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moths posted:D20 Call of Cthulhu was such a mixed blessing for the game. On the one hand, D20 was king and this got the game(s) some badly-needed exposure - but on the other hand it wasn't really a great fit. Weird Fiction deals with a lot of things, but level 3 Defensive Option newspaper man is pushing even that. Horror doesn't really do so well in that sort of mechanics-as-physics model. Well, I don't know. It does emphasize the "pulp" end of pulp horror. Lovecraft's stories, for all the RPG nonsense that has built up around them, did have a bunch of slightly ill thought out action, and d20 does that pretty well. And the GM directions/advice section is actually pretty amazing, well beyond what Call of Cthulhu did for many years. I would say the main advantage of Delta Green, which maybe should be added to the OP, is that it actually creates a campaign structure for Call of Cthulhu. The original game really relied a lot on players just deciding to campaign/explore together because that was the game.
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Aug 31, 2012 05:12
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The point I was trying to make is that Lovecraft's actual stories have lots of ill thought out action in it, and an ill thought out action game fits that a lot better than ultra-fragile CoC. A submarine torpedoed an underwater city and Treasury agents machine gunned a town full of monsters and a dude crashed a boat into Cthulhu and beat Cthulhu by doing so. These are all things that happened in Lovecraft stories that d20 fits just fine.
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Aug 31, 2012 17:48
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Yawgmoth posted:But those don't make d20 a good system for the style of game that CoC is, in part because d20 is a mediocre system in the best of times and partially because those events are the exception that proves the rule; they're notable because they're infrequent, both in their scale and their successfulness. A typical band of PCs can't call in torpedo strikes or a task force of federal agents with high-powered artillery - such events are extreme outliers, not the basis of the game. I agree that d20 Call of Cthulhu is a bad adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, what I was saying is that it's a feasible adaptation of the short story "Call of Cthulhu", and related stories. It is more like Lovecraft's original work than it's like the percentile-based system from Chaosium. Edit: This is a huge thing actually. The culture that has grown up around BRP Call of Cthulhu where physical confrontation is supposed to be avoided simply doesn't exist in the original works, where explosions and guns handle many horrible problems. JDCorley fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Aug 31, 2012 |
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Aug 31, 2012 22:01
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I haven't read the original stories, but yes, The Laundry is completely awesome. I know this is TradGames, but there've been some good Cthulhu themed video games too: Great Games 1993's point-and-click adventure "Shadow Of The Comet". It's available on some abandonware sites but it's shady and might be  . It's not on GOG.com yet. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was a first person survival horror game for the X-Box, Playstation 2 and PC. You can get it on Steam for  .Okay Games With Cthulhu In Them There are some Cthulhoid elements in the classic third person horror adventure Alone In The Dark 2. Some still love this series, I don't think it holds up that well. The goofy Cthulhu Saves The World is a 1980s-JRPG style PC game. I donno, I didn't find it that funny or engaging, but it was cheap and seemed pretty polished. Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened combines Sherlock Holmes adventuring and detection with Cthulhoid monstrosities. As much as I appreciate Sherlock Holmes games in which you actually have to do some detecting/deduction, it doesn't really work that well compared to the other Sherlock Holmes adventures from Frogwares. A lot of the engagement is lost when you're examining the body and you, the player, know a monster did it and Holmes is still doing poo poo like measuring wounds and examining blood spatter. Also on Steam.Bad Games With Cthulhu In Them Necronomicon: Dawning of Darkness. A Myst-like adventure game notable for making no sense whatsoever, although there are some nice visuals once you get to the Creepy Town (tm). Even JustAdventure, well known for giving any adventure game a A+++ for Upholding The Traditions gave this one a D. You can probably get it for like a dollar in discount bins.
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Sep 3, 2012 18:02
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moths posted:Quoting this to the OP, if you don't mind. And I clearly don't know enough about the Laundry because what I'm reading makes me want to learn more. Does it have a US distributor? I don't think I've ever seen it on shelves. I've seen it at game stores before, but yeah, pretty rarely. It's on rpgnow, though. Edit: Actually so is most of the Chaosium catalog.
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Sep 3, 2012 18:18
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I've never played either of those two, thanks (to both of you) for the intel. 
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Sep 4, 2012 06:33
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Pope Guilty posted:Quarex, you might check out the upthread-mentioned The Esoterrorists, as what you're describing is almost a particularly weird endgame for that setting. Ditto. I actually thought this was an Esoterrorists AP. Two other sources: 1) Over The Edge has a ludicrous scenario where the characters discover they are characters in a roleplaying game and get to meet the players. 2) I would consider having just a complete mindfuck of an ending as in a David Lynch movie. So watch Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead a few times and see what comes of it.
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Nov 26, 2012 07:18
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Sodomy Non Sapiens posted:Not CthulhuTech. Never CthulhuTech. Yeah, Cthulhutech even on its least rape-y day doesn't have that. Its three games are: investigators, super-agents that turn into li'l monstars, and mecha. There actually is a BRP "mythic China" supplement (I think) but I can't seem to find it. Alternately you might look at Superworld, the BRP supers system and see if there's something there you want to import. Blood and Relics was a d20 era adventure-and-occult sourcebook that's pretty great (if you like d20). As with all d20 stuff, it's all about how insane the feats/class features you permit. Alternately, just use d20 Cthulhu as monsters in a Spycraft game with no guns.
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Jan 17, 2013 17:46
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HEGEL SMOKE A J posted:You know, you could so easily reskin The Laundry or DG to be set in Soviet Russia, like a cross between Gorky Park and the Mythos. Hell, I always viewed Arkady Renko as kind of a Soviet Fox Mulder without the paranormal stuff. seriously, everyone, go read Gorky Park right now it owns I did a con scenario set in the Ukraine at the time of the death of Lenin, when the fate of the Ukraine seemed really uncertain. The characters were half from Moscow and half locals, with lots of reasons to distrust each other. It worked really well. And there's a 1933 scenario called Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 where the characters are Red Army soldiers. It's all right.
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Jan 20, 2013 08:07
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Polyakov posted:That said it depends on the length of what you want to do, the scenario that fits what you want to do best is i think a scenario that is included in the Miskatonic University sourcebook, the basic premise is that a (completely insane) student has rediscovered the notes of Herbert West and is engaged in reanimating the dead , the issue is that scenario is very short and its the only one in the book. I believe it is in the Arkham sourcebook (also? a reprint maybe?) There's a shedload of scenarios on rpgnow.com, here are my favorites: Modern Day: Arkham Now 1920s: Fatal Experiments Victorian era: Dark Designs In that last one, Morris dancers are gonna kill you for the Giant Rat of Sumatra. 
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Feb 21, 2013 19:57
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The Dreamlands sourcebook has a lot of fantastical/weird stuff in it, I would check that out. If they don't want easy SAN losses but still want to be in the 1920s, make them war veterans who have seen a thousand dudes die of poison gas and who give no fucks about corpses.
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Jun 14, 2013 19:15
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The Morocco book misses a lot of opportunities both for racism and for awesomeness, so I would expect Kenya to be the same way.
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Jun 16, 2013 19:02
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If you did Masks of Nyarlathotep and wasn't turned off to the concept, then any of those you name are fine - as brilliant as Masks is in many places it contains the distillate of everything that could go wrong with an extended published Cthulhu campaign.
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Oct 1, 2013 19:37
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