Spence

5 hours ago, Mike M said:

Hi - before we can release the Curse of Seven, we want to release the new edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight, which is currently in writing and development.

And here it is. 

You knew it was coming.

Any guesstimate on when CbG might make its appearance 🤔

I think a modern (as in right now, or one or two years in the future) is very doable, even with the epic added.  The issue is that by the time the product can "hit the shelf" is will already be a few years in the past.

That said.

I have run a modern game where the threat was aliens infiltrating earth.  The players were all members of an agency that was task with dealing with it.  A covert agency that "did not exist" to the public but was known to elements of the FBI, NSA and CIA who were tasked to "render assistance" but were not read in to what was actually happening.

The game was run in Pulp mode and had plenty of action as well as investigation and clandestine operations.  It also had plenty of horror aspects and the players never were able to decide if the threat was Mythos or not.  

I never was able to finish the campaign, but it is proof to me that a modern game can be run and have that sense of play that I associate with epic.  Of course in this case I attribute that "feel" to the great players.  

I myself consider anything 1950s to present as "modern" game'wise and anything 2010 and up as "now". 

I you only consider 2021 as modern then you will never see a modern supplement or adventure with most needing at least a year to be published.

37 minutes ago, DreadDomain said:

But the question is about "Modern Day Epic Campaign" so it goes far beyond adapting a 20's scenario to the modern days. A Chaosium modern day campaign, MoN style, would be grandiose for sure. Would a campaign written in the 2020s taken place in 2020 be outdated if written in 2035? Why would it? It is set in the 2020s and is no less outdated that a game that was set in the 80s, 60s, 30s or 20s. It is just set somewhen else. 

I agree.  I set my games in the 80/90s because communications and computers didn't really reach the level that people nowadays would expect.  I got my first "cell" in around 96.  It was a brick (heavy and awkward), required you to login before dialing a number and cost $ per logged in minutes.  If you called a number you started getting billed as soon as it connected whether they answered or not.  Listening to the other end ring was money bleeding away.  And that was if you were near to a tower. 

Internet was dialup and you were ecstatic if you actually reached 56k.  1meg was a fantasy dream for the far future.

But things were close enough for major governments and secret cabals to have "super science".

Adapting Demon?  What a great idea 👍

On 2/27/2021 at 5:26 AM, MOB said:

Lynne Hardy's The Children of Fear is our newest Call of Cthulhu campaign, and we're printing it in Poland; the printer there has just sent us advance copies, and they look superb!

The presses are rolling; will be shipping to our warehouses soon! And remember, if you buy the PDF direct from Chaosium.com now, you get the full price of the PDF off the printed book when it's out.

Any new guesstimates on when physical books will be available?

I also use materials from other horror RPGs.  Pelgrane's Trail of Cthulhu (and Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, Fall of Delta Green, etc.).

After a while switching materials between CoC and ToC has become almost routine.

Also don't forget the repository on DriveThruRPG.  Lots of usable materials there. 

Not a horror based product, but the old Hudson City product from Hero Games is one of the best modern city (80s/90s) rpg city books ever printed.  It also has a high resolution street map for $5.  I can safely say it is probably the only modern city rpg product in existence that has an actual usable map.  A few years ago I did an edit where I removed the interstates and added rail lines so I could use the map for 30s games.

I set most of my "modern" games in the late 70s to early 80s.  Modern enough to have gear and gadgets. But before most of the small portable electronics we are accustomed to now.  Distance communication relied on landlines, radios and letters.   Video recorders were large and bulky. 

All in all perfect for the genre.

On 3/10/2021 at 1:45 AM, Mike M said:

Chaosium has published modern campaigns, the most notable was At Your Door. 

Never heard of this one and it does not seem to exist on Chaosiums website.

Where can I find it?

Oh, and another I came close to forgetting.  An old show 60's called The Invaders. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders

Another 60s show, but to be realistic about it.  I co-opt stuff from the 60s all the time for use in FoDG 50s games.  The look and feel of the 50s and 60s is close enough none of my players ever noticed.  The suit was still normal wear and technology in common use was near the same.  If you suffer from nitpickers, you might run into an issue here and there.  But over all yiu can find more 60s material than 50s, so I go with it.

I'll try this again.

There are two small PDF products available.  While they are written with playing in the 70s, both are organizations founded in the 40s. I have tweaked both for use in my FoDG games.

Majestic Overwatch

Moon Dust Men.

The short lived TV show Project Blue Book might be useful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book_(TV_series)

Looking forward to seeing this.

Have you tried the Call of Cthulhu Vault for Halloween and Holidays? 

https://www.chaosium.com/halloween-holiday/

They are the old Monograms, but converting the older versions of CoC to 6th or 7th is not hard and they are old enough that many current players do not know they exist.

On 8/11/2020 at 1:57 PM, Feylong said:

1) on page 102 there is an example where it says I'm going to punch the guard, then run for the open door. However, on the very same page it clearly states that flee is an action as is to attck. Yet this example implies it would be a single action.

Full statement:

Player: “I’m going to punch the guard, then run for the open door.”
Keeper: “ The guard is going to try to grab you. Roll your Brawling skill.”

Which is elaborated on by:

"Notice how the request for a dice roll develops out of what the players say. In the first example the goal is to get past the guard, and the punch is simply a method of achieving the goal; damage may be in inflicted as a consequence, but the Keeper uses the dice to judge whether the maneuver is accomplished."

The paragraph is illustrating Players and Keepers giving a general overall pre-action description of what they intend to do in the encounter, not the round by round execution of that intent.  Before getting down to round by round action, the overall intent needs to be established so everyone one at the table understands what is happening.

