This page collects together resources for Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age that have been written by Community Creators and made available for others to re-use.
All contents are distributed under the Open Gaming License, with 100% of the page contents (excluding the name “Cthulhu Eternal” and the distinctive Cthulhu Eternal logo) are considered Open Content under that license
The Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age SRD has a selection of Protagonist Archetypes that cover common types of characters that appear in Lovecraftian stories. Of course those ten or so character types won’t cover everything that a player might dream up for a Protagonist concept … that’s why the SRD also has a section describing how to build new Archetype templates. Collected below are some new Jazz Age Archetypes that community members have built.
In February 2022, user pstjmack on rpg.net launched a long-running playthrough of the classic campaign “Beyond The Mountains of Madness”, adapting it to work with the Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age SRD. He noted that there were several extra Protagonist Archetypes that were handy for this 1930s campaign.
OGL CITATIONArchetypes for Beyond The Mountains of Madness © 2022, pstjmack (Paul StJohn Mackintosh). |
Cartographer (Jazz Age)
RECOMMENDED STATS: INT, DEX
ARCHETYPAL SKILLS:
• Craft (Mapmaking) 50%
• Law (Land Rights) 20%
• Navigate 60%
• Natural World 30%
• Research 60%
• Science (Cartography) 50%
• Use Gadgets 50%
Choose any 4 of these that you don’t already have:
• Alertness 60%
• Drive 60%
• Foreign Language (Type) 40%
• Heavy Machinery 50%
• Regional Lore (Type) 40%
• Science (Geography) 40%
• Search 60%
• Survival (Type) 50%
STARTING RESOURCES: 5
BONDS: 2
Engineer (Jazz Age)
RECOMMENDED STATS: DEX
ARCHETYPAL SKILLS:
• Appraise 40%
• Craft (Mechanic) 50%
• Craft (Jury-Rigging) 60%
• Heavy Machinery 60%
• Insight 60%
• Use Gadgets 50%
Choose any 4 of these that you don’t already have:
• Administration 50%
• Alertness 60%
• Athletics 70%
• Drive 60%
• First Aid 50%
• Harangue 50%
• Search 60%
• Streetwise (Ports and Factories) 40%
STARTING RESOURCES: 4
BONDS: 3
Explorer/Outdoorsman (Jazz Age)
RECOMMENDED STATS: INT, DEX
ARCHETYPAL SKILLS:
• Athletics 60%
• Craft (Mapmaking) 50%
• Drive 50%
• Firearms 60%
• Navigate 60%
• Natural World 60%
• Swim 60%
• Use Gadgets 50%
Choose any 4 of these that you don’t already have:
• Alertness 60%
• First Aid 50%
• Foreign Language (Type) 40%
• Melee Weapons 70%
• Pilot 40%
• Search 60%
• Survival (Type) 50%
• Track 50%
STARTING RESOURCES: 4
BONDS: 2
Journalist / Author (Jazz Age)
RECOMMENDED STATS: INT, CHA
ARCHETYPAL SKILLS:
• Alertness 50%
• Art (Type) 50%
• Insight 60%
• Research 60%
• Search 60%
• Social Etiquette 30%
Choose any 4 of these that you don’t already have:
• Administration 50%
• Anthropology 40%
• Archeology 40%
• Foreign Language (Type) 40%
• History 50%
• Law (Type) 40%
• Occult 50%
• Regional Lore (Type) 40%
• Science (Type) 40%
• Use Gadgets 40%
STARTING RESOURCES: 4
BONDS: 4
Photographer (Jazz Age)
RECOMMENDED STATS: INT, CHA
ARCHETYPAL SKILLS:
• Alertness 50%
• Art (Photography) 50%
• Insight 60%
• Research 50%
• Stealth 60%
• Social Etiquette 30%
Choose any 4 of these that you don’t already have:
• Athletics 70%
• Foreign Language (Type) 40%
• Natural World 50%
• Regional Lore (Type) 40%
• Science (Chemistry) 40%
• Search 60%
• Streetwise (Type) 40%
• Survival (Type) 50%
• Track 50%
• Use Gadgets 40%
STARTING RESOURCES: 4
BONDS: 4
Lovecraft’s short stories and novellas are packed with personalities which are typical examples of classic “investigators” of the Cthulhu Mythos. Game Moderators may wish to drop some of those individuals into a scenario or campaign as an NPC. The following statistic blocks will assist. However, GMs are always advised to go back and re-read the short stories which introduce the characters as this will give far greater insight into their quirks and characteristics – much more than a stat block will.
