Help with Cthulhu?

[jdavis]

The best Cthuhlu campaign we ever had was the very first one, none of the PC's were allowed to even flip through the books, especially the monster sections, we had no clue what we were up against, it made it pretty creepy because all we knew is what we had read in the Lovecraft books, we had no frame of reference game wise, we just had no clue, we did a lot of running. The characters are supposed to be in the dark about what's going on. Good discriptions are also important, practice describing stuff like Lovecraft wrote in the books. Our later campaigns got more Indiana Jones-ish, which was a lot of fun but not near as scary.

The best place for this game is late at night in a actually haunted house (even if you don't believe in that sort of thing). We played at a friends house that was haunted and we played it late at night with the lights dimmed, it got really intense. Creaking floors and doors that swung open on their own added a lot to the game atmosphere.

 

[haiiro]

If I was to buy COC adventure, are there any out there that just scream quality? Some universally accepted great? I've heard good things about Masks of Ny-something

Masks of Nyarlathotep is a very cool campaign, and it's huge. The two other big campaigns that come to mind are Horror on the Orient Express, which is difficult to find and very expensive, and the much more recent Beyond the Mountains of Madness, which is ginormous (400+ pages). Any of those three should be able to occupy your groups attention for a looong time -- probably through several PCs apiece.

When I'm buying CoC modules, I generally buy collections -- I like the variety that they offer. From Chaosium, I'd recommend The Great Old Ones (which is out of print, but perhaps available at http://www.chaosium.com) and Cthulhu Now (which is the original modern-day sourcebook, and includes several adventures; I think it might also be OOP).

From Pagan Publishing, I recommend Mortal Coils (which contains several scenarios) and The Resurrected collections, of which there are three. The most recent one (Out of the Vault) should be easy to find and has some great stuff in it -- including my hands-down favorite CoC module ever: In Media Res. In Media Res is best run mostly LARP-style, and contains some props and other advice for setting the mood. If you implement even a few of the suggestions, it can be scary as hell. It is only a one-shot scenario, though.

Pagan's magazine, The Unspeakable Oath, is also a good source of scenarios -- there's usually at least one or two per issue, in addition to the generally excellent articles. TUO comes out very infrequently, but the first 4 issues are available online for free (at http://www.tccorp.com/pagan/pp_annotuo.html), and others can sometimes be found on eBay, etc. The current double issue, #16/17, can probably still be found at your FLGS.

I should mention that own but have not run d20 CoC, so my recommendations are based on running and playing BRP CoC (which I love). YMMV, but I don't think conversions would be terribly difficult (although perhaps time-consuming for the big campaigns).

 

[jdavis]

If you are playing regular Call of Cthulhu I reccomend the Byakhee character generator, it is very good (and free):
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/4173/byakhee.html

I have not tried COC D20, I have the Chaosium books and they work just fine, so I never felt the need to switch up.

 

[DM with a vengence]

First off, read HP Lovecraft's stories. I recommend The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Shadow out of Time, At the Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror and there are some others that you may like. Just about all his works are available here: http://www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/works/index.htm

As for playing the game, make sure to use more dramatic description, If your really good, try to narrate in the same style as an HP Lovecraft story.

Also remember, and enforce this one your players, is that they are not badasses. They are not John Blackthorne Navy SEAL or Dr. Arthur Q. Pointdexter, occult reasercher, they are Johnny the pizza delivery boy and Dexter, Vampire LARPer. 1st level characters are less strong and cool than you and your buddies in real life. Make sure that they don't all start out with Desert Eagles and M-16s, and that few people have weapon proficiency feats. Because of this, combat should only occur once a session or so, and at least one person should take a serious wound. For how not to do a CoC adventure, see my sadly dead story hour, A Comedy of Cthulhu .

Good Luck!

 

[ced1106]

Remember that with d20, CoC becomes more heroic. You can now play Indiana Jones and Doc Savage-style games, not just fatalistic Lovecraftian ones. I'd actually recommend the original BRP (Basic Role Playing) CoC if you just want a scary deadly game. **Much** easier to die or go insane in the game, and players become more cautious.

That being said, here's my advice:

* Chaosium: Almost any CoC supplement by Chaosium is **good**. If you don't use a module directly in your game, at least use it as a model to run your adventure with.

