KeeperXav

1 hour ago, mvincent said:

The 0 on a d10 represents 10 (i.e. if you roll 0 for your d10 damage, you've done 10 damage) You're supposed to have the opposite sides on a d10 add up to 11. The main reason the d10 displays zero instead of 10 is to facilitate also using it for percent results.

÷1 this

No other damage die dies 0 damage. Why would the biggest damage die?

If 9 was the highest you could roll, it would be a d9.

The only thing funny about Cthulhu dice is the inclusion of the d12 which is not used in CoC.

I mentioned that in my first reply. Read the last paragraph

If you find the art useful for your campaign, yes. If not, no.

Maybe you can take inspiration from them. Inspiration can come from anywhere.

An equal success is an equal success.

I don't see why this is difficult.

Player wants to throw a rock at the head of a cultist. Because of range, a hard success is required. Player succeeds.

The cultist, choosing to dodge, needs a hard or better to dodge. Otherwise, the rock, on target, beans him.

If the player got an exceptional success, the cultist would need one too to avoid the perfect aim.

Seems like the roles can with together without changing anything.

Attacking player makes their role based on range to see if they hit. 

If aware of the attack, the defending player can make a dodge check, requiring an equal level of success or better.

Only problem with this is it makes attacks harder to dodge from greater distances, but I'm okay with this. If the attacking player was accurate enough to hit from that great a distance, the dodge shouldn't be easy.

Just as a side note, MOB, if Chaosium does start shipping on haunted derelicts devoid of crew, we went hold it against you.

I don't disagree with what is posted above but felt like playing devil's advocate and offering a different viewpoint. In my mind, cultists are immune to bouts of madness. They have been through them many times and come out the other side. I believe cultists trade their sanity for resolve, their core determination to serve or achieve a certain end, and it is only through focusing on this one lone "truth", the only truth that matters, that they can ward themselves from further mental breaodown. They've done it before and beaten it. The ones who couldn't are dead. Or worse.

You raise an interesting question with the spell. If you want the spell to be useful against a cultisr, I would suggest an opposed POW roll with disadvantage for the investigator. Or advantage for the cultist, if you prefer. If  the cultist fails the opposed roll, don't roll for a bout of madness. Just have them collapse, screaming, weeping, clutcbing their head, etc. as their resolve is broken and everything hits them at once. The one truth allowing them to keep their act together lies shattered, and they have no guard against anything. Any cultist surviving this would probably be incoherent, unable to respond to communication, possibly unresponsive to pain, and lacking any sense of self preservation. Torturing them for answers won't work.. They won't even notice the pain or comprehend their situation.

As a side note, I wouldn't allow this tactic to work on wizards. They operate on an entirely different set of rules.

On 8/25/2018 at 3:11 PM, smiorgan said:

Missed! That version came out at my nadir of RPG buying and playing ... I had no interest in D&D at the time and looked in dismay at everything becoming d20.  

Aside from the beauty of the book, its real strength was in giving D&D players a taste of what CoC is about. I'm not suggesting you hunt it down to play it. The 7th edition is a fantastic system that requires minimal rule checks. D20 was a very crunchy system, with lots of modifiers and tables. My favorite part though: the ad in the back for the upcoming "Pulp Cthulhu: Adventure in the 1930s"  which I think was targeted for the following year. They were only about 15 off!

as for Call of Cthulhu dice, I suppose my ideal set would drop the d20 and the d12 and double up on the d4, d6 and percentile. The extra d4 and d6 would be a d2 and d3.

I would say within sight.

There's an old humor guide on surviving in a Call of Cthulhu game and one of the tips was to move your investigator to Sweden, a country where Mythos activity seems particularly non-existent. Bwahaha, not anymore!

I've become the default expert on CoC at my local FLGS based on my running the only game of it in store (and 7e  keeps flying off the shelves) so the employees ask my recommendations for stocking. I've already told the owner about this, but turns out I didn't need to. He says he already saw it at GenCon and plans to order. I love seeing the local players expand their horizons beyond D&D and PF.

In most editions of Call of Cthulhu, the purpose of the d20 die is to keep you from buying a different set of dice because you don't want an incomplete set and sometimes play other games.

