Cthulhu Clue

[Old Man Henerson]

19 hours ago, seneschal said:

The guns, not the creatures, are psychic.  If a PC acquires a weapon from a downed opponent he risks mind control/possession by whatever broadcast power is enabling them to operate.  Creatures and cultists are simply pawns of this centralized controlling force, be it a computer, alien or ancient entity.  If they can resist domination the adventurers have a chance to wrest control of a weapon from ... whatever it is.  However, since the power is broadcast, the high-tech gear only works within a certain range of whatever originally gave it its oomph.

18 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

There was a History Channel  mockumentary on War of the Worlds that sort of went down that  path. Basically it  was the alien tech  that  drove the Martian to invade, and  with us humans being such technophiles it seemed as if the tech basically  abandoned the Martians for more useful and versatile us.

 

I had to think about this for a while, it sounds like a weird and interesting idea. I think it would be cool to give things like this to the more powerful monsters and minions of the rulers and use them as some tempting and dangerous artifacts for the PCs to use.

They would be powerful and earth shaking weapons to be certain. Perhaps if they gain control over them, the could attach one or two of the artifacts to their mecha as super weapons. Do you think powers like Mind Shield would help resist the power of the artifacts?

[Atgxtg]

58 minutes ago, Old Man Henerson said:

I had to think about this for a while, it sounds like a weird and interesting idea. I think it would be cool to give things like this to the more powerful monsters and minions of the rulers and use them as some tempting and dangerous artifacts for the PCs to use.

Yes, but if you do t hat, take a page out of anime a nd give the PKS  some mecha or pwoer armore a step  or two above the bad guys so they can withstand such an onslaught. In many anime series the  PCs and their special mech is the only thing that can stand up to the bad guys and thier superweapons.

58 minutes ago, Old Man Henerson said:

They would be powerful and earth shaking weapons to be certain. Perhaps if they gain control over them, the could attach one or two of the artifacts to their mecha as super weapons. Do you think powers like Mind Shield would help resist the power of the artifacts?

Depends on  how you want to write it. The mecha could act as a  focus for psychic abilities if you want, or be  completely unrelated.

[Old Man Henerson]

35 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

Yes, but if you do t hat, take a page out of anime a nd give the PKS  some mecha or pwoer armore a step  or two above the bad guys so they can withstand such an onslaught. In many anime series the  PCs and their special mech is the only thing that can stand up to the bad guys and thier superweapons.

Yeah giving them better equipment would be the best option. It would also make more sense for the world because most of the enemies in this setting have medieval level technology at best, and would not know how to combat mecha suits without using psychic power or calling in the bigger mythos theamed monsters to fight.

I will probably have to include several battles without mecha suits to make the game a little more even and save the mecha for more impressive battles.

35 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

Depends on  how you want to write it. The mecha could act as a  focus for psychic abilities if you want, or be  completely unrelated.

I was thinking the mecha would be more mundane, but perhaps over time the PCs could work on a way to use their mecha to enhance their powers and act as psychic conduits. 

Perhaps by combining them with alien psychic technology?

Edited December 10, 2019 by Old Man Henerson
Thought of something new to add

[Atgxtg]

1 hour ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Yeah giving them better equipment would be the best option. It would also make more sense for the world because most of the enemies in this setting have medieval level technology at best, and would not know how to combat mecha suits without using psychic power or calling in the bigger mythos theamed monsters to fight.

Well, if the PKS come from a more advan ced culture, then they should have a  big advantage  as  long as their tech holds out.

1 hour ago, Old Man Henerson said:

I will probably have to include several battles without mecha suits to make the game a little more even and save the mecha for more impressive battles.

Well, you could make the mecha alien tech that the players discover. It could  be a tech level or three  above normal human tech  and so a step or two ahead of the bad buys.

 

1 hour ago, Old Man Henerson said:

I was thinking the mecha would be more mundane, but perhaps over time the PCs could work on a way to use their mecha to enhance their powers and act as psychic conduits. 

Perhaps by combining them with alien psychic technology?

Up to you. I've seen anime series that have gone in either direction.

[Old Man Henerson]

4 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Well, if the PKS come from a more advan ced culture, then they should have a  big advantage  as  long as their tech holds out.

Holding on to their superior weapons will be one of the focuses of the game, especially since their ship back to Mars has been destroyed and the shuttle they came down is incapable of returning. There will be a few semi advanced groups they could go to for help, though there technology will be rather inferior compared to that of Mars; and they can also steel equipment  and arms from the more advanced alien greys who serve the rulers.

