Hydro-Punk CoC

Hydro-Punk Call of Cthulhu is a campaign setting I’ve been batting around for a bit. I’ve got a good plot defined, but need to find a good system to run it in. I’m honestly leaning towards modifying Mutants and Masterminds for it, because the thing I need most is scaling. My notes are broken down into 5 main acts, each of which has a problem, and deeper mystery, but also scales to a much bigger game.

Hyrdo-punk is a term I can’t find used elsewhere, and seems appropriate. I guess that means I invented it, so I’ll describe it some. It uses pneumatic valves and water pressure, not steam. People live in submerged cities a-la BioShock or Sealab. Full cities are comprised of pods connected by tubes, deep, on ocean floor over top of a geothermal vent harnessing the power of the rising water to power most things. Think steam punk, with lots of smooth air tight seals. There should also be lots of Atlantis visuals.

The cities themselves are run by Malken, or Deep Ones, or “Scary Mer-People”.

Campaign Arc Overview

1. Malken are the only ones allowed outside the pods. As they age they become less and less able to live in the atmosphere of the pods. The young live in the pods ruling the humans. They used to do it like cattle, but realized humans need limited forms of freedom or they die when young. Now they are used as a brute force labor pool. Malken can’t breed true, and need to breed with humans to survive. After the human is used for breeding they are never seen again. Taken into a cargo ship into the ocean and gone, rumor has it sacrificed in some ritual. The PCs are renegades who have broken free, and must save someone who is being sent to sea.

2. The Deep Ones are governed by Cthulhu, and humans are sacrificed to him. He basically eats them as far as anyone can tell. The PCs venture out of their home city, and must make their way to the Malken central city.

3. Cthulhu doesn’t eat sacrifices, they are sent somewhere. (DM Secret: Space ships to Pluto). At the stopping of the shipments, Pluto sends scout ships to find out what’s up. The PCs should work to put a stop to this and defeat the scout ships. When done, there should be a mini celebration.

4. Pluto (Yuggoth) is actually an outpost for a Demon space empire. They are on the way to destroy Earth for rebelling. Failed experiment, etc. Plan to jump through a wormhole and destroy everyone. The PCs will need to lead an earth based defense. After the movie Independence Day, news comes that this was only the advanced team and it won’t stop.

5. The PCs will have to take fight to them through a wormhole, and land on their home world. Players defeat these guys, and it turns out they are farming sentient life as it’s the only way to power the magic keeping Him imprisoned. When He awakens He is at first weak (relatively), but grows stronger constantly, every time He destroys something He gets stronger.

Demon – Cthulhu is a Demon. He created all-star spawn in his image. Other Demons are sent elsewhere, and are all unique.

Yuggoth – Is inhabited by the Mi-Go (winged anemone with crab claws) who use spaceships to battle when in atmosphere, but otherwise can float through space. Wings work like parachutes and they glide on astral currents, can’t walk. They are ruled by the Demon Narthelotep. He is basically a shapeshifting mummy. Humans slave all over the planet to build pyramids, and other stuff for him. Others are sent somewhere else (a wormhole to home world)

Mutations – After generations of life down here, the humans begin to mutate. The rate of birth defects has gone sky high, and some small percentage of those defects are something helpful, like telepathy.