OGL CITATIONNPCs from Lovecraft’s Fiction © 2022, Chris Rosen. |
“In the end the three men from Arkham – old, white-bearded Dr. Armitage, stocky, iron-grey Professor Rice, and lean, youngish Dr. Morgan, ascended the mountain alone.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror” (1928)
STR 11 CON 08 DEX 10 INT 18 POW 16 CHA 13
HP: 10 DB: 0 SAN 55 BP: 48 WP: 16
Weapons: none
Skills: Art (Literature) 75%, Foreign Language (French) 80%, Foreign Language (German) 70%, Foreign Language (Greek) 68%, Foreign Language (Latin) 75%, Insight 48%, Occult 25%, Persuade 75%, Research 95%, Science (Cryptography) 75%, Unnatural 18%.
“He knew only that he wished to cross the barrier to the untrammeled land of his dreams and the gulfs where all dimensions dissolved in the absolute.”
– H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price, “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” (1933)
[also mentioned by Lovecraft in “The Statement of Randolph Carter” (1919), “The Silver Key” (1926), The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927), The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)]
STR 15 CON 17 DEX 14 INT 18 POW 19 CHA 15
HP: 16 DB: +1 SAN 50 BP: 38 WP: 19
Weapons: .45 Revolver 60%, damage 1D10+2
Scimitar 75%, damage 2D6 + damage bonus
Permanent Resources: 12
Skills: Archeology 14%, Art (Philosophy) 88%, Art (Vintage Books) 79%, Foreign Language (Cat) 35%, Foreign Language (Chinese) 25%, Foreign Language (French) 57%, Foreign Language (Zoog) 20%, History 48%, History (Colonial Architecture) 59%, Insight 70%, Navigate 65%, Oneirology 70%, Persuade 55%, Research 55%, Ride 45%, Unnatural 10%.
Notable Possessions: The Silver key, Hyperborean scroll.
“The rats continued their riot, stampeding with such force and distinctness that I could finally assign to their motions a definite direction. These creatures, in numbers apparently inexhaustible, were engaged in one stupendous migration from inconceivable heights to some depth conceivably or inconceivably below.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Rats in the Walls” (1923)
STR 12 CON 11 DEX 12 INT 15 POW 14 CHA 10
HP: 12 DB: 0 SAN 0 BP: N/A WP: 14
Weapons: Claw & Chew 35%, damage 1D4
Permanent Resources: 15
Skills: Administration 45%, Alertness 40%, Alertness (Hear Rats) 85%, Appraise 70%, History 40%, Insight 40%, Search 55%.
“Blond and blue-eyed, he had the fresh complexion of a child; and his attempt to raise a moustache were discernible only with difficulty. His voice was soft and light, and his unexercised life gave him a juvenile chubbiness rather than the paunchiness of premature middle age. He was of good height, and his handsome face would have made him a notable gallant had not his shyness held him to seclusion and bookishness.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Thing on the Doorstep” (1933)
STR 11 CON 10 DEX 11 INT 16 POW 8 CHA 13
HP: 11 DB: 0 SAN 15 BP: 8 WP: 8
Weapons: none
Permanent Resources: 15
Skills: Art (Literature) 60%, Art (Poetry) 85%, Drive (Automobile) 0%, History 45%, Occult 65%, Persuade 75, Regional Lore (Arkham) 95%, Research 65%, Unnatural 33%.
