Cthulhu Rising Campaign log

[Triff]

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THE CTHULHU RISING CAMPAIGN MYTHOS BUSTERS, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

2 days ago I tried gaming Cthulhu Rising for the first time. Cthulhu Rising is a space horror roleplaying game, a sci-fi with a Lovecraftian background. In 2271, Earth is still the most heavily populated planet, but colonies have been established at several other planets. Earth is ruled by the United Earth Federation, which is heavily influenced by powerfull transnational companies. The official goverment line is that aliens do exist on other planets, but none as advanced as us.

The Cthulhu Rising system is available for free as downloads on the Cthulhu Rising website. The system used is is a mix of Call of Cthulhu and 3rd edition RuneQuest, with hit locations and skill category modifiers. There's also a lot of BRP sci-fi supplements found at the site. Insanity rules are used, but the sanity point rewards for completing a mission seem to offset the standard CoC "all characters go insane eventualy" rule.

There are three big campaigns on the CR website, one for civilians, one for colonial law enforcers and one for space marines! I started with the civilian one and plan to space marines next, and then colonial law enforcers, with some of the non-campaign scenarios in between. Also, with this being sci-fi, I plan to give the horrors more a feel of aliens from deep space, rather than the classical "other dimensional horrors".

So we started up with making characters, a rather painless procedure even though I had two newbies with me. There was some complaining about not being able to play psychics and androids (I hadn't read that part of the rules) but otherwise it went smoothly.

The group consisted of a ex-cop PI freelancer, a mercenary (the hired gun), a doctor who had just gotten fired due to malpractice (rolled lowest possible on her savings), and a pilot working for the Cenargo Corporation, and a cold bitch company suit from the same corporation (played by my sister, an experienced CoC GM who made a guest appearance in our group).

The group, headed by Enila Irrinja, the company suit, brought together to find a scientist from Cenargo's R&D department, who was suspected of industrial espionage and gone missing on Mars. The investigation started on Earth, following up several leads and interviewing co-workers, before heading of to Mars. Here we ran into the first gunfight when approaching the scientist's appartment. No casualties among the characters, two among our opponents before the remaining escaped.

As Enila, the company suit, had maps and clues going to a govermental military controlled dig site on mars, she "found" them in the appartment, claiming the scinetist must have left them there. She then declared that the investigation could not go any further as only the military was allowed to be present on the dig site. She made it very clear that any information the characters would get their hand following up "some other leads" if successfull would be richly rewarded. She then fired the pilot from the company, and left - leaving the corporation fully in the clear for whatever the group would do later.

Quite excellent playing by my sister actually. The face of Remy (the pilot) when he got fired was quite priceless. "What are you trying to say? ;-(" She also reported several collegues to the higher-up bosses during the investigation that she though was talking too much.

Next session will be going out to the dig site and confronting whatever we find there.

All in all a very successful session. As a RQ3 player, CR suits me perfectly. I think we can implement some more melee combat after a while when they notice that certain creatures don't really respond that well to firearms.

SGL.

[Trifletraxor]

So, yesterday I finally got the opportunity to game the last part of the scenario. Last time had a lot of "new" players, this time it was back to the more "core" group I use to play with - only one character from last session was present at this one - David Dunn, the hired Gun. (Jonathan Starr, the pilot, fuctioned as a NPC piloting the Osprey)

This meant some time went to create characters, saying no to androids and psionics (haven't yet set myself into it), and updating the group. Cenargo had officially "pulled out", but made it very clear that they would pay for any results and information the group could get.

David Dunn went recruiting Jack (a P.I.), Humprey (the P.I.'s muscle) and a combat physician (no license though, due to earlier arrests). Well at the dig site, they searched carefully around and hacked the computers, while the muscle tried out the ATV (with his 5% in Vehicle). Annoyed that they couldn't get open the safe, they headed down into the caves.

The first run-in with the Shambler had one babbling for 3 minutes, one running (later faking temporarily insanity), and to emptying the TAR weapons on full auto. They hit it with around 70 shots, and it was dead before it hit the ground. Clearly a horrible alien! No one dared checking out the other tunnels though, as all the M29 ammo was used.

After passing the temple and getting up to the sacrificial chamber, they were barely able to taze the Dr. Roe before he killed his victim.

Around this point while going back down, they got a transmission from the Osprey, that flied under pursuit by a MiliSci ship, and learned of the mean, lean, fighting machines that had been dropped outside. They disabled the elevators, and reprogrammed the sentryguns before escaping up the vent to the caverns above.

At the "window", they were contacted by Mr. Nagata, who offered a lift in exchange for some information if they where able to get to the top somewhere else.

So started the long climb up, with the assistant in the lead. Dr. Roe got an LD with morphine before the climb, as he would be impossible to bring. Murphy, the muscle, took a dive 42 m up and landed on his head. Even with the houserule of half falling damage on Mars, he was mashed potatoes. David Dunn also fumbled on top, but was secured with a rope, so a DEX roll saved him.

