Jwfortune

So you guys use miniatures when you play COC? I have kept everything abstract, just talking. The only thing I hand out is news articles or letters and such. Do you guys prefer miniatures for the combat?

I am on EST and could play Mon or Tue evenings beginning around 8 to 9pm as an option. I may have other times free as well depending on what others are interested it.

Just thought I would throw another classified add out there to see if anyone has an opening or is interested in getting some online play going for CoC. I am looking for a once a week or once every other week meetup. I would prefer to play I think, as I am not deeply knowledgeable about the world nor the game. I do run something for some friends of mine who are very forgiving. Maybe we could try a one shot or something that could be concluded in 2 or 3 sessions to see how we enjoy the experience.

So after running the mission and talking with the team about how it went, it seems that I might be more apprehensive than the players are about pace of game. When I am a player in an RPG, I tend to get antsy if I am not doing anything and want the pace of the story to be brisk. However, the players I run for don't seem to have this same feeling. Maybe I am better suited to running games than playing in them because I like to always be thinking and taking actions. Our first session was crowded and after 2 hours of play, I thought I was losing the group. There were some side discussions going on and thought they had lost interest. But they all reported having fun and enjoyed interacting with each others characters. Obviously I am still learning how to read my group. This RPG stuff is fascinating.

Our group is getting ready to hit a part early in the Murder on the Orient Express campaign where there will be a lot of library research required to gather information. I've been thinking about how this will go and it doesn't seem like it will be very exciting. How does the library research phase of the game go for your group? How do you jazz it up?

What are the thoughts out there on Pulp Cthulhu so far? Does it have the same tension as regular 7E where average, mortal, weak dudes are investigators? I love the art for the book and the first adventure, I am looking forward to checking it out.

Hi Everyone, After finishing up a Time to Harvest last week, I am getting ready to start Horror on the Orient Express for my group tonight. I am both excited and nervous. We have a large group, sometimes there are 6 or 7 investigators...although tonight I am thinking 5. I have read through and made notes on the first three chapters I plan on running (Skipping Fez but doing Doomtrain), and am a little curious about how our party will like all of the investigation and fact finding. I am also a little concerned about how I will handle all of the possible locations they could visit. Let me know if there is any advice out there for starting this campaign!

During an investigation, there will be times when the team does something for which you have nothing prepared. For example, while in Paris, they may visit the Eiffel tower. Or they may travel by train to a different part of France. Or they may make a bad Library use roll and find nothing of interest during research for the entire day. When things like this happen, do you just wave your hand and say ok, nothing happens. Or you make it to the South of France without incidents. Or do you try to jazz these things up with some kind of encounter. My first inclination is to usually just move past it, and say nothing happens, lets move on to the good stuff. But this might take away from the Red Herrings or the sense of place. But when is this boring and when does at add color to the adventure? Thoughts?

So in real time if you role play it out, that player is effectively out of the game for the rest of the session. What if there are still a couple of hours to go - that is not much fun for that player is it?

Practically speaking, how do you handle it when a PC gets 39 pts of sanity damage, assuming they had enough to absorb it. Are they out of the game for a month while they recover? Do they have to find another character so the game can continue without having to role play a month of recovery? Do you hand wave it and give them a paranoia and go on? Just curious. Thanks - John

Oh my goodness. I have read that paragraph several times and always read it as five instead of a fifth. Doh. Thanks for setting me straight.

If someone loses 5 sanity points in one role, they are temporarily insane for 1d10 hours. However, if someone loses 5 points in a day, they are indefinitely insane. So if you lose 5 in one roll, you qualify for losing 5 in a day. By that definition, anyone who is temporarily insane is also indefinitely insane. So how is being temporarily insane different from being indefinitely insanse. This question probably seems like an insane person submitted it....thanks for the help.

For our group, we had to adjust to not needing miniatures for combat. The narrative nature of the combats and the lack of need for precision when it came to tracking the exact location of the combatants makes it a faster more flowing battle. One consequence of this that I didn't think about is that we get through a lot more story than we did with D&D. Combat takes so long in D&D, you don't have near as much time to get through story...so if you are a DM that prepares scenes, you may want to keep that in mind. CoC makes for an excellent change of pace from Pathfinder or D&D I have found. We have been loving it.

Thanks - I will check this out. I listen to a ton of podcasts, but not many related to RPGs. I need to explore that genre. I'm still interested in finding an online live game if anyone out there has an opening or wouldn't mind letting me listen in for a short time.