“It must not be fancied that Inspector Legrasse had the least interest in archaeology. On the contrary, his wish for enlightenment was prompted by purely professional considerations. The statuette, idol, fetish, or whatever it was, had been captured some months before in the wooded swamps south of New Orleans during a raid on a supposed voodoo meeting; and so singular and hideous were the rites connected with it, that the police could not but realise that they had stumbled on a dark cult totally unknown to them, and infinitely more diabolic than even the blackest of the African voodoo circles.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” (1926)
STR 12 CON 14 DEX 13 INT 14 POW 15 CHA 11
HP: 13 DB: 0 SAN 70 BP: 60 WP: 15
Weapons: .38 Revolver 45%, damage 1D10
Permanent Resources: 6
Skills: Alertness 80%, Athletics 35%, Dodge 34%, Foreign Language (French) 44%, Foreign Language (Spanish) 18%, Harangue (Interrogate) 85%, History 27%, Insight 70%, Law 35%, Research 31%, Ride 45%, Search 59%, Stealth 39%, Track 40%, Unnatural 2%, Use Gadgets (Photography) 22%.
“In youth he had felt the hidden beauty and ecstasy of things, and had been a poet; but poverty and sorrow and exile had turned his gaze in darker directions, and he had thrilled at the imputations of evil in the world around. Daily life had fur him come to be a phantasmagoria of macabre shadow-studies …”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Horror at Red Hook” (1925)
STR 14 CON 15 DEX 11 INT 15 POW 14 CHA 11
HP: 15 DB: +1 SAN 58 BP: 56 WP: 14
Weapons: Fist/Punch 65%, damage 1D4-1 + damage bonus
Nightstick 38%, damage 1D6 + damage bonus
.38 Revolver 70%, damage 1D10
Permanent Resources: 7
Skills: Alertness 55%, Appraise 65%, Athletics 55%, Charm 70%, Dodge 36%, Drive (Automobile) 35%, Foreign Language (Greek) 20%, Foreign Language (Hebrew) 8%, Foreign Language (Latin) 38%, Harangue 65%, History 30%, Law 40%, Insight 60%, Occult 16%, Persuade 20%, Regional Lore (Streets of New York City) 85%, Research 55%, Stealth 25%.
“Pickman was showing what happens to those stolen babes – how they grow up – and then I began to see a hideous relationship in the faces of the human and non-human figures. He was, in all his gradations of morbidity between the frankly non-human and the degradedly human, establishing a sardonic linkage and evolution. The dog-things were developed from mortals!”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “Pickman’s Model” (1926)
[Also mentioned by Lovecraft in “A History of the Necronomicon” (1927), The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)]
STR 13 CON 17 DEX 18 INT 18 POW 18 CHA 11
HP: 15 DB: +1 SAN 15 BP: 0 WP: 18
Weapons: .45 Revolver 55%, damage 1D10+2
Skills: Art (Oil Painting) 90%, Athletics 50%, Charm 55%, Foreign Language (Latin) 25%, History (Colonial Architecture) 30%, Insight 90%, Unnatural 12%, Use Gadgets (Photography) 25%.
“She was dark, smallish, and very good-looking except for overprotuberant eyes; but something in her expression alienated extremely sensitive people. It was, however, largely her origin and conversation which caused average folk to avoid her. She was one of the Innsmouth Waites, and dark legends have clustered for generations about crumbling, half-deserted Innsmouth and its people.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Thing on the Doorstep” (1933)
STR 12 CON 14 DEX 13 INT 18 POW 18 CHA 13
HP: 13 DB: 0 SAN 0 BP: N/A WP: 18
Weapons: Fist/Punch 60%, damage 1D4-1
Grapple 35%, damage special
Dagger 45%, damage 1D4
Skills: Drive (Automobile) 70%, Foreign Language (Arabic) 60%, Occult 55%, Research 70%, Swim 85%, Unnatural 72%.
