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Ok yeah, I def don't want to get you into any trouble. Happy to hear it's at least this far in the dev cycle though.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:15
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moths posted:Ok yeah, I def don't want to get you into any trouble. Happy to hear it's at least this far in the dev cycle though. Yeah, I was quite pleased to get the invite as I was worried it would end up in development hell like Pagan's Horrors of War. Dammit Glancy, I just want to run my group through U-Boote Heraus! 
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Jul 15, 2014 21:17
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I would be extremely interested in any material you can share, but would rather not get you in trouble either. My impression is that they've been working on this version for a long while - I know there's been at least two GenCon panels about it and there's another one scheduled for this year. I recall Stolze tweeting about doing some of the writing last year, too. He's also running a DG session at this year's GenCon, presumably with the new rules. My impression with the Tales from Failed Anatomies kickstarter was that it was delayed until it was actually ready - the kickstarter launched much later than they originally stated, but then the eBook was out within a couple months. That was a nice surprise and I'm hoping something similar will happen with the DG rules.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:26
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Sionak posted:I hate to point you at another forum, but honestly, there's a lot more discussion about Gumshoe/ToC in particular on the Yog-Sothoth boards, including some fairly long threads on Eternal Lies. http://www.yog-sothoth.com/forum/30-trail-of-cthulhu/ Here on SA, both the Cthulhu and Gumshoe threads are relatively quiet. Cheers I will take a look. I saw your Trail thoughts and I've read the system summary on the Pelgrane website which helped a bit. Character creation was throwing me a bit but I eventually got that there were General points too in addition to Investigative points.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:34
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So I really, really liked Keeper's Companion Vol. 1; the sections on Books, Cults and Mysterious Places made it really easy to adapt Cthulhu Mythos elements for my scifi games without having to comb through a bunch of books looking for the information I wanted. How useful would vol. 2 be to me?
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Jul 16, 2014 07:31
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Ettin posted:So I really, really liked Keeper's Companion Vol. 1; the sections on Books, Cults and Mysterious Places made it really easy to adapt Cthulhu Mythos elements for my scifi games without having to comb through a bunch of books looking for the information I wanted. How useful would vol. 2 be to me? Keeper's Companion Vol. 1 is truly excellent. However, from what I remember from looking at my GM's copy, Vol. 2 isn't worth it at all. If my memory is right, over half of it was just about prohibition. It interesting information, but nothing that Wikipedia couldn't tell you...
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Jul 17, 2014 01:40
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So, someone dropped a whole bunch of CoC supplements at my local used bookstore... New Orleans, Dreamlands, Kenya, Dark Ages, The Stars are Right, Mansions of Madness, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, Morocco, and the 1920s Investigators Companion as well as the Keepers Compendium. Any I should make sure to pick up for some quality gaming?
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Aug 1, 2014 18:14
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Lucky you! I'd recommend Mansions of Madness and Dark Ages (if you're interested in that era). I can't say much about the other adventures / settings, but I think the best parts of Investigators Companion and Keepers Compendium got rolled into the 6e core book.
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Aug 1, 2014 18:22
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Ettin posted:So I really, really liked Keeper's Companion Vol. 1; the sections on Books, Cults and Mysterious Places made it really easy to adapt Cthulhu Mythos elements for my scifi games without having to comb through a bunch of books looking for the information I wanted. How useful would vol. 2 be to me? Scott Glancy does not recommend Volume 2, for what that's worth. Speaking of which: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/460966263/horrors-of-war-a-convenant-with-death No PDF option because Crowe is a luddite.
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Aug 1, 2014 19:50
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I have been waiting for this since listening to your first AP so it's practically mandatory for me to back this, but drat if they're not making it difficult. $45.00 is the first level that gets a softcover book, and absolutely no PDF option? Man, Crowe's out there. They're getting my money, but I hope that he can be convinced otherwise. Edit: Alright, $110 gets the book and an author Skype game? This pricing really makes no sense, but I'll take that deal. I just hope there's still spots available when I get out of work. SageNytell fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 20:15
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moths posted:Lucky you! Okay, so this leads me to my next question: what are the differences between 5.5 and 6? The bookstore also has a really cheap 5.5 core book, and I was thinking I'd pick it up if for no other reason then to have a hard copy of the rules. We've never played CoC before, if that makes a difference in anyone's recommendation (I won't know any better!  ).I'll definitely pick those supplements up then! Thanks! 
