New Keeper, Need Help for a Player

[Aberrant023]

Hello, all.

Well, as the title says, I'm a relatively new and inexperienced Keeper for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. I've run my players through The Haunting scenario, provided by the Quick Start Guide, and I have a few other modules that I'm planning to run to get a short-lived campaign going.

One of my players has decided to take on the role of Arkham's organized crime boss, a bootlegger and wealthy businessman. He pumped up his Credit Rating during character creation, though I can't recall the exact number off the top of my head (it puts him into either the Wealthy or Rich category). He's got a house, a car, some firearms, but he's wondering what else he can do with his money in this game. He's made some comments about wanting to help out the community, make sure that Arkham Asylum isn't the stereotypical playground for mad scientists, but instead actually runs competently and does what it's supposed to do (helping those with mental conditions rather than harming them). I get the sense that he's wanting to invest a lot of his character's wealth into Arkham itself to see it prosper despite the Mythos lurking in the shadows.

I just have no idea how to make something like this work in-game, short of making liberal use of the Contacts ability and possibly allowing him to use Credit Rating for the roll.

Other places of interest to him include: the bar he owns, the local museum, the hospital, and possibly some apartments (to alleviate homelessness).

Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

[Dethstrok9]

Sounds like Telltale's Bruce Wayne...

[Dethstrok9]

13 minutes ago, Aberrant023 said:

Hello, all.

Well, as the title says, I'm a relatively new and inexperienced Keeper for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. I've run my players through The Haunting scenario, provided by the Quick Start Guide, and I have a few other modules that I'm planning to run to get a short-lived campaign going.

One of my players has decided to take on the role of Arkham's organized crime boss, a bootlegger and wealthy businessman. He pumped up his Credit Rating during character creation, though I can't recall the exact number off the top of my head (it puts him into either the Wealthy or Rich category). He's got a house, a car, some firearms, but he's wondering what else he can do with his money in this game. He's made some comments about wanting to help out the community, make sure that Arkham Asylum isn't the stereotypical playground for mad scientists, but instead actually runs competently and does what it's supposed to do (helping those with mental conditions rather than harming them). I get the sense that he's wanting to invest a lot of his character's wealth into Arkham itself to see it prosper despite the Mythos lurking in the shadows.

I just have no idea how to make something like this work in-game, short of making liberal use of the Contacts ability and possibly allowing him to use Credit Rating for the roll.

Other places of interest to him include: the bar he owns, the local museum, the hospital, and possibly some apartments (to alleviate homelessness).

Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

One thing about the rules in any RPG is that they are more suggestions than rules. You could make Credit Rating checks, but if he has the money, I would just let him invest during downtime or improvement phase. Or you could make the asylum important to the main story line (or the site of a side scenario) and you'd have lots of role-playing opportunities from perhaps letting him/her fix it up, then watch as it spirals downward again from his/her actions, hahahaa;)

[sgtscott658]

I kinda had this same problem with one of my players, high CR, owns a fleet of airplanes, a race car and so on. He had a ton of plans on how he was going to spend his wealth. Well being the experienced GM (25+year) I decided to run the Two Headed Serpent campaign. Thus taking him totally out of that situation. and putting him in a situation where he did not have access to his vast wealth. The players in The Two Headed Serpent campaign start off in Bolivia right from the git go. So as an option, you can have your players start in some god forsaken part of the world and not have to worry about his High CR.

Edited March 6, 2020 by sgtscott658

[seneschal]

But the Credit Rating is part of who this character is.  It is a major motivator for his behavior.  He's a criminal who wants to become a philanthropist.  Exploring why he wants to do that (repentance or a desire to extend his malign influence?) is a natural character arc.  If you prevent him from going there, it would be like punishing the barbarian in a fantasy game for being stronger and tougher than the other characters or having the dashing pilot in a pulp adventure game discover he's in a world without airplanes.  Now, you don't want the player to dominate the campaign, steal the limelight from other participants, and derail your plots.  But he should have a chance for the gangster to throw his weight around a bit in-game.  Maybe Mister Big will discover he doesn't weigh as much as the thought.  Maybe he has ambitious rivals.  Will he become ever more ruthless and greedy?  Or will the struggle against evil -- in himself, in human opponents, in the Mythos -- mold him into the hero he never expected or perhaps never desired to be?

The character's wealth isn't an unfair advantage, it is a giant plot hook.  Don't strip him of it but do use it to yank him around.  He's loaded?  Here comes the tax man or an outside auditor for his businesses.  He's got a gorgeous mansion on the hill?  Everyone knows where to find him, and maybe something has decided to haunt it.  Every NPC in the campaign passes through his fancy club/restaurant/undercover casino.  He's got loads of contacts and useful underlings -- but he's got to keep them organized, on-task, paid, intimidated, content.  He also has cops trying to nail him, rivals trying to spy on him, lesser crooks (and perhaps cultists and Mythos monsters) trying to prey on his well-heeled customers.  Adventure will come looking for him, ready or not.

Edited March 6, 2020 by seneschal

[Thaz]

To the OP :- Take a look at Peaky Blinders. By becoming the social hub of the city and spending on good works the deeply shady and criminal family get huge influence. And it's set in the right period.

