Grimmshade

4 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

I haven't looked at MeWe but I like the write-ups you have included. Have you modified character creation somehow? Additional professions? Plusses and minuses depending on origin (Cimmerian, Argossean...)? 

Are you using CoC magic as is (except perhaps renaming spells as necessary)?

I'm mostly using CoC magic (with Grand Grimoire additions) as is. However, I've written pretty extensive essays about magic in the original stories, and I use this info to modify the magic somewhat. 

I haven't modded character creation too much, but I use parts (including professions) from Dark Ages and Invictus.

Has anyone used these? Did they add to the experience? Easy to use?

I'll be running Masks of Nyarlathotep this year. I've already bought the physical prop set, and I'm currently working on obtaining and painting miniatures. The digital props are the only other thing I can think of that may elevate the experience. 

4 hours ago, mvincent said:

No need to wish: the late pledge button (in the upper-right of their Kickstarter) is just as good as pledging initially.

That is so many minis for $200! I think I have to do it. 

On 12/29/2022 at 2:15 PM, mvincent said:

RAFM had a Kickstarter for that here.

Peterson Games, Mansions of Madness and Death May Die have enormous selections. Reapers has produced many mythos figures during their Kickstarters. Wizkids also produce some prepainted mythos figures in their Pathfinder Battles line. Fantasy Flight Games used to produce prepainted ones, but they are out of production now.

 

I wish I had gotten in on that Death May Die Kickstarter! Do many investigator minis!

I always miss these Kickstarters. 

32 minutes ago, Dr_Zarnak said:

It would be nice to have miniature sets connected to some of the campaigns; a Masks of Nyarlathotep or Horror on the Orient Express set, with figures for the major NPC’s and monsters, might actually be used in play. 

Fantastic idea!

I would love a good range of Cthulhu miniatures. Not just the monsters, but some really good pulp and 1920's investigators and civilians. 

Child of Set 

Lesser Servitor Race. 

“A black cable, thicker than a man's arm, and curiously splotched.”

“...over a heavy gilded screen a face looked at the Cimmerian.”

“Conan stared in wonder at the cold classic beauty of that countenance, whose like he had never seen among the sons of men. Neither weakness nor mercy nor cruelty nor kindness, nor any other human emotion was in those features. They might have been the marble mask of a god, carved by a master hand, except for the unmistakable life in them—life cold and strange, such as the Cimmerian had never known and could not understand.” 

“The thought of Set was like a nightmare, and the children of Set who once ruled the earth and who now sleep in their nighted caverns far below the black pyramids. Behind that gilded screen there had been no human body—only the shimmering, headless coils of a gigantic serpent.”

The God in the Bowl, Robert E Howard

Alternate Names: God in the Bowl

Children of Set are large serpents with beautiful-featured, emotionless human heads. 

Language: They can speak a pre-human language, of which the basic meaning can be derived by listeners due to some form of primal knowledge. Some can also speak a few human languages.

Child of Set, snakes with human heads

Char. roll averages

STR (2d6+15)x5 110 

CON ( 2d6+6)x5 65 

SIZ (2d6+10)x5 85 

DEX (2d6+10)x5 85

INT (3D6+6)x5 80-85 

POW (2D6+6)x5 65 

Average Hit Points: 15

Average Damage Bonus (DB): +1D6

Average Build: 2

Average Magic Points: 13

Move: 8

Combat

Attacks per Round: 1 (bite,constrict)

Poison from bite is extremely deadly and fast acting. Damage is 4d10 in 1d10 rounds. An Extreme CON roll halves the damage. (Once poisoned, cannot be poisoned again until the initial poison has dealt its damage.)

Constrict (mnvr): Wraps around its prey, crushing the life out of it. With a successful attack the Child of Set has wrapped it’s victim in a crushing hold and the victim suffers a penalty die to any action and automatically takes damage (1d6+DB) each round unless the child of Set is killed or dislodged by an opposed STR roll.

Fighting 50%(25/10), damage 1D6 + DB

Bite 50%(25/10), damage 1d4 + poison (see above)

Grab (mnvr) 50%(25/10), held with penalty die to actions, damage 1d6+DB per round 

Dodge 45%(22/9)

Skills: 

Climb 60%, Language (human, varies but often Stygian) 55%, Stealth 65%

Armor: none

Spells: Contact Set (exactly like Contact Yig in the Grand Grimoire), 1d6 spells of the Keeper’s choosing but usually including Dominate or Mental Suggestion from the Grand Grimoire.

