klecser

This. The purpose of these adventures is not to "solve" these problems. The purpose is to experience real-life horrors right alongside Mythos ones to help people to understand the gravity of what exists. If anything, I think they are more in line with the game in that it effectively doubles the insurmountable terror. Talk to these authors and it'll be clear that this isn't intended to be Savior-complex stuff. Far from it.

Backed at a high level.

A truly incredible level of detail in this supplement. Check it out folks.

Yep. We need to have some level of suspension of disbelief in a game about telling stories.

Son-of-the-Furies is highlighting another good point here regarding the skill point concern brought up by Numtini. The ultimate goal, from a crunch standpoint, is that we want to maximize player options, while minimizing the chance that artificial spread of skill points doesn't result in a "good at nothing" investigator. This is exactly why it is important to have the discussion with players before character creation transpires of 1) what skills might be "highlight" skills for a campaign and 2) a generalized discussion of what kind of skills are most useful to players in CoC in general (the Holy Trinity Social/Library Use/Spot Hidden. There isn't a foolproof answer to this because it can be a challenge to predict when a skill roll might be needed. Right now, all of my players are lamenting the fact that nobody has Navigate, because it happened to come up in our recent game. Not having it didn't derail the story though. At the same time, when they re-speced about six months ago, many of them reduced several of their major skill totals by ten points and put points in Listen. And they aren't regretting that at all. To help to mitigate this issue of "point waste" versus skill use challenge , I do four things with my groups: 1) give my players options to use related skills at higher difficulties. This is built into the system with KNOW, which is essentially a less detailed backup to a Science specialization. Don't have Science (Geo)? Then its a Hard or Extreme Know. 2) communicate as much as possible with players about ways in which they feel their skills have utility as opposed to just being "dead weight" What can I do as Keeper to help them feel like their character creation choices mattered? 3) after several games, allow a limited one-time "re-spec" of shifting about a hundred points around and 4) remind them of the ability to "hire out" skills of NPCs, where possible. I think it is important for Keepers to be self aware of what messages they send to players about their character creation. I do not subscribe to the "too bad, so sad" mentality that aggressively chides players for having the audacity to commit to certain choices. Choice should be celebrated and useful. That doesn't mean every game. The ultimate goal is to find ways to say "yes" to move a narrative along. That isn't to say players should always succeed. They should always have an opportunity for their creativity to drive the narrative.

This is an important point. The only "right" answer is what is best for a specific group. My buddy is Army retired and an ex-Tanker and I get it.

These. I completely believe everyone above that riding a motorcycle is very different from riding a horse or driving a car. That isn't really the point. Some amount of suspension of disbelief is needed for making skill checks in role-playing games. In my games, Drive Auto counts for driving any machine. Ride is for animals. I make that clear to players at character creation so that we don't enter passive-aggressive surprise skill situations that really disenfranchise people from games. Gary Gygax LOVED those situations, and maybe his players did too, but he was absolutely wrong. You can do whatever you want in your game, but having a separate motorcycle skill only makes sense, in my mind in two situations: 1) the character has it as part of their back story. They are a daredevil or racer and they will be using that skill to do tricks or 2) if motorcycle riding is a pre-established theme of an adventure or campaign when it isn't part of a character back story. If, as a campaign player, I had separate skills for driving a car and riding a motorcycle and players weren't prepared, I would effectively be introducing needless artificial challenge into the game, and if a player didn't have the motorcycle skill, it would go like this: "I make chase." "Motorcycle skill." "Don't have that, didn't know it was a thing" "You crash it. Your character dies. What a fun story! Yay!" That's an extreme example, but I've experienced Keepers/GMs who don't communicate with their players and who are also so hung up on getting the game "realistic" that they hamstring their own efforts. They simply haven't learned yet why that is a problem. Now, I'm a mechanics-light, story-first person. I understand that some people aren't that way. But honestly, if you want to be a better Keeper of any role-playing game, you need to seriously consider not nickel-and diming every test situation your players encounter.

That depends entirely on what you deem important. The major changes are the update to 7th, the option to run as Classic or Pulp, re-balancing of many encounters/situations and the addition of a prologue. The newest version has greatly fleshed out GM tips and an extensive beginning chapter on campaign organization and travel. In addition, there is a ton of high quality art, a GM screen, and full color handouts for each Chapter. That said, the narrative core of the campaign hasn't really changed. The new version is, by far, the defintive version, and improves on the campaign in many ways. So, your call as to whether that is enough to justify the upgrade.

Great suggestion!

Did this already happen and it has sold out again?

Takes guts for one small boat to take one cargo container across an ocean.

I'm interested in Runequest, I am likely never to find a group in my area, so I'd like the knowledge that I could use it in games that I CAN play.

Thanks for your insight!

Has anyone ever thought about using the Runequest Bestiary as inspiration for threats while Call of Cthulhu Investigators are in the Dreamlands? If so, how did it go?

This is a good question, because when I read the sample box it makes it sound like the ally did not Push on the prior round and is making a "totally new attempt" on the next round. Language could be tightened up there, I think. My personal understanding, which could be incorrect, is that First Aid is only effective "once" when someone is injured or dying, once it succeeds, because once they are stabilized, they are stabilized. The example talks about how two or more players can combine a roll if they are all there. But can First Aid be attempted consecutively too? One character attempts First Aid, then another character attempts First Aid in a later round/time. I guess it would have the same cumulative effect of rolling simultaneously...

Great report Steve. Also note that you did a great job with resisting the "No" when they wanted to dig and gave them a "Yes, but...[insert fair warning]" instead. Player choice drives great deaths.

It's a fun scenario. Definitely check it out.

Lulu.com is where you can get copies of a lot of the Free RPG Day products. For example, you can still get the Free RPG Day scenario The Derelict on Lulu.com (down to 4 USD + ship), but note that it was re-published in Petersen's Abominations. You can also get the most recent FRPG release "Scritch Scratch" on Lulu.com. I'm not sure why Chaosium does Lulu for just these products. Perhaps licensing fees or diversifying platforms.

DriveThruRPG is still down for server maintenance but I'd be surprised if a POD copy of Deadlight wasn't possible. Update: Deadlight is still available on Lulu.com as POD, but not at DTRPG.

Is the Arkham Horror card game of any practical use for Call of Cthulhu Keepers? Is the defunct Call of Cthulhu LCG of any use? Art? Card Text?

Its worth noting that part of the purpose of Armor in this game is to give a statistic that really makes Mythos entities very difficult to defeat in combat. I would call it a gateway statistic to the intended balance of the game.

Another great product. I appreciate how much love this specific Mythos threat is getting from Chaosium. I will be porting the bulk of this into my 1920s campaign. Or, there will be time travel. Probably time travel.

My wife has depression. Given her struggles, she never would have promised someone something that she wasn't sure she could deliver on. This is not about being successful or not. It is about making promises you can't keep.

Some of that news was new to me, thank you! Packed schedule forthcoming.

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I have backed many projects and seen the delays that you are talking about. Most projects get delayed by just a few months. This is understandable and there are frequently detailed descriptions for the delays. This is different, and it absolutely amazes me the extent to which people will make concessions for Creators that show nothing but contempt for fans. Years is unacceptable. Communication matters. Action matters. I don't care how prolific, stand-up, or iconic someone is in ANY profession. Reputations take years to build and moments to ruin. And the only reason that people engage in behavior like this is because people enable them. This goes for Sentinel Hill Press and the disaster that is The Dare Kickstarter as well. You don't make promises you can't keep in a reasonable time frame. End of story.