Unless you are playing the D20 edition of Call of Cthulhu, jointly produced by WotC and Chaosium to demonstrate the versatility of the d20 system (and came in a beautiful hardback with great art) in which case it's VERY important.

You are taking a serious blow and purposefully softening it in order to knock them out. If you are trying to knock them out, the idea is to not do much physical harm. It's a cinematic approach.

This is the brick thrown at the head, and staggering to the ground, with birds chirping. Then they wake up later with a giant lump on the back of their head and blood matting their hair, and don't need a hospital to recover. 

If you are seeking more damage, chances are good they won't wake up.

Of course, BRP is a rules light system. It's not meant for tactical, highly detailed combat taking multiple factors into account. It is meant for abstracted narrative combat. If the rules don't work for you, use them as a baseline and modify, but clear any house rules with your players. If they can do it to a cultist, a cultist can do it to them as well.

I'm surprised too since mine has these rules. P. 125. Knock-out Blows. An example is also provided 

Erica Carlyle doesn't need the money

Whatever best serves the plot.  There are many things to consider.

Are the investigators motivated solely by profit? A museum might not be able to offer as much as a private collector, but it might be a more beneficial location.

Why does the buyer want it? You are in possession of several books of ancient and blasphemous knowledge that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. When you are approached by an intermediary who says his employer is delighted to meet your asking price but his identity must remain secret, how confident do you feel about this exchange?

All that glitters is not gold. Some prices may take the form of unique opportunities, exchanges of information, valuable secrets. There are offers more enticing than a check.

food for thought.

And even if the GM was making up the rules, that's not a problem as long as the rules are

1) consistent

2) impartial

3) fun/satisfying for the group

You haven't even made it clear if your friend was unhappy with the session.

"You fiddle with the lockpicks but nothing happens. Would you like to push the roll?"

 " How do I do that? "

 "Pushing let's you try a second time, if you can justify it but the penalties for failure are higher. if you fail the second roll, there's a good chance you will be seen."

 "Oh, thanks."

An informed helpful keeper is better than a reference sheet, but I'm sure you could make a reference sheet fairly easily if you feel it's needed  

If they want to bring a satphone, let them. Who are they going to call? The coast guard?

If they want to bring shotguns on a pleasure yacht voyage, ask them to justify it. If I was invited to go yachting  across the. Atlantic, shotguns would not be high on my list of things to pack. 

As for going straight to the cargo hold, read the bit about the Geneva convention of the sea. Their focus should be on looking for survivors. Not looking for stuff to steal. Use one of the npcs, to remind them of this.

3 hours ago, EricW said:

Perhaps the snake phobia is cured, she finds she can communicate with snakes, an awareness of something distant and colossal drawing closer in her dreams. Secret SAN check every time she tries to use her ability.

You're a wizard, 'arry!

The back of the character sheet has a quick reference on skill rolls, pushing skills, damage and healing.  The keeper let's them know what to roll and when. What else do they need to reference regularly during play?

I think it's premature to assume there are any miniatures included. Everything you need to get started could be the quick start rules, a character sheet and dice.

Update: Found more solid information (passed a difficult internet use check)

Contents:
Book 1: Introduction and Alone Against The Flames—a solo introductory adventure, teaching you the basics of Call of Cthulhu as you play through a mystery.
Book 2: Call of Cthulhu Starter Rules—the essential rules, everything needed for starting play.
Book 3: Adventures—three starter adventures for your players to explore.
Ready to Play Investigators—five ready to play game characters.
Blank Investigator Sheets—ready for creating your own investigators.
Roleplaying Dice – a set of six polyhedral dice for use in the game.
Player Handout – a set of ready to use props.
4 classic adventures

Source: https://www.acdd.com/call-of-cthulhu-starter-set.html

Believe they said about three months after the PDF. 

One thing to keep in mind though, if new players don't have all the pieces of the story, that's pretty much status quo for CoC. Lol

I don't expect to get through Ch1 in a single session either. 2-3 seems likely. I want to allow enough time to let the investigators explore and to establish the NPCs.  Plus the includes session zero.

I plan to use the first session to put the timeframe in historical context, and to have a discussion and interviews with the players to help them figure out some history and relationships for their characters before the first dice are rolled.

If we have time to start the story and do something exciting afterward then great!