Cthulhu Megathread: It's pronounced "Khlul'-hloo" (Lose 1D10/1D100 Sanity)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Cthulhu Megathread: It's pronounced "Khlul'-hloo" (Lose 1D10/1D100 Sanity)

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Pope Guilty: Nov 6, 2006; The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.

I got into Lovecraft because I got Alone in the Dark for my 12th birthday and was obsessed with it, so you never know.

# ? Jun 15, 2016 08:45

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 15:40

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

DurdleDuck posted:

Here's another game for the C'Thulhu loving goons:

http://www.cthulhurealms.com by Tasty Minstrel Games (digital version by White Wizard Games)

Cthulhu Realms is the crazier and creepier cousin of the popular sci-fi deckbuilding game Star Realms. In Cthulhu Realms, each player tries to drive their opponent insane or have more sanity than their opponent when the deck of cards runs out.

Cthulhu Realms is a deckbuilding game (like Dominion; Ascension) that's closely related to Star Realms. It has the same "direct pvp combat" as Star Realms, and thus doesn't muck around with victory points that are hard to keep track of and/or dilute your deck of cards.

It's pretty cheap, coming in at $20 MSRP, but I've seen it as cheap as $10 on miniature market. It also recently added a free to download digital version that's currently available on Android and iOS, with a single IAP ($5) to unlock the full game and be able to play online. Steam is "coming soon".

Features:
- high replayability
- cheap and portable
- high quality cards with comical artwork

star realms is an awful awful game and it even makes me regret forking in extra money to get a shirt in the humble card game bundle

# ? Jun 15, 2016 09:25

DurdleDuck: Jul 17, 2013

PBS Newshour posted:

star realms is an awful awful game and it even makes me regret forking in extra money to get a shirt in the humble card game bundle

Huh, that's a not so common opinion. What makes it so awful?

# ? Jun 15, 2016 14:32

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

New Lovecraftian/Cthulhu game The Sinking City in development.

http://frogwares.com/games/#The_Sinking_City

quote:

The Sinking City
�We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.�
� H.P. Lovecraft, �The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories�

The Sinking City is a game of investigation and mystery taking place in a fictional open world inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

The player steps into the shoes of a 1920s private investigator who finds himself in the city of Oakmont Massachusetts, New England. A city suffering from unprecedented floods of clearly supernatural origins. A city trembling on the brink of madness.

Can you survive this beleaguered town and untangle the mysteries responsible for its tragic situation or will you be driven beyond madness yourself?

Claims to be open world investigation. Release date TBD.

News and more screen shots.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-08-the-sinking-city-is-a-promising-open-world-investigation-lovecraftian-game

# ? Jun 16, 2016 09:00

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Phoenix Point : X-Com meets Steven King's The Mist. In Development.

Featuring:

-Enemies procedural generated every campaign for maximum surprise and horror.

-By Julian Gollop, the creator of the original X-COM

-Turn-based tactical combat

-Post apoc setting

http://www.phoenixpoint.info/

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/06/14/phoenix-point-new-xcom-julian-gollop/

quote:

Phoenix Point: Every Detail Of The X-COM Creator�s Return To The Genre

One of the most exciting games in Los Angeles this week won�t be featured at press conferences or on the showfloor. Phoenix Point [official site] is the new tactical-strategy hybrid from Julian Gollop, the creator of the original X-COM, and we met yesterday to discuss its procedurally generated alien threats, simulated human factions and much more. Here�s the world�s first in-depth look at the game.

This is more than a remake of X-COM, that�s clear from the start. While the turn-based tactical combat looks a great deal like Firaxis�s take on the series, with destructible terrain and entirely procedural levels, the strongest and most exciting ideas in Phoenix Point might well be in the strategic layer, which combines elements of grand strategy with the lurking horror of Stephen King�s The Mist. Before digging into all of that though, here�s how the future looks. It�s not pretty.

Phoenix Point may be humanity�s last hope. An isolated settlement of survivors in a world that has gone to hell, it�s a peak rising above a tide of horrors that are threatening to consume what remains of humankind. Your task is to lead the ragtag band of people who have made Phoenix Point their home, at first ensuring that they survive by gathering food and other resources, and later by fighting back against the threats that surround them.

