werecorpse

Schrodinger’s monster?

I haven’t got the recent one yet as I am also trying to work out how it compares to my 1990 copy of Arkham Unveiled and if it’s worth it for me. looking at the table of contents of Unveiled as compared to the new one Unveiled has a 6 page orientation section, which is about how to live in Arkham, reputation etc. This seems to be covered by the new 7 page chapter on Arkham Investigators although there is also a 14 Page chapter on Arkham miscellany which seems to partially cover the same area - suggesting this has been expanded upon Unveiled has a brief history of Arkham from pages 13-16, the new one has a history of Arkham coincidentally covered in the same pages. unveiled has a 2 page directory - this might be in the appendices of the new one. unveiled then has a guide from page 19-94 the new one has a guide from page 61-228 so that’s 75 pages vs 167 which is a substantial difference The rest of Unveiled is 4 adventures The rest of the new one is some appendices that doesn’t look like new material. Bare in mind the above summary is just from looking at the table of contents available on drivethru as a preview. Seperate note: I don’t get why you would have seperate skills of Navigate (Arkham) or History(Arkham). It seem to me that if you are an Arkham native you just get a bonus die or two to your relevant base skills if you’re in your hometown.

Is some or all of the book an updated reprint of earlier Arkham Unveiled material and scenarios?

That’s if you’re actually in melee range. Point blank in CoC ime tends to be about 10ft away but I guess can be that close, and in CoC the point blank bonus doesn’t apply to rifles, non sawn off shotguns etc because the length of barrel makes them too cumbersome. I think the bonus die/penalty die facility in the CoC rules is great for those wanting a bit of granularity in combat. Equally it can be ignored without too much drama. If a player said they wanted to close on an armed enemy to get into a wrestle to avoid being shot on their action I would have no problem with cancelling out the point blank bonus and offering a penalty die.

I think it’s not for firearms under the rules. Though it does have some appeal. Imo The way the rules would represent what you’re suggesting is that on the turn of the person without the gun they could elect to perform a grapple manoeuvre to prevent the gun from being able to be used to shoot them. The classic wrestling over a firearm schtick. If they have higher dex than the gun wielder all well and good, however they had lower dex than the gun wielder they may well have already been shot. Then one might allow a grapple manoeuvre to try and shoot the gun at the wrestler which would allow a dodge or fight back? I think in this wrestling over a gun situation drama would demand that if the wrestling went on too long the gun would go off and both parties would stare at each other not knowing who had been shot until one slumped to the floor…

A couple of other options: You could treat the interpersonal skills as partially derived from a stat, the same way dodge is derived from dex ie have the player choose if they are naturally charming, persuasive, intimidating or loquacious so their starting skill of one or two of them (players choice) is equal to app/2 or app/3. You could allow players to distribute some bonus starting points amongst those skills equal to their app (or app above 80)

I found a website that tracks buying power of $100 from 1887. It says that the slight deflation from 1887 went on for about 10 years before slight inflation returned such that the buying value of $100 in 1887 was about the same as it was in 1908. By 1919 the buying value of $100 was about halved (so $50) for the 1920’s until the end of that decade when due to deflation again it went up to maybe $75 in the early 30’s taking until mid 40’s to go back again to about half. All this means I’ll use the core rulebook credit rating table and just divide by 2 to show 1890’s and then 5 to show pounds. Meaning a quite convenient divide the given numbers by 10 to reflect value in pounds.

Can someone help me out with an idea of what a cash and assets table for credit rating would look like in the gaslight era? I’ve got Cthulhu Throughout the Ages but the table in there seems very out of whack with a CR 10 1890’s character having a yearly income of £100 (equivalent to $500) which is more than the annual income of a character with a CR of 89 in the 1920’s ($445). Is there anything else out there?

I would even be happy with a set of flat plastic miniatures like from Arcknight games or even cardboard pawns like paizo produce.

Thanks for the reply, it’s great to get an understanding of where the rules authors are coming from. Still seems op to me for such a small weapon, though I get if it cracked you on the head it’s a potent weapon but then so is half a brick & so is a switchblade stabbing you in the throat- I get your point about abstract nature of weapon damage. I’m gonna reduce it to 1d4+2 in my games slightly, better than a wooden club but not the heft of a cricket or baseball bat or a full metal bar like a poker.

On page 401 of the core rules there are 3 melee club like weapons, I get that the the large baseball bat or cricket bat does 1d8+db and the medium sized nightstick does 1d6+db but is it an error that the relatively small blackjack does 1d8+db ? The same as a baseball bat?

