Lloyd Dupont Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 (edited) Hi Guys, I love BRP and have read the golden book so many times.... Out of D100 enthusiasm I bought some CoC product (like the hardcover rulebook and Mask of Nyarlathothep) and read the core rule book a bit (just enough to know that CoC is slightly different with percent characteristic and no ho hit location as defaul, or maybe only, option) but that's about it... But now.. it just happen hat we decided last weekend that I was going to master the Mask of Nyarlaththep campaign starting next week.... ooops, I have to speed read it now! 😮 So any tip to help me transition from BRP to CoC? And other tip to GM Mask of Nyarlathothep? Also, to ramble on sanity, please feel free to enlighten me further... For starters, I am not into horror, I am going to GM this CoC adevnture as a fantastic story with interdimensional alien or something.... screw insanity! I am not going to make people go insane because they saw an unearthly angle or some impossible geometry.. And as also a Maths and Physics lover, I think extra dimensional experience are something to celebrate! However.. as I thought of various cause of insanity in BRP, the first time an investigator is pursued by a Mythos horror that can shrug bullet like rain droplet and go through crack in space time... there is good reason to panic right there... And in Mythos books, arguably the distant and occult perspective in those might make readers lose touch with ordinary mortal to such an extent that they might appear insane, though really they just have acquired a different perspective... We'll see.. maybe I'll use insanity after all.... But I think monster encounter should lead to PTSD and Mythos knowledge should lead so sociopathy... that's my 2 cent.... As for alien geometry of impossible angle, meh, bring it on I say! Edited April 13, 2021 by Lloyd Dupont renamed to help later searches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ejlertson Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Dont start with MoN as your first campaign as a Keeper in CoC! It is an incredibly good and complex campaign. Download the free starter rules. Run The Haunting scenario to get the hang of CoC. There are really good free handouts and tips on it to research as well. And if your stance is : "For starters, I am not into horror, I am going to GM this CoC adevnture as a fantastic story with interdimensional alien or something.... screw insanity! I am not going to make people go insane because they saw an unearthly angle or some impossible geometry.." then CoC is very much not the right game for you. CoC is about the horrible and mindwarping fear of being confronted with thing you do not understand and gradially realise is true. That truth is to much to handle and will drive the players insane. If you want to mitigate it a bit, perhaps concider using the Pulp rules. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Scott Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 3 hours ago, Ejlertson said: Dont start with MoN as your first campaign as a Keeper in CoC! It is an incredibly good and complex campaign. Download the free starter rules. Run The Haunting scenario to get the hang of CoC. There are really good free handouts and tips on it to research as well. Agreed, then move onto the starter set, the three adventures in there are excellent. or something from Doors to Darkness. I ran the Orient Express campaign, only after I'd spent 5 years getting the hang of it CoC. 3 Quote ----- Search the Glorantha Resource Site: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com. Search the Glorantha mailing list archives: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtscott658 Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Running Masks will be alot of work. I would skip over the Prologue because it does not really give your players a good grounding in the campaign and it happens a few years prior to the actual beginning of MoN. I would say make New York your main focus at campaign start. Do a few pre campaign adventures in NYC to get a good footing on the lay of the land, in fact I would recommend doing side adventures first in each chapter of MoN before tackling the main campaign content, this way you will be acclimated to the area you are attempting to GM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psullie Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Also, the players need to churn through a few investigators so that they can appreciate understand the futility of their actions against the Mythos 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 Well.... as far as I have heard: 1. MoN is quite long 2. MoN is quite entertaining That was my main criteria, length and fun... I don't mind killing the PCs don't worry (though I am not very good at it haha) ^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 I love improvisation with good but terse supporting materials! (like recurring NPC or threads that slowly become apparent, but were there all along...) 🙂 Definitely looking to the investigation part! 🙂 In fact it will be my first GMing of a written investigative story. I hope it will help me improve GMing investigations! 😄 Many investigation I have played (as a player) tend to slog down and be boring, hopefully I can dodge that... Will throw them some bone or misdirection if needed... I'd like to use the CoC rule if possible, like combat seems simpler and wounding system seems interesting.. I guess I just have to read the chapter again! ^_^ (a 3rd time? I think...) yes, going to use pulp, seems like a very nice addition to CoC! alright.. I guess I really have to read those 270 pages... it's readable in 5 days... 🙂 (and maybe do a second read of first chapter) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klecser Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 I kinda respect the audacity of you running Masks as your first go. But I also fear for YOUR Sanity.... 😜 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 I just realized my huge mistake.. the campaign is not 280 pages, it's 670 pages! (I was confused, I had multiple PDF open at the same time) Ohoh... to save my aging memory I ordered the hardcover version, It should help, I hope! 