cjbowser

Simon,

Thanks for the feedback. I have a follow up question for you, and anybody else who answers.

I was checking my library and found a book that discusses the belief in magic and occult for the exact time period and culture I am thinking about writing on. Would you prefer the magic/beasties material integrated into the body of the material or included in an appendix/sidebar?

Right now, I'm looking at three interlinked and substantial scenarios, but that could always grow.

Thanks,

Chad

Tastes differ widely, but for me something with about the amount of information

found in Call of Cthulhu monographs like Secrets of Morocco or Mysteries of Ti-

bet would be most welcome - at least not significantly less, although it could of

course be "streamlined" to fit an adventure instead of an entire campaign.

I like Mysteries of Tibet and planned on using it as a partial template.

The reason is that I would like to have the option to add to the adventure if it

goes well, and for this I would need enough background information to design

my own follow on adventures.

That's a good point. I considered this more of a one-shot deal, but if I'm going to put work into it, might as well make it extensible.

Oh, I don't want magic, zombies and such for a historical game. I'm just pointing out that most historical games tend to fail to some extent becuase most GMs don't know enough about the setting to know what to do with it. And most GMs don't want to do any research, either.

Thanks for the feedback this is the type of info I'm looking for.

One example, is the semi-historical RPG Pendragon. Although set in a mythical Arthurian age, the game society is heavily based on historical feudalism. However, most gamers didn't really know enough about knights and the Middle Ages to run the game properly. And this was at a time when 90% of gamers were playing in fantasy world that were pseudo-medieval in theme. That's why in the latter editions more and more space was devoted to explaining the feudal system and the hows & whys of knighthood.

Pendragon is one of the games that, in my opinion, blend history and myth in a very enjoyable way. It give the players enough detail to get the players into the proper frame of mind for Arthurian adventures. To be frank, Pendragon is one of the things that got me interested in studying history. I'd read the books and start thinking about whether or not they were accurate and head to the library to do more research.

I think part of the reason for the low number of daily visitors is that Chaosium doesn't have forums or a similar community to draw users back repeatedly.

My typical Chaosium web browsing experience goes something like this:

Visit Chaosium.com --> Check Blog --> Check Catalog for something new --> Exit site.

Understood. I guess this is a hangover from reading on Yog Sothoth about the "Secrets of ...." books. Quite a few posters there have noted that there is not an effort to mention things already developed in other scenarios within the area covered by the Secrets book. What I was trying to convey is that an appendix that did allow the use of the straight historical scenarios within CoC would be good and give the book a bigger appeal.

Fair enough. It's something to bear in mind. If I did include Cthulhu references, it would definitely be in an appendix.

However, a one shot scenario is a great way to gauge interest, allowing for a source book later.

Rod

Essentially, that would be what I'm doing. With enough background info to provide players something to sink their teeth into. I'm starting to reconsider the sourcebook idea, though...

I also think that a soruce book, or at least a game with a lot of historrical info is the way to go.

I think that one major reason why historical games have not fared well in the past is because most "end users" won't reasearch the stuff that can be "easily researched". As a result, they really don't know what to do with the game.

Take a look at the recent trend in historial RPGs overlaced with magic, zombies and other crap. Why do they do this? Because most people look at a hostircoal setting and thing "boring". But once you add stuff that gamers are familar with from fantasy RPGs they can just run the "historical" game the same way they run everything else, only withs some new trappings.

So for a historcial supplment to get anywhere at all, it essentially has to be a basic primer on the setting. Otherwise you are just wasting your time.

Thanks for the feedback. I see where you're coming from, but am hoping that a time period I'm working on will be adventursome enough that you won't need zombies, magic, or squid-headed gods. I'm not knocking any of those, I just want to try something different.

And sorry about the "end user" comment. My mind was fully engaged in work mode when I typed up the initial email and couldn't think of a better phrase.

There will definitely be a primer, at least enough to get the feel right.

Based on the responses so far, it seems as though my belief that there would be no interest in a full source book was off base. Yay me!

I voted 'maybe', but I should qualify that. I'm not interested in all periods of time, so the specific period would be important. I'd also like to have background material included in the scenarios. This doesn't have to be comprehensive, but it does have to provide everything I need to make up NPCs and run the scenario properly. - and that would vary from one setting to another. If the setting is medieval or later Europe, I could probably make a good go of it without much background material. If the setting is Easter Island, I would need a lot more. If the setting was Inca America I'd want the whole sourcebook.

Thalaba

This was more of a general question, not specifically tailored to the period I'm working on. So, I'll mark you down as a qualified "yes". I just felt the need to explain that I was working on something.

Swashbuckling France Sourcebook.

A small section within the Swashbuckling France book that referred to the work already done on Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne for Cthulhu Dark Ages (within Worlds of Cthulhu magazine) and Val-du-Loup for BRP would be a great addition. It would allow Keepers to tie the already-developed for CoC/BRP adventures/themes to those within the new sourcebook as well as provide a connection between CoC and the larger BRP system. (The upcoming Strange Aeons II as well as recently released Cthulhu Invictus show that many CoC players are willing to expand out of the 1920s into other historical eras for play and thus should be willing to come over to the larger BRP system.)

