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rsanford

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Posts posted by rsanford

    Different Magic Systems for MW?

    in Magic World

    Posted · Edited by rsanford
    Because apparently I can't spell :-)

    If you decide you like Deep Magic try our homebrew rules located in the downloads here called The Second Way. Provides a mix of Deep Magic and Ars Magica for a more grounded (rules based) freeform system. You can find a link in my signature.

    • Like 2

    What's in the Trappist system?

    in Mythras

    Posted

    On 2/24/2017 at 8:47 AM, RosenMcStern said:

    Be careful: NASA stated that there could be water in the liquid state on these worlds, but nothing guarantees that it actually is there.

    However, being it a Trappist star system, there must certainly be beer...

    As it should be!

    Advice for a new Keeper?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    19 minutes ago, mvincent said:

    That sounds like an apt summation of CoC. Probably best to let players know ahead of time that "your character might get killed through no fault of your own".

    I warned them initially that the game is very deadly and that they should run if they encounter something they can't handle but they disregarded my advice.  I think they have played too much D&D.. I doubt they make that mistake twice. One of the characters was hospitalized by a bed...

    Advice for a new Keeper?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, nclarke said:

    Typical reaction from a player who is not used to CoC. I won't say the whole point of a horror game is not to feel in control but it's really part of the genre. Give them dynamite and tommy guns and they'll feel in control mwahahahahahha. No, sorry, they'll only feel in control until the next big bad comes round the corner and they find out that dynamite and tommy guns avail them not but running like F*** is a big help. If the player persists in not being comfortable then I guess a horror game is not for them.

    Yeah I plan to run CoC every three months or so until they get used to it or tell me to stop... In the interim I will have the party play some D&D modules using Magic World / Stormbringer rules. Shoot and loots are a lot easier for me to prepare for!

     

    Advice for a new Keeper?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    Hi all,

    My group and I finished our first game of CoC last night. We played “The Haunting”. There were three players that ultimately played four characters (because one of the investigators fell off the second floor in a mishap with a bed J), a professor, occultist, reporter and surgeon.  A couple of highlights:

    1.       When the professor made a small hole in the brick wall hiding Corbitt’s room and wiggled through I had the silver knife threaten him. He was hit a couple of times before he could wrestle it to the ground.

    2.       When the investigators were just about to check out Corbitt’s body the newly possessed surgeon hit the occultist with a wood axe. At that point Corbitt stood up and began to attack the party. Pandemonium commenced.

    Ultimately everyone survived without going insane. Great fun.  Next we are going to run the BRP scenario “In Search of the Troll Slayer”, and then in a month or two we will run “Tell Me, Have You See the Yellow Sign” in CoC.

    PS - One of the players was put off, as she put it, by a lack of control in CoC. She said that in games like D&D and Stormbringer she always felt like she would come out on top no matter what the threat. In CoC she was constantly afraid her character was going to get killed through no fault of her own. As the Keeper I’m not sure if that is a problem or a feature J. Any thoughts on that?

    Advice for a new Keeper?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    Good ideas all!

    We have played two short sessions of The Haunting so far and I figure the players still have another couple hours of play before there finished.

    The first session was heavy on investigation and role play. The players enjoyed it (especially my wife who fancies herself a detective) but lamented the lack of action. In the second session they explored most of the house and are getting ready to go down to the basement. However, they are concerned that there is a ghost in the house and that they may not be able to do anything about it.  I keep reminding them their job is to investigate not necessarily solve the problem.

    The good news is that they fear for the characters and they feel hopeless. The bad news is the same.  One of them is wondering why they are playing if there is no hope of winning (I did previously warn them about CoC in general).

    Overall they seem to enjoy the game but prefer Stormbringer. As we progress we will see if I can change that a bit. I hope to run “Tell me, have you seen the yellow sign” next.

    We play the next game Sunday. Will keep you all apprised.

    Recommendation for a short, non-railroady scenario

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted · Edited by rsanford
    Added a PS

    36 minutes ago, jux said:

    Tell me what you know - I am very interested in this as well.

    Although "dungeon crawls" are considered to be rail-roads as well, I don't consider them so. Sure, neither are they not classical sandbox adventures. But still, I point out good old Mansions of Madness.

    Several have been recommended on various sites and I am still investigating but here are my favorites so far:

    • Within You, Without You (Unspeakable Oath Issue 1)

    • Tell Me, Have You See the Yellow Sign (Tales of the Crescent City)

    • Edge of Darkness

    • Daughter of Set

    • The Keeper of the Woods

    • Dead Light

    PS - If anyone has experience with any of these I would appreciate hearing about it.

    The Shade Land: an introductory setting

    in Revolution D100

    Posted

    1 hour ago, RosenMcStern said:

    And what better way to end the year than making a new setting available?

