klecser

I have never met Greg personally and I only got into Chaosium products in 2016.  But as a lifelong gamer, we should all owe a debt of gratitude to  Greg for pushing the boundaries of this hobby and bringing a wide variety of interests into it.

I'm an American and I understood that colloquialism! 

Wow, that is super nice production values for the physical box.  Useful for carrying a single adventure around too.

Backed.

Honestly, I'm really hoping this pans out.  The Doors to Darkness web series had nothing to do with the Chaosium supplement and really felt like a bait-and-switch to me.

You might be able to turn off backgrounds in the PDF without losing text?

Get to know Seth's Channel: 

Thank you for responding!

The idea that you don't even have to leave Earth for Investigators to experience mind-shattering challenges to their concept of history is very appealing to me.  I also love Robert E. Howard's work.  Ergo, I've latched on to Serpent people as an existential magical/scientific threat and have been seeking out adventures that feature them.

I already have the Hand of Abyzhou (Shadows Over Scotland) and The Darkness Beneath the Hill (Doors to Darkness) prepped and in the pipe for my group as a broad campaign arc, with the goal of either: 1) Connecting the two Serpent Person groups in Rhode Island and Edinburgh or 2) making them opposing factions worshiping different Great Old Ones (Yig and Tsathoggua) as described in The Two Headed-Serpent.

Along those lines, I may pull scenarios/ideas directly from The Two-Headed Serpent, but watered down as Classic-style investigative Cthulhu.

Finally, I also have Goodman Games' Transatlantic Terror to hit them with as they traverse the Atlantic.

London Chapter of Masks?  The Chelsea Serpent

Which other CoC scenarios/campaigns feature Serpent People that may have mineable material?  Thanks in advance for your help!

Page 158 very top left line - "chronometer" is missing an "e"

This is a good example of how there are really two cultures that represent the bulk of writers for Call of Cthulhu: British and American. And while they have a lot in common there are also a lot of differences.  I don't know who precisely wrote that passage in the old or new version.  But it is something that someone with the Law (US) skill specialization might interpret differently!  Scritch Scratch is another example: there were assumptions that need to be made about pub lingo and ownership in Scritch Scratch that are obvious to UK players but were a bit confusing to American players because we don't know pub culture as well.

No matter what, its fun to learn these nuances and I'm glad CoC has an international writing bullpen!

The real answer to that question is that people are on death row for years/decades in the US. It would not be out of line for you to tell them: "You don't know" because it is very likely there wouldn't be a date set for a long time after he was convicted.  Cops incorrectly jailing him doesn't prevent his lawyer from filing continuances and motions.

It's less about a precise date and more about what has the narrative potential to free him: 

Page 160:

Quote

"Depending on what evidence the investigators manage to get their hands on, they may be able to convince either Robson or Poole to conduct a raid on Ju-Ju House on a ritual night, if the timing is right. Depending on what they have on Robson, he may tip off M’Dari before the fact. If he
does, M’Dari clears out everything essential, then sets fire to the shop to destroy any remaining evidence, including the chakota (after all, he can create another one if needs must). The resulting conflagration is potentially disastrous for the residents of the surrounding tenements, if not caught quickly. At this point, any chance of exonerating Hilton Adams is lost; however if Lt. Poole is brought in, an assault may be mounted which potentially nets the cult and its ringleader (dead or alive), as well as providing enough evidence to free Hilton Adams and take down Captain Robson."

As a player, I'd be pretty demoralized to bring down the Ju-Ju cult or even the corrupt cop and then have him executed anyway because of a date.  Just my opinion.  "You went to great links to get this awesome evidence.  But it was too late."  Ouch.

Keeper note on page 154?  "Keeper note: depending on when the investigators get round to tackling Ju-Ju House, the dark of the moon falls on January 24 and 25, 1925, meaning they may or may not get to interrupt a rite in progress."

The "Rites of the Bloody Tongue at Ju-Ju House" section on page 159 specifies that two sacrifices are needed for each monthly ritual. 