The game is set in 2046 and the last pockets of the human race are hiding in havens, scattered around the world. That�s because something went terribly wrong a couple of decades ago, when the melting of the permafrost released a long-dormant alien virus into the oceans. That virus is capable of mutating any species it comes into contact with, which leads to an initial wave of horrific aquatic creatures, reminiscent of Terror From The Deep, and eventually makes its way onto land.

The virus spreads under the cloak of a mist that you�ll be able to see spreading across the map. It plays a part in tactical combat as well as on the strategic Geoscape layer, and I�ll go into more detail about that later, but right now it�s best to think of it as both a cover system and a literal fog of war. It hides creatures and protects them, and represents both the presence of the alien hordes and a form of corruption that they�re spreading across Earth.

One of the key tenets of Phoenix Point is taken from the most important word in X-COM�s title: Unknown. Gollop tells me that he wants to create a game in which the player will fear the dark and in which the enemy will intelligently react and adapt to their tactical choices. If you repel an initial wave using skillful sniper shots, the next attack might feature new monsters with chitinous shields or front-facing armour, or humanoid hybrids with guns of their own to return fire. Switch tactics to take these new creatures out with incendiary weapons or explosives, and the next batch will find ways to counter that tactic as well.

And if all else fails, the aliens can always just beat you down with their sheer size.

�Procedural generation works on two levels,� Gollop explains. �The first is interchangeable body parts. The other thing is morphing in size and shape to some extent. It might be that an alien has a vestigial element that can get larger. Or it might be a relatively small creature that is based on a large insect or bat, but that might get bigger or nastier.�

Initially, the aliens you fight will be based on combinations of sea creatures � I saw crab men but Gollop mentions squids, octopi and sharks as well � but as they force their way in-land, new hybrids will appear, based on animals from the regions in question. That means your location in the world will dictate, to an extent, whether you�re facing petrifying pachyderms or�giant penguins? I make the latter suggestion and Gollop seems enthused.

�Yes, maybe. And elephants with long legs, enormous bats and insects, or giant chameleons with wings.�

Part Dali, part Cronenberg, the aliens of Pheonix Point won�t just be unknown on each playthrough, they�ll be uncanny. And when Gollop uses the word �giant�, he�s not talking about a beefy Muton. Pointing out a skittering monstrosity that seems more claw than flesh and could probably lob a small building at your squad, he describes it as �a tiddler�. Later, when he shows me the first example of a mission in action, the sequence ends with an oil rig being assaulted by something emerging from the deep that seems almost large enough to devour the entire structure.

It�s more reminiscent of Dagon�s attack in Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth than anything I�d expect from X-COM and the Lovecraft quote that opens the presentation makes a lot more sense in the context of these gargantuan horrors. This is a game about biological horror but the virus is cosmic in origin and, I suspect, some of the late game developments will focus on that element.

�I don�t want to give too much of the plot away right now but there are several endings,� Gollop explains. �If you choose to, you�ll learn some interesting things about how the world came to be as it is. The virus has been on the earth for thousands of years and determining its origins is one of the important mid-game objectives that could provide a possible solution.�

We should rewind a little though because as fascinating as the creatures are, and as central to the themes and mechanics of the game as they might be, I�m surprised to find myself more excited about how Gollop is handling the other human survivors. Aliens, I expected; I didn�t expect a deep strategic simulation reminiscent of both Alpha Centauri�s factions, grand strategy and X-COM: Apocalypse�s complex diplomacy.

The loop of the original X-COM and Firaxis� take on the series involves sequences of alien activity, both in the tactical and strategic levels, and then the player�s response. Phoenix Point adds an extra complication with the activity of other factions.

Across the world, you�ll discover havens, places where humans have managed to survive, usually because of some geographical quirk that prevents the alien mist from drowning them. Because the collapse of civilisation and the presence of the mist have isolated these havens from one another, they�ve developed radically different ways of thinking about the world, and the aliens. That means they might be friendly or hostile to you, and to one another, depending on how you choose to progress through any given playthrough.

It�s the fact that they might attack one another that I find most exciting. When it comes to strategy games, I always feel much more comfortable within a simulated world that can unfold without my influence. It�s one of the reasons I love Paradox�s grand strategy releases: they�re engines for the creation of alternate histories that you can partake in, but they don�t direct all of their attention toward the player.