4 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Well, you could make the mecha alien tech that the players discover. It could  be a tech level or three  above normal human tech  and so a step or two ahead of the bad buys.

Speaking of the greys, they could have mecha or tripods that could face off with the PCs, and I can even give the cultists "mecha" of their own in the form of eldritch symbiote creatures like Venom, along with ofcourse the usual large monsters.

4 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Up to you. I've seen anime series that have gone in either direction.

I think I will go with psychic modifications and enhancements to the mecha suits, it might make fighting a planet eating monster with nothing but psychic power more believable.

On a note more relevant to the thread than, what is the weirdest scenario you have played in or run?

[Old Man Henerson]

Apparently, my plot for Elon Musk cyber mecha was a lot more plausible than I first thought. 

 

[Atgxtg]

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Apparently, my plot for Elon Musk cyber mecha was a lot more plausible than I first thought. 

It's been possible for decades, it just not all that practical.

What you need to do is  look at any design as having 100% of total "stuff" in it. Now any area  that you want to improve comes out of that 100%. This is why mecha, transforming mecha and such aren't all that great an idea. What tends  to  happen is that the end result won't be as good as dedicated vehicle designed to do one of the things the mecha does. So am armored mech that can fly will be inferior to a tank  as far as  protection goes, and to  an airplane  as far as flight  goes. It's actually hard to find something that mecha can do better than  something else.

[Old Man Henerson]

47 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

It's been possible for decades, it just not all that practical.

What you need to do is  look at any design as having 100% of total "stuff" in it. Now any area  that you want to improve comes out of that 100%. This is why mecha, transforming mecha and such aren't all that great an idea. What tends  to  happen is that the end result won't be as good as dedicated vehicle designed to do one of the things the mecha does. So am armored mech that can fly will be inferior to a tank  as far as  protection goes, and to  an airplane  as far as flight  goes. It's actually hard to find something that mecha can do better than  something else.

The more I think about it, the more practical it seems for this particular story. The colonists have limited resources at their disposal so having a well rounded mobile arms platform like a mecha is actually a bonus in this situation as opposed to more specialized but resource intensive alternative.

The Mecha types I am going for probably more belong to the real robot genre anyways, looking and acting like this mech here from the Command & Conquer series but than a transformer or Voltron.

[Atgxtg]

32 minutes ago, Old Man Henerson said:

The more I think about it, the more practical it seems for this particular story. The colonists have limited resources at their disposal so having a well rounded mobile arms platform like a mecha is actually a bonus in this situation as opposed to more specialized but resource intensive alternative.

Realistically, some sort of dedicated vehicle  (tank, APC) would probably do the job better.  That's why we don't get such craft in the real world. But in a RPG there are more possibilities. 

 

[seneschal]

Man, this thread has drifted far afield!

"Colonel Mustard did it, on Penopolous III, with plasma cannon mounted on his Danguard Mark VII!"

[Old Man Henerson]

2 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Realistically, some sort of dedicated vehicle  (tank, APC) would probably do the job better.  That's why we don't get such craft in the real world. But in a RPG there are more possibilities. 

 

Yep. There are all sort of possibilities out there, I will just have to see how they work out in the long run.

[Old Man Henerson]

8 minutes ago, seneschal said:

Man, this thread has drifted far afield!

"Colonel Mustard did it, on Penopolous III, with plasma cannon mounted on his Danguard Mark VII!"

Have you heard the tragedy of Doctor Black The Wealthy?

 

[Atgxtg]

1 hour ago, seneschal said:

Man, this thread has drifted far afield!

"Colonel Mustard did it, on Penopolous III, with plasma cannon mounted on his Danguard Mark VII!"

Speaking of which, what ever happened to your adventure?

[seneschal]

Recovering from surgery, didn't get to run it.  But I did watch the Clue movie with my extended family on Halloween night.  No mecha though (daughter can't afford robot insurance).

[Old Man Henerson]

13 hours ago, seneschal said:

Recovering from surgery, didn't get to run it.  But I did watch the Clue movie with my extended family on Halloween night.  No mecha though (daughter can't afford robot insurance).

But mecha make everything better! Don't tell me you haven't ever wanted to ride around in one of these babies.

Hope you get better from your surgery.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Old Man Henerson
Spelling

[seneschal]

Thank you.  Hey!  Its even my favorite color.  But wouldn't bright yellow make it an easy target against the snow?  Don't want to scuff the paint job.  Unless that's a form of camouflage ("Don't eat the yellow snow!").

