Call of Cthulhu RPG Discussion

[Lighthawk]

Okay, so run like hell from anything alien and gibbering, use common sense against the rest.

[Mikey]

Okay, so run like hell from anything alien and gibbering, use common sense against the rest.

Oh, not just the aliens. You better run faster than hell from the things from hell. But the short answer is that there will likely be plenty of call for some good ol' whoop-ass.

[Tsukiyumi]

-What sort of time frame are we looking at towards getting this started?

I'll probably need another week or two to digest the rules myself, and set up our first scenario properly.

-Are there any game specific details we should know for character creation? For example, country the story will be set in.

We'll be in 1895 New England for the first scenario, in a reasonably sized town.

-Should we generate characters being more team oriented or solo oriented?

This is a great question. During the investigation, some or all of us might split up to accomplish different tasks at the same time (Like Mikey's character heads into town to buy a key ingredient for a particular reagent, while I start brewing it, and Deep goes on patrol, etc.) This is part of why I'm strongly encouraging everyone to create at least two characters to start. Preferably more. I'm going with four, myself.

-I'm still digesting the rule book, but it seems like magic is a difficult, dangerous thing to use. I guess making a mage type character is something the game discourages?

It is difficult and dangerous, but certainly possible, if you have a character with high sanity and POW to start, and make them a mostly research-type. That way, they can do the researching, and if they happen to run across, say the Book of Eibon during a mission, they can read it through between scenarios (or during a particularly long scenario).

-Just how worthless are combat skills in this game? Is there anything we're likely to face that we could reasonably be expected to defeat, or is running away our primary combat skill?

As Mikey said, there are a lot of humans of various groups that we'll run into during scenarios; combat will be important, but running, hiding, or out thinking the more powerful opponents will be a necessity. Some of the Mythos creatures can also be killed by regular weapons, given enough firepower. Good luck with any gun against a Formless Spawn or Colour Out Of Space.

-Why do they sell hot dogs in packages of 8 and hotdog buns...There are a few variations on rolling up stats, which do you want us to use?

Use the character generator I sent a link to, or I can e-mail you my copy if that one doesn't work. It's much more streamlined, and outputs a neat little investigator sheet that you can even attach a picture to.

[colmquinn]

In my previous experience of playing Cthulhu its ideal to have a 'stable' of characters ready but to only have one or two active at any one time per player. Any more than that & things can get compliacted very quicly for the GM & yourself. As in I have 6 chars ready made up (GM has a copy of each of em & has approved em as being suitable for the era etc) but only use char 1 & 2 while keeping 3 - 6 ready for use should the need arise.

I usually also like to have the chars linked to each other in some way no matter how thinly (maybe and old college roommate, war buddy etc) so that the char who just died (RIP) can have sent a letter to be opened on their death detailing their adventures up to a certain point so that new chars can quickly get into the frey without too much delay. It also means the adventure can progress if there is a total party kill (unlikely but nothing like a tpk to ruin a good adventure)


I have a copy of the char creation software Tsuki is talking about & it really is easy to get to grips with.

[Lighthawk]

I'll probably need another week or two to digest the rules myself, and set up our first scenario properly.

That'll work great for me, should give me time to come to grips with the details

We'll be in 1895 New England for the first scenario, in a reasonably sized town.

Noted

This is a great question. During the investigation, some or all of us might split up to accomplish different tasks at the same time (Like Mikey's character heads into town to buy a key ingredient for a particular reagent, while I start brewing it, and Deep goes on patrol, etc.) This is part of why I'm strongly encouraging everyone to create at least two characters to start. Preferably more. I'm going with four, myself.

I'll consider it, though I'm generally more prone to accepting a bit of wait in order to focus on a single character than risking spreading myself too thin with multiple.

More on the group...are we going to be part of an established team, or will our characters be meeting each other for the first time during the game itself?

It is difficult and dangerous, but certainly possible, if you have a character with high sanity and POW to start, and make them a mostly research-type. That way, they can do the researching, and if they happen to run across, say the Book of Eibon during a mission, they can read it through between scenarios (or during a particularly long scenario).

Having looked more through the rules, making a magic heavy character seems to be like making a ticking time bomb. The major issue I see is that the majority of spells cost sanity to use, and getting your sanity back is a rare thing. It makes spell casting something only an already insane person would do regularly, because even with max sanity to start with, you might only get off about 2 dozen spells before you're a gibbering wreck. And hell, any major spell has a fair chance of causing you to lose the 5 sanity points in a hour it takes to traumatize you. The career of a Cthulhu verse magician seems unlikely to last more than a few months regardless of how careful you are.