In this case the Keeper starts the action by having the PC go first and try the punch. [player action]

My guess is that the next action will be the Guards attempt to grab the PC modified by how successful the PC's punch was [NPC action]

After that the next player action would be to flee if the Guards attempt to grab failed, or something else if the Guard succeeded.

General statements of intent establish a broad idea of what the Players wish to attempt and how the NPC's [Keeper] plans to respond. 

Just like in D&D.  The PC Fighter is facing 20 Goblins in a dungeon.

Fighter: I advance into the narrow part of the corridor so they cannot flank me and kill the goblins.

DM: The Goblins swarm forward and attack.

That does not mean that the Fighter gets to move and immediately make 20 attacks.  He will get to try to move into the narrow part first and then make his first attack.  Then they will cycle through however many rounds as it takes to end the encounter. 

And I really wish I knew why this forum randomly forces posts to be double spaced for no apparent reason.

1 hour ago, Gman said:

in addition this adventure looks ver Noir....can we please get a "Noir Cthulhu" setting book in the vein of Pulp Cthulhu or Berlin the Wicked City?  That would be amazing!!!

I'll second that...

On 3/15/2020 at 2:17 AM, ColoradoCthulhu said:

Delta Green just isn't one of the main CoC settings; I can change the initial wording to "niche" instead as Delta Green is about secret agents working for covert organizations and doesn't expand much beyond that.

The Delta Green setting is covered by two RPG rule sets.  Delta Green by Arc Light using CoC 6th and 7th edition rules, and “The Fall of Delta Green” which uses a version of GUMSHOE by Pelgrane Press.

The genesis of Delta Green was the government raid on Innsmouth in 1928.  It had an unofficial presence under several different names until June 1942 when it was officially established with the security clearance of Delta Green within the OSS.  Delta Green operated as an official US black operation until July 1970 when an operational disaster revealed their existence and they were officially disbanded. Members of Delta Green continued to operate as rogue agency until reactivated as a Black Project in September of 2002.

"The Fall of Delta Green” (GUMSHOE version) is set in the 1960’s before the disaster that dismantles it.

“Delta Green” (CoC version) is set today (2017 to present).

Delta Green is not just espionage.  It can be espionage, law enforcement, special ops or straight up regular military combat units.  Personnel holding the Delta Green clearance are embedded throughout the government.

I backed it. 

Always liked the setting.

22 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

I spend a good portion of my "day job" at Chaosium trying to best source our print projects.

Thank you for the insight. 

I always wondered about how much of an offset the "savings" of not shipping from overseas and not paying tariffs.

The KS Sassoon Files had their books destroyed in Chine due to content and they reprinted with an outfit in Illinois.  From what I understand they got a full refund. The books looked great, and I always wondered how bad a hit that was after recalculating for less shipping and not tariffs/customs fees.

My previous job was at a local manufacturing plant and we had begun sourcing some materials in the US vice China/Asia because end cost made US parts equal cost or cheaper.  With some US based printing companies expanding capacity, I wonder when their costs will be low enough that the end cost will make US production "cheaper".

I've heard of it, but I have never played any "live" type RPG.

So I have no constructive info.

Name: Spence

Country: USA

City: Marysville, WA

Mostly one shots run in "non-standard" time periods, 40's thru 80's with emphasis in the 70/80's.  Though the release of Down Darker Trails has led me to run a few western games. 

27 minutes ago, g33k said:

That's because USAian norms aren't universally observed.

http://www.sixtystonepress.co.uk/

(that said... there seem to be some problems with their site; so maybe they're doing a revamp, or even decommissioning it, in favor of blogs/vendors/etc only (I've seen some vendors doing this:  they have an "official" FB page, Twitter, etc... but no actual website of their own.); or maybe their web-hosting service is just glitching and returning empty HTML.)

Hmmmm.... OK I'll just assume you were not Intentionally try to be an .......

Not finding a .com among normal people doesn't mean it has to be an actual .com.  most understand it means a webpage.  USAism?  Hilarious.  I guess we just have to find reasons to be upset.  Back to topic the .co.uk link did not come up any web searches. Many references on blogs, reviews and stores referring to products.  But no actual company link. Odd, but not unheard of.

But thank you for their link.

On 9/3/2019 at 3:50 AM, Mike M said:

Colonial era supplement is in the hands of Sixty Stone Press, a licensee.

Apparently Sixtystone Press doesn't have a web presence.  All my searches go to DrivethruRPG or various blogs.  No .com out there.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

I will indeed purchase it that way! Thanks for reminding me.

No problem.  I could  never see subscribing for a service that might, maybe have one show a year I like.  I just wait and then buy/rent/borrow.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

 Rats, HBO exclusive.

Blu ray

It's the way I watch all the HBO fare

For me this is overthinking it.

A good scenario is one your players enjoy.

A scenario build is just something to deviate from when the players discover a brand new direction to shear off on. 

For my builds (from Call of Cthulhu to Fear Itself) I build the Who, What and Why. Add supporting cast and a series of encounter/events. 

Once I introduce the players into the opener, everything changes depending on PC actions.

Too much planning is a waste.

D&D style RPGs benefit from excessive detail. Horror/investigation style games suffer from excessive detail.

Just my opinion if course.

I really don't remember exactly how PH divination is written but in the past in other games when this type of came up I never gave clear answers. And I definitely made it a hidden role.

I'd describe a indistinct vision.  A sense of foreboding.  A whispering voice only heard by the player. 

I put as much flair into failed roles as successful ones.  I answered what they asked, not what they meant to ask.

But I personally never gave a yes or no answer.