“Reiterpistolelefthand” by Memecry2 – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
There has been a new episode of the Miskatonic University podcast. This time their guest is Brian Sammons, who talks about a number of upcoming projects – editing World War Cthulhu (a fiction anthology), the scenario collection Doors to Darkness, and his campaign A Time to Harvest (about which he says very little, but consider my interest piqued). I kind of wished they had asked about his work in the 7th Ed revamp of Arkham Unveiled, but I suppose that will come eventually… They also talk about guns (auto-fire, shotguns, and ‘howdah pistols’ specifically) but, inexplicably, don’t mention Sixtystone’s outstanding Investigator Weapons vol. 1. I guess I know what I’m getting them for Christmas…
Protodimension magazine still needs submissions for its next issue. This is something I am particularly attuned to working on the Arkham Gazette; I’m checking my folder of half baked ideas seeing if I have something they might find useful.
After some discussion here in our comments section, I’ve decided to lower my pledge (temporarily) for Pagan’s Horrors of War scenario collection Kickstarter to $1 to show my support for a PDF release of the book. I may not work, but I truly do think the lack of a PDF option is holding the project (which I have been eagerly awaiting for many years now) back. (For example, the Feng-Shui 2 Kickstarter, which I’m sure is a fine game but one I am utterly indifferent to despite Robin Laws all but leaping from my iPhone and insisting I buy a copy, has hit $30,000 in under 24 hours. Golden Goblin Press’ Horrore Cosmico Kickstarter is closing on $17,000 after less than a week. Please John Crowe, reconsider a PDF option.)
Byakhee is an investigator generator for the role playing game Call of Cthulhu. In addition to generating investigators, it also prints out character sheets and player handouts.
1 INVESTIGATOR WEAPONS FOR USE WITH CALL OF CTHULHU IN THE MODERN DAY BY HANS-CHRISTIAN VORTISCH SIXTYSTONE PRESS LIMITED PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Adam Crossingham TECHNICAL EDITOR Daniel Harms AUTHOR Hans-Christian Vortisch GRAPHIC DESIGN & LAYOUT Chris Huth COVER Chris Huth COPY EDITOR & PROOFING Matthew Pook. They also released two PDFs – Cthulhu Through the Ages and Alone Against the Flames. Sixtystone released Investigator Weapons vol 2: the Modern Era. Cubicle 7 have Cthulhu Britannica: London and the campaign The Curse of Nineveh. The later is available currently only to Kickstarter backers but is expected to have a general release soon.
Another app is a character creation and management system for your ipad. Note that this is not something I wrote, just another program that might be useful.
Byakhee 3.03 (306K)
This comes with the Call of Cthulhu 5.0 rule pack and investigator sheet, a small NPC investigator sheet and a telegram handout. It also contains the greater and lesser spell books from the v5.0 rulebook. Now includes the back of the sheet too. (Also available as a separate download, below)
This version should now work with accented characters, such as 'ñ' etc. You can now send handouts via e-mail from the file menu, and HTML export has been updated to include Cthulhu 5.5 support.
These days, for pictures there's a lot of options out there. Google image search is your friend, or you could use silent-movies.com to find good pictures for the 20's and 30's, or go with http://randomuser.me/ to create modern characters.
To use a character sheet, unzip it into the same folder where you unzipped Byakhee. After it has been unzipped, it can be selected from the drop-down list box on the Byakhee toolbar.
Sheet Back for Call of Cthulhu (2K)
This is the long-awaited second page of the standard Call of Cthulhu investigator sheet.
Sheet Back for Delta Green
Second page of the Delta Green character sheet.
To use a rule pack, simply unzip it into the same folder where you unzipped Byakhee. After it has been unzipped, you should be able to start using the new rule pack immediately.
Call of Cthulhu 6.0 Rulebook
Updated character creation for 6.0 - mostly minimum 1% skills.
Call of Cthulhu 5.5 Rulebook
New skills and a new character sheet.
Walker in the Wastes
New skills.
1930's Antarctic Explorer (from Beyond The Mountains of Madness)
New skills and occupations.
Delta Green
New skills, occupations, weapons and a new sheet. You may also want thedroid font, below.
1920s Investigator Companion
New skills and occupations.
Dreamlands
New skills, occupations, weapons and a new spellbook. Currently missing.
Loads of Rulebooks
New skills, weapons and loads of occupations.
To use a handout, simply unzip it into the same folder where you unzipped Byakhee. After it has been unzipped, select 'new' from the menu (or toolbar) and click on the 'handout' tab. Select the handout to create.
Calendar Set 1
Two yearly calendars, one with Sundays highlighted in red.
Newspaper Clippings Set 1
Two newspaper clipping handouts - one wide, one tall.
To use a script, simply unzip it into the same folder where you unzipped Byakhee. After it has been unzipped, select 'new' from the menu (or toolbar) and click on the 'script' tab. Select the script to run.
Resistance Roller
This script from Ian Millington calculates the resistance roll.
This section contains handouts and rule packs etc. that have been translated into other languages, as well as links to web sites that host tranlsated Byakhee items.
Xavier Belanger
French Translation of the main Byakhee data files.
Castel has translated most of Byakhee's core data files into French. You'll still need the main Byakhee zip file, though. Currently missing.
German Translation of some of the sheets [updated]
Axel Sartorius has translated the front and back of the character sheet, the NPC sheet and the lesser and greater spell grimoires. Currently missing.
Spanish Translation of Coc5.5.rul
This newer translation includes support for Byakhee 3's additional features. Currently missing.
Spanish Tranlsation of coc5.rul
Cirtheru has translated the coc5.rul file into Spanish. Currently missing.
Spanish Sheet Translations
Jacinto Quesnel's page had Spanish translations of the main Byakhee sheets, but disappeared with Geocities' demise.
bykhe20.zip (279K)
The previous version of Byakhee. (version 2.0)
droid.zip (10K)
Droid Font by Ray Larabie. This is almost like the Delta Green font and the Delta Green rule pack will use it automatically if it's installed.
itabyak2.zip (180K)
Italian version of the sheets from Byakhee 2.0 by G.M. (you'll also need bykhe20.zip)
byksrc20.zip (422K)
The source code to the previous version of Byakhee.
These files are provided totally free of charge and is totally unsupported. The author or site host cannot be held responsible for any damage or loss or revenue, etc. caused by the use of this software.
Call of Cthulhu is a registered trade mark of Chaosium Inc.
All images used on the investigator sheet are either © Chaosium Inc. or © the Delta Green Partnership.
Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is ™ and © the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are © David Harvey, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.
If any copyright or trademark messages are incorrect, please let me know!
The Cool Byakhee logo was created by Tolga Yanasik [home page]
Byakhee got a rating of from ZDNet.
Q. How do I create my own rule packs?
A. A more in-depth ByakheeScript programming guide will be released soon. For the moment, use the following quick guide:
Q. Where is the source code to Byakhee 3?
A. The source code to Byakhee can be accesed at https://github.com/jcfiala/Byakhee
Q. Can I translate Byakhee into another language?
A. It's easy to translate the sheets, handouts and rule packs - just open them in a text editor. Feel free to put them on your web site or whatever once they're done. It's a bit harder to translate the dialogs and messages in the program itself and is beyond the scope of this Q & A.
Byakhee does not function correctly on Windows NT. If the screen resolution is much below 1024x768, the investigator sheet will appear much too small (it will print OK, though). To make matters worse, the cause for this is not known...