Genre hopping in 7th ed

[Rush Wingate]

So I have a group that loves 7th ed. I like to run games in the scifi and and medieval genres though. Products like Cthulhu Rising are not 7th ed so it makes it difficult for new Keepers.

So I have a scenario I want to run, where the investigators are allowed to enter the mind of an abuse victim and mental patient. The patient has crafted a fantasy style world in their subconscious where they retreat for safety. As the investigators arrive, they have to use medieval style weapons and what not as conduct their inquiries within a fantastical "world".

How does one figure skills and such for such a place?

Just use BRP?

[Atgxtg]

CoC7e while different, isn't all that different from BRP/RQ etc. So unless you want to use a different system, maybe  to play up the strangeness of the mindscape, I'd say just use CoC7.and port over any weapons, gear, magic etc. that you want from BRP. That way your players don';t hve to learn a new game system, unless you want them to. 

You could  let the PCs muddle through with the skills they have, allow modern skills to translate into mindscape skills in some way (like letting them use a rifle skill for a crossbow, drive to handle a cart, drive motorcyle for ride and so forth.), give thier characters bonus skills for their mindscape, or even let them write up alternate persona for the fantasy world. That depends a lot on the scenario and hoow you want it to play out. 

Personally, I'd learn to letting them use similar skills or even attribute rolls. I don't recall ever having a dream where I didn't know how to do what I was attempting to do. I might have been beaten or failed, or the task was somehow impossible, but as far as the dream went, I knew what I was trying to accomplish, even when it was something I can't actually do in real life. In fact, you might want to just have someone roll and random % roll to see how good they are at anything they can't do normally. 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Atgxtg

[Rush Wingate]

Thanks for the input!
One of the things I was thinking is that, when they enter the dreamscape their OWN subconscious would recreate them into an "avatar" of sorts. So a person who in the real world had a thing for elves, would actually materialize as an elf. Given that, I agree about never having a dream where you didnt know how to do what you were trying. Thats part of whats awesome in a dream. SO its either similar skills, or create an alternate persona...same attribute but with fantasy skills.

But how to get them to do it without giving it away is the question!

[Atgxtg]

One thing you might consider, since it is a dream is to just use attribute rolls for everything. For instance they could shoot a weapon in the dream or drive a vehicle with a DEX roll, lift something heavy with a STR roll, win a game of chance with a LUCK roll and so on. That way they wouldn't need any skills, nor would they have to spend time training or studying, as in real life. They could just just default to a STATx5% roll. You could also allow them to use any relevant skill they have, if it is at a higher ability. So if a PC with DEX 12 took fencing and had Rapier at 85% he could use one in the dream at 85% instead of his default of 60% (DEXx5%). 

You might even consider treating wounds a bit differently, with damage potentially waking a character up, and knocking him out of the dream. 

As for creating fantasy persona, you best bet might be some sort of series of questions that they have to answer while interacting with the mental patient. Stuff like, "I like elves. Do you believe in elves? Do you like them better than dragons? Would you rather be an elf of a dragon? How about a shovel?" Fifteen minutes of rambling questions like that and you can probably get a good idea of what direction to go with each character.