Ep. One Questions Time To Harvest

[Sean_RDP]

I really like where this is going, seems pretty convoluted and I do enjoy plenty of red herrings. I do have one question though at least for now. 

Is there any reason to not have the Investigators have some kind of relationship with Blaine or Daphne Devine? Would there be too much suspicion there or could an Investigator have come because they are concerned for their friend Blaine? Or perhaps someone else is heartbroken over the loss of Ms. Devine? 

I will likely be creating note cards with character names and handing them out randomly to create pre existing relationships to the NPCs and wanted to know if I should avoid having any pre existing relationship with either one.

Thanks

[Mike M]

Having some form of relationship with either Blaine or Devine would be fine - I would try to ensure the relationship has become strained in the last year or so - so that the PCs are not completely up to speed with these NPCs. I.e. they are not currently best friends/romantically involved, but may have been so in the past. Thus, there is motivation to find out what happened out there in Vermont.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Mike M

[morganhua]

I noticed that the CoC 7th Quick-Start pdf doesn't have the Student Occupation.  In order to generate PCs, I'll need to give them the Student template from the Investigator's Handbook in order to create PCs.  Best if this template was included in the A Time to Harvest pdf.

Edited April 1, 2016 by morganhua

[JFO]

Hey, all.  Just finished reading Episode One all the way through, and it's absolutely smashing.  Can't wait to give it a shot.  I have a few questions:

1) On page 43, the yet-uninitiated Deputy Cutter offers the investigators a nip of whisky as long as they don't tell the Sheriff.  On page 56, Cutter (having established contact with the Mi-Go) pulls his gun on the investigators and arrests them for inebriation.  That's a big change for a relatively minor character.  Should the investigators already be able to tell that he's a baddie by the end of Episode One?

2) The names Harold Higgins and Professor Harrold are pretty similar.  With so many characters in play, I'm afraid my group's gonna confuse the two.  Is that intentional, or can I change Harold's first name to something else?  Connor, Jack, Mickey?  

3) Do all of the NPC students have to be swept up by the Mi-Go? If the players make a concerted effort to save one, can we leave a straggler with the group?

Thanks so much for this opportunity and an amazingly dark scenario - really does look like great fun 

[Mike M]

3 hours ago, morganhua said:

I noticed that the CoC 7th Quick-Start pdf doesn't have the Student Occupation.  In order to generate PCs, I'll need to give them the Student template from the Investigator's Handbook in order to create PCs.  Best if this template was included in the A Time to Harvest pdf.

The student occupation is very simple - skills: Credit Rating, Library Use, Listen, 5 skills of player's choice for their areas of study.

[nezeray]

I would personally change Harold Higgins to "Harry" Higgins.  *shrug*

[dlw32]

I'm not clear on the timing for ep one. On page 34, under Field research it says that this is the "final term" of 1929-1930... so spring 1930. And the field trip is "planned for the
summer months".

But on page 35, under Start: The Trip to Cobb's Corners, "The investigators leave Miskatonic University on August 15th"

I'm clearly missing something... I would guess the trip would start in June...

[Mike M]

3 hours ago, JFO said:

Hey, all.  Just finished reading Episode One all the way through, and it's absolutely smashing.  Can't wait to give it a shot.  I have a few questions:

1) On page 43, the yet-uninitiated Deputy Cutter offers the investigators a nip of whisky as long as they don't tell the Sheriff.  On page 56, Cutter (having established contact with the Mi-Go) pulls his gun on the investigators and arrests them for inebriation.  That's a big change for a relatively minor character.  Should the investigators already be able to tell that he's a baddie by the end of Episode One?

2) The names Harold Higgins and Professor Harrold are pretty similar.  With so many characters in play, I'm afraid my group's gonna confuse the two.  Is that intentional, or can I change Harold's first name to something else?  Connor, Jack, Mickey?  

3) Do all of the NPC students have to be swept up by the Mi-Go? If the players make a concerted effort to save one, can we leave a straggler with the group?

Thanks so much for this opportunity and an amazingly dark scenario - really does look like great fun 

1. Small town law enforcement - things aren't always what they seem. An initial 'friendly' approach to gain trust, then later a harder edge (especially if the Sherif is around). Cutter is meant to appear as a minor character but, like real people, also appear more complex as time goes on (with his role increasing to major NPC).

2. If you think you're players will be confused, change the name.

3. Ideally yes. The PCs won't know the NPCs have been taken by the mi-go (as they are sent back to University/are in jail, etc). These NPCs return in Episode 2 - when they return to the university (after the PCs, who will have been sent on ahead by the Professor).

 

[Mike M]

4 minutes ago, dlw32 said:

I'm not clear on the timing for ep one. On page 34, under Field research it says that this is the "final term" of 1929-1930... so spring 1930. And the field trip is "planned for the
summer months".

But on page 35, under Start: The Trip to Cobb's Corners, "The investigators leave Miskatonic University on August 15th"

I'm clearly missing something... I would guess the trip would start in June...

The field trip happens towards the end of the summer break (just before classes start up for the fall term). The earlier reference pertains to if the Keeper wishes to run some establishing scenes at the end of the year before summer break - i.e. getting the PCs signed up for the field trip.

[JFO]

48 minutes ago, Mike M said:

1. Small town law enforcement - things aren't always what they seem. An initial 'friendly' approach to gain trust, then later a harder edge (especially if the Sherif is around). Cutter is meant to appear as a minor character but, like real people, also appear more complex as time goes on (with his role increasing to major NPC).

2. If you think you're players will be confused, change the name.

3. Ideally yes. The PCs won't know the NPCs have been taken by the mi-go (as they are sent back to University/are in jail, etc). These NPCs return in Episode 2 - when they return to the university (after the PCs, who will have been sent on ahead by the Professor).