Sanity Loss: 0/1d6

The Serpent Ring of Set

A magic artifact for Call of Cthulhu 7e

Mentioned in the Robert E Howard stories The Phoenix on the Sword and The Haunter of the Ring, The Serpent Ring of Set is the magical artifact that allowed the Stygian Wizard Thoth-Amon to become one of the greatest sorcerers of his time. In both of these stories, the Ring is described exactly the same: a copper ring made in the form of a serpent, coiled three times with tail in mouth. The eyes are evil yellow gems.

How, exactly, did Thoth-Amon use the ring to achieve this? Well, first he found the Ring in a deep tomb that was of pre-human origin. Probably the serpent-folk created the ring and eventually it was entombed in the land that became Stygia. Thoth-Amon says he “did dark and terrible magic with the Serpent Ring of Set”, and from all instances of the Ring’s power shown in the stories, this terrible magic was the summoning of demons from the outer dark. Besides the demon we see in The Phoenix on the Sword, he mentions “They hated me, but they feared me, for I controlled beings from outside which came at my call and did my bidding. By Set, mine enemy knew not the hour when he might awake at midnight to feel the taloned fingers of a nameless horror at his throat!” So we can assume Thoth-Amon gained power by fear, through sending demons after his rivals.

To use the Ring, Thoth-Amon rubs the blood of the freshly killed Dion over the serpent’s eyes and chants “Blind your eyes, mystic serpent,... Blind your eyes to the moonlight and open them on darker gulfs! What do you see, oh serpent of Set? Whom do you call from the gulfs of the Night? Whose shadow falls on the waning Light? Call him to me, oh serpent of Set!” The summoned being always appears first as a shadow, and coalesces into existence. The creature called forth in The Phoenix on the Sword is a large humanoid thing, like a mummy and a baboon, and it’s only harmed by blessed or magical weapons (thus the Phoenix on the Sword). However, the text makes it pretty clear that many types of demons could be called by the Ring.

In the story The Haunter of the Ring, we learn that the Ring was “handed down by foul cults of sorcerers since the days of forgotten Stygia.” It is finally found in Hungary. The Ring in that story is used to allow one of the demons of the ring to possess the wearer for short instances. The Ring itself is only mentioned as having been used to summon the possessing demon. The evil sorcerer of the story, Vrolok, used other black magic to pull Evelyn’s soul from her body and allow the demon to control her. During the time period of the story, Evelyn cannot take the ring off, and describes the demon as “A black thing,... a horrible faceless black thing that mows and mumbles and paws over me with apish hands. I dream of it every night. And in the daytime I try to kill the only man I ever loved.” When the demon thinks it’s task is done, it turns on Vrolok.

While at first glance the Ring in the second story seems to have different powers, it actually seems to have the same power, that of summoning beings of the Outer Dark, and it is Vrolok who uses it in a different way, combined with further magic.

The Serpent Ring of Set (Unique) - A copper ring made in the form of a serpent, coiled three times with tail in mouth. The eyes are evil yellow gems.

The Ring gives a Bonus Die on all POW rolls if the bearer is a servant of Set.

When fresh blood (at least 1 HP worth) is rubbed over the eyes of this ring, it allows the user to summon a creature from the black gulfs. Each Magic Point expended gives a cumulative 20% chance for the summoning to succeed. Each use costs 1d4 SAN plus any cost for encountering the being summoned. The spell takes 5 minutes, and the creature arrives 1d4 minutes later via a gate. The creature may be tasked with one command once summoned.

The creature summoned is either a “Demon of the Ring”, (see Below) or another that the Keeper deems appropriate. Examples would be a Byakhee or Dimensional Shambler for travel, etc.

Demon’s of the Ring may, at the Keeper’s discretion, become free after their task is finished. This chance is higher if the user sacrificed their own blood for the casting, and is much lower if a sacrifice was performed for the blood. If the creature is free, the user must win an opposed POW roll versus the creature or it attacks either the user or someone with them before returning to the black gulfs.

The user may also use the ring to cast Contact Set spell (which is exactly like the Contact Yig spell in the Grand Grimoire, except the ring negates the 5 POW cost.

