Classic Era Call of Cthulhu - without Cthulhu

[Guest Vile Traveller]

Has anyone ever run or played CoC in the classic between-the-wars era, but without the Mythos elements? I've always had a love/hate relationship with CoC, and after a couple of decades or three I think I've figured out why.

I like playing in the Twenties. I just don't like being flattened by Nyarlothep.

My gaming inspiration has come mostly from adventure fiction set in that era, especially Biggles, but there is a ton of "flavour-fiction" out there, too. This also means that most of my games have had a British slant rather than American, which has limited the utility of a lot of the official material.

[rust]

Has anyone ever run or played CoC in the classic between-the-wars era, but without the Mythos elements?

Yes, of course.

In fact, the great majority of my CoC campaigns were of this kind, very similar to

"pulp" scenarios, but with the comparatively "gritty" Call of Cthulhu system to gi-

ve them a little more "realism". We had the Arabian Peninsula, the Arctic, the Hi-

malaya and Central America as locations, and everything from scientific expediti-

ons to guerilla wars as the plots. It worked perfectly well, especially because the

many good supplements covering the period provide all the background knowled-

ge one needs, and deleting the SAN rules and all Mythos references does not da-

mage the playability of the system at all.

[Mysterioso]

I'd think that would be fun. Personally, I'd LOVE to get into a campaign that had something like 70% non-CoC material and 30% CoC material. Sadly, when I am lucky enough to get into a CoC game it seems it is always a one-shot. Also, when discussing this once with a person who writes CoC scenarios, he said he felt most who play CoC would be unhappy with a lot of scenarios that did not ultimately lead to the Mythos as they are afterall playing CoC.

There are a lot of pulp scenarios out there but not set-up for CoC. It is a shame that Chaosium did not keep up agreements with other companies so that lots of adventures were cross-stated. I know at one-time they did this with Justice, Inc. and Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes.

[Simlasa]

Pretty much all the CoC I've run has been Mythos-lite or non-Mythos... Even in a Mythos game I think it's much more effective to keep the Big Bads offstage... rumors and rumors of rumors about them... but no actual appearances.

We had one good run that was all based on the old I Love A Mystery radio show... travel and adventure and intrigue, some supernatural stuff... but no overt Mythos name-dropping at all. Another time all the PCs were hobos, riding the rails between shanty towns... things got creepy and dangerous, but Cthulhu didn't show up there either.

[pansophy]

In the beginning our group never thought about the Mythos entities. All adventures looked like usual horror games, sometimes with a twist. The Mythos was introduced very late during the campaign, once all players were comfortable with the system.

I think the Mythos is a nice add on, but it is in no way necessary. It is hard to find official non-mythos adventures though, but there are many out there. Sometimes you have to 'downgrade' the bad guy a bit to more human levels, but it works

[NickMiddleton]

Has anyone ever run or played CoC in the classic between-the-wars era, but without the Mythos elements? I've always had a love/hate relationship with CoC, and after a couple of decades or three I think I've figured out why.

I like playing in the Twenties. I just don't like being flattened by Nyarlothep.

That's a perfectly acceptable way of playing Call of Cthulhu - unless you run specific campaigns, the world WON'T end if the PC's fail and if you massage the play style it's very easy to shift the play style to something far more pulp / occult investigation. Even the pre-written material and campaigns can be tweaked this way fairly easily.

My gaming inspiration has come mostly from adventure fiction set in that era, especially Biggles, but there is a ton of "flavour-fiction" out there, too. This also means that most of my games have had a British slant rather than American, which has limited the utility of a lot of the official material.

I have run the vast majority of my CoC games in Britain in the 1920's, rather than the US and it works fine. Britain the the 1920's is a perfect setting for the sort of "noirish" "occult investigation" style of games I prefer: it can easily shade in to horror, there is a powerful sense of underlying brittleness and incipient chaos in nation of the General Strike and the trauma of the post-Great War society.

