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 Today is the last day for the Call of Cthulhu 7e Kickstarter. This had a really rough start, but the book quality and free stuff (t-shirt, dice and bag, keeper screen, PDF versions, ton of bonus PDF material) make the $70 and $100 levels worth at least a second look. I'll try to update the OP this weekend with a general FAQ, which will hopefuly cover stuff like getting started and D20 CoC.
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Jun 28, 2013 11:40
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| # ? May 29, 2024 10:07 |
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Yeah, the Kickstarter is looking very tempting now, for sure. It has come a long way, and that is great. I am kind of confused, though. The Abominable Abhoth level seems basically amazing, and I definitely want it ... except that they are apparently saving money on that tier by not giving you any of the .pdfs? Do I have to also get the Dank Deep-One tier reward on another account to actually get all of the good stuff or something?
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Jun 28, 2013 19:49
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It looks like at AA level you get the Investigator's book and decks in PDF, the dice and shirt, and a handful of other ones... but yikes. It's also worth noting that you ONLY get a leather-bound Investigator's book. The next level with the PDFs and leatherette book(s) is the $340 one, which is just goddamn. I'm surprised there's not an option to buy a leatherette as an add-on or upgrade. I think this comes from Chaosium refusing to work with the designers on PDF pricing. At some point it came out that Chaosium considered PDF prices non-negotiable, and that's reflected in a few tiers.
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Jun 29, 2013 01:03
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I decided not to back 7th edition, it just didn't seem worth it in the end. But now Im worried about Horror on the Orient Express being 7th rules. Will it still be useful for 6th? Since I missed out on that Kickstarter I was just waiitng to throw my money at them this August. Also Cthulhu Wars looked bad rear end, but 240 bucks was just too steep for my blood
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Jul 9, 2013 09:41
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I played my third Arkham Horror game - six players. We couldn't catch a break for most of the game - the environment prevented us from sealing any gates and we had no hope of stopping Yig from waking up. But once Yig got out of bed, we curbstomped him without losing a man. Two of our players spent several rounds with one health left and every time they got a six on their dodges we cheered ourselves hoarse. Another of our investigators, Michael McGlen, was sidelined by a run of bad luck for most of the game, only to come back with a vengeance in the boss fight. He broke his curse early and started slinging dynamite and .45acp.  This makes me 3:0 in Arkham, which means my next game HAS to be an epic failure. And I can't wait.
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Jul 16, 2013 02:23
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moths posted:
Yeah this really got a lot better over time. I got in at the Slobbering Shoggoth level, which seems a pretty good value with hardcovers, PDFs and loads of extra rewards. Plus shipping to EU is $20 which isn't bad. Here's hoping it turns out to be worth it. With all the new bits being added, are these still expected to come out in October?
