Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Assenpfeffer" data-source="post: 910452" data-attributes="member: 9061">First of all, CoC D20's sanity rules are pretty much lifted directly from the original version's:  A percentile score which fluctuates in play, capped by 100-Cthulhu Mythos skill.  This is almost identical overall to the original game's sanity rules.  The differences are pretty much minor and limited to specific sanity loss numbers.  This is integrates, not seamlessly, but functionally, into the D20 mechanical framework.Second, let me say that I like CoC D20 a great deal and consider it a top-notch product which improves in some ways upon the original.  It's approach toward the "deities" of the Cthulhu Mythos, for example, is superior to the BRP handling of the subject, IMO.  However, there are some issues with it.You're really asking two different questions here and implying a third; one about CoCd20's handling of Lovecraft and another about atmosphere.To the former, yes;  I think CoC does do justice to Lovecraft.  It handles the subject maturely and with great respect, the rules function well, and the whole package is unquestionably well put together.  However, if you ask your implied question "How well does CoC d20 model Lovecraft?" I'd have to say that it does a good job, but not as good a job as the original, classic BRP CoC.This is a function of the d20 system and has little to do with the designers' application of it.  Lovecraft's humanity is fragile and insignificant on the cosmic scale of things - BRP CoC reflects that well.  D20 has a good deal more room for PC heroics.  PCs in D20 have considerably higher survivability than they do in BRP.Note that this isn't entirely negative - D20 CoC would be fabulous at handling a horror game like Buffy or All Flesh Must be Eaten, as I've pointed out before.  And I don't think there's any question that D20 is better suited to long-term, open-ended campaigns than BRP is.  This is an issue with BRP CoC.  It's not a weakness, per se, but a feature of the system.  BRP CoC is better suited to one-shots and tight, single storyline-based campaigns than just about any other RPG, and some of the campaigns (Beyond the Mountains of Madness, Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep and Horror on the Orient Express, to name a few,) can take many, many months of real time to play through.The other issue with D20 as it applies to CoC is the level system - as written, it makes many of the most common CoC character archetypes difficult, if not flat-out impossible to make.  The middle-aged expert in achaeology and ancient languages is an example - it's simply not possible to make him as a 1st level PC.  In BRP you can allocate skill points freely and make your "expert" an actual expert instead of a first-level yahoo.As I've pointed out before, there's a fairly easy fix for this.  Pick an arbitrary PC level (4th-7th is appropriate, I think,) generate the starting PCs there, and occasionally give out extra skill ranks instead of standard experience.  This raises its own issues, though - among them the fact that 4th-7th level D20 PCs can be pretty formidable against the kind of Mythos foes they might be expected to face.Note of this should be taken to say that it's not possible to run a good, true-to-Lovecraft game using D20.  It certainly is, but there are roadblocks that don't exist, I think, in the original BRP version of the game.Now, to attack your question about atmosphere.  I agree that the rules certainly have an effect.  Specifically, in this case, for the reasons described above.  Rules that better model the intended atmosphere are always going to be preferable to those that don't do so quite as well.The key thing that has to be remembered here is that in horror RPGs generally and in Call of Cthulhu specifically, atmosphere is critical.  Without it, the game is about the GM killing PCs and driving them insane.  A D&D game can get by with minimal atmosphere, since PCs are heroic in stature and can better control game situations.  They drive the action.  In CoC the Mythos drives the session, and if players don't have other reasons to remain emotionally involved, they'll very quickly shut themselves away from the game.  In D&D amosphere is a nice bonus, in CoC it's essential to the success of your session.Bearing that in mind, it becomes important to understand that the rules alone cannot supply atmosphere.  They can help, or hinder, but they can never be relied upon to do it entirely by themselves.  So it's the GM's burden, and the GM's responsibility if the game collapses beacuse the players get bored.Lots of people feel that this makes atmosphere-dependent games like CoC difficult to run.  I tend to agree, but any moderately-competent GM can learn the tricks neccessary to do it.  I'm no GMing superstar by any streach of the imagination, but in my last CoC session (a one-shot last weekend) I had two people, separated from the rest of the party and the rest of the players, about crap their pants, the tension was so thick.  By Deep Ones, one of the puniest and least frightening Mythos critters</blockquote>

Verification