The published CoC specific resources are OK - the OOP Green and Pleasant Land is very pulp in feel and probably not worth the inflated prices it can get to on eBay whereas the London Guidebook is a solidly researched book on London in the period but a bit skimpy on the details and again pricey via eBay. The monograph The Kingdom of the Blind however IS in print and does a excellent job of sketching out the period - definitely worth a look and a good alternative to chasing books on eBay. Personally I was unimpressed by Cubicle 7's Avalon: The County of Somerset - its sense of period and place are largely lacking, its very mythos orientated (and not in a particularly imaginative or creative fashion IMO): and in a 128 page book, only fifty eight pages are setting, the rest is three scenarios and adventure seeds.

A few decent history books (the first five chapters of the Penguin History of Britain: Hope and Glory 1900 to 1990 is a great starting point) that take you through the transition from the Victorian era, through the trauma of the Great War and thence to the crises and conflicts of the 1920's and the gathering clouds of the 1930's are a good idea, and then a little judicious research in to the specific areas that interest you will probably serve you as well as any published RPG resource however.

Cheers,

Nick

[tedopon]

I had two separate long running campaigns that had nothing to do with the Mythos. Both took place during the Great Depression. One followed a group of hobos and all of the adventures they got into stealing pies, running low level cons and panhandling. The other one was all about bank robbers, and had a rotating cast of characters due to high mortality. It's really easy to pull off. Some of my favorite gaming memories came from these two campaigns.

[GianniVacca]

When I was in secondary school we played in a very long "shared GM" campaign set in Mitteleuropa that was much more Murder on the Orient Express meets Occult Europe than pure CoC.

[Guest Vile Traveller]

Wow! I'm glad to know that I'm not entirely on my own in this. I do like my now somewhat battered copy of Green and Pleasant Land, although I remember it as being the first book where I felt a bit cheated by seeing a White Dwarf article reprinted, "Players and Gentlemen". Still, i'm over it now and it's good to have it all in one place. Kingdom of the Blind sounds interesting, Nick, but is it worth it if you have G&PL?

The between-the-wars era has always been a favourite of mine. I got all those Biggles books years before I started role-playing, and I've long had more than a passing interest in 1930s aeroplanes. One of the reasons for keeping things England-based was that it was much easier to get background info, pre-internet, as we were on that side of the pond. Nevil Shute is also a good source for the flavour of that time, particularly for the point of view of young men cast adrift after the Great War and unable to fit into polite society. Speaking of which, we actually kept the sanity rules. Shell shock and all that, don't you know.

[rust]

"Kingdom of the Blind" has 135 pages. Almost 60 of these pages are a very inter-

esting description of Britain and its society between the wars, another almost 60

pages are Mythos related material, and the rest is an appendix with alternative

rules for drug addiction, war service and many new occupations.

The first part deals mainly with sociology and gives a good impression of how the

people thought and felt, and why they did so, but it does not cover geography

and thelike very well. The appendix is quite useful, with some good ideas for new

professions. The Mythos part ... well, you do not want it anyway.

Since the PDF is not really expensive, I think you should give it a try if you feel

that "Green and Pleasant Land" did not include a good introduction into the "men-

tality" of the Brits and the "feel" of their society between the wars. However, if

you are more interested in something like a "gazetteer" of Britain during this ti-

me, I would hesitate to recommend "Kingdom of the Blind"

[seneschal]

Who needs Cthulhu when you've got the insidious Doctor Fu Manchu, Fantomas, Jadis of Charn, an army of of American gangsters, the Reds, Maple White's Land, King Tut's curse, and all those small town Agatha Christie serial murderers to worry about? Don't fret. The friendly inhabitants of Skull Island will be delighted to provide your exhausted adventurers will a memorable vacation. Did we mention that a recent archeological expedition in the Suez unearthed a giant ring of unidentifiable metal?

[Guest Vile Traveller]

However, if you are more interested in something like a "gazetteer" of Britain during this time, I would hesitate to recommend "Kingdom of the Blind"

Ah. Well, that's pretty much what I was looking for, so I'll probably give KotB a miss. I have no shortage of flavour stuff, but I could always use more geographical information. Back to the old RW for information, then.

I'm not trying to slag off the HP or Mythos, by the way. I've had good CoC games over the years and I still think Mr. L's books are some of the best horror ever. It's just that I find the actual times more interesting than the Mythos part, so I have more fun just concentrating on that instead. Off to the Matey Grocer in the old Junkers, eh?

