The Magnus Archiveproduced by the Rusty Quill Networkis a long-running horror fiction podcast that follows archivists and researchers at the occult Magnus Institute. For 200 years, the institute has been collecting first-hand accounts of unexplained encounters with dark forces lurking in the shadows. Each week, listeners follow the esoteric escapades of Chief Archivist Jonathan Sims and his litany of assistants as they uncover the hidden secrets of London’s supernatural underbelly. Now you can delve into the archives yourself, solve one-off cases or delve into the truths hidden deep in the archives – and as the institute warns: when you look into the archives, the archives look back.
The tabletop game uses the Cypher System, a few-rules game engine known for its versatility, intuitive play, and character-focused mechanics. To update it for the world of The Magnus ArchiveMonte Cook Games has made a number of minor adjustments to the system, including tailored fear and stress mechanics, a necessary element for a world littered with vampires, cursed objects and creepy entities beyond human understanding. The most notable addition involves a collaborative process for creating testimonials from lay people who have unknowingly and unfortunately fallen into this occult reality, creating a shared workload between game master and player to get the entire group invested before the story even begins.
Enthusiastic archivists can collect it The Magnus Archive RPG on the Monte Cook Games website. The physical edition costs $74.99, while the digital edition is available for $24.99. A PDF version of the game is also available for the same price DriveThruRPGwhere it has already achieved Copper Best Seller status.