So, this assumes that you follow the precise timeline at the start of Masks.  But, if you don't, you could do whatever you want.  There is no rule that says that the ritual night couldn't be "whenever the Investigator's decide to go there."

2 hours ago, Mike M said:

I can confirm that multiple professional proof readers were paid to error spot.

Thanks for confirming this Mike.

I just want to go on the record here and say that I hope the heck Dave is getting paid to do this work.  The quantity of errors here is extensive, and although I'm not an editor, I know a few, and this looks like Chaosium is avoiding having to pay an editor by just having "the public" do it for free.  If I'm in the wrong, I'll accept that.  But appearances matter.  And the appearance here isn't good, IMO.  Maybe this is par-for-the-course for the gaming industry and is the only thing that allows Chaosium to get in under budget.  But even if that is the case, it bothers me.

8 hours ago, ORtrail said:

Let me add my thanks for all the research that went into this this thread.  I can see where automobile accidents while driving along narrow roads with inferior headlights would be more common.  Driving down a freeway at night, during a rainstorm, can be nerve wracking in 2018, I can only imagine how much worse it would be (even if at lower speeds) in 1928. 

We do have specific data on this.  I don't remember the raw number of people killed.  But I do know that the deaths per 100,000 miles travelled in the 1920s was around 24, and in the modern era it is less than 1 (calculated from government record values).  The raw deaths are obviously much, much higher this decade simply because the population has tripled.  In addition, safety features have made a huge difference in lowering the derived value (crumple zones, seat belts, air bags, none of which existed in the 20s).

On 7/14/2018 at 10:43 AM, seneschal said:

Any idea how long that Boston to Pittsburgh train ride would have taken?

Great question.  I'm struggling to find specific timetables of the period.  For better or for worse, I told them 10 hours, including stops.  That isn't quite realistic maybe in that would be an average of 55 miles per hour, but maybe there was a direct express.  But hey, it was off the cuff.  A modern train takes 13 hours for that train journey, but train travel times are regressive nowadays compared to the 1920s.  Far more mechanical breakdowns and delays in modern times.

When I ran Mansion of Madness and my players needed to go from Boston to near Pittsburgh, I explained to them how ridiculous of a journey that was in a car.  500 miles would likely take them three days at best.  It would be super uncomfortable and they would have to bring many spare parts. They elected to take a train over that distance.

One of my current campaign sub-arcs will be for the Serpent Sorceror in Darkness be connected to the Serpent People on Transatlantic Terror and also connected to the Serpent people in Hand of Abyzhou from Shadows over Scotland.

Mansion of Madness has taken us quite a few sessions to complete (three so far and should wrap up in this fourth  session).

I just though I would share how my players decided to tackle Crater.  Their aim was to hit both the Mansion and Crater when he was at the Sailor's Club.  They recruited Devlin to go to the Sailor's Club, suggesting that Crater was involved with the Sylvan Night.  Devlin was itching to end the cult.  They will be going to the Mansion with some mob thugs that one of my players has access to.  We'll play out the actual Mansion during our next session.  I thought it would be fun to determine a bit of chance for the police encounter with Crater to see how many of them got killed (on the investigators) and to see if Crater may return to the Mansion to ambush the Investigators.

Here is how it shook out:

I made a Luck role to see if Crater's informant listened in on the plan at the police station. Success!  They didn't.  So, I determined that Crater would not have any pre-planning done to protect himself.  He does have the Dark Stone on him.  The cops bust into his office and immediately three of them fall to Drown Mind.  One cop hits Crater with a shot gun blast, and then Devlin rolls Extreme on his shotgun blast, blowing his head off!

Granted, I could have just decided what happens, but that element of chance made for an interesting outcome and story for the Investigators when they meet up with Devlin again and (hopefully) convince him to surrender the Dark Stone.

Congrats!  I think it fitting that the BBEG escaped.  That scenario is a good setup for a recurring villain in a campaign.  I think the Serpent people are an interesting CoC antagonist because sometimes things are even scarier when closer to home.  CoC has a lot of crazy cosmic stuff, but what about the history of Earth itself?  What if humans thinking they are in control is a joke strictly from historical fact that another civilization ruled Earth a few million years before humans?  The Hyperborea connection is another example.

