Call of Cthulhu BRP

[JeffB]

It seems to me that people are going to be getting killed a lot in this game.....

Welcome to CoC. Chances are your character won't live long or stay sane long enough to care. That's the nature of the game. It's not a cinematic/heroic RPG. If you go into the game with a "kick some ass" mentality you will be sorely disappointed.

 

[Urizen]

Welcome to CoC. Chances are your character won't live long or stay sane long enough to care. That's the nature of the game. It's not a cinematic/heroic RPG. If you go into the game with a "kick some ass" mentality you will be sorely disappointed.

Don't get me wrong. I totally dig that!

I wonder though, about that for other genres though (say fantasy). I guess there better be a darned good healer on hand

 

[Committed Hero]

It works, obviously. But it shows its age in some areas, especially in comparison to more modern systems. For each thing it invented that was once unique, a new game has come along with refinements (for example, Unknown Armies uses a more comprehensive sanity system, and GUMSHOE is geared towards investigatory horror). Most of these latter games have been made by ardent admirers and CoC fans, though.

Two things I hate about playing BRP CoC are that every third or fourth NPC has totally useless skills included for comic relief, and that many groups tend to use random temporary insanities in the same way. I suppose it's one's way of whistling past the graveyard, but it tends to ruin the mood for me.

 

[Committed Hero]

Welcome to CoC. Chances are your character won't live long or stay sane long enough to care. That's the nature of the game. It's not a cinematic/heroic RPG.

If you consider that most investigators are doing the right thing, knowing that they are doomed, it's incredibly heroic.

The lethality factor is highly dependent on the Keeper, too. As I hate making new PCs, my games tend to be quite survivable.

 

[Socius]

Something that's surprising me is Hit points. From what I understand so far, there's actually a ceiling (35 hp). It seems to me that people are going to be getting killed a lot in this game if the focus is on combat. I still need to read the rest of it though, so who knows.

So far though, 5 stars. Great stuff.

And with the Mythos, sometimes Hit Point is really irrelevant to how an Investigator gets killed. That's usually reserved for mundane perils such as gunfire, ordinary animals and accidents natural or otherwise. It's more of a technique to convey the ordinary human being's fragility and insignificance compared to the universe as a whole, rather than actual stats.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

I think it's safe to say that many fans of CoC see a high lethality for PCs as a feature, rather than a bug. And, it does encourage people to resport to violence when they see no other choice, rather than as a first option.

I've never tried BRP for basic fantasy, but I imagine there are certainly fantasy settings where fights should be just as lethal and avoided as in CoC. Just try to warn players coming from a more kicik-in-the-door system if you want to avoid assumption clashes.

 

[Urizen]

Personally, I don't see high lethality as being a bad thing in any rpg setting.

The knowledge that your character can die just as easily at max health as she could at lower health underscores the inherent danger of combat much more so than if the character had 100 hp to burn off before needing to worry about death.

It's especially relevant in a CoC game, where characters are encountering truly menacing creatures; things they probably never should have gone looking for in the first place.

But really, you can use this system for great effect in a modern setting, a futuristic setting and even fantasy settings.

Right now I'm reading about resistance checks, and I'm not sure how well I like those. They seem a bit convoluted to me, but I confess I was reading them at 1 a.m.

The whole skills going over 100% is confusing right now. I'm not sure how you make a check above 100% -again, late reading might be the problem.

I understand how that can increase the chance for heroes to score crits, but it just seems that they are going to succeed at everything they do, so in effect, at that skill level, you are only really rolling to see if there's a fumble or a crit.

Is that correct?

 

[frankthedm]

The lethality factor is highly dependent on the Keeper, too. As I hate making new PCs, my games tend to be quite survivable.

Well I had a an idea for using the Luck % as a "fate point" mechanic. If you'd otherwise be killed, you lose 10% - 20% of your luck stat and survive, worse for wear [see WFRP]. If your Luck % runs out, your luck runs out.

 

[Old_school_overlord]

Yog-sothoth.com is a big site for BRP CoC.

I've found the system to be simple and flexible, but with alot of options for the GM to decide how he wants to resolve something.

While Skills go above 100%, any role of 96%+ is always a failure, however, the high skill can be relevant if:
its a hard task with a modifier (halved skill % is a common one).
rolling an "impale" involves a success at 1/5th your normal skill.
if a roll is resisted skills (e.g. two characters competing on who can climb a cliff fastest might use such a roll)

Typically though, your right - anything above 96% is fumble or pass most the time.

The resistance table is good once you get the hang of it - kicking in a door?
resisted str against the Door's "Str", chasing someone down? Resisted Con roll. Debating Society? Resisted Persuade skill check.

 

[Committed Hero]

http://yog-sothoth.comThe resistance table is good once you get the hang of it - kicking in a door? resisted str against the Door's "Str", chasing someone down? Resisted Con roll. Debating Society? Resisted Persuade skill check.

Actually it does not specifically work to compare skills, just attributes, although it could be easily modified to do so. For skill contests the rules use a different procedure which is independent of each contestant's relative skill ratings.