coolAlias

Thanks for the clarification, Mike. So in the event an investigator goes insane from a non-Mythos event, they are effectively barred from gaining any Mythos skill in this fashion until their underlying insanity has been resolved (i.e. in 1d10 hours for temporary or several months later for indefinite)? For those with zero or no Mythos, that feels like a curse, but for those with high Mythos, that might be a blessing - make yourself insane via "normal" means before facing the Mythos so your already frayed Max SAN can catch a break! Lol.

I'm not sure I follow - bouts of madness are short-term events triggered by exposure to the Mythos and other Sanity-reducing things, and you can suffer many distinct bouts of madness during a period of insanity. It seems perfectly logical to me that any Mythos exposure triggering a bout of madness could result in gaining more Mythos knowledge, and that tracks with the rule on p417. That said, my question isn't one of logic, but one of reconciliation between the rules on p163 and p417; in the words of the perfectly-portrayed Mr. Gibbs: "Reason's got nothing to do with it." 😉

Relevant rules text from the Keeper Rulebook: The p163 rule seems to say that a character only gains Mythos when first becoming insane, i.e. they can only gain Mythos once per period of insanity, while the p417 rule clearly contradicts that by stating it's per bout of madness, not per period of insanity. Am I misinterpreting p163 or is it indeed contradictory? If the latter, which rule is "correct"? As an example, in my most recent game a PC became temporarily insane after seeing the mangled corpse of their friend, which is not Mythos-inspired so Mythos skill was not increased. However, later, another bout of madness was triggered by a Mythos creature, and this being the first such instance, I gave the character +5% to their Mythos skill. Later still, they had a few more bouts of madness, again all from Mythos creatures, and I awarded +1% for each of those as well. Is that the correct interpretation (i.e. p417 is correct), or would this character not have gained any Mythos skill at all since the period of insanity was not initially caused by a Mythos creature (i.e. p163 is correct)?

Not only that, but the PCs quickly run out of skill points, so no one ever takes those niche skills anyway. Yes, I could add Ride (Auto) for motorcycles and Ride (Bicycle), among other things, but how often would anyone ever make use of those in the standard 1920s setting? Probably never, or maybe once in a longer campaign. Now, if it was set pretty much anywhere else in the world, those might be very useful skills to add, since bicycles and motorcylces/scooters are much more common modes of transportation elsewhere. And that's where skill-based systems shine - you can easily tailor the skill list to fit your exact setting and time period without changing much if anything about the rest of the game mechanics.

As above, compared against PDF v1.4. Hopefully this is helpful - I know I'm many years late. Chapter 3, Genius Loci Errata p50 ... in a ten-meter radius => change "meter" to "yards" (as indicated on following pages as well as the Map scale being in feet) Grammar & Typos p36 ... who wishes Crosswell be detained. => Remove "be" p.40 ... can, occasionally, prompts calls for... => should be "prompt" (no 's') p40 ... lest every spooky locale gradually exhausts sanity... => should be "exhaust" (no 's') p40 ... these injuries as, "Results..." => remove comma before opening quotation mark p44 ... accessible with successful... => add "a" after "with" p45 ... after Hathorne build his home... => should be "built" p45 ... who spoke of, "One who..." => remove comma before opening quotation mark p45 ... a successful Psychology rolls discern the... => should be "roll" (no 's') and "discerns" (add 's') p45 ... warning investigators to, "Let..." => remove comma before opening quotation mark p45 ... perhaps hoping onto a passing bus, or into a waiting car. => should be "hopping"; suggest removing comma. p47 ... doctor to never to remove the... => should be "to never remove" p48 ... as difficult and dangerous the Keeper desires... => add "as" after "dangerous" p49 ... luxuriating in the investigators' anxiety that suits... => add comma after "anxiety" p49 Dr. Berger leading the throng, his face a mask... => change to "leads" for consistency with previous bullet points. p50 ... those in the melee to make Hard Spot Hidden rolls notice... => add "to" after "rolls" p50 While those hanging back... => Remove "While", begin sentence with "Those" p55 ... may notice the tell tale effects... => should be "tell-tale" (i.e. add a hyphen) p55 ... so essentially as an unlimited supply... => change "as" to "has" Potential Plot Holes Just a few inconsistencies that could result in tough-to-answer questions at the table if not considered beforehand.

The CoC 7e Keeper Rulebook lists quite a few Firearm specializations, namely: Bow Handgun Heavy Weapons (e.g. grenade launchers) Flamethrower Machine Gun (used for automatic fire) Rifle/Shotgun (also used for single-round fire of automatic weapons such as assault rifles) Submachine Gun See p64-65 for further details. The standard 1920s character sheet only lists Handgun and Rifle/Shotgun as those are the most common, but does have a spare Firearms skill slot for a write-in. For vehicle-mounted weapons, the rules are less clear (at least the rules I could find). For those with an obvious corollary, such as a belt-fed Machine Gun on a truck, I'd just use the related Firearm skill; for others, I might use either the closest Firearm skill, such as Heavy Weapons for firing the main gun of a tank, or the corresponding Pilot or Drive skill, which I feel would be particularly fitting for handling aircraft combat. Thrown weapons, including hand grenades, use the Throw skill.

