andyl

In the real world Coal has a few more uses (ignoring more modern chemical engineering). Decorative jewelery, ornaments and figurines for example. People have even made furniture out of it.

Barntar. p.77 "Note that Barntar is worshiped using the Worship (Orlanth) skill." p.78 Summary box (top left) says Initiates get "Worship (Barntar) +20%" (also "Cult Lore (Barntar) +15%" although I am not too fussed about that)

Page 132 (Restrictions section) "Uleria priestesses must 90% of their income to the cult and devote 90% of their time to serving their goddess" Missing the word give.

Very interested in this. Doubly so if it involves some details of the sewers (which must be a prime location for all manner of intrigue and adventure).

1. Firstly you should probably use something other than the official spell name. However reading a tome gives some knowledge of what is in the tome. You still have to study the spell to learn how to cast it. That could take hours, days or even weeks depending on the Keeper. On the initial reading you realise there the number of spells in the tome and maybe names. 2. It is quite clear on page 175 with what rolls you make to see if the information is there. As it says the Keeper decides if the information is clear and understandable or somewhat allusive or obscured. 3. Some characters might know (or think they know) some of that stuff - number of copies, where it was printed. Most will not. You are obviously not meant to read out the description of the tome - as for some it says things like "Questionable translation of ..." For me when characters read mythos tomes they want the Cthulhu Mythos skill (they are not too keen on the SAN loss though), or they want spells, or they want to use it to see if there is knowledge in it about some monster or situation. That latter bit is up to the Keeper to come up with - either on the fly or when prepping the scenario. I generally write about a couple of paragraphs giving a bit of an overview - the cover, the size, the paper, printed or handwriting, what the handwriting looks like, any stains - especially blood, if it has pictures, and then some vague description about what it contains. If I have added plot specific information to the tome that will definitely be revealed on a full reading. 4. The Becoming a Believer is really for the other way around. You read a book and think "these are all fanciful stories, they are not real" then you see a Deep One (or a Ghoul) and you realise that they are real. If you had already seen the Deep One and then read about it in a tome - then you are more likely to say "this explains so much ...".

For me shrink-wrap on a book is useless single-use plastic. Goes straight into the bin. Something we should be aiming to get rid of.

I will also mention that at various times the PCs have ran for their lives - either to the nearest car, or through tunnels, or even down hills on rough terrain. In some cases you might handwave this as you don't really want to punish the player but in others it could easily seem too unrealistic to the other players especially if the fleeing requires climbing through windows, jumping across gaps etc. Obviously if you are writing your own scenario you can make sure you don't have any of that (or you can choose a scenario that doesn't) but I think it would add a bit of a constraint on the Keeper.

I assumed that the Uz were all pretty practiced in Tradetalk. Certainly enough for my players to mollify them - after a one punch fight/contest which caused the Uz great hilarity. For me the big communication problem was that we had someone play Dazarim who couldn't speak Heortling, and wasn't great at Tradetalk either.

Absolutely. When I run a game set in the UK I take time to research what cars were around then (which is mostly different to what was available in the US - apart from the Model T which was also built in the UK). Also in the UK the number of phone-lines was much lower than in the US. We only reached 1 phone line per 10 people well after the end of WW2 (the US was at that point before WW1). One of the things I like to do is create a document to help the players. What films were released in the year the game is set, what has been in the newspapers over the past year, what inventions are starting to appear in the public consciousness, etc. I find that helps me as Keeper get in the mindset for the year, but also helps the players a great deal.

I think they have said that they are looking at changing the card backs.

I've used Scribus to do many simple dtp jobs. I haven't had any non-simple jobs. You would probably need some graphics programs too - maybe Inkscape for vector graphics, and Gimp for images (although gimp is probably a bit over-powered for this task - you can get away with other image editing software) All are free software.

Yep it is very good - I am just getting to the end of 6 weeks of running for a new group. A Rought Landing and A Fire In The Darkness. The best scene was when the player playing Dazarim decides he is going to try and spot anyone suspicious running through the streets and chose Eurmal's Hill as his spypoint. I asked if he was sure, if he remembered me saying that Eurmal was the Trickster and a bit of a dick - even to his friends. Yep It is a bit of a hill I will be able to see more was his rationale, and the Upper City and Merchant's Quarter was a bit too much and would be slower to get into the action. So he was up on Eurmal's Hill and he cast farsee on himself and was feeling pretty good. I then asked him to roll his Scan and he got a 100. So as soon as he looked at the streets his vision blurred and he could see nothing. If he looked at his hand or the temple on the hill then it was perfectly in focus. When he looked back down into the city - blurred again. Which just goes to show - don't try and tempt the gods and especially don't tempt Eurmal.

You can probably use inflation from the 90s to now (or just ask people who were around in the 90s) for most things apart from computing. When it comes to the 20s or even worse Gaslight you cannot really use baseline inflation to get today's price. For example the price of a movie ticket was about 15 cents in the early 20s (inflation price is $2.18). A dozen eggs was about 47 cents in the early 20s (inflation price is $6.80). It is always better to try and find some price catalogues from the 1920s (or 1890s) either online or physical copies at car boots / yard sales etc.

TBH if they have a high Fear Dragons and they roleplay their fear (or how they overcome it) when they see a dragon then that would be good enough for me. I wouldn't make them roll the passion as well. But if the player does not roleplay any fear of dragons then I ask them to roll it. As you say if the roll succeeds they must then decide how to play it - run away, stand stock still in fear, hide, fall to the ground, or do something that lets them overcome the fear. What they do is their choice, but their fear must influence their actions.

Yes but I still think skills, sanity, luck, money, and contacts are far more important that attributes. Earlier you said "I'm doing for for a sense of accomplishment for the players. Most players want to see their PCs improve, even if it is in small increments". In that case just have regular Investigator Development Phases. Surely seeing your skills go up gives that sense of accomplishment. Surely interim SAN awards (where appropriate and tied to the story) do that even more.