davewire

I purchased the original edition back in 2020 and have access to the pdf. When the new version comes out, will I have access to the new pdf with the updated art, layout etc or is this being treated as an entirely new and separate entity from the original Nameless Horrors?

I keep seeing these Korean titles popping up and they really intrigue me. Perhaps Chaosium might make a translation like they did for Does Love Forgive? one day. Maybe if there’s enough interest (and surely claiming a top spot on DriveThruRPG should generate that interest) then it might be looked into.

4 hours ago, Darius West said:

Look, you can do this, but I think you're pushing mud uphill.

If you are going to run a Vampire scenario in CoC, why use Ravenloft at all?  I mean, while it is great at bringing a Vampire aesthetic to D&D, the notion of retrofitting the same setting into CoC seems, well, an odd choice.

Vampires are one of the creatures that Lovecraft didn't actually bother with much in his mythos, and ultimately CoC is about Lovecraft monsters.  He does comver hematophages a little, but not with any depth.  Lovecraft didn't want to rehash Stoker.

CoC doesn’t just have to be Lovecraftian horror. The game is an entire toolset on how to run horror mysteries and I think, with little work, Ravenloft can be run as an investigative scenario. The premise of original module follows a group traversing the halls of Castle Ravenloft, seeking a way to put an end to Strahd and escape the misty borders of Barovia whilst trying to avoid the eye and ire of its dread lord and maintain their composure. Searching for ways to survive a powerful entity that is beyond human means by arming one’s self with knowledge and discovering powerful artifacts is very CoC.

I’d mainly want to retain the story and setting of Ravenloft. Traversing the castle would be more of an abstract than a dungeon crawl as the investigators search for hidden libraries of arcane knowledge and crypts containing relics and lore. You wouldn’t be running tons of monster encounters like you would in D&D. This isn’t a fantasy hack and slash game. A few good monster encounters, maybe with some zombies or other undead, a lesser vampire or two, and Strahd himself would be more than enough for a CoC encounter.

Obviously Strahd would have to be more than just a vampire as laid out in the Keeper’s Rulebook. He’s also a wizard and in life an accomplished soldier and his stats should reflect that.

If you did want to add in a bit of Lovecraftian horror, I believe that the aloof Dark Powers of Ravenloft from which Strahd draws his power and was transformed could fit in with the themes of the mythos.

I’m a big fan of D&D’s original Ravenloft module and its many rereleases over the years including 5th Edition’s Curse of Strahd. However, a criticism I have often found for the module, especially for Curse of Strahd, is that D&D is game of heroes, not horrors, and that it is difficult to bring a sense of dread to a game that wasn’t really built with dread mechanics in mind.

The Keeper Tips book says on page 8 that “[you shouldn’t] feel that you have to limit yourself to Lovecraftian horror. Gothic horror… can all be easily enjoyed with Call of Cthulhu. Explore the genres!” When I read that line, I immediately thought of the stats for vampires found in the Keeper’s Rulebook and it suddenly sparked an idea. What if I just ran Ravenloft as a Call of Cthulhu scenario!?

I thought about how and where I would add sanity saves as investigators come across the horrific scenes of blood drained corpses and the dead rising from the grave, failing sanity checks and developing a fear of or even a taste for blood, delving into the mystery of the vampire, the lore of how he came to be and how to stop him, the investigations to discover where his secret tomb lies, the horrifying possibility of encountering an awakened and angry Strahd and all the terrible ways it could end.

What are your thoughts? Does this seem possible or am I trying too hard to force a square peg into a round hole? Are there any suggestions on how this could be achieved?

It appears that, from what HPLHS posted on the preorder page for the prop set, that the Haunting will be getting props as part of the set as it lists the props coming from the Call of Cthulhu rulebook and the five supplements.

On 2/24/2022 at 11:42 AM, AlHazred said:

Also, is Major Mitchell being played by Nick Offerman?

Apparently he’s a big fan of the game so I’m not surprised to see him honored in merch.

https://imgur.com/72huZrX

On 2/24/2022 at 11:41 AM, AlHazred said:

Oh, Hell Yes... Now, if only I could get them to do a set of props for "The Haunting."

