Crafting an Odyssey

Writing the upcoming premium adventure Terra Antarctica for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game was a year-long endeavor for EDGE Studio, undertaken by development manager Sam Gregor-Stewart in conjunction with Keith Ryan Kappel, Brandon Perdue, and Leah Hawthorne. EDGE took a few minutes to ask Sam what writing this epic was like.

When setting out to write the first premium adventure for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game, we knew we had to set the bar high. After all, when I think of roleplaying games that I’ve loved, it’s not the systems that stick with me. It’s the campaigns that I’ve played in. For example, the two campaigns that really got me into roleplaying (and probably set me on my current career, even though I didn’t realize it at the time) was a Midnight campaign I ran for three friends, and a years-long Witchfire Trilogy I played in. In both of those cases, it’s the story and gaming with my friends that I really remember almost 20 years later.

So when we sat down to figure out what the first premium adventure would be, that’s what we were going for. This was a story that needed to exemplify what we wanted our new roleplaying game to be. So it had to have existential horror, and some moments of very visceral terror. But it also needed a chance for players to investigate a mystery. And we needed plenty of two-fisted pulpy action as well. After all, that’s one of the things that sets Arkham Horror apart from other Cthulhu mythos RPGs.

Most importantly, I wanted to make sure that this was a campaign where the players got a certain amount of agency. That was tricky, because the core conceit is they get enlisted into an established expedition. However, as the story progresses, the investigators take on more and more of a leading role, so that by the final act, they’re the ones calling the shots.

Why a sequel to At the Mountains of Madness?

At the Mountains of Madness is probably my favorite Lovecraft story. It hits a couple of really compelling beats for me; uncovering a secret that changes our very perception of the universe, the blending of science fiction into cosmic horror, and the grueling difficulties of exploring one of the most inhospitable climates on Earth. It’s also one of Lovecraft’s best known works, right up there with The Call of Cthulhu itself.

Of course, we’re not the first people to explore a sequel to this story. Our colleagues at Fantasy Flight Games did their own take on this with Edge of the Earth, the expansion for the Arkham Horror Card Game. And back in 1999, our friends at Chaosium wrote Beyond the Mountains of Madness, which is an epic RPG campaign in its own right. So if I was going to come up with a story, I knew it had to be very different from what had come before.

What did you do for research?

My research for this campaign went all over the place. I read up on historical accounts of previous Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, of course. Stuff on Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen. But also blogs and articles from modern Antarctic explorers, especially those who work around the Ross Ice Shelf where some of our adventure takes place.

And I also consumed a lot of media to get a feel for what a polar expedition would be like. I’ve never had a chance to visit either the Arctic or Antarctic (even if Minnesota does get pretty cold in the winter, it’s nothing like the poles!). But shows like The Terror and movies like Against the Ice, even if they’re about the Arctic, really convey a visceral feeling of what those conditions can do to a person. I also highly recommend Madhouse at the End of the Earth, which is an account of the Adrien de Gerlache expedition to find the magnetic South Pole.

And then finally, I went through Edge of the Earth and Beyond the Mountains of Madness. Although there my goal was to make sure I wasn’t copying anything FFG or Chaosium already did! I’m pleased to say that all three adventures are very different in tone and story, even if they are all inspired by the same source material.

Coming this Summer

Terra Antarctica is designed to be played with either a copy of the Hungering Abyss Starter Set or the Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. The expedition set sails on August 1st!