[Old Man Henerson]

On 12/13/2019 at 9:59 AM, seneschal said:

Thank you.  Hey!  Its even my favorite color.  But wouldn't bright yellow make it an easy target against the snow?  Don't want to scuff the paint job.  Unless that's a form of camouflage ("Don't eat the yellow snow!").

Glad you like it. I suppose that the gold coloring on it would make it an easier target in the snow, though seeing that much yellow snow charging towards you would be enough to make anyone run in terror LOL.  Sill, you have to live with the paint job, otherwise, you have to get used to the dull black and red of these jokers.

Speaking of adapting clue into a scenario though, the big golden book had similar suggestions of how you could try to adapt your favorite books and movies into a campaign setting. The one in the book that caught my attention the most was a suggestion to take the setting of The Lord of The Rings, and set it in feudal Japan, renaming it The Shogun of the Rings. 

How would you go about doing something like that? And have you ever adapted a popular story like Lord of The Rings into a campaign and run your players through the story?

Edited December 14, 2019 by Old Man Henerson
Adding a paragraph after the pictures

[Atgxtg]

35 minutes ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Speaking of adapting clue into a scenario though, the big golden book had similar suggestions of how you could try to adapt your favorite books and movies into a campaign setting. The one in the book that caught my attention the most was a suggestion to take the setting of The Lord of The Rings, and set it in feudal Japan, renaming it The Shogun of the Rings. 

How would you go about doing something like that?

 

THat's an interesting concept.   For starters:

• I'd equate the advanced Culture of the West  (Elves, High  Men, etc.) to Fedual Japanese Society.
• I'd use RQ3 Land of t he Ninja to get the basic stats  for gear, professions and monsters.
• I'd probably equate Orcs to Bakemono (Japanese Goblins) and  Trolls to Dai-Bekemono (great goblins or Ogres.)
• I'd have to decide of  Elves and Dwarves existed  or replace them with something more Japanese such as Kenku and Kitsune or some such.
• Since Japan is  a series of islands, rather than a continent, I'd have to decide if everything takes  place on Japan (with a Japanese Mountain standing in for Mount Doom) or use all of Asia, putting Mount Doom in China, Mongolia or Tibet.
• The Low Men would end up being everyone who wasn't Japanese, which is a bit snobbish, but fits the culture and story. The Nabinjin (Europeans) with firearms and ships could be the minions of Sauron, as could the Mongols if I set it earlier. 
• I'd want to go over everything to make it more Japanese when possible.
• I'd want to change some stuff just to keep the players guessing and keep them from being able to anticipate  what is going to happen. 

 

35 minutes ago, Old Man Henerson said:

And have you ever adapted a popular story like Lord of The Rings into a campaign and run your players through the story?

Yeah, I've d one stuff like that at times. Normally not something as well know as LOTR,  but I did run a campaign where I ran the players through a  bunch of Celtic Myths. To do something like t hat you  first figure out what the key points are, and how much freedom the players have to divert from the "Story". Then you figure out what happens if the players do divert, and  rework the story to allow them some choice.  Then decide how obvious you want it to be and alter/vary stuff to obscure the source if desired. Usually you'll want to make some changes to ensure that the players don't figure out the story and shortcut to the ending--  or instance using the Great Eagles to drop ol'  Bilbo's ring into  Mount Doom, "just in case", bypassing 95% of the adventure. Plus you would probably want to make it your adventure and leave you own mark on the  story. 

I';ve often taken whole stories from books, old movies, TV shows, or historical events. Just how much  I change it depends on how well known it is and how well it fits into the setting. I once ran an "Antony & Cleopatra" storyline in a Star Trek campaign,  making the story more high tech, changing  Antony to a  Romulan Commander, and Cleopatra the leader of an ancient but weak civilization on  the borders of the  Romulan Empire.   Most of my players didn't catch on to what I was doing.

Generally I find it  better to take some  elements and add them to a campaign rather than try to copy a  story exactly., and for multiple reasons.  First off, I want t he players to be able to affect things with their actions, so I want  some flexibility with the story. Secondly,  it can often be more fun to react to other things going on in the story.  For example in my Star Trek  campaign,  I had planned for the "Antony & Cleopatra" storyline to end badly when the Romulan Empire attacked,  but Star Trek Nemesis had the Romulan senate get killed off and greatly altered the political  landscape, which opened the door for a different,  happier ending. And that ending played out much better in game, too.

 

 

[seneschal]

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Speaking of adapting clue into a scenario though, the big golden book had similar suggestions of how you could try to adapt your favorite books and movies into a campaign setting. The one in the book that caught my attention the most was a suggestion to take the setting of The Lord of The Rings, and set it in feudal Japan, renaming it The Shogun of the Rings. 

