Fallingtower

I bought this and it has inspired me to work on a short pamphlet style adventure.

Neat idea.
 

Gonna definitely check it out.

Just started running a DDT game last week. A one on one game with my pal.

Eventually I'd love to work and finish a campaign idea I have...Transcontinental Terror. Basically Horror on the Orient Express but in the West on trains.

Jackie Gleason would make a great Investigator.....TO THE MOON SHOGGOTH!!!!...HAMMANHAMMMANNAA!!!

On 12/23/2019 at 11:55 PM, Fábio Silva said:

In some scenarios I have players roleplay pre-created investigators who will usually die, disappear or go through a mystery. Then, months or years later, they will investigate what happened to the previous characters (at this point they create their own investigators connected in some way with the previous ones).

I've done some time-related scenarios, with players rolplaying multiple members of the same family over 100 years. It was a short campaign, but it was interesting because each new scenario was a prologue to the next and so on.

I did a 'Run Lola Run' based scenario where there were two TPK's before they got it right.

The first time I killed everyone off there was a mini-outrage, because I had so casually killed off their beloved Investigators.

Then without breaking character (Keeper mode) I started the intro music again (I played intro music before starting each session) and started the session again.

Went over pretty cool....it was my April Fool's session.

3rd times the charm. It actually revolved around a charm as well.
 

Very cool concept.

Anything that breaks out of the standard Call of Cthulhu 'gather up the shotguns, here we all go investigating' mode is very appealing to me.

Reminds me of a video game...Gamecube...grrrr..what is it. There was narrative time jumping in that too. 
(Eternal Darkness) Damn I miss my gamecube.

8 hours ago, seneschal said:

Herding those cats West will be even more difficult than fighting the Mythos.

And now we know why Easterners consider folks on the other side of the Appalachians Delaplorables.

😉

The cats could come in handy...there could be Peyote fueled Zoog attack.

That cat from Rats with the bad name went North....the Delapore West cats are named after Greek gods and godesses

.

Ok here's the basic setup for the DDT campaign I am working on. (Inspired by my favorite HPL story "Rats in the Walls".)
 

The large extended Delapore family after the burning of Carfax was ruined, having most of their wealth, their livestock and horses taken by Sherman's troops and their plantation burned. A few of them went North, but the proudest of them stayed in their beloved and ruined homeland, Virginia. 

Being a very close family they banded together, scraped what little of their fortune was left and for a few years (10) tried to put things back in order. But their spirits were broken and it wasn't going well. 

So, the surviving Patriarch (Uncle Theobald) divined that heading West and starting anew would mend their broken hearts and fortunes.  So the clan gathered what they could spare and sent their best and brightest West. John Delapore (Civil War vet 4th Cavalry) and his nephew Ethan have bought a track of land and set up a horse and cattle ranch in the campaign setting of San Rafael. Word has been sent back....Kinfolk, Head West, Come on Home.

All the investigators will either be Delapore's, friends or employees of them. So friends, comrades and other kinfolk can come in and out of the setting with ease.

The Delapore's have a dark unknown past. A past which draws them to the arcane and mythos.

Uncle Theobald is an occult scholar, a dowser and an author.

His wife, Aunt Agnes is a medium and fortune teller.

The San Rafael area is of course (spoiler) a hotbed of occult and spiritual activity. This will be the jumping off point for many Mythos adventures.
Some of the adventures will be encountered directly in the area, others will be a group sent off to do research for Uncle Theobald's master work.

 The title...ARCANA AMERICANA.

Having the Delapore Ranch as a hub will give me the ability to launch many awesome adventures without having to hamfistedly do the 'You all meet in the Old Saloon' trope.

So the beginning adventures will be those left back in Virginia packing up what little they have left and what occurs on the way to their new home.

All they have left is their large library, what little precious family heirlooms that weren't burned or looted, their pride and of course their many beloved house cats.

So what do you think?? 

On 9/3/2019 at 1:35 AM, Tymothi said:

An open letter to chaosium 

As a fan of the greatest rpg call of cthulhu since 2nd edition I need to say I love the 7th edition but I do need to ask (beg) for the following settings and campaigns.

1. Dark ages -  need I say more?

2. Gaslight - cthulhu by gaslight needs to come back

3. Colonial - imagine playing in colonial Arkham 

4. Dreamland - please release this for 7th edition 

Can we also get a 7th edition of the brotherhood of the beast module? 

True true...but first I'd prefer to see new Dunwich, Arkham, Innsmouth and Kingsport area books.
 

Uhm hello...this IS the GOLDEN AGE of Call of Cthulhu.
Chaosium you guys are amazing.

And yes....MIGO is FANTASTIC

I have some weirdness about of the new Field Guide critters...lots of weird little hands on a couple of them.

I grew up with Tom Sullivan's versions is all.

