Subversive

I have four players for HOTOE, and at the current rate, with all optional scenarios added in, I figure this is going to last me 2-3 years. We meet almost every other week for 6-8 hours, but our pace seems to be slower than what is common, and it's a pace everyone is comfortable with. I mean, yeesh, it looks like the Blood Red Fez is going to take four (!) sessions, and again we are talking 6-8 hours each. And Paris is next. Anyhow, one of my four players is going to be unexpectedly absent for about three months, which is going to put a damper on the game. I mean, I could possibly carry one of the players for a missed session, playing their character for them, but for 8-9 long sessions in a row? Not so much. Plus I have invested in some high-end props, and I don't want to deny any of my players the full experience. So its a tough call but I am leaning towards suspending the HOTOE campaign and inserting an unrelated mini-campaign, or failing that some one-shots. I'd prefer 7th Ed but could possibly convert, and pre-gens might be a bonus. And I like well fleshed-out scenarios with a lot of props and supplemental material. But most importantly, it would need to work well with just three investigators, when most seem to be designed for 4-6. Does anyone have any specific scenario suggestions for three investigators?

Thanks. I guess that is the downside of buying the physical copy.

My players are about to undergo the optional adventure The Blood Red Fez, and I noticed that the pre-gens didn't have their skills updated to 7th gen rules. No biggie there. Most of what I have left to do is look up the spells the bad guy and the neutral guy have. But then--oops--multiple of these spells were removed from the 7th edition rules, and I can't find an explanation for exactly what they do online anywhere. Very frustrating! It's really too late to save me for this session today, so there is no point in listing out the spell names now and I will just have to wing it blindly. But I am wondering whether there is any errata available for HOTOE anywhere? Maybe I could use it to be better prepared for future sessions.

Thanks. Hmmm... I noted that the book implied that handkerchief on the back was important, perhaps moreso than the train cars. And from the inside a human heart seemed to do as well as the train car. Perhaps the symbols on the train car were only needed to establish the connection to the original gate. After some consideration, I am leaning towards the doom gate still existing, even without the real train being present, the remaining pocket universe being relatively gray and empty and also where time passes more slowly, and that a relatively fresh human heart, moved in a non-flat, figure-eight pattern relative to that handkerchief, would allow entry and exit from there. The handkerchief is far more portable than the "heavy" train set (or the offal set) but a heart might be hard to come by. Or I don't know, then again, maybe the train car makes more sense than the heart and perhaps the heart on the inside only worked because it had been specially prepared prior to the investigators arriving. I think I just have to make sure that the random number of cycles makes it very difficult to be used as a trap, so that it is more of a temporary escape route of sorts, and also possibly conspire to make players lose access to it, should they manage to use it again.

Say what? How? With what? To what effect? I'm not seeing any details on this or specific suggestions elsewhere, other than suggestion of an additional "one-time use." I see the spell details at the end of The Doom Train scenario, but characters wouldn't learn it from observing the casual use of it. Is it meant that they take the train set (or even the offal set) with them? Or some other component? Has anyone done this? Or do you have any suggestions?

I really wish the Keeper Rulesbook had a solid example of the lifecycle of insanity, because understanding exactly how insanity is suppose to work was something I have really struggled with, though I think I finally have it down. I think. Anyhow, I have a specific question about it. When some spells are cast, there is a loss of sanity points. Do those points lost carry with them the possibility of triggering a bout of insanity? I can see an argument either way, since unlike being startled by an impossible and horrific experience, perhaps there is some amount of rationalization involved in casting a spell. Thoughts?

I read the character survival guide snippet from Horror On The Orient Express to my players, and because it listed foreign languages as particularly useful, all of them ended up creating polyglots. What's more, because English isn't listed as one of the languages it would be valuable to have, one of them created a Turkish character with just 11 percent in English. Yeah, I know, he says, "pigeon English." Well, first off, I suspect 11 might not even be enough points for "pigeon," but the other thing is that he is putting 75% into Charm. Well, OK, language fluency isn't always needed for charming someone (for persuade or fast talk probably, but charm and intimidate not so much), but I'm not sure it will work in every circumstance though. Or am I just being silly? Of course, while I haven't made it through all the books yet, so far it seems to me that in every situation where one might need a foreign language skill, there are always translators available. So unless there is a dramatic change later on in the campaign, I guess I have accidentally over-stressed the desirability for the different characters to have down all the different languages listed collectively. I'm a new game master, and while enjoying it overall, so far my least favorite part is conflict with the players during character creation. But I guess I will need to: 1) let the players know that while foreign language skills may be helpful, they also aren't crucial; and 2) tell my player that if he wasn't to use charm with pigeon English, that I think there might be circumstances where it might not work and I am going to need him to act it out every time. But I am very open to other thoughts on the subjects.

Thanks. That is what I would expect. But needed clarification, since some rules seem to suggest sanity recovery rather than increase.

Starting sanity is POW. Maximum sanity is 99 minus Cthulhu Mythos. Is it possible to increase SAN to higher than starting sanity so long as it doesn't exceed maximum sanity? Or is starting sanity also a maximum, such that increases of sanity are merely the recovery of sanity lost since starting sanity? And if an experience package that includes a sanity deduction is used, does that alter maximum, starting, and/or current sanity?

I am a new gamemaster and after running The Haunting with two players, Amidst The Ancient Trees with three players, and Blackwater Creek with three-and-a-half players, I am now making final preparations for Horror On The Orient Express with four players (we are doing full character creation for this one and my players are more than half way through creating their first set--I'll have them create additional characters before they are needed as well). What I have been doing to prepare for this campaign is, in addition to reading through the scenarios in advance, is (afterwards or during) listen to some others run though it. They'll typically be some minor differences to be spotted and everyone handles the unique way in which players break scenarios differently. Here's the one I will probably continue to follow along with when I get to Paris. http://podbay.fm/show/420200438/e/1434382004