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

Otisburg posted:

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.

Mine showed up too, they're really nice. Can't wait for the Case Officer's Handbook, though.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 01:46

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 03:07

KomradeX: Oct 29, 2011

Swagger Dagger posted:

Mine showed up too, they're really nice. Can't wait for the Case Officer's Handbook, though.

Got mine just yesterday looks awesome can't wait to go break it in.

Dying for the Case Officer's book though, hopefully we'll hear more about that and The Fall of Delta Green after Gen Con.

Are there any DG scenarios that involve the illegal artifacts trade? It seems like a situation perfect for one.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 07:22

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

The Agent's Handbook is great, but all the equipment porn keeps giving me Cthulhu Doorkickers / Call of The Expendables scenario ideas.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 07:42

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

KomradeX posted:

Got mine just yesterday looks awesome can't wait to go break it in.

Dying for the Case Officer's book though, hopefully we'll hear more about that and The Fall of Delta Green after Gen Con.

Are there any DG scenarios that involve the illegal artifacts trade? It seems like a situation perfect for one.

Tangentially yes.

Iconoclasts run by Adam Scott Glancy

http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2015/08/systems/call-of-cthulhu/call-of-cthulhu-iconoclasts/

I had a few links to investigations into the mechanisms of the illegal artifact trade. Let me see if I can dig them up.

Edit: Found it. New York Times

The Ultimate Temple Raider?: Inside an Antiquities-Smuggling Operation

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/arts/design/the-ultimate-temple-raider-inside-an-antiquities-smuggling-operation.html?_r=0

Helical Nightmares fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Aug 3, 2016

# ? Aug 3, 2016 14:35

LatwPIAT: Jun 6, 2011

After picking up the Dracula Dossier I have a sudden overpowering desire to run a CoC-angled version of the Dracula Dossier where the player characters are working for PISCES.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 15:07

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

LatwPIAT posted:

After picking up the Dracula Dossier I have a sudden overpowering desire to run a CoC-angled version of the Dracula Dossier where the player characters are working for PISCES.

Funny you mention that.

Connection between HPL and Bram Stoker from user AncientHistory on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/4q0j6a/h_p_lovecraft_and_the_dracula_revision/

H. P. Lovecraft and the Dracula Revision

quote:

Speaking of Cook, he hath just lent me two books, one of which is Bram Stoker�s last production, The Lair of the White Worm. The plot idea is colossal, but the development is so childish that I cannot imagine how the thing ever got into print�unless on the reputation of Dracula. The rambling and unmotivated narration, the puerile and stagey characterisation, the irrational propensity of everyone to do the most stupid possible thing at precisely the wrong moment and for no cause at all, and the involved development of a personality afterward relegated to utter insignificance�all this proves to me either that Dracula (Mrs. Miniter saw Dracula in manuscript about thirty years ago. It was incredibly slovenly. She considered the job of revision, but charged too much for Stoker.) and The Jewel of Seven Stars were touched up Bushwork-fashion by a superior hand which arranged all the details, or that by the end of his life (he died in 1912, the year after the Lair was issued, he trickled out in a pitiful and inept senility.

H. P. Lovecraft to Frank Belknap Long, 7 Oct 1923, Selected Letters 1.255

(Notes: �Cook� is W. Paul Cook, �Bushwork� refers to the tiresome revision work Lovecraft did for David Van Bush.)

Have you read anything of Stoker�s aside from �Dracula�? �The Jewel of Seven Stars� is pretty fair, but �The Lair of the White Worm� is absolutely the most amorphous & infantile mess I�ve ever seen between cloth covers; & that in spite of a magnificent idea which one would ordinarily deem well-nigh fool-proof. Stoker was absolutely devoid of a sense of form, & could not write a coherent tale to save his life. Everything of his went through the hands of a re-writer, (except, perhaps, the �White Worm�) & it is curious to note that one of our circle of amateur journalists�an old lady named Mrs. Miniter�had a chance to revise the �Dracula� MS. (which was a fiendish mess!) before its publication, but turned it down because Stoker refused to pay the price which the difficulty of the work impelled her to charge. Stoker ha a brilliantly fantastic mind, was was unable to shape the images he created.

H. P. Lovecraft to Donald Wandrei, 29 Jan 1927, Mysteries of Time & Spirit 20

MT&S 22n7: Edith (Dow) Miniter (1869-1934), an amateur journalist and author of a professionally published novel, Out Natupski Neighbors (1916). This account of her involvement with Dracula has not been confirmed.
I never heard of the Stoker book you mention�is it any good? Stoker was a very inept writer when not helped out by revisers, & his �Lair of the White Worm� is so bad that many have mistaken it for a burlesque. I know an old lady who almost had the job of revising �Dracula� back in the early 1890s�s�she saw the original MS., & says it was a fearful mess. Finally someone else (Stoker thought her price for the work was too high) whipped it into such shape as it now possesses.

H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 10 Dec 1932, O Fortunate Floridian 44-45

As for the old lady who almost revised Dracula�I know that she has not any reliquiae of the incident. She never was in direct touch with Stoker, a representative of his having brought the MS. & later taken it away when no terms could be reached.

