Eldritch Care Unit: Regenerated

Hidden beneath the surface there’s another layer to the world. Supernatural creatures roam the shadows, living among and integrating into society as humankind expands into every corner they used to have to themselves. It was only a matter of time, then, before they found their way into our hospitals.

Looking for help.

Eldritch Care Unit is a game about a special, hidden medical wing within hospitals in nearly every state in the USA. Rather than dealing with a broken arm or cold, they deal with the debilitating results of a magical curse, the infected wounds of werewolf claws, or the withering effects an insult has on an innocent fairy. 

The main villain here, though, isn't the slathering werewolf or the overfeeding vampire, but the system itself. The insurance system in the country is broken, and it's even more difficult to get approval for a counter-curse than it is a controlled prescription. Nevermind how few magical creatures are in the system to begin with.

How do you get an organ donor for a body part that doesn't exist in this realm? How do you get funding for a ritualist who can dispel a curse? How do you deal with Susan down in Finances who's a real stickler for the rules?

It’s not easy to do this job, but you swore an Oath.

And it’s magically binding.

The Game

The Eldritch Care Unit is a medical program that runs alongside the mundane hospitals and medical centers throughout the country. You play those doctors, nurses, occultists, and other staff members that seek to do whatever they can to cure the supernaturally sick population, despite the difficulties of incomprehensive insurance, short-staffing, and lack of funding.

ECU was one of the first games published by Falconian Productions, and you can still find the original version of it here on DrivethruRPG or Itchio. This campaign, then, is to create a revised (or "regenerated") version of the game with updated rules, new art, and a few optional, additional systems to make a given story more interesting and in depth. You'll still be able to play one-shots and other short games just as easily, however, and rule clarifications will make that easier than ever!

The Eldritch World games run off the Adversarial System. In it, you don't roll, and indeed can't roll, unless there's something in your way: an obstacle, an opponent, or just a time crunch. 

You have Training that you compare to a task's difficulty, and by default the Training will nearly always be higher. 

But when you're in a rush, someone's in the way, or an unexpected obstacle otherwise crops up, you gain Adversarial Dice (each of which is a d6). 

Rather than adding your own skills to this pool, you roll those dice and add them to the difficulty; if the difficulty grows higher than your Training, the task is beyond you right now, but you may be able to try again if you can defeat those obstacles in another way. Alternatively, you can often remove the obstacles before you roll, to make sure there are no problems. 

Most characters also have Quirks, supernatural abilities or influences from that magical part of the world that give an ECU staffer an edge when they're over their head; this might let them charm a medical reviewer, call in a friendly spirit as an advisor, or otherwise get that small boost that can help them deal with their Adversaries. 

In addition, the hospital or other medical practice itself has its own Training, which works at the top level for actually healing patients. The players work to remove the Adversarial Dice that are in the way of a successful treatment at the bottom level, with successful actions and roleplaying making the final result more of a guarantee.

More complex games can then use newer systems to make the game a little more complex, like "Key Points" that get past a particular treatment boundary (such as needing a specific rare substance), or wagered actions like experimental treatments that may add more Adversarial Dice if something goes wrong.

It's a simple system that truly delivers on the promise many make that you'll only roll when it's interesting. You needn't make a call on if it's worth rolling; you won't even have a dice pool if it's not. 

Rewards

• Hardship: This tier provides you with a copy of the PDF at a lower price, primarily aimed at marginalized individuals or those going through a hard time. Honor system!
• PDF: Exactly what it sounds like! You'll get the PDF version of Eldritch Care Unit: Regenerated once it's complete, and a copy of the original game once funding succeeds. Will be fulfilled by DriveThruRPG or itchio.
• Print on Demand: A physical copy of the game, fulfilled by DrivethruRPG. You'll need to pay printing and shipping fees. We'll have both softcover and hardcover options available. 
• Quirk: What's a supernatural quirk you want to see available to players? You'll get to work with us to create an option. Nothing world-shattering here; these are tiny talents that even overworked interns can manage. 
• Patient: The back of the book will contain a variety of sample patients for Chiefs of Medicine (the Gamemaster) to use as a starting point. Work with us to create one of them! Want a personal character to be involved? A certain type of supernatural being? Let's do it!
• An Idea: This is our open-ended tier; work with us to figure out something to add into the book. Maybe you want to see an optional rule, or you want your own character to be the example in the character creation section? We'll work it out. 

Add-ons

• Eldritch Defenders: You'll get a discounted PDF copy of Eldritch Defenders, our second game in the Eldritch World series. It exists in the same universe as Eldritch Care Unit and can give you a nice preview of some of the system updates we're including, from the perspective of the legal system instead of the medical.
• Paved in Blood: A discounted PDF copy of our city-making game of the same name! Works well as a preview session for Eldritch World games, too!
• The Blood Bundle: You'll get the special edition PDF for our game about vampires and sorcery, as well as all of the Drops supplements out for it so far in this bundle, expanding the world with spirits and otherworldly realms. 
• Community Copy: For each of these you buy, after the game comes out I'll set up a community copy cache for those facing hardship that still want to play the game; each purchase will add two to it, as we'll match it 1-to-1.

Stretch Goals

The base level of funding is enough to pay for the updated writing, as well as a cover artist retroactively, and another artist for some spot art here and there. If we go above that, though:

• $4000 - Chapter Art: We'll get some Chapter Art or some other more in depth artwork.
• $6000 - More Systems: We'll add another chapter that goes into some new optional systems to make the game more complex for those Chiefs of Medicine who want a little more meat to the system. 
• $10000 - Eldritch World: If we manage to get this high, we'll create a new combined book that includes Care Unit (Regenerated) and Defenders alike, more detailed advice about how to integrate them, and a chapter about other crummy government jobs and how they might work in the Eldritch World. 

Falconian Productions

Falconian Productions is my small, personal publishing group that works off a model of profit sharing and creator ownership. I believe heavily in fair treatment of freelancers, workers, and other contributors, and want to do everything I can to help improve the industry.

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