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Jul 22, 2013 16:43
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It will definitely be coming out later than October, but the trade-off is that it should be a really handsome set of books. They acquired the foreign art assets, and the guy working on layout seems to know what he's doing. Updates have been pretty sparse since the Kickstarter concluded, but they weren't that helpful when it was going on, either. Edit: Looks like updates are going to come through the blog . I hate when kickstarters do this, and they always do. moths fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 05:29
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Hey, I could really use some help hammering out a scenario I'm working on. It's heavily based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Charles, a young student, has been confined to Arkham Asylum after an apparent nervous breakdown; his demeanor has completely changed and the police are trying to link him to a recent string of prostitute murders. His parents offer to pay the investigators to find out what caused his break with reality and to clear his name. The truth is that Charles is dead and the "Charles" in the asylum is an imposter. The investigators discover that Charles had become obsessed with an ancestor, Joseph Curwen, after discovering his portrait and diary. Charles rented a farmhouse that sits on Curwen's property near Salem. This is the setting for most of the investigation. Eventually, the investigators learn that Curwen was a necromancer who had preyed on his neighbors for his experiments; unfortunately, the dead must feed on the blood of the living in orderer to avoid the pain of being, well, dead. Charles had raised Curwen, using a spell in his diary. Curwen, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Charles (as seen in the portrait if the investigators find it), murdered him and stuffed his body in a wall of the farmhouse. He assumed Charles' identity and feasted on prostitutes until he was committed. Underneath the farmhouse is a sprawling labyrinth full of Curwen's not-quite-dead experiments. If the investigators explore it, they can find a spell to banish the undead, and choose to use it on Curwen in the asylum. Here's what I'm bumping into- the backstory is a little complicated, so I'm not sure how to elegantly drop clues. I use Resident Evil-style diary clippings sometimes, but I think it'd be easy to overuse them here. I also don't know how to motivate the investigators to bother exploring the crypt beneath the farmhouse, or to bother doing a whole lot of anything after discovering Charles' corpse. If anyone has any advice, I'd really love the input.  Edit- just wanted to add that Charles has a history of anxiety, and his parents hired a psychiatrist for him. The psychiatrist attempted to visit Charles at the farmhouse after he went MIA for awhile, and, meeting Curwen and believing him to be Charles with a major shift in affect, had him committed. discoukulele fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 20:45
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Make Charles a Zombie, stick him in the same room as the entry to the caverns. The Investigators will go "Oh look a Zombie. Oh look a dark, ominous entryway to the local cave system." Then they'll either go looking, or say "gently caress this I'm not going in there quick kill the Zombie and let's get our money." Or have his corpse up on a slab where it was about to be reanimated before Curwen was interrupted. Basically have their goal (find Charles) lead directly to the next mystery (oh look a creepy crypt). e: or have Charles the Surprisingly Nimble Zombie be carrying the book in question. He understands it's important but not why. When the Detectives enter the experiment room, Charles wanders out to see the noise, the investigators see the doppelganger of their client carrying A Creepy Book, if/when they try to take it off him/approach him he bolts into the caverns with it and leads them in a merry dance of evil monsters until they corner him. Splicer fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 21:01
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Splicer posted:Make Charles a Zombie, stick him in the same room as the entry to the caverns. The Investigators will go "Oh look a Zombie. Oh look a dark, ominous entryway to the local cave system." Then they'll either go looking, or say "gently caress this I'm not going in there quick kill the Zombie and let's get our money." Sweet, thanks! I think I might lure them with the trap door and have Charles be dissected on an operating table in the main laboratory.
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Jul 25, 2013 02:07
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discoukulele posted:Hey, I could really use some help hammering out a scenario I'm working on. I recommend you don't use the names Charles Dexter Ward or Joseph Curwen. Either one, but especially Curwen, will be a huge and immediate tip-off to any Lovecraft fan. It's like saying, "While staying at an inn in Bree, your party meets a halfling named 'Frodo'. What could he be up to?" I think if you give them the crypt, they will explore it. "Naw, gently caress the mysterious ancient stone stairwell leading to unknown depths, let's go smoke weed behind the Miskatonic library."
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Aug 1, 2013 07:28
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There's a movie based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward called The Resurrected. You could track it down on DVD and watch it to get some ideas.
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Aug 1, 2013 22:35
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If you backed 7E, you should check your email for the quickstart rules! I haven't read enough to form an opinion, but it's always exciting when a KS yields payoffs.
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Aug 10, 2013 14:38
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OK I could have sworn I saw something posted somewhere in trad games about the new Call of Cthulhu board game, but I can't find it now or even work out what its name is. Please show me I'm not going mad.
