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Valyar

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Posts posted by Valyar

  1. I would like to see something similar to the monster creation section in D&D 3.5 Monster Manual - excellent guidance on every aspect of monster creation process with supporting tables and ideas. I.e. option 3 with more of 1 than 2 :)

  2. There is no problem to have multiple languages. I work with the players to discuss how they envision the character. I don't go into dialects of a language, as it gets too much detailed and we find it unnecessary, but we decide based on the backstory what kind of language points must be spend so the character looks appropriate.

    For example, I had player that wanted to play french professor (lived his early twenties in France) that moved to USA. I asked him to use French as Language Own skill and because of the story and the way he wanted to play to put the necessary Skill points into Language - English. This makes a lot of sense as this is often what people must do when they are expats - learn the new language if different.

    In your case because of the story, you should ask the player to invest personal or occupational skill points (if available) to the extra languages. In the rulebook there is table that shows what points you need to be flient, native and etc.

  3. 3 hours ago, Matt Ryan said:

    Have you looked at A Time to Harvest, the free organized play campaign from a couple years back? https://www.chaosium.com/a-time-for-harvest/

    We had a pretty good time with it. Bit-sized campaign chapters that don't require a ton of Keeper work, but provide all the essentials: clues, big cast of NPCs, maps and plans, and tons of terror-filled moments. Chapter 2, set in Miskatonic University, and chapter 5, which includes a spectacular other-worldly summoning, are especially enjoyable.

    Thanks for this suggestion, I was not aware of this! I will definitely check it. Do you know if the investigators can be with different than student occupation?

  4. The attributes are taken into calculation of the occupation and personal skill points only during character creation and skill points that are not used are lost. Therefore, increase of EDU from age and increasing the skill points respectively only matter during character creation phase, not during play. In addition, selecting Age in the creation flow happens before you pick your occupation.

    So... increasing Age during play does not increase skill points, as the skill points are lost after the character is created. The effect is that your character has higher chances to succeed on any roll related to Know, which is quite good benefit. The only re-calculations that happen when you age during play are the attributes that are derivative of the main ones.

  5. Thanks to Seth Skorkowski and utterly boring business trips and living abroad, I discovered the magic of Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game and since then I was lucky enough to have a group where I introduced the game. The system perfectly fit the spirit of the game and we had great success with the short adventures I ran for them: The Haunting, The Derelict, Missed Dues, Blackwater Creek, Dead Light and Amidst the Ancient Trees. I also played in few very old, from the ancient days such as Uncle Timothy's Will. Everything was a blast! I also linked few of those together, so some players carried over their investigators (or to be more precise - gangsters :) ).

    Now, the group (we play online in FG only) wants me to run something longer than adventure or two. They want a campaign and I have no more room to maneuver. I also want to introduce the game to my second face to face group, but condition applies there:  there are people who don't want to play one-shots or short adventures, and the only way to introduce and hook them is by having something longer.

    Having said that, I am looking for recommendation from more experienced with CoC campaigns community members. I want to run a single campaign for both groups... :) I did my research and I can outline the following campaigns that seem commercially successful and can deliver longer playtime. I didn't put the "Two-Headed Serpent", as my plans for Pulp is to introduce it after we are done with this and the players are eager to test something new.

    1. Shadows of Yog-Sothoth
    2. Beyond the Mountains of Madness
    3. Masks of Nyarlathotep (the new one)
    4. Horrors of the Orient Express

    People suggest to start with "Shadows of Yog-Sothoth" as it is light compared to BtMoM and MoN. They recommend to prepare the stage for this campaign by connecting "Edge of Darkness" to it my making Merriweather member of the Lodge or even use "The Haunting" (Mr. Clerk as the lawyer who sends the investigators to Corbitt's House).

    Other suggest me to ignore those and go for the loosely connected adventures in "The Trail of Tsathogghua" or "The House of R'lyeh". The overall feeling is that HotOE and MoN require significant efforts from the Keeper, due to the huge cast and also capital investment, which I prefer to avoid at the moment. Also I will have a lot of things to add to Fantasy Grounds, as those are non-existent as modules.

    I really don't have physical time to read every suggestion, watch every stream on YouTube and most importantly - purchase everything just to check it, so any recommendation, advises are welcomed. :)

     

     

  6. I really liked how Mike Mason was running the game and made the whole session run smooth. I was surprised to learn that he is one of the authors of the game and from Chaosium. He was the only reason to finish this and to be honest I will appreciate if there is more in the future, but with different cast of players.

    Because, unfortunately, I can't say anything good about the rest of the people. The players were too loud, they kept interrupting him, especially the guy who played the librarian, to a moment where Mike didn't finish what he was about to say (and still he managed to control this obviously not very interested in the game crowd). The archeologist player was throwing in flat jokes and I felt like I was watching some comedy, rather than game of mystery.

  7. Nowadays, the fragmentation is huge everywhere and it is getting our of control - Facebook, reddit, Discord, fan forums, to name a few. It takes so much time if you want to really follow your favorite product and not miss something interesting. I don't like it,  I try to stick to the official forums, but for one reason or another many people and groups stay outside and good discussions happen outside. I am new to Cthulhu and the community, maybe there is historical reason why other forums are much more active.

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