Jump to content

Imperial_Solaire

Member
  • Posts

    8
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Imperial_Solaire

  1. Just picked this up. Really a great tool because I forget so many spot rules and such every session. Excited for the Runequest version, although I do see that it already can be helpful on that front to a degree.
  2. I am fairly new to this system (only ran two or three sessions with a group and maybe 5 sessions for a single player who is adamant that his Baboon become a shaman "the right way." The problem I have with trying to run this game is that my players always come in with preconceived ideas of what this game is, because let's face it 5e skews your viewpoint on what a TTRPG is if it was your first. I typically tell them the whole Glorantha pitch, "A world where everyone knows magic and the gods are real." type stuff and also explain the mechanics (my players are very familiar with Call of Cthulhu so there is no problem here.) I have the maps (which are lovely) and I tell them a little bit about the world and the people that live in it (they love to hear about the undead killing ducks). I show them art and I tell them lore (or as much lore as is necessary) The same problem always comes up though, my players either Go into this as a game where the PCs are the main characters of the world and fight everything with no plan and die. (The D&D players) Are too scared to fight ANYTHING and want ask to do Library Use rolls. (The Call players) Turned off because they think you must know ALL the lore before setting foot in Glorantha. (My anxious players) My question to you folks is this. How do you pitch this game to new/less experienced players. What is your session 0 like? And How do you guide your players in this world for the full experience? Also, do you have any stories of your players from other systems having a "A-ha!" moment that made them understand the rules/setting more than they did coming in.
  3. I am starting to collect both Call of Cthulhu and Runequest material at the same time (small collection of only 100 books right now, but CoC and RQ make up about 20-25% of it.) I have to say from a fanboy of all things Call and a new player of Runequest, these books are just different beasts. Call of Cthulhu is at it's best when it is giving us new scenarios and campaigns, although the setting books are fantastic for writing our own campaigns (as I just hit year 8 in a long running Call campaign) Runequest on the otherhand drew me in a few years ago because these books are jam packed with amazing lore, art, and mechanics (one of my players is adamant of starting a whole journey from student - Shaman and that has been going on for a long time). Each book coming out makes me want to explore the world more so then go on epic adventures over and over and over. Even though horror is my #1 genre of choice, I must say that the Runequest releases EXCITE me more. I know that not only am I getting a book of new rules and mechanics, I am getting a deeper look at the life in Glorantha. The slow release schedule honestly helps this feeling, like anticipating the next episode of a long running show. I think what is setting runequest apart from other big publishers fantasy games is that every book is solid and isn't overwhelming with releases that are just retconning or changing things because "the release schedule must be continuous!" I genuinely appreciate the amount of effort and time Chaosium is putting into these books.
  4. This parallels with my initial post of how I would do a similar thing to my players so I wish to add to my point. I would only up the opposition if the players have had the best luck for a long long time and are getting too complacent and the fear of the enemy is gone. This is not to say I have the enemy cast some spell that is ridiculously dangerous, but ill have their equipment have a special quality or up the stats. On the flip side, if the opposition is doing way too good I will do the opposite. Maybe they managed to hit them and it disabled their arm where their weapon is! Maybe I will call for a spot hidden or listen roll to show a possible advantage they can have on the enemy (a chandelier above if i wanted to go cliche). Or maybe, if the player rolled a regular success on a dodge toll after being pummeled, well gee the enemy also rolled a regular success! That's kind of my take on it, and although I feel strongly on this I have to say that I fudge a toll maybe once every 5 sessions, so its far between.
  5. Yes! This is one of the highlights of the system in my eyes. I use the option rule that you can use luck points do pass a failed roll, my players use this pretty often. I ran a one shot that I wrote years ago and I told my new players about this rule. Well they went all out on that rule, constantly using luck because they don't wanna fail any rolls and "what's the worst that can happen" Well they were sneaking in a mansion and I called for the almighty "Group luck roll " the look on their faces when I said its the lowest person's luck that rolls. We all had a good laugh when the normal min-maxer of the group managed to have less than 10 luck. Well they were caught by the caretaker going get a glass of water in the kitchen and the police were called with a very detailed description of the investigators because we have just came from D&D where you feel the need to be a unique looking character. This one shot ended with the investigators not completing the mystery and ROBBED the mansion of their highest treasure, you know the Rogue DnD way. This was their first session so I wanted to ease them into it and simply asked "does anyone read the gold plated book in the library?" Then described the gruesome deaths the players went to on the drive back. Luck points are great and you are right that they create tension, my players are very hesitant to use luck points now (but not TOO hesitant to the point where they never use it)