As to circumventing your characters wealth. I'm with Seneschal :- That's mean. It's like rolling up a skilled surgeon and then being told you cant do anything medical.  Take a look at Beyond the Mountains of Madness or Dark Continent. A multi-millionaire deciding to head to the Antartic or Bolivia is going to mount an expedition. Aircraft, Zepalins, ships, hundreds of people. It almost writes itself. Who knows who he's hired? Are they going to be managing it themselves? If not who is? Running a full expedition is a great opertunity for the keeper. 

I ran Spawn of Azathoth many years ago with a very wealthy character (a English Gentleman) and he hired ships, planes and porters. It actually was really useful for me as a Keeper. I found it rather hard to justify the continual globe trotting otherwise. If however you have a source of funding it starts to resemble the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead....of course remember wealth does not give immunity to the law or social expectations. Especially in more civilised parts of the world.

So in the OP's case :- Well your new money gangster is going to be regarded with suspicion by the established high flyers in Arkham. Some of whom I would expect to be Cultists. Do the Deep ones have their fins involved in bootleging? Are they rivals? Anything too overt and there will be a scandal. State or Federal law enforcement or worse the Tax office may take an interest. And who are your minions, are they local? Do they have _other_loyalties?

[klecser]

Noteworthy that another way to spend wealth is this game is to hire help.

Part of that wealth can go to salaries to get people to do things that you need done.

I could imagine a wealthy Investigator providing a salary for someone to maintain a clip file of newspaper articles. The advantage being that the game becomes less about the trip to the library or newspaper but to their own curated collection. That doesn't mean that there wouldn't be intrigue involved. Some articles can exist in obscure newspapers that are not part of the collection.

Not every player likes trudging through the mundane as a part of the experience. Finding the balance of what style of game the Investigators and Keepers like is really what confronting the "wealth issue" is all about.

Edited March 6, 2020 by klecser

[Atgxtg]

17 hours ago, Aberrant023 said:

Hello, all.

Well, as the title says, I'm a relatively new and inexperienced Keeper for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. I've run my players through The Haunting scenario, provided by the Quick Start Guide, and I have a few other modules that I'm planning to run to get a short-lived campaign going.

One of my players has decided to take on the role of Arkham's organized crime boss, a bootlegger and wealthy businessman. He pumped up his Credit Rating during character creation, though I can't recall the exact number off the top of my head (it puts him into either the Wealthy or Rich category). He's got a house, a car, some firearms, but he's wondering what else he can do with his money in this game. He's made some comments about wanting to help out the community, make sure that Arkham Asylum isn't the stereotypical playground for mad scientists, but instead actually runs competently and does what it's supposed to do (helping those with mental conditions rather than harming them). I get the sense that he's wanting to invest a lot of his character's wealth into Arkham itself to see it prosper despite the Mythos lurking in the shadows.

I just have no idea how to make something like this work in-game, short of making liberal use of the Contacts ability and possibly allowing him to use Credit Rating for the roll.

Other places of interest to him include: the bar he owns, the local museum, the hospital, and possibly some apartments (to alleviate homelessness).

 

Quote

Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

Well one way to look at things is that the players invest their character skill points into skills and abilities that they want to use more in the game. So a player who puta a lot of skill points into a characters credit rating, wants to be able to use that .So you should let the player buy stuff and use their CR skill.

But players also expect to be challenged during play so you could:

• Have a rival crime boss show up and start messing with the player's holdings and projects.
• Let the crime boss run into some mythos nasties due to a recent investment (and old warehouse turns out to be a warren for ghouls, some trouble tenants he is trying to evict are cultists,  a strange statue is found locked away in a safe, desk or office cabinet, an old nightclub he planned to renovate has a Shoggoth in the basement). This is nice as it not only uses the characters Credit Rating, but also can lead to an adventure for the PKs. 
• Bring in a crusading District Attorney who is trying to root out the criminal element of the city, including the well intentioned PC crime boss. This could be an relation that starts antagonistic, but might mellow if the DA discovers that the crime boss is protecting the city form unspeakable horrors. 
• The crime boss could have problems with underlings who don't understand why the crime boss is "throwing money away" and might consider him to be going soft and either consider taking over the crime ring, or shifting allegiance to the rival mentioned in the first bullet point. This happened a lot in the old days of the mob, and never really died out.
• Introduce some sort of threat to the Boss';s wealth/Credit Rating. New laws, technical or supply problems, enemy action, Dhole eats the new building, subway infested with Deep Ones. Stuff happens.

But keep in mind that you got other players, who also put points into skills that they expect to use, so don't focus entirely upon the crime boss. Make sure to come up with stuff for the other players and their skills, and ideally overlap stuff.

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Atgxtg

[EricW]

Don’t assume when you pay you get what you paid for. Hiring people, making sure they do what they are supposed to, is demanding. Even well intentioned people sometimes go off track.

Cthulhu cultists not only have bad intentions, they have magic which can cloud people’s judgement. The money is useful to their conspiracy. Your PC would be a primary target for their malice.

That Arkham asylum is about to become a writhing chamber of horrors, plenty of people try to warn your PC, but every time your PC visits, everything is in perfect order. That wall decoration and lobby statue are actually something else. But your PC sees what the cultists want them to see. But maybe if they reach out and touch the disguised items, they need to roll a SAN check.