H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, Sep 1933, OFF 81

[...] have one elegy to write �. the latter on Mrs. Miniter (the lady who almost revised �Dracula� in 1893), who died last June.'

H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 1 Sep 1934, OFF 173

He had with him some tremendously interesting antiquarian material�old papers of the ancestors of the late Mrs. Miniter (prominent amateur journalist who 40 years ago turned down a chance to revise �Dracula�), whose literary executor he is.

H. P. Lovecraft to August Derleth, 4 Dec 1934, Essential Solitude 2.669 (�He� is W. Paul Cook)

There is apparently no independent collaboration of Lovecraft�s oft-repeated tale about the proposed Dracula re-write, and in Dead Houses and Other Stories (a collection of Miniter�s short fiction & other materials), there is no mention of it, though in the introduction Kenneth Faig adds:
From the time of her marriage to John T. Miniter (1864?-1900) in 1887, she was also engaged in professional newspaper work, most notably with the society weekly The Boston Home Journal from 1892 until 1906.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 15:12

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

Just talked to Greg Stolze at Gen Con about The Star Chamber and nerded out over the scenario.

He is a cool and good dude.

# ? Aug 5, 2016 02:30

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

Picked up CoC 7th at GenCon. Impressions:

-Amazing that they lived up to their Kickstarter promises (color pages, good quality paper, etc.) despite Krank spending all of the money to finish Horror on the Orient Express.
-The hardback books (not the leather-bound ones) are beautiful and definitely a good change from the rulebook for CoC 6th.
-Quite a number of typographical issues in the Keeper's Rulebook, but I think this is a consequence of 'we need to finish this under a tight deadline and budget' more than anything.
-The new rules make a lot of practical sense, and I really like the addition of Hard and Extreme successes as a way to determine the severity of success. Pushing rolls is also a much-needed mechanic in a game that is reliant on finding clues, although it's still not as 'right-headed' as ToC.
-Overall, I am pleased with the product.

# ? Aug 11, 2016 16:39

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

Chaosium bringing on Jim Lowder to kick rear end and take names was one of the best things they've ever done. Overall, 7th edition is great. Some of the artwork seems a little too modern for me, but I feel that way about most D&D artwork these days too so I'm just a cranky old grog when it comes to mah pictures.

# ? Aug 11, 2016 16:52

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

Peas and Rice posted:

Chaosium bringing on Jim Lowder to kick rear end and take names was one of the best things they've ever done. Overall, 7th edition is great. Some of the artwork seems a little too modern for me, but I feel that way about most D&D artwork these days too so I'm just a cranky old grog when it comes to mah pictures.

When I asked about the production hiccups and its adventure getting to market, the guys at the Chaosium booth merely said "The gears of Sandy Petersen turn slowly, but when they do they are exacting in their detail."

# ? Aug 11, 2016 17:28

ritorix: Jul 22, 2007; Vancian Roulette

I played CoC for the first time this gencon. Where has this game been all my life?

After playing through the Dead Border session I picked up the 7th hardcovers. A chaosium guy also gave me a copy of Derelict and pregens for it. That night I ran the Derelict for my home group and we all had a blast, and by that I mean half the group died and the other half barely escaped with their lives.

# ? Aug 11, 2016 17:53

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

ritorix posted:

and by that I mean half the group died and the other half barely escaped with their lives.

Welcome brother, with open arms.

# ? Aug 11, 2016 18:03

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

ritorix posted:

half the group died and the other half barely escaped with their lives.

Confirmed: CoC 7E working as intended.

# ? Aug 11, 2016 18:30

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

I'm working on a scenario for an upcoming convention game and I want to feature a villain who can pass out of the Dreamlands for a few moments at will, then fade back in. I don't want to spend the almost $40 on the Dreamlands book (and it's not in PDF for some reason), so my question is - what are the "canonical" (for lack of a better term) ways to move back and forth between the waking world and the Dreamlands? The villain needs to come out, and the Investigators obviously need to go in at some point. Or am I overthinking this and I can just make up whatever works for the scenario?

# ? Aug 12, 2016 01:51

RocknRollaAyatollah: Nov 26, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

Peas and Rice posted:

I'm working on a scenario for an upcoming convention game and I want to feature a villain who can pass out of the Dreamlands for a few moments at will, then fade back in. I don't want to spend the almost $40 on the Dreamlands book (and it's not in PDF for some reason), so my question is - what are the "canonical" (for lack of a better term) ways to move back and forth between the waking world and the Dreamlands? The villain needs to come out, and the Investigators obviously need to go in at some point. Or am I overthinking this and I can just make up whatever works for the scenario?

You're overthinking this because that's not really a fleshed out thing. The focus in the book is mostly on things like gugs and zoogs, and places with super pulp fantasy names from what I remember. Usually it's through sleep or drugs.

I would just make it that the villain tears a hole in the fabric of reality and it stays open temporarily.

# ? Aug 12, 2016 14:00

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

I'd actually do it the other way: have players doze off and visit him.