How would you go about doing something like that? And have you ever adapted a popular story like Lord of The Rings into a campaign and run your players through the story?

My take on this was to adopt a pulp adventure trope, where one of the PCs buys a ring at a dodgy pawn shop and the adventurers find themselves being stalked by shadowy, half-seen figures in dark trench coats and slouch hats plus a pint-sized would-be assassin who seems to follow them everywhere.

[Old Man Henerson]

6 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

 

THat's an interesting concept.   For starters:

• I'd equate the advanced Culture of the West  (Elves, High  Men, etc.) to Fedual Japanese Society.
• I'd use RQ3 Land of t he Ninja to get the basic stats  for gear, professions and monsters.
• I'd probably equate Orcs to Bakemono (Japanese Goblins) and  Trolls to Dai-Bekemono (great goblins or Ogres.)
• I'd have to decide of  Elves and Dwarves existed  or replace them with something more Japanese such as Kenku and Kitsune or some such.
• Since Japan is  a series of islands, rather than a continent, I'd have to decide if everything takes  place on Japan (with a Japanese Mountain standing in for Mount Doom) or use all of Asia, putting Mount Doom in China, Mongolia or Tibet.
• The Low Men would end up being everyone who wasn't Japanese, which is a bit snobbish, but fits the culture and story. The Nabinjin (Europeans) with firearms and ships could be the minions of Sauron, as could the Mongols if I set it earlier. 
• I'd want to go over everything to make it more Japanese when possible.
• I'd want to change some stuff just to keep the players guessing and keep them from being able to anticipate  what is going to happen. 

I did actually think that the setting might be better by putting it in China, 1, because I know a little more about Chinese myths and legends than Japanese ones, and 2, because I thought it would be a much bigger land to work with, potentially using the mongols as a replacement for the men of the East.  I have no idea who to replace orcs, goblins, hobbits, elves and dwarves with. I will have to look up those creatures you suggested. Maybe Japan could be the Shire? The other problem I would have with moving the setting to china is that I could not make Aragorn's into a ninja, which would be the only suitable replacement for being a ranger.

Perhaps mount doom could be Mt. Everest itself.  To my knowledge China does not have any volcanoes and only Japan does since it is on the ring of fire, I guess we could make up our own though. I liked your suggestions though, they are all very good ideas.

6 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Yeah, I've d one stuff like that at times. Normally not something as well know as LOTR,  but I did run a campaign where I ran the players through a  bunch of Celtic Myths. To do something like t hat you  first figure out what the key points are, and how much freedom the players have to divert from the "Story". Then you figure out what happens if the players do divert, and  rework the story to allow them some choice.  Then decide how obvious you want it to be and alter/vary stuff to obscure the source if desired. Usually you'll want to make some changes to ensure that the players don't figure out the story and shortcut to the ending--  or instance using the Great Eagles to drop ol'  Bilbo's ring into  Mount Doom, "just in case", bypassing 95% of the adventure. Plus you would probably want to make it your adventure and leave you own mark on the  story. 

I';ve often taken whole stories from books, old movies, TV shows, or historical events. Just how much  I change it depends on how well known it is and how well it fits into the setting. I once ran an "Antony & Cleopatra" storyline in a Star Trek campaign,  making the story more high tech, changing  Antony to a  Romulan Commander, and Cleopatra the leader of an ancient but weak civilization on  the borders of the  Romulan Empire.   Most of my players didn't catch on to what I was doing.

Generally I find it  better to take some  elements and add them to a campaign rather than try to copy a  story exactly., and for multiple reasons.  First off, I want t he players to be able to affect things with their actions, so I want  some flexibility with the story. Secondly,  it can often be more fun to react to other things going on in the story.  For example in my Star Trek  campaign,  I had planned for the "Antony & Cleopatra" storyline to end badly when the Romulan Empire attacked,  but Star Trek Nemesis had the Romulan senate get killed off and greatly altered the political  landscape, which opened the door for a different,  happier ending. And that ending played out much better in game, too.

That is a cool Idea with the Celtic myths and Antony and Cleopatra. I have not gamed enough to start doing stuff like that but I have always imagined it would be fun. I am a little hesitant to try it though since I usually like to be more creative and think up my own stories rather than copy books and movies, but with The Night Land, and this Japanese Lord of The Rings, I have been more than interested in the Idea, so one day I may have to try it out for real. 

