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drrockso20 posted:So what exactly happened there? The people who ran Chaosium in the nineties were bad at business and didn't pay him (or most people they owed money) what they owed him, I think. I've actually read an article on the whole affair a few days ago: https://refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/kickstopper-that-is-not-dead-which-can-eternally-restructure-part-1/
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Jul 6, 2021 23:09
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Almost as dangerous as a levitating bed.
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Aug 15, 2021 21:43
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mellonbread posted:All I've heard about Cthulhutech is how awful it is, and that there was a new edition in development hell. I've never read either, so for all I know it could actually be good I've heard that it had some interesting ideas, but also some gross bits of lore and the system math was broken. I don't know how salvageable the cool poo poo is.
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Aug 27, 2021 21:47
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Fake Name posted:I've been thinking about picking up the Masks slipcase set and running it and have a few questions for people who have played or run it before: I would definitely run it Pulp. Maybe not full blown psionics and weird science Pulp, but the talents and increased stats, Luck and survivability, etc Pulp. The campaign by itself is pretty two-fisted and globe-trotting in tone and there is enough dangerous poo poo to fight that allegedly in the Olden Days of pre-7e players used to go through characters like gloves. From my personal experience - there will be a lot of breaking and entering and just... murder within city limits in the few first chapters and you'll probably have to make the police and neighbours a lot more oblivious and uncaring to it all to make things work.
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Sep 20, 2021 18:41
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CoC, as a horror game, is more or less built for one-shots. And I'd definitely run at least a few published scenarios before I attempted to write my own - it's not easy to write a good player-proof mystery. As for specific scenarios, I really like the Saturnine Chalice from Dead Light and Other Dark Turns. The titular scenario is solid as well. Most of the scenarios in the Starter Set and the Mansions of Madness v1 are good as well. Doors to Darkness is often recommended to new players, since it was a book specifically written for them, but I've recently come to realize I don't actually like the scenarios in it all that much.
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Sep 23, 2021 00:38
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The Haunting is mostly good, but the handouts suck by 2021 Chaosium standards and both times I ran it the... final confrontation kinda sucked balls. Maybe I was doing it wrong somehow.
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Sep 23, 2021 00:53
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Lumbermouth posted:Seconding this. I ran Cracked and Crook’d Manse and Mansions Of Madness in my 30s Los Angeles game and The Sanitarium in my 80s pulp game and all of them were winners. The current edition's version only has Manse out of these three. That said, the other scenarios are pretty solid.
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Sep 23, 2021 21:26
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I don't really think there's any difference (or difficulty) in running CoC or Deadlands online, but anyway. There is a dedicated CoC Wild West sourcebook and a scenario collection for it: https://www.chaosium.com/down-darker-trails-pdf/ https://www.chaosium.com/shadows-over-stillwater-pdf/
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Nov 2, 2021 17:26
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Pththya-lyi posted:I think the whole Tcho-Tcho concept has too much toxic baggage to work, even if an author uses it with the best of intentions. I'd love to be proven wrong but I'm not holding my breath. Just make them Scandinavian. A whole bunch of gorgeous tall cannibal Swedes.
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Nov 5, 2021 10:55
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Nov 16, 2021 12:52
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Pershing posted:The discussion reminds me of how Vampire authors/editors/etc. on White Wolf panels back in the day would describe their game vs. how people actually played it in the circles I associated with. The authors seemed to have a much more...dramatic idea of what a Vampire game looked like. The difference between LA by Night and Seattle by Night. I prefer Seattle, tbh.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:21
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Published material always supplies the monster blocks for the adventure, so not very. I'd suggest grabbing Mansions of Madness, Dead Light and Other Dark Turns and Doors to Darkness, in order of my personal preference. That's twelve scenarios that are going to last you a couple of 3 hour sessions each. If you want a longer campaign, I'd suggest A Time to Harvest instead of Masks. It's a shorter, gentler affair more suited for beginners.
