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'Lamentations of the Cthulhu & Chivalry' Campaign


Andrew S

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Hi all,

 

I'm starting a thread to share stuff from my new campaign which starts Sunday. I don't have time for full session reports so expect periodic anecdotes regarding the dramatic/funny/insane stuff that happens -- and what I've learned as a first-time Renaissance GM running it. 

 

Clockwork & Cthulhu is our core text, with some players using Renaissance deluxe. I've heavily downplayed alchemy & clockwork (both exist, but are the province of lone practitioners who'd be summarily executed if discovered) and am emphasising the horror angle with Clockwork & Cthulhu and Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures. If all goes well it'll be weird, gory, sometimes funny and entertaining for everyone involved.

 

That's it for now. More next week!

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Hi all,

 

I'm starting a thread to share stuff from my new campaign which starts Sunday. I don't have time for full session reports so expect periodic anecdotes regarding the dramatic/funny/insane stuff that happens -- and what I've learned as a first-time Renaissance GM running it. 

 

Clockwork & Cthulhu is our core text, with some players using Renaissance deluxe. I've heavily downplayed alchemy & clockwork (both exist, but are the province of lone practitioners who'd be summarily executed if discovered) and am emphasising the horror angle with Clockwork & Cthulhu and Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures. If all goes well it'll be weird, gory, sometimes funny and entertaining for everyone involved.

 

That's it for now. More next week!

 

Looking forward to hearing how this turns out!

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Session 1: Two Puritans and a Catholic walk into a bar…

 

Dramatis Personae:

 

Irwin Bailey: A watchman hailing from Warwickshire. As a fine and upstanding man of the people, Irwin is not averse to gunfire and stabbing people through the lungs when circumstances demand. Faction: Clubmen.

 

Saul Goodman: A Yorkshire soldier recently returned from the wars in Europe. Renowned for his marksmanship. Suffered fire and plague in his youth, possibly as a result of bad dice rolls. Faction: Puritan.

 

Thomas Norton: A Paracelsan physician from Norfolk. Enjoys beer, bad singing and dying of exposure in the countryside. Faction: Puritan.

 

 

Near the village of Keswick, Norfolk; the night of December 2nd, 1645:

 

Darkness black as pitch. Torrential, freezing rain. The road a quagmire. Our heroes are debating a short cut. After failing his local knowledge roll, Thomas -- an actual Norfolk local -- insists yon’ trackless field, tangled hedge and mud-choked ditch will realise their destination more swiftly. Sanity prevails and the band continue with the road, eventually reaching the Lamb and Flag coaching inn.

 

Within, all is not as it seems. The landlord George Abbott and his son Tom appear nervous. Saul lets the boy lead his mount to the coach house whilst Irwin and Thomas make themselves at home. Noticeable among the somber patrons are two rough looking traveler types. One plays parliamentarian soldier ditties on a fiddle by the fireplace. The other sits behind the bar, cradling something on his lap. Irwin and Thomas exchange guarded pleasantries with the overbearing fiddler whilst Saul questions the distraught boy in the stables. He reveals the inn was commandeered by five men two nights ago. His mother Mary and a number of patrons were murdered. The outlaws are now holding them hostage, killing other travelers stopping by. 

 

Repairing to the inn, Saul immediately confronts the outlaw fiddler, who calls himself James. As they argue the second man quietly moves from behind the bar, carbine in hand. Panic erupts as shots are fired, swords drawn and punches thrown. Saul miraculously escapes a major leg wound from gunshot. To the relief of music critics the world over Thomas expertly parries James's fiddle with his face, smashing the instrument beyond repair. The innkeepers young daughter Isabelle, enraged by grief, grabs a carving knife and stabs at the gunman. By the end of the exchange he has fled and James lies dying on the common room floor, his right lung perforated by Irwin's blade. Thumping footsteps can be heard as the remaining outlaws make their way from the cellar to the ground floor, hammering at the common room door. Fortunately for our heroes it is locked, with innkeeper George securing it during the battle.

 

More next week.  :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Session 2: The 'C' Word

 

Dramatis Personae:

 

Irwin Bailey: A watchman hailing from Warwickshire. Impeccably polite; allows Hugenots first dibs when shooting and stabbing outlaws. Point man for dark cellar holes. Faction: Clubmen.

 

Saul Goodman: A Yorkshire soldier recently returned from the wars in Europe. Player was absent so spent most of the session as Thomas’s gracious patient and meat shield. Faction: Puritan.

 

Thomas Norton: A Paracelsan physician from Norfolk. Enjoys surgery under fire and tactical furniture arrangement with his good mate Saul. Faction: Puritan.

 

Chevalier du Main: A Hugenot Cavalier seeking English funds for his regiment. Wickedly effective with rapier and pistol. Feared by ambulatory creatures everywhere. Faction: the Regiment.

