This space will be reserved for the 'guidelines' for What Rough Beast. I use the term guidelines, because it sounds better than 'rules'. Ahem. But that's what they are. I will be adding to this as I think of them, and the need arises.
1. Try and watch your spelling. If only so that there is no misunderstanding between what you say and what you
meant to say. This shouldn't be about the game attempting to be English 101 - it's more about helping the other players, and the poor DM..!
2. Use brackets for mechanics. Such as [Crimster, I use Knowledge: Fungal Growths on Dr. Silver's neck. Does it look like a fungus, or something... else?] Also use brackets to ask me a direct question such as [Crimster, is there anything sharp around? Like a knife?]
3. Use quotes so I know you're speaking. This may be relevant for certain words. "Cthulhu-Cthulhu! Ftagn! I command thee, spawn of the stars! Get out of that neck!" is appropriate.
4. I'll roll the dice. As I stated before, I'll be using a dicebot for all required actions. In this genre, I most likely will *never* fudge.
5. Some assumptions are ok. If you are in a grocery store, you can assume they have rubbing alcohol without having to ask. They most likely will not have hospital-grade bandages, however. If you keep your assumptions reasonable, I have no problem with it (I'll tell you if your assumption is incorrect).
6. Use the dice-bot for stats. We
roll for stats in this game, using an online dice-bot. It's very simple, actually. Email the following block (cut and paste what's below) of info to
dice@pbm.com , with the
my email address on one of the #P lines. That way I will get the email from the dice-bot. Having the dice-bot email just you, then forwarding me the email is a no-no. But once you do it right, voila, instant stats. You may reroll if your total modifiers add up to 0 or less, or if your highest score is 13 or lower. Here is the block.
#P timothycraft AT yahoo DOT com (obviously modify this)
#P YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
#S 6
#D 1
#R 24
#L 6
#T Stats for YOUR NAME
7. Death is inevitable. It is entirely possible you may die. Your character, that is. It could be from a shoggoth. It could be from old age, if you're lucky. Don’t fret, you can always come back into the game with someone else if you wish. The standard Call of Cthulhu game can have quite a high body count. The d20 version may have a slightly less level of character death, but not by much. Darwinism is hard at work in the Cthulhu universe; the smarter usually survive longer than the ones who go in, shotguns blasting. Your new characters level is one less than the average of the party.
8. Assumptions, Part Deux. There may be times when
I may make small, minor assumptions. Primarily to speed things along, or else to add what is for the most part is inconsequential flavor. If your character shakes someone's hand, you can be sure he is no horror there to drain your strength. I may have you greet someone with a smile. If you say to yourself, "Hey! Sam wouldn't be nice to the guy who put that thing in Dr. Silver's neck!" please let me know - I can easily make an adjustment.
MORE TO COME...
