Pen and Paper RPG - Call of Cthulhu

Fourier

I'll be running a game of Call of Cthulhu on 16th, 17th, 18th February.

Setting:
1920s/1930s America, i.e. Prohibition, Jazz and Art Deco. Fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts. North of Boston.
Arkham is a university town that embodies common New England horror tropes, such as haunted mansions out in the woods, asylums, burial grounds and pilgrim era witches. This is then mixed in with "The Great Gatsby" style 20s extravagance.

Characters:
Common backgrounds would be world weary cops, private detectives (gumshoes), dilettantes and flapper girls, but anything welcome.

Rules:
These will follow shortly and are quite simple. I'll be using the 7th edition of the game, the newest one, as I think it is the best basically.

Horror:
For those unfamiliar with it, Lovecraft's horror basically revolves around powerful extradimensional beings trying to cross over or interfere with our reality. Usually subtly. Often the horror comes from the enormity of these beings and the insanity resultant from learning too much about them. Basically humanity are little more than ants to these entities.

Also present is the type of horror you might be familiar with from Stephen King or even just American Halloween movies. Creepy old farms, "The old Carson mansion", restless dead, witch covens still in the woods outside the city living in a more primitive way.

Let me know if you are interested.

Fourier

Also times and dates are flexible.

Necro

Sign me up pending roster checking. You had me at horror

Tigger

Are you aware of chalky white
Omar comming

Fourier

Oh yes, loved boardwalk empire. That'd have plenty of good ideas for characters. Young gangsters, weary WWI vets, Italian immigrants, etc

sKeith

what else have i to do?

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Sign me up pending roster checking. You had me at horror

BandyLegs PI

Necro

Necrominus wrote: »

Sign me up pending roster checking. You had me at horror

Those dates sadly have me working nights, wouldn't be able to be as active as I'd like. See how you get on with sign ups, don't worry about me

Another time perhaps

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Those dates sadly have me working nights, wouldn't be able to be as active as I'd like. See how you get on with sign ups, don't worry about me

Another time perhaps

Dates are plucked out of thin air and are flexible, I'll be going with whatever suits the most players.

Necro

Ignore my idiocy, looking at wrong roster. Dates should be grand for the most part if the others are happy. Will be patchy 16th but free 17th and 18th

Tigger

Necrominus wrote: »

Ignore my idiocy, looking at wrong roster. Dates should be grand for the most part if the others are happy. Will be patchy 16th but free 17th and 18th

18th is my birthday

And nicks

Fourier

Week before better?

Necro

Works for me.

Tigger

Is all the same
Thought it would be nice to play on my birthday but I might be out

Fourier

Well sure, let's keep the date fluid for now. If Necro is okay on 18th and you'd enjoy it on your birthday, we might make that the first day. We'll see closer to the date.

Fourier

Very simple.

You have a list of skills each ranked from 1-100, e.g.

Swim 53

To succeed you just roll that value or under on a d100.

If it is a hard situation, like swimming against a current, you have to roll under or equal half the skill value (I'll just say Swim [Hard]).

If it is very hard, swimming against a current while bleeding, it's under or equal to one fifth the skill value (Swim [Extreme])

Those are essentially the only rules in the game aside from some stuff in combat, e.g. Health and Damage which I'll post below.

Fourier

I should add that there are three types of success.

So you might be swimming in still water, have Swim 50 and roll a 5.

That's under one fifth of your score so it is an "Extreme Success". In this case it is not required (unlike when swimming against a current while bleeding) but still important to take note of, as you will cross the water faster than somebody who just rolled a regular success.

So there are three types of success:
Success (<= Skill), Hard Success (<= Skill/2), Extreme Success (<= Skill/5).

Some cases require a certain type or better and they can be used to determine who does something first or "wins".

Necro

Ok so I've rolled a character for this and added a backstory as per rules. Do you want the stats here Fourier or via PM?

tritium

How much time is needed to play this. Anyone able to give me a rundown?



Used to a big Lovecraft fan.....

Necro

tritium wrote: »

How much time is needed to play this. Anyone able to give me a rundown?



Used to a big Lovecraft fan.....

Fourier will probably break it down better but I think the plan at least initially for this game is to run it over 3 consecutive evenings. So not the timesink that D&D is essentially.

Think of it as a condensed game of WW... kind of.

Fourier

tritium wrote: »

How much time is needed to play this. Anyone able to give me a rundown?



Used to a big Lovecraft fan.....

Hi tritium,

Really the major thing is how into posting one or two paragraph descriptions of what your character is doing would you be?

Example:
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=105916984&postcount=262

More than the time, how willing would you be for something like that?

Necro

:pac:

I love how you highlight the arrogant dwarf as an example :P

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Ok so I've rolled a character for this and added a backstory as per rules. Do you want the stats here Fourier or via PM?

PM at first.

Fourier

Okay I have Necro's character. Whenever I get the other two I'll make connection between ye, i.e. why you all meet at the start.

Fourier

Werewolf looking like it is the 18th so I will change the date on this.

Necro

I'm fine with 18th Four. I can do both no hassle

sKeith

You definitely don't need to change due to the Sunday, the game don't really start until the Monday morning. but, I'm revoking earlier declaration of interest in CoC.
I'll read along, and I might get into it, but won't be in initial group. Sorry for declare then undeclared.

Fourier

Ah grand then, I'll keep it the same. My lack of familiarity with Werewolf!

No interest in the world sKeith? (Just like to know what turns people off some games)

sKeith

Fourier wrote: »

Ah grand then, I'll keep it the same. My lack of familiarity with Werewolf!

No interest in the world sKeith? (Just like to know what turns people off some games)

From my brief read through the materials, there does not seem like a lot of mechanics that I can use to create dialog. Game mechanics are my crutch and from that I can spurn some dialog. Necro is great at contriving something from nothing, me, not so much.

Fourier

Very interesting, might ask a bit more at some point, if you don't mind.

Fourier

This is still up for any date that suits ye.

Necro

Yay!

Fourier

Oh and Tigger, if you want a premade character, you can have the old classic Harvey Walters, the arcane professor.

Tigger

Fourier wrote: »

Oh and Tigger, if you want a premade character, you can have the old classic Harvey Walters, the arcane professor.

Yeah cool