Rituals: The Baleful Name of Azathoth, Body Swap, plus several Aklo Sabaoth and Summon Entities rituals, as the GM wishes.
“a small, slender youth with delicate features, yellow hair, … clean-shaven, soft-voiced, and spectacled, with only an occasional flash of a cold blue eye to tell of the hardening and growing fanaticism of his character under the pressure of his terrible investigations.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “Herbert West: Reanimator” (1921)
STR 11 CON 13 DEX 15 INT 18 POW 18 CHA 12
HP: 12 DB: 0 SAN 10 BP: 0 WP: 18
Weapons: Scalpel 90%, damage 1D4
Hypodermic 80%, no damage but if attack was a critical success victim injected with a poison of Lethality Rating 20%
Permanent Resources: 8
Skills: Alertness 5%, Appraise 75%, Charm 50%, Craft (Electrics) 55%, Craft (Mechanics) 45%, Disguise 40%, Dodge 55%, First Aid 65%, Harangue 75%, Medicine 79%, Medicine (Anatomy) 80%, Persuade 60%, Research 60%, Science (Chemistry) 65%, Science (Pharmacy) 60%, Search 70%, Stealth 39%, Track 18%, Use Gadgets (Photography) 20%.
“all the rotting ancient books and parts of books which during his own day had been heaped promiscuously in odd corners of the various rooms. ‘I made some use of ’em,’ he would say as he tried to mend a torn black-letter page with paste prepared on the rusty kitchen stove, ‘but the boy’s fitten to make better use of ’em …’”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror” (1928)
STR 10 CON 11 DEX 9 INT 18 POW 13 CHA 8
HP: 11 DB: 0 SAN 0 BP: N/A WP: 13
Weapons: Staff 80%, damage 1D8+1
Skills: Drive (Sleigh) 65%, First Aid 25%, History 15%, Occult 25%, Persuade 25%, Research 10%, Unnatural 22%.
Rituals: Aklo Sabaoth (Nyarlathotep), Aklo Sabaoth (Yog-Sothoth), The Baleful Name of Azathoth, Inflict Harm, Summon Entities (Spectral Vampires), Summon Entities (Winged Servant), Voorish Sign, plus others.
“…though he shared his mother’s and grandfather’s chinlessness, his firm and precociously shaped nose united with the expression of his large, dark, almost Latin eyes to give him an air of quasi-adulthood and well-nigh preternatural intelligence. He was, however, exceedingly ugly despite his appearance of brilliancy; there being something almost goatish or animalistic about his thick lips, large-pored, yellowish skin, coarse crinkly hair, and oddly elongated ears.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror” (1928)
STR 17 CON 18 DEX 14 INT 21 POW 20 CHA 7
HP: 18 DB: +2 SAN 0 BP: N/A WP: 20
Weapons: Fist/Punch 65%, damage 1D4-1 + damage bonus
.45 Revolver 30%, damage 1D10+2
Skills: Alertness 90%, Athletics 65%, Disguise 55%, Dodge 55%, Drive (Wagon) 55%, Foreign Language (Aklo) 65%, Foreign Language (Arabic) 25%, Foreign Language (Greek) 45%, Foreign Language (Latin) 65%, History 35%, Insight 45%, Occult 45%, Research 25%, Science (Astronomy) 25%, Search 75%, Stealth 45%, Unnatural 38%.
Rituals: Aklo Sabaoth (Nyarlathotep), Aklo Sabaoth (Yog-Sothoth), Open Dimensional Rift, Powder of Ibn-Ghazi, Summon Entities (Spectral Vampire), Summon Entities (Winged Servant), Voorish Sign, plus others.