Or they get knockout drugged like an episode of the Prisoner.

# ? Aug 12, 2016 14:22

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

He can also be just plain insane and able to do so instinctively. Masks of Nyarlathotep has an NPC whose insanity enables him to pull a whole bunch of dingoes over from the Dreamlands that are effectively invincible. The villain could pass in and out of the Dreamlands nearly at-will (the Investigators should have an opportunity to catch him - if not, the party could try thwarting him in both the Dreamlands and in the waking world by having some of them go over to the Dreamlands via drug use/sleep rituals to intercept him and have a party of 'awake' investigators ready to catch him when he tries to retreat into reality).

Sprinkle some clues about a ritual or method to anchor his exit point in the Dreamlands somewhere near the party in realspace.

One method I've heard of people using are Nightgaunts, since they can travel to the Dreamlands or just about anywhere. If you want the party to interact with Nodens, then there's an opportunity to get some assistance from him to this end.

LuiCypher fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Aug 12, 2016

# ? Aug 12, 2016 16:58

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Peas and Rice posted:

I'm working on a scenario for an upcoming convention game and I want to feature a villain who can pass out of the Dreamlands for a few moments at will, then fade back in. I don't want to spend the almost $40 on the Dreamlands book (and it's not in PDF for some reason), so my question is - what are the "canonical" (for lack of a better term) ways to move back and forth between the waking world and the Dreamlands? The villain needs to come out, and the Investigators obviously need to go in at some point. Or am I overthinking this and I can just make up whatever works for the scenario?

Short answer is do what you want.

If you want Lovecraft's canonical methods to physically go between the Dreamlands and the Waking world, here is what I can recall. Note all of these methods take a journey, they are not instantaneous.

-Ghoul tunnels in the real world eventually cross with ghoul tunnels in the Dreamlands
-There is a link between the waking world and the wood of the Zoogs. iirc.
-Men from Leng sail between the Dreamlands and Leng. The plateau of Leng connects to the Waking World (one possibility is the Himalayas).

If we are talking game canonical, I'd recommend looking up Sense of the Slight of Hand Man, which iirc uses the drug lloh (sp). Also there is more than one spell already published in either Chaosium adventures in Dreamlands or one of the Arc Dream The Unspeakable Oaths.

# ? Aug 12, 2016 16:59

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

There are places close to the Dreamlands, like the house in The Strange High House in the Mist. Have the villain live in such a place so he can pop back and forth at will.

# ? Aug 12, 2016 19:38

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

Rad, thanks guys. That's all really helpful. I think I'm going to mash together two or three things and see what comes out.

# ? Aug 12, 2016 19:40

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Delta Green files

Codename: This poo poo Writes Itself

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/18/fake-human-sacrifice-filmed-at-cern-with-pranking-scientists-suspected

video: https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2016/aug/18/mock-human-sacrifice-at-cern-video

quote:

Fake human sacrifice filmed at Cern, with pranking scientists suspected

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) has launched an investigation into a video filmed at night on its Geneva campus depicting a mock ritual human sacrifice.

The video, which circulated online, shows several individuals in black cloaks gathering in a main square at Europe�s top physics lab, in what appears to be a re-enactment of an occult ceremony.

The video includes the staged �stabbing� of a woman. It is filmed from the perspective of a secret viewer watching from a window above who, as the ceremony reaches its climax, lets out a string of expletives and flees with the camera still running.

The ceremony appears to have been staged in front of a statue of the Hindu deity Shiva that is on permanent display at the complex, home of the Large Hadron Collider.

�These scenes were filmed on our premises but without official permission or knowledge,� a Cern spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse in an email.

�Cern does not condone this type of spoof, which can give rise to misunderstandings about the scientific nature of our work.�

The �investigation� under way was an �internal matter�, she said.

The video has raised questions about security on Cern�s campus.

Asked to detail the security procedures surrounding access to the campus, the Cern spokeswoman said: �Cern IDs are checked systematically at each entry to the Cern site whether it is night or day.�

She further indicated that those responsible for the prank had access badges.

�Cern welcomes every year thousands of scientific users from all over the world and sometimes some of them let their humour go too far. This is what happened on this occasion,� the email said.

The spokeswoman was not available to comment the possible identity of those responsible.

Geneva police told AFP they had been in contact with Cern about the video but were not involved in an official investigation.

Cern hosts machinery carrying out some of the world�s most elaborate particle research, including an enormously powerful proton smasher trying to find previously undiscovered particles.

With Agence France-Presse

# ? Aug 18, 2016 16:20

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

There's a 20% off sale on a bunch of Cthulhu mythos gaming stuff on RPGNow going on. Of note: most of the Delta Green stuff seems to be included.

Edit: it's something called Flames Rising which appears to be part of RPGNow? IDK. I got the link from the Delta Green Facebook page so I hope it's legit.

Peas and Rice fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Aug 19, 2016

# ? Aug 19, 2016 19:10

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

It's legit, you can go on drivethrurpg and see the deals there too. It's for Lovecraft's birthday.