Phoenix Point, like Apocalypse before it, shares some of those qualities. Factions will develop their own agendas and develop technology, and they need to gather resources to survive just as you do. They�ll make alliances and fight one another, as well as battling against the aliens, and entire conflicts and emergent stories can play out without your involvement should you choose to turn your attention elsewhere.

You might be wondering why the last remnants of humanity would be fighting one another rather than concentrating on an external threat. First of all, their isolationist nature and divergent ideologies sometimes means they just plain don�t like one another. And then there�s the scarcity of resources in the world � if you need to feed your people and the group just over yonder has a surplus of food that they won�t trade, it�s possible to organise raids.

Of course, you might believe your interests are better served by alliances. Trade and diplomacy are both supported but the distinct belief systems and goals of the factions will eventually cause tension and conflict. You can�t be friends with everyone. There are likely to be more types of human group in the finished game but Gollop has three in mind already.

Sanctuary are a highly scientific ecological group who believe that the future of the planet involves co-existence with the aliens. To that end, they�re developing biospheres in which to contain lifeforms � artificial ecosystems of a sort � and early warning systems, as well as technology that can repel the mist. Their motto, in brief, is �we stay in our space and you stay in yours�.

Taking the opposite view, the Human League are a survivalist militia who believe they can find a military solution to the menace. They don�t think co-existence is possible and want to repel the invasion through force.

Finally, there�s Advena Domine, a religious cult who sacrifice their enemies in a ritual of alien �communion�. Normally when a human is infected with the virus, like any other animal they lose their consciousness and become a puppet of the alien force. The cult have developed a tech that allows them to receive the alien DNA while retaining their own consciousness.

In a further twist on the game�s structure, you�ll be able to use the unique tech developed by each of the factions provided you can seize it or have a strong enough relationship to allow for shared research. When it comes to the Advena Domine technology, there�s a distinct nod to Enemy Within � altering your soldiers� DNA may be beneficial but there is a risk of losing their humanity entirely.

There several other branches of research independent of the other factions. One is purely based on building earth-based technology to improve weapons, armour and equipment, and others are based on the X-COM staple of autopsy and study of the aliens themselves. If you meet a mutant form that is vulnerable to fire, for example, you�ll be able to set your researchers to discover ways to exploit that vulnerability, through development of flamethrowers or incendiary rounds, for example. You�ll be able to explore biogenetics even without Advena Domine influence as well, taking elements of the aliens you encounter to �improve� your own soldiers.

All of that comes later though. Initially, your goal is simply to survive. In an inversion of the usual X-COM setup, you begin with technical superiority but the aliens have sheer weight of numbers in their favour, as well as their ability to mutate and adapt. The other factions will generate missions for you in the early game, providing supplies and tech if you are willing to help them when they�re attacked, but you�ll also need to repel attacks on your own havens. If the mist encroaches on your territory, there�s an immediate risk of attack.

As well as defending what you own, you�ll also need to concentrate on expanding your territory, however, in order to make contact with other factions and to increase the flow of supplies by discovering new scavenging zones. All of this takes place on a Geoscape that looks remarkably like a directly updated version of X-COM�s original globe. There, you can see the advance of the mist and key strategic points, such as scavenging locations and havens.

The majority of your time will be spent in tactical combat, however. Levels are procedurally generated, just as the creatures are, and the visual style is similar to Firaxis� XCOM. There are changes, however, most notably in the ability to target specific body parts, primarily on larger creatures. You can take out the arm that wields (or IS) a gun, or damage legs to reduce or disable mobility. In the mission I was shown, a creature with a growth on its back that emitted mist, providing cover, shrouded itself in darkness, reducing the accuracy of attacks against it and entirely hiding it from view.

Mist plays a key part in battles, providing a more literal fog of war. Monsters within the mist are a mystery � you can fire on them but they�re indistinct shapes and you won�t have any idea what their abilities are until they emerge or you find a way to evaporate the mist and reveal them. In the example I saw, a sniper with a height advantage managed to take a shot that ruptured the growth from above, infuriating the creature but destroying its ability to hide itself and its allies.