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Apr 26, 2022 17:51
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midori-a-gogo posted:Sweet, sorry if my question seemed a bit obvious - I love to play but I've never really interacted very much with the community so I'm a little clueless about what people beyond my friends are into. I guess next I need to see if Chaosium would be interested. CoC fans are vaguely aware that there is a lot of popular untranslated material in Japan and South Korea and that the games are popular there. Hell, there are even some Asian CoC titles in the Bestselling Titles on DTRPG right now. There is probably no point in talking to Chaosium, though. You'll probably have to talk to the authors of the Japanese stuff and ask them if they want to put an English translation in the Miskatonic Repository, (Chaosium's fan works program), which is how the Japanese stuff is currently being published anyway.
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Apr 29, 2022 23:07
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Every investigator wants to have 50+ in Spot Hidden, a speech skill, some kind of attack skill (brawl or some kind of a firearm), Library Use and Dodge. Beyond that, you guys should pick stuff to specialize in. A decent First Aid on couple of characters who aren't an M.D won't hurt. Also, if your GM needs Hollywood CoC material, tell them to grab Shadows Over Filmland.
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Apr 30, 2022 16:03
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Siivola posted:Are there any published campaigns that happen over a timescale of years? I started thinking about the long study times for tomes and whatnot in CoC and realized one could steal a page from Ars Magica and just run a very slow campaign, but the issue is, I've never actually played Ars Magica. Not exactly what you were looking for, but Ripples from Carcosa is three scenarios set in Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe and 22th century which, or so I hear, end up being connected enough that you can call it a campaign. Megazver fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Jun 15, 2022 |
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Jun 15, 2022 11:08
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Yeah, grab the Starter Set. There is a new 40th anniversary version coming out in three days. Chargen in CoC is pretty laborious, so definitely offer pregens. The SS should have some and it's easy to find more. For more good one-shot adventures, grab the Keeper Screen, Dead Light and Other Dark Turns, and Mansions of Madness vol 1.
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Jun 23, 2022 15:31
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Generally speaking, there are three things that TRPG players won't forgive you and/or the NPCs: their poo poo being stolen, an NPC betraying them and you railroading them into getting captured. Use either of these with greatest of care.
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Aug 5, 2022 00:32
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Yeah, if I ever run any big CoC campaigns (I've been running short modules so far) I'd go Full Pulp.
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Aug 19, 2022 18:01
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DrSunshine posted:Doesn't that paradox arise, at least in a lot of the classic adventures, out of the fact that CoC was created by Chaosium to be an alternative to D&D, which had just come out in the early years of the 80s and was taking the hobby gaming world by storm? I think it's less than and more that they just didn't know any better back then.
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Aug 20, 2022 21:59
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Major Isoor posted:Hey, just wondering - seeing as my first session is finally on the horizon, I just wanted to check if there's a good Delta Green 'GM cheat sheet' around, by any chance? I was about to start cutting+pasting my own from the PDFs, but figured I should ask as there's probably been a better effort than what I could do, that's been made in the past. There's the official Handler's screen: https://www.reddit.com/r/DeltaGreenRPG/comments/j6wq3i/handlers_screen_revisions/ And this rules reference document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CuqPxBf-F-3LTuJ-9GT8DBngMlbywgpL/view
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Nov 14, 2022 10:14
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https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226028/The-Book-of-Contemporary-Magical-Things https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/310198
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Jan 2, 2023 10:57
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accidentally generated this handsome lad and thought of this thread
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Jan 8, 2023 15:53
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What's your beef with the book rules? The learning times? If you wrote about it before, do you have a link? Sounds like you had a lot of fun! Although, tbh, from your description it sounds like incorporating some Pulp would make running it less of a hassle for most GMs. If/when I ever run it, I think that's the way I'll go with it. Dr. Lunchables posted:Are you talking about 7th edition? 5th edition CoC came out in 1992 and doesn’t use Spend Luck mechanics. I’d assume you are, but figured I’d ask for clarity. 5th published version of the campaign, not the game system, I assume.
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Jan 25, 2023 00:06
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kaynorr posted:The reading times make no sense to me; double-digit weeks makes reading a tome not just a downtime activity between adventures, but one suited only for games where there are potentially months (or years) flying by in downtime. Which while possible, I don't think is how the vast majority of campaigns are structured. It feels like there is supposed to be a multiplier effect for successful skill checks that makes it possible for an academic character to hole up with a tome for a week or two and emerge with a couple of new spells and a brain full of Terrible Truths. Yeah, that's a common complaint. The first time I read those rules I was like "uh, really? "The fix I've seen online and contemplated myself is "shift the requirements: x weeks instead of x months, days instead of weeks, hours instead of days".