At top they met Mr. Nagata after a while. When he suggested that the asistant could be a problem if she talked, she got stunned by Mr. Dunn, and thrown down the chimney - Definitely no extra sanity points for saving the assistant for that group!

Back at Viking City, there was a long discussion about whether to keep some information or not, send it to a "secure" server, etc. - but luckily for them, they chose not to go with that option.

-----

The group was very satisfied with the setting, and we will definitely be playing more CR the coming weeks!

SGL.

[Trifletraxor]

David Dunn, part time hired gun/part time hacker, and now the brand new owner of a security firm got a message from "Ariel" to meet him in Paris. Bringing two of his employees with him, Romand Batou, a mercenary recently released from a correction facility, and Dr. Trian, combat doctor sans license, they went to the designated cafe. All got picked up by Cenargo, and brought to a place suitable for "questioning". Only one who didn't get picked up was Roman Batou, mercenary recently released from a correction facility, who left his armor and heavy weapons at home - actually managing to "blend in". Dropping Wexler's name got them released before the interogator could get to work, and got them working for Cenargo again.

After some investigation in France, which included storming Ariels appartment and tazing her room mates, they scrammed over to the United Americas. A detour by dr. Ethan Caine and hacking Arkhams computer systems, plus staking out Howard Folkman gave two suspects, Forlkman of course, and dr. Ziberi. Assuming quite correctly that Ziberi was the boss, they assaulted her house first, knocking on the door and tazing her when she opened. She didn't go down though, and attacked back with a mean-looking dagger. Dunn and Trian started shooting, while Roman wielded a stun batong. She was hit several, but didn't take any damge. She ordered them to leave, which Dunn and Trian did. Only Roman, having made his resistance roll stayed, and had a nasty melee on his hands. Trian and Dunn got to their senses somewhere out on the yard, and came running back. By then Roman was laying bleeding on the floor. Dunns critical with the 12mm in the chest did the trick though, and Ziberi was dead. After giving first aid to Roman they searched to house, found a nice old book, and then torched the hosue just minutes before the police arrived.

Going straight to Folkmann, they picked all his six locks before sneaking in and tazing him. Some nasty interrigation in the basement followed, dring which they learned what they needed. Feeling satisfied with themselves that they had found out where Ariel was, and not being that brave, they called Cenargo and informed. The day after day learned that the property on Lizards Point had been hit by a heavy missile, and obliterated. No sanity rewards this time either. Dunn and Trian chose to read the book and learn all the spells, dropping their max. sanity further down. They sold the book to Cenargo and was hansomely rewarded for that. The session ended with an argument whether they should summon a Nightgaunt or not, just to see what it was. We'll be playing Loonie Toons in no time I think!

SGL.

[Trifletraxor]

David Dunn, part time hired gun/part time hacker, and now the brand new owner of a security firm got a message from "Ariel" to meet him in Paris. Bringing two of his employees with him, Romand Batou, a mercenary recently released from a correction facility, and Dr. Trian, combat doctor sans license, they went to the designated cafe. All got picked up by Cenargo, and brought to a place suitable for "questioning". Only one who didn't get picked up was Roman Batou, mercenary recently released from a correction facility, who left his armor and heavy weapons at home - actually managing to "blend in". Dropping Wexler's name got them released before the interogator could get to work, and got them working for Cenargo again.

After some investigation in France, which included storming Ariels appartment and tazing her room mates, they scrammed over to the United Americas. A detour by dr. Ethan Caine and hacking Arkhams computer systems, plus staking out Howard Folkman gave two suspects, Forlkman of course, and dr. Ziberi. Assuming quite correctly that Ziberi was the boss, they assaulted her house first, knocking on the door and tazing her when she opened. She didn't go down though, and attacked back with a mean-looking dagger. Dunn and Trian started shooting, while Roman wielded a stun batong. She was hit several, but didn't take any damge. She ordered them to leave, which Dunn and Trian did. Only Roman, having made his resistance roll stayed, and had a nasty melee on his hands. Trian and Dunn got to their senses somewhere out on the yard, and came running back. By then Roman was laying bleeding on the floor. Dunns critical with the 12mm in the chest did the trick though, and Ziberi was dead. After giving first aid to Roman they searched to house, found a nice old book, and then torched the hosue just minutes before the police arrived.

Going straight to Folkmann, they picked all his six locks before sneaking in and tazing him. Some nasty interrigation in the basement followed, during which they learned what they needed. Feeling satisfied with themselves that they had found out where Ariel was, and not being that brave, they called Cenargo and informed. The day after day learned that the property on Lizards Point had been hit by a heavy missile, and obliterated. No sanity rewards this time either. Dunn and Trian chose to read the book and learn all the spells, dropping their max. sanity further down. They sold the book to Cenargo and was hansomely rewarded for that. The session ended with an argument whether they should summon a Nightgaunt or not, just to see what it was. We'll be playing Loonie Toons in no time I think!

SGL.