Spence

Any plans for original Japanese'centric modules/campaigns/setting material to be translated for play in the US and European markets. 

6 minutes ago, ColoradoCthulhu said:

"In September 1923, an urgent and mysterious telegram from an American adventurer plunges the investigators into an epic journey across China, Central Asia, Northern India, and Tibet."

Ahhhh.. another one of my "doh!" moments 😯

9 hours ago, Lynne H said:

Morning!

There will be nine chapters (an introduction, plus eight location-specific ones), plus seven appendices (glossary, NPCs, handouts, pre-gens, etc.)

It's a biggy!

L.

Woot!

Sounds great.

1920s correct? Or 1930ish?

Oh...and will it be purist, pulp or either?

That looks fantastic. 

Any general non-spoiler info on number of adventures/length of campaign?

4 hours ago, midwinter said:

Well, I will be creating my own too and I understand exactly what you mean about the horror diminishing as soon as the players find out "Oh, it's just another ghoul. Good heavens, old boy, stop shaking and hand me my howdah pistol, Wallace."

Yep.  Another reason I  really like the separate players book.  Now days people will read the rulebook front to back.  Or if they don't read everything, they flip through and read the "interesting" things.  Which sucks the whole " unknown" and "mystery" right out of a game.

Another method is to never actually identify the entity.  Everyone always talks about maintaining "horror" and then they ID the threat by name.  InN a short one-shot made on the fly I use threats out of the book.  In a game I have taken time to create I craft a threat using a Mythis creatures as a starting point or completely make my own.

Horror comes from the unknown.

The unknown....

😲

Outstanding!  😁

I had begun running a quasi weekly (depending on non-gaming life) "One Shot Saturday" games.  Essentially I run a one session (or two) scenario that players can "drop in" and learn a new game (or just drop in and play for fun).  The idea is to expose players to games other than sword swingers (D&D, PF, 13thA, etc).  CoC/ToC/and related have been my go to games systems, though I have added some 2d20 games. 

F&J will be a pleasant addition, providing the scenario's fit the play length.

If they are too long I will just need to run the game on another day as a campaign.

Question.  With the pregens be editable?  If I run it as a standard campaign the players will need to improve over time.  I can transfer them to standard character sheets if needed.  But I was hoping for a F&J themed sheet 😉

On 1/16/2019 at 9:19 PM, g33k said:

The last time I had a chance to compare them was at a 'Con.  D&DAL was... present, I guess.  So I heard.  Never saw them much.  PFS has a hallway outside 3-4 rooms.  All the rooms were running games, 3-5 tables per room; all of them seemed to be actively playing, not rules-wrangling.  1-3 PFS "officials" (depending on time of day) were in the hallway outside, to expedite players in getting characters and getting to a table to game (if they were new) or getting their existing PFS characters updated... and to a table to game.  There was a HUGE box of pre-gen PC's available to browse and take, play, steal, whatever.

It's amazing how wide the difference in gaming experiences it can be, isn't it?

5 hours ago, Steve said:

The Keeper's Rulebook and Investigator Handbook don't use the same layout template/look at later books such as Pulp Cthulhu and Doors to Darkness. I'm not saying that it's a particularly big problem, but there is a difference.

Ah...

I thought they were all good.  I felt CoC 7th's layout was in keeping with dark horror and the DDT and PC layouts shifted the flavor toward those titles subjects.

1 hour ago, stadi said:

I wouldn't be against an 8th edition. Or a 7.5. This is what I'd like to see in one:

• Just one Core book instead of two
• Updated to the new (and really nice) layout
• Remove the 20s as the main setting. Mention all the important settings in the same length, or do not go into setting details and make a 20s book (as we have Pulp and Western) I know it's really subjective but I prefer the 30s, the 80s and the modern (2000-2020) to the 20s. 
• Regardless of the previous point, include all the mechanical information for all settings (skills, weapons, etc)

@Core book.  It does have only rule book, the Keepers Guide. 

Right now there are basically two models  for RPG books. 

1) The game has a core rule book and then puts out a "players book" that has CharGen from the core book, setting descriptions and material listing with a section of player advice with 98% of the material coming from the core book.  CoC 7th and Conan are examples.

2) The game is deliberately broken into 2 or 3 books, all of which are needed to run the game, while only one is needed to play a character. D&D and C&C are examples.  

