We finalized the scope of The Legacy of Cthulhu: Advanced Rules and Tables and are eager to share more with you. That book is for players who already know the Core Rulebook and want more decisions to make over a long campaign. Every rule is optional, and all rules use the Stats, Skills, and checks from the Core Rulebook.

 

In this first preview, we will talk about Attention, a new rule inspired by our upcoming release of The Legacy of Cthulhu: The Board Game. Attention deals with how much notice a Tile draws when it is searched more than once in a day.

In the Core Rulebook, a Survivor finds items by taking whatever turns up or by spending hours hunting for one specific item. The risk of staying in a Tile never changes: after each action there, the player rolls a ten-sided die, and a 1 or 2 means a Violent Encounter. With only that risk, nothing stops a Survivor from searching the same Tile all day.

 

The Advanced Rules make searching more strategic and focused, letting players get what they need and move on without feeling like they have to grind for something vital. Both Core actions remain, and a third kind of search sits between them. It takes two hours, and the player chooses what the Survivor is looking for: Weapons and Armor, Equipment, or Resources. The first search of the day in a Tile carries only the usual risk, unless something else has already raised the Tile’s Attention. Every later search adds 1 to it. The player then rolls a ten-sided die, and a 0 counts as 10. On a roll no higher than the Tile’s Attention, something finds the Survivor and a Violent Encounter begins.

 

After each search, the player decides whether the Survivor leaves with what they have found or stays and searches again. With the Investigation Skill, a Survivor can search methodically. On a successful Investigation check, the player rolls twice for the find and keeps one result, but a failed check adds 1 extra Attention, even on the first search. A Survivor with the Survival Skill can make a required Attention roll before committing to the search. If the result would mean being found, they can walk away instead. Walking away costs no action or time and does not raise Attention, but that Survivor cannot search the Tile again until the next day.

Edith is a Survivor with a Mind of 4 and the Investigation and Survival Skills. Her Shelter is short of Food and Medicine, and she finds a dental clinic in a Ruins Tile. The player makes the Core Rulebook’s usual rolls after each search, and Edith gets through them all safely this morning.

Edith searches the clinic methodically, looking for Resources. The player makes an Investigation check, rolling a ten-sided die and adding 4 for her Mind and 2 for the Skill. A total of 10 or more succeeds. The player rolls a 6, for 12. Because the check succeeds, the player rolls twice on the Resources table and keeps one result. The two results are Fuel and a small find of Food or Medicine. Edith keeps the small find, and a further roll makes it 2 units of Medicine. It is the first search of the day, and the check passed, so the Tile’s Attention stays at 0.

 

A second search will raise Attention to 1, or to 2 if the Investigation check fails. Because Edith has the Survival Skill, the player makes the Attention roll first. The Investigation check comes later, so the player assumes it will fail and counts Attention as 2. The player rolls a 7, higher than 2, so Edith goes ahead. That 7 is her Attention roll for this search.

 

For the Investigation check, the player rolls an 8, for 14, and succeeds again. This time the two results are Parts or Ammunition, and a larger find of Food or Medicine. Edith keeps the larger find, and further rolls make it 9 units of Food. The clinic’s Tile now has an Attention of 1.

 

A third search will raise Attention to 2, or to 3 if the Investigation check fails, so the player counts Attention as 3. The player makes the Attention roll first and gets a 2. Even if the check succeeds, Attention reaches 2, and a roll of 2 means a Violent Encounter. Edith walks away without searching. That costs her no time, but she cannot search that Tile again until tomorrow. She leaves with 2 units of Medicine and 9 units of Food and heads for another Tile.

 

Investigation and Survival gave Edith’s player control over every search, but they took two of her three starting Skills, so she has one left for fighting, running, or treating wounds. She can buy more Skills later in the campaign with experience points.

Attention means making every extra hour in the ruins count. What you need could be just one search away—but so is whatever's been listening. The full rules add more ways for noise, repeated searches, multiple Survivors, and even your Shelter's location to matter.

This is just one of the optional systems in The Legacy of Cthulhu: Advanced Rules and Tables. We’ll share more previews as the campaign continues, so stay with us!