You are very right about having to change up some of the story elements, to make things more interesting for the players and give them more choices. I was wondering weather I should keep the plot and NPCs the same while having the players bring their own creativity and choices to the story or to just keep the general plot outline and have the players go wild on their quests, minus the obvious fly the Eagles to Mordor bit. 

[Old Man Henerson]

4 hours ago, seneschal said:

My take on this was to adopt a pulp adventure trope, where one of the PCs buys a ring at a dodgy pawn shop and the adventurers find themselves being stalked by shadowy, half-seen figures in dark trench coats and slouch hats plus a pint-sized would-be assassin who seems to follow them everywhere.

That sounds like a cool twist on the story. How did it work out? Did they take the hobbits to Leningrad? 😉

[seneschal]

1 hour ago, Old Man Henerson said:

That sounds like a cool twist on the story. How did it work out? Did they take the hobbits to Leningrad? 😉

Another idea I never got to game out.  But you know the climax had to feature an aerial battle between flying Nazghul and Crimson Skies style biplanes.

[Atgxtg]

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

I did actually think that the setting might be better by putting it in China, 1, because I know a little more about Chinese myths and legends than Japanese ones, and 2, because I thought it would be a much bigger land to work with, potentially using the mongols as a replacement for the men of the East.

I think  so too, mostly becuase the terrain matches up  better. You could just mirror where the cultures a re with the coastline being  equvilant to the  West, with the inland mountainous regions (Monggloian , Tibet) being like Mordor. In fact, I'd  probably have the Great Wall be built to keep out Saurons men.

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

  I have no idea who to replace orcs, goblins, hobbits, elves and dwarves with.

Well,  here's one way to do it:

The Uruk -hai (the hobgolins or the advanced orcs), I beleive share the name  with what the  Mongols used to call thsmelves. So you could either make the ORc s Mongols,  or if you wanted them as men, come up with something similar. There are no d oubt  some s ort of Chinese or Mongolian goblin to use. Maybe Trolls could be Yeti?You could use the Lin Kueie, a sort of Chinese proto-ninja who were masters of  throwing weapons as elves. Maybe some sort of craftsmen could be the dwarves?

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

I will have to look up those creatures you suggested. Maybe Japan could be the Shire? The other problem I would have with moving the setting to china is that I could not make Aragorn's into a ninja, which would be the only suitable replacement for being a ranger.

I  believe there  used to be some sort of Chinese version of the Knight errant that might work better for Aragon. THere are some sort of hobbit in Japeansese Lore so part of Japan could be the  Shire. I don't think  I've give them all of Japan.

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Perhaps mount doom could be Mt. Everest itself.  To my knowledge China does not have any volcanoes and only Japan does since it is on the ring of fire, I guess we could make up our own though. I liked your suggestions though, they are all very good ideas.

Well even  mountain is a potential volcano, so you got plenty of options there. Everest is a good choice.

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

That is a cool Idea with the Celtic myths and Antony and Cleopatra. I have not gamed enough to start doing stuff like that but I have always imagined it would be fun. I am a little hesitant to try it though since I usually like to be more creative and think up my own stories rather than copy books and movies, but with The Night Land, and this Japanese Lord of The Rings, I have been more than interested in the Idea, so one day I may have to try it out for real. 

It's not really that hard to  do, especially if they disguise things enough so that the players can  identfity what is going on right away. For instance, for the LOTR idea                                      I'd suggest changing the  One Ring  to a Katana or some such. It fits the setting better.

 

3 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

You are very right about having to change up some of the story elements, to make things more interesting for the players and give them more choices. I was wondering weather I should keep the plot and NPCs the same while having the players bring their own creativity and choices to the story or to just keep the general plot outline and have the players go wild on their quests, minus the obvious fly the Eagles to Mordor bit. 

It's really up  to the Gm.  I'd suggest seeing what  you  need to change to  con vert the s etting, and then  go with  anything interesting that comes with the new setting. For instance, a lot of Asian monsters  an d creatures t hat could be fitting into he story. Replace Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits with Hengeyokai  (Japanese shapeshifters) or some such. Then see what ideas that  gives you, Typically, after a little  time working on it it becomes something that isn't all that recognizable, at least until the players go over the key story points, and notice a  pattern.

[Atgxtg]

1 hour ago, seneschal said:

Another idea I never got to game out.  But you know the climax had to feature an aerial battle between flying Nazghul and Crimson Skies style biplanes.

That could be a nice ending.

[Old Man Henerson]

On 12/14/2019 at 8:37 PM, seneschal said:

Another idea I never got to game out.  But you know the climax had to feature an aerial battle between flying Nazghul and Crimson Skies style biplanes.

Now that would be a cool game to play.