Agreed. The Haunting (or the Haunted House rather) is in the Classics box. It would be nice if that got props too.

We’re about $500 short of reaching the next stretch goal! I’m sure it will be hit within the hour.

EDIT: It’s just sitting there with $42 to go and I’m just getting anxiety waiting for someone to back the cause.

EDIT (again): Woohoo! We made it! Can’t wait to hear what the $400,000 goal is.

1 hour ago, commandercrud said:

I wasn't going to get this until I saw that HPLHS was doing a prop set for it. Their stuff is amazing and makes all the difference. I'll be converting all of these to 7th edition.

That’s truly part of the beauty of 7th edition. We’ll be getting reprints of all these 2nd edition supplements and all of them can easily be converted for modern play.

Just received this in an email from the HPLHS. Seems we’re gonna get some upgraded handouts. Awesomesauce.

6 hours ago, klecser said:

Says Rick Meints in the other active thread:

 

That makes sense. I would have loved to have gotten a remastering of the 1st edition though, just for the novelty as it’s the only only edition I have never seen a copy of (print or digital). If they had offered rereleases of both the 1st and 2nd editions, I would have definitely gone all in on both. Still, it’s great to be able to delve into the history of the game and get a chance to obtain any of the old editions as I’m much too young to have ever had the chance to have picked up 2nd edition was released. (I was born after the release of 3rd edition after all.)

Even if they can’t release physical copies, I’d love if they could make 1st edition available in PDFs and maybe POD as a stretch goal.

”Mask of Desire” from “Does Love Forgive?” has ties to the Cult of Hastur.

Here’s a few non-Chaosium RPGs that are related to the King in Yellow:

• “Carcosa” is a OSR hex crawl that brings you to the titular city and the its surrounding world near Aldebaran where black stars burn. Not much to do with the King in Yellow mythos, but it is an intriguing RPG based on OSR RPG “Lamentations of the Flame Princess”. It’s got a fair amount about the mythos between its covers 
• The Pathfinder 1st edition Adventure Path “Strange Aeons” pits your party against the King in Yellow.
• “The Repairer of Reputations” for Pelgrane Press’ “Trail of Cthulhu” RPG allows you to play through Robert Chambers’ original story. “Trail of Cthulhu” uses the GUMSHOE rules like Pelgrane’s “Yellow King” RPG. However, Pelgrane has released ways of converting between the two systems so you might be able to use the Call of Cthulhu rules with a bit of tweaking.

Well-known CoC internet reviewer Seth Skorkowksy’s book “Ashes of Onyx” delves in the Hastur mythos.

The first season of HBO’s True Detective is perhaps one of the best filmed representations of the King in Yellow themes.

Beyond that, I’d check out the original stories by Chambers and Ambrose Bierce and many of the stories in the Hastur Cycle published by Chaosium.

6 hours ago, MOB said:

 

The Children of Fear features the 2020 Spectrum 27 award-winning art of Sija Hong, 'The Three Lords of Shambhala' shown above.

Looking forward to reading this over the weekend.  I love this piece of artwork.  I think I mentioned this back when the art was first announced for this book, but it has a definite ring of German Expressionism to it, an art style popular around the time of Lovecraft's works for their dreamlike quality.  More specifically, this artist perfectly captures the work of Wenzel Hablik and very much reminds me of my favorite painting of his, The Path of the Genius.

Chaosium is finally planning to release the long lost 2nd edition of Pendragon. 😂😂

But in all seriousness, I can’t wait to find out what it is.

I’m pretty sure you’re looking for Last Rites from 1999.

Just got the email, Mansions got released today in print.  Darn it, and just after I had put in an order for something else, too.  I think I'll just wait a bit for Malleus Monstrorum and Does Love Forgive? to arrive in print to snag them all together.

10 minutes ago, David Scott said:

As the OP says

I know. I read it. I’m saying that when I first heard about the rumors about the HeroQuest board game revival two weeks ago when Avalon Hill put up the timer and Hasbro subsequently confirmed those selfsame rumors yesterday, I immediately was curious about Chaosium’s response. Again, it’s good to see the answer and if I want a copy of Chaosium’s game with the HeroQuest brand, I better get on it.

