Designer's Description:
This is a free-to-download, bare-bones edition of Lovecraftesque, released ahead of the kickstarter.
Lovecraftesque is a GMless storytelling game of brooding cosmic horror. You and your friends will each contribute strange clues to a slow-building mystery, culminating in a journey into darkness that ends in a climactic scene of horror. You will be surprised and creeped out by your friends' contributions, but the game is designed so that it will feel like one person was GMing it, even though you never had to break the tension by pausing for discussion.
The game focuses on a single Witness, who is at the mercy of strange and terrifying events. Lovecraft's stories rarely featured parties of investigators, and the hero rarely wins - that's how our game works, too. You rotate responsibility for playing the Witness, but the role is much more about revealing their inner thoughts and fears than solving the mystery or beating up cultists.
When you play Lovecraftesque you'll be creating your own mystery, and your own unique monsters that will feel like something out of Lovecraft's notebook. There won't be any Mi-Go or Deep Ones - you'll get a completely fresh take on the genre.