Are there any online live play sessions of CoC 7thE going on where I could either listen in or play in? I don't have as many opportunities to play in person as I would like and am interested in getting more involved with this game. Thanks! John

Does anyone know how I can get episode six of A Time to Harvest? I am running this for my group and only have the first five episodes.

Last night I ran chapter one of a time to harvest for my game group and it went very well for the group...for me...it went fairly well, but I am still adjusting to running CoC v Pathfinder adventures. They are so different. We got the entire chapter done in about 3.5 hours. I get the feeling that this is faster than most groups, but I am not sure. I had a really hard time with a couple of things. Roll Playing so many NPCs - I didn't really do the students on the trip any justice. The only NPCs I roll played much at all were Robert Blaine, Justin Trent, Sheriff, and Cutter. The rest said maybe one or two things the entire evening. I had a really hard time letting the game run free. I kept the story going as written in the book and didn't have the courage to make stuff up and adjust to the PCs. And I am not sure why exactly. I have run Pathfinder adventures for a few years now and have no trouble there, but with this, there was so many facts and encounters I wanted to make sure I hit that I kept it on rails. The players didn't feel inhibited and enjoyed it, so it was no problem for them, but I need to learn to run differently I think. Although I had the awesome summary time line another Keeper posted here for us, I had a hard time remembering everything I was supposed to do with all of the characters. I forgot about the reporters picture and his story, and the investigators didn't really question him, so his stuff was totally skipped over. Although it doesn't necessarily feel complicated, I am still finding my comfort zone running the wide open, story heavy adventures presented by CoC. I should say we are all having fun, I just don't feel in command yet. I read through chapter one several times, I outlined it, and I read through the player provided summary, but still was a little off. Let me know if anyone has suggestions for how to prepare for a CoC adventure or what you do to stay in control of your story. It is fun, but I am always striving to improve.

I would love to read a summary of how your campaign played out.

These are great suggestions for this module. If these items were added, it would really take a step forward and become a much more valuable tool for a keeper to pickup and use quickly. Another thing I might emphasize is just improving the organization of the information. There is so much in big long blocks of text, that it is almost impossible to use the book as your guide during game. If there are any board game fans here, you know that the more complicated games often come with a player's quick reference guide. It would be incredible if this book had a keeper's quick reference guide. There is a fan made outline I was pointed to that was very helpful. Some other specific comments: I agree with putting a text box around what can be read to players - Pathfinder uses this and it is extremely helpful. It might be helpful if encounters were broken down into sections - Section one could be a text box on what can be read to the players Section two could maybe describe if there are prerequisites for this encounter and what story elements occurring later this encounter effects. Section three could outline the encounter Any skill checks or portions of the encounter requiring dice rolls could be summarized in a section If an enemy is faced his stat block could be provided This format could become a standard for future adventures, perhaps. Although I began this note with two improvement opportunities, I do appreciate the amount of content in book one. There are lots of suggestions for alternate endings and details on how to handle certain events. I do really like the plot implication text boxes - those are extremely valuable in helping keeper's remember what the key part the NPC has in the story. I am planning on running this soon and am very curious to see how it plays out.

I just wanted to chime in with another thank you. I had one of these in progress, but it was hand written and not as nice as this. I am also working on a cheat sheet for the characters. It seems that making sure the investigators learn who there class mates are will be important as the story moves forward.

That is an outstanding outline. Thanks so much for sharing. I also created a cheat sheet for the students on the trip. Based on my brief review of the second story, it is going to be important to bring the students to life and make their current personalities defined and memorable.

One observation after reading through book 1 a few times and book 2 once... reading and absorbing this adventure is a little tough. There are a lot of words to read and remember. Has anyone made a cheat sheet or outline for this adventure they would be willing to share? Also, besides being friends with the missing students from last year's trip - what motivates the students/investigators to care about pursuing the mystery presented here. I could see them deciding they just want out.

Had a situation where a gun fight broke out in a residential house in Arkham when two goons and two players ran into each other. I wasn't sure how long to give them before the policy showed up. This was the 20's so there are phones and such. How would you have handled this? Later in the campaign the police had reason for suspicion and brought the players in for questioning. I basically had the players roll bluff vs the police, or something similar. Luckily they succeeded, other wise I thought the police would have put then in jail. It seems this would have stalled the game. How do you handle it when the police become suspicious?

Backed!

I had a player create a character and set his shooting skill to 100%. Does the rule book allow this? Any thoughts on how to handle this?