* Scare them with information: Give them handouts of old newspaper clippings and old books that say: a) You're in even worse trouble than the last piece of information you were given; b) The only way to defeat the monster will cost you your soul sanity and lives; c) Hey, look what happened to the previous party! (;

* Descriptions: Don't mention the name of the monster. Ever. Towards the beginning of the game, describe the monster only in terms of the evidence it leaves behind. When they actually meet it, describe it with sight, sound, and smell. Any PCs who don't run away by the time you're done get eaten.

* Cultists: Use cultists a) to introduce elements of the mythos early in the game (when you want the PCs to survive) and b) for gratuitious slaughter. (Cultists are the orcs of Call of Cthulhu!

* NPC allies: If the players come up with reckless ideas, beat 'em to it with NPC allies (enthusiastic rookie cop, concerned relative of the deceased). PCs talking about shooting up the monster? Have the NPC do it first and die a gruesome death. PCs going to the cops? Have a rookie cop ally make all sorts of stupid mistakes. NPCs are also useful for exceptionally cautious players. If the PCs go to the police for help and make their CHA skill checks, send a rookie cop ahead and dismember him. If the PCs avoid reading an inscription, have the concerned relative mumble it out loud. The sooner PCs learn that NPC allies can hinder as well as help, the better.

Have fun!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[LGodamus]

My d20 coc games are just as deadly if not moreso than the old school ones were......that and I think d20 is alot easier to run, since I dm D&D about 6 hours a week.

 

[kengar]

One concept that I suggested in an older thread has had some success. It's a little more work for the GM, but can have good results:

Don't let the players track their own Sanity scores or Cthulhu Mythos skills. Make a note of these at the start of play for each of them and track any changes that occur during play. When a character loses some SAN, have them faint, or run screaming or whatever, then afterwards, when they've developed a disorder; start "gaslighting" the party. Examples:

A) Hallucinations. Ask the players what their Spot skills are and roll a bunch of meaningless rolls. Then tell the player of the "crazy" character that they just saw something move in the shadows. Everyone scrambles for guns & flashlghts...Nothing there. Offer no explanantion as GM, you're just telling players what their characters see and hear. Other good examples of this are Listen checks to hear "Rats in the Walls", noticing bloodstains, etc.

B) Ghostly grabbing. Wait until the party is in a spooky "haunted house" kind of situation: dark corners, nerves on edge, they just know there's cultists or zombies or something! Then, ask for marching order and you pass out notes to the whole party. Some of them say things like "You seem to remember reading something about a clock like the one on the mantle, but you can't recall where offhand.", etc. but the "nutjob" gets a note saying "You feel a clammy hand grab you roughly by the shoulder from behind!" The character whips around screaming ready to shoot and all the other players don't know what's going on. Of course, nothing's there. This works especially well in a situation where the party is attempting stealth to avoid detection.

C) Paranoid delusions. The "Crazy" character knows that a certain NPC is lying to them or wishes them harm. This works especially well with a PC who has any ranks in Sense Motive. Pretend to roll for them and let them wonder whether they succeeded.

The first two are a lot of fun and eventually, of course, the party begins to think that the one character has just "lost it." Of course, that's when the "Crazy" really DOES see a ghoul leaping over the banister to attack them!

One other thing I would mention is that -unlike a Fantasy RPG- Horror roleplaying requires a certain amount of cooperation on the players' parts. I mean, part of the POINT is for it to be scary! It's easy to wreck the mood in a horror game. There is some good advice in the CoC d20 book on GM-ing horror RPG, too. One thing I find useful is to instill a sense of urgency in the players. They can't afford to take weeks off for therapy or healing; the whole bloody world is going to end at midnight tomorrow unless they stop the cultists, etc.!

Hope this helps.

 

[Umbran]

I'll suggest a bit of reading that isn't Lovecraft: Stephen King's new From a Buick 8.

In this book, King takes a bit of a Lovecraftian turn. Not in being hyper-deadly. Not in using specific Lovecraftian horrors. Here, he concentrates on showing you how a thing can be alien. So alien, so wrong that it twists your mind a bit.

 

[frankthedm]

www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/works
[edit whoops that was covered already! edit]
If you havent read these stories yet do so

Dunwich Horror
Call of Cthulhu
Shadow over innsmouth



this should help get the juices flowing

This is on the wotc D20 CoC boards
List of Weird Events for use in CoC.
http://boards.wizards.com/community/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=266;t=000372