Call of Cthulhu

I'm surprised we haven't had a thread for this yet, considering it *is* one of the more iconic roleplaying games out there.(At least as far as I can see)

I got 6th edition in the Mail a few days ago, and finally got to try it with my friends today. I was the Keeper (I'm always gamemaster in my group, for some reason), and we went through the scenario "The Haunting". For such a simple scenario, and such a simple system, we really had fun. I scared them pretty damn good, and they played well.

So what are your thoughts on it, or your experiences with it?

Only ever played the D20 version myself.

Backup characters are a necessity in combat heavy games unless you bring in lethality reduction. Otherwise you spend too much time rerolling new guys.

Wisdom pretty much becomes the God Stat because people don't want their character being removed from play too quickly. Considering that the average human has 40 SAN it gets jarring and hard to roleplay a guy with 75 SAN.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Ah, Call of Cthulhu, one of my favorite settings to play in. I find a world where there's always something bigger that wants to eat you very refreshing to GM in. Haven't played it in a while, though.

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I love the system, but I'm the only one in my group of friends who knows it well enough to run it, and I'm a terrible GM.

I tried to run a game for some friends at school. One guy decided to be Spiderman and gave himself 99 in dodge, another was a hobo who BS'd his way into making everyone believed he owned the creepy mansion that our third character, a horror author, had bought to help inspire his next novel.

The game finally ended when, realizing I had to go to class and not wanting to run this train wreck for another whole session when most of the plot had wrapped up anyway, I handed the dice to the nearest non-involved gamer in the room and told him, "you're the keeper now. They just failed to stop the baddie from being summoned. You decide what it is and how it kills them."

Add me on Skype: Al Cook (darnpenguin)

That sounds like a shame :| Sort of reminds me of when we play GURPS with new players. "I can do pretty much anything with my character, right?" "Well yes" "Awesome. I take will of 1, and strength of 20. Then I take a skill of 22 in Swords, specifically Katanas." "*Sigh*"

i've been playing this recently.

Would anyone be up to playing this in IRC? Since it's quick to set up, and there are online character generators, I think it would be fun and easy!

I might be up for that. Sixth edition rules, I assume? Are we doing gaslight, 20's or modern day?

Add me on Skype: Al Cook (darnpenguin)

6th edition, setting is players choice.

As far as Character Creation goes, The easiest way to handle it is like this-

• Go here: http://www.prismnet.com/~jwtlai/CoC/CoCchar.html , select appropriate era
• Then Copy/Paste here: http://pastebin.com/
• Add some back story and submit the link.

Not right now of course. Anyone have any better ideas for handling characters?

IIRC, the question on time era is very significant since it affects the impact of pre-aging your character during character gen.

I've played some Cthulhu, as a GM even. There are these free start-up rules you can find on the 'Net, that's what we played on. But nah, I just can't lead the game, at least not Cthulhu game. But we had a lot of laugh of it.

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"

The character generator you posted just allowed me to make 472-year-old character with 1220 career skill points. I approve of this. :D

This begs the question: Would you be against me playing a giant, grotesque pulsing brain with vestigial limbs hanging from it? Would an appearance of 1 force my fellow investigators to roll SAN every time they interact with me?

In all seriousness, we need to decide on an era so we all know what skills to take.

edited 3rd Aug '11 3:43:21 PM by darnpenguin

Add me on Skype: Al Cook (darnpenguin)

^ I think we have a new entry for "things you're no longer allowed to do in an RPG."

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I should copypasta that into the other thread. :P

That said, I'm likely going to roll my character by hand. I kind of like the idea of a '20's game right now since I just picked up the 1920's Investigator's Companion this afternoon it's sort of the default setting.

Add me on Skype: Al Cook (darnpenguin)

1920s sounds good to me. It saves me the trouble of finding a reasonable explanation why everyone's cell-phones broke.

Since when do you need a reasonable explanation? Eldritch horrors aren't reasonable. Maybe all the weirdness in the air blocks signals. Maybe the monsters use cell phones to communicate their songs of madness, rendering them unsafe to use. -shrug- There are a lot of ways you can go.

Add me on Skype: Al Cook (darnpenguin)

If you have to blame eldritch horrors for everything in Co C, I feel like you're doing it wrong. The monsters are the icing, not the cake.

Sure, but unusual earth tremors knocking out the cell towers really scares people even if they're just unusual earth tremors.

Ehh, I like to reserve the Eldritch Abominations for wham moments. There will be several weird occurrences, they'll all be Red Herrings. Once player's realize this, lead them in the right direction. Cue Cat scare, followed by more Red Herrings, maybe a gun fight or two with cultists, then when they're least expecting it, finally bring the abominations into the picture.

Regardless of when the Eldritch are brought into play, Cell Phones can be dealt with in all sorts of ways...

"The Bridge is out." "I guess we'll have to swim then" "Okay, that works." 2 game hours later. "I call 911." "How?!" "Using my cellphone, of course!" "You mean that one that got submerged in a river earlier?"

edited 7th Aug '11 9:03:54 PM by Kraftwerk

I've had some personal things arise, and at this point in time it would be very difficult for me to commit to a weekly meeting in IRC or what have you. Would y'all be alright with play by post?

If we must. Unfortunately, it'll mean I'll likely get passed over in most situations since everyone else will likely post more than I do and then I'll become that character nobody remembers.

Add me on Skype: Al Cook (darnpenguin)

I'll make sure to keep your character as involved as I can. I would do weekly IRC but I just can't commit to that at the moment :(

@unusual earth tremors: I don't remember where I read it — here, or in some gaming magazine. There was an adventure set in 1920's and the characters were onto some Mafia business. You know, classic Noir thing. The players were kinda shocked, all the looking-around they did and not a single tentacle.

And the gaming magazine I mentioned, they had an article on natural weirdness. Birth defects, poisonous plants, these things. Imagine the characters get into a remote village that at night fills with shambling, misshapen creatures covered in rags. Town with a Dark Secret? Well, perhaps — but the secret is totally mundane leprosy or elephantiasis.

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"

Eh guys, do you know who came up with the idea of having backup characters of friends and family members of one's character, so that they may get introduced smoothly into the plot when the primary character dies? I can't remember where I read it.

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"