Jump to content

klecser

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,079

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    6

 Content Type 

Posts posted by klecser

    Cults of Cthulhu in print?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    Chaosium does not do release dates. The answer is "whenever the boat gets here and the books get to distributors/stores."

    The global shipping crisis is very real. Under normal circumstances we would have had the book in hand by now. Nothing we can do but wait. 😕 

    Call of Cthulhu Sustained Less-Lethal Campaign Discussion

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted · Edited by klecser

    9 hours ago, werecorpse said:

    For mine the issues for long term campaigns are I think more mechanical? They are 

    1. Character survivability - both combat and sanity

    We run a very psyche-focused game where complete avoidance of combat is the usual goal. I enjoy the "you were too early" or "you were too late" model of furthering mystery while still solving this issue. I write about it in this blog post:

    We have retired one character because of SAN burden. My group has a system whereby if they anticipate seeing something terrible, somebody takes one for the team and investigates. Of course, that probably only works about half of the time. They often can't anticipate what will happen and all take the SAN loss. 😉 

     

    9 hours ago, werecorpse said:

    2. Reasonable advancement - what skills might be problematic at higher %, what non standard abilities may create issues and how to handle them (spells, gear, tech, allies, societies etc)

    I have found this one to be less of an issue than I expected, I think because of three reasons: 1) My players aren't just using downtime for skills. Anything significant can cost time, and that includes learning spells, researching and building weird tech, financial management for wealthy investigators (if they want to spend big money on big things they have to commit the time to adjudicate that), and skills. 2) I have a world spanning campaign in which my players are frequently thrust into situations they don't have the skills for, so they prioritize improvements in the skills they need at that time. 3) Maybe I should have lead with this one: I cap skills in my game. An investigator can have one skill that is their "primary" skill at up to 90. All other skills are capped at 75 unless it makes story sense to go higher. My players are decidedly anti-min/max. I'm fortunate in that my players are very philosophically aligned with me on role-playing.

    9 hours ago, werecorpse said:

    I use Delta Green bonds & home scenes to help San preservation and for in between scenario world building. I allow first aid and medicine to each restore +1 extra hp on a hard/+2 extreme/+3 critical success to keep characters active after combat scenes. I have found very high dodge skill to be slightly problematic in play. I think the armour rules could be looked at to make them more nuanced and more accessible to improve combat survivability but I haven’t tried it out. 
    When giving out San bonuses at the end of a scenario they seem very generous. I have allowed up to half to be allocated to the Luck skill and as much as wanted to be used to restore bonds.

    Love it. I do the same thing with rewards. They have choice. They can do Luck or SAN. They also get to choose low mid or risk the roll. So, if the reward is 1D6, they can roll the die and risk getting the one. Or, they can take an auto 3. Most of mine like to roll. They are a little bummed when they get a 1 or 2, but elated when they get a 4, 5, or 6. I'm not an original or current designer, but I suspect that the SAN rewards in scenarios are written with a "this won't last very long anyway" bias to them. They need to be adjusted for extended campaign play.

    9 hours ago, werecorpse said:

    I had a year pass at one point in game and the character evolution felt insufficient. 

    Consider asking your players what they consider to be "fair" and collaborate together on a system? I think that bringing in the "anything you want to prioritize takes you time" perspective has really helped us. I have skill-focused investigators, weird tech-focused investigators, and spell-focused investigators.

    Periodically, whenever I haven't felt good about progression, I'll grant my characters special unique boons. I've only done it twice in 54 sessions. One boon was from Bast, Mother of Cats, and the other was knowledge from a Serpent Sorcerer. This is more meaningful because it has a direct story connection.

    I'm a huge believer in "go large or go home." Why are we hamstringing our stories? Why shouldn't investigators work to save the Dream Echo of Randolph Carter and gain the Silver Key as a result? (I have very strict limitations on it's use and it took them 30 sessions to gain all the knowledge to access and use it) That said, I understand the argument that participating in that story can't feel EASY or it cheapens it. I think it is possible that investigators can face such terrible odds that at some point skills in this game are irrelevant compared to decision-making.

    Thanks for posting!

    Mansion of Madness "Rewards" and Scaling (spoilers)

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, werecorpse said:

    What is the “answer” ?

    (no snark involved just interested in an opinion)

    After writing a couple of scenarios for publication, and reading hundreds of others, it's now pretty clear to me that it can be difficult to come up with "logical rewards" for interacting with existential cosmic dread. Also, sometimes what you write makes perfect sense in your own head and is completely unintelligible to an audience. I think the example in the original post slipped through editing and I took it as deliberate canon. Writers make mistakes.

    As a Keeper, I've become quite fond of offering my players choice of reward for whatever I think makes sense. I'm less caught up on what the "right" rewards are. I also offer my players a choice of SAN or Luck or sometimes skill increases, and they can pick where they want to chance a roll or take the low mid. For example, if the reward is 1D6, they can take Luck or SAN. Then, they can roll the 1D6, or take an auto 3. My players are fond of the risk/reward sometimes and the "guarantee" other times.

    Since everyone's characters are very different, and since their role within a group can vary as well, a lot of my players "specialize" in being first in the room and take more SAN hits, or are skill-focused, etc...

    Call of Cthulhu Sustained Less-Lethal Campaign Discussion

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted · Edited by klecser

    The goal of this thread is to provide a forum for Keepers who would like to discuss particular challenges and tips for running sustained, less-lethal Call of Cthulhu campaigns. One-shots and convention play are outside of the scope of this discussion. If you like those styles of play, I support you! This thread is not an invitation for individuals to pitch or defend their preferred style of non-campaign gaming. The goal should be to discuss and aid Keepers who have particular issues that they would like to discuss related to sustained groups of investigators. This could be for solving problems or just because it is fun to discuss things.

