CoC Purity?

[Stormborn]

For those who play Call of Cthulu: a simple question, that may not prove to be so simple. Regardless of the era your games are set in, how "pure" are they? IOW, how close do they stick to the source material, and the ultimate expression of hopelessness about the place of humanity the larger scheme of the universe?
Are you a by the book kind of person? Lovecraft only?
Do you have Pulp elements creep in? Where the PCs may not be able to destroy the Great Old Ones, but they can at least save the world today.
Do you have heroic adventure elements? Buffy v. Night Guants?
Is your Delta Green more Hellboy than Lovecraft?
Or are you using mythos elements in a decidedly nonLovecraftian way? Strange Visitors from other worlds the good guys? Obsessive Sorcerers save the world?
The d20 CoC book put out by Wizards had guidelines for adapting to DnD, was just wondering if anyone had done that or soemthign more.

 

[trilobite]

It depends on what you mean by "pure". You can do alot with CoC! I hope that you don't feel like that you can only do one type of game with it. From a 20's Lovecraft country game to a modern age Delta Green, the only thing I think you need is the general sense of doom and that ancient alien beings live in the spaces between time and will someday rule the earth again. I have nothing against a good old pulp adventure using CoC. In fact I love the idea. The only thing that gives me a bad taste in my mouth would be a power gamer munchkin type game. It just goes against the spirit of the genre.

 

[Psion]

For those who play Call of Cthulu: a simple question, that may not prove to be so simple. Regardless of the era your games are set in, how "pure" are they? IOW, how close do they stick to the source material, and the ultimate expression of hopelessness about the place of humanity the larger scheme of the universe?

That's a dangerous question to ask, because sometimes I feel that the RPG that is so priased by its fans isn't entirely in line with the "source material". For example, not all humans that are exposed to deep truths about the universe and use powerful magic devolve into gibbering madmen. That was one them Lovecraft used in some of his stories, but not all of them, and it was certainly clear from the stories that not all humans exposed to the mythos suffered an inevitable slide into madness.

 

[Wombat]

One of the "purity" problems that I have always found with the game CoC is that the whole premise of a campaign is anti-Lovecraftian. With the exception of, I believe, two stories, characters from the stories do not continue to challenge the Great Old Ones (or their minions) after finding out about them. Instead, they tend to recoil in horror, assuming they survived physically and/or mentally intact. To my mind, then, the concept of a group of characters, who are supposedly "real" individuals (usually in the early 20th century), who drop their jobs (how can they maintain them?), follow after unknown adversaries in the face of horror (blasphemous & otherwise), and the like stretches my credulity.

Of course, these are personal tastes.

OTOH, I have had a fair amount of fun with one-shots (or mini-campaigns; essentially one "extended adventure") of CoC, at least in the Chaosium version.

 

[Henry]

I've played both the original and d20 versions (more of the former than latter), and I rarely stick with "pure" Lovecraft feel, because it's not quite as fun. For it to be Lovecraft-pure, at least one or two of the characters (preferably the most central protagonist) will go nuts, and the world won't end, but instead just be one step closer to it. Serial Lovecraft (like what most gaming groups call a campaign) is very anti-Lovecraft, because these investigators are usually involved once or twice before they retire, or are eaten or go insane.

The original is great to run one-shots in, but to me less so to run campaigns in; I had to come up with creative rewards for players to get them to keep playing, because slow deterioration was not their idea of fun.

The d20 version is better for long campaigns, in my opinion, not because they don't die, but because it doesn't feel like they have NOTHING to look forward to. In order for a game to be fun, you have to feel like you personally got something out of it, and my players' way is to get some kind of achievement or advancement, in addition to a good story. So the levelling helps with that, while still being a system where you still stand the same chances for dying or going nuts, and intrinsically understanding that you'll never succeed against anything bigger than a byakhee or a ghoul.

 

[Stormborn]

Just a note: When we have played CoC or even CoC-esque games they have been "extended adventures" lasting only a few weeks. They have been quite fun. I agree that it is difficult to get a "pure" Lovecraft campaign that lasts longer than that, it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I'm all for atmosphere above everything. When I do use Mythos gods and stuff, I stick with the originals (Derleth and before). No Bugg-Shash or Zoth-Ommog here! But usually, I don't even do that. I have my own kind of mythos/storyline worked out that uses the Cthulhu Mythos on the periphery, and I use that. I'm a firm believer that a genuine authentic Lovecraftian adventure doesn't even have to deal with the Mythos at all. If it does, that's a bonus.

Delta Green as Hellboy? Don't know about that, my ideas for what it should be are along the lines of a much darker Dark*Matter.

Note: I usually actually use a more "COCified" d20 Modern than actual COC, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

For those who play Call of Cthulu: a simple question,...

Well, the PC's have to option to stave of the Elder forces, even if only temporarily, but none survive..."un-changed". I think always dying or
killing yourself in CoC is stupid and leads to one-off adventures. I like
campaigns, and a campaign needs an "acheivable" goal, even if that
success is only holding back mind-shattering abominations...for now.

 

[Henry]

The last time I ran a CoC adventure, I ran it on halloween, I set the mood lighting, I set the sound track (no music, just background sounds), I gave the players some serious characters in a bad situation...

...and it turned into one of the biggest laugh-riots never caught on tape.

In the end, I think the players weren't in a mood to be scared, they were in a mood to be entertained; one person cracked a single joke based on something that sounded funny in the game, and it went downhill from there. It was still a good time, but the horror mood just went south.

Conversely, the first CoC d20 game I ran unnerved the players in awesome fashion. There was still humor to crack occasionally, but the players were really unnerved in some instances (like the guy who almost drowned in a bathtub, or the guy who witnessed a woman being crushed to death by a bathroom). Based on the mood of a group, your story can fly or die.

 

[daTim]

Our group got tired of the percieved power creep in 3.5 and we play CoC lots now, its the anti-power game heh. We enjoy the D20 version more in the long run because it does give you something to look foward to besides permenant insanity (which is still very possible in D20).

My character actually made it to level 4 somehow last weekend. After about 4 hours of insanely lucky rolls and killing 15 and 2 deep ones people in a gun shoot out breaking one of my friends out of jail, then getting chased through the streets in a stolen Model T, crashing it, getting chased on foot through a swamp and escaping... all with 1 hp left, and low sanity...I have never been so happy to simply be alive. It was one of the funnest experiences for our whole group in a long time even though most of them got gunned down.

Oh yea, to answer the question, we play a somewhat pulp version in that we work for Arkham and go out to investigate things for a certain professor who is a member of a secret orginaztaion. Most of our characters are either in law enforcement anyway, or work for the school. In all of our playing time the most dangerous mythos creature we have seen are deep ones. How often do you see an elder god after all. That sort of thing is always in the perephrials. If I even thought a cthulhu mythos monster was in the area I wouldnt go there lol. Having to use your weapons is usually suicide.