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Jan 25, 2023 21:28
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It's mostly just several optional rule tweaks you can mix and match: double HP, higher starting stats, Archetypes which is like another template like Occupations that you add in addition to an Occupation, more Luck and more ways to use it, Pulp Talents which are like Feats etc in other systems and a few other minor things. Example Archetype: 
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Feb 1, 2023 03:49
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Edge of Darkness in the Starter Set is very good. The Haunting, I feel, is greatly over-rated. There are several collections of modules available if you want more. Doors to Darkness is a collection written for new GMs, (but tbh I feel most of the scenarios are so-so). Mansions of Mansions reissues several classic scenarios and is pretty fun, IMO. If you want to do a campaign but maybe don't want to do one that'll take you two years, check out A Time to Harvest. It's a shorter campaign explicitly aimed at newer groups.
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Feb 3, 2023 13:31
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That one is also in the Starter Set.
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Feb 3, 2023 16:13
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DrSunshine posted:So I need a floor plan for a high school. I'm running Lover in the Ice and the characters are too late to save the highschool from the Amante infecting it. It's been 1 night, and I want to set up a rad dungeon crawl like in James Cameron's Aliens, with the player characters as Ripley and a group of NPC National Guard. You could use a floor plan from some old small town. For example: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durango_High_School_-_First_Floor,_1920.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durango_High_School_-_Second_Floor,_1920.jpg
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Apr 26, 2023 15:46
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A huge Trail of Cthulhu bundle dropped on Humble: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/trail-cthulhu-pelgrane-press-books
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Sep 8, 2023 12:34
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I've only flipped through either of them, but from everything I've heard THS is the better-designed campaign of the two. Alternately, the Trail of Cthulhu campaign Eternal Lies is considered as good or better as Masks by many people and it has a CoC conversion and it's in that bundle I just linked to.
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Sep 8, 2023 20:45
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CoC7e works fine in practice. It's an old system and the first six editions more-or-less didn't change anything from the first, and 7e added some new stuff, but was pretty conservative about changing systems that were already in place. CoC grogs often say things like "CoC is the simplest system in the world, tee hee, you just pick a skill and try to roll under it, tee hee, that's the entire system!" and no, there is a lot of extra fiddly bits on top that which I'd personally prune if I was in charge of 8e, but once you get a handle on them it runs pretty well. For Masks specifically, I'd suggest getting the Pulp Cthulhu book and using the pulp rules to run it. (They should be part of the main rulebook and it's a little rear end that you need to buy a separate book for them, but oh well.) Replace the automatic fire rules from 7e with the rules in Delta Green, as well. If you're willing to do more rejiggering I would suggest pruning the skill list. 7e combined Punch, Headbutt, Kick, Grapple and Mercilessly Tickle into a Brawl skill; I'd suggest doing the same with Athletics stuff, maybe combining the four social skills into Social, and split Use Library, Listen, Spot Hidden into Alertness (notice danger) and Search (search for clues). Take a look at Delta Green, Rivers of London, Sigil & Shadow to get an idea for some alternate takes on CoC-ish skill lists. On a related note, I've been mulling taking the hatchet to CoC and brewing my own CoC-module-compatible hack for running CoC one-shots where a character would look something like this: Minnesota Jones HP 12/12 SAN 50/50 Academic(Archeology) 70 Athlete(Boxer) 60 Explorer 50 Socialite 40 Perks: Brawler, Die Hard, Rogueish Charm, Skeptical
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Sep 22, 2023 13:12
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sebmojo posted:I mean, exactly. Though Rolemaster is super smooth in play, roll a dice, add a number, take a number away, look up the result. Yeah, that's the one lovely sub-system in the book. You can just not use it.
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Sep 22, 2023 14:30
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 Cannibal Smiley posted:I'd say that charging the investigators 1/1d6 SAN for exhuming a grave is probably unnecessary - maybe 0/1 at best, because while it isn't considered socially acceptable, it doesn't feel right to charge them that much SAN. Yep.  Captain Kosmos posted:Also, is there a CoC 7th ed sanity flowchart anywhere? You can find some by searching "coc sanity flowchart" or page 417 of the rulebook has a neat brief summary.
