In October 2021 we began the year’s “October Horrors” sequence of horror RPG offers with the all-new Cthulhu Hack Bundle, featuring The Cthulhu Hack from Just Crunch Games. This quick and simple standalone investigative RPG, based on David Black’s minimalist fantasy RPG The Black Hack, pits ordinary people against the sanity-shattering horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. There are just two basic mechanics — Saves and Resources — and just two vital resource types: Flashlights (for spotting things, recalling facts, and research) and Smokes (for eavesdropping, fast talk, coercion, and bribery). Every use always brings a clue, so even a low roll won’t leave you without options. The Cthulhu Hack elegantly supports published scenarios and campaigns for any Cthulhoid RPG. Learn the whole system in 20 minutes, teach it to your players in five minutes more, and in another five their characters will be ready for a slow spiral into self-destruction. You’ll never find a simpler and smoother path to the mind-shattering realization of humanity’s cosmic insignificance.

This offer also presented the core rulebook for the new Just Crunch RPG The Dee Sanction. In 16th-Century England, you’re a disreputable amateur Agent for occultist Doctor John Dee, hunting supernatural threats and hoping for a pardon.

There were seven titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $25) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete Cthulhu Hack Core Book (plus the Gamemaster’s Reference and the free Nocturnal Rites Quickstart); The Dark Brood, about Shub-Niggurath; the short campaign Forgotten Duty; and three Hack mini-sourcebooks: From Unformed Realms, Rhan-Tegoth, and Strange Materials.

Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $52.50, including The Dee Sanction core rulebook along with five Hack scenario collections that gather no less than nine complete investigations: The Haunter of the Dark, Mother’s Love, Three Faces of the Wendigo, Thro’ Centuries Fixed, and Valkyrie Nine.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) went to the charity designated by Cthulhu Hack designer Paul Baldowski, Beechwood Cancer Care. Beechwood offers free support to United Kingdom residents living with a life-limiting illness and to their loved ones.