mvincent

That's how I play it... though that's likely not the designers' intent. Other games give a penalty to ranged combat when an enemy is nearby, but I only use the "Firing into melee" Nope-card when someone asks for a point-blank bonus. I have effectively eliminated both modifiers in an effort to streamline the game. As a former police officer and soldier, I assure you that "realism" is better served through speedy combat than number crunching.

Thanks for the literary research! Anecdote: I once had the BBEG (a former PC that went insane) cast the reverse version of this spell in combat. The look of confusion, then horror on the players' face was priceless (since two of then had once been resurrected by that same character before he became an NPC).

That's absolutely what the designers intended, I'm merely using pedantry to get rid of a rule I don't like. I've drastically quickened combat by ignoring rule exceptions (point-blank, shooting into melee, not dodging firearms, etc.), but I occasionally get a player that actually reads the rules and now wants their bonus. (<sarcasm> because calculating 1/5th dex during combat totally increases my players' immersion</sarcasm>). It's weird: D&D actually gives you a penalty die for using a ranged weapon (including firearms) at close range.

p.113 says "A target may not fight back against or dodge a Firearm attack as they can a Fighting attack". However, the defender can Dive for Cover (p.113). Also, the rules (p.114) do say "One penalty die is applied when targeting a combatant involved in melee combat"... and you're arguable in melee when firing at point blank... I've used this to simplify the rules and just ignore the point-blank bonus die (i.e. if a player ever asks for a point-blank bonus die, I say 'yes, and you also have a penalty die for being in melee'). I also allow firearm dodging in my games for simplicity and cinematic reasons.

I've previously run an 80's campaign using "Cthulhu Now" (1987), "The Stars Are Right" (1992) and "At Your Door" (1990).

The Call of Cthulhu (CoC) core game rulebook, by Chaosium (I believe some copies say "Keeper Rulebook" below the "Call of Cthulhu" title, but curiously mine don't). In CoC 7e, the Ghost stats are on p.333, but I believe earlier CoC versions had ghost stats too.

The Basic Roleplaying book (p.114) contains rules for Psychic Combat. However, I like your ad-hoc rules (they feel more elegant). Also, the Ghost entry in Call of Cthulhu (p.333 in 7e) details this sort of combat under its special powers.

No need to wish: the late pledge button (in the upper-right of their Kickstarter) is just as good as pledging initially.

RAFM had a Kickstarter for that here. Peterson Games, Mansions of Madness and Death May Die have enormous selections. Reapers has produced many mythos figures during their Kickstarters. Wizkids also produce some prepainted mythos figures in their Pathfinder Battles line. Fantasy Flight Games used to produce prepainted ones, but they are out of production now.

Nice! I want my investigators to be too scared to go in... then a session or two later uncover a compelling reason to go in.

In this example you'd be better off printing out a real map of southern Vermont (if such a handout is desired). The map in the CoC book wouldn't seem very useful to players overall. Do you possibly have some more examples? When it comes to tactical maps, I generally give the players descriptive (or sketched) information until they explore the area enough that I can just show them the full map... or combat is triggered (in which case I likely have a battlemat ready).

This Kickstarter might give you ideas. A body-kun or action figure might be easy to modify. I wonder if anyone has used a mannequin for a full scale prop...

I'm certain that HPL's work had lots of plot holes (like giant mountain in the middle of the Antarctic, or lack of fossil records elsewhere), but an incredible old race being able to build extremely durable structures seemed reasonable to me. I was thinking extremely hard substances, like molecularly aligned nanostructures (kinda like graphene), but I like your ideas of even more exotic materials: like self-repairing or temporally stable.

Given how successful and beloved the recent MoN edition was, I'm not sure of your point. The price-tag was a bargain for some. The MoN HPLHS prop set costs more than the campaign, and it too was totally worth it. For contrast: I paid $500 for Platinum editions of each of my last two D&D campaigns (and twice that for additional props/miniatures), and I was happy with the result (though MoN was better). A well-made campaign can provide say, 200 hundred hours of enjoyment for 5 adults. Meanwhile, the hourly value of an adult's free time can be worth tens if not hundreds of $. If I can run a better campaign for 13¢ per person-hour, I'll take it.

The complicated 7e rules basically boil down to: -If you have skill 60%+: roll to hit twice (the second time with a penalty die). Each success = three bullets hitting -For skill 40% to 59%: roll to hit thrice (2nd roll w/penalty die, 3rd with two penalty dice). Each success = two hits -For skill below 40%: you probably shouldn't bother with auto-fire In practice though, PC's typically aren't very skilled in automatic weapons, and attacks with penalty dice are unlikely to hit, so I just have PC's: make one roll (but use 10 rounds) and treat a success as two hits