CoC: Grace Under Pressure (Timing, Tips, Etc.)

[TheHipGamer]

I've tracked down an older copy of Pagan's Grace Under Pressure, and am planning to run it this evening with 4 PCs and a co-Keeper. I've pulled all of the characters from the printed module into HeroLab and updated them to the 6e rules (which drops HP in a few cases, and raises old-style 00 base chance skills to 01). I've also created a couple of teaser videos that I've sent to my players over the week, and everyone seems pretty excited to join the Wallaby and dig in.

It looks like a few folks have run this one-shot before. Any sense of pacing/overall play length from them? My concern is that it will be over and done too quickly, whereas I'd like to see it last for 3-4 hours. Especially with a co-Keeper handling the action on the minisub, I'd like to ensure that I have a good evening planned for all.

Also, aside from the lighting/music stuff (done!), any tips on running the adventure?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've neither seen nor played it, so I can't give advice, but I can give you xp as a consolation prize!

I hope someone who can help sees it, because I'd be interested in hearing more.

Cheers

 

[grodog]

This is probably too late to help you out, but Grace is one of favorite one-shot scenarios ever.

When the Biohazard Games folks (ex-Pagan) ran a similar-ish Blue Planet scenario ("Deep Sh*t", at an underwater science research station with a partial power outage) at KULCon in 1993/94, they used a lot of sound effects (radar pings, ocean sounds, storm sounds, etc.), as well as walkie-talkies: when three PCs left the group to tramp off elsewhere in a mini-sub, they were moved to the adjoining hotel room and all communication afterward was remote (they also crowded under the table, to give that sense of confined quarters while in the mini-sub); when there was interference, they had a sound effect for that, too. The room was dark, and all lighting was via glow sticks (dice rolling was in cups, with a quick flashlight check for the result or for a PC stat, if necessary).

GUP benefits from a similar treatment: the atmosphere really helped to drive home the sense of depth, confinement, and limited communications, which made the tension high and the role-playing very engaging. It's well-worth giving a try!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Neat ideas there for submersible adventures!

(my recent Cthulhu adventure benefitted from the presence of a hamster in the room - he was continually rustling and rattling around, making unsettling noises that suited the atmosphere!)

 

[TheHipGamer]

Recap / Write-Up

Thanks for the feedback, all!

I ran the game last night for 4 PCs, with one co-Keeper helping out. From a props-and-sounds perspective: I set the main gaming space up with a dozen or so blue-LED tealights, which provided an appropriately dark/underwater ambiance. I had a monitor in the corner looping a sonar screen, and speakers hidden behind it with a submarine engine loop and occasional sonar ping.

To simulate the mini-subs, I set a spare room in the basement of my house up with a small folding card table, a couple of green glowsticks, and a deeper/quieter MP3 loop of engine sounds and oxygen tank breathing effects, stolen from YouTube videos of real-world dives. Each room was equipped with a walkie-talkie.

The game ran for about 2.5 hours. To assist the co-Keeper, I created a timeline before the game that laid out the major sections of the adventure (Setup, Day One/Tasks, Investigating the Anomaly, Final Battle, Conclusion), and laid out each "module" or sub-task with some timing estimates and key notes. This cheat-sheet allowed us to keep the party essentially in sync in terms of discovering weird/broken/appropriately-creepy aspects of the story, and resulted in the mini-sub racing back from R'yleh at the same time as the major Deep One attack on the main ship, the RSV Wallaby.

None of the players survived the attack. The two investigators who stayed on board the Wallaby spent much of their time trying to rescue the captain, who was torn apart by a Deep One while trying to repair one of the ship's external cameras. They barely escaped to the bridge, but then welded the hatch shut before the rest of the group return, essentially isolating and dooming themselves when the Star Spawn showed up to destroy the sub. The other half of the group barely escaped from the sub as it was destroyed, and escaped into the decompression module, but didn't think to attach a lift bag to it. The module crashed to the ocean floor as the Wallaby was torn asunder, and they sat in the dark and gloom until their oxygen ran out.

Overall, a success. Future Keepers running the module should definitely plan to print out or draw a map of the Wallaby, as some of my players noted that they would have liked to have had a visual they could refer back to (even though we did not use miniatures, or descend into tactical combat). Otherwise, while a bit predictable in terms of plot, I'd rate the game as a success, and would happily run it again.

I updated all of the characters to CoC 6e, and retained my outlines and notes. Drop me a PM if you need them for your own game.