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Aug 1, 2014 21:45
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Niemat posted:Okay, so this leads me to my next question: what are the differences between 5.5 and 6? The bookstore also has a really cheap 5.5 core book, and I was thinking I'd pick it up if for no other reason then to have a hard copy of the rules. We've never played CoC before, if that makes a difference in anyone's recommendation (I won't know any better! Rules are about the same but 6e has a lot more advice, background material on tomes, spells, etc. I have a copy of 5.2 and 6e and I use them interchangeably.
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Aug 1, 2014 21:52
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Some online wisdom I found a while back said that 5.5 and 6 are almost entirely the same, the only real difference being the art and layout of the book, with the 5.5 coming out ahead for clean readability. I cant entirely vouch for content but I have both and that seems to be the case.
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Aug 2, 2014 21:56
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clockworkjoe posted:Scott Glancy does not recommend Volume 2, for what that's worth. Whelp that's backed, does suck theres no PDF. clockworkjoe posted:Rules are about the same but 6e has a lot more advice, background material on tomes, spells, etc. I have a copy of 5.2 and 6e and I use them interchangeably. This is what I love about CoC is that there has been very little change to the rules in what 30 years? Stuff written for 1st edition can still be played with 6th edition.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:31
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CoC is one of the "living fossil" RPGs. As I understand it, even 7e's most sweeping changes were eventually blunted into optional house-rules and suggestion. BRP's D%% system is probably one of the simplest core mechanics, it's easy to use and grasp, and everything in the game uses that same mechanic; That is, there's barely any differentiation between 'combat mode' and 'roleplay mode.' The biggest changes can be summed up by looking at character sheets from different editions, I'd say that the most alterations were to the skills system.
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Aug 3, 2014 01:29
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moths posted:CoC is one of the "living fossil" RPGs. Yup. CoC is up there with Palladium stuff for ancient and arcane RPG systems. It really hasn't changed much AT ALL between editions.
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Aug 4, 2014 18:13
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moths posted:CoC is one of the "living fossil" RPGs. At the risk of starting an edition war, this one of the things I like best about Call of Cthulhu that in over 30 years of material is still compatible with one another, with minimal fixing needed on top of it being a very simple system to learn and run. Hell I can get character gen down in 10 minutes with the longest being figuring out character name and back story, especially with that great two page spread that summarizes character generation in the 6th and I think 5th edition book. Though I do like some of things with 7th, or really just the idea of pushing your luck, and I'll probably pick it up when it finally comes out (along with Horror On the Orient Express, which from what I've heard from people who back those I'm glad I skipped the Kickstarter for). But I'm torn that so many people look like they're going to continue to just support 6th if that Horrors of War book is any indication. Speaking of which, this is up for sale in PDF format not http://www.goldengoblinpress.com/store/#!/~/product/category=6641143&id=37692597 I back this on kickstarter and it's a great book, and the art is just beautiful and I'm really glad that I backed it at a level that got me Secrets of New Orleans along with it. But I'm not that big of a fan of the classic 1920s era, I really like stuff set in the modern era, though with exceptions for things like Arkham Now you don't really see that in the main line. But I've been thinking about it and I think Delta Green makes more sense for the modern era since it's mush harder for independent investigators to do all those things that make them CoC of characters in the modern day without being caught by the cops. Which the thing I'm most looking forward to the new edition of Delta Green is how they up date it to the post 9/11 United States. KomradeX fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Aug 12, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 03:47
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KomradeX posted:
I think it's really interesting how 1920s become the standard Call of Cthulhu era, since Lovecraft was writing things to be contemporary. I'm also really stoked about the new Delta Green, though information has been very thin on the ground about it. I'm planning to check out both the Delta Green panels at GenCon - though I think this is the third round of Delta Green update panels, I also know the alpha playtest rules are in the world. And it's pretty much a dream team of writers - the originals plus Kenneth Hite and Greg Stolze. (Though I'm not sure if John Tynes is doing much of the writing this time.)