Waiting for Auto-Calc Down Darker Trails and Trails Pulp character sheets. 

Anyone know if they are going to be made available.?

On 2/8/2019 at 3:15 PM, Larry Lovecraft said:

Sick! I also watched Bone Tomahawk to get the juices flowing...also check out The Proposition and Ravenous.

The bloody Cutthroats 9 is on Amazon for free. Will check out Proposition...I'm an old punker....Nick Cave wrote it.

Thanks for heads-up.

On 2/8/2019 at 3:11 PM, Larry Lovecraft said:

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

I am running a Pulp Darker Trails game right now that is a Frankenstein of a campaign cobbled together from BRPG stuff, stuff I wrote, and the DDT book.  It is heavily influenced by The Dark Tower novels, Joe Lansdale's "Dead in The West" books, and Hammer horror films. 

Brief plot as follows:

The players are all associates of one Marshall Preston, and are told to meet him in the town of Devil's Gulch (from the BRPG set) , yet when they get there, he is comatose...the players must contend with the locals and figure out who is on their side and who isn't, and are sent in a red herring direction at first during a shootout.  It spirals from there and I have made a gang called The Black Philip Gang (based on the antagonist from the film The Witch) who worship a goat and get orders from him to be the main foils for the moment.  Satanic Western Fun!

The next arc is the players finding out that Preston was searching for something old and powerful when he ran afoul of the gang.  This macguffin (probably a neolithic dagger or talisman) is going to have be disposed of, but first they need to travel to Pawheton (from the DDT book), where Jack Stratton's gang has possession of the macguffin and will only part with it if the players work for him (I am going to use the "Something Down There" scenario from the DDT book as well here, but with Vampire thralls and a vampire instead of the published creature). 

Too powerful to fall into the wrong hands, the macguffin cannot be destroyed, and therefore can only be sequestered away somewhere...and the only safe place to do so is the Shadow Desert. 

How do a bunch of cowboys, outlaws and Pinkertons get to the Shadow Desert, you ask? Why, through Sasquatch magic! So yes, the 3rd and final act of my DDT campaign sees the players gathering info and  seeking out the last Sasquatch tribe, so their shaman can send the players to the Shadow Desert.  On the way, aboard a train, will be the final showdown with The Black Philip gang before heading into The Shadow Desert with little hope of returning alive or sane. 

It's wacky, wild, weird and pulpy.  Players are having a blast, and it is a pleasure to prep and create!

The caveat to this whole thing is I just bought Masks Of Nyarlothetep, to play next, so if the players make their Masks character tied in to the DDT campaign by way of character or NPC lineage, they start with an extra 5 Luck!

 

 

There was a computer game called NOCTURNE that did a great job with the weird underground American West lost city...trying to remember details. The Mound is a great HPL story...need to read it to get juices flowing.

Here's what I'm starting with....

All the player characters will be survivors of the Delapore family who were burned out of their plantation in the Civil War (Rats in the Walls). A part of the family went North to live, this faction stayed in Virginia, tried to rebuild Carfax, but failed. 

The surviving Patriarch, Uncle Enoch, suffered burns from the ordeal and has been ill ever since. Doctor's recommend a warm, dry climate...his lungs were damaged in the fire.

The remaining Virginia Delapore's cobbled together their remaining fortune and sent some of the clan to South Texas (San Rafael) to set up a ranch/homestead.

The PC's are travelling there....when they finally get there, something is wrong...and our adventure starts there.

A Town Called CARCOSA...? Maybe

On 1/22/2019 at 2:22 PM, MrJorgensen said:

Not playing yet -- moving into the end stages of HotOE -- but I have the book and am looking forward to it. And I have to say, I love all three of these ideas. Alphonso T. Hazard: what a great name!

Working on another one....a train based one. Yeah I know it's been done...but c'mon it'll work big time.

-Train goes into a tunnel, the tunnel collapses, crash, smash, investigators knocked unconscious...they wake up and have to fight their way out of K'n-Yan.

Anyway...a whole set of train based adventures are roiling in my brains.

-During a Buffalo shoot off a train, something gigantic and angry knocks the train off the tracks....fight to survive.

-Train stops in an unknown town...painted yellow....Carcosa Flatts. Everything is weird.
Everyone is worried about the Sheriff (in Yellow).

I have gotten into a Weird Western mood via watching a few Weird West movies....El Topo and Bone Tomahawk to name two. Dead Birds another.

So while the iron was hot I ordered Down Darker Trails and am looking at the PDF. Very nice.

Anyway....I have a few pretty good ideas for scenarios already. I'm just not sure where to use them. The right players are hard to find.

I am thinking of doing a convention scenario for a con that's coming up.

(Gotta)Few Ideas thusfar...