The procedural levels will have their own in-built mini objectives in the form of strategic points scattered throughout. These might be elevated structures or vantages, control rooms, or alien installations. Taking control of them will allow you to play tactical cards, brought into combat from a deck built in the strategic layer, that provide buffs to individual soldiers or entire squads.

Soldiers themselves are fully customisable and there�s an air of XCOM 2�s ragtag bands about them. Post-apocalyptic fighters, without uniforms or regulation haircuts. As well as cosmetic alterations, you�ll be able to give them equipment including spotter drones, various armour types and other enhancements, as well as the weapons you�ve researched. Gollop says class delineations won�t be as strictly defined as in XCOM and its sequel, but it�ll be advantageous to build diverse squads.

All of the changes to the core X-COM idea � whether it be the addition of diplomacy and simulated human factions or the adaptive mutations of the aliens themselves � appear to serve a single purpose. Gollop wants to create an open world strategy game and he wants to create a game that forces the player to alter strategies and tactics on the fly. A successful tactic won�t be effective forever because the enemy will literally morph in order to counter it, and the very weapons you decide to use will determine the kind of aliens you meet.

It�s a tremendously exciting proposition, combining the fears and anxieties of the original X-COM with the polish of Firaxis� remake. Add that dash of grand strategy and the memories of Apocalypse�s strongest ideas and Phoenix Point becomes something unique. When I arranged to meet Gollop I was half-expecting the game to rely much more on the legacy of its creator and his most famous game. I knew about the adaptive nature of the aliens and the ability to target individual body parts but that seemed like a wrinkle added to the tactical combat rather than a dramatic change.

We won�t be able to play a finished version for a while though. It�s due out in 2018 and it�ll probably be the second half of the year. Gollop is in town to talk to publishers as well as press, and already has a working prototype of the strategic game. Tactical combat is almost ready as well, in pre-alpha form.

With its inter-faction diplomacy and strategic simulation, Phoenix Point excites me far more than a more direct attempt to tap into the memory of X-COM would have done. It�s a bold game which has taken lessons from every strategy game in the series, including Firaxis� remakes (which Gollop repeatedly enthuses about), but also looks at the wider field of grand strategy and survival horror. For a strategy fan, it�s hard to think of a more exciting reveal in a week that doesn�t normally make a great deal of space for the genre.

Helical Nightmares fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Jun 16, 2016

# ? Jun 16, 2016 09:11

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

There was a game I used to play called Warning Forever that was a play on the whole procedural generation idea: it was a series of SHMUP boss battles, except the next boss would (allegedly) configure its size, shape, weapons and attack patterns to adapt to how you dismantled the last one.

That Phoenix Point claim is very intriguing in that context, if the constantly shifting nature of the alien threat would require you to either iterate on your tactics to counter the aliens' own evolution, or to use new tactics altogether to throw their game off, or some midway of both.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 09:20

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Yeah. Looks like Gollup is trying to make a procedurally generated enemy behave like the Borg (or Tyranids iirc) over multiple tactical encounters.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 09:21

Owlbear Camus: Jan 3, 2013; Maybe this guy that flies is just sort of passing through, you know?

Delta Green corebooks and keeper screens have arrived on the Slow Boat and should be shipped by the end of July. I'm stoked. Still old school enough to like physical books.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 09:33

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

Otisburg posted:

Delta Green corebooks and keeper screens have arrived on the Slow Boat and should be shipped by the end of July. I'm stoked. Still old school enough to like physical books.

Has there been any talk at all about the Case Workers Handbook, or whatever it was called? The complete core?

# ? Jun 16, 2016 12:01

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

The Case Officer's Handbook is still under production. It was last mentioned in the Mar 31 KS update AFAIK, though they didn't mention an ETA.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 12:05

LuiCypher: Apr 24, 2010; Today I'm... amped up!

Otisburg posted:

Delta Green corebooks and keeper screens have arrived on the Slow Boat and should be shipped by the end of July. I'm stoked. Still old school enough to like physical books.

I, for one, am also stoked. Although it's easier to locate what you want in a .pdf, I find .pdf rulebooks much harder to read than physical ones. I just don't retain it as well.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 17:22

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

gradenko_2000 posted:

The Case Officer's Handbook is still under production. It was last mentioned in the Mar 31 KS update AFAIK, though they didn't mention an ETA.

