How do you play COC?

[PiEater]

My friends and I have play quite a bit of D&D and are starting to get into COC so the standard for us is a grid map and minis. I was wondering what everyone else uses; of course there is no right answer only the preferences of each group.

Edited August 29, 2016 by PiEater

[rust]

We usually rely on handouts and imagination and only rarely use maps and almost never miniatures. In my view miniatures on a grid map have a tendency to lead to a tactical style of gaming which does not combine well with the atmosphere of horror I prefer for Call of Cthulhu.

[nclarke]

Like Rust our group doesn't use miniatures and relies upon the descriptive powers of the Keeper or the scenario writer to convey atmosphere and use our imagination to 'see' the place and people being described. Things we use to support this often include atmospheric music, appropriate physical props, handouts and time of day (gaming late in the evening with reduced lighting for example)

[Numtini]

I answered map and handouts. However, sometimes there is no map, and sometimes we'll make limited use of some kind of token/miniature to show where people are. The map is just a visualization tool though, to make things clear. There's never any sort of using a grid of measuring things or worrying about movement--other than by eyeballing it.

[PiEater]

26 minutes ago, Numtini said:

I answered map and handouts. However, sometimes there is no map, and sometimes we'll make limited use of some kind of token/miniature to show where people are. The map is just a visualization tool though, to make things clear. There's never any sort of using a grid of measuring things or worrying about movement--other than by eyeballing it.

We do something similar in roll20. When a map isn't provided I'll sometimes just doodle a rough layout to give a few options.

Including a grid would make things far more tactical like rust said. Coming from D&D with combat heavy environments, my players are used to thinking tactically. Since my group is used to having detailed maps and tokens I try and give them some visual aid when navigating maps.

[mvincent]

As an ardent miniature lover, I answered 'Miniatures, a grid map, and handouts'. However, even I find grid use is not needed/wanted in CoC.

[smiorgan]

I've never thought of using minis / pawns with CoC, it was always imagination, a few handouts and some quickly sketched rough maps...

Possible exception... if I ever get the cool Italian edition of "Grace under Pressure" I might give in and use the deep one stand-ups...

 (My younger self was quite anti-minis, but I have mellowed with age developing a fondness for paper stand-ups, Pathfinder Pawns, D&D4 tokens etc.)

[K Peterson]

Handouts, and imagination, mostly. And a crudely-sketched map on scrap pieces of paper, not a gridded battlemat.

This year, though, I've painted up some 20s-era miniatures as I've had spare time. It's been for fun at this point; I haven't broken them out in play.

[1970]

I voted handouts and imagination.  It comes from being a young gamer in my early teens where I could either buy books or minis.  Books pretty much always won.  When I ran D&D3E I still refused to use miniatures except on rare occasions, and even then I didn't use a grid map.  I feel that in a game like CoC having a map available to all players would cut down on the chaos of combat with the unknown.  When they flee, I don't want them to have something they can rationally reference to help them make decisions.

[Darius West]

I am normally a handouts and imagination Keeper, but one time I ran a grid map game adapted from Space Hulk where the players were hunting ghouls under Hangman's Hill in Arkham.  With added rules to accommodate tunnel squeezes, climbs, crawling through fetid goo that got turned up like other counters, and spot hidden rolls in the dark totally dependent on light sources it became really tense.  Add to that a chess clock and a 7 minute ceiling before the ghouls move again, and it was wonderfully tense and the players loved it though they were all but pissing themselves with terror and adrenaline.  Will you goop up your gun barrel?  Can you re-light the improvised flamer in time?  Did that thing at the end of the passage move or is that my imagination?  Will Genivieve move her fat behind in time to allow me to get a clear line of sight.  Oh no!  You're too close, don't fire that thing or we'll all be deaf... BANG ! Mawp... mawp... 

[Spence]

Handouts and theater of the mind. 

It is far easier to build tension and horror by narrative.  Giving the players a defined map actually seems to remove some of the suspense and apprehension since they can solidly anchor their vision. 

 

Not having a map in front of them to back up memory fans a players uncertainty.  

[Moes1980]

I have run DnD a variety of ways, but tomorrow night will be my first time running/playing a CoC game. I plan to use only hand outs and imagination, and occasionally a rough sketched map of an area as the players explore it. What has me really excited about this game is both the horror and narrative element, so I really don't want to spend time on grid maps and players trying to position their mini's around. 

[Jwfortune]

As a long time Pathfinder player who uses lots of miniatures, maps and actual 3D buildings, I played my first intro scenario last night with NO miniatures and NO handouts.  It was an awesome experience.  We had two small combat encounters that went very well.  The Players were really using their imagination when making their actions.  I could see if we had a really big encounter for some reason, that we might need miniatures to keep things straight, but without them, the game runs so much more smoothly.  No pausing the game for map drawing or miniature movement.  I loved it.