-Pappy Yig's Snake Oil. Whole towns are going insane and mutating. The enigmatic and wily Alphonso T. Hazard, the salesman/wizard must be stopped. 

-Whateley's Go West - West Dunwich a weird town folks wander into, some don't wander out. Things happen.

-Arkham Ho!....Miskatonic U. sent out a team to research native cultures. Strange caves...lost culture...locals avoid the whole area...investigators are part of the team.

Anyone else dabbling with DDT? 
 

You are the Keeper....the storyteller. 

Have it go how you want. Just be fair, and as long as it's 'cool' nobody will notice. Also you don't have to explain yourself...you're the boss.

Being a High Priest...I'm sure whatever god he serves will grant some special boon to one of it's minions. Simple Damage Reduction to outright immunity to physical attacks or only supernatural attacks will work. 

Just like I said, make it cool, but don't make it impossible.

Stoked...this it the GOLDEN AGE of Call of Cthulhu. Chaosium is amazing.

Is there a way to watch these if you miss them LIVE?

Max, I actually get a kick out of creating my own 'monsters'. Most folks know the typical cast of characters...Ghouls, Gugs, Byakhees, shoggoths etc.

Dig around deviant art...find something that looks appropriately horrific...don't bother making up stats...it's unstoppable. These things are the things of nightmares...made of nightmares...dream logic dictates it cannot be destroyed. Banished temporarily...maybe...dispatched...no.

8 hours ago, SteveMND said:

My only concern with the Dreamgate 'subplot' is that, while it exists for the Keeper who knows how it fits in to the larger story, there is -- as best I could tell -- no real reason to think the players could ever make any sort of connection here, and that was always something I disliked about similar scenarios elements in earlier OP campaigns -- without any means for the players to link everything back to a complete whole, these sorts of things can often appear just as a "we need X number of combats/encounters per Z pages of text, so we'll throw this one in to fill up some space."

Does the DreamGate, etc., have any significant impact on the overall metaplot later on?  Because if not (and it's more of a 'flavor' kind of thing for the Keeper to know), I think I'd like to also revamp it somewhat to be a little less out from left field, as it were.  Maybe something with some local animals harrying her, after maybe she was lured out there by some of the local Kids.

For me having the Mi-Go mixed with Moonbeasts and Leng Men is like having Freddy Krueger show up in an Alien sequel.
Just doesn't seem right.

2 hours ago, ShoggothPete said:

 

@Fallingtower I'd recommend you re-create the 'save the girl' scene in your alternative. When you look at the player rewards (p57) you see that characters are getting sanity back for this. The sanity rewards will be important for characters trying to survive the whole campaign.

 

Fer sure...that was my plan.

Rather than have the girl being tormented by Men from Leng, I will have her trapped by the Fungi or perhaps snatched up by the Shub Kid Cult. 

Will go over the scenario again and figure out the best fit.

1 hour ago, pookie said:

These are all great, thank you.

That said, I cannot use the portraits of members of the Rat Pack. My players would think it absurd and it would mean that they would refer to members of the Rat Pack rather than the students. I know my players... I had enough problems explaining to them that the female sports teams at Miskatonic University are called the Lady Badgers.

MU's school colors and Mascot?

I agree with Badgers, the colors I prefer are Purple and Black. I know the first MU source book had their colors as Black and Orange.

Ok,,,finished reading the first Episode.

For my purposes, I am removing the whole Dreamland angle.

For sanity bending, confusing and trippy other worldliness and to drive the plot the same basic way, I'm going to do a couple of things.

• The MiGo's very presence, their alien nature alone will cause the investigators trouble. The vibrations emitted from their alien material creates a constant very low, unidentifiable, often headache inducing hum, very cicada-like in nature (might actually have cicada whirring on an audio loop...then a sudden total silence...when it's scary time). There is also a weird tension in the air, energy draining humidity and imagined movement in the investigator's peripheral vision. I will use all these tricks and effects for my means to cause confusion, panic, insecurity, tension, visions, hunches, and make getting lost very easy (track/navigate rolls more difficult) etc.
• John Jeffrey escaped post-op (was being experimented on), was hunted down and had his body blasted with various Migo weapons....though his body died, his Migo altered, and sanity shattered brain lives on and is influencing the investigation team via a weak form of telepathy (via dreams and visions). His bloated corpse can be found in pretty much the same spot as in the scenario as written.
• To replace the zoogs sneaking around, I will create what I call MiGo Snitches (or Prawn)...small little, mindless, mini versions of the Fungi, who do nothing but mindlessly scout and spy (send basic information to telepathically linked Migo handler). When the little critters die, they dissolve almost instantly. They are greasy fast, small (8cm/3inches), hard to see (blurry...it will hurt your eyes if you were able to stare at one long enough) and nearly impossible to catch...they can also fly.

I'm sure I will think of more stuff.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Cthanx....