I think it's worth noting that the audio on this is much better than on the Runequest videos.

In a mansion setting, I've found that finding and assembling clues within rooms of the mansion to be an interesting way to go about it.  In the past I have done a "chess room" with oversized pieces but moving the pieces to a checkmate position opens a door or a hidden panel.  You could also easily do it with a standard (but ornate) chess board built into a table. I had chess move codes on plaques in three rooms that could be assembled in the right order to aide them if they aren't keen on a chess puzzle.  It depends upon how well your players know chess, but an idea roll can take care of that.  The overarching axiom is that you always want players to be able to obtain clues in multiple different ways.  Don't be afraid to move a clue that they miss in one room to another room.  Nothing grinds an investigation to a halt faster than linch-pinning an adventure on one roll in one place.  Remember that you are telling a story and you have to be creative sometimes to get the investigation to progress.

But that is just one example.  The trope is: "Assemble and interpret clues."  In that same mansion, I had them find Dewey Decimal codes to Occult (or standard) books and by walking out the path in the library it traced out two of six number for a padlock, for example.  In the greenhouse they had to defeat or get past a mutated vulture to obtain another two numbers, etc. (A whistle found in a lounge could pacify the vulture.)   You can buy a lot of Hinayama puzzles on Amazon that both fit the classic setting and can give players something to get their hands on.  Want to give them a key to something?  They can have the key...if they can get it apart. https://www.amazon.com/Hanayama-Metal-Brain-Teaser-Puzzle/dp/B00TSWOEOY/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_21_tr_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6MVENGGDG3SK39BSHR1E  If you have the funds, I recommend that you buy two sets.  One to hand to them and one to solve ahead of time before the session.  If they start getting frustrated you keep the game moving by allowing an INT roll to either get a hint or solve it and hand them the solved version.  But, maybe they don't get as much information from using the key as if they solved it themselves. I usually do three tiers: 1) Max info if they solve it themselves.  2) Mid info if they use game mechanics. 3) Little info (but some) if they just wave the white flag and can't make any rolls.

Lastly, I can see that you've put a lot of work into this game already and that it wouldn't exactly be prudent for you to switch it up at this stage.  I'd encourage you not to dismiss published adventures just because you and your players are new.  One of the many reasons why CoC is different than many other RPGs is that it is an investigative game and relies heavily on handouts as a key assumption of the table play.  Published adventures have the huge advantage of giving you a collection of handouts to start with.  If you go your own, you have to do all that work, either in development or research.   if you really want a great game.  Players like to get their HANDS on things.  Some may prefer exclusive theatre of the mind, but my experience is most players love getting physical handouts, especially when new.  It frequently it is most what hooks both new and experienced role-players into CoC, in my experience.  

I used to be published-adventure-averse because I felt it would railroad me as a GM and railroad my players.  I've now discovered how wrong I was, but it took an attitude change.  I basically gave myself permission to ALTER published scenarios to make them better/tailored to my players.  I now view a published scenario as a starting framework that greatly lessens the time I have to spend in prep.  For an investigative game, for someone who is a working professional, that is critical.  In addition, I find myself photocopying the adventure into a packet so I don't have to carry a whole book, and I just make extra copies of the handouts to cut out.  If you're really feeling classy and have the funds, if you purchase a PDF, you can print off the handouts on good quality paper via a Local Office Max/Depot/Staples and even have them laminated for posterity.  In short, you can make published adventures your own and save time on building things from the ground up.  Now, don't get me wrong, designing investigations is fun in its own right.  You can do what works best for you.  I just want you to know that there are avenues to success with published adventures.

For your game, I also recommend the Call of Cthulhu Monograph "This Old Haunted House" which would save you the time of coming up with a floor plan for your mansion, if you haven't already done that.  http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82063/This-Old-Haunted-House

Lastly, I think you might find that what you've designed is going to take more than one evening of play, depending upon how long you intend a game session to last.  Make sure you factor that in.

I wish you success!

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