😮 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtscott658 Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 Howdy- I suggest joining the FB page called Masks of Nyarlathotep. It is a great source of material for DM's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klecser Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 Remember, Nyarlathotep is known by many names, and one of those is The God of a Thousand Forms. My personal opinion is that it would be influenced by Cthulhu Mythos score. A low-level cultist likely would see the Bloody Tongue as an entity in of itself. But a high-level cultist or major Mythos villain may very well know that Nyarlathotep is an Outer God. And that Outer God avatars are influenced by the perspective of the snivelling meat bag viewing it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 Good point.. as the Occult skill increases, connecting the dots will become easier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 I am early in the book.. and I still have no clue what's happening... except that a solar eclipse will be of significance in helping breaking some mystical ward or something... Ok, I will roll with it, it's thematic, but personally I don't think it make much logical sense to have great cosmic energy from an eclipse... Then it hit me, a logical and thematic explanation! Indeed during an eclipse the flow of solar power on the earth is strongly diminished. It's not great power, it's great lack of power! Those mystical something were solar powered, and much weakened during the eclipse! quod erat demonstrandum! 😛 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 (edited) Oh... so Roger Carlyle is Randolph Carter? Despite my avowed ignore of Lovecraft writing and Cthulhu Mythos, I rolled 01, and recognized this name! 😄 Is he really the one?! 😮 Edited April 13, 2021 by Lloyd Dupont Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 (edited) Another question about sanity... After much thinking about it, I can make sense of it and make the game more fun with it... One inherent contradiction annoys me though. Monster encounter will make sanity go down (people get traumatized with close encounter of the Cthulhu type), and Mythos knowledge (knowing about the ultimate truth of the cosmos make the person much more detached from humanity). Here is my conundrum.. someone with high Mythos knowledge, hence low sanity will get scared and traumatized easily, whereas one would really expect the opposite! Did I get that right? How do you work around that? [EDIT] got an idea! For frightening situation of occult nature, make Mythos and Sanity combined roll. If the Sanity fail but the Mythos succeed, the person shrug it off! Edited April 13, 2021 by Lloyd Dupont 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyl Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 21 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said: Another question about sanity... After much thinking about it, I can make sense of it and make the game more fun with it... One inherent contradiction annoys me though. Monster encounter will make sanity go down (people get traumatized with close encounter of the Cthulhu type), and Mythos knowledge (knowing about the ultimate truth of the cosmos make the person much more detached from humanity). Here is my conundrum.. someone with high Mythos knowledge, hence low sanity will get scared and traumatized easily, whereas one would really expect the opposite! Did I get that right? How do you work around that? Yep generally it is a spiral - and it is a feature not something to work against. Also scared and traumatized aren't the only result - they might become manic, convinced that they should usher in the monsters etc. I also think that re-reading "Getting Used to the Awfulness" in the Keeper's Rulebook will help - as repeated exposures to the same monster doesn't have the same effect. Also none of the investigators should be starting out with a high Cthulhu Mythos skill (of course their starting SAN could be fairly low though). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 14, 2021 Author Share Posted April 14, 2021 Thanks for your interesting take on the adventure... Definitely going to do the Peru adventure.. if only because I only have to read 50 pages urgently that way! ^_^ I will keep your advice in mind, particularly the last one about resurrecting Elias this is quite a fun idea.. we shall see what happens! 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 14, 2021 Author Share Posted April 14, 2021 6 hours ago, andyl said: I also think that re-reading "Getting Used to the Awfulness" in the Keeper's Rulebook will help Yea... I had a second quick and more careful read of the CoC rules in the last 2 days and I found that, which is quite neat 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 14, 2021 Author Share Posted April 14, 2021 ON the "Keeper Screen" part of the Mask of Nyarlathotep one can see: Learning Skills: POW roll grants +4% What is this about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyl Posted April 15, 2021 Share Posted April 15, 2021 10 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said: ON the "Keeper Screen" part of the Mask of Nyarlathotep one can see: Learning Skills: POW roll grants +4% What is this about? +1d4 not +4 for existing skills. 1d10+1 for new skills. It is about learning and improving skills when travelling (for example on an ocean liner between the US and England). See Appendix A in the Masks books. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 15, 2021 Author Share Posted April 15, 2021 Thanks! 🙂 Haha.. this is an additional skill bonus rule / character development... I see 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 16, 2021 Author Share Posted April 16, 2021 Yea, just received the hardcopy today! Before we start! 😄 (Unboxing) Pictures (as it did happen!) in that other thread: One little step for Chaosium, one giant step for Australians! :) - Alastor's Skull Inn - BRP Central - The Chaosium forums (basicroleplaying.org) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Dupont Posted April 17, 2021 Author Share Posted April 17, 2021 (edited) OMG! In the Appendices of the The Masks of Nyarlathotep I spotted what seemed to be, correct me if I am wrong please, the most powerful spell of all! Blessing of Bast: bla-bla-bla..... restores D6 HP and also restores D6 sanity point... (cost: 4MP, casting: instantaneous) Edited April 17, 2021 by Lloyd Dupont Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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