ETA: I think I'm going to pick up a Trail of Cthulhu adventure bundle, any recommendations?

neaden fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Aug 19, 2016

# ? Aug 19, 2016 20:05

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

I ran Shanghai Bullets from this http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product/57993/Trail-of-Cthulhu-Stunning-Eldritch-Tales?term=stunn&filters=0_0_0_0_0_45178&test_epoch=0

It was a fun and good adventure.

# ? Aug 19, 2016 21:01

Lightning Lord: Feb 21, 2013; $200 a day, plus expenses

Peas and Rice posted:

Edit: it's something called Flames Rising which appears to be part of RPGNow? IDK. I got the link from the Delta Green Facebook page so I hope it's legit.

It's a horror and dark fantasy blog/webzine, it's legit. They probably get a cut of sales or something.

neaden posted:

ETA: I think I'm going to pick up a Trail of Cthulhu adventure bundle, any recommendations?

The one with Dreamhounds of Paris http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product/147621/Trail-of-Cthulhu-Dreamhounds-of-Paris-and-The-Book-of-Ants-bundle

Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Aug 20, 2016

# ? Aug 19, 2016 21:26

Angryhead: Apr 4, 2009; Don't call my name
Don't call my name
Alejandro

Played through the free solo adventure "Alone Against the Flames last night and that was pretty fun. Playing Bloodborne made want to get back into Cthulhu stuff again and since getting a group of friends together is kinda difficult, this solo adventure was a great solution.

# ? Aug 20, 2016 12:59

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

Lightning Lord posted:

The one with Dreamhounds of Paris http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product/147621/Trail-of-Cthulhu-Dreamhounds-of-Paris-and-The-Book-of-Ants-bundle

poo poo, I've been meaning to pick this up for a while now so I guess I just ran out of excuses.

Also what the gently caress http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product/59891/Cthentacle?filters=0_0_0_0_0_45178

# ? Aug 21, 2016 01:00

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Lightning Lord posted:

The one with Dreamhounds of Paris http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product/147621/Trail-of-Cthulhu-Dreamhounds-of-Paris-and-The-Book-of-Ants-bundle

Dreamhounds of Paris is a goddamn education.

Also recommending Bookhounds of London, but take a look through it first if you can.

If you've ever had a bibliophile streak or like the idea of heists and then reselling eldritch tomes to shadow patrons then it is for you. It could be angry cultists that eat you, or it could be the rent is due.

I really love it but I can see it not being for everyone.

# ? Aug 21, 2016 03:26

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

Peas and Rice posted:

Also what the gently caress http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product/59891/Cthentacle?filters=0_0_0_0_0_45178

quote:

Cthentacle is a fast paced card game derived from our other card game Hentacle

Yeah okay so this is a work by noted piece-of-poo poo James Desborough, and that other game that it's a derivative of has been permanently pulled from OneBookShelf, so make of that what you will.

# ? Aug 21, 2016 05:07

ritorix: Jul 22, 2007; Vancian Roulette

If anyone else picked up CoC 7th books at Gencon, did you get your pdfs emailed yet? ~~Wondering if I should bug Chaosium about it yet.~~

Nevermind, they just emailed me both pdfs via that drivethrurpg site. Both are gigantic files with nice bookmarks etc.

ritorix fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Aug 22, 2016

# ? Aug 21, 2016 16:10

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

I'm going to crow about this again: Chaosium does AWESOME customer service. I've emailed them twice; both times they replied in less than an hour and fixed my issue right away.

# ? Aug 23, 2016 19:04

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

I ran Delta Green's Last Things Last with a group just this morning, and it turned out quite well.

The highlight of the game for me was the agents descending into bickering and arguing about what to do about the horror once they had found it: One of them wanted to burn the thing immediately, another believed in the Thing's cover and wanted to help it, and a third was caught between the two. They eventually convinced each other to destroy the thing, at which point it attacked, knocked one of the agents unconscious, convinced the second to flee, and was literally one die roll away from escaping into the woods until the former SpecOps agent rolled a critical with their MP5.

I thought it was impressive that the group fell into a "Cowboys versus Agency Men" dynamic all by themselves, without me ever having to elaborate on that part of DG's backstory.

One thing I'm not exactly clear about though are the critical hit and lethality rules. It didn't much matter in the actual course of the game, but:

1. Do you roll the damage dice twice, or roll once and x2?

2. On an unsuccessful lethality roll, I know the damage is supposed to be the total of the absolute value of the two d10s added together. But do you still roll the actual base damage of the weapon? That is, an MP5 deals 1d10 damage on a normal hit. If they roll 54 on the lethality, that's 5+4=9. Is it just the 9 damage, or is it 1d10+9?

3. How do those two interact with a critical hit?

# ? Aug 24, 2016 04:23

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

1. Once you succeed an attack roll with a lethality weapon you just roll the lethality. If that roll is under the lethality rating, the target drops to 0 HP. If not, add the 2 numbers together for damage.

