Rising Sun Eternal
Contents
Campaign Overview
This is the campaign Wiki for adventures in a Classical Japan setting, run on a fork of the Cthulhu Eternal SRD.
I've been a huge fan of the Cthulhu Eternal project since its inception. I've enjoyed Apocthulhu enormously, and I completely endorse the principle of a Cthulhu Mythos SRD based on the huge legacy of material developed since the first editions of Call of Cthulhu in the 1980s. In my opinion, it comprises one of the simplest and most elegant rulesets in the d100/BRP tradition, as well as one with a huge corpus of applicable material. I've worked on developing this for various other time periods and settings, including Dark Ages, and now, feudal Japan.
A Word on the Title
I'm not a devout Shintoist, but I do remember and love the original edition of Lee Gold's Land of the Rising Sun. This setting is not intended to be anything like as dense and crunchy as that volume, but I still find it a tremendous inspiration.
Essential Resources
These are the pages for creating characters, following the campaign, and generally working out specifics in the rules.
- Creating Characters for Rising Sun Eternal
- Combat and Weapons for Rising Sun Eternal
- The magic system for Rising Sun Eternal
- In Character Thread
- Out of Character Thread
- Recruitment Thread
- Cthulhu Eternal Victorian Era SRD
- Apocthulhu SRD
- Wiki template for Rising Sun Eternal characters
Equipment and Resources
Protagonists’ efforts to scrounge for scarce supplies or items, or attempt to solve problems by combining items with jury-rigging, use the following. The primary mechanical differences lie in the specific skills used.
For Protagonists in Japan games:
• Attempts to scrounge gear/supplies from likely locations in the environment – tests against the Scavenge skill.
• Attempts to jury-rig a contraption – tests against Craft skill specializations or Mechanics (at the GM's discretion).
Vehicles
The table below provides some examples of the types of vehicles common to Japan.
Speed
Vehicles in Japan all fall into the category of Surface Vehicles, regardless of whether they travel on land on water.
When comparing Surface Vehicles, however, there is a range of different vehicle speeds. A vehicle with a ‘Fast’ rating grants a +20% bonus to any Drive or Pilot test to pursue or escape. A ‘Slow’ vehicle incurs a −20% penalty instead, while a ‘Very Slow’ vehicle attracts a -40% penalty. An ‘Average’ rating confers no modifier.
A vehicle that’s notorious for poor handling or that’s in bad shape might counts as ‘heavily worn’ or ‘junk’ (see above) at the GM’s discretion.
Some Example Vehicles
| >> Example Vehicles | ||||
| Vehicle Type | Description | Hit Points | Armor | Speed |
| Coach | Two-wheeled, drawn by 2+ horses harnessed as a team | 20—25 | 2 | Average |
| Wagon, Horse-Drawn | Four-wheeled vehicle for cargo; drawn by a team | 20—25 | 1 | Slow |
| Water Vehicles | ||||
| Barge | Long boat hauled along rivers by horses | 30 | 4 | V. Slow |
| Wherry | Ferry rowed by oarsmen, c.5 passengers | 20 | 1 | Average |
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Characters
The player-characters on the Starkweather-Moore Expedition
| Player | Character | HP | WP | SAN | BP | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Some Clever Name | Margaret Hollingshead | 11 | 14 | 70 | 56 | 13: 6/6/1, [][][] |
| Archer | [1] | 10 | 11 | 55/54 | 44 | 6: 6/0/0, [] |
| Roger | Doctor Reuben Bell | 11 | 13 | 65 | 52 | 16: 6/6/4, [][][] |
| brahnamin | "Mama" Nguyen | 10 | 17 | 85 | 68 | 4: 4/0/0, [] |
| Regular Guy | Emilie Garilound | 12 | 11 | 55/54 | 44 | 9: 6/3/0, [][] |
Important Information and Materials
This is one of the best, broadest sources on the Victorian era:
For those with Google Earth, this is Google Earth's interactive map of Victorian London:
https://www.victorianlondon.org/googleearth.htm
Important People
Below are a few of the key figures, as well as others who'll be added as they appear in the course of the campaign.
- Count Weldon, your mysterious benefactor, a suave and polished man of affairs in early middle age, with a slight suggestion of foreign ancestry.
- Puck, the mysterious little mudlark acquaintance of Mama Nguyen who may or may not be an actual fairy.
- Katie Moppet, the little preteen girl who may or may not be the King of the Rattown Sewers.
- Bill, Dan's brother - and fellow thief?
Important Groups and Places
- The Vegliantino, the Paladin Society's barge and floating headquarters.
- The Illustrated Police News, a weekly sensationalist tabloid newspaper, always ready to pounce on the wildest, most scandalous stories.
- The Bethlem Royal Hospital, otherwise known as Bedlam Asylum; a haven for the troubled soul - or a hell-on-earth of mental torture?
- The Forty Elephants, London's most notorious gang of all-female criminals.
House Rules and Quirks
Spending Willpower to Make Rolls Succeed
You can spend your Willpower Points on a 1-to-5 basis to improve most skill rolls (but not SAN rolls or damage rolls, or POW tests, or to change normally successful rolls into crits etc.): 1 WP = up to 5%. This represents making that extra effort of will to achieve a success. But in doing so, you're running down your Willpower Points, which can be dangerous. Also, you have to take the full 1-to-5 conversion - no fractions. If your roll has failed by 6%, you have to spend 2 WP for the full 10%.
Remember that you can also spend Willpower to project SAN loss onto Bonds, or to repress insanity. This is different to the above use - and a reminder how important it is to hang on to your WP. Fumbles can cost you WP; resisting interrogation definitely does. WP are needed to fuel rituals and objects, and are sometimes targeted by offensive rituals. They're also very important for survival in hostile environments.
Remember that you suffer an emotional breakdown when your WP hit 2 or below, and total collapse when you hit 0 WP. You regain 1d6 WP after a full, proper night's sleep. Exhaustion and sleeplessness cut into that.