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Aug 7, 2014 14:25
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What I've been advised by Shane that I can say about having playtested the game is that it was very fun, and that I can post the recording of our playtest session of the system once the game is released. We played through a very-slightly-modified Bryson Springs by Caleb Stokes as an early DG operation, instead of using the provided adventure, and it went very well. It's going to be a cool game.
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Aug 7, 2014 14:45
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Did I miss a Kickstarter for it or are they going a more conventional development route?
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Aug 7, 2014 14:55
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moths posted:Did I miss a Kickstarter for it or are they going a more conventional development route? The only thing kickstarted so far was the fiction collection, Tales from Strange Anatomies. Last I heard, they were planning to go the kickstarter route for the new version of the RPG as well, but it hasn't happened yet. Edit: Thanks SageNytell, that is cool to hear. Sionak fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 16:36
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If you backed the 7E Kickstarter, check your email for a pleasant surprise.
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Aug 9, 2014 04:32
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Sionak posted:I think it's really interesting how 1920s become the standard Call of Cthulhu era, since Lovecraft was writing things to be contemporary. I've always wondered why the 20s were the "standard" setting, but a lot of people don't think you can pull off a modern one with all the technology today, which presents a problem but if it were insurmountable we'd have more period horror movies. And I dunt even think you have to do stuff like the cliché, there's no cell signal and all that. After seeing all the talent they have on the new Delta Green book as soon as that his kickstarter I'm going back that at as high a level as I can afford.
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Aug 13, 2014 01:32
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KomradeX posted:I've always wondered why the 20s were the "standard" setting, but a lot of people don't think you can pull off a modern one with all the technology today, which presents a problem but if it were insurmountable we'd have more period horror movies. And I dunt even think you have to do stuff like the cliché, there's no cell signal and all that. Right. There's some possibilities there - and you see it in fiction with things like The Ring where the horror is actually transmitted through technology. Kenneth Hite has a really good sidebar in the GURPS horror book that talks about that. While you certainly can have the technology just give out, you can use it to add to the horror, too. Cell phones can give weird static or play messages that haven't happened yet, or (of course) the villains can tap into them. The World of Darkness God-Machine Chronicle also has some neat ideas about technology becoming more threatening rather than comforting. Lovecraft really liked working in (at the time) contemporary science and technology - like how Dreams in the Witch House mentions quantum physics.
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Aug 13, 2014 01:48
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There's actually a great use of technology in The Dunwitch Horror, specifically an early party-line telephone system:quote:Thursday night began much like the others, but it ended less happily. The whippoorwills in the glen had screamed with such unusual persistence that many could not sleep, and about 3 A.M. all the party telephones rang tremulously. Those who took down their receivers heard a fright-mad voice shriek out, 'Help, oh, my Gawd! ...' and some thought a crashing sound followed the breaking off of the exclamation. There was nothing more. No one dared do anything, and no one knew till morning whence the call came. Then those who had heard it called everyone on the line, and found that only the Fryes did not reply. The truth appeared an hour later, when a hastily assembled group of armed men trudged out to the Frye place at the head of the glen. It was horrible, yet hardly a surprise. There were more swaths and monstrous prints, but there was no longer any house. It had caved in like an egg-shell, and amongst the ruins nothing living or dead could be discovered. Only a stench and a tarry stickiness. The Elmer Fryes had been erased from Dunwich. As for the 20's, they were a turbulent time for mankind. We were still recovering from the Great War, expeditions were filling the gaps in atlases, technology seemed to be advancing faster and in stranger directions than ever before; The world was shrinking and becoming more unfamiliar and violent for it. Flight had become a practicality, electric lighting had proliferated, mass-production changed how we consumed goods, and revolutions were happening in foreign places. For many, these were the 'interesting times' you wish upon people you dislike.