    A "campaign" is a series of connected scenarios that have frequently occurring or reoccurring characters or elements. I acknowledge that you could run a very deadly campaign in which there are new investigators every time. The players would always have memories of past events, but their characters would not. This can be very fun. That is not this discussion. Another goal of this thread is to discuss Keeper techniques with sustained character development and experiences. Some Keepers and groups will prefer the style of more lethal Call of Cthulhu gaming. Awesome. You do you. Once again, this is not that thread. If you find sustained less-lethal CoC to be "not in the spirit of the game" and/or personally offensive to you, fine. You don't need to tell us. We've heard your argument. Move along.

    To get us started, here are the Chapter headings of a forthcoming Miskatonic Repository product that will discuss these issues. Let me know if there is a an aspect you'd like to discuss, or pitch your own start to the discussion!

    Player Agency

    Mechanics That Respect Neurodivergence

    Companion NPCs

    Planning Connections and Arcs

    Weird Tech As Sustained Projects for Investigators

    • Like 1

    Has anyone house-ruled improving attributes?

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    On 3/17/2022 at 12:41 AM, Darius West said:

    Firstly, I applaud the long campaign approach.  I do that too, and it works surprisingly well for Call of C'thulhu, and makes the game far more interesting than the sudden -death-mass-character-turnover-regular-TPK approach imo.  I also intersperse my game with plenty of non-C'thulhu-non-cult activities to insure that the players and characters feel that they are in and part of a world with depth far beyond their cult chasing, and a world that is worth saving too.

    Same. We had our 54th session last weekend. We've retired one character the entire campaign. I don't begrudge anyone their TPK-approach. Yet, the tradeoff for that is that you have zero character development, and character development is the single most important aspect of story-telling for many of us. You can have a sense of dread without mortal threat. The focus becomes existential psychic threat.

    Quasi-off-topic: I am in the process of releasing a MR product about weird tech guidance/philosophy in CoC campaigns. The game needs more campaign advice that goes beyond "have plenty of extra characters."

    On topic: I salute the topic creator for paving their own way and embracing Your Cthulhu Will Vary. I have MANY alterations I've made to my game to suit campaign play and my particular group of players. If there is interest in a dedicated thread for discussing modifications to rules made for campaigning, I'd be happy to start one!

     

    • Like 2

    My critique to push roll with simulated numbers.

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted · Edited by klecser

    90% sure this person is deliberately trolling.

    Claims to have never played the game and posts a statistical analysis of a mechanic out of the blue. Then argues on the utility of a mechanic that they have never experienced in game play? That's like saying: "I've never eaten at this restaurant, but based about what I know about chicken parm, you should always order the chicken parm here." Just...riddled with logical fallacies.

    Role-playing IS subjective. The goal is to produce FUN.

    I question the intentions of this poster.

    • Like 1
    • Sad 1

    New to Cthulhu, Campaign idea.

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted

    You should do whatever you would find interesting!

    Chaosium and the bulk of the fandom have always espoused a YGWV (Your Game Will Vary) approach to gaming.

    It wasn't until the last five years or so that I really pulled the plug on what was "expected" of games and started gaming in any way that my players and I wanted.

    Call of Cthulhu can be merged with ANY property that makes sense to you!

    Welcome to the Cult! 😄 

    • Like 1

    Children of Fear Chapter 2 fun anecdote (spoilers)

    in Call of Cthulhu

    Posted · Edited by klecser

    Reporting on a fun game last night (Children of Fear spoilers) @Lynne H
     
    Last night my players took the Silk Road from Sian to Tun-Huang and The Cave of a Thousand Buddhas. The initial interaction with Langdon Warner went well. His character description lists him as "brash," so I essentially played him as a J. Jonah Jameson derivative. They enjoyed it. It did really help in selling the mystery of the letter being vague and an "emergency," because they chalked it up to him being super conceited. They had come all the way from the States, so it seemed odd to them that Warner would invite them.
     
    I was getting ready to bring Wang Yuanlu into the mix when one of my players, who had observed Warner being wary of Wang finding out his aims, decided to take action. My players and their characters are not a fan of European pillaging of cultural treasures, so one of the players went to the nearby village where Wang lives and contacted him. He explained to Wang that he was suspicious of Warner attempting to break down a wall within a barrier and was not following the local laws. The players had already found the recess between the Buddha and Caravan at this point with Warner, and Warner had asked them to return in the evening. Wang said that he would come up in the evening to surprise Warner.
     
    At this point I had a moment of silence in which I was carefully reading the text of the Chapter to see if it said anything about the investigators turning Warner in to Wang. This is something I rarely do as a Keeper and my players noticed and said:
     
    "Crap, we broke the encounter." 🤣
     
    I laughed and said no, but decided that the only response to this would be the Tokabhaya killing Wang to prevent the investigators from not discovering Tenzin Kalsang.
    The player noticed Wang not coming as promised and immediately got concerned. They found him in his home, hand clutching his chest, with a terrible shocked look on his face, dead.
     
    And now they suspect that Warner did it, and knocked him out just as he opened up the first secret room. LOL. We ended the session with Tenzin Kalsang awakening.
    So, great night.
     
    They also took a really long time to enter the two hidden rooms because they were worrying about salt acid traps (one character is Egyptian, so totally in-character to worry about it). They actually looked at Kalsang's room from ABOVE before looking through the crack!
     
    Your players will never do what you expect and you gotta roll with it! 😃
    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...