 

 

Near the village of Keswick, Norfolk; the night of December 2nd, 1645:

 

Gunsmoke. The gurgle of a dying outlaw. Hammering at the door. The patrons of the Lamb and Flag cower in fear as our heroes pause to reload. Thomas applies physick to Saul’s scorched leg, alleviating the soldier’s incipient shock with gentle words and hearty face slapping. The trio are joined by their compatriot Chevalier du Main, who like all good Hugenots of the era is armed and spoiling for a fight. Pleasantries are exchanged and pistols cocked as young Isabelle takes the key from her trembling father’s hand. She opens the battered inner door, momentarily surprising the outlaws.

 

The fight is over almost before it begins with Chevalier’s pistols and sword visiting bloody ruin on the hapless belligerents. Positioning offers Irwin little opportunity for carnage but his steely declarations sap the enemy’s resolve, setting the survivors to surrender and flight. Throughout the mayhem Thomas continues ministering to Saul, artfully seeking cover behind his wounded comrade’s body and a stout oak table. Once battle is done he turns to the afflicted outlaws, staunching wounds and sedating so they will feel the full weight of magisterial justice in the days to follow.

 

Questions are asked of the remaining conscious survivor. At first his answers are the noncommittal retort of thugs the world over, without explanation or justification. Yet the tenor of the exchange rapidly changes when burn scarring is found on the bodies of his cohorts:

 

yellsign.gif

 

The outlaw sneers as he speaks of Kings and parliamentarians, of divine and secular law, of common soldiers raked by musket fire to satisfy ambition. He speaks of privation and cannibalism in the debatable lands, of a man called Hoxton who led his fellows to embrace humanity's self-inflicted horror as a cold and desolate truth of the universe. Thomas’s ire is kindled and the pair exchange righteous declarations, with the Puritan shocked into silence by the finality of the man’s words: that there is no god, that there never was.

 

Whilst ruminating on the unthinkable the quartet are addressed by distraught innkeeper George Abbott. After murdering his wife Sarah the interlopers removed her body to the cellar, where, he claims, they have been "digging.” Too distraught to claim her body he asks them to assist. Thomas searches the rooms below. Irwin and Chevalier investigate the discarded picks, shovels and mallets; and the gaping hole in the brickwork the outlaws made. Flickering lantern light reveals the desiccated remains of a catholic priest seated at a large desk, his head slumped forward, masked:

 

the_mask_of_hastur_2_by_jasonmckittrick-

 

Climbing through, Irwin and Chevalier find a living quarters of sorts, a priest’s hole used during the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth. A now sobbing Abbott confirms the discovery -- his family were once resolute with the old faith. Although he knew of the decades-old hole he was ignorant of the corpse and hideous mask. Fearing charges of heresy and witchcraft he pleads that Irwin and Chevalier mention this to no one. The pair agree, carefully removing the mask with rapier tip and securing it in a locked box. They take the numerous papers scattered across the desk, the topmost covered in a scratchy Latin scrawl:

 

Super littora quoque maris irritum nubis

Soles mergi geminos immania terga lacus

 

In Carcosa umbrae

 

Mira igitur nox est, in qua est niger astra

Et mirum est luna, per templa serena

 

Sed mirandum magis perit Carcosa

 

Hyades carmina cantare

Ita vetustis rebus indutam, diripiuntque dapes

Ubi de rege

Moriendum est inauditum

 

In caligavit Carcosa

 

Canticum meae, vocem meam, quia mortuus est

Morere, Homero, sicut nec dedit ullus aquas

Et mortuus est, et periit arida

 

In praetorium Carcosa

 

Elsewhere in the cellar Thomas’s search concludes as he finds Sarah’s body, stuffed into an empty barrel. There are gnaw marks on her limbs.

 

More next week! 

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Nothing more satisfying then squeezing off lead shot in the morning! Truly enjoyable to be able to play with others from around the world. While my English friends think they are all talking normally, for this Yank it was like, wow they are sooo in character. A very immersive experience.

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Nothing more satisfying then squeezing off lead shot in the morning! Truly enjoyable to be able to play with others from around the world. While my English friends think they are all talking normally, for this Yank it was like, wow they are sooo in character. A very immersive experience.

 

Thanks! It's great having a diverse group as it encourages me to pay closer attention to what I'm saying and how I say it. Props to yourself and our other international friend for getting stuck in and playing your characters to the hilt.  :)

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What I’ve learned after GM'ing Renaissance for a couple of sessions:

 

Starting characters are effective in their chosen field. Far more so than, say, WFRP or low level D&D. In play they resemble seasoned veterans capable of able meeting mundane challenges head on. That’s not to say they’re infallible: poor dice rolls, the desire to shepherd Hero Points against future calamity and inherently lethal combat all lend the game a nice edge.