  6. So most of my close friends are all DMs and we all come from different RPG backgrounds (EotE, DnD 3.5/5, CoC, Pathfinder, etc.) and something that always sparks a real interesting discussion is the topic of fudging rolls in our games. I will talk about my personal experiences and feelings on fudging rolls, but I would love to hear the opinion of other DMs and even from a player mindset. A outright TPK can be anti-climactic and can really ruin the mood and fun and leave a bad taste in the players mouth. If a player is absolutely on fire with their rolls it will make the encounter seem too easy I typically increase an NPCs opposing skill during social encounters if the Face at the time has been having fire rolls I will have the enemy land the hit that they wouldn't otherwise, create tension in the altercation I never have them roll enough damage to give a major injury or knock them out On the flip-side, if they player is having a super rough time I will throw them a bone Maybe the regular success on a spot hidden or insight reveals information that was written for the Hard Success I will lower the opposing skill of an NPC so they have an easier chance of a success I will make a monster use an attack that holds the investigator instead of killing the investigator Or if they hit the investigator with an extreme success, itll be a hard success so they don't do as much damage I will have the damage be a bit lower than what was rolled I believe you should only fudge the roll if it improves fun and/or the narrative. I would never fudge rolls as a power trip like THAT kind of CoC keeper. Here is a context that I have fudged a roll in my campaign So I was running Down Darker Trails with a bit of pulpy rules (double health and feats) and the context of the campaign is that Bo Diddley (a PC) was telling the story of his old wild west days to his son Joeseph (a PC of my Berlin campaign played by the same player) so the entire party would kind of get away with doing some ridiculous things because Bo is an alcoholic. Well! After an explosion in a mountain the party is running to escape, well one failed a Dex roll and Bo succeeded, well I rolled damage of the fire and shockwave and it did MAX damage. Well as the last scene of the entire Down Darker Trails campaign (for now) a normal Keeper would think this would be a good time to kill a PC. Well the player in question has been roll playing his character fantastic, opting to have his character have defects for roleplaying. He also betrayed the party before hand by siding with the Serpent people but with the chance to kill the party he went to the light and fought to save them. This man is played his character so well I feel that killing his character would possibly leave a serious impression and can be very heartfelt to find his corpse in the rubble and instead of a betrayer he is the reason they are alive. Well, I thought I would give him one more chance to live. I did HALF the damage, which still gave him a major injury so he needed to get medical attention immediately anyways so he can atleast die in the arms of Bo and have a heartfelt moment. Well Bo in his grand wisdom and drunken story telling decided to say he wanted to Ride the injured man down the mountain like a skateboard, this sounded so ridiculous but knowing Bo this would be a lie he would tell his son so I said ok (took a little bit more HP away from Jasper, the injured PC). Well Jasper asked about possible giant rocks falling from the explosion, roll luck. Fail! Roll damage (by this point i gave him already a chance to survive and I wouldn't feel comfortable fudging two death rolls). It rolls enough damage to put him at 1 HP, so I say the rubble lands on his left side and crushes his leg and arm leaving him immobile. Jasper screams to Bo to run for his life but Bo says no, he pulls him out and CRITS a first aid check. He managed to save Jasper from an inch from his life and Jasper said he will get rid of his vices of women and drugs, living a good life. Well now Jaspers redemption has been a talking point in our group for over a year and everyone says they had a great time and loved Jaspers arc. I feel fudging that one roll made Jasper a fulfilled character in that players eyes and had a lot of fun. He even said he will continue to play Jasper with the crutch because it would be an amazing roleplay, a now god loving man redeeming his name across america and researching the mythos and fighting the serpents. I feel fudging rolls can create more roleplaying doors and can make sessions more memorable, but it is important to NEVER TELL YOUR PLAYERS YOU FUDGE ROLLS. This can cause them to doubt any major success. Well these are my views on this matter, what is yours? I'm interested in your experiences with fudging rolls or reasoning to never fudge a rolls under any circumstance. Let me know!
  7. I am coming to a close of a campaign I am running of Call of Cthulhu, so I am trying to plan ahead to my next game. I have been doing research of Samurai based rpgs and I was going to pick L5R because of the accessibility. But recently discovered that 2 years ago there was talks of a Samurai game using Pendragon rules before Pendragon went to chaosium. Has there been any news since 2018?
  8. Long time Lurker here, I've been seeing this topic a lot on multiple platforms as well as in person so I thought I would throw my personal opinion in the ring. I have players using magic (sometimes) in my game. Although it is rather recent I have found it creates a fantastic player dynamic. The player with magic is unknowingly a cultist, praising the mythos in secret. CoC allows you to pick an occultist occupation as well as mythos experience background so I thought why not. Since I am the Keeper I get a say in what cult he joins and how they operate for max RP and Campaign flavor. Well my player (1) is a cultist of one of the cults that another player (2) has been told my his father (his previous PC) that this cult is very very bad. So now Player 1 is keeping his background secret while investigating these mysteries secretly for the cult, while Player 2 is secretly investigating Player 1. Player (2) has used magic in front of the players before but it was during a Do or Die situation so there was no time of "hey man what was that". And after that session months have gone by before the two caught up again. But this time with a bigger threat to the city, so they decide to put the fued on hold until all is well. Obviously a keeper must know his group and what would be fun for them, and this type of dynamic is fun for my group. We keep player knowledge and character knowledge the same, so I text or whisper to a character when secret stuff happens and have them do secret rolls from the party. I understand this type of PC vs PC is not fun for a lot of Keepers, but its fun for us and I have asked my players if this hinders their experience with CoC and they all say no. My players are about 50/50 Lovecraft fans. I think it all depends on the group if Player magic is OK, plus the Keeper has complete control over what spells they learn, so if they learn a spell you don't like its entirely your fault in the first place. But honestly all this works because my 6 players are RP first kind of players. Our group does no tolerate metagaming nor min-maxing, which is already difficult to do in a system like this where one knife blow my a junkie can kill you. I think saying it isn't right for investigators to have magic in CoC represents more of YOUR group, not everyone's. But this kind of differences of tabletop RPing is what makes this system great. Rules I live by from my early days of DMing 1. Don't make a NPC that death will derail the campaign 2. Don't introduce plot points you have no plans for 3. Don't introduce mechanics that the players can't also do at some point (i.e magic)
×
×
  • Create New...