Cthulhu Newbie, am I doing this right?

[MichaelArkAngel]

Greetings everyone, after 20+ years of playing D&D (Actually DM'ed most of that time.) A friend asked if I was interested in possibly starting a COC game, but had no idea where to begin. Well, a week later, I have the 7E Core Rule book, started listening to the HP Lovecraft audio books on my way to work and while working, as well as watching a few live game plays to see how it differs from my typical "medieval" POV.

I think my next step would be finish reading the core rulebook, and then make a character.

Is there anything missing, or anything that could be recommended  to also add to my Lovecraftian knowledge?

-Thanks!

Michael

[g33k]

That seems really good, and an extra level of dedication beyond what I expect from the "average" GM.

I note that CoC can really be played in most any timeperiod... are you going for the HPL-contemporary era?  I might suggest you look at some movies showing the era, or photo's/etc -- including "clothing of..." documentation.

 

[TheLibrarian]

If you're planning on running a published scenario (I'd recommend Amidst the Ancient Trees from the core rulebook, the Haunting from the quickstart rules, or Crack'd and Crook'd Manse from Mansions of Madness) then read it, reread it, make some notes, and reread it again. Having a solid knowledge of the location and nature of the clues and important locations will make it much easier to run the adventure and, let's face it, adapt to the completely off the rails choices any group of players, particularly new ones, are bound to make.

If you're running something original, then it can't hurt to read a mystery or detective story or two. A mystery story is paced differently from an adventure and refreshing yourself on the tropes is always good, in my experience.

Your group should be delighted to have such a dedicated GM!

[jux]

Crack'd and Crook'd Manse is basically TPK - this should be communicated to the players first.

[Jwfortune]

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.

 

[Darius West]

Hi Jwfortune,  

                     The main thing to remember is that player characters in CoC are called investigators, not adventurers.  That is because CoC done right is a detective story where the criminal is some sort of horrible occult something-or-other.  The aim is to gather clues so that when you meet the "thing" that you know what you need to defeat it.  If you play CoC like D&D your players will probably end up getting arrested and going to jail long before they ever find a monster.  Similarly, CoC doesn't reward "heroism"; heroes reward monsters with a home delivered meal.  The best thing about 7th Edition CoC is that it has good pursuit rules.  Running away is a really good tactic if you haven't figured out how to deal with the critter.  Understanding different sorts of fear is a good idea.   http://wherewordsflow.weebly.com/musings-20/fear-terror-horror-and-dread-the-syntax-of-horror

 

[EricW]

Don't try to help the investigators survive. CoC is lethal. D&D can turn into a big bug hunt. In CoC, the players are the bugs. Players have to learn that if they want their characters to survive more than 5 minutes, they need to think.

Edited March 5, 2017 by EricW
Fix ambiguity

[g33k]

On 3/5/2017 at 2:53 AM, EricW said:

Don't try to help the investigators survive. CoC is lethal. D&D can turn into a big bug hunt. In CoC, the players are the bugs. Players have to learn that if they want their characters to survive more than 5 minutes, they need to think.

I'll embrace the same basic facts -- "CoC is lethal. D&D can turn into a big bug hunt. In CoC, the players are the bugs. Players have to learn that if they want their characters to survive more than 5 minutes, they need to think"

But I come to the opposite conclusion:  DO try to help the investigators survive !  Warn them up-front that the world AND the mechanics are dangerous, that their HP's going to zero is far-too-likely, and their SAN going to zero is even-more-likely.

For example, give them an essentially-friendly Toughman type NPC, who gives one or more of them an all-in-good-fun / non-lethal thrashing (demonstrating how dangerous the system is) but then dies horribly at the hands of Mythos Horror (demonstrating how F'ing Murderous the system is!).

And (at least at first) when you -- as GM -- see a likely-to-be-lethal situation coming at them, and they aren't acting concerned, give them metagame-y hints that they SHOULD be concerned.

The thing is, a group who was raised on D&D is going to be appalled at the lethality of BRP-based mechanics, and lack-of-Healing-Magic, and so forth.  It will be far too easy to end up with some or all of the players having un-fun, instead of fun!

Time enough to drag them under, once they've gotten their feet wet...  And then you can point out, "I /did/ warn you the setting and system were LETHAL, didn't I?"

 

[Mankcam]

Lethality certainly is inherent in any of the BRP Family of games.

In regards to Call of Cthulhu, for one-shot sessions or brief investigations I like to dress up the horror element and I run standard 'purist' rules. However for long campaigns I prefer more action and humour, so I use 'pulpy' rules in order to keep heroes alive long for a reasonable duration.

I am running Pulp Cthulhu 7E which has heaps of optional rules to help the player-characters, such as Luck, Talents, etc. For action scenes I run alot of Mooks rules as the default, as it keeps the story fast-paced. This is different to the standard CoC investigation, as these characters are more like characters portrayed in Indiana Jones and The Mummy movies, rather than Lovecraft's 'armchair academics'; so fast paced action is essential to the pulpy flavour.

However if the combat situation is pivotal to the story line, or is otherwise a centerpiece of a scene, then I tend to shift back to the standard combat rules to heighten the drama. Even in a pulpy setting, the BRP/CoC combat rules are very dangerous, and damage rolls can drop a hero very quick. 

The best advice I have read regarding acknowledging the lethality aspect is before starting the game with narrative, simply show the players the damage for small weapons (1D4 to1D6). Then show them the damage for a medium weapon (1D8). Explain that melee weapons may have an additional DB, whereas ranged weapons may have more than one attack per round. Finally show them their Hit Points, and ask them how many times can they sustain damage rolls? Remind them that natural healing is slow, even with hospitalisation. Magic that does quick-healing is quite rare and obscure (and often not without other consequences).

Let all this sink in, and a sense of vulnerability will be there from the start, hopefully dictating them to be cautious as every HP is a worthwhile point to keep. Even in a pulpy game the characters need to be mindful, especially regarding some of the more exotic opponents.

Player-characters surviving is far less a certainty than it is in most D20 system games. If you run a purist CoC game (as opposed to a pulpy CoC game), then this unpredictability is even greater, to the point where a typical session or two often sees at least one investigator going insane or is killed.

The irony is that it is this unpredictability that really adds to the enjoyment of everyone involved, regardless of playing pulpy or purist, and is one of the strengths of BRP games.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Mankcam