I've been excited to see the return of the Milton Bradley HeroQuest but it's left me incredibly curious about what will happen to the name of Chaosium's HeroQuest.  I've long been a fan of Call of Cthulhu but I'd really like to get into RuneQuest and HeroQuest. I think I'd like to have the version with the name Stafford wanted on the cover so I may have to pick up the HeroQuest books before any changes are made.  Also, I think it'd be kind of silly and cool to have two completely different games with the same name on my shelf.

I just thought to check the Cult of Chaos section.  I found a thread for the scenario giving a general overview of the plot but no pdf. Well, at least now I know the general plot.

EDIT: Another thread found directs me to contact Todd if I'd like a pdf. Found my answers.

On 9/16/2020 at 10:13 AM, Stormkhan Cogg of Pavis said:

As long as you don't hold the gun the wrong way round, bullets go in one end and come out of the other.

As said, you can fire it. You might hit something with luck.

That’s why it’s a “25% chance”. Critical fumble, you held the gun backwards and shot yourself.

I had played the Down Darker Trails earlier this year at GenCon Online and the group I played with, we had a really great time chasing down the mythos in the old west. In fact, we had such a great time running around (and on top of) the various train cars and roleplaying our characters that we unfortunately ran the clock and didn’t get to finish the scenario. We were planning along with our Keeper to possibly get together online to finish at one point, but sadly life got in the way and we never managed to find a time where we could all get together. This have left me extremely curious about the many loose ends we left and I was wondering if the Reno scenario was available somewhere or will eventually get a release in some collection because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!

Any help will be appreciated.

I really like the idea of one-on-one scenarios. It just makes it all feel all the more Lovecraftian and noir.

Also, that image of the woman smoking the cigarette definitely reminds me of Desire from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

6 hours ago, klecser said:

I'm enjoying that first scenario. Yithians feature prominently in my campaign and I've targeted that scenario for an immediate adventure hook option for my players. It will take some development, but it has lots of potential. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I need to go back and re-read Devil's Swamp, because Serpent People feature heavily in my campaign as well.

 

@davewire , I am really appreciating your contributions to the community!

Thanks.  Call of Cthulhu is a game I've been passionate about for a fairly long time.  Horror on the Orient Express and 7th edition were two of the first Kickstarters I ever backed and this was the first TTRPG I ever owned. 

12 hours ago, Tranquillitas Ordinis said:

once you are done with reading, could you please write here a short review of the book? There are so many great Call of Cthulhu books released recently (

That's the plan. So far, I can tell you that the scenarios all take place between 1925 and 1931. I know that the Peru adventure takes place in 1921 and the rest of Masks picks up in January, 1925. The earliest, the first scenario, "Egg out of Time", takes place on August 4, 1925 which would mean that this wouldn't be ideal to playing these scenarios between Peru and the rest of Masks. The book does say that all of the scenarios can be moved, however, so I don't see why you couldn't set them earlier. The only exception is the "Pyramid Scheme" scenario set in 1931 which has to take place after Black Tuesday.

A Time for Sacrifice now released on DriveThruRPG! New Comet Games completed fulfillment of the PDFs to backers a few days ago and has released the book for public consumption.

I’m currently reading through the first scenario, “Egg Out of Time”, which features the Great Race of Yith and a deadly flying polyp woven into Mayan mythology.

On 6/13/2020 at 2:41 PM, Umpherous Vermillion said:

Those are spot-on for CoC, davewire! I like using the Hero Forge site to create tokens for Roll20. Rotate to a top-down view and they work well as tokens (save the cutout and scale to a 70 x 70 png, which is one unit in Roll20). The examples below are from the current gray scale version of Hero Forge so I added some black highlights in Gimp for the Professor so you can see the detail. The second token is a generic cultist token that I "painted" in Gimp--added layers over the png and then added color then dropped the transparency down so the original shows through. If players get attached to their character, they can order a customized miniature from Hero Forge!

Professor character made from Hero Forge

Cultist made form Hero Forge and colored in GIMP.

 

HeroForge actually has a beta for making Tokens now I the works. Here’s one I made from the Nightgaunt.