 

[trystero]

Mostly theatre-of-the-mind. For some complex action scenes, I'll sketch a rough map to ensure that the players and I have the same understanding of the locale, and may even put down pawns to show where investigators and foes are, but we don't use any sort of grid or measurement; it's more "you're at the front door, you're climbing in the back window, this creature is in the living room", etc.

[kafka]

Imagination and handouts created the day of the adventure...so lots of imagination.

[TrippyHippy]

Although we've seen some impressive Cthulhu miniatures in recent years (Cthulhu Wars etc), I actually think you maximise the alienness of the setting and the entities therein by relying more upon lurid descriptions rather than physical illustration. So handouts and imagination, with the occasional map, all the way..

[Mankcam]

Props like telegrams or pictures of artefacts or era-specific locations. That's about it, the rest typically is just imagination.

I have used a map a few times to show relative location of characters in a major combat scene, but this is for the more cinematic CoC sessions. I think I showed a dockside warehouse layout, and a Zeppelin layout. It was useful, but not necessary. I can only remember doing it a handful of times.

I have done it a few more times in RQ, but still try to not make that a big focus of any combat scene. I certainly wouldn't recommend doing more than that. Using minis and a grid map would kill the tension and be far too gamist for any of my games, whether RQ or CoC.

Narrating a good description has always been my preferred way to GM.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Mankcam

[Spence]

A clarification,  when I mention a map, it is not a battlemap.  By map I refer to either a general town map or a sketched layout map.  Basically the same type maps as you find in the Keepers Guides two scenarios.

 

[JohnnyDollar]

Our group uses handouts and imagination.  The only maps we use are the town maps and layout maps that Spence mentioned.  As for miniatures, we don't use them, though some of the players like having the eM-4 Dunwich Detectives for fun.  And sometimes they like to break out the horrorclix for fun as well.

[Numtini]

On 9/3/2016 at 7:36 PM, Spence said:

A clarification,  when I mention a map, it is not a battlemap.  By map I refer to either a general town map or a sketched layout map.  Basically the same type maps as you find in the Keepers Guides two scenarios.

 

I answered map and handouts, but exactly this. I'll draw something on a mat/roll20 but it's not used for miniatures or meant to be to scale. It's just a visual depiction. 

[Simlasa]

Handouts and imagination for us... though I was thinking 'maps' meant battlemats, we do use maps of locations sometimes.

No miniatures though... even though I've got a collection of tiny Mythos critters. If there is any atmosphere and dread going on, plunking down a 1 inch high deep one just puts a damper on it. I'd rather use bottlecaps as abstractions.

[finarvyn]

I answered "handouts and imagination" mostly because historically I don't have many CoC appropriate miniatures to use. Several fantasy minis but not so many modern-day style folks. So, over the years I've just relied on theater-of-the-mind.

However, I've been thinking of running some 7E in a local game store and I guess folks there probably appreciate minis more. I would need to track down appropriate non-fantasy mapboards for play. I suppose I could raid some of my Cthulhu board games and maybe I'll be able to switch my style a little....

[Khelbiros]

i've used an Arkham Horror board as a map for games set in Arkham!

[Mankcam]

I still greatly prefer narrative descriptions, although I find Google Images great as a source of visuals for real life historic scenes, NPCs, and atmospheric settings. I also sometimes search for images from first person PC games at times, and many of these images are also great for setting the scene from the PCs point of view.

Using mood music from Spotify and YouTube playlists has also been very handy. 

So having internet access at the gaming table has been a big asset to my games, and a WiFi Tablet is probably the best prop I have available to me as a GM.

Occasionally expressing relative locations with bottle lids etc or a rough hand drawn map has been useful at times for a reference, but not as a centrepiece in the middle of the gaming table.

I love board games like Fortune And Glory, Arkham Horror, etc but I have found that the gamism of grid boards and professional minis just doesn't work well for most of my roleplaying games. I have found that it has been especially detrimental to the atmosphere for my WoD and CoC games in particular.

I have not seen CoC played at the local comic hobby shop, so I'm unsure if that crowd would be able to adjust to running a game without minis. D&D 5E and Warhammer tend to be the main games played, so minis have a huge focus with these games. A lot of fun, but not how I prefer to play RPGs. 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2016 by Mankcam

[mvincent]

On 9/10/2016 at 7:26 AM, finarvyn said:

I've been thinking of running some 7E in a local game store and I guess folks there probably appreciate minis more. I would need to track down appropriate non-fantasy mapboards for play. I suppose I could raid some of my Cthulhu board games and maybe I'll be able to switch my style a little....

If desired, some of my favorites sources for CoC miniatures include:

1. Mansions of Madness/Arkham Horror
2. Cthulhu Wars
3. O scale train figurines
4. Civilian Heroclix (rebased onto these) like: John Jones, Bruno Mannheim, Bad Samaritan, Clark Kent, Aldrich Killian, Frank Drake, Norman Osborn