 

The skill system is robust, flexible and covers most situations with single or opposed rolls. The Common/ Advanced divide is nice, allowing for specialism and niche development without the added complexity of feats or ‘class’ abilities. I like how quick and easy it feels.

 

Combat is suitably gritty and clips along at a nice pace, although damage modifiers grant huge advantage to whoever has them. To mitigate this -- and make the risk of dropping one’s defence more enticing -- I’ve changed the rules for Great Attack: Anyone in melee can attempt it for +20% CC and maximum DM. If the attacker has 0 or negative DM they gain +1d4 rolled damage instead.

 

NPC stats are really easy to manage and can be boiled down to a couple of lines in most cases. An example:

 

Robert Bradley (Tailor/Soldier/Deserter)

55/35, AP: 1, HP: 12 (6), SP: 11 (6), Pistol (1d6+2) or Sword (1d8), Faction: Gang (fellow deserters)  

 

The top line includes a micro-history that helps with skill assignment. When rolling I consult the bottom line, which gives me primary and secondary capabilities. For anything else I assume 20%. So far it’s worked great, NPCs are fully functional and no rules need be changed. I managed to fit the staff, patrons and deserters at the Lamb & Flag onto a single side of A4 paper, making combat and group interactions really easy.

 

That’s it for now. More lessons as I learn them. 

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  • 1 year later...

The campaign has been resurrected. You can follow a re-boot with some of the same players here: BRP Cthulhu & Chivalry

 

Now on MeWe! https://mewe.com/group/5bbc076b2ee15f2bb87b18d2

Edited by jagerfury
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  • 2 weeks later...

This looks quite awesome. I was in the works of making a homebrew world (focused around a particular large, central city named Caerdenshire - imagine Bloodborne's Yharnam ruled by a council of representatives of the prominent noble houses and without beasties running amok) that was a hodge-podge of Renaissance, Clockwork & Chivalry (with Clockwork science), and Legend ("Ancient" Rune magic, Divine Magic, and Blood Magic). Each noble house functions as its own Faction and provides unique benefits (one House has the only access to Divine Magic, another has access to Blood Magic, etc.), and there are also Organizations that help keep Caerdenshire running (two colleges, a city defense force, a healing society, an exploring society, a league of hunters, etc.), and players would be able to belong to both a House and an Organization if they wanted (though the Houses have stricter political conflicts going on). 

Unfortunately, life got in the way and I've had to put that project on hold for a bit. Reading about this is making me want to get back to writing for that campaign.

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Third session complete. The PC's have arrived in Norwich the worse for wear with one the PC's making a pact with a strange old nun who likes to pop up in crypts. They've dodged card cheating NMA soldiers and received a job from Thomas' father to sort out some labor issues up in Keswick.

Edited by jagerfury
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  • 1 month later...

Hello again,

As one of the players in this game (Thomas) I've got to say its been an awesome roller coaster of a ride so far with Jagerfury throwing plenty of action and horror our way though I must admit I'm still trying to remember some of the rules but it seems a pretty solid system and everything seems to make sense so far.

I would just like to say hi to our newest member Pete and his slightly lost Italian Condottieri (that will teach him to accept drinks from a strange barman :P) and hopefully he will help us get back out of this crazy, scary underground labyrinth and back to the light before the Puritans Saul and myself decide to burn him at the stake for being a heretic. 

Edited by Butters
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  • 4 months later...

So here's a brief recap of how things stand at the moment,

On our way to Norwich after the battle of Naseby we sought shelter in a church during a heavy rainstorm and then we were promptly ambushed by a band of bandits and a fake vicar. We managed to barely fight them off but during this battle one of the party discovered a strange red bell hidden in an open tomb of a Knight and ringing it made something strange and terrible happen which meant we had to kill again the bandits and fake vicar in their new and terrible form and the Player had a new secret friend in the form of a mini Nun. We burnt the place down and then headed to the nearby village to get some answers unfortunately the bandits had been here already and the village was mostly in ruins. We did find one family and after calming them down started to unravel the mystery to what was going on. Unfortunately we were interrupted by an officer of the N.M.A and his patrol who accused us of being witches and Warlocks.

Escaping their ill informed clutches and their hangman's noose we headed into Norwich and it seemed that my Father had a job for us also one of us also discovered that gambling wasn't always fun.

We were asked to find out why the coal shipments that supplied the Clockwork foundries had been delayed thus slowing down the repair of one of Cromwells infamous Leviathans.

We discovered that the German miners had been asked to leave the main coal mine oddly by one of my Fathers men and told to head to a new area one that suspiciously wasn't known for its coal mines.

When we reached the area we encountered a strange group of elderly people some of whom were pregnant and there was a lot of talk about a mysterious wedding but still no German miners. There was also an unfortunate delivery and birth of a devilish baby which was swiftly followed by a case of infanticide.