 

Perfect!  Thanks so much!  As for #2, I think nezeray's hit it on the nose -- "Harry" will definitely be the way to go with my group, although I do like the ring of "Mickey Higgins."  

Edited April 1, 2016 by JFO

[joggiwagga]

Should for some reason a player get their PC killed mid-game, is it reasonable for them to take over one of the non-critical student NPCs?

Also, and maybe this is b/c I don't have the full rules yet, only the quick start, I'm not sure what it means when say someone has a 40% chance of knowing 1D3 spells.  Or more specifically, I can think of a few different ways to interpret it and am not sure which is correct.

[Mike M]

PC death - a non-important NPC is fine.

40% chance just means the NPC or monster has a 40% chance of knowing a spell or two, i.e. roll 40%, if you roll equal to under then they have a spell - you pick the spell. Or, even simpler, you just decide whether the NPC or Monster has a spell - its your call.

 

[morganhua]

Heads up.  I ran into an issue with new players generating PCs.  Almost all of them only have the Quick-Start guide.  It's over generous in giving out skill %.  So, I decided to use the Investigator's Guide for character generation instead.  And using the Quick-Start guide's pre-gen characteristics if they want to setup their characters offline (I'm running an online game).

[morganhua]

Generated one PC and ran into some issues on base % for skills not listed in Investigator's Handbook.

I made up the following base %s:

Antiquities Classics 1%

Fine Arts 5%

Music 5%

Geography 1%

Classic and Modern Languages 1%

Philosophy 1%

Religion 10%

All the unlisted sciences: 1%

Are these base %s ok?

[Mike M]

Okay - your skills are fine, but you could be using skills already in place:

Art/Craft (Fine Art) / (Music)   5%

Science (Geography) / (Geology) / (Engineering)  1%

Religion can be covered by Occult  5%

Language (Other)    1%

Classics, Philosophy  - these are not going be useful in the game, players spending points on such skills are effectively wasting their limited points - such areas of study could be replicated by a KNOW roll (perhaps Hard Know roll, given they are students learning the stuff - but as these skills are highly unlikley to come up in play, its somewhat academic).

[ShoggothPete]

My group has just finished playing "Time After Time" from http://www.chaosium.com/strange-aeons-ii-pdf/ . There's so much resonance here that I've decided that they're keeping the same characters, but going back in time, back to when their characters were at university. Not really changing the stats, just going to freshen up their sanity, and pick a subject to major in.

If you're looking for more Mi-go fun, I recommend looking up this adventure. 

Cheers,

Pete S.

 

[morganhua]

Ah, then there's a disconnect between the Rules and Scenario.  Because those skills are listed as possible skills in the college.  From my reading, I assumed focuses in (parens) are skills the student MUST take as their 3 fields of study in their selected college, and they must pick at least one of the two in the 1st paragraph associated with their college (Humanities major: Anthropology or English; Sciences major: Metallurgy or Geology).

Edited April 7, 2016 by morganhua

[Mike M]

The listed subjects are not called 'skills' for that reason - they are subjects of study. They are shown to give the Keeper and players some ideas on what sort of student they might want to play. The list in the scenario is not intended to relate to the skills list in the Rulebook in the way that you mention. 

Some subjects equate to game skills, others do not (i.e. they have no value in the game - players can create those skills and put points into them, but they will not benefit from it). This only affects three subjects mentioned: Classics, Philosophy and Religion. 

Classics and Philosophy would normally be covered by EDU - a Know roll. Or, if you prefer, they can have Classics as skill but the players will never really need to make a roll on this skill. The skills on the sheet and in the book are the game skills, anything else is essentially color.

Religion is covered by Occult (in this respect).

In all of the subject areas - e.g. I am studying Revealed Religion - there is a relatable game skill (in this case Occult). For Antiquities it would be Archaeology. And so on. The free skill slots can be filled by the player with any skill of their choosing (per the Student Occupation) - common sense applies, but if the player wants to take Archaeology, History, and Fighting (Brawl) they can - we'd assume the student is on the wrestling or boxing or some other sports team, etc.

It doesn't need to be more complex than that. 

 

 

[morganhua]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, then I would recommend that skills shouldn't be listed in the colleges and schools, that's confusing.

[Mike M]

29 minutes ago, morganhua said:

Ah, thanks for the clarification, then I would recommend that skills shouldn't be listed in the colleges and schools, that's confusing.

Sure, it's something I will look at when undertaking any text revisions for the trade book version. Your insights have been useful - thanks.

 

[Baniak]

I have a question. I thought I had an answer, but after reading the whole thing I kinda forgot.

Why are our PCs going do Cobb's Corners? Looking for Pasqualium? What are the digging students looking for in the dirt? Why there? Are folklorists only writing down the local tales or questioning people about something specific?

Actually, these are more than 1 question :/

[Mike M]

Folklore students - researching the folklore of the area via interviews with local people.

Geology students - doing soil surveys of the area. They are not specifically looking for Pasqualium - although, the sponsoring company will be interested to know if any deposits are found. 

 

[Baniak]

Does the town have a mayor? Or does the sheriff run the whole show?

[Mike M]

We have not specified a mayor, if you need one in your game feel free to have one.

[jajagappa]

17 hours ago, Baniak said:

Does the town have a mayor? Or does the sheriff run the whole show?

If you want authenticity, most New England towns do not have mayors.  Instead they have an annual town meeting where all citizens can come, raise issues, and vote on the issues.  It usually includes election of the town board members (selectmen) who handle administrative tasks, town clerk, and whatever other officials are need.