Don’t underestimate the impact of San rewards at the end of the scenario- for overcoming mythos threats or rescuing threatened persons etc. Fwiw I have found that the rewards at the end of the scenario can result in the character ending a scenario with more San than they started if they are generally successful! This is by no means guaranteed but is frequent enough that it’s not an outlier. This is in both CoC and DG and especially the case if the characters are regularly making their San checks (so not losing all that much in scenario) & in DG’s case pushing off San loss onto bonds. This IME is the main source of San repair and does facilitate campaign play; ime I think the amounts granted can sometimes be too high.

Page 164 - 168 of the 7e Core Rule Book. In essence all San loss is to some extent permanent, it doesn’t recover like hit points do but equally San gain can be permanent as well. The only permanent reduction is that max San is (99-Cthulhu mythos). No other San loss permanently fixes a characters San at a number until a character reaches 0 when it’s all over. The death spiral effect of losing San is that the less a character has the more they are likely to fail a San roll and thus lose a big chunk when they encounter shocking situation. Plus having low San means the indefinite insanity threshold is closer. Having a character with high San they almost always make their San rolls and lose 0 or 1 San multiple times where the low San character is failing and losing 1d4, 1d6 or 1d8 each time.

Got it. Only read the preview but so far it provides a really interesting answer to most of the threads left unanswered in the haunting. Most significantly what was Corbitt doing? Nicely done.

Have any of the listed items since been abandoned or any further update? for example Let Sleeping Gods Lie the source said it would be out in 2021.

Iirc the lamprey monsters are gathering human fat to feed to the creature trapped in the temple. A pc could be tracking/following one that killed an ally, or had troubled a region and meet up. This way they could be any background that could be out in the area. If the main party missed any clues along the way the new PC could maybe have found it?

For mine the issues for long term campaigns are I think more mechanical? They are 1. Character survivability - both combat and sanity 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) 3. Back up characters and Troupe play 4. Downtime and between scenarios I’ve just (last night) finished a Down Darker Trails campaign using the 2 rule book scenarios and the Shadows over Stillwater scenarios. 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. I had a year pass at one point in game and the character evolution felt insufficient.

What is the “answer” ? (no snark involved just interested in an opinion)

Any update on the Terror of the Toad campaign?

How’s it going?

This is very helpful. Do the Renaissance Deluxe rules have all that’s in the Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd edition rules? I can see that Clockwork & Cthulhu and Dark streets have different stuff and would be worth getting but if I get Renaissance Deluxe should I not bother getting Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd edition?

I haven’t played the scenario but my suggestion for overpowered combat Cthulhu monsters is to try and have them have a weakness. In the case of the crater creatures maybe an easy one to access like bright light, or loud noise? Maybe both? Perhaps in bright light they get a penalty die to all actions and their armour is halved? A loud noise like a gun shot might require them to make a con roll or lose their next action? Maybe Zeke is less affected? Have the investigators able to find clues as to these weaknesses which keeps investigation more important than combat skills which imo is more thematically appropriate for CoC. Have the creatures scuttle away from torches and flee when a shot is fired but the investigators know they are out there somewhere.

I always thought importance went Siz by a mile, then con just ahead of strength, then a fair way behind are Dex then App. App is not relevant in the discussion because it’s use is unrelated to combat. I like some of the making App more useful suggestions in other threads but I’m not addressing that here. I have tended to use App a lot in social stuff it’s the one stat that really matters in that aspect of the game so players making it a dump stat are boosting their combat sure but they take a big hit over all. My suggestion is purely looking at the 4 stats that affect combat. it gets rid of the uber stat but maybe it doesn’t make the other three sufficiently close. On another level it also has the advantage in the out of combat sense of being able to visualise your powerful knight without them being a hulking giant. A good question is what is the order of importance in combat of the derived stats? I would say HP then damage though they are pretty close (I go back and forth on these), then major wound, then knockdown, then healing rate, then movement. so make strength relevant in Damage, HP, movement 1,2, 5 &6 con relevant in HP, major wound & healing rate 1, 3,5 Make dex relevant in damage, knockdown and movement , 2, 4 & 6 It does look like Str is too useful though I’ve tended to find movement something that’s hand waved and healing rate of little significance but maybe take it out of healing rate: make it just con?

Thanks

So in the same way that App can be a dump stat Siz can be a god stat. I propose getting rid of it and making HP con + Str damage Str + Dex /6 knockdown maybe con? I think it improves the value of Dex which is a semi dump stat but doesn’t make any stat op? thoughts?