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Aug 13, 2014 02:56
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People instinctively place Lovecraft and a lot of Lovecraft media in the 20s because he really filtered into nerd consciousness from the Arkham House reprints in the 50s, by which it was no longer current. Also because people are enamored with the purple prose and that doesn't work in a contemporary setting as much, if at all.
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Aug 13, 2014 03:34
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It still breaks my brain that the 20s were the 50's 80s.
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Aug 13, 2014 04:42
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moths posted:It still breaks my brain that the 20s were the 50's 80s. Cthulhu is totally tubular
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Aug 13, 2014 04:51
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Yeah modern technology has always been apart of Lovecraft, hell which story was it where his main characters use a home made flame thrower to defeat the evil they were confronting? That's total PC behavior. The only benefit that technology has given PCs in Call of Cthulhu is made it easier to get on touch or relay critical information. Besides that well so what of you took a picture of a Ghoul or a Mi-Go or any of the Mythos what do you do take it to a news papee have then laugh you out of the office? Post your video on YouTube where 90 percent of the comments will be calling it fake. Some podcast I listened to months ago (wish I could remember it) Did Delta Green Convergence and in it they talked about the only flaw is in retrospect that the game or the scenario is very mid 90s with the UFO hunters. Today who cares if they get a video of the Mi Go goo and put it up on their YouTube channel Pele ate gonna call it fake (like I just said). Now it's harder to do the globe spanning campaigns in the modern era, and it's harder to get away with the type of things PCs do in CoC because of police forensics which is another reason and really the main reason I think Delta Green is the logical modern extension of CoC. And we should feel free to dump all of the 90s stuff that is awkward. Like do like the MJ12 Mi-Go conspiracy stuff go ahead forget about it, it'll make sine of the printed scenarios unplayable maybe but that shouldn't be too big of a problem. Think the magical evil Nazis are just too over the top Pulp dump'em same thing with Saucer Watch (I just remembered their name), or you can update them to be one of those Ghost Hunter shows that are popular. Hell in one of the last issues of The Unspeakable Oath they had an update for GRU-SPV 8 so theirs no reason Lovecraftian horror can't work in the modern era hell, if the 20s we're the interesting times people wish on others what would be call the first 14 years of the 21st century wrought with wars on nebulous concepts, the still rapid advance of technology, global economic crisises, global warming. With the amount of fear and uncertainty we have going on it fits right into the mold. Also just think that today the 80s is what the 50s was for the 80s. Which makes me think there are some eras that get over looked like well the 80s which was the modern era when CoC First came out or the 70s, hell if the World War One Horrors of War book goes well I hope we'll get to see Cthulhu By Arc Light with ones set during the Vietnam War cause the 60s/70s can be a great time for Cthulhu as well. There's that Atomic Age cthulhu book that looked really fun I just have t had the chance to pick it up cause the 50s and Cold War paranoia ate great set pieces. Really there is no era where cthulhu can't be done and so many fans just limit themselves to the 20s KomradeX fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Aug 13, 2014 |
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Aug 13, 2014 06:44
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KomradeX posted:Now it's harder to do the globe spanning campaigns in the modern era, and it's harder to get away with the type of things PCs do in CoC because of police forensics which is another reason and really the main reason I think Delta Green is the logical modern extension of CoC. And we should feel free to dump all of the 90s stuff that is awkward. Like do like the MJ12 Mi-Go conspiracy stuff go ahead forget about it, it'll make sine of the printed scenarios unplayable maybe but that shouldn't be too big of a problem. Think the magical evil Nazis are just too over the top Pulp dump'em same thing with Saucer Watch (I just remembered their name), or you can update them to be one of those Ghost Hunter shows that are popular. The new edition of Delta Green's updating the setting into the modern day. If I remember the details given right, they've beaten MJ-12 and now run the alphabet soup agencies. They're the establishment, now, which probably ties into the whole Edward Snowden thing.