A note about Thoth-Amon’s loss of power in Phoenix on the Sword when he loses the Ring:

Thoth-Amon's loss of power in The Phoenix on the Sword is one of the quandaries that stumps many game systems. I didn't like Mongoose's explanation, and I really don’t like the Modiphius 2d20 explanation (he's just obsessed with the ring.)

In Call of Cthulhu he can gain nearly all of his sorcerous power from the ring and the “demons” it summons. Simple!

Demon of the Ring

Lesser Servitor Race.

“Upon him crouched a great black thing which he knew was born in no sane or human world. Its slavering black fangs were near his throat and the glare of its yellow eyes shrivelled his limbs as a killing wind shrivels young corn.

The hideousness of its face transcended mere bestiality. It might have been the face of an ancient, evil mummy, quickened with demoniac life. In those abhorrent features the outlaw's dilated eyes seemed to see, like a shadow in the madness that enveloped him, a faint and terrible resemblance to the slave Thoth-amon. Then Ascalante's cynical and all-sufficient philosophy deserted him, and with a ghastly cry he gave up the ghost before those slavering fangs touched him.

Conan, shaking the blood-drops from his eyes, stared frozen. At first he thought it was a great black hound which stood above Ascalante's distorted body; then as his sight cleared he saw that it was neither a hound nor a baboon.”

Alternate Names: Haunter of the Ring

Demons of the Ring are beings from the black gulfs. They are sometimes faceless black things with apish limbs and hands, and sometimes baboon-like mummies.

Life Drain: Can blast a victim's soul by holding them and staring into their eyes. Each round that the victim is held, if they lose an opposed POW roll they lose 1d6 hp + 1 hp per magic point spent by the Demon of the Ring.

Possession: The Demon of the Ring may attempt to possess someone who is sleeping or otherwise incapacitated. This functions as per Spirit Attacks and Possession in the Grand Grimoire.

Demon of the Ring, Ape-ish thing from the black gulf

Char. roll averages

STR 5D6x5* 85-90 

CON 3D6x5* 50-55 

SIZ 5D6x5* 85-90 

DEX (3D6+6)x5 80-85

INT (3D6)x5 50-55 

POW (3D6+6)x5 80-85 

Average Hit Points: 13-14

Average Damage Bonus (DB): +1D6

Average Build: 2

Average Magic Points: 16-17

Move: 8

Combat

Attacks per Round: 2 (Claws, Bite, Grab, or Life Drain)

May attack with both claws, or grab and claw, or bite and life drain a grabbed opponent.

Grab (mnvr): If the maneuver succeeds, the Demon of the Ring has grabbed the victim or pounced on them and is holding them down. The victim is knocked and held prone if the demon wishes. The victim may attempt to escape with their own Maneuver.

Fighting 50%(25/10), damage 1D6 + DB

Grab (mnvr) 50%(25/10), held (and possibly prone) 

Life Drain Held Only, Opposed POW, damage 1d6 + 1 per magic point spent

Dodge 40%(20/8)

Skills: 

Climb 55%, Spot Hidden 50%,Stealth 60%, Track Prey 80%

Armor: none, but immune to all mundane weapons

Spells: usually none

Sanity Loss: 0/1d10

Thoth-Amon

Stygian sorcerer and lord of the Black Ring

Thoth-Amon was a great sorcerer in the south during the Hyborian Age. “Men spoke of me as they spoke of Rammon. King Ctesphon of Stygia gave me great honor, casting down the magicians from the high places to exalt me above them. They hated me, but they feared me, for I controlled beings from outside which came at my call and did my bidding. By Set, mine enemy knew not the hour when he might awake at midnight to feel the taloned fingers of a nameless horror at his throat! I did dark and terrible magic with the Serpent Ring of Set, which I found in a nighted tomb a league beneath the earth, forgotten before the first man crawled out of the slimy sea.”

Thoth-Amon, who is the master of all priests of Set, and dwells in Luxur, and the western world knew only as a figure of terror and myth. 