2. You roll lethality instead of the normal damage.

3. Lethality rolls cannot crit or fumble, but attack rolls can. A crit attack roll means the lethality rating is doubled and HP damage is doubled if the roll fails. This is covered on p. 57 of the Agent's handbook.

edit: I am the reason why the lethality rule exists. In a CoC game I played with Glancy and Stolze, my character used a u-boat deck gun to mow down a rowboat full of half deep one sailors. That took like 30 minutes to resolve because of the sheer amount of rolling. Stolze wanted to simplify the system.

clockworkjoe fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Aug 24, 2016

# ? Aug 24, 2016 06:19

LatwPIAT: Jun 6, 2011

The Dracula Dossier keeps pushing the idea that Abraham van Helsing was an agent of German naval intelligence. In trying to convert TDD to Delta Green I've found this unfitting; the history of German government occultism is well-established in Delta Green in a way that almost precludes having vampire-hunting agents in 1894, and there are lots of minor details that clash. But still. Van Helsing just happens to be a physician, psychologist, mortician, scientist, Catholic priest, expert in the occult, and veteran vampire hunter. Other than being obviously a player character, surely these must be something up with this Dutch polymath?

His character seems an ideal fit for the Congregation. He's a Catholic priest; he identifies the UnDead as servants of the devil (incorrect in Call of Cthulhu); he fails to kill Lucy and Dracula permanently (in TDD); and he constantly tries to keep knowledge of the UnDead and their activities contained while exalting ignorance of their work. Again and again he raises the theme of "ignorance is bliss", while also representing the conflict of it, as he himself is a scientist.

So in Delta Green: The Dracula Dossier two groups know about the 1894 'Project Edom'; PISCES (who resurrected the project in 1940 as PISCES' Romania office) and the Catholic Church, who have records of one of their inquisitors killing the undead servants of the devil in London and Romania.

# ? Aug 24, 2016 07:20

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Know who else is a Dutch polymath? Ludwig Prinn, author of De Vermis Mysteriis.

According to wikipedia:

quote:

In "The Shambler from the Stars", De Vermis Mysteriis is described as the work of Ludwig Prinn, an "alchemist, necromancer, [and] reputed mage" who "boasted of having attained a miraculous age" before being burned at the stake in Brussels during the height of the witch trials (in the late 15th or early 16th centuries).

Prinn, Bloch writes, maintained that he was captured during the Ninth Crusade in 1271, and attributed his occult knowledge to studying under the "wizards and wonder-workers of Syria" during his captivity. Bloch also associates Prinn with Egypt, writing that "there are legends among the Libyan dervishes concerning the old seer's deeds in Alexandria."

At the time of his execution for sorcery, Bloch has Prinn living "in the ruins of a pre-Roman tomb that stood in the forest near Brussels...amidst a swarm of familiars and fearsomely invoked conjurations." In this forest, there were "old pagan altars that stood crumbling in certain of the darker glens"; these altars were found to have "fresh bloodstains" when Prinn was arrested.

However, Adam Scott Glancy wrote and ran an adventure where Prinn had pulled a Thing on the Doorstep gambit and unfortunately ended up in the body of a girl. This limited his sorcerous power for similar unstated reasons. In the adventure Prinn had the amusingly mundane goal of repossessing all his stuff. Sorcerer gets evicted due to death, bank forecloses, news at 11.

I can't remember the name of the adventure or the location of the podcast. However I think there is enough there that you could argue that Prinn crossed paths with van Helsing as an antagonist or ally.

# ? Aug 24, 2016 07:45

fez_machine: Nov 27, 2004

clockworkjoe posted:

1. Once you succeed an attack roll with a lethality weapon you just roll the lethality. If that roll is under the lethality rating, the target drops to 0 HP. If not, add the 2 numbers together for damage.

2. You roll lethality instead of the normal damage.

3. Lethality rolls cannot crit or fumble, but attack rolls can. A crit attack roll means the lethality rating is doubled and HP damage is doubled if the roll fails. This is covered on p. 57 of the Agent's handbook.

edit: I am the reason why the lethality rule exists. In a CoC game I played with Glancy and Stolze, my character used a u-boat deck gun to mow down a rowboat full of half deep one sailors. That took like 30 minutes to resolve because of the sheer amount of rolling. Stolze wanted to simplify the system.

The game Ross is talking about, U-Boat Heraus, was recorded and it simultaneously showcases the best and worst of CoC gaming. If you can get past the deckgun (it's only a small fraction of the game, just 30 minutes out of a total 12 hours), there's a tonne of great suspense and pulp horror as it turns into a kind of Seven Samurai with grenades.

First Episode: http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2009/11/systems/call-of-cthulhu/rppr-actual-play-call-of-cthulhu-u-boote-heraus-part-1/
Second Episode: http://actualplay.roleplayingpublic...-heraus-part-2/

Listening to the massacre the first time I thought, "Oh, this is why you should try to use a ORE or some other Stolze designed system for your gaming because this is tedious as hell."