@Updated to new look.  I don't understand this one.  It is.

@20 default.  Well this has been the default for as long as the game has existed.  The current Keepers Guide supports 20's and Modern as it is.   I do not think including default time periods in the core is bad and to have two is better.  I do think that Chaosium has not come to the realization that the current crop of gamers mostly do not know or actually even care that there is a difference between the 20's, 30. and 40's.  Heck, most of my CoC games are set in 80's thru near future (2020's etc).  When I trot out a 70's or 80's game they treat it like ancient times and they have a hard time RPing within restrictions like needing to go to a library and use a book to research.  What?! No internet???  Given that their core players have been playing in the 20's, this editions use of 20's PLUS modern is the best I believe we will see.   Now I definitely would like to see guides for the 20's and 30's.  The War Years (late 30's to late 40's), Cold War (late 40's thru 80's), Early Modern (70's thru 90's, early computer/internet/cell access), Modern (late 90's till current, fully developed computer/internet/cell access) plus any specific "flavor" guide similar to the western guide that may come up. 

8 minutes ago, trystero said:

I'd apply the penalty die (if achieved) to all attackers with firearms for the round, but that's purely a personal judgement and not anything supported by the rules.

That is how I do it as well. 

5 minutes ago, EricW said:

My point is people who feel in danger can act very selfishly

No argument on that point.   But that doesn't take in account the various nutballs of various flavor that will avoid medical assistance for one reason or another. Not to mention that the various agencies will delay early response because they will be afraid if they act early and are wrong they will be committing political/legal suicide.  I expect that if, no when it happens, any hope of containment will be lost because they will be caught up in worrying about who they might offend and pi$$ away the opportunity.  But I guess that is just my natural pessimism 🤪

31 minutes ago, EricW said:

I could have been carrying a contagious deadly disease straight back from a hotzone into Europe and nobody would have known.

That is one of the things I try not to think of.  But then everytime they try to quarantine anything they get all the hue and cry. 

I'm guessing that a pandemic will be what wipes us out in the end.  

By the time the bureaucracy allows the medical side of things to react, it will be too late.

1 minute ago, David Scott said:

Published in 2009 - https://www.chaosium.com/arkham-now/

That works too 😁

But to be fair, Chaosium has never really been about "modern" settings, that usually is farmed out through licenses such as "Delta Green". 

That said, I personally enjoy more modern games that take place in the 70/80/90's. So “Arkham Now” actually works for me 🤪  But yes, I'd like to see a source book for the 2000's as well. 

In fact I find more modern games easier to get players for in my area.  Too many players today have no reference for games in the 20/30's or even 40/50's.  No one has seen any of the old movies that apply and frankly won't watch them.  Most have not even read Lovecraft as they are "too dated".  And read a book like the Maltese Falcon?  Never.  

Now framing a game on X-Files or a more recent movie is more sell-able. 

You have some great cons on the upper eastern seaboard.

Great stuff and I can't wait till tSoP is available to the rest of us. 

Well there you go.

I bet they do fine.

13 hours ago, seneschal said:

The Chinese just burned one of your licensed supplements and you are rewarding them with a full version of the game?  Hmmm.  If they did it to your licensee, they will do it to you.

Well it is a license holder doing business in Japan.   I would assume they are from Japan and have had dealings with the Chinese market before and are aware of the needed cultural sensitivities (read aware of the State censors).  The Sassoon Files took place in Colonial Shanghai and we will probably never know exactly what was considered against the States vision of history and culture. 

Of course I would have thought South Korea would have been a better expansion, but my opinion is not based on any real knowledge other than citizens in Japan and S. Korea enjoy a wider latitude of personal freedom than China.   It has been over 15 years since I have been in either country. 

My recommendation is SHORT.

If this is your first attempt to run CoC and your players are new also I would not begin a campaign that will take months of real time to play out.

I would suggest something smaller for a first outing. 

Berlin the Wicked City is a good starter and can be run as a mini-campaign.

I've got Stillwater preordered through my FLGS.  Been reading the PDF.  Great book.

When does the hardcopy hit?

On 5/22/2019 at 8:43 AM, lordabdul said:

Yeah I have only GM'ed one short adventure with the 7ed rules so far, but it's the first time ever that I feel CoC has a "proper" system. Before, I would usually use a different system, with house-rules for making sanity rules feel "CoC-y". But now, with 7ed's better combat system, better fleshed out magic system, and all kinds of other tweaks, I actually want to use the rules as written.