[NickMiddleton]

Wow! I'm glad to know that I'm not entirely on my own in this. I do like my now somewhat battered copy of Green and Pleasant Land, although I remember it as being the first book where I felt a bit cheated by seeing a White Dwarf article reprinted, "Players and Gentlemen". Still, i'm over it now and it's good to have it all in one place. Kingdom of the Blind sounds interesting, Nick, but is it worth it if you have G&PL?

Given how woefully badly G&PL covers the actual historical period in favour of the "Jeeves & Wooster / Biggles / Miss Marple" pop-culture conglomeration one can pick up from TV / film, it depends on how historical or pulp you want things to be. G&PL has 40 pages of setting information - KofB has over a hundred. G&PL is rooted in that pop-culture vision of Britain in the 1920's, KotB cleaves far closer to historical detail in its origins but probably also applies a heavier layer of mythos ideas on top. I have both and (as indicated) I have a preference for KotB, if only because it has a stronger grounding in historical fact. But to re-iterate - a few decent history books and a few 1920's maps and you are good to go...

Nick

[Guest Vile Traveller]

Oooh, nice map link, Nick! And I'm glad they cater for us lot not in the Isles (not those isles, anyway) by providing PDFs. Although they evidently think we're a bit thick:

Note 1: PDF downloads are immediately available so delivery times do not apply

[rust]

Although they evidently think we're a bit thick ...

Well, with one of my least favourite online shops for roleplaying games and PDFs

one first has to order the PDF, then gets an e-mail with the bank data for the

money transfer, then has to wait at least a week after the money was sent for

the e-mail with the download link for the PDF ...

[NickMiddleton]

Oooh, nice map link, Nick! And I'm glad they cater for us lot not in the Isles (not those isles, anyway) by providing PDFs. Although they evidently think we're a bit thick:

Bless, they've only started doing the PDF's fairly recently I believe so it's all a bit new to them. I make a LOT of use of my printed copy of the York and Selby sheet from the Popular Edition series in my 1920's Yorkshire Cthulhu game.

Cheers,

Nick

Edited April 11, 2011 by NickMiddleton

[HierophantX]

I was in a GURPS campaign back in the 90's that was part CoC, part World of Darkness (mostly Mage/Ars Magica) with something of Dr. Who thrown in. More Occult Investigation + extra-dimensional weirdness than anything and all set in the 1920's.

[threedeesix]

Has anyone ever run or played CoC in the classic between-the-wars era, but without the Mythos elements?

Actually, I have pretty much always run CoC, roaring 20s and otherwise, as straight horror. None of the mythos. Just ghosts, vampires, zombies, etc. I didn't really have anything against the Mythos so much as just like traditional spooks.

Rod

[Guest Vile Traveller]

So, one might almost say you're a fan of the more "classic" fantasy elements?

[hanszurcher]

After I lost my old Chill box set I used CoC to run my Pacesetter adventures. I used CoC for many of the non-mythos Hammer/Euro horror games I ran last year.

[threedeesix]

So, one might almost say you're a fan of the more "classic" fantasy elements?

I guess that could be implied.

[threedeesix]

After I lost my old Chill box set I used CoC to run my Pacesetter adventures. I used CoC for many of the non-mythos Hammer/Euro horror games I ran last year.

Thats kinda funny. Every Halloween for the last eight years or so I have run a horror adventure for BRP. All of them have been converted Pacesetter Chill adventures.

Rod

[seneschal]

The adventure modules for FGU's Daredevils are worth checking out. I found the game itself unplayable but the adventures are genre gold.

[fmitchell]

Were I to run CoC, I'd borrow more from Tim Powers and Thomas Ligotti than the classic Mythos. Creatures of the Mythos (by HPL and others) have become trite and even kitchy. A GM describing tentacles and alien geometries isn't scary; slowly unfolding magical conspiracies and persistent existential dread have more potential. Heck, why not hark back to Poe, wherein the GM becomes an increasingly unreliable narrator as the PCs drift away from consensus reality?