Voidsinger
First Post
D20 adapted to CoC (SPOILERS INSIDE)
Well... I wasn't a fan of porting a setting like CoC to the D20 system from the get-go, and I had discussions with a couple of friends who were partisans of the new game.
While we all agreed that the new book was well-done, and should surely attract new players not only to CoC D20, but to old CoC products also, I pointed out that there is a certain "denaturalizing" of the old CoC feeling with the D20 rules.
Case in point, the hitpoint system. Right now, as I understand it, its D6 +/- Con bonus, per level. Its a fine system for D&D, mostly because we all grew up with it, but CoC never had such HP progression. A street thug would often have as many HPs as a mortal grand priest of some millienial cult.
EX: MASKS OF NYARLATHOTHEP SPOILERS
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Take the Grand Priest Omar Shakti in MoN. In one scene, deep inside the Sphynx, he's on a catwalk with his sacrificial victim, hundreds of cultists with animal headdresses dancing fevereshly at his feet. We step into the room, disguised in traditional robes. As we get closer to him, the ritual intensifies itself, and we can barely register a dim passage further ahead, filled with whirling smoke... He raised his dagger, ready for his sacrifice. With only a second to react, we all raised our guns and fired at him. I think one of us hit him, maybe two. He stumbled back under the impact, but lurched forward after us, eternal anger in his eyes. Our DM then said "quick! what do you do!".
All except one decided to rush into the swirling smoke... a portal to the Dreamlands. Our African Safari guide hesitated though... and our DM took him aside from us. It lasted 5 minutes. Then the DM came back, and told us that we saw traces of blood starting to pool near the steps... and the player took his PC sheet, handed it to the DM and started rolling a new character. We knew he was dead... but what did he see?
Only after the ENTIRE Masks campaign did we find out what he saw, that the player was allowed to tell us what he saw before being torn apart by the cultists. He saw the same anger in his eyes as us, the same menacing lurch... but he also saw him stumble from his catwalk, then drop to the ground... dead. Omar Shakti, a man several thousand years old, killed by us mortals. But we never knew, we never even suspected that was the outcome, because of the overwhelming feeling that we're insignificant and useless, in the Grand Scheme of things.
And that feeling is gone with the HP system in D20. Now, one could suppose that Shakti would be well over lvl 15, maybe even lvl 20, with HPs well out of instant gunshot death range. Now we know, if we played the Masks again, that Shakti would be an unkillable beast. The old CoC system had this going for it.... you knew you were frail, and that others were also. Unless you were a supernatural monster, unless you had arcane protections, you could die to anything. Now that changed, and with it some of the old CoC feel changed.
*shrugs* Maybe I'm being too conservative
Well... I wasn't a fan of porting a setting like CoC to the D20 system from the get-go, and I had discussions with a couple of friends who were partisans of the new game.
While we all agreed that the new book was well-done, and should surely attract new players not only to CoC D20, but to old CoC products also, I pointed out that there is a certain "denaturalizing" of the old CoC feeling with the D20 rules.
Case in point, the hitpoint system. Right now, as I understand it, its D6 +/- Con bonus, per level. Its a fine system for D&D, mostly because we all grew up with it, but CoC never had such HP progression. A street thug would often have as many HPs as a mortal grand priest of some millienial cult.
EX: MASKS OF NYARLATHOTHEP SPOILERS
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Take the Grand Priest Omar Shakti in MoN. In one scene, deep inside the Sphynx, he's on a catwalk with his sacrificial victim, hundreds of cultists with animal headdresses dancing fevereshly at his feet. We step into the room, disguised in traditional robes. As we get closer to him, the ritual intensifies itself, and we can barely register a dim passage further ahead, filled with whirling smoke... He raised his dagger, ready for his sacrifice. With only a second to react, we all raised our guns and fired at him. I think one of us hit him, maybe two. He stumbled back under the impact, but lurched forward after us, eternal anger in his eyes. Our DM then said "quick! what do you do!".
All except one decided to rush into the swirling smoke... a portal to the Dreamlands. Our African Safari guide hesitated though... and our DM took him aside from us. It lasted 5 minutes. Then the DM came back, and told us that we saw traces of blood starting to pool near the steps... and the player took his PC sheet, handed it to the DM and started rolling a new character. We knew he was dead... but what did he see?
Only after the ENTIRE Masks campaign did we find out what he saw, that the player was allowed to tell us what he saw before being torn apart by the cultists. He saw the same anger in his eyes as us, the same menacing lurch... but he also saw him stumble from his catwalk, then drop to the ground... dead. Omar Shakti, a man several thousand years old, killed by us mortals. But we never knew, we never even suspected that was the outcome, because of the overwhelming feeling that we're insignificant and useless, in the Grand Scheme of things.
And that feeling is gone with the HP system in D20. Now, one could suppose that Shakti would be well over lvl 15, maybe even lvl 20, with HPs well out of instant gunshot death range. Now we know, if we played the Masks again, that Shakti would be an unkillable beast. The old CoC system had this going for it.... you knew you were frail, and that others were also. Unless you were a supernatural monster, unless you had arcane protections, you could die to anything. Now that changed, and with it some of the old CoC feel changed.
*shrugs* Maybe I'm being too conservative
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