“… it was mostly a kind of force that doesn’t belong in our part of space; a kind of force that acts and grows and shapes itself by other laws than those of our sort of Nature.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror” (1928)
STR 35 CON 30 DEX 21 INT 21 POW 24
HP: 33 WP: 24
Weapons: Grasp & Suck 100%, damage 1D6 per turn (crushing) plus 1D10 each subsequent turn (from blood loss)
Armor: none, but impervious to physical weapons; enchanted weapons do minimum; invisible except when feeding
Rituals: Aklo Sabaoth (Yog-Sothoth), Voorish Sign, plus others.
Sanity Loss: encountering the Son while it is invisible costs 1/1D8 SAN. While it is visible costs 1D8/3D10 SAN. An individual may lose SAN twice; once for invisible, once for visible.
“He was a small, lean, bent person, with shabby clothes, blue eyes, grotesque, satyrlike face, and nearly bald head.”
– H. P. Lovecraft, “The Music of Erich Zann” (1921)
STR 14 CON 10 DEX 18 INT 14 POW 13 CHA 9
HP: 12 DB: +1 SAN 15 BP: 13 WP: 13
Weapons: none
Skills: Alertness 90%, Art (Know Music) 93%, Art (Play Viol) 99%, Foreign Language (French) 11%, Foreign Language (German) 63%, Foreign Language (Musical Notation) 99%, Search 0%.
Sometimes you just want to quickly grab a Protagonist for an impromptu game of Cthulhu Eternal, rather than go through the process of designing your own customized character. Alternatively, it’s sometimes handy to look at previous Protagonists for inspiration when making your own. Either way, the resources below give you some ready-to-play characters for your Jazz Age games of Cthulhu Eternal.
These were created by Dean Engelhardt to play through a series of Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age scenarios set in H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham in the mid-1920s.
OGL CITATIONMiskatonic Investigators © 2019-2022, Dean Engelhardt. |
STR 17 CON 16 DEX 12 INT 12 POW 09 CHA 11
HP 17 DB +2 SAN 45 BP 36 WP 9
Skills: Alertness 50%, Appraise 40%, Athletics 50%, Craft (Locksmith) 40%, Disguise 50%, Drive 40%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 50%, Harangue 70%, Insight 40%, Search 50%, Stealth 60%, Streetwise (Arkham Gangs) 60%, Unarmed Combat 60%.
Resources: 10
Bonds: 4
Notes: You are an “independent businessman” whose services include helping clients with difficult or messy situations that require a slightly – heavier – touch. While you started out small, just a kid on the streets, you soon found your services being acquired by important people around Arkham, who all needed certain problems to “go away.” In the last year or two, you have been called upon by one of the most important persons in Arkham, Mayor Peabody. As the campaign to get Mayor Peabody re-elected has become hotter, you seem to be almost permanently on the Mayor’s payroll. Not that you’re complaining …
STR 12 CON 11 DEX 15 INT 12 POW 13 CHA 13
HP 12 DB 0 SAN 65 BP 52 WP 13
Skills: Administration 60%, Anthropology 50%, Archeology 50%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 50%, History 70%, Insight 50%, Melee Weapons 70%, Military Training (Army) 40%, Navigate 50%, Persuade 60%, Research 60%, Ride 30%, Social Etiquette 50%.
Resources: 13
Bonds: 3
Notes: You come from a family with a long military tradition, stretching back to Colonial days. So, naturally you took up the mantle of a military officer. You rose to the rank of Colonel by the time of the Great War. After arriving back in America you retired with honors and returned to your ancestral home of Arkham. Your status as a retired Colonel brings with it a certain amount of prestige in the small college town, and it wasn’t long before you became friends with John Peabody, the town Mayor. Peabody has asked you to appear beside him on the podium at events – increasingly so as the race for re-election has become fierce.
STR 12 CON 15 DEX 16 INT 16 POW 13 CHA 12
HP 14 DB 0 SAN 65 BP 52 WP 13
Skills: Administration 50%, Alertness 50%, Appraise 30%, Charm 60%, Craft (Locksmith) 40%, Disguise 50%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 50%, Insight 70%, Law (Massachusetts) 50%, Occult 30%, Persuade 60%, Search 70%, Stealth 70%, Streetwise (Arkham Underworld) 40%, Use Gadgets 40%.
