Library Skill - Role Play

[Jwfortune]

Our group is getting ready to hit a part early in the Murder on the Orient Express campaign where there will be a lot of library research required to gather information.  I've been thinking about how this will go and it doesn't seem like it will be very exciting.

 

How does the library research phase of the game go for your group?  How do you jazz it up?

 

 

[mvincent]

I have them roll, then I provide handouts (sometimes placed inside old books)

It's not very RP heavy (well, reading authentic looking handouts is a bit like LARPing), but the wealth of reading material certainly tends to be engaging.

PC's with a low Library Use skill often do something else, like hire an assistant (which I roleplay a bit) or investigate other leads while the Library users find the Library clues.

Edited March 15, 2017 by mvincent

[Mike M]

I sometimes spice up library visits by having an interesting/annoying/angry/officious librarian to provoke a bit of gameplay (not really an obstacle to finding the clues they need but some added colour). Depending on what you are running, having the odd cultist trailing the PCs and getting in their way (or trying to get the book before they do) can mix things up.

But, generally, feed the clues and move on - players tend to enjoy reading handouts and then making deductions.

[Darius West]

Remember that in many ways the handouts are one of the most unique aspects of CoC.  You can have a lot of fun with them as a Keeper.  For example if you make your own scenarios, you should also make your own handouts.  Simialrly if you want to introduce printed scenarios, sometimes you have to modify the handouts to fit your ongoing campaign.  On occasion I have had characters with the ability to translate texts in the mythos languages, and so I have co-opted a number of fonts for such documents and used them to create a simple substitution cipher that players can then decode.  Once I had a player's character who had teratophilia fumble a translation of a text written in Tsath-Yo with notably hilarious results. 

Attached is a handout I developed for use with Dunwich: Return to the Forgotten Village sourcebook.

The Kranorian Annals Fact or Fallacy.pdf

[joggiwagga]

Another fun thing is to look into period appropriate sensationalist headlines - libraries have been archiving newpapers for quite some time, including having them bound as volumes (though this is done rarely now today).  If someone doesn't do well at their Library Use roll (or perhaps asks for help and words things on the vague side so they don't sound utterly bonkers) they could end up with fun little finds like that.  There's a lot of 'stranger than fiction' stuff out there in the real world, be it as just fun flavor, or something that you can actually tie into your scenario as support of the weirdness the investigators are facing.

EDIT: found the older thread on fonts, and so my question on fonts became a moot point

Edited March 15, 2017 by joggiwagga

[Darius West]

21 hours ago, joggiwagga said:

Another fun thing is to look into period appropriate sensationalist headlines - libraries have been archiving newpapers for quite some time, including having them bound as volumes (though this is done rarely now today).  If someone doesn't do well at their Library Use roll (or perhaps asks for help and words things on the vague side so they don't sound utterly bonkers) they could end up with fun little finds like that.  There's a lot of 'stranger than fiction' stuff out there in the real world, be it as just fun flavor, or something that you can actually tie into your scenario as support of the weirdness the investigators are facing.

EDIT: found the older thread on fonts, and so my question on fonts became a moot point

Yeah, I forgot about that fonts post. (Sry).  

You make an interesting point about "stranger than fiction" stuff out there.  I subscribe to Fortean Times to keep up with such things.  Here is a link: 

http://subscribe.forteantimes.com/see-inside/

I sometimes wonder whether "Weird Tales" should exist in the Call of Cthulhu universe, or whether we should take a leaf out of Alan Moore's "Watchmen". What I mean by this is that in the comic "Watchmen", because there are real superheroes at large in the world, comic superheroes aren't a "thing", and instead the comic industry is devoted to stories of piracy, featuring "Tales of the Black Freighter".  Perhaps in a world where "Weird Tales" are potentially real, "Fantasy Westerns" filled with "US Marshalls of the Round Table, wise guy unicorns and magic six shooters are the big thing?

Edited March 16, 2017 by Darius West

[joggiwagga]

19 hours ago, Darius West said:

Yeah, I forgot about that fonts post. (Sry).  

You make an interesting point about "stranger than fiction" stuff out there.  I subscribe to Fortean Times to keep up with such things.  Here is a link: 

http://subscribe.forteantimes.com/see-inside/

I sometimes wonder whether "Weird Tales" should exist in the Call of Cthulhu universe, or whether we should take a leaf out of Alan Moore's "Watchmen". What I mean by this is that in the comic "Watchmen", because there are real superheroes at large in the world, comic superheroes aren't a "thing", and instead the comic industry is devoted to stories of piracy, featuring "Tales of the Black Freighter".  Perhaps in a world where "Weird Tales" are potentially real, "Fantasy Westerns" filled with "US Marshalls of the Round Table, wise guy unicorns and magic six shooters are the big thing?

I think there will always be speculative fiction even if a thing exists in the real world.  Though if I've learned anything from reading Charles Stross, it's that Real Life can run ramshod over your plot (like the time he had to change a mention of al Qaeda b/c in the time between submitting his final version to the editors and publication, 9/11 happened, or various effects of Brexit on his plot, etc.").

My thought is that if we have books of eldertich poetry and lore for players to find then it's probably best to not have say "Call of C'thulhu and Other Stories" on the bookshelves, but your own version of fantasy horror squamous tales?  If they're looking for fiction reads or you want to lace the setting with pulp novels, why not?

[joggiwagga]

When running A Time to Harvest I may have had a player who just randomly grabbed some books while they were passing through b/c they were in a different language turn out to be foreign language bodice-rippers. 

[hangfire]

On 3/15/2017 at 6:40 PM, Darius West said:

Attached is a handout I developed for use with Dunwich: Return to the Forgotten Village sourcebook.

The Kranorian Annals Fact or Fallacy.pdf

Thank you for this - I'm going to use it in my campaign!

[Videopete]

What about runequest fiction, instead of conan as he is a historical figure.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Videopete

[Darius West]

On 3/18/2017 at 1:32 AM, joggiwagga said:

I think there will always be speculative fiction even if a thing exists in the real world.  Though if I've learned anything from reading Charles Stross, it's that Real Life can run ramshod over your plot (like the time he had to change a mention of al Qaeda b/c in the time between submitting his final version to the editors and publication, 9/11 happened, or various effects of Brexit on his plot, etc.").

I personally would completely forgive anyone who says we are living in some bizarre dystopian alternate reality and the Mandela Effect is a real symptom of a deeper problem.  I confess it seems increasingly plausible.