CoC is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. I have enjoyed it for one-shots, but I'm really not thrilled about campaigns where there's nothing you can really do except delay the inevitable destruction of humanity, and success in the campaign directly correlates to loss of sanity in the PCs. I guess I'm just too much of a Builder to enjoy a campaign where your insignificance and irrelevance is the whole point.
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CoC Clueless
- Thread starter Crothian
- Start date
*tentacles twitch in amusement*
What reward could surpass the honor of being my next meal, of sliding down my gullet and hearing your own screams echoing off the walls of my innards?
*chuckles*
Seriously, though, I'm sure that there are many who would die (and kill) for a chance to partake of the Milk of the Mother.
*tentacles writhe in silent laughter, light from a thousand fading stars mirrored in the dead black eyes*
Campainging the old way
A good way to run a campaing is not to have the characters as the focus, but some type of group or organization that all characters are a part of. As a player you may go thoughh a few characters, but the Organization still goes on.
Go and find your self a copy of the "Field Manual of the Theron Marsk Society." It is one of the better player guides (and DM guides) to running a CoC Campaing.
The individual is not important. But the Charter of the Group is.
-gustavef.
"Sanity is a sawed-off shotgun" --Frank Gulp
A good way to run a campaing is not to have the characters as the focus, but some type of group or organization that all characters are a part of. As a player you may go thoughh a few characters, but the Organization still goes on.
Go and find your self a copy of the "Field Manual of the Theron Marsk Society." It is one of the better player guides (and DM guides) to running a CoC Campaing.
The individual is not important. But the Charter of the Group is.
-gustavef.
"Sanity is a sawed-off shotgun" --Frank Gulp
Matchstick
Adventurer
i'm interested in how they handled CoC in D20. A lot of my group thinks CoC is the greatest thing since Pendragon, but I don't agree, at least with the original rules. I'm hoping D20 will be better, and maybe I can convince them to switch.
After about five sessions with the original system all the players had figured out the six skills that they would actually use in gameplay, and just kept making new characters with those skills maxed out.
One night I remember laughing uproariously as we went around the table stating what our characters were.
"I'm a parapsychologist with a pistol"
"I'm a librarian with two pistols"
"I'm a gangster with a pistol and a shotgun"
"I'm ex-military with a pistol and a rifle"
"I'm a revolutionary with a rifle"
"I'm a doctor"
I was the last one of course. Tried to play an actual doctor, didn't take the default five skills. Guess which character died first?
I wasn't impressed by the system at all.
Add me to the list of people that believe CoC (in its original form at least) is completely unsuitable for campaign consideration. I had one memorable character out of two years of playing. Heck, I think as a group that may have been our only memorable character in two years of CoC.
I'd take the unsuited to campaign a step further, and say that CoC was more suited for pregenned characters in a one shot adventure.
The modules we did were awful. I remember playing one where after two or three sessions we finished, and the GM told us that since we hadn't done this one specific (and IMHO illogical) thing WAY back at the beginning of the adventure, there was no way we could get out of the adventure even a little bit victorious. Nice.
Most definately not my cup of tea.
After about five sessions with the original system all the players had figured out the six skills that they would actually use in gameplay, and just kept making new characters with those skills maxed out.
One night I remember laughing uproariously as we went around the table stating what our characters were.
"I'm a parapsychologist with a pistol"
"I'm a librarian with two pistols"
"I'm a gangster with a pistol and a shotgun"
"I'm ex-military with a pistol and a rifle"
"I'm a revolutionary with a rifle"
"I'm a doctor"
I was the last one of course. Tried to play an actual doctor, didn't take the default five skills. Guess which character died first?
I wasn't impressed by the system at all.
Add me to the list of people that believe CoC (in its original form at least) is completely unsuitable for campaign consideration. I had one memorable character out of two years of playing. Heck, I think as a group that may have been our only memorable character in two years of CoC.
I'd take the unsuited to campaign a step further, and say that CoC was more suited for pregenned characters in a one shot adventure.
The modules we did were awful. I remember playing one where after two or three sessions we finished, and the GM told us that since we hadn't done this one specific (and IMHO illogical) thing WAY back at the beginning of the adventure, there was no way we could get out of the adventure even a little bit victorious. Nice.
Most definately not my cup of tea.
Last edited:
Henry
Autoexreginated
Matchstick said:
Matchstick, speaking as a veteran player of CoC, I can say that although Long-term games are possible, many modules are written at almost maximum lethality, and really need to be toned down a bit if long-term play is desired. It takes a skilled DM to know when and where to modify a canned CoC module.
A good long-term CoC campaign means not introducing PC's to the real horrors (above byahkees and deep ones and rat-things) until they are more skilled with the system. People used to think that old-school D&D was "killer dungeons" - they NEVER SAW A CTHULHU MODULE. I remember one module that pitted you directly against an avatar of a lesser old one - Y'golonac. He causes wounds with the mouths in the palms of his hands THAT NEVER HEAL. There was a special way to kill him, but it involved engaging him in melee. So long, you little sacrificial lamb, you.
A good CoC game used to involve one of two things - steady growth, as above, or throw the kitchen sink at the players. Several dozen characters later, they figure out how to survive the game - your feet are your best friends. High move rate is better than skill in gunplay. There are some players who cannot handle the slow destruction of your characters, though, and simply refuse to play for more than a one-shot.
OFF-TOPIC ALERT
Whoa - Kai Lord. Did you get that from those Lone Wolf choose your own adventure type books? I used to really love those books way back when, but there were only 12 of them when I read them. I found out they made more later. What a nice memory and great message board handle.
Whoa - Kai Lord. Did you get that from those Lone Wolf choose your own adventure type books? I used to really love those books way back when, but there were only 12 of them when I read them. I found out they made more later. What a nice memory and great message board handle.
LOL - yeah I was a terrible cheater. Some of the fights were pretty heavily stacked against you. I especially can't imagine how anyone could get through without starting from the beginning and having the whatchamacallit sword the whole time. Now that you've reminded me of it, there are tons of interesting scenes and situations to mine out of those books for D&D encounters. Cool stuff.
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