Fate of Cthulhu is a nifty new roleplaying game using the Fate rules, which I'm already a huge fan of. Fate is a game which emphasizes narrative and story-telling, making it a great choice if you like dynamic, fast-paced, action-oriented games about highly competent heroes doing heroic deeds. The rules for Fate of Cthulhu are completely self-contained, meaning that you don't have to own a copy of Fate Core to play this game.

If you're already familiar with the Cthulhu mythos, it's worth mentioning here what this game is NOT.

First of all, the Cthulhu mythos was directly inspired by the literature of H.P. Lovecraft and expanded upon by his fans and other authors. Lovecraft's distinct style and narrative voice have rightly been praised by generations of readers. As a distinct genre or subgenre of psychological horror, the mythos has had an outsized influence upon horror in several mediums, including literature, film, and roleplaying gaming. However, H.P. Lovecraft's legacy also poses a problem to modern readers: the man was an outspoken bigot and antisemite. So the first thing that this game is NOT is an endorsement of Lovecraft's views. The authors of this game made it a point to firmly call out Lovecraft's racism, distance themselves from it and disavow it in its entirety, and then go on to explore the world created by Lovecraft and others as a fantastic setting for their roleplaying game. Fate of Cthulhu tackles this elephant in Lovecraft's room directly and unambiguously, and good on them for doing so.

But even with that said, Fate of Cthulhu also takes a unique approach to this setting. It differs from most other mythos games in that it isn't about a group of scholars and investigators on the trail of unspeakable eldritch horror, gradually losing their grasp on sanity with each successive encounter with powerful alien intelligences, which only accelerate their descent into madness, hopelessness, and despair-- or something like that. Keep in mind, I've been a fan of the 'original' Cthulhu mythos roleplaying game since its debut back in 1982, so I'm not saying anything derogatory about that roleplaying experience: it's a blast!!! I'm just letting you know that this isn't that-- it's something different entirely. Fate of Cthulhu advances the storyline from the mythos' typically gloomy, hopelessly-doomed present, projecting that forward to a point a few centuries into an unspeakable future, where the Old Gods and their minions have triumphed over what remains of the human race, ruling earth with all of the insanity and cruel indifference you'd expect of them. This game BEGINS with utter hopelessness, instead of ENDING with it; instead of presenting a gradual slide into ultimate destruction, it begins at that point of utter devastation and then dangles the most poisonous substance imaginable: hope. You see, the player characters are servants (slaves?) of the Old Gods in this bleak future, but are given the opportunity, through the deus ex machina of time travel, to return to our present-day and set things right.

I've heard Fate of Cthulhu described, therefore, as "Terminator meets the Cthulhu mythos," a game where horribly corrupted and tortured souls from an unspeakable future travel back to our world to prevent that future from taking place.

I think a better analogy would be "the Cthulhu mythos meets 12 Monkeys," for those of you familiar with the TV show: an episodic set of missions undertaken to rewrite the past in hopes of averting an unbearable future.

Lastly, there's one other thing that this game is not. Unlike most other roleplaying forays into the Cthulhu mythos, it isn't a profile of inevitable, encroaching insanity. Evil Hat has long been an advocate for disabled players who enjoy roleplaying games, and there aren't any mandatory rules forcing players to roleplay insanity as a consequence of in-game plot events (though character insanity is presented as an option for groups which embrace this style of play).

So that's what this game is not: it isn't bigoted and doesn't condone racism; it isn't gloomy or hopeless, but is instead about a desperate gambit based upon the faintest glimmer of hope; and it doesn't force people to roleplay forms of mental disability unless they want to.

What this game IS, on the other hand, is a little more straight-forward, especially in terms of the story arc already described. The player characters are heroes from the future who have traveled back to our time in order to save both realities. The genius of this game, if you will, is in what it calls 'timelines,' which are key events which the players believe must take place in order to bring about their nightmare future. A Fate of Cthulhu campaign is essentially a race to prevent these events from taking place, although in many of the timelines provided, the player characters are misinformed about some of these events or misunderstand several important details surrounding them. Having multiple timelines for a GM to choose from prevents players from knowing, in advance, which story arc they will be following, and it also makes the game replayable.

So there you have it. Fate of Cthulhu uses a great system to tell an interesting story in a way which puts a new spin on the Cthluhlu mythos. It does so using clever timeline mechanics, which serve to increase replay value and diminish player foreknowledge of what is about to happen. And it does so in an honest and inclusive manner, rejecting Lovecraft's bigotry and racism and creating a safe space for gamers with mental disability.

Other than a noxious, sulfurous green haze, a few tentacles, and a group of cultists trying to open a way which should never be opened, what more could you ask for? Strongly recommended.