I killed our campaign

[Ridley's Cohort]

Why will this type of thinking change in Call of Cthulhu? Is it because of the high powered aspect?

In my personal experience, Call of Cthulu can help the player learn to focus on playing the hero without getting so emotionally involved with "winning". Yes, you need to play smart. But ultimately you character is so vulnerable to the whims of fate that there is no point obsessing over whether your PC lives as long as you play the PC well.

I speak of BRP CoC. Not sure if this applies to d20 CoC.

 

[Altalazar]

CoC, either version (although I'll admit a slight preference to the d20 version) is just great no matter what. I'd jump at the chance to play in one again (although I'm not doing a gaming commute of 4+ hours one way to join Kent's...) and I incorporate tons of Cthulhu elements into my fantasy games all the time too.

Let us know how it goes. Heck, write up a story hour!

I've only played CoC twice, under the previous edition of the rules (I just got the latest) - and it was a blast - we did the 1920s, I think, and I was a newspaper photographer. I knew almost nothing about CoC at that point, had just read a few of the short stories. I think CoC is best when the players don't know anything about the world. It was a blast - creepy, strange, wonderful. The closest I got to combat was shooting pictures of some slimy thing in a dark basement. We did a lot of running.

 

[Templetroll]

I don't see how 9th level characters can kill a 659 hp advanced chimera without losing anyone. If things like that are happening on a regular basis then there's a problem with game balance. I don't see why that same problem won't easily follow into your next game system, such as coup de gracing Dagon.

You don't coup de grace the BBTFBTaS (Big Bad Thingee From Beyond Time an Space) in CoC. Cthulhu saves, in case he is hungry later. The best thing PCs can do is disrupt plans, foil schemes and spend time in mental institutions. Actually trying to attack a BBTFBTaS just gets you on the plate sooner.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Ok why do so many DM's have a ME vs. them mentality. A DM's job is not to see how he/she can kill the PC's or how he can srew them over, A DM is their to tell a story and chornical events. I always hear about how a DM wants to find a way to TPK their group or how can I screw "so and so" over because he has an interesting character. Maybe these are the same DM's who have a new group every month and wonder why he/she always has to find new players.

<gets off his soap box>

Our DM doesn't have a "ME vs. them" mentality. (But I think one of our players has a "ME vs. the DM" mentality.) Our DM is a great guy, and would never try to "screw us over." But he would, as a DM, like to challenge us for combat encounters. If we (the players) are not challenged, why even have a combat encounter?

Sometimes, you run across a monster (INT 1 or 2) you can't parlay with. And if you have to get past the beast, you gotta fight. Or at least knock it out or sneak around it.

Sometimes, your negotiations with an unknown entity devolve into combat.

If you cake walk every combat....YAWN. Some of them should be cake walks (and were); some of them should be pure role-play and never get into combat (some were); and some of them should be tough combats (and were).

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

You know, Barendd, if nothing else, my group needs to recruit a new player by the end of the summer... How far are you from Batavia?

Thanks for the offer, Pbartender, but I think I'm set for games right now.

I already drive down to Mt. Prospect to play in FCWesel's games, plus I've got RPGA (mostly Living Greyhawk), and I play in an Eberron game. And I'm running the new CoC game, a home game with Core rules (DM, PHB, MM) only, and an online D20 "The End" game.

Wow. Maybe my wife is right--maybe I do too much gaming!

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

How often do you spend the 5 gp to write down "salt, 1lb." as a part of your character's equipment inventory?

LOL! Exactly. We didn't have any salt....but we have "create food and water" (or whatever the heck it's called).

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Anyone who tries to tell me how to play my character or run my game gets turfed fast.

As for the chimera fight...wtf?!?
I assume you're talking about Anguish. He is normally a tough fight, but not a fatal kind of critter. Now his twin, Madness, is nastier.

But even 9th level characters not even breaking a sweat?!

Did your DM just hand you magic left and right? Were you allowed to use every d20 book in ever printed?

Eh, doesn't matter. Just so long as you have more fun than not.

No, as I said above, we got very lucky with the chimera. We thought it might be a TPK, but the pixie touched him (crap roll, but a huge beast ain't hard to touch), and the beast failed his save against Otto's Irresitable Dance. That made him "caper and prance" for 1d4+1 rounds (I rolled a 3, so 4 rounds), where we all got free AoO plus our normal attacks. And our Ogre Barbarian can dish out 120+ hp points per full attack. Add in his AoO each round, and we had just enough time to kill it before the Dance wore off.

No, our DM didn't hand us magic left and right. But we did have the "Monty Haul Buffet" of 'any WotC product' for classes, spells, feats, etc. That helped a lot.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Hmm. Maybe I missed something, but I don't see how figuring out that the NPC couldn't really cast spells is metagaming. What's the PC's INT? If you can't coax someone who claims to be able to make magic items into demonstrating any sort of casting ability, I'd think that would trump the huge Bluff skill. I know I'd want some sort of proof before handing over a bunch of cash and expensive materials.

The PC's INT was not that high and he played his character as a very dim-witted farmer boy turned cleric. I called "Shenanigans!" on him because it was also very out of character for his PC to do something like that (make a deal with someone and then suddenly look for a way out of it). As I said above, when I pointed out that his PC was not smart enough to think of the logic, he just said, "But his PC is" (pointing to another player)--which is an entirely different problem (running someone else's PC). That led to my outburst. I mean, JFC, if he wants to run every ing PC, just let me know and I won't bother showing up.

 

[Von Ether]

Cool. Isn't that game kinda deadly? I only played once and I felt like a sort of "dungeon in reverse" where my character was the encounter area and the slimy alien was the adventurer. I hope it got a lot of Xp for eating my scientist. I'd like to think that somewhere the alien is building a stronghold and attracting followers.

I'm sorry, but the alien only got a tiny bit of XP to compensate for the huge power level gap between you and it. Hence the reason most CoC critters want to destroy the entire Earth. It's the only way to get a decent chunk of XP for once.

I killed a campiagn myself once. It was 3.0 and it was a druid. After levels and levels of getting stuck in dugeons where Entangle wouldn't work or seeing my animal compainons abandon me in the face of the numerous undead and demons, I got Wind Walk.

After that, we could make great time and stop wasting weeks on the road transporting the latest artifact "X" to the latest king who wanted it. NPC ambushes could be fought or avoided with ease. I felt like we were finally getting into a stride in the campaign. The GM, however, panicked. It seems that he planned for most of our game to be nothing but ambushes and courier service to great lords. Once we could jump that track, he halted the train ride.

 

[Pbartender]

Thanks for the offer, Pbartender, but I think I'm set for games right now.

No problem... Whenever I need a new player, I just have to jump at the chance to get a player I'm already aquainted with.