groovyclam

19 minutes ago, Valyar said:

• If the GM is using Ultimate - the players don't need to pay anything, they need the free demo version only. The whole data is anyway stored on the GM's computer.
• If the GM is using Standard - each player needs to have Standard as well. The data is still saved locally on GM's computer.

Someone should tell FG that their website should copy and paste Valyar's text. Their own webpage is clear as mud to someone trying to work out what licence to buy/subscribe to.

I think "Demo" is probably a poor choice of words for the low level licence - something like "Player Character Only" might have been better. 

And do the investigators need a Standard licence or just a Demo licence ?

I don't really understand FG's webpage where they explain what the different licences offer. All 3 licence types offer the same abilities except for Ultimate which has "Demo for anyone" as an extra ability ?!?!

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/FantasyGroundsUnity.php

Can some FGU users explain the difference to me as a Keeper if I bought just a Standard licence for FGU or do I need an Ultimate licence to host CoC scenarios ?

12 hours ago, lordabdul said:

 the level of subtlety required to get a satisfying RPG adventure is far below the level of subtlety required to get a satisfying screenplay or novel. When they're "in the heat of the action", the players just pick up less hints than they would with a passive, crafted narration.

Very, very important point - it should be stressed hard in any "Keeper-ing 101" course.

On 5/9/2020 at 9:06 PM, klecser said:

We aren't really reacting to this amazing connection he has set up. It was far too subtle. We sit there and stare at him and he is very clearly waiting for our "a ha" moment. And then, usually in game, he starts slowly re-feeding us all details until we figure things out. The whole time he has this sardonic grin on his face, and by the time he steps us through all the information that we were "supposed to" pick up on initially, he expects us to be amazed by what he has written. And we just aren't.

On 5/9/2020 at 9:06 PM, klecser said:

I know a lot of GMs that keep their logic under lock-and-key in their head. They seem to be "challenging" the players, in an adversarial sense, to unravel their logic. And the players may not have necessarily being given clues that "hit," so to speak.

As a matter of interest are these "Keepers that only Keep" by any chance ? I feel it is very important for Keepers to experience being an investigator so as to know what it is like having to piece together information and how little of what a Keeper "thinks" is communicated to players actually "is" communicated.

I became a better Keeper by being an investigator periodically and think it is frankly almost a mandatory experience Keepers should put themselves through.

It can also dispossess such Keepers of the notion of how their scenario "should" play out ( where they end up railroading players through the Keeper's desired path for the scenario and prevent players from taking actions, that are entirely possible, but just not conducive to how the Keeper thinks the scenario should progress ). As an investigator I abhor being told "you can't do that," it actually makes me really angry and I suddenly lose a lot of patience with the Keeper. Unless the suggested action is a physical impossibility, no Keeper should ever say such a sentence to a player. 

But I think I'm getting off-topic.

I would think it would be easier to just make her Occult skill open to Mythos sensitivity. I know the game "normally" divorces the two skills but that is when, all things being equal, you are trying to "model" Lovecraftian values.

Since you are doing what a good Keeper does and trying to adjust the game to please your players then just adjust the game rules accordingly. Occult = Mythos.

Maybe it's worth priming the group about how the Lovecraftian version of the universe differs somewhat from the "traditional" supernatural view of the universe ( but do point out the crossovers like Brown Jenkin as a familiar to a witch who signed her name in Nyarlathotep's book ). Ultimately magic does exist in Lovecraft but it is more like "science we don't understand yet".

With regards to the Tarot specifically - who knows how far back divination by cards reaches ? Could it be described in the Al-Azif even ? Who's to say you are not tapping into Yithian probability/time "magic" by reading cards or casting runes ?

There's a lot of typo errors in the "Version History" paragraph

All that artwork appears in the Chaosium 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook ( or Investigator Handbook ).

Those books were Kickstarted, so maybe the higher-end pledges included those prints.

I think this is an excellent film. I listened to the podcast and agree with Scott at how its understatement at times is perfect. Nothing more needs to be shown. I didn't realise there was a director's cut which I will seek out now.

A few things to mention about the podcast:

1) The day before the cliff ritual Josh, who is initially the most into researching the community, is reading ( a book of Pele's ? ) and sees the word Ättestupa. He questions Pele if this is actually going to happen and Pele confirms it. Josh's facial reaction is important here - he actually knows the two elderly community members are going to sacrifice themselves but chooses not to tell his friends what they are about to witness. Excessive scientific detachment or bad call ? 

