl / Party Boy. The description concisely explains how well the template fits into both the 1920s and the 1990s. But the true heart of the book is the description of Cults and Veiled Societies. Roughly speaking, the former worship the Outer Gods while the latter fight them. The cults are categorized by which Outer God they worship, which woul be fine if the book had either an index or a more detailed table of contents. As it is, the table of contents shows only the categories, making it harder than it needs to be to find any particular cult. The Veiled Societies are listed by name and include the Pagan Publishing creation, Delta Green. The descriptions themselves are excellent. The cults and veiled societies are not carbon copies of each other, but are unique entities. The small village of people who worship Tsathoggua are quite different from a loose group of sex magicians competing with each other for resources, even though they also worship the Black Toad. Most, if not all, of the material about the cults and veiled societies can be lifted into tabletop CoC, and much can be lifted into any other game, as the background is not tied to the system or the mechanics. The layout is clean, and the art consists of cheerfully gruesome photos. Also, I find I like the digest size of the book. If you are GMing Cthulhu Live, or any larp based on horror, grab this one. If you are running a non-CoC tabletop game involving conspiracy and horror, take a look at it. You will find material you can use. If you are running tabletop CoC, I recommend buying Lost Souls both for the background and for mechanics which can make CoC more flexible and enjoyable without sacrificing its essential simplicity. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)