About the archive:
Convicts & Cthulhu is a sourcebook designed to allow Call of Cthulhu Keepers and players to run scenarios and campaigns set in the penal colonies of early Australia. It particularly targets the historical period from 1795 to 1810, a time in which law and order played second-fiddle to greed and corruption. This was the depraved era which led ultimately to Australia’s first (and only) military uprising: the Rum Rebellion!
Cosmic Horror. Fueled by Human Cruelty and Depravity.
The prison colonies of 18th and 19th Century Australia are justly feared throughout the British Empire as places of unparalleled suffering and torment. The refuse of the Empire are sent here to serve out prison terms in a land half a world away from “civilization”. A world that, to European eyes, seems thoroughly alien.
But, few among the white-skinned invaders know just how many secrets lurk within this ancient land. For countless generations the indigenous men and women have lived in perfect balance with the timeless forces that haunt Australia; but now, just a decade or so after the arrival of the British colonists, their ability to hold those powers in check is about to fail. And while horrors long-resident are poised to awaken, dark-hearted white men have also brought their own horrors to Australia in the form of terrifying cosmic gods and disgusting occult creatures.
Convicts & Cthulhu is a sourcebook designed to allow Call of Cthulhu Keepers and players to run scenarios and campaigns set in the penal colonies of early Australia. It particularly targets the historical period from 1795 to 1810, a time in which law and order played second-fiddle to greed and corruption. This was the depraved era which led ultimately to Australia’s first (and only) military uprising: the Rum Rebellion!
Contained within this book are historical notes on the era, character templates for investigators from all walks of life (indigenous, convicts, military, free settlers), weapons and equipment, and detailed gazetteers for Sydney, Parramatta and other settlements. Also included are details of cults & Mythos entities in the colonies, a full introductory scenario and a plentiful assortment of scenario seeds.
Convicts & Cthulhu is fully-compatible with Chaosium’s 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu rules (but can easily be used with earlier editions with some simple arithmetical tweaking).
Since 2016, we have published over 500 pages of material for the Convicts & Cthulhu setting, encompassing source material, scenarios, historical NPC descriptions, prop documents, and even a Campaign frame. This Archive brings together everything we’ve created to date.