Checking out the company offices in town we thought we had finally met the previous company man who had been sent out to find out what was going. He seemed to sick to tell us much but we did have a conversation with him which seemed to help fill in some of the blanks but in the morning all we found was his skinned face and hands left on a chair. So unsure what the hell was going on we decided to explore the office more fully and also its attached warehouse We found blueprints and some parts of a strange new clockwork device also a large hole leading to a underground complex that was truly bizarre and horrifying. Still no bloody Germans though.

At the bottom of this weird and terrifying complex waited an aspect of Yog Sototh and it appears that he wasn't happy to see us, luckily one of the group had secretly kept the red bell and rang it again for all his worth summoning his own personal demon called the Corrector of Sins. Thankfully the insanity and pure brown trouserness of the situation caused us to black out leaving the gods to punch it out among themselves.

We awoke in a beautiful flower covered field, somewhat shocked and babbling at first but soon we felt at peace among the beautiful landscape, well that was until the six foot rabbit men attacked us.

Some of us were captured whilst others decided to run away to the nearby woods and wrestle huge alligators instead. A rescue mission was mounted but oddly enough it didn't go down to well but luckily the Pale lady who seemed to be in control of things was feeling pretty horny and one of us stepped up and took one for the team. The Pale lady who was now heavily pregnant was so impressed by Mr Stud muffin she allowed us to all return to our world which was handy as the other escape option involved us committing a murder on behalf of a stranger.

Mr Stud Muffin looked worried

We returned to Earth with a bang, a really big devastating the local countryside sized bang and it started to rain again as well.

The area was starting to change and odd creatures started to appear in the rising waters.

We did some more looking around for these damn missing miners (Since we were joined by some of their nagging wives we kinda had to)

We fought off some giant crabs from inside a windmill, one of the party got bitten by bugs crossing over a fallen tree and then we were attacked again but this time by beaky worms. Bug bitten guy then had to have his arm chopped off as it was turning into a tentacle which had the annoying habit of trying to strangle other party members and the party member who had been cut by a beaky worm decided to turn into a flesh monster who then attacked the rest of the stunned party before being turned into bubbling goo.

We finally made it back to the devastated village of Keswick where a recon mission went badly wrong and another rescue mission had to be launched.

And this is the after action report following the successful rescue mission.

Craigh is still in bad shape but he has been made comfortable and given an antidote. (Possibly)
Ralph was so shocked by his betrayal of his new friends he dropped to his knees and started to pray for forgiveness (or something like that)
Temper was also indisposed possibly due to wounds sustained.
Saul and Thomas managed to regroup and tried to put down Mallenbench but he and a mercenary managed to escape on the Iron horse Saul managed to get a shot off but with the darkness it was always going to be a tricky shot so the miss was no real surprise but it was a close one.
The lovely Echo was captured and she succumbed to the double whammy of Norton charm and Sauls menacing presence.
1. Mallebench is a Satanist of some sort
2. He is looking for artifacts including a mysterious bell.
3. He seems to be using Nathan Norton as a cover and a potential source of manpower and supplies. Norton seems to unaware of what is really going on.
4. Other groups connected to Mallebench somehow are the Brotherhood and a sinister group only known as the Collectors of Pus
Its unclear if Mallebench fully trusts them as he seems to be keeping secrets from them.
5. We might have killed Mallebench's  brother as he may have been the fake vicar from the church ambush which started this all off.
6. His brother lead a group called the Cardinals.
7. Mallebench was originally looking for artifacts in a tunnel system which is meant to be under Norwich castle but soon moved onto the site in Coniston.
8. He just threw the German miners into the pit at Coniston, if he expected the survivors to continue working in the caverns or if they were just a big sacrifice is unclear.
9. Frau Katrina is alive and armed.
10. There was at least one more highly infectious flesh monster in town and its become very quiet out there.
11. We are currently still in the Kings Arms, the windows have been shuttered and the doors barred as we await what happens next.
12. We still have the stone head and Echo didn't seem to know anything about it.
13. Oh and she is dead, she died due to a dramatic if brief increase in lead levels in the gooey brain area.
14. The Crow mercenary group was hired by Mallebench in Norwich to provide security and to keep an eye on things.
15. Norwich is a hot bed of Satanic activity it seems as Mallebench went to several parties/covens in town escorted sometimes by a member of the Crows. 

 

 

Sorry for the long post but it seems we had gotten up to more stuff than I first thought. So far this has got to be one of the most fun. weird and bonkers games I've every played in yet it still has moments of quite nasty horror and its been fantastic.

The group is pretty damn good and the G.M has provided a great world to game in and to play up our characters insanities and quirks.

Edited by Butters
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