If you scroll about half-way down their page, you'll see an outline of the course contents. Looks to be a month-long seminar, btw, not just a single day. https://www.storytellingcollective.com/courses/write-your-first-adventure-gen-nov2022

Ah, my bad, I assumed you'd be converting the adventures to 7e for some reason (which is generally a pretty simple affair, btw, if you decide to go that route). I don't know of any Classic pre-gens, but you could probably generate some fairly quickly using a version of the "Quick Fire" method, whether there's one in the boxed set or a back-ported version from 7e. Basically, assign 8, 10, 10, 10, 12, 12, 14, 16 among the stats and choose an occupation, setting one skill to 70, two to 60, three to 50, and three to 40, then add +20 to four other skills. Fill in backstory to taste, let the players do it, or even just leave it blank.

Chaosium generously provides several free adventures on their website, all of which are great for one-shots and include pre-gens: https://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-adventures/ The Haunting is pretty much the go-to for a first CoC adventure. I've read it and it looks fun, but have yet to run it. The Lightless Beacon was tons of fun. You can see my play report of it here in the original thread. We clocked in at almost exactly 4 hours, but I added some scenes on the steam ship to set the mood and allow the players to introduce their characters. The Dead Boarder I have not read yet, but I've heard from others that it's good.

That's fair, and yeah, it's not that easy. For myself, I finally managed to get my D&D group to play a one-shot of Call of Cthulhu a few days ago, and I'm certain that 2 of the 4 players had an amazing time, one had at least a decent time even though horror's not usually his thing, and one might have been enjoying it until things started going terribly awry, although that was getting late so perhaps he was just tired. One of the other players in the gorup GMs for another group and says he has tried for years to get those people to try CoC to no avail, so he was super excited to try it, and I think having that one person other than yourself who is excited to try it makes all the difference. I doubt my sales pitch would have been nearly as successful had I not had that one person all in from the get-go.

Might I refer you to p.184 of the Keeper Rulebook? There is a specific section labeled Finding Players that has some great suggestions, such as friends, family, and local gaming groups such as at schools. You could also try advertising on social media, Reddit, Discord groups, etc., if you're comfortable with that.

Very late to the party, but here we go. Checked these against v1.4 of the PDF. Chapter 2, The Darkness Beneath the Hill Errata p23 SIZ 7 => should be SIZ 35 p34 INHABITANTS, Skills, "Steal Things" is a flavorful skill name, but this is already covered by the "Sleight of Hand" skill in the core rules. p34 S’SYAA-H’RISSS should have HP 11, not 20 (based on CON + SIZ, which also matches corresponding entry in Keeper Rulebook) Grammar & Typos p14 Not all of this history is as fondly... => remove "as" p15 ...has numerous building from... => should be "buildings" p16 ...the investigators to find, but which adds some color to the scenario is... => should be "scenario, is..." (i.e. add a comma) p17 Despite the emancipation began during... => should be "Despite the fact that emancipation began during..." p26 ...degenerates will fight back, though, they... => should be "back, though they..." (i.e. remove comma after "though") p26 FATHEROF => missing space between words, should be "FATHER OF" p31 ...get the right idea about it). => not part of a parenthetical statement, remove the parenthesis. p31 ...while he's awake should... => change "awake" to "asleep" p31 ...observing him or chose to => change "chose" to "choose" p32 ...to fate worse than... => should be "to a fate worse than..."

Wow... that was an epic adventure. Ran it as a one-shot cinematic horror and it was absolutely perfect, clocking in at exactly 4 hours. GM impression: One of my players took extensive session notes: Newspapers were quick to take up the story in the aftermath of the event: 10/10 would run again.

I'm about to run some people through this adventure tomorrow - first time for all of us! 😄 I took the liberty of flipping the island around so the main access is from the landward side, which also conveniently puts the PCs in a more interesting position when they first arrive (in my opinion). I also made a version with the seaward dock removed so it's more of a rocky beach/cliff, which is the version I'm planning to use. Looking forward to our first foray into Call of Cthulhu!

Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science? Oh. OH! Just, uh, the author of that one book that's kind of at the root of it all, huh? I see. I'll just be on my way then, if you don't mind... <quickly dashes for the nearest exit, but it's no use>

It depends on the target number, such that the higher your initial chance of success, the greater the effect of a bonus die is, and vice versa, up to a point. You can extrapolate somewhat from this discussion of D&D 5e's similar mechanic: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2014/07/12/dnd-5e-advantage-disadvantage-probability/ In CoC, however, it's further complicated by the fact you're generally not actually rolling d100 dice, but a d00 and a d10, and bonus/penalty dice only apply to the d00. Sorry I can't give you the exact math, but I hope the linked article at least gives you a rough idea of the general probability curve.

