klecser

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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In the adventure "Mansion of Madness" from the Mansions of Madness adventure collection, there is a strange aspect of the consequences and rewards section. We are two parts through and I'm worried about the Crater Mansion encounter. The first paragraph reads: "If the investigators rescue Andrew Keetling, award 2D6 Sanity points: if they also kill Josephine or otherwise prevent her from enacting the Assumption of Night rituals, it costs each investigator 2D4 Sanity points." I simply do not understand this last part. I suppose it makes sense that killing Garsetti when they could help try to redeem her would cost Sanity. But why would STOPPING HER from conducting a ritual COST them Sanity? It seems backwards to me. You stop an arcane Cthuloid ritual, you get rewarded, not penalized. Is the argument that because she wasn't able to complete the ritual The Thing Beyond The Void just transfers to Crater, so that is a "loss"? It just seems like an awfully harsh penalty when most players are going to default to "stop the ritual." I can only assume that this is an error because earlier in the adventure it says (referring to completion of the ritual): "Living through the night of terror costs each investigator 1D6 SAN, charged to them the morning after most of the horror is over. If the player characters are out of town by this time, the bloodbath makes headlines everywhere. They read about it in the papers and lose 1D3 SAN when they realize they are at least partially at fault." The other strange part of this investigation is that Crater and his children have armor of 8/10 and super strong attacks. I can see how this wouldn't be a problem with experienced investigators with access to magic, but my players are neither. This isn't a group that is going to appreciate a Gygaxian TPK and they are very investigation focused. The investigation kind of "expects" the investigators to confront Crater, but that confrontation is basically completely unwinnable (Two 2D6 damage attacks per round for a Crater's Child?) with an inexperienced/un-magicked party. Clearly I should have read the stats more closely before starting them. In what ways can I clue them in to the level of preparation needed? I've prepped a bit for this with the attached newspaper article, which they will receive the morning after the Garsetti House encounter (they decided to stay an extra day to further explore the house after they rescued Keetling). If they aren't taking the hint I can play up that Big Al and Chuckie the Rat were huge dudes and they seemed to be no match for whatever attacked them. I've also thought about maybe Devlin showing up with one of his officers with shotguns. As the text suggests, perhaps Crater's children focus on capturing, rather than attacking and they only attack on Crater's orders? Lastly, I could just nerf the damage of Crater's Children to 1D6 damage. What would you do if you had an inexperienced/unmagicked Party?

Debatable. 😜

I thought that 130 USD was a good value with just two books and a slipcase. WELL DONE CHAOSIUM!

Hold up. Are you saying that the physical Masks slipcase will come with a new Keeper Screen or that you just get a PDF of the standard Keeper screen with the PDF?

There is a history in the game of published material including whatever occupation name the author wants using whatever skills they felt were warranted. This is in the spirit of Call of Cthulhu. Note the text in the "Sample Occupations" section of page 40 of the 7th Keeper's Book: "Use these as a guide when creating occupations not listed here." I realize that there are a lot of role-players out there that are "by-the-bookers." I personally find that everyone's experience is better when you let players be as creative as possible (with permission about specific requests from Keeper).

I'm ahead of MOB posting, but I just want to throw out there that the PDF length is 666 pages and I just think that fact is spectacular. I'm venturing that it was not deliberate, but fantastic just the same.

It is now brutally obvious why this was split into two books. The first book alone is over 370 pages! WHAT!?! If anyone watching hasn't signed up for the email list, I recommend that you do. PDF of Table of Contents plus some art. Well worth it. This will be a collector's item as well as "the" definitive version of this classic campaign.

The transport concept is possible but the paper reads as if they just anthropomorphically selected their favorite alien-lookin' creature and cherry-picked some reasoning. Makes me doubt the efficacy of that journal.