STR 60 CON 60 SIZ 80 DEX 55 INT 80 APP 60 POW 120 EDU 90

SAN 0 Hit Points 14 Damage Bonus 1d4 Build 1 Move 7 MP 24 Luck 70         

Combat

Fighting (Brawl) 50%, damage 1d3+DB

Dagger 50%, damage 1d4+2+DB

Dodge 30%

Skills

Animal handling 50%, Cthulhu Mythos 40%, Disguise 30%, Drive Horse/Oxen 30%, Insight (Psychology) 60%, Intimidate 90%, Library Use 70%, Natural World 40%, Occult 80%, Oratory/Rhetoric 50%, Own Kingdom (Stygia) 70%, Other Kingdoms (Kush, Shem, Vendhya, Koth) 40%, Read/Write Language 85%, Science (Augury, Religion of Set) 75%, Sleight of Hand 60%, Spot Hidden 75%, Stealth 50%, Status (Infamy) 90%

Languages: Own (Stygian) 95%, Acheron 60%, Kushite 50%, Shemite 50%, Vendhyan 45%, Kothian 50%, Many Others 40%

Pulp Talents

Scary - Bonus Die to Intimidate rolls.

Backstory

Personal Description: He was a somber giant, whose dusky skin revealed his Stygian blood.

Traits: Arrogant and consumed with power. 

Ideology: Servant of Set the Old Serpent.

Significant People: King Ctesphon of Stygia who gave him great honor, and Kalanthes the priest of Ibis whom he hates.

Meaningful Locations: Nighted tombs in Stygia, Luxor.

Treasured Possessions: Serpent Ring of Set which he found in a nighted tomb a league beneath the earth.

Equipment

The Serpent Ring of Set.

Conan of Cimmeria

Archetype: Beefcake

Profession: Barbarian 

Characteristics

STR 95 CON 90 SIZ 85 DEX 90 INT 80 APP 65 POW 85 EDU 60

Move 9 Damage Modifier 1d6 Build 2 Hit Points 35 Luck 70 SAN 85 MP 17

Talents

Keen Vision, Tough Guy, Heavy Hitter, Fleet Footed (Could substitute Keen Vision for Power Lifter. Also, I would say most warriors in the Hyborian Age have “Hardened”)

Skills

 Climb 80%, Intimidate 60%, Jump 60%, Listen 60%, Natural World 30%, Occult 10%, Other Kingdom (Aquilonia, Corinthia, Nemedia, Zamora) 15%, Other Language (Corinthian, Nemedian, Zamoran) 45%, Own Kingdom (Barbarian Lands) 35%, Own Language 60%, Ride Horse 25%, Spot Hidden 80%, Status (Infamy) 10%, Stealth 80%, Throw 60%, Track 65%

Combat

Fighting (Brawl) 65%, Fighting (Sword) 65%, Fighting (Shield) 55%, Dodge 70%

Equipment

Dagger* 65%, 1d4+2+DB

Broadsword* 65%, 1d8+DB

(Occasionally) Shield 55%, Armor 1d4, Damage 1d4+DB

(Occasionally) Horned Helmet, Armor 1d2

(Occasionally) Chainmail, Armor 1d8

Backstory

Personal Description: black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth.

Traits: Hatred of Picts. Temper and little understanding or care for civilized ways.

Ideology: Crom - at birth he breathes power to strive and slay into a man's soul. What else shall men ask of the gods?

Significant People: Varies

Meaningful Locations: Varies

Treasured Possessions: Freedom

Notes: This build represents Conan from around “God in the Bowl” (or “Frost Giant’s Daughter,” depending on your chronology preference) to about “The Hand of Nergal” story fragment.

I've had to move to MeWe for now, which isn't ideal, but if you search there for the Rambling Conan Blog group, that's me. 

I'll post up the Conan material here once I'm done with work. 

I MIGHT have been that blogster. I've been writing a Conan blog for years, and I definitely have said that Pulp Cthulhu combined with Dark Ages (and Cthulhu Invictus) makes the best REH Conan RPG (and probably the best Solomon Kane, El Borak, etc., RPG as well.)

Monolith just acquired the Conan RPG license from Modiphius, so doubtful any official thing will happen. I'm interested to see what Monolith does with the license though, as thier Conan board game is my favorite Conan product of the last... Few decades probably. (They made a Batman RPG recently that I wasn't impressed with, so we'll see.)

I've done some small conversions of Conan material to Pulp Cthulhu that I'm sure I can dig up if you're interested. (We're also currently working on a map which we hope to be the most accurate to REH Hyborian Age map yet.)

Damn, I wasn't going to buy this book, but I think that review sold me on it. 

In our pulp campaign that we just finished, the rich PC bought a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. It was cool just picturing them driving around in that awesome car.

7 hours ago, g33k said:

Oooooh !