1) You didn't tackle when Simon's girlfriend goes missing, several of the Americans hear screaming in the distance and dismiss it - why ? This is possibly the only thing I find puzzling about the film.

2) I think it is her foot in the flowerbed actually, not Josh's.

3) In the podcast Matt is derisive about the bear saying it is a random, unexplained thing but several of the cult's tapestries depict it as the "big bad" that they have to protect against.

2 minutes ago, klecser said:

I'm not a Brexit expert, but I recall UK Backers refuting this claim when it was made

It would all depend on when Kickstarter.com actually releases cash to the Kickstarter creator vs. at what point the pound started falling.

It's hard to dispute that the pound has slowly and continually been falling ever since the referendum so all UK businesses ( Stygian Fox included ) have had their banked sterling money devalued if it is purchasing anything in dollars/euros. 

12 minutes ago, klecser said:

Regardless, I think there are problems when someone says that they don't have the capital to produce the physical copies of a book that a Kickstarter supposedly paid for.

I suspect it's a case of just not costing out the projects adequately and learning from your accounting mistakes as you go.

A lot of people Kickstarting RPG products are not financial professionals - they are just keen RPG hobbyists hoping to publish something professionally. It's not surprising the accounting falls short some of the time. I wouldn't know how to cost the creation of a CoC scenario PDF ( never mind the costs of hardcopies ).

Didn't the UK Brexit referendum result also cause a crash of sterling which would have had a nasty impact on Stygian Fox's purchasing power if they were paying for any services outside of the UK.

5 hours ago, klecser said:

Backers have been under the assumption that when you Back a project, that money will be used for THAT project exclusively, to make sure it gets done.

No, that should not have happened but, like 7Tigers said, "s**t happens" and I'd rather help Stygian Fox out with some cash for product ( The Bundle of Holding and the PDF of New Tales 2nd Edition ) if it means a chance of finishing some of those poorly managed Kickstarters.

The more some of those outstanding Kickstarters are finished the more chance of income from extra sales from them might bring home some of the other outstanding projects ( etc. etc. ). Hopefully everything will get finished and Stygian Fox can be more considered and more accurately costed moving forward.

31 minutes ago, nclarke said:

New Tales is being offered through DTRPG

I've also just bought the PDF of this at DriveThruRPG.com - it's a fantastic 2nd Edition. Lovely artwork and maps of the Lovecraft towns and a bonus new scenario set in Innsmouth added to the 1st Edition. Each town has a wonderful 2 page spread piece of artwork at the beginning of its section of adventures.

Worth the dosh I think.

This thread on Yog-Sothoth reveals Stygian Fox are doing a Bundle of Holding to help get funds to finish the New Tales of The Miskatonic Valley 2nd Ed and Wild Hunt Kickstarters ( obviously the physical books parts ).

It's sad that it's come to this but I am going to participate in the Bundle of Holding with a hope that Stygian Fox can get back on track and close out all their remaining projects.

The products are top-notch so if they can just get liquid again I hope they can then move forward on a more careful course and create more great stuff.

The Bundle of Holding offer is here:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/StygianFox

16 hours ago, EricW said:

My advice, vote with your feet. Its a big world, there is no need for an educated person to put up with ongoing threats to their life.

Although I agree with your sentiment what you say is far easier said than done.

Look at all the migrants fleeing war and persecution at the moment - they are hardly being welcomed with open arms by other countries and this is after giving what little money they have to people smugglers to get them out of their place of origin.

Not every oppressed person has a passport and a nice wodge of cash to get a plane ticket to paradise ( never mind evading whatever restrictions their government puts on foreign travel ). And that's beside the dilemma of leaving behind any family, friends or job security.

2 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

Yep, that is your choice, precisely.

Exactly - it's MY choice - I didn't tell anyone else what to believe or not believe, so everyone cool your jets.

2 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

To assert that it is therefore true is sloppy science

It's not science at all. It's philosophy. All the traditional/historical proofs of the existence or non-existence of god stem from philosophy not science.

To reiterate - I was saying what I believe in and why - I didn't tell anyone else on this thread what they should believe.

7 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

They aren't scientific either since they have no way of testing their atheistic hypothesis

That shows a lack of understanding of scientific principles. Science is about what is most likely to be true ( and, if a scientific proof is verified, what is true ).

According to science, any currently inexplicable natural phenomena are extremely unlikely to have been caused by an outside sentient force ( i.e. a god ). Science would say there is a non-theistic reason behind any currently inexplicable natural phenomena and that reason just hasn't been discovered yet ( because that is how all science has behaved/progressed over the course of time ).