Dang. Hopefully it comes out this year.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 17:49

Traveller: Jan 6, 2012; WHIM AND FOPPERY

Late to the party probably, but someone translated a Japanese Call of Cthulhu replay, R'Lyeh Antique.

# ? Jun 16, 2016 20:04

Parkreiner: Oct 29, 2011

Traveller posted:

Late to the party probably, but someone translated a Japanese Call of Cthulhu replay, R'Lyeh Antique.

Thank you for pointing this out, but I can't even believe how mad it makes me that the entire "translation notes" section at the end is annotating all the references he inserted into his translation of the material. Jesus. Well, you get what you pay for!

# ? Jun 18, 2016 19:23

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Not a mention of Cthulhu anywhere but firmly in the space of cosmic horror

The Nothing Equation

Tom Godwin
This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December 1957

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25628/25628-h/25628-h.htm

quote:

The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except�

THE NOTHING EQUATION

...
the cruiser vanished back into hyperspace and he was alone in the observation bubble, ten thousand light-years beyond the galaxy's outermost sun. He looked out the windows at the gigantic sea of emptiness around him and wondered again what the danger had been that had so terrified the men before him.

Of one thing he was already certain; he would find that nothing was waiting outside the bubble to kill him. The first bubble attendant had committed suicide and the second was a mindless maniac on the Earthbound cruiser but it must have been something inside the bubble that had caused it. Or else they had imagined it all.

...

I haven't attended to the instruments for a long time because it hates us and doesn't want us here. It hates me the most of all and keeps trying to get into the bubble to kill me. I can hear it whenever I stop and listen and I know it won't be long.

# ? Jun 26, 2016 03:33

KomradeX: Oct 29, 2011

Dumb question but I lost track, is 7th edition not in print yet? I could have sworn it was.`

# ? Jul 4, 2016 23:17

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

A second shipment came in, so you can pre order it in backerkit. I ordered back in May and mine should be here tomorrow.

# ? Jul 5, 2016 00:05

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

The kickstarters went out a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen any physical copies in stores yet.

The PDF is available from Chaosium, but oddly nothing in print is yet. I hope the physical version doesn't turn out to be a Kickstarter exclusive...

# ? Jul 5, 2016 00:07

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

moths posted:

The kickstarters went out a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen any physical copies in stores yet.

The PDF is available from Chaosium, but oddly nothing in print is yet. I hope the physical version doesn't turn out to be a Kickstarter exclusive...

Just got my books today that I ordered on Backerkit back in May.

https://call-of-cthulhu-7th-edition.backerkit.com/

# ? Jul 5, 2016 22:14

Peas and Rice: Jul 14, 2004; Honor and profit.

Mine arrived a couple of weeks ago, except the slip cover had a gigantic divot in it (looked like it was dropped on a hard edge). I emailed Chaosium about it and they replaced it free of charge almost instantly. Pretty rad of them.

# ? Jul 5, 2016 22:39

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

Tonight we finally got though the first month of the organized play adventure. We're two months behind, yes.

Holy poo poo this thing is a goddamn mess of poor organization. Massively important information is buried at the end of seemingly unrelated paragraphs. Stuff that appears to be flavor text in chapter 1 becomes criticality important in chapter 2. An essential bit of background information was buried at the end of a tertiary NPC's write-up.

And the worst offense is that some adventure days were written up as "nothing happens for these players." loving hell, why even show up to game night?

I feel like we made the best out of a garbage adventure, and next month's supplement seems to have learned from the mistakes, but goddamn this was a rocky start.

# ? Jul 6, 2016 04:16

RocknRollaAyatollah: Nov 26, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

I got my copies a couple weeks ago and they're really nice. The slipcase is of very nice quality and very sturdy. I was expecting it to be flimsy but it's very solid.