    201867.jpg

    The Shade Land lies under a cover of impenetrable clouds where dwells the Dark Goddess, mother of the ruling race of dark  elves known as  Sha'zir. Here creatures of darkness lurk in the shadows, from poisonous dragonkind to huge insects. And here  mankind has retreated to the highlands, where it breeds giant featherless birds as mounts, in a fight for its very existence.


    This introductory Fantasy setting includes:

    • Dark cult examples
    • Monks of the Order, a unique blend of arcane magic and martial arts
    • Necromancy
    • Flying Mounts
    • Giant Insect statistics

    and many more "dark" fantasy elements that you can insert into your Revolution D100 campaign or easily adapt to any percentile-based RPG.

    The setting is 40-page long and is released as PDF-only, available on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow     . A saddles-stitched print version is possible but not planned yet.

     

    Alephtar is on a roll isn't it!  I will pick this up later today in PDF and will look forward to a possible print version!

    Advice for a new Keeper?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    8 hours ago, Darius West said:

    In answer to your specific questions:

    1)  Fear is a response to a number of things... danger, unfamiliarity, a source of pain, abandonment, vulnerability etc.  One of the most primal is the sense that you are being stalked by something unknown.  Movement perceived from the corner of the eye, rustling in the bushes, creaking on the stairs, things go missing, all revealing nothing but prickles on the back of the neck and adrenaline butterflies in the stomach. Sun Tzu says:   

    If I determine the enemy's disposition of forces while I have no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless: if it is formless, then even the deepest spy cannot discern it nor the wise make plans against it.

    This is the use of the enemy's ignorance as a weapon against them.  But in C'thulhu, knowledge of the enemy can be just as dangerous as ignorance.  That's pretty scary, when your best weapon, knowledge, leads as certainly to your ultimate destruction as ignorance. 

    The next thing is to properly understand the difference between fear and horror.  While horror has its foundation in fear, it is a knowing abhorrence of what you face.  Horror is when you understand that the thing you were afraid of is worse than you imagined and you are permanently tainted by association with it.  You build horror through suggestion and investigation, to quote Lovecraft:  

    The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. 

    When the players begin to "correlate all the contents" and fit the jigsaw together, that is when the horror should kick in.

    2)  This step is of primary importance.  You need to tell the players beforehand that CoC is a game about investigation,  and that if they fight monsters before they know how to beat them they are likely to die quickly and foolishly. Tell them that if they go into combat under-prepared against non-human enemies the fights are likely to be bad and one sided.  That gives investigation a purpose, you are building an arsenal of information.  Get players excited about chasing leads and clues.  Personally I love writing scenarios and when it comes to CoC I especially enjoy writing the handouts.  In fact I like them so much I have even written a mythos story in handout format a few years ago, and I have attached it for your perusal.

    3) A measure of tolerance to frequent mythos encounters of the same creature is not impossible, in fact there is a precedent for it in the Lovecraft story "Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath" wherein Randolph Carter begins to feel less disturbed by ghouls through frequent contact, and it has periodically been part of the CoC rules in the various Companions.  It is also acceptable for veterans to have an immunity to seeing dismembered human bodies.  Remember however that few people can ever get used to a creature that causes more than 1d8 SAN loss, and you never get used to seeing a creature that always causes SAN loss.

    4) Generally a quick sit down Q&A session to discuss the character is enough to get a decent performance out of players if the background info for the character is not enough.  Let the players divide the characters up among themselves so they can at least choose a persona they like.

    Papers pertaining to the disappearance of Mr. Richard Upton Pickman (Artist).pdf

    Thanks Darius - this is good advice. Also I loved the PDF you uploaded. Perhaps I will turn it into a scenario for my group.

    Recommendation for a short, non-railroady scenario

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    Hi all,

    New Keeper here playing 6th Edition CoC. Last weekend I ran The Haunting and we should complete it at the next session.  Now I am looking for the next scenario to run. With that in mind can anyone recommend a short CoC or Delta Green scenario (1 to 4 five hour sessions long) that focuses on investigation rather than fighting and which isn’t a railroad? Right now I am considering “Tell me have you seen the yellow sign” but would appreciate any suggestions especially if you let me know why you like it. Extra points if the suggestion doesn’t involve a haunted house (As we just did that). Also I prefer if the scenario is focused on the 1920s or can be adapted for the 1920s.

     

    Thanks!

    • Like 2

    Supplement for M-Space

    in Mythras

    Posted

    Clarence,

    I could have swore I saw a post from you detailing what you are working on next in relations to M-Space but I can't seem to find it. I remember it was very interesting. Can you enlighten me?

    I will be ordering M-Space today.

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