The Laundry


The Laundry is a tabletop role-playing game published by Cubicle 7 in 2010. The game is based on novelist Charles Stross's The Laundry Files series.

Description

The Laundry is a game where agents have to deal with Lovecraftian outer gods and British bureaucracy at the same time.

Publication history

First edition

used their Basic Role-Playing license to create The Laundry, based on The Laundry Files series of novels by Charles Stross. The game was published in July 2010.
Cubicle 7 subsequently published a number of supplements:
  • Black Bag Jobs, a compilation of scenarios.
  • The Agent's Handbook which develops the agents' characters and the internal procedures of the organization.
  • The Mythos Dossiers, a compilation of in-game documents to use as play-aids and scenario seeds.
  • License To Summon, which give more details on the various forms of sorcery in the game universe.
  • God Game Black, which provides more information on the Sleeper's Plateau and how to introduce an eschaton menace in the game.
  • Cultists Under The Bed gives more information on the working of various forms of sects and cultists, with several examples of organizations.
  • Unconventional Diplomacy, a compilation of scenarios.
  • Targets Of Acquisition, which provides dossiers of several occult artefacts.
  • As Above, So Below, introduces rules for using special forces in the game and adding a political dimension to games. It also includes two new scenarios.
A GM screen was announced but was never released. Cubicle 7's licensing agreement with Chaosium expired by mutual agreement at the end of 2017. In 2019 Cubicle 7 stated that the licensing issue would need to be resolved, or a new system introduced, before a revised edition could be published. In July 2023, Charles Stross announced that a second edition was in the works.

Second edition

On June 19th 2025, Cubicle 7 announced the second edition of the game with books available in PDF and printed version available for pre-order. This edition is not based on the Basic Roleplaying System and instead uses a completely new system, based on a pool of six-sided dice.

Reception

Awards