Objects, Places and NPC Pictures for Episode 1

[morganhua]

I just spent yesterday doing google searches and getting pictures for various objects, locations, and NPCs.  Not sure if people want them or not. They'll be ok for private play, but I haven't done checks on copyright, etc.

I'll put a couple of pictures below. 

Here's a link to my google drive folder with most of the pictures I'm using: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1hjMXKBkPW6dXVhNVZyVF80TEU&usp=sharing

Edited April 11, 2016 by morganhua

[morganhua]

[morganhua]

Here's just a contact sheet of NPCs.  It's impossible to really match the scenario's descriptions, so I picked what I thought were interesting or representative.  I have individual pictures so they can be shown online at the appropriate moment.

[morganhua]

Here's a copy of one of my game tables and it initial seating of students in the 2 cars and truck.  Ready for the new students to take a seat.

I decided to pick some famous Rat Pack actors for the doomed students -- also it's short hand for me to figure out who's who and their personalities.

[Cyenobite]

Thanks for posting these. Always nice to find time savers.
I'm going to attempt to maybe make up some NPC character sheets, if/when I do I'll post here too. I forget who originally designed it, but a while back someone in the google+ community posted a small PDF (fillable) sheet for NPS's. I've found it really comes in handy. (attached).

CoC7e - NPC Interactive Sheet v1.0.pdf

[Cyenobite]

I had a little trouble reading the names on the Cobb's Map, so altered (and colored) it. I'd like to share with everyone here, but if this isn't ok, I understand if it's removed.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for all this great work. You've saved me and others lots of effort searching for similar images.

 

[Ebon]

Morganhua, how can I get my hands on larger versions of your portraits for the field trip NPCs? I'd love to use them to make NPC cards so I can help PCs visualise who's with them and keep my tabs on them easily.

 

Also, let me say that all of these are beautiful and useful, especially that coloured Cobb's map!

[morganhua]

I put the NPC portraits in my google drive and I edited my first post to include the link to the drive.  I may have already edited some of the pictures to a smaller size (3" width).  You should be able to find the larger non-contact sheet version of the portraits in the linked drive.

[Ebon]

Thanks, Morganhua. Your players must love you if you put this much effort into the games that you run.

[morganhua]

I'm getting ready to run my 2nd session and 1st night at the Maclearan Farm.  It's interesting how crowded the farm is with all the PCs and NPCs.  I've added pictures of the telephone, outhouse, flowerbed, collapsed barn and sugar maple forest for flavor.

[trevlix]

You've put up some amazing resources. Thank you!

[morganhua]

I just added some period bridges.  The collapsed bridge is a period 1920s bridge, but the sign and cars on it aren't, but looks representative of the bridge collapse on day 3.

Edited April 14, 2016 by morganhua

[pookie]

These are all great, thank you.

That said, I cannot use the portraits of members of the Rat Pack. My players would think it absurd and it would mean that they would refer to members of the Rat Pack rather than the students. I know my players... I had enough problems explaining to them that the female sports teams at Miskatonic University are called the Lady Badgers.

[Fallingtower]

1 hour ago, pookie said:

These are all great, thank you.

That said, I cannot use the portraits of members of the Rat Pack. My players would think it absurd and it would mean that they would refer to members of the Rat Pack rather than the students. I know my players... I had enough problems explaining to them that the female sports teams at Miskatonic University are called the Lady Badgers.

MU's school colors and Mascot?

I agree with Badgers, the colors I prefer are Purple and Black. I know the first MU source book had their colors as Black and Orange.

[pookie]

Rather than start my own thread, I thought it best to add my own player handouts here.

The first is of the expedition members and what the investigators know of them.

Harrold-Learmont Vermont Fieldtrip 1930.docx

[Drabal]

Thanks a billion for all of this stuff

[occupant]

Has anyone mapped out any locations outside Cobb's Corners? I know the Maclaren farm is 3 miles out but I'm trying to get a bearing on the position of the Farm in relation to the Green Mountains and Broken Hill.

Edited April 18, 2016 by occupant

[morganhua]

The Maclearan Farm is 3 miles North of Cobb's Corners.  From the scenario p.19: "Standing majestically in the background, the Green Mountains rear up like a bulwark against the rest of the country."