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Aug 19, 2013 16:22
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Splicer posted:OK I could have sworn I saw something posted somewhere in trad games about the new Call of Cthulhu board game, but I can't find it now or even work out what its name is. Please show me I'm not going mad. Search Kickstater for "Cthulhu Wars" Edit: I'm on my tablet so typing out the link is tough
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Aug 19, 2013 21:01
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Aleph Null posted:Search Kickstater for "Cthulhu Wars" e: Found it, it's called Eldritch Horror. Still can't find the picture though.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:08
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Oh, I think that one is Eldritch Horror from FFG. There should be a bit about it on their page, looks like a globe trotting Arkham Horror alike.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:11
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Check out Black Stars Rise. A a Cthulhu/Mythos/Horror rpg based by Sage Latorra. It's pretty small and looks nice and has some interesting rules for taking damage and dealing with insanity. Well worth at least reading through!
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Sep 13, 2013 08:42
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I need suggestions of music for background and atmosphere in games. I know I can just throw Pandora to "Jazz", but I'm looking for something a little more dramatic and eerie, while still maintaining the 1920's feel. What fits that bill?
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Sep 15, 2013 22:19
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This was posted somewhere else in this thread a while ago. It seems like it's mostly older jazz, but there's some dark, ambient stuff in there, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87P7S85sHGI
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Sep 15, 2013 23:57
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Lord Frisk posted:I need suggestions of music for background and atmosphere in games. I know I can just throw Pandora to "Jazz", but I'm looking for something a little more dramatic and eerie, while still maintaining the 1920's feel. What fits that bill? In my experience, it's tricky finding stuff with both a 20s feel and an eerie feel. My keeper uses different playlists, one with your 20s jazz for non-scary moments, one for creepy atmosphere, one for intense moments, etc. It's finicky to do, but well worth it for the atmosphere it provides. Hopefully I can get him to show up here with some track titles and advice, because I don't really know his stash or the black magic he uses to pull it all off. As far as tracks I can recommend, I find that a lot of the best stuff to use comes from videogame soundtracks, since they tend to have a consistent tone throughout. Two of my favorites are the soundtrack from LA Noire for jazzy, casual stuff, and the soundtrack from Deadly Premonition for atmospheric stuff (especially the tracks "Shadows" and "Underground" for creepy, "Red Tree (Ambient)" for intense, and "The Woods and the Goddess" for the ending if the heroes are triumphant). Edit: None of the recommendations from DP are very 20s-ish, but like I said you're not gonna find a lot of atmospheric music from the 20s. And from my personal experience, it all fits anyway. It's not like you're busting out some Backstreet Boys or the 20s characters are hearing the creepy music. Alvie fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 01:21
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Yeah, I really don't need something that's both "20s" and "creepy" at the same time, but something that wouldn't feel too out of place in either. Thanks for the suggestions so far. If you could get a track list from those two playlists, you should post it here.
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Sep 16, 2013 02:33
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Lord Frisk posted:I need suggestions of music for background and atmosphere in games. I know I can just throw Pandora to "Jazz", but I'm looking for something a little more dramatic and eerie, while still maintaining the 1920's feel. What fits that bill? Try the band "Bohren and Der Club of Gore" as they are truly awesome. Dark ambient/doom/jazz... Very, very atmospheric! I've made two spotify playlists, one for when players are investigating and one for when the poo poo hits the fan. The first one consists of mostly Bohren and der Club of Gore and the second one is a mixture of as much dark ambience as I could possibly find. I've found that they work great for when we play!
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Sep 16, 2013 09:47
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Pelgrane Press put out a soundtrack album for their new Trail of Cthulhu campaign book, Eternal Lies, so you might check that out. Also, I pre-ordered the book and it came last week. The campaign seems great and the book is nicely put together!
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Sep 16, 2013 10:35
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Pththya-lyi posted:Pelgrane Press put out a soundtrack album for their new Trail of Cthulhu campaign book, Eternal Lies, so you might check that out. Yeah, the music is nice an ominous, and although I've only read the first section, the campaign rundown makes it look like it should be a fun one. I do love a campaign where the book is thicker than the main rulebook.