Would you be adverse to making some tweaks to the system? What if I kept track of magic induced sanity loss separately from the normal, but still added the two together for the total loss. The regular sanity loss gets treated by the rules, but the magic induced loss can be repaired in a more timely fashion. Say maybe my character has to engage in meditation to sooth his injured psyche, with x hours of meditation removing 1dx points of magic induced sanity loss. That would keep spell casting somewhat restricted so he wouldn't be tossing spells around as his first option for any problem, but it would make them more acceptable to use. As the rules stand now, spell casting seems to be something you'd only want to do when your only other option is to die.

As Mikey said, there are a lot of humans of various groups that we'll run into during scenarios; combat will be important, but running, hiding, or out thinking the more powerful opponents will be a necessity. Some of the Mythos creatures can also be killed by regular weapons, given enough firepower. Good luck with any gun against a Formless Spawn or Colour Out Of Space.

So knowing when you can fight and when you can't is going to be important. Sounds good.

Use the character generator I sent a link to, or I can e-mail you my copy if that one doesn't work. It's much more streamlined, and outputs a neat little investigator sheet that you can even attach a picture to.

I'll play with it, but I rarely use character generators. I like rolling up my characters by hand, helps me understand the system better.

[Lighthawk]

Double post for clarification and a forgotten question

On the magic stuff, I just wanted to make it clear I'm not looking to ignore the general tone and feel of the game. I'm not looking to make a D&D type blaster wizard. I generally prefer the more subtle, utilitarian type magic as it is, which is what I'd be looking to gain in this case.

Maybe I'm over looking it, but I can't find the rules for starting wealth and gear. What kind of equipment and funds do we start with?

[Mikey]

As the rules stand now, spell casting seems to be something you'd only want to do when your only other option is to die.

I think that's sort of the point. I haven't had a chance to do more than skim the rules yet; but in the Cthulhu literature only insane people a/o non-humans used magic regularly... and that was generally in the work of authors other than Lovecraft. In fact, in Lovecraft per se I can only recall one time in which a non-batty, normal human protagonist actively used magic - when Professor Armitage used the Powder of Ibn-Gazi to make the Dunwich Horror visible.

Remember that "magic" in this milieu is merely a practical aspect of the sort of extra-dimensional/otherworldly stuff that also causes insanity. Invoking an avatar of Nyarlathotep should cause insanity in the same way the turning a corner and seeing the Treader of the Dust would.

Further, I'll have to read more. There is, after all, magic and then there's magic. Magic of the gods of Earth, or of the Other gods, probably shouldn't be as detrimental. It should be nearly costless to use an Elder Sign, for example, compared to summoning a Fire Vampire.

[Lighthawk]

I suppose, but damn that's dark to include options that require near permanent stat loss to use. I'm not trying to deny the mind bending horror that's suppose to be part of the genre; I like the idea that the spells are a terrible strain on the mind of the caster. I just dislike the idea that using those spells is like using a machine that requires you to chop off a finger each time you want to employ it.

[Mikey]

That's a great analogy. Casting spells is embracing the unholy depths of outre horror that itself drives men mad. Fighting fire with fire in this case means you get burned. Do you want to get burned, or do you want to die in a monstrous conflagration?

[Lighthawk]

I wouldn't mind getting burned, its the fact that the burns don't heal that's a problem. I'd just like to be able to give my character an expected shelf life of longer than a few weeks. Depending on if and how Tsuki's willing to bend the rules, I picture this guy coping with the trauma by mentally burying it, by forcing himself to forget the worst of it. Then in a few years or decades he can go up in a monstrous conflagration when his inner vaults hit their limits or some suitably terrible entity cracks his mind and all those countless horrors flood into his consciousness in a sanity vaporizing wave.

If it just won't work at all, fair enough, I'll come up with something else.

[colmquinn]

Depends on if your character has time to decipher the books they find before you need to use em. You don't learn things like that overnight. They're not all written in English so you might need to learn a language first.

[Lighthawk]

Well I was figuring on this guy already knowing a handful of spells, learned pregame time. I'm willing to take an appropriate hit in my other abilities for the sake of balance.

[Mikey]

Hmm. Tsu's call, I guess. I tend to take a dim view of changing rules based on a player's desire to be "better" than it seems he could with the established rules.

[Lighthawk]

It's not about being better, it's about personal preference. I've always gone for the more mystic type characters, the idea of the arcane and the unknown appeals to me as a player. I don't care if doing this makes my character weaker overall, I just don't want him to be crippled by it.

[colmquinn]

You can have occult knowledge in game but the mythos is a separate thing and should be treated in game usually as something unknown to sane mortals and the more you learn the closer you come to madness. As your chthulu mythos skill increases your maximum sanity is decreased. Everyone usually starts with a mythos skill of 00 as the average person has no clue of the true nature of 'reality'.