Welcome to Princes of Darkness, the first Lords of the Earth overlay game that has gotten anywhere. The way this works, in short, is that you run a cultic organization that is attempting to either return the rule of one of the Outer Gods or Great Old Ones to the Earth, or attempting to thwart same. Your sorcerers, agents and servitors act and interact in the same "world" as a continuing Lords of the Earth campaign. Hopefully the 'normal' players will not know that you are around until it is too late... By the way, I'm serious about this, if you succeed in releasing your Deity YOU rejoice in awful splendor while the God rampages across the world, bringing a new dark age of fear, horror and personal fulfillment for you...
Things will not be easy for you, however, magic does not work very well and the Stars, frankly, are not quite right. Other cults are lurking around, trying to get their God free and they won't be very helpful I'm afraid. Further, the 'normal' players have a paranoid hatred of cults and will squash you like a bug if they discover you. Finally, there are 'anti-cult' players who will be trying to stop you and keep their pitiful humanity alive and crawling on the rind of the rotten fruit that is the Earth...
Each turn you'll get your Cult sheet and a copy of the normal Lords newsfax, in which you will hopefully not appear. The results of your actions will be on your stat sheet.
You have two main sets of tools to effect the return of the Great Old Ones to the earth in triumph and glory - Sorcerers and Cultic Agents. Sorcerers are your spell-casters and artifact wielders. They are the ones that you have to break wards, summon servitors, etc. Cultic Agents are your foot troops; they can search for things, attempt to murder people, move artifacts and spells from place to place (though they can't use them) and so on. Spells are major things like Break Ward, Summon Great Old Ones, Build Portal and so on.
Each turn you can move your Sorcerers and Cultic Agents around like normal Lords leaders (Sorcerers get 10 actions per year, just like normal leaders, cultic agents get 5 actions per year) and do stuff. In your case you'll be needing to find the artifacts you need to break the main wards as well as raise R'yleth (or whatever you're up to). Recruiting more agents, training more sorcerers and finding spells (as well as offing various opponents) will also be necessary.
Since you represent a bunch of humans and their non-human allies, you have to choose a specific Great Old One or Outer God to try and return to rule in fear and horror over the Earth, to the exclusion of the others. To free your chosen God you'll have to collect a set of artifacts, or break certain wards or something like that. The GM will tell you, eh? The Great Old Ones are:
The Outer Gods are:
Obviously, once you choose a diety that's it, you don't get any other choices. Note that more than one cult can be trying to free the same God, but only the one that actually does so will rule in triumph over the afterworld.
Mana points are necessary to cast your spells and use some artifacts as well as consecrate new temples. You get mana from your temples at the following rate: Temple with Weak influence = 1 mana, temple with Moderate influence = 2 mana, temple with Strong influence = 3 mana. You can't save mana from turn to turn unless you have some particular artifacts. Temples also produce an equal amount of gold per turn, in addition to whatever you can extort or steal from the regular players.
Actions that you undertake in a region containing a temple get a bonus if your influence is Moderate or Strong. Feel free to attack the Temples of other cults. There can only be ONE temple in a given region, regardless of the number of cults that might want one.
Due to the limited technology available on earth at this time, your activities are somewhat circumscribed by physical distance. There is a Control Range listed on your stat sheet. This is a number of regions or sea zones. Activities that you undertake more regions or sea zones from a Temple than your Control Range suffers a bad modifier. Temples should be within Control Range regions or Sea Zones of another Temple of yours. If they are "disconnected" then the isolated Temple cannot provide gold or mana to the cult as a whole. The gold and mana that it produces can be used at that Temple, but not at any other Temple(s) controlled by the cult.
Of course, if you acquire artifacts or spells that provide for swifter communication, then this will increase your control range.
Scattered about the world are various ancient and very evil books that detail the workings of the great Old Ones and the Outer Gods and their various servants. These are hidden in diverse locations. In these tomes are the workings of spells and artifacts of old. You want to find them and use them to further your diabolical plans. The same goes for artifacts, which are often found in ancient ruins. Indications of where all these things can be found are often found in old libraries and collections. Dig for 'em, eh?
Following is a list of actions that ONLY sorcerers can attempt. Sorcerers can also attempt Cultic Agent actions. These actions are in addition to the normal Lords actions, which are available to Sorcerers as well. Agents can only perform their particular actions and movement. More actions can be expended for all of these actions to increase chances of success.
Hey, if you have a suggestion, lets hear it! Eventually I'll get a copy of the COC 5th Edition rules and include in this rules set all of the various spells, servitors, gods and what not that you can get your hands on.