[CoC] "Hellboy" and "Blade II" as Call of Cthulhu inspiration

[JPL]

It's struck me for some time that if we're really battling against nameless cults and elder gods from beyond space and time, I don't want a bunch of busybody New England antiquarians on the case...I want guys with big guns who outrun shockwaves and have good one-liners and take no prisoners.

And then I saw Hellboy this weekend, and I thought...del Toro, he gets it. Just as the Bram Stoker vampire mythos can go in a completely different direction --- Blade or Buffy, f'rinstance --- so too can the Cthuhlu mythos.

I think a lot of the criticism of CoC d20 [too much like D&D, not deadly enough, etc.] was based on knee-jerk reactions about the limitations of d20. But I say, why not intentionally go that direction, using d20 Modern [a deliberately "action movie" kinda game]?

Keep the CoC d20 spellcasting system and Sanity, tweaked as necessary to insure that PCs might be able to experience some truly crazy stuff without going permanently insane.

Use the Mythos as the setting for a monster hunting game. Go toe-to-toe with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. A team with SWAT or Spec Ops type training and a very high threshold for weirdness [and maybe one or two have an advanced degree in a dead language] seeks out the mad cultists, the otherwordly incursions, and the colonies of Deep Ones dwelling in the sewers...

 

[Henry]

I think a lot of the criticism of CoC d20 [too much like D&D, not deadly enough, etc.] was based on knee-jerk reactions about the limitations of d20. But I say, why not intentionally go that direction, using d20 Modern [a deliberately "action movie" kinda game]?

Keep the CoC d20 spellcasting system and Sanity, tweaked as necessary to insure that PCs might be able to experience some truly crazy stuff without going permanently insane.

You have JUST exactly described a d20 Modern Game I've been running on and off for a year now, both as a campaign and at gamedays. It all started when one poster came up with the title for his game "There are things man was not meant to see... Shoot them." I took the CoC rules and Modern rules, and blended them. Department-7 became part of a 7-dept. NSA agency, and agents were such an eclectic group because they comprise the .1% or so of the population who are not driven insane by the cthonic horrors popping out of the woodwork. They live fast and die hard, and I try to run the game with a sort of dark humor element (kind of like a cross between "Men in Black" and "The Dunwich Horror."

One of the humor elements is how the agents can't even trust their own support teams not to do nuts in the crossfire. Non-agents are clean-up crews only, and even them have to take careful precautions not to get "contaminated." So, for instance, some cultist has inlaid an 8-foot diameter Yellow Sign as part of a summoning circle. The team destroying or cleaning it up can go nuts if they look at it, so they have to cover the thing up before the cleaning crew gets there. Against large monsters the support teams are no good, because they could go nuts while wielding anti-aircraft weapons.

 

[d4]

It all started when one poster came up with the title for his game "There are things man was not meant to see... Shoot them."

that sounds a lot like the byline for GURPS Black Ops: "Find the truth -- and kill it."

that's basically the premise of the book. eldritch horrors and nameless cults being hunted down and exterminated by action movie heroes. lots of fun, and definitely something i'd like to try if/when i get a chance to do a d20 Modern campaign.

(for an even further twist, i thought about throwing in Sidewinder: Recoiled and having action movie heroes hunting down eldritch horrors in the Old West!)

 

[JPL]

You have JUST exactly described a d20 Modern Game I've been running on and off for a year now, both as a campaign and at gamedays. It all started when one poster came up with the title for his game "There are things man was not meant to see... Shoot them." .[/i]

Y'know...I think that might have been me. Sounds like an awsome game.

Yeah, d4...I bought Black Ops a few months back. Very cool...I wonder how to model the Ops in d20 terms? Everyone comes out of the academy at 20th level and goes up from there, maybe?

Edit: Oh, yeah: http://www.enworld.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-34535

I apparently only have three or four ideas which get recycled over and over...

