Mechanics-wise, The Yellow King RPG uses the GUMSHOE system, which has been updated to include a new combat system and linked character creation among multiple settings. Meanwhile, final books Aftermath and This is Normal Now take place in alternate-reality versions of 2017, with players being former partisans and ordinary people respectively. You’ll play soldiers trying to stay alive, while also exploring weird mysteries generated by the King and its daughters.

The second takes place in an alternative reality during the great European conflict of 1947.

It comes in four books, each containing an individual campaign.įirst book Paris sees players as absinthe-swilling art students tasked with investigating mysteries including everything from gargoyles to alien royalty. The Yellow King Roleplaying Game pits player characters against the reality-bending horrors of the original tales.

In addition, Chambers’ eldritch entities like Hastur - also known as The King in Yellow and Him Who Is Not to be Named - later made appearances in Lovecraft’s stories. The stories also mention a mysterious supernatural entity named the King in Yellow, and also refer to the Yellow Sign - a glyph that when possessed, opens you up to mind control by the King itself, or its heirs.Ĭhambers’ book is considered to have been a key inspiration for later horror writer and Cthulhu mythos creator HP Lovecraft, to the degree where elements of Chambers’ stories of cosmic nightmares have appeared in horror board games based on Lovecraft’s work. Excerpts from the fictional play feature throughout the story, most notably in ‘Cassilda’s Song’, that makes reference to ancient and definitely cursed city Carcosa. The original book includes ten tales, four of which refer to madness-inducing forbidden play The King in Yellow. The Yellow King Roleplaying Game draws from the 19th-century short story collection The King in Yellow by Robert W. It comes from publisher Pelgrane Press, which is well-known for its fantasy RPG The 13th Age. A tabletop roleplaying game based on the influential cosmic horror story collection The King in Yellow is being released next week.įunded on Kickstarter in 2018, The Yellow King Roleplaying Game raised over £167,000, a steep climb beyond its original goal of £23,000.

The king in yellow stories