If I am choosing between Doors to Darkness, Nameless Horrors and Petersen's Abominations, which would you recommend? My criteria (in order): 1) Inspirational/mineable material for adapting to other/my own adventures (although I do run published adventures as well). 2) I look for good maps/handouts as a critical aspect, especially if they could be adapted or ported to other adventures out of context. 3) Prefer Lovecraft Country settings in the 1920s, but if Abominations has a lot of mineable stuff I might reconsider. I don't run Pulp, so Two-Headed Serpent is iffy to me, unless you think the concepts in it warrant ownership, even for a Classic group. So, to sum up, even if I don't run an era/sub-system, mineable ideas/handouts is the most important thing to me.

Great find Eric!

I think I see the distinction you're making. In other words: Does the overarching metagame of Call of Cthulhu railroad players into certain skills?

https://www.rpgtablefinder.com/ Looks pretty new but as it generates ground swell it might be more useful.

Most Cthulhu Investigations take place in every day buildings/towns. So, I don't think the way tiles have been used in most games would serve Cthulhu as well. And I'm thinking about a tile being an entire room. CoC would benefit from room part tiles. Even down to furniture. I imagine Cthulhu tiles being short wall segments and furniture tiles, giving the Keeper the freedom to build whatever rooms in buildings they want.

All highly deserving. Was Down Darker Trails eligible in this award cycle? That is a fantastic product too. I just ordered the Grimoire and am excited to receive it. I hesitated at first because I think I was approaching it from a "DND" mindset. Damage/action-focused in other words. A few days ago I was reading the extra spells included at the back of Miskatonic University and realized that there are huge amounts of adventure ideas/hooks that can be mined from spells. So, I said to myself that I definitely needed to pick up the Grimoire after all.

Call of Cthulhu only gives bonuses to specific occupations if it says so in the Occupation description. The game assumes that if you want a "typical" circus performer, you are going to invest in the skills that you deem matches that archetype. Pulp Cthulhu contains a lot of options for more "action-style" gaming that tends to feature class bonuses. As to Dodge, you can spend Personal skill points on Dodge. You can only spend Occupational Skill Points on Dodge if it is listed as an occupation skill or if you choose it as an occupation skill for occupations that list "one additional skill of your choice." If you are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons (where most people enter the hobby), Call of Cthulhu works very differently. Your CoC Investigator is a very ordinary person who has limitations as to what you can access. You really have to pick and choose what you want to invest in in this game. It's more "how can I get out of this?" than "how can I wreck this enemy?" If you want your game to be a little more DND-ish, Pulp Cthulhu might be more your cup of tea. Of course, you can make whatever house rules you want for your game!

Worth noting that backing at even one dollar gets you the discount and counts toward the 4000 backers!

Here's my idea for merging the games: The grad students start as characters in a MU-set CoC game and the Investigators get to know them. Craft a story around the basic premise of the board game. At an apropos point of the RPG session, bust out the card game and have players play it in order to obtain vital clues or artifacts. In some way, make grad student discards in the final round actual character deaths in the RPG, so that players have to decide whom to keep around. Of course, you'd have to set them up so they aren't just disposable Kleenex grad students. You might say that that is against the spirit of MU grad students. 😜

I don't think we should make the assumption that someone would TRY to go toe-to-toe with Mythos nasties. The foes that most Investigators are most likely to succeed against are often quite common in the game: human minions. If you tell someone "POW is useless" and a player dump stats it, they are really going to struggle. You go from not being able to contend with Mythos creatures (never really possible to begin with), to not being able to shrug off a spell cast against you by a minion (was potentially avoidable until you dumped POW). The original question was "What are critical skills for Investigators?" The POW Characteristic has to be in the discussion, IMO. If I had a nickel for every time a published or homebrew product asked an Investigator to make an opposed POW check/Resistance Table versus a human minion... And given that it determines your Sanity score... I mean, am I completely misinterpreting the mechanics of the game? POW's relevance seems pretty big to me. Same goes for DEX. Against any serious threat, a good Dodge skill coupled with getting the hell out of there is usually your best option. It actually surprises me that I don't see more people improving Dodge on Character creation.