I have no idea where the Green Mountains or Broken Hill is.  I did a lot of hand waving (I did a lot of "Them mountains you see yonder.  Yep.  Those mountains.") and only sent them to the Broken Hill on the 4th day and didn't tell the Players that that is where Blaine sent them, since Blaine was in charge of the maps and where they were going, so it would have been to Blaine's advantage to not tell the Players that that was where he was sending them.  I told them it was a very long drive and that is why they have to bring their camping gear as they would not be returning to the Maclearan Farm for several days.

This was also the same day as finding the bones in the flowerbed, so Players were relieved that they would be given the opportunity to leave the Maclearan Farm.  The folklore students were disappointed that they had to stay at the creepy farmhouse, but Blaine brought take-out food from the Jim's Grill as a treat (plus Whiskey).

 

[mvincent]

Thank you all for the pictures! Some further ideas concerning pictures:

1) I affix them strategically inside my scenarios using (blue) painters tape, which is easy to remove.

2) As they are encountered, I affix the pictures to the player's area map. This gives my players a sense of location and provides a visual record of their investigations (it also begins to look like a classic investigation board).

3) For NPC's with a lot of dialog text (or a monologue), I've previously printed that text on the backside* of the picture for easy reference, allowing me to hold up the picture as I read the text (instead of looking down in my book).

* Actually, I just turned the picture upside-down, printed the text below the picture, then folded the picture over. This also allowed me to hang the pictures from my GM screen or place them on the table like a 'tent'.

Edited April 25, 2016 by mvincent

[Cyenobite]

Made up some more character profile images that can be cut out. Nothing fancy, but hopefully useful.

incase it's not obvious, cut the outside edge, then fold so it's like a tent that will stand up.
(screenshot image is a duplicate to show picts before downloading pdfs.)

Character profiles 1 e1.pdf

Character profiles 2 e1.pdf

Character profiles 3 e1.pdf

Edited April 24, 2016 by Cyenobite

[mibagents]

MorganHua; 

This may sound like a dumb question, or overly analytical; but in reference to the pics you shared in your Google drive, I was wondering if the fact that Robert Blaine stood out as obvious art against the other pictures of actual people to any players?  Like, I know some really good players that would catch that detail and spend a lot of time and attention on Blaine, whereas it's kind of imperative to keep their focus elsewhere for as much of this first section as possible.  I don't know the people I'm running this for, I recruited them from the internet; but other gamers I play with regularly would zoom in on this fact and harangue Blaine to no end.  

[morganhua]

I just told the players the truth: that's the only portrait that was provided with the scenario and the others are from the internet.  They were able to deal with it.  Some players did say he looked a bit cold.  Jason Trent is your other foil in running the game.  Actually, the players were pretty suspicious of the whole town.  There's so many red herrings in the game, they'll have issues trying to figure out what's going on.  I think that's deliberate.  In my game, they didn't figure anything out.  They suspected Blaine, Trent, and the children in town.  One player had Blaine at rifle point, but Blaine's excuse of having to use the outhouse worked.  The player searched the outhouse and missed the stashed booze twice, so Blaine didn't even have that as an excuse.  Later when Blaine pushed that investigator into the river during the bridge washout, the player decided it was revenge for the rifle incident and not for taking away their attention from the dead Mi-Go floating down the river.  Even leaving the Truck during the rain storm was suspicious, but not actionable.  I mean, what are the PCs going to do?  Murder the guy for getting lost in the rain?   The rain is so hard that it washed out a bridge. And the folklore people got chased away by a guy with a shotgun and told them they were stupid for being out when it was raining cats and dogs. The penalty for murder is either hanging or electric chair.  In the game, nothing happens to the PCs until the 4th night and at that time, it's too late.  Having the players harass Blaine isn't a problem.  I mean he really doesn't have anything to hide that they can ask about.  If they ask about the previous expedition, he can tell the truth that he didn't have anything to do with the deaths and disappearances.  I even played it up and had Blaine say that he didn't want to talk about it.  After he got pressured, he admitted his attraction to Daphne Devine and her loss hurt him and he didn't want to talk about it anymore.  Since he was protective of Clarrisa Thurber, the other players thought he was just a creepy stalker.

You can always look up another portrait on the internet and replace Blaine's picture.

[mibagents]

Thanks, I've gotten a couple different pics and used some of yours.  Thanks again for posting them, and for the reply. 

[mibagents]

Morganhua, my players had a very strong reaction to the Pic you provided for Agnus Bellweather...I think it was the moment of the night revealing that one lol...