As the author of a couple of the CDA background articles in WoC (Bayt al-Hikma and Constantinople) as well as Cthulhu Invictus, I'll bear that in mind. This however, would be straight BRP. No Cthulhu.

I would very much prefer a sourcebook.

Therefore, if I had only the adventure without a description of the back-

ground and had to research the background myself, I could easily end up

with a research result that does not really fit the adventure, at least not

as it was intended by its author.

The scenarios would include as much historical information needed to get through the scenario, but wouldn't contain historical information that didn't pertain directly to the scenario.

Ideally, I'd like to do a full sourcebook, but am not sure the market's there. That's why I'm asking the questions.

I've got some free time on my hands and was thinking about putting my graduate degree in history to use. What are people's thoughts on historical scenarios? I'm not looking to do an entire sourcebook, because a lot of that can easily be researched by the end user. Instead, these are scenarios that pivot on historical events, allowing the players to take part in the events of history.

Pre-gens would be included.

If you respond, feel free to mention what type of information you think is a must-have for any historical scenario.

If you think sourcebooks are needed, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW, I'm keeping the historical period close to my vest for the moment, while I make sure it'll work out. Also, I haven't talked to any publishers yet, so if there's interest, let me know.

For those who have purchased:

I noted on the preview pages dollar price listings - is there also a means to use the BRP abstracted wealth levels for buying?

That would be in the appendices.

Is it only going to be a pdf?

They usually release the PDF while they're waiting for the print monograph to get back from the printers. Give it a couple weeks.

On a scale of 1d100, how good is this one?

I'd give it a 50. There's not a lot of Cthulhu content, so fans of Cthulhu aren't going to be over thrilled. The author also changed history quite a bit, so fans of alternate history are going to be put off. The steampunk content is also toned down, so those looking for A Court in the Air aren't going to find it.

The scenario itself is pretty interesting.

It's the basic idea behind some Steampunk worlds, like the one described in the Arcanum Computer RPG. It is just that all Steampunk worlds are based on Victorian Era Britain. But other settings might fit the basic assumption. Like Renaissance Italy, for instance. Think of Galileo and Leonardo vs. the Inquisition, for instance.

Queensguard, the Cthulhu-lite Steampunk monograph is set in the 17th c., which I found disconcerting at first, but now find intriguing.

I'd also like to see the 17th century world handled, particularly central Europe and the reign of Rudolf II. That seems like an ideal time and place for adventurers to go adventuring.

Hmm, I didn't see Mythic Russia. Is it on Lulu? It didn't come up in search.

Steve

The core Mythic Russia book is not on lulu. It's also not currently in print.

You can, however, get the first Birchbark Chronicle on lulu.

I almost went for Ancient Near East, but in the end, cast my vote for Ancient Greece.

Let's see... first introduction to BRP... RQ in the late 80s.

First time I played/ran a BRP game that I liked? Pendragon in 1990.

Call of Cthulhu followed in 1993.

I pre-ordered a copy. When it gets here, I'll do a review.

There's been quite a lot of talk about BRP on GeekdÅ.com | The Way of the Geek lately. Your review would definitely be welcomed there.

Go here, click on reviews, then click post. Drop in your comments. All reviews are moderated by consensus, but I'll do my best to make sure it gets through.

I've been meaning to write up reviews of Agents of the Crown, Outpost 19, and Light Without Shadow...

When a monograph gets turned into a professional product it becomes a whole new contract with a renegotiated price. From what I understand, the money paid for the monograph has nothing to do with the new contract. I don't have any hard figures, but from what I understand, it will be paid by the word , but I have no hard and fast information at this time. I can tell you, you still cant quit your day job.

You are correct here. There will be a whole new contract and negotiated rate. You'll also need to start working on illo suggestions. That's something that surprised me, Chaosium had me suggest all the illustrations that went into the book.

In my case, they didn't count the money paid towards my monograph as an advance against the money paid for the distro book. However, there was a four year span between monograph and distro book.

Congratulations on getting the book out there!

Any other suggestions? Could Chaosium sponsor people to run games at the local game shops, pimping the product? How about making the core rules really cheap - would that promote people to get it and then encourage sales of the support material? How much has Gurps made off the sales of their core rules compared to the support material? Any insight into this?

Thalaba

A couple quick things...

1. The do (or at least did) have people who run games at local shops/cons, The Chaosium Missionaries. During its heyday, it was for Call of Cthulhu, but at that time Call of Cthulhu was pretty much all that Chaosium had. Check with Dustin for more details.

2. Before you can make the rules cheap to get people to buy supplements, you have to have easily available supplements. Otherwise, Chaosium would probably be taking a loss on the book, where it can't afford to right now.

I've never used Godzilla in a game, but she is statted up in Secrets of Japan for Call of Cthulhu.

Hey Newt, I crossposted this announcement on rpggeek. Hopefully that drives even more traffic your way.