Product– Cthulhu Awakens: The AGE RPG of the Weird Century
System- AGE RPG
Producer– Green Ronin
Price– $29.95 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/454809/cthulhu-awakens-the-age-rpg-of-the-weird-century?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-A few small issues keep this from a perfect book. 93%
Basics– The end comes NOW IN AGE! Cthulhu Awakens uses the popular Call of Cthulhu Setting and mixes it with the AGE system. Let’s dive into how to play and then the review.
Age Basics- AGE takes a lot of inspiration from GURPS. Basic tests are three six sided dice with one being a different color or standing out. When you do anything, you roll 3d6+focus+ability, add, and then see if you hit the target number. Ability is just like ability bonuses in DnD or Pathfinder. Focus would be best thought of like feats. That stand out die is used for multiple things, but indicates how successful you are with a 1 being barely successful on a success and a 6 being AMAZING successes.
Stunts- The more important role of the different die is stunts. When two of the three dice, including the stunt or standout die, are the same, you use the stunt die to get special events. You spend the number on the stunt die to get bonus things like spraying more damage, hitting more creatures, bonus to next roll, reducing damage to yourself, and so on. For perspective, this happens about 42% of the time on average.
Sanity- The interesting thing in this game is how the Cthulhu monsters affect the character beyond just ripping them to shreds. The loss of sanity also means gaining in understanding the mythos. The more you lose yourself, the more you gain in powers. These might be Faustian bargains, but power’s power!
The rest- This system uses the 3d6 and stunts for almost everything. It’s very fast and simple, but allows for interesting and crazy things to happen. From there it’s just like any other RPG system with HP, damage, and sanity being drained by monsters in the world.
Mechanics or Crunch– AGE is an interesting one. It’s fun and fast, but might not be for me. Character growth is somewhat limited as you don’t level past 10. It’s classless, so you can mix and match anything you want. But you do get kind of stuck into siloes as you grow. This is not a problem, if you want that. The notion of gaining power from exposure is fun. Overall, this is a good system, but might not be for me. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff– This game is less Call of Cthulhu and more action Pulp Cthulhu. Characters fight the apocalypse, which is fun, but that is not quite what I want in a Call of Cthulhu adventure. I want more people to go absolutely mad from seeing things, and less gaining acceptance and power from seeing monsters crawl out of different dimensions. However, that’s more my opinion on the matter and not an indictment of the system. 4.5/5
Execution– This has ALMOST everything I need for a solid RPG book. The book reads well and has a fun story. Its layout makes it engaging and easy to read. The book tackles difficult issues with care, dealing with mental health, offensive games, and HP’s racism. The book is hyperlinked. It’s even got not one, but TWO adventures having both a 1920s adventure and a modern day one. It doesn’t have characters. I’d forgive that as there is a free intro RPG, BUT that one only has pregens for one time setting. The stuff that’s here is fantastic, but the stuff that’s missing is felt. 4.75/5
Summary– This is a good book with a fun RPG, but small things keep this from perfection. The mechanics are not quite what I want; hoping for 40% chances to occur so you can do cool stuff can annoy you. But when they happen, it is awesome. The theme isn’t quite what I want. I want more helpless horror, and this is more punching the Dark in the Face. And lastly, the book does fantastic execution, except no pregens. Most of my gripes are in how I want a game to be, but not necessarily in AGE being bad. It’s honestly fun, and quick. Not my cup of tea, but if you want to punch Cthulhu in the face with power you got when you went crazy, then this is the RPG for you! 93%
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