# ? Aug 24, 2016 11:00

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

LuiCypher posted:

Picked up CoC 7th at GenCon. Impressions:

-Amazing that they lived up to their Kickstarter promises (color pages, good quality paper, etc.) despite Krank spending all of the money to finish Horror on the Orient Express.
-The hardback books (not the leather-bound ones) are beautiful and definitely a good change from the rulebook for CoC 6th.

Mine finally just arrived in the mail the other day, and I am pretty stoked that it really did finally all happen, roughly as originally promised, despite that being basically a ridiculous lie when initially promised, haha.

Of course I am trying to remember why I pledged from two different Kickstarter accounts; I want to say you could not get both the Keeper Rulebook and a leather-bound Investigator Handbook in the same pledge as they originally had it set up? I know it made perfect sense at the time. I am sure they later added the ability to add-on either of those things to your pledge though.

Also omg I miss playing Cthulhu

# ? Sep 7, 2016 21:39

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Alright guys. Have some stuff.

-----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile on /tg/

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/49744075/

quote:

Pathography - Forgotten Places, Lost Spaces

>A LIST OF KNOWN SECRET STATES AND SUR-REAL TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND NEIGHBORING LIEUS:
>Absaroka
>Franklin
>Deseret
>Cimmaron
>Norton
>East Dakota
>Delmarva
>Jefferson
>Kanawha
>Cascadia
>Cherokee
>Cahokia
>Aztlan
>New Dixie
>American Siberia
>Aldrin
>Tranquility
>Madawaska
>Muskogee
>Shasta
>Winnecombe

>IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN ONE OF THESE OR OTHER CARTOGRAPHICALLY FORBIDDEN TERRITORIES, DO NOT PANIC. CAREFULLY ATTEMPT TO RETRACE YOUR ROUTE. IF POSSIBLE, LEAVE IN REVERSE AND DO NOT LOOK BACK. IF YOU ENCOUNTER ANY LOCALS, DO NOT ASK FOR DIRECTIONS. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EXAMINE ANY MAPS UNTIL YOU ARE CERTAIN YOU ARE WITHIN CONSENSUS CARTOGRAPHY.

>DO NOT DRIVE ON UNFAMILIAR ROADS AT NIGHT. PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE ROADWAY AND ENSURE YOU HAVE A FUNCTIONING G.P.S. LOCATOR OR A LOCALLY ACCURATE PHYSICAL MAP ON WHICH YOU PLAN YOUR ROUTE. IF POSSIBLE, TRAVEL WITH SOMEONE LOCAL TO YOUR DESTINATION. IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW HAS EXPERIENCED A MISLOCATION, ALOCATION, OR MALLOCATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WITH THE DATE, CLOSEST CARTOGRAPHICALLY IDENTIFIABLE ADDRESS OR RELEVANT LANDMARKS, AND ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION YOU CAN PROVIDE. THANK YOU. STAY SAFE.

quote:

Ever since cartographers and sailors took it upon themselves to stitch the flat Earth into a finite, bounded globe, there've always been a few loose seams or pinholes or crumpled spots where the excess was pinned away.
Most people never even hear about the maintenance that goes into keeping everyone's local geography lined up, although they do occasionally notice that New Zealand or Sri Lanka or some other place far from their local knowledge doesn't seem to be where they remembered it.
And any misalignments can make it possible for some poor dipshit to wander over a limen and wind up in pathological geography.

The age of adventurers is past; the infinite seas and lost continents and vast unexplored interiors have been steadily papered over with maps as explorers sought to find knowable territory to bridge the gaps between the edges of the known. But, beyond the 200 million square miles that have been more-or-less successfully patched together into a closed spherical manifold embeddable in Euclidean 3-space, it's all still out there; exerting tremendous pressure on the seams of reality where it's been squeezed together into border lines between states, pinched off in the middle of oceans and continents. Maintaining it is what makes reliable trade, travel, and communication possible; and more importantly, it keeps out all the things that motivated the great project in the first place.

Somebody's got to do it - to go in there, to the spaces that aren't supposed to exist, the forgotten and abandoned and unexplored, and rescue the dipshits who've wandered in. To patch up the job, keeping the edges of the world stitched together, to ensure that going from east to west leads to the same place as west to east, reliably. And to ensure that what does leak in through the seams is controlled, that nobody has to worry again about walking into the forest lest the Fair Folk find them.

Somebody's got to make sure the world stays true to the Atlas holding it up.

quote:

The idea is, essentially, that space doesn't exist. Not space as in "the place where the stars are", but space as in "that thing involving distances." There's no actual metric, affine connection, or topology governing the routes between places; there's just places, and the connections between places.

Humans impose order on this, subconsciously, simply from the need to construct a coherent model of the world; this allows them to reliably locate places and travel between them using routes they've used before. Essentially, anywhere a human can actually see must be locally equivalent to flat three-dimensional space, and as they travel through the world they develop a mental map of places and routes between those places that will enable them to go back and locate them again.

When you have lots of people living and communicating together, their maps necessarily have to match up in order to avoid contradictions - if someone's observed going from A to B along route C, then the observer's map must also include route C. This causes larger areas to come out to normal flat space, the horizons lining up together to form a coherent patch of land defined by the understanding of the inhabitants.