 

[d4]

Yeah, d4...I bought Black Ops a few months back. Very cool...I wonder how to model the Ops in d20 terms? Everyone comes out of the academy at 20th level and goes up from there, maybe?

pretty much, i'd say. they're like, what?, 700 point GURPS characters?

 

[JPL]

pretty much, i'd say. they're like, what?, 700 point GURPS characters?

Yep. I guess I'd figure recruits are 5th level, there's a 5-level advanced class to represent basic training, and then each department has a 10-level prestige class. Start play at 20th level, and then go to epic levels.

Lots of math...

 

[ledded]

You have JUST exactly described a d20 Modern Game I've been running on and off for a year now<snip>

One of the humor elements is how the agents can't even trust their own support teams not to do nuts in the crossfire<snip>

Man, that sounds like a ton-o-fun. We run a similar game, though not quite as CoC-ish. It's d20 Modern with a gritty low-magic feel, and we are a bunch of disparate 'normals' (a down on his luck PI, an evangelical preacher with his own cable access show, an archeology grad student, a librarian, and a socially inept comic book and gaming store owner) who find out that magic is real and gaining in power, and somehow we have a link to each other and a distant past we know nothing about. We are not a Dept-7, and basically have taken on the responsibility of stopping those who are using their power in illicit ways in our very own RL home city using whatever means we can scrape up.

The home-brewed magic system is low-powered/high-cost and very reminiscent of CoC, the monsters/entities we face are normally very powerful and hard to cope with, and even though there is no actual sanity mechanic we have all been playing like there is because the game has a very cool 'real' feel to it. The game is heavy on the creepy, weird, and unusual; investigations and roleplay are paramount, though combat is usually quite interesting and deadly and happens quite often. Our GM has a very cool story hour devoted to the game (see the Medallions link in the sig).

JPL, the game you describe sounds like a blast. We started out as just normal guys (all initial characters were non-fighting oriented classes) and most of us have been racing and/or stretching just to keep up with the campaign.

D4, I too would love to do the Sidewinder/CoC idea you mentioned if I could sell my other players on a western campaign; it would be fun.

 

[JPL]

Ledded ---Got some stats for Comic Book Guy? I'm curious.

Reminds me of my "Nerd Force" proposal --- a team of hardcore nerds who emerge from their basements to challenge the unknown and battle threats to the space-time continuum. There would be a tough guy [expert in the Klingon martial arts and the lightsaber], the ultimate tech support guy, the grad school dropout who works at Borders....

Ken Hite has an article in Pyramid about using Black Ops in alternate times, including the Wild West.

As a big pulp fan, I like the thirties-era idea --- think Shadow = Man in Black, and imagine a whole team of near-Doc Savage caliber heroes fighting Nameless Horrors, mad scientists, incursions from Hollow Earth, and the Thule Society...

 

[Turanil]

But I say, why not intentionally go that direction, using d20 Modern?
Keep the CoC d20 spellcasting system and Sanity, tweaked as necessary to insure that PCs might be able to experience some truly crazy stuff without going permanently insane.

You almost stole me the idea I have for a sci-fi game.

Anyway, let me propose an idea; I would be glad to get your feedback all of you around here:
1) Spells can be cast by everybody, using the d20 CoC rules. That means that when casting a spell you lose sanity and temporary ability points damage (intelligence, wisdom, or whatnot).
2) The Mage advanced class is special in that his daily allotment of spells, are spells prepared so he will cast them without losing sanity and temporary ability points damage. Mages are characters who study the mythos very carefully, and circumvant what's so dangerous and hideous when using magic. Of course they don't have access to fireball and the like, only CoC spells (see conversion notes on CoC spells to D&D spells with levels).
3) The same principle applies to Acolytes, except they are always mad cultists worshipping Mythos deities.

What d'you think, before I implement this in my own game?

 

[JPL]

What d'you think, before I implement this in my own game?

Sounds great. You could also look into adding incantation magic from Urban Arcana.

I like the idea of multiple systems of magic in the same campaign world --- keeps the players on their toes, and keeps it from all feeling like D&D.