So, a question:  If Cthulhu/horror ain't my jam, how apt is this book to folks who want to FrankenBRP the Regency Era setting from this book + (when it comes out) "Rivers of (Regency) London" ... or even a high-fantasy Regency in a "Magic World" chassis?  Regency Melnibone?  Egads, even RQ works, those marriage-scheming Regency mama's would be right at home in Nochet! 😁

 

I use Down Darker Trails as a pure (or pulp) western RPG at times, and Cthulhu Dark Ages / Invictus for Conan the Barbarian adventure. I don't have an interest in the time period of Regency, but I'm betting it's just as useable. Looking forward to the new Cthulhu by Gaslight for some Sherlock Holmes adventure.

19 hours ago, coolAlias said:

The Keeper Rulebook has an interesting bit on p207:

One particular published scenario I was thinking of running has a couple of Deep One corpses near an NPC, and it got me wondering: if at least some types of Mythos creatures sometimes leave corpses, wouldn't their bodies eventually end up in a museum somewhere and rob them of some or all of their horror? And in the particular scenario, it feels like the corpses almost completely removes that aspect of the unknown during the subsequent combat.

So to all you Keepers out there: what is your preference? Do your creatures dissolve, leave a corpse, or some mix of both? Are you consistent across scenarios, or do your creatures sometimes dissolve and sometimes leave a corpse depending on what you feel will make for a better atmosphere at the time?

There are some stories where Mythos beings are actually in a museum. If it's something like a Deep One or Serpent Person, I leave the corpse. Sometimes the PC's hide it to keep others from seeing / finding it; sometimes people explain the rotting thing away as some "weird fish"; sometimes the body just disappears. For the most part, I just say people aren't willing to accept what they are seeing (and eventually decomposition takes care of the rest). I think there could be a good story from things ending up in someone's personal museum, or a side wing of some famous museum. I wrote a mythos short story of my own many years ago about this. 

Also, check out the Anatomical Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors. It's great!

4 minutes ago, stadi said:

Have you changed the way you release PDF "pre-orders"? I always assumed that the PDFs get released before they are sent to the printer so that people can spot errors / typos. But it seems that this has already been sent to the printer without the PDFs released?

Good point! If true, that will make me less likely to pick up copies of new books right away.

8 minutes ago, Morien said:

Do you have a gaming group eager to try KAP?

In that case, you could easily run a mini-campaign with 4e and the free stuff:

The rules of 4e and 5.2 are mainly the same. Sure, there are some minor differences, such as Double Feint doesn't exist in 5.2 anymore, and the chargen is a bit different, too. But the bones of the system are very much the same, so if you learn the play the game with 4e, it is almost the same as 5.2. And what we have seen of the KAP 6e rules so far in the Quickstarter and The Great Hunt, it seems that the fundamentals (opposed rolling, stats, traits) do not change all that much, so 4e will work very well as a training set for 6e, too.

Point is, the 4e + free stuff would cost you $9.99, from the Chaosium website: https://www.chaosium.com/pendragon-classic/

That is about a single movie ticket, or half of a pizza, or a Big Mac meal.

Man, sold! Thank you. Now I can get a taste but still hold off on loads of purchases for 6e.

1 hour ago, Morien said:

Frankly, you are much better off buying the 4e pdf instead. 

I'm sorely tempted to buy the 5.2 PDF, but it feels like an impulse buy when I'm really wanting 6e.

It turns out I already owned this on DTRPG, but I had never downloaded it. Must have been part of a bundle. I just grabbed it and gave it a look and it's pretty complete looking! Way more than I would have expected. I'm sure it's nothing compared to the full rules, but it's enough that I might use it to test out the system while waiting for 6e. 

I don't know that your could use only these rules for TGPC, as there are not rules for mass battles, feasts, etc. At least not that I saw on first pass.

Nice! Thanks for the info.

3 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

Our basic plan for the new edition of Pendragon is to release a boxed starter set, followed by the core rulebook, a GMs book, a Nobles book, and then adventure books. 

Will the Great Pendragon Campaign be getting an updated version? If not soon, then I'll probably just buy it now.

What is the penalty die to characteristic rolls from? (Just curious)

Regardless, I would say yes, the INT check has a penalty die.

No. That optional rule is bringing them back down to standard HP if you don't want the characters to be as resilient.

So, standard Pulp Cthulhu HP is the /5 (which is double normal Cthulhu HP)

Great stuff!