Exploring the unknown, beyond the patches you've nailed down, is more or less entirely dependent on the subconscious (or consciously directed, if you're clever) expectations of what sort of things you might find in that "direction". Two people can find entirely different and contradictory things in the same unexplored space, but once somebody comes back and actually writes down a map of what they found and how they found it so it can be shared with other people, then that becomes part of the consensus mental cartography and other people who know about it can find it as well.

The great task of sewing the globe together involved finding these arbitrary patches of coherent land formed by separated populations, and mapping out coherent transitions between them.

The above hit an American Gods/World of Darkness vibe with me. Thought I'd share.

--------

The Six We Obey

http://moonskinned.deviantart.com/art/The-Six-We-Obey-639498508

quote:

The Six We Obey.

Joy, her smile a burning grin. Fatt, an infinite bounty. Muse, the artist of entropy. Mourn, he follows us all. Rain, the lover and the skies. Old Man Yoklee, the death of our minds.

---------

I originally posted this on RPPR forums

Just Yellow Sign Thoughts

Particle Colliders and Cartoon Cats

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/small-cat-big-science

"The proposed International Linear Collider has a fuzzy new ally.

Hello Kitty is known throughout Japan as the poster girl (poster cat?) of kawaii, a segment of pop culture built around all things cute.

But recently she took on a new job: representing the proposed International Linear Collider...

Japan is considering hosting the ILC, a proposed accelerator that could mass-produce Higgs bosons and other fundamental particles. Japan�s Advanced Accelerator Association partnered with the company Sanrio to create the special kawaii gear in the hopes of drawing attention to the large-scale project.

The ILC: Science you�ll want to snuggle."

In real life that's great. But this story reminded me of the other particle collider shenanigans in the news.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/18/fake-human-sacrifice-filmed-at-cern-with-pranking-scientists-suspected

A bunch of scientists (presumably) decided to fake a satanic ritual on CERN's grounds in front of the statue of Shiva. Add not-so-shaky cam from Blair Witch.

Separate from this, I recall a Unspeakable Oath that had an adventure featuring the children's book cartoon character (fictional) "Tee-Tok the Happy Star". The adventure synopsis was that a less than successful children's writer got tangled up in Mythos inspiration and wrote a children's book featuring a happy cartoon version of Azathoth. Add the spell "Call Azathoth" embedded in the book's art and text (not unlike the movie Babadook) a mysterious fire at the printers and you have yourself a mystery.

What I'm saying is that good old King in Yellow needs a yellow cuddly mascot to spread virally through media and VR games. No not the real life electric one, a fictional one.

Add the hook that Delta Green realizes that a cult is about to sponsor a particle collider with the (super cute) Yellow King mascot as some ritual of consecration. Have half of the adventure be kinetic attacks/assassinations of the yellow cultists, and the other half be anti-media campaigns against the cult's PR division. Through in players having to soil themselves by whipping up anti-science protests, or debate cult representatives on CNN, and you have an interesting plot.

Depending on the timing of the setting, this might be a good excuse to have players be on Firing Line with William F Buckley (1966-1999), Crossfire (CNN: 1982 to 2005), The McLaughlin Group (1982-2016; also note the timeslot during the 80s is RIGHT during Saturday Morning cartoons, providing a great link for a Hastur cartoon show), or John Stewart.

Get cracking, artists. The Yellow Sign is Manifold in It's forms.

---

GESAFFELSTEIN and the Hand of ~~Vecna~~ the King in Yellow

GESAFFELSTEIN is a band with highly symbolic music videos.

Pursuit : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8Ci7X5HUU

HATE OR GLORY : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_NgkfRmUPk

Both deal with the acquisition of power taken to extreme. The sacrifices and violence, explicit and symbolic, made by men to seize the crown are on display. No other act can drive humans so quickly to bestial grasping and a nihilistic mentality in the midst of causing terribly vicious chaos. Grasping for societal authority is itself a type of madness, regardless of the power-seeker's illusion of installing some more perfect social order. Some come to the Masquerade of Cassilda and Camilla willingly. Not to revel. But to seek the King. As usurpers.

Such seekers are already lost and mad.

All bow before the throne.

Visually please see HATE OR GLORY at 3:13. Usually Carcosa is thought to be a psudo-European environ, and by extension some assume the King in Yellow appears as such. Nihilistic madness however, is universal as gravity. A gangland warlord who dips his face in the molten gold of his enemies, saturated with their blood, may indeed be seeking to become an Avatar of the King. Or perhaps this is a ritual to allow the power-seeker to transport himself and his retinue to Carcosa. His followers are of course a sacrifice in this ritual, lost in the primal chaos city as the power-seeker is free to hunt the King.

Now please watch "Pursuit". Highly symbolic of the rise and fall of a warlord, perhaps a fascist. Anyway, note that instead of a "yellow mask" in HATE OR GLORY, a golden (yellow) glove represents the pursuit of power. Instead of a glove, does the video instead show a yellow cybernetic gauntlet that requires the owner to cut off his own hand? It is a homage to Skywalker? Perhaps the answer lies with the observer. After all, in Carcosa ALL could be true.