It's a waste of time to a scientist to pursue a proof of what is least likely to be true.

Personally I go with Epicurus:

Quote

The Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-271 BCE) claimed that the existence of God proved there is no God.

He claimed that if God cannot stop evil then he is not all-powerful (omnipotent).

He then argued that if God can prevent evil but does not, then God is not good.

He linked these two points together, claiming that if God is all-powerful and good, then evil would not exist.

Finally, human experience is that evil does exist. Therefore Epicurus concluded that God must not exist.

That leaves you with God EITHER (a) is not omnipotent OR (b) is not good OR (c) doesn't exist.

I choose (c).

9 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

Oh yeah, and may God preserve us from fanatic evangelical atheists 😇

Speaking as an atheist I find that the "fanatical" atheists ( I'm looking at you Richard Dawkins ) can be very tedious and annoying. It's no use shouting at religious people or condescendingly explaining how science contradicts their faith since their very belief system IS faith. It overrides any other logic or scientific principal in their world.

As long as a religion isn't encouraging the demonisation or denigration of other persons or groups  ( which, sadly, a lot of them do ) or exploiting their congregation ( money-grubbing TV evangelists ) I don't really care one way or the other.

I'm glad you are in a better place now Fábio. As you say, suicide is a very permanent solution to a problem that may or may not be insurmountable, but seems very attractive when stuck in the depths of despair. You must have great strength of character to survive what happened to you.

To anyone contemplating suicide - hold on for one more hour and phone for advice immediately to any national suicide hotline that operates in your country. You can always kill yourself next month if things don't work out ( sort of joking but think about the logic -> don't kill yourself now -> try some help first and then see how your situation is a bit later on ).

GUMSHOE is also fairly "rules light" compared to d100 systems.

The GUMSHOE version of CoC is called Trail of Cthulhu and the rules can be downloaded for free here:

https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ai8pO1rZaQtElw7JraIkngSoCM--?e=hOsn8A

Casting the Runes will follow those rules very closely.

2 hours ago, seneschal said:

With Call of Cthulhu I can play ... Call of Cthulhu.  With the BGB I can play both  CoC and RuneQuest as long as I can hunt down setting material somewhere.  I can also whip up a Psi World game with better rules, throw together a RWBY mini-campaign to delight my daughter (write-ups for the main protagonist and a dastardly villain in the Superworld threads), or have the Green Hornet team up with Quack Kerouac to hit the road and take a bill outta crime.  Sorry, can't do that with our shiny new editions of Cthulhu and RuneQuest.  They aren't built for it.

I totally agree with what you say there, BUT...those sorts of RPGers/GMs are few and far between and so the sales for any new BGB would be small (although I would buy one). I think the most resource Chaosium should apply to any new BGB would be fixing errata and sort out any obviously broken mechanic ( shields has been mentioned, I don't know if there are any more ). Possibly add in new mechanics like bonus/penalty dice, success levels and opposed rolls ( as an alternative to the resistance table ), luck spending and passions.

For Chaosium to spend any more money and time on anything else like fancy new art and layout or significantly rewriting the text to make it more friendly probably wouldn't be worth the resource given the sales it would generate.

As much as any RPG book should be comprehensible ( especially to RPG noobs ) the problem with the BGB is that it is by it's very nature ( of trying to be all systems to all genres ) NOT a book for noobs. 

I think Chaosium have the right idea that each rulebook should have a genre built in and the system be tailored specifically to the genre. Most purchasers want to pick up and go when they buy a book; but if you buy the BGB you have to read it and then work out how you are going to apply those rules to the genre you are creating/want to play in. It just isn't a noob-friendly approach.

The BGB can definitely be marketed to gronards and rules lawyers but that is a niche market. Chaosium are probably best spending their resources on new genres to appeal to players than overhauling a book with a small market appeal.

The "nailed" ghouls could be the shamans of the pack - carrying ritual tattoos, marks, skin decoration etc. Some of what we are calling "nails" in the picture look a bit like small bones rather than nails too.

I think they are all good - variations on a theme. I don't mind the nails - they could have come from an encounter with some superstitious humans in the past that thought that might cure "ghoulism" when a changeling was transitioning.

It IS amazing - remember to turn on the English subtitles peeps (bottom right clicky).

They should KickStart a full-length film of the advert.

I prefer the layout of the Rulebook and Investigator Handbook with all the little tags and whatnot as callout boxes - they give the books character.