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Aug 13, 2014 11:14
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Mimir posted:The new edition of Delta Green's updating the setting into the modern day. If I remember the details given right, they've beaten MJ-12 and now run the alphabet soup agencies. They're the establishment, now, which probably ties into the whole Edward Snowden thing. What little details have been revealed are that:
Basically, there are three Delta Greens; the paranoid spooks who've couped Majestic 12 and become the establishment, the paranoid spooks who are running a conspiracy within the government like they have since 1974, and the spooks with DG clearance who work for Majestic 12 and are going to become paranoid very soon. This part of the new edition looks like it'll be very good; there's support both for playing 1996-style Delta Green cell-level secret operations and playing Delta Green as the cross-governmental secret government agency, backed by an even more sinister conspiracy within the government. It's also been revealed that the new DG-clearance task force includes not only US agents, but allies of the US, which means that M-EPIC and PISCES might get involved. I'm particularly interested in how PISCES reacts to Delta Green being "reactivated"...
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Aug 13, 2014 12:48
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moths posted:There's actually a great use of technology in The Dunwitch Horror, specifically an early party-line telephone system:
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Aug 13, 2014 16:19
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The information age makes cosmic horror much more interesting, because now the sort of materialist alienation Lovecraft is known for is something that can be believably be happening, and it's much harder to escape from. Of course, people tend to focus on style for Lovecraft so the most we get is evil modems and evil arcologies and junk like that.
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Aug 13, 2014 16:30
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The Lovecraftian stories I've read that were all about technology were loving terrible. Like, stuff about what would happen if a hacker used the Necronomicon to cause hurricanes, or someone summoned Nyarlathotep into a chatroom. The best I've read in that vein was Campbell's The Grin of the Dark, about a film historian doing a project on an obscure silent film actor. He starts finding that his credit card doesn't work at inopportune moments, his phone won't call out, the work he typed up yesterday is gone, web resources have suddenly disappeared... If a supernatural force wanted to drive you crazy, in the information age it would be much easier to do so by loving with the information streams you rely on than with poltergeist shenanigans. Now, in the context of a game, it doesn't make sense for all kinds of mythos threats, and in any horror game you have to keep the players from getting it into their heads that they're dealing with a very narrow "techno-ghost" concept.
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Aug 13, 2014 16:43
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Halloween Jack posted:The Lovecraftian stories I've read that were all about technology were loving terrible. Like, stuff about what would happen if a hacker used the Necronomicon to cause hurricanes, or someone summoned Nyarlathotep into a chatroom. Yeah, Campbell is about the only prolific horror writer to do tech-horror that's anything other than pathetic that I've seen. I mean, I guess Cait Kiernan's use of fetish subcultures for horror is internet-dependent a little.
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Aug 13, 2014 17:31
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Effectronica posted:The information age makes cosmic horror much more interesting, because now the sort of materialist alienation Lovecraft is known for is something that can be believably be happening, and it's much harder to escape from. Of course, people tend to focus on style for Lovecraft so the most we get is evil modems and evil arcologies and junk like that. I'm fond of 1920's Cthulhu because I never really play in that era anywhere else, and I love the how close it is to our time, but also how different the society is. That being said, modern day contrivances can really spiral into great scenarios. Check this one out for instance http://www.blacksugarmovie.com/movie.html
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Aug 13, 2014 18:04
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I've always wanted to run cthulhu-esque games in the late 60's, with the amount of new age isms, sex, drugs and social norms flying all over, plus you have Vietnam. It'd make for an awesome setting. Hell, True Detective showed it would work awesome in the 80s.
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Aug 13, 2014 21:13
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Those updates to Delta Green sound really cool. I heard about the idea of Delta Green taking over MJ12 but want sure how it would work. I'm very excited for that to hit kickstarter. It's odd that all tech related horror is so awful, when it should emphasize alienation in our society.
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Aug 14, 2014 20:34
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Alienation in society is hard to write. But an office building that hates Agent Scully? Now we're talking!
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Aug 14, 2014 20:44
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KomradeX posted:It's odd that all tech related horror is so awful, when it should emphasize alienation in our society.
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Aug 14, 2014 21:14
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