There is no reason the archetypal yellow mask cannot take many forms.

Let us examine the Yellow Sign for a moment. It is a two dimensional image. Several authors (not Chambers iirc) suggest that the Sign changes subtly upon observation. Let's run with this idea and expand upon it: the Yellow Sign is a multidimensional symbol not unlike the Elder Sign.

Ok good. Now lets assume that a scientist has been studying the Yellow Sign.

In mathematics, there is something called a manifold. From wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifold

"In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, each point of an n-dimensional manifold has a neighbourhood that is homeomorphic to the Euclidean space of dimension n...Two-dimensional manifolds are also called surfaces."

Now two dimensional surfaces can usually be represented by an equation. Perhaps this scientist was seeking the secret to Kingly power...and derived an equation ("Yellow Equation" for lack of a better term). The scientist then used this Yellow Equation to solve a difficult problem in cybernetics to create the Yellow Gauntlet - an object that confers might to the wearer and suffuses them with Kingly eminence. As long as certain sacrifices are made, you see. Enter the music video "Pursuit" as documentation of the Yellow Gauntlet's corrosive effects on the bearer and his people.

In a Delta Green scenario, you could have the agents need to go up against an American politician where the Yellow Gauntlet takes the form of an Orange-Yellow Weave. Er, ... I mean...*gunshot*

In a near future Delta Green scenario, a wounded military veteran is given the Yellow Gauntlet as a replacement hand after his service in Iraq/Afghanistan/the next terrorist IED attack. In this case the "scientists" is a group of rogue MJ-12 researchers working in a prosthetics/cybernetics company. Naturally they also use a control group of normal cybernetic hands to record the effects of the Mythos artifact. This veteran essentially follows the Castaigne plotline and begins to become compelled to join politics an seek greater and greater office. Delta Green becomes aware of this man as a threat by his meteoric rise from local legislator to mayor to Senator in just a few years.

Because a Delta Green game should be difficult (and because I don't want the Secret Service to contact this board) kinetic action against the Mythos suborned veteran turned politician cannot be taken. DG agents must prop up his opponent/work against his campaign while the other half race against time to glean the origin of the cybernetic hand and eventually try to convince the veteran with bits of his pre Mythos corrupted history/life to voluntarily give up the Yellow Gauntlet.

Permutations of a Yellow Gauntlet idea could be:

-Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (just rewrite Thanatos as a victim of the Gauntlet)
-Set in Mythic Greece. Daedalus is the artisan/scientist. Perhaps he creates the Gauntlet at the behest of the King of Crete (and to take revenge for the loss of his son Icarus).
-Set in the modern day. The Yellow Gauntlet is an artifact directly from Carcosa that has reappeared. It was originally crafted by Ambrose (see old Unspeakable Oaths) an artisan who creates impossible steampunk like devices in Carcosa. The DG team must contain/return the vector to it's otherworldly home.
-No joke, John McAfee used the music to "Pursuit" in his 2016 Libertarian Presidential bid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAjl-Gibm8c
In addition, this video has not so subliminal messages. Listen for the repetition of "9/11" in the video. Draw your own conclusions. I can't make this stuff up.

One other thought about the music video "Pursuit." Please reference the tyrant looking in the mirror at (2:45-2:47) and the copies of the tyrant in the military (0:48-0:53) and blaming each other in the symbolic bureaucracy (2:47-3:03).

John Tynes in The Unspeakable Oath #1 (iirc) introduced new locations (the Whisper Vault, etc.) into Carcosa as part of his take on the King in Yellow Mythos. It is reprinted in one of the Delta Green supplements, I will forever forget which one. Anyway, why not a place in Carcosa which is filled with mirrors? A psychomanteum if you will. Drawing from "Pursuit", perhaps if you find the mirror with your specific name on it, a power-seeker can generate doppelgangers who will will work towards his wish, but at the cost of the power-seeker standing in front of the mirror eternally and watching the Mythos tainted homunculi drag his dreams into inevitable ruin. The continual generation of homunculi can only be stopped by entering the psychomanteum and pulling the power-seeker away from his mirror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychomanteum

The catch is the Carcosa psychomanteum can only be found by a truly selfish individual. Leading to the question. Are the players willing to sacrifice a truly selfish man and risk him finding his own mirror/killing him to prevent the actions of another once-selfish man?

# ? Oct 13, 2016 07:03

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

I've been playing in an occasional (once every couple of months) Horror on the Orient Express game. On Saturday, we ran and got to Belgrade.

Holy gently caress Baba Yaga.

The campaign has been a little uneven, and our group has a tendency to go into pulp action territory, but I'm going to remember that encounter for a looong time.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 21:53

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 03:07

Sir Mopalot: Jun 8, 2014

Does Delta Green or any other supplement that anyone knows talk about what happens when you expose AI to mythos stuff? Like, if you fed the necronomicon into Google Translate 2.0.

# ? Oct 26, 2016 18:16

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

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