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Sep 16, 2013 12:12
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Lord Frisk posted:Yeah, I really don't need something that's both "20s" and "creepy" at the same time, but something that wouldn't feel too out of place in either. If you do need something that is both "20's" and "extremely creepy" probably nothing tops murder ballads and disaster songs. There's an excellent collection called People Take Warning that you can listen to (samples of) here. It's pretty depressing stuff, though.
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Sep 16, 2013 12:33
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Another possibility would be to look up some "dark folk" type music. There's not a lot of it, and it doesn't necessarily match authentic 1920's music, but some of it has that "old-timey" sound combined with fairly dark lyrics. An example band that I'm familiar with is "The Scarring Party" with songs such as "There's no more room (in hell)" and "Eat your young."
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Sep 16, 2013 17:12
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Lord Frisk posted:Yeah, I really don't need something that's both "20s" and "creepy" at the same time, but something that wouldn't feel too out of place in either. Thanks for the suggestions so far. If you could get a track list from those two playlists, you should post it here. I'm the keeper Alvie was talking about, I actually wrote up an entire forum post on how I construct and use my soundtracks. You can check it out here. My collection has been altered since I wrote this, but all the same concepts and prerequisites for songs still hold true. Hope it helps! EDIT: Here is a direct link to the playlists Some of the track names have been altered as to identify them easier. I actually include a list of what is what on the first page of the thread. (8th post down) Dstrukt fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 19:05
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Sionak posted:Another possibility would be to look up some "dark folk" type music.
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Sep 16, 2013 20:07
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Yes. That is what I meant; I was thinking of things like this album labelled as "Dark Roots" music: http://www.amazon.com/Rodentia-Best-Dark-Roots-Music/dp/B001GUZGES/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1379362608&sr=8-12&keywords=scarring+party. I guess when discussing something related to Lovecraft, it pays to be explicit though.
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Sep 16, 2013 21:17
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A few pages back I asked for advice about a Call of Cthulhu campaign set in 1920s Arkham country that I was running with no experience. The campaign has actually been going extremely well, save for a few hiccups with rules and gory, untimely deaths here and there. I guided the players through the printed scenarios The Edge of Darkness and The Hills Rise Wild, and my characters are set up with Professor Armitage as a reluctant collaborator (though they have now managed to prove the purity of their intentions.) Next week we'll be having our first game of the semester picking up where we left off, and I've decided to edit whatever scenarios we'll be using significantly with a meta-plot, usually rewriting the player aids and changing events for a less campy mood, and I'd love if you guys wanted to give me some ideas. The basic theme of the campaign is sexuality and birth between the elder gods. In The Hills Rise Wild the players chased after a meteorite for a Miskatonic U astronomy professor and found it around a serial killer's shack in Dunwich. Here I hinted (without showing) the Mii-go's activity in the area and Abhoth's dwelling beneath the mountains. I've decided that the meteorite is actually some kind of Outer God sperm and that various Lovecraftian deities and cults are trying to knock each other up in the worst way possible. Obviously this gives me a good amount of lee-way to play with my favorite concepts in Lovecraft such as Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, the Mii-go, and the Arkham Witch-Cult, but I'm struggling to coherently put everything together. The next scenario we're running is Behold The Mother, which I'm editing to fit in better and be somewhat less rapey, but I can't seem to find a good way of pitting my players against the Witch-cult and making Abhoth more menacing than a very sketchy Clark Ashton Smith description. I feel like I have to throw out any canon Lemurian/Atlantean origins for Abhoth since people around the table are cynical archaeology students, myself included. Also, whoever posted the Bohren & Der Club of Gore is right on the money. This would help instilling the perfect mood, since our previous games have unfortunately descended into Kraken rum-fueled Lovecraft memes.
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Sep 19, 2013 06:35
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I just want to ask people who are playing CoC and/or ToC to just give Cthulhu Dark (or possibly Cthulhu Noir which introduces a Harm-system) a chance, because it really is an amazing system.
