Heroic Cthulhu rules are up

[logan9a]

Heroic Cthulhu rules are up

Why Heroic Cthulhu?

I got sick of the 'go insane and die quick' stigma of the standard Call Of Cthulhu rules. I've been playing these 'house rules' (Heroic Cthulhu) for eight years or so - they are working well for me (refer to my podcast). I'm hoping that folks out there might find something they can use for their own game they feel will improve it. These rules are FREE. I’m putting them in WORD format so that you can alter them (if desired) to suit your own game. If you come up with interesting variants I’d love to hear them!

The rules can be found at:
http://profile.filefront.com/logan9a/

If you’d like to see how these rules work in action, here’s a podcast of the game sessions:
http://heroiccthulhu.mypodcast.com/index.html

If you want to comment on the various rules:
http://heroiccthulhu.proboards105.com/index.cgi?


Enjoy!

Logan

 

[Drowbane]

Interesting.

 

[logan9a]

Interesting.

I hope you enjoy it! I'm interested in hearing feedback if you have any.

Logan

 

[Rabelais]

Interesting.

I can't wait until the next session. I'm running a straight d20 Modern game that's beginning to look a lot less like Ocean's 11, and a lot more like Call of Cthulu. I'll take a close look at the ruleset this week. Drowbane will let you know how it worked out for him and his mates sometime after that.

You guys should really work harder at convincing Reggie that getting the mysterious text tatooed to his body is a BAD IDEA. It's not like you picking out a nifty design for a tramp stamp. Certain tatoos MAY HAVE SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS!!!!

 

[Aeric]

You guys should really work harder at convincing Reggie that getting the mysterious text tatooed to his body is a BAD IDEA. It's not like you picking out a nifty design for a tramp stamp. Certain tatoos MAY HAVE SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS!!!!

I can see it now...people going insane after looking at his rear-end. Or conversely, having an Elder Sign there: "stand back, everyone--my rump will repel the evil!"

 

[Drowbane]

Reggie just happened to speak [insert Arabic-like tongue here]...

So, he was able to read (without comprehension) a text that only he could see on a mystical chest (full of foul Tomes?) that we ended up with.

He tried scribing it to paper... and got about three paragraphs in when he picked up the paper to take a closer look and the words "fell off of the page into a pool of ink".

So, he got the bright idea to carve it into his flesh instead... but decided a Tattoo would be better. I believe he was going for a back-tatt...

My character is rather close to just shooting him in the head and burying the "package" into the desert.

 

[Maldor]

i didn't know you had heros in Cthulhu i thought it was just future victims.

 

[shilsen]

i didn't know you had heros in Cthulhu i thought it was just future victims.

That's one of the funny things about the game CoC as opposed to its source material in Lovecraft. While madness, death and despair occur in some of Lovecraft's works, a lot (probably the majority) of his work involves people who not only survive contact with things that go bump in the night but manage to kick, beat, shoot, blow up, said things. Lovecraft is a lot closer than heroic Cthulhu than CoC, I think.

 

[jdrakeh]

That's one of the funny things about the game CoC as opposed to its source material in Lovecraft. While madness, death and despair occur in some of Lovecraft's works, a lot (probably the majority) of his work involves people who not only survive contact with things that go bump in the night but manage to kick, beat, shoot, blow up, said things.

Really, that's a myth (although a commonly cited one). There are exactly two stories where stuff like this happens: The Call of Cthulhu (wherein a boat is driven through a thing that may or may not be Great Cthulhu and nearly all of the protagonists still die) and The Horror at Redhook (in which plenty of the supporting cast still meet horrible fates). The vast majority of Lovecraft's protagonists do, in fact, suffer some lingering form of insanity (including his own alter-ego, Randolph Carter) or similarly unfortunate fate.

That said, it should also be noted that Lovecraft's short stories are episodic, unlike a RPG campaign (i.e., his stories don't form a single story arc with the same central cast of protagonists). This is why a CoC campaign tends to have a higher occurance of protagonist death and madness (and I suspect that, if Lovecraft has written one epic novel centered on the same group of people, it would reflect this, as well).

 

[Baduin]

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The necromancer was shot up by the local citizenry in the XVIII century, summoned something big and was eaten by it; managed to get raised and was put down by Dr Willet using his own spell.

The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
Randolph Carter massacres a lot of horrors and makes a fool of Nyarlathotep.

The Dunwich Horror
One of the sons of Yog-Sothoth is eaten by a dog, the other banished by a spell; no insanity to speak of.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Deep Ones are shot up, burned and dynamited by the Marines, with no losses.

The Shunned House
The psychic vampire? buried beneth the house is destroyed with sulphuric acid.

The Whisperer in Darkness
The terrible Mi-Go cannot get rid of an old man living alone - becaues he has bad dogs and a gun.