I'll add those I've noticed, then, at least those I remember... would have kept better track of minor typos and grammatical mistakes as well if I knew Chaosium was so responsive! Next time. Keeper Rulebook Errata p148, the Chase rules example mentions that a bonus and penalty die might be given to the Speed Rolls, but I can find no mention of this in the actual rules. It most likely refers to a rule that was later cut, or perhaps it's simply referring to how bonus and penalty dice can be used generally to modify situations. In any event, it's unclear. p383, Abner Wick, Fighting (Brawl) has "Butcher's Knife, damage 1D6 +..." - none of the knives on p401 do 1D6+DB damage; is this an intended discrepancy? p383, Hector and Carla Fademan, Fighting (Brawl) has "Hunting Knife, damage 1D6 +..." - none of the knives on p401 do 1D6+DB damage; is this an intended discrepancy? p398, Firearm Ammunition is missing entires for .41 rimfire, 9mm, .455, .30-30, .303, .58, 7.65mm, .30 Carbine, 2-bore shot for Elephant Gun, and Shotgun slugs of all kinds (unless these are meant to be interchangeable with the shells?) - note these are all calibers mentioned as available in the 1920s, per the firearm descriptions starting on p179 of the Investigator Handbook, which also mentions 7.62 mm and 7.92mm, neither of which are listed in the price guides. p398, Bayonet doesn't have an obviously corresponding weapon entry on p401 - it's definitely not a cavalry lance (i.e. Spear entry), but might arguably use the Fighting (Spear) skill. Would be nice to have either a dedicated entry for the Bayonet on p401 or, if it's "knife-like", indicate that and its size in its entry on p398. p400, Firearm Ammunition is missing entries as above (with some exceptions), plus .444 Marlin Layout p334, Werewolf entry header should be at top of p335 instead. Suggestions p396-399, knives on the equipment list, such as the Hunting Knife, Dagger, etc. would benefit from having a blade length (e.g. S/M/L) to help us use the correct damage entry on the weapons tables. p402-404, the firearms charts would benefit from indicating which type(s) of ammunition can be used; this information is noted in the Investigator's Handbook under individual firearm entries, but is not in the Keeper Rulebook at all. Of course, most can be extrapolated or easily searched online, but still would be nice to have for ease of reference. p145 and p416, Vehicle Reference Charts: at least one or two types of Steamboat would have been very nice to have listed here. Investigator Handbook This has all of the same issues for weapons and ammunition as in the Keeper Rulebook.

The Keeper Rulebook has an interesting bit on p207: One particular published scenario I was thinking of running has a couple of Deep One corpses near an NPC, and it got me wondering: if at least some types of Mythos creatures sometimes leave corpses, wouldn't their bodies eventually end up in a museum somewhere and rob them of some or all of their horror? And in the particular scenario, it feels like the corpses almost completely removes that aspect of the unknown during the subsequent combat. So to all you Keepers out there: what is your preference? Do your creatures dissolve, leave a corpse, or some mix of both? Are you consistent across scenarios, or do your creatures sometimes dissolve and sometimes leave a corpse depending on what you feel will make for a better atmosphere at the time?

Yeah I like Fighting (Brawl) just for simplicity, but on the other hand, a knife-on-a-stick is essentially a spear, and for whatever reason they decided to include a separate Fighting (Spear) skill that seems like it's only real use in a 1920s game would be for bayonet. Agreed, it's just odd because the Hunting Knife is explicitly listed as an item you can purchase, but doesn't have any directly corresponding stats other than in the scenario, and those don't match up with any of the knife-related stats. At the end of the day, I suppose it doesn't really matter either way as long as it's consistent at one's table - I was just wondering if maybe there was an official errata or general consensus. I had a similar thought, but with the general paucity of skill points, it seems it would be a rare investigator indeed who puts points in Fighting (Spear). I suppose that's why the bayonet is generally a weapon of last resort, but anyone with decent Fighting (Brawl) skill would be better just punching their opponent which feels weird. <shrug>

Hello all, quick question about some weapons in the Keeper Rulebook: Bayonet - does this use Fighting (Brawl) as a knife, Fighting (Spear), or either one is okay? How much damage does it do? Hunting Knife - this is listed in one of the scenarios as doing 1d6 + DB damage, which doesn't match any of the knife entries on Table XVII: Weapons Is the Hunting Knife considered a Medium Knife? If so, which damage value is correct: the weapon table (i.e. 1d4+2+DB) or the scenario (i.e. 1d6+DB)? That's it, thanks!