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Sep 19, 2013 08:32
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Graham Walmsley used to have a blog where he'd post 'globules' (tiny pieces of extra content) like Harm rules and Exhaustion rules, plus a bunch of other stuff. His Harm and Exhaustion rules worked similarly to Insanity, not the way Cthulhu Noir does it. He apparently decided that he didn't like the idea of complicating the rules with untested content of his, so he took down the blog. However, there are still a few larger documents of his around that expand or explain the rules of the game, that you might like to take some stuff from: Cthulhu Dark Tales (scenario design) and Cthulhu Dark Depths (more detail about interpreting investigation results, and a bunch of other small things).
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Sep 19, 2013 08:55
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UnCO3 posted:Dark Depths That dark depths scenario creator is pretty nice. It seems to be quite an easy way of making an adventure, or possibly even coming up with one on the fly! I actually came up with this quick and rushed little adventure for Cthulhu Dark. Seeing as how I've always loved the Star Vampires as the monsters, but never actually seen them in an adventure before, I wanted to chuck one in and have it be the main baddie. Here it is! Any and all feedback that you guys can give on how to make it better, is appreciated! waqii fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Sep 24, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 10:25
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Has anyone had any experience with the big book published campaigns like Walker in the Wastes or Beyond the Mountains and feel they could recommend one to run? I have had an itch to run one for my group since we finished up Horror on The Orient Express a few months ago. Ones that we have run in the past include Masks of Nyarlathotep, Escape from Innsmouth and the aforementioned Horror. Related to that, has anyone ever whipped up their own character sheets and could reccomend a good program to use to create a reasonable looking product at the end? I want to use some of the rules that Pegasus Spiele/Editions Sans-Detour use for the German/French editions but it would require rewriting bits of the character sheet. Polyakov fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Sep 29, 2013 |
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Sep 29, 2013 19:34
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If you did Masks of Nyarlathotep and wasn't turned off to the concept, then any of those you name are fine - as brilliant as Masks is in many places it contains the distillate of everything that could go wrong with an extended published Cthulhu campaign.
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Oct 1, 2013 19:37
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Three things about MoN: 1) There's a reason The Unspeakable Oath reviews products on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being Masks of Nyarlathotep. It really is that good. 2) That said, MoN runs towards the two-fisted, globe-trotting, pulpier kind of Lovecraftian story (in a lot of ways, it can be said to have invented it). 3) Be sure and track down the free 500 page (!) fan companion that some lunatics at yog-sothoth.com wrote for MoN: http://www.yog-sothoth.com/files/file/532-masks-of-nyarlathotep-companion-v09/
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Oct 1, 2013 19:55
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JDCorley posted:If you did Masks of Nyarlathotep and wasn't turned off to the concept, then any of those you name are fine - as brilliant as Masks is in many places it contains the distillate of everything that could go wrong with an extended published Cthulhu campaign. My group played a sort of modified version of Masks over the course of the summer, so I'm interested if you could elaborate on this thought. It was a lot of fun and super compelling, save for a few hiccups (notably a TPK in Kenya's climax that was difficult to recover from). It was the first large-scale campaign we've ever attempted, and the first of any sort of campaign we've ever completed, so I don't really have anything to compare it with and some critique would be interesting.
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Oct 4, 2013 03:28
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I want to run a campaign set in 1980s Miami, all neon washed an full of bitchin hairdos and leisure suits. I also want to have cocaine be a major factor in the game, but would like to have cocaine use and addiction have mechanical effects. Any ideas on how I could achieve this?
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Oct 10, 2013 14:19
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| # ? May 29, 2024 10:07 |
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Players wager an amount of their current sanity points and have to roll under their sanity minus this amount. If they succeed they get to add the wager to skills they'll be using within the next few hours. Success also means they have to keep putting up a higher and higher amount of sanity for diminished returns. Failure = temporary loss of sanity equal to the amount you last put up until you get your act together again. Thems the breaks, pal.
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Oct 11, 2013 09:16
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