Resources: 4
Bonds: 3
Notes: You used to be a cop, a member of the local Arkham P.D. – a job that you enjoyed immensely, as it brought with it a level of respect and privilege. Heck, you even became the personal liaison between the P.D. and the Mayor’s office. Not bad for a wide-eyed young guy from Aylesbury. But a year or so back, you parted ways with the police force, for reasons you’d prefer not to discuss. Faced with the poor-house you decided to become a self-employed Private Eye. Thankfully, the Mayor’s office was still keen to use your services and between that and work from suspicious spouses, you’ve been able to eke out a pretty good living.
STR 11 CON 07 DEX 12 INT 17 POW 13 CHA 14
HP 9 DB 0 SAN 65 BP 52 WP 13
Skills: Administration 40%, Alertness 60%, Anthropology 40%, Art (Stage Magic) 40%, Charm 60%, Foreign Language (Latin) 40%, History 50%, Insight 60%, Law (Massachusetts) 60%, Medicine 40%, Persuade 60%, Research 70%, Regional Lore (Arkham Families) 40%, Search 60%, Social Etiquette 50%, Use Gadgets 40%.
Resources: 8
Bonds: 3
Notes: You are a fairly recent graduate of Miskatonic University, where you studied Law and a few classes in Medicine. Anything to secure a well-paying future. While at M.U. you were sickened by the liberal culture that pervades the place, vowing that when you graduated you would take up a good conservative job in business. So, when you were approached by somebody from Town Hall asking whether you’d like to help run the Mayor’s campaign for re-election, you jumped at it. After all, Mayor Peabody is an old-school conservative with strong morals, not like that socialist contender Wainscott from M.U.
STR 08 CON 13 DEX 09 INT 15 POW 15 CHA 11
HP 11 DB -1 SAN 75 BP 60 WP 15
Skills: Alertness 50%, Art (Literature) 50%, Drive 60%, History 50%, Insight 60%, Occult 70%, Persuade 40%, Regional Lore (Miskatonic Valley) 40%, Research 80%, Search 60%, Social Etiquette 30%, Survival (Forest) 50%, Swim 40%, Track 50%, Use Gadgets 40%.
Resources: 4
Bonds: 4
Notes: You are a writer, who has penned several books about the history of the Miskatonic Valley and its townships. During your research you’ve unearthed more than a few “irregularities”. Even despite your back-catalog and sound reputation, a steady source of income remains elusive. For this reason you sometimes need to take on commissions: right now you are working on a biography (hagiography would be a better term) about Arkham Mayor John Peabody. You’ve found the man’s self-importance and egoism to be hugely offensive, but you have signed a contract so you need to see the book through to completion … no matter how painful it is.
STR 11 CON 12 DEX 15 INT 15 POW 12 CHA 12
HP 12 DB 0 SAN 60 BP 48 WP 12
Skills: Administration 30%, Alertness 60%, Art (Photography) 90%, Athletics 70%, Disguise 30%, Dodge 50%, First Aid 70%, Insight 30%, Law (Massachusetts) 20%, Natural World 50%, Persuade 40%, Psychoanalyze 50%, Research 60%, Science (Chemistry) 60%, Search 60%, Social Etiquette 30%, Use Gadgets 50%.
Resources: 5
Bonds: 2
Notes: You moved from Maine to Arkham in your teens, and always found the place (and the locals) a little bit … odd. Perhaps that’s why you started taking photographs of Arkham streets and scenes using your father’s box camera – trying to somehow capture that weirdness in images. In time you became a pretty talented photographer, which turned out to be a handy skill when the Arkham Advertiser was looking for a new junior photographer. You also do freelance photography on the side. Most recently, Mayor Peabody has hired you to photograph him at his showy re-election rallies.
