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Learn What’s New in Colonial Gothic Third Edition

Jan 7, 2017

It’s strange the variety of ways I can stumble across some news items or game releases. As an example, I was recently reading through a new RPG title (or maybe I should say it’s RPG-ish) based on the Cthulhu Mythos and really, really wasn’t digging it. In fact, my dislike was so high for that product I’m not sure I’ll eventually provide a review for it since my thoughts are very negative. Anyway, once I’d slogged through that dreck I was still in the mood to check out something Lovecraftian; this time a book I would hopefully dig. Luckily, I’d picked up a copy of Colonial Gothic, a horror RPG mainly set during the American Revolution from Rogue Games, not too long ago and settled in for a read. I was really enjoying the CG corebook, and curious to find out what else was out there for the system so I could write an article, when I learned a new edition had just arrived a few days ago.

I quickly reached out to creator Richard Iorio II to learn what might be new in Colonial Gothic Third Edition. Here’s Richard’s reply:

Good morning Jeff.

Thank you for getting in touch and thank you for the kind words about Colonial Gothic. The game is as old as Rogue Games (this year is the 10th Anniversary) and it is a game that is very close to my heart.

I think one of the things I love about Colonial Gothic is that I am subtle with everything: horror, supernatural, occult and Mythos. I really try to emphasis the real and the historical, and then layer in the horror and like. I get emails from a lot of fans that one of the things they like is that I do not invalidate the real history. They are also always amazed by how much history I put into the game.

I am sorry Third Edition’s release through a wrench in your article for Second Edition. Those who follow my personal blog or the various Rogue Games’ social network spots, know I agonized over the whole thing. In the end I decided to because the game really needed areas tweaked, and I wanted to do a better job of explaining topics. I was just going to revise things, and update the book that way. Yet, the more work I did, the more I realized I really was making substantial changes to the game. That is why Third Edition exists.

The good news is I kept the books that have come before as is, and with a few minor changes, everything that has come before is still useful. Here is the list of things I did with Third Edition:

Stats now go from 1 to 24
Stats now get an ability bonus based on their rank
The die mechanic is now roll high, but still d12 (that will never change)
How skills work are changed and make a hell of a lot more sense
Skill functions are now: Ability Bonus + Skill Rank + 2d12
Target Numbers are now set, and in order to succeed you must beat the TN. In addition, the TN is not adjusted, but the die roll.
Skills now include tables that provide examples of actions and the TN associated with them. This helps GMs and Players when thinking of their own actions.
No longer do you find Dramatic Failure and Success in the game. In truth I have never liked them and dropped them from my personal games a while ago. They were kept in because I was not sure what the reaction would be if I dropped them in 2E.
Buying Skills and Spells makes more sense.
Combat has been cleaned up. The biggest change is number of Actions. All characters get a number of actions per round. This is set by taking your Nimble and dividing by 3. So if your character has Nimble 9, they would have 3 Actions per round.
What can a character do in a round with multiple actions? They can choose to use all three to attack in melee. They could choose to attack and save the other for Defense. They can fire a musket and reload, so that the next round they are ready to fire again (more on this in a second). In short the number of actions you have dictate how many “things” you can do in a given round.
Reloading and firing is more inline with history. Shooter were able to fire, reload, and fire. In fact skilled riflemen historical were able to fire and reload and fire four times a minute. I tried to capture this.
Damage is better written and I have provided the “formulas” to calculate them
In all I have worked by butt off, and will continue, to make the game as clear and user friendly as I can. Chapter 3 is perhaps a far better chapter now then it has ever been.

So that is Third Edition. It is till the same game, but with a few changes.

The book files are at the printer, and once printed, Studio2 will be getting it out into distribution so it can be bought in game stores and the like. Once the book is approved and ready you will be able to buy it on Drivethrurpg and other places as well.

There are a lot of releases for the game since the start, and all of them are still useable. The Player Companion and Gamemaster are inline with the rules and nothing from them are found in the Third Edition Rulebook. The Bestiary and Lovecraft are useable with a few slight tweaks to the monster stats. Lovecraft, due to its content, really sees no major change due to the nature of the creatures. Both New France, The Gazetteer and French Indian War see no changes. The Templars book is another one that sees no changes.

The location books and Flames of Freedom are going to be going out of print and replaced with two releases:

Flames of Freedom: Beginnings is going to combine both Boston and Philadelphia in one book and they will be fully brought inline with Third Edition. In addition the small adventure found in The Gazetteer will be put here. I am combining the two books because those two parts of the campaign work better as a whole. This will be out in May of this year.
Colonial Gothic: Settings is a big book that sees all the smaller setting books, as well as Colonial Gothic Locations into one single volume. This will be out in March of this year.

As for new releases I have a lot in various stages of development and they will take me to 2019. There is one slated for this year and that is Flames of Freedom: Shadows Upon the Hudson. This has been long in the works, but it is finally done and will be out this summer. As for other titles I will hold off on saying anything. Their release dates are not set in stone yet, and the order of their release might change based on the manuscript. I would push for more releases, but I strive to strike a balance with releases for both Colonial Gothic and Shadow, Sword & Spell (the second game I publish and will have its Second Edition released in August).

So here you have it, everything you ever wanted to know. I bet you are sorry for asking me. LOL.

I hope I answered everything you wanted, If you want to know more, just let me know. I can talk about this game all day.

Thanks,

Richard

Thank you Richard.

Colonial Gothic Third Edition is currently available as a 242 page PDF for $9.99 from our friends at DriveThruRPG.

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...

1 Comment

Ace Turley says:

8 years ago

Sounds interesting and I’ll look to checking it out! As for the other Lovecraft game don’t you think you owe it to prospective buyers to review it? You could save them from spending their hard earned money!

Reply