The screen is incredibly useful and the reference book makes running much easier when people are asking about gear or I have to roll for phobias and manias. For something that is pretty dumb, I've gotten something very appropriate rolling on those tables. One of my players developed a fear of chickens after surviving the Baba Yaga house encounter in Orient Express. It's all based on luck but it's been eerie at times in how appropriate it always is. :cthulhu:

RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Jul 6, 2016

# ? Jul 6, 2016 05:00

KomradeX: Oct 29, 2011

Ahh, okay. I didn't back 7 when it was on Kickstarter cause I was short of money at the time and than it looked like a good idea. But I went to go see if it was on the Chaosium store and all the had were the PDFs and thought they would have had the physical books

# ? Jul 6, 2016 07:05

numtini: Feb 7, 2010

They sold out of their first order on pre-orders and the next shipment from China just came in. I think they're filling orders and shipping to stores before putting it on their own site. I suspect they're still dealing with a cash crunch and aren't necessarily ordering everything that they'd like.

# ? Jul 10, 2016 14:55

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

Yeah my Keeper's Book I preorddered through the backerkit had a couple of bad pages so they are sending me a new one free of charge.

They are definitely making an effort to smooth things over.

# ? Jul 10, 2016 15:57

Peas and Rice: Jul 14, 2004; Honor and profit.

More experienced CoC GMs: how do you have investigators roll for general knowledge that isn't in a library? Example: my investigators will meet a successful businessman who has been in industry newspapers, but may not be nationally known. How can I check to see if anyone knows about this guy?

Edit: 7th ed if it matters.

# ? Jul 14, 2016 17:17

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

That's a good candidate for a Know roll. Alternatively, choose an investigator with an appropriate background and say "you've read about him in the business section," before sharing whatever information the players need to know.

# ? Jul 14, 2016 17:23

Peas and Rice: Jul 14, 2004; Honor and profit.

That's what I thought originally too. I guess this is a 7th ed question then, since I think they've taken Knowledge out (I've only ever played 6th ed). It looks like they've replaced it by rolling EDU?

# ? Jul 14, 2016 17:41

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

Oh, huh that's a weird change. We're still slowly adopting the 7e mechanics a la carte.

Personally, I'd just give the information to one player. There's no value in withholding it and it doesn't sound "juicy" enough to gate behind a check.

# ? Jul 14, 2016 18:30

RocknRollaAyatollah: Nov 26, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

I usually have them roll EDU if it's an academic topic. I have them roll INT as a general remembrance roll if it's not something they would have learned in a school.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 04:50

sexpig by night: Sep 8, 2011; by Azathoth

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

I usually have them roll EDU if it's an academic topic. I have them roll INT as a general remembrance roll if it's not something they would have learned in a school.

Yea this is what my group does. INT is decent to represent 'well I heard this but it's not like I studied it'.

But yea I'd go with Moths and just tell them the dude, especially if someone just has like, a business background.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 05:59

KomradeX: Oct 29, 2011

Did anyone start getting their Delta Green stuff in the mail yet? I'm dying to go start running it with Agent's Handbook and screen

# ? Jul 29, 2016 15:37

Owlbear Camus: Jan 3, 2013; Maybe this guy that flies is just sort of passing through, you know?

I have been checking eagerly every day. No book/screen yet.

# ? Jul 29, 2016 15:39

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

It has just started shipping: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcdream/delta-green-the-role-playing-game/posts/1642599

They're also going to be at Gen Con:

quote:

Next week we will be in Indianapolis, running dozens of Delta Green games and hosting two big Delta Green seminars.

NEED TO KNOW: A seminar with the Delta Green team about the new RPG. Saturday at 3 p.m.
EYES ONLY: A seminar with the Delta Green team about running the game. Saturday at 8 p.m.
OPENING THE GREEN BOX: Sign up at Booth 623 for a chance to have your name picked to open the Green Box. Whoever opens it can keep whatever terrors and treasures it holds. The Green Box will be opened at 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

# ? Jul 30, 2016 01:15

long-ass nips Diane: Dec 13, 2010; Breathe.

I read through Star Chamber, the new Delta Green adventure from the kickstarter and it's got a great premise but it seems like it might be hard to actually play through. Have any of you run a Rashomon-style story with flashbacks before?

long-ass nips Diane fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Jul 30, 2016

# ? Jul 30, 2016 01:54

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

So I was watching the latest best of the worst by red letter media (#12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uKazrF2r8 ) and the bit about the twinn dolls really felt like I could push that into a one shot, though I'm not sure about the overall thread. You've got super creepy dolls of children that parents, perhaps the sort of pushy beauty pategent parents would like, and a variety of potential things like the dolls sucking life from the kids or the kids being covered and turned into dolls. I think there is some potential here and easy access to put investigators into the situation (kids of their own, kids they've been hired to investigate, one of the pc's, something involving pagents that leads them to it, etc).