While I won't say 7th is the first time I thought CoC worked since I have played it on and off for years since 1st Ed.  I will say I was very very pleased with the changes that 7th added.  I won't say it "fixed" anything, but I will say it definitely "smoothed over the last rough spots".

I also like Pulp being broken out into its own book.  Though I do think people still misunderstand what CoC Pulp is when compared to "Action Pulp".  I have read a lot of pulp era horror/mystery/thriller pulp stories, and they are not Indiana Jones.....

And Down Darker Trails is just Awesomeness incarnate 😁

Well thank you to those that took the time to reply to my questions.  But I have also been reading other threads in the RQ forum and frankly it has been an eye opener.  And not in a good way.  I will be shelving my copy of RQ and going back to the CoC side of the house.  I find it difficult to believe that the RQ forums and the CoC forums are on the same boards with the same company.  CoC has some differences of opinion comparing purist games to pulp games, but they have never gotten this venomous about hw you are allowed to have fun.  RQ books books are covered with pictures that say Classic Greek or Hoplite and yet to even mention it apparently is heresy or something. 

A player or GM trying to enter RQ based on the current core rule book really has no idea and cannot find anything in the core book to actually describe what the various tribe/nations are like.  I can understand that they apparently disliked real world history enough to try and make everything completely different.  Which is fine, except now the game has no entry portal unless you wish to turn a game into a full on research project.  But the venom displayed on some of the threads I read is very revealing.  Especially since it is apparently accepted as OK.

Now I thank the three people that took the time to answer me directly, Crel, 7Tigers and Joerg, and their well thought out responses.  You are great representatives of the RQ community. 

But I'll be moving on.  I have very little free time to RPG at all and I simply cannot waste it in this environment. 

Good luck all and I hope you can get back to the FUN that is what RPG's are all about.

On 5/13/2019 at 1:25 PM, JonHook said:

Sorry to hear that, Spence. 

As one of the co-hosts of The Miskatonic University Podcast, I can attest that publishing transcripts is not possible, since ours is not a scripted show. 

Should you discover time in your day to listen to entertaining audio media while you're relaxing or doing some other task that doesn't require your full attention, then I hope you rediscover the fun of RPG podcasts. 

It's possible.  Maybe once I retire and suddenly have spare time measured in hours 😜

For me I want to usable information that I can read in 5 minutes or so.  What products are in the pipe and when do they expect to hit the shelf.

With the love affair with pod-casts no one appears to be able to succinctly impart information anymore.  

Now I am not in anyway saying that people should not watch or like pod-casts. They are entertainment.  Do you like the show?  The only difference between a pod-cast, a TV show or a movie is what the watcher finds interesting and what they are willing to spend 30 to 90 minutes of their free time to see it.   But if you like the show, then watch/listen to it. More power to the people that are pod-people. 

So, I bought RQ after many years, the last time I played RQ was back in the 80’s.  Before the AH version.
The current version has really escaped me though.  The rules are not too bad and the magic will simply need a little time to understand and use.  Nothing too bad really.

It is the setting.  It is meticulously laid out, using undefined terms.  What I mean is the world, its cultures and people are described using terms that really have not be defined.  Read the write up of Sartar on page 24.  Or even the more in-depth description later (pg103?) and you do not end up with a usable visual of the world.  

When I played the game back in the 80’s the GM used real world historical civilizations to give a baseline that was close so we had something to envision.  In the campaign I played in all those years ago, we were loosely based on the ancient Greeks and the campaign was at sea.  We encountered many foes, some were creatures (broos, trollkin and so on), but also other “Greeks”, Etruscans, Assyrians.  The example cultures may not have been spot on for bronze age, but it gave us a basic mental image to work with.

After reading through (skimming really) the RQ core book, I have exactly zero idea of just what characters from Sartar, Esrolia or Prax look like or what their culture resembles.

I know that Glorantha is not the Classic world, but is there a guide out there that connects the dots with historical equivalents?   And is there anything out there on the seafaring side of the house.  It is possible that everything I remember was homebrewed, but I cannot believe that our GM completely redid everything and we did use the rulebooks that were out back then to make our characters.

Any help out there?