Using the “Fudge” role-playing game system, SotC went one step beyond the basics of that ruleset by introducing “Aspects,” these are simple descriptive phrases that the character-builder comes up with on his own. In the game, a player activates an Aspect to earn extra points on his dice role. The game referee can also use the same player character’s Aspects to hinder the PC.
It is truly a revolutionary idea, and I’ve had fun in my game using it.
Cardinal Carvaux
When Didier Carvaux fought alongside his fellow Frenchmen in the Great War, he saw something beyond the battlefield carnage. He saw visions of vile, boneless beasts devouring the dead and parasitically riding on the necks of every soldier.
Didier did just that. He fought and he watched the creatures. Eventually, he even began to understand their habits, needs and even their language.
At the same time, he forged dozens of secret alliances (Aspect 7) with the world’s elite. He became their go-to man. He could deliver anything they wanted, and the strangest “wants” were something they certainly wanted to stay secret. As a trade off, he used those debts to further his agenda: the continued corruption of humanity in service of his unseen masters. (Aspect 4 — The Corrupting War)
Still, the fact that he’s the only one to truly acknowlege and fear his overlords has worn on him, and much of his own resources are spent on proving their existence (Aspect 6 — Dimensional Theories). Those studies, and the minor, yet ambigious, successes he’s had of proving their link to this world, have allowed him to gather a cadre of followers. The group, known as the Order of the Ebon Tide (Aspect 9), is a small cult who worship him as the only person deemed worthy enough to communicate with the world’s secret overlords. As such, the cult administers to his every whim.
When making public appearances, he comes across as showy and melodramatic as he wears odd and intricate jewelry and a long orange robe decorated with a black octopus motif. (Aspect 10 – “My public awaits”) Much of the fascination the public has with Cardinal Carvaux is the audacity and delusional nature of his claims, and while most dismiss his writings on the extradimensional invasion, they are enthralled by his message that permits the embracing of life’s most sordid pleasures.
ASPECTS
1. Cephalapod masters
2. Vice is nice
3. The Black Ink at his side
4. Corrupting war
5. “War weary? Why worry!”
6. Dimensional theories
7. Secret alliances
8. Many tentacles
9. Order of the Ebon Tide
10. “My public awaits”
SKILLS
Superb — Resolve
Great — Mysteries, Guns
Good — Leadership, Contacting, Resources
Fair — Science, Rapport, Deceit, Engineering
Average — Academics, Fists, Pilot, Drive, Stealth
STUNTS
Resolve — Smooth Recovery, Unflappable, Right Place – Right Time
Contacting — Big Man in the Occult
Guns — Trickshot
MORE PULP ADVENTURES
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