The setup/idea feels great to me for a Cthulhu game, but I'm not sure of a proper endgame or overall scenario for the idea. It doesn't have to tie into a mythos thing at all, just I'm a few extra beers in and don't have an overall goal for the opposition to be actuating on. Any ideas you gentleman/woman have on this would be great!

On an aside, Ross do you know if Caleb is planning on turning the God's Teeth playtest into a campaign booklet? I love how down the spiral the characters have gone, but even without that each scenario feels like it could be put into a book much like the 'no soul left behind' better angels campaign book. A lot of my group isn't huge into pulp cthulhu, but that set of actual plays really shows how you can run a much more 'purist' style campaign in the dealta green system which has some nice things over normal CoC (bonds and defaulting during investigation being the big two).

# ? Jul 30, 2016 08:36

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Caleb wants to write God's Teeth, but Red Markets takes priority for the foreseeable future.

# ? Jul 30, 2016 19:38

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

The grand finale of God's Teeth was complex but very good and totally hosed up.

Little suprised Caleb didn't straight out call the last scene with Ross's character (name escapes me) the Wyld Hunt, but it makes sense that he didn't. Depends on how you viewed things anyway.

Need to listen to it again and need a refresher for all the old npcs reintroduced (like Santa).

# ? Jul 31, 2016 03:43

LuiCypher: Apr 24, 2010; Today I'm... amped up!

Swagger Dagger posted:

I read through Star Chamber, the new Delta Green adventure from the kickstarter and it's got a great premise but it seems like it might be hard to actually play through. Have any of you run a Rashomon-style story with flashbacks before?

You're in luck, because I actually playtested it for them (my name is very much there at the end with the rest of my group)!

They are absolutely right about it being a terrible first adventure or an adventure that ends a campaign. It is an excellent one-off session that can leave more plot threads to weave into ongoing tales, though.

What's important is that you as the GM are instrumental in moving things forward. Some people might get angry about being 'railroaded', but as a better GM points out 'railroads are not bad as long as they take you somewhere fun'. Basically, once players get to a point where things seem to slow down, you get to drop the next part of the tale on them and have them act it out. It's really very cool in practice, and I had a good group of people that were very eager to play each character's prompt to the hilt. As you transition from scene to scene, you want to keep half of your players 'in' their secondary roles to field questions from the primaries, and your most critical player or weakest roleplayer should probably take the role of the guy that dies since they'll be playing their primary character most of the time and as such will be a more 'neutral' party in the proceedings.

With the Rashomon-style tale, it's very important to have those prompts dictating how people should act in other people's tales. It also helps foment conflict between the secondary characters in the present as well, since one person might see someone as a jackass (and they'll come off that way in the tale) while they perceive themselves as a saint (and act accordingly). While the GM moves things forward, it's important to remember that The Star Chamber is very player-driven - how well the players assume the roles of their secondaries goes a very long way to fleshing out the adventure. If your players can't role-play very well and don't take well to direction, it's a bad adventure to run them through because they'll chafe at being 'told' how to act. Players need to be willing to embrace the idea of playing a different character, warts and all, and run with it. The Star Chamber might actually be a pretty good release for a player group that's going through a bit of tension, as the secondary characters are allowed (better yet - encouraged) to be out-and-out hostile towards each other but in a way that's relatively free of consequences for their primary characters.

I will also be playing it as a player at Gen Con this year, so I am looking forward to seeing how it works on 'the other side' with someone from Arc Green running it.

LuiCypher fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Aug 1, 2016

# ? Aug 1, 2016 15:58

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 15:40

Owlbear Camus: Jan 3, 2013; Maybe this guy that flies is just sort of passing through, you know?

Agent's Handbook and Need to Know arrived today. Flipping through the quality on both looks pretty nice.

As an added bonus, it seems like some secret benefactor backed this as a gift for me, since I got two packages. I know just who to pay it forward to, as well.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 00:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Cthulhu Megathread: It's pronounced "Khlul'-hloo" (Lose 1D10/1D100 Sanity)

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