For information on Stealing Cthulhu, see the Thieves of Time website.

Stealing Cthulhu

Stealing Cthulhu is my guide to Lovecraftian storytelling for roleplaying games. Its central idea is: by stealing, adapting and combining Lovecraft's ideas, you can create scenarios that seem new and horrific. It includes Cthulhu Dark, my rules-light system for Cthulhu gaming. Many thanks to everyone who contributed.

The book is 175 pages and 30,000 words long (6 by 9 inches), with original art by Jennifer Rodgers. It is annotated throughout by Kenneth Hite, Gareth Hanrahan and Jason Morningstar. It's designed for use with any roleplaying system: Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Nemesis, Cthulhu Dark or whatever you enjoy playing.

The first part of the book breaks down Lovecraft's stories, giving you ideas and storytelling structures to use in scenarios. The second part goes through a selection of Mythos creatures, considering what they can do for your games.

To get a better idea, have a look at the following previews.

• Table of Contents.
• Stealing Creatures.
• Azathoth and the Colour.

Stealing Cthulhu is in the final stages of layout. If you preorder now, you'll get the PDF at the beginning of June and the book when it's printed: probably August, in time for GenCon in the United States).

The Big Annotated Edition

An important part of Stealing Cthulhu is the marginal annotations, which comment on the text. If you'd like to write your own, this is how you do it.

Contribute $50 or more and, as well as the normal book, I'll send you one without the marginal annotations. If you send it back to me, I'll compile everyone's annotations into a huge, master annotated edition.

Footnotes and annotations

If you contribute $150 or more, you can write your own footnotes and annotations, which I'll put in the book. I'll send you a preview PDF so you can do this. These should be scenario ideas, historical references or references to other interesting material. I'll work with you so that we get footnotes and annotations that work with the style of the book.

No advertisements, please, although references to published scenarios are fine. (For example, if you publish Cthulhu scenarios, then you can add references to those scenarios in appropriate places.)

Personal annotations

If you contribute $300, you get all kinds of good stuff. Best of all, I'll personally annotate your book for you. This means I can say things I wouldn't say in the published version: "This is the best tip in the book", "If you're ggoing to break one rule, break this one", "If I did a Shub-Niggurath adventure, this is how I'd do it". If there's something special you'd like me to write, tell me.

I'll also list your name as a patron. And I'll run a game for you at some point. If you like, you can name a Lovecraftian creature and I'll run a game about that creature.

If you're writing in the book...

If you take one of the perks that involves writing in the book, including the dedication, please don't suggest anything blatantly commerical or obscene. I'm sure you knew that anyway. But, if someone asks me to dedicate the book to Ronald McDonald, I will politely say no.

With all these write-in-the-book perks, we'll work together to get something that fits with the style of the book.

Playing Characters

Because the fundraiser reached $10000, everyone will get Playing Characters, a PDF about playing characters in roleplaying games. Also, you'll get a postcard of the cover artwork. Thanks very much for your support.