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Nov 22, 2023 17:17
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One useful little trick I've discovered when teaching new systems and corresponding sheets to new players in VTTs is "screenshot the sheet, set up the screenshot as a level/map and mark it up with explanations of what all the different parts do". Why yes, graphic design is my passion, how did you know? EDIT: Ah dang it, left in one extra "you go crazy" in the screenshot. Edited it out in the game proper!
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Dec 10, 2023 16:58
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The study times for books basically don't work for campaigns in 7e, unless the PCs are willing to just put the whole impending apocalypse thing on pause for a year each time they want to study a book, yeah. A hack I've seen suggested is make it days instead of weeks. Or, ultimately, just tell them that yep studying these tomes is what cultists do and you just don't have the time to read most of them, sorry.
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Dec 21, 2023 12:34
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holy poo poo, insta-buy if you're remotely interested in CoC
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Jan 6, 2024 20:29
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What all the books for someone who doesn't know: Keeper's Handbook - the main rulebook, only thing you really need. Keeper's Screen - GM screen, pretty useful, comes with two fun scenarios. Starter Set - a starter set, the basic rules and three good adventures. Investigator Handbook - player-facing book with some extra careers options and info on 1920s, very non-essential but nice to get in a bundle Keeper Tips - GM advice they released recently to celebrate CoC's anniversary, non-essential but neat Pulp Cthulhu - some extra rules to make PCs more durable and pulpy, some info on 1930s, a few adventures. The rule bits should've been in the core rulebook, tbh, but at least you're not paying extra here. It's basically "increase hp, increase stats, give more Luck to reroll, here's an optional Talent system". Alone Against the Dark/Frost/Tide - solo gamebooks. Malleus Monstrorum. S. Petersen's Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, Grand Grimoire - collections of all the canonical monsters and spells. Neat if you're into the lore, but you don't actually need them to play or run. Dead Light and Other Dark Turns, Petersen's Abominations, Mansions of Madness vol 1, Gateways to Terror, Doors to Darkness, Does Love Forgive - short adventure collections of varying quality but they're all at least decent and some of my favorite ones are here. Reign of Terror, Cthulhu Dark Ages, Berlin the Wicked City, Down Darker Trails - setting books for, respectively, French Revolution Era, Middle Ages, Weimar Republic Berlin and Wild West. Each will be about half setting info, half a mini-campaign consisting of several short adventures. A Cold Fire Within - A longer campaign, pulpy. The Coloring Book - wait, how did this get here?! Do not attempt to read this, I repeat Ḑ̤̐O̘̗̊̕ ̽͌͏̥̦N̢͚͌ͅỎ̽͏̳Tͮ͛͏̼͝ ̨̠͇̜̾̂ A͔̼̞͑̉͝Ţ͂̾̂̀͏͇͚̠͉Tͫ̆͏͏̜͇̣Eͥ̈̀͘҉̺͓̙M̬͔̪͐̎͐̈́͞P̸̛̛̟̥͖͉ͣTͤͧ̈҉̸̼̩ ̶̣̹͛ͩ̎̕͜͝ T̷͛͋͗̚͏̡̲̹̪̣͝O̶̴̧̗̠̦͙̫͛́̉͒ ̄̒̑҉̵҉̸̩͠͡R̴̵̋ͨ͌ͦ̃̀͟͝͡͏͏̹Ě̸̢̠̒̈́͊͟͟͝͡A͉̣̫͓̐ͭ̊̋͛ͮ͜ͅĎ̫̞̜͔̹ͨ͐̋͜͞ ̛̺̭̚̚̕͟T̸̊͡͝͏̞̺̯̳͘H̴͌̕͏̵̯̜̥̭͙̻̼͘͟͢͟I̵̡̪̖̠͔̰̜̦̖ͮ͂̔ͮͩ̀̚̕̕͘͢S̶̵̢̽ͣ҉̶̵̢̖͍̺͓̞̣̟͘
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Jan 6, 2024 21:52
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Generally speaking, I read scenarios first then if I think "this one is interesting, I want to run it / this one is weird, how do you run it?!" I try to find some playthroughs of it on podchaser.com and Youtube. Can't help you with specific channels because the only DG podcast I've listened to is Pretending to be People, sorry.
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Jan 31, 2024 11:25
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