Thinking About Starting A CoC Game. Need Advice ...
- Thread starter Angelsboi
- Start date
Shapermc
First Post
You are being very general here. I would love to help you out, but I could spend all day doing that. If you narrow down what you are looking for help on that would make life a bit easier.
Right now the best recomendation that I have for you is to play in a low light setting (In real life not in the game). Also treat skill checks and research like you would combat in D&D. Map out how research can/will be handled. If the investagators fail in their research is there a Red Herring that you could throw at them to think that their research succeeded. Underestimate the combat. Tone it down with difficulty even if you think that it is toned down enough. Then after a few encounters (if you have any) then judge the rest/later games based off your info.
If you are more specific then I would love to help more, but for now those are just some general tips.
I see that you have also put up this same question over at the Wotc site. Read the thread List of Weird Events for use in CoC.
Right now the best recomendation that I have for you is to play in a low light setting (In real life not in the game). Also treat skill checks and research like you would combat in D&D. Map out how research can/will be handled. If the investagators fail in their research is there a Red Herring that you could throw at them to think that their research succeeded. Underestimate the combat. Tone it down with difficulty even if you think that it is toned down enough. Then after a few encounters (if you have any) then judge the rest/later games based off your info.
If you are more specific then I would love to help more, but for now those are just some general tips.
I see that you have also put up this same question over at the Wotc site. Read the thread List of Weird Events for use in CoC.
omnimpotent
First Post
I have some experience with CoC, and I'm pleased to hear you're looking into it. I'm no master of the art, but I'm willing to let you know what I've learned.
The adventure hook is always key. Unless you really amp up the character creation, the characters tend to be fairly average joes. If they are actually role-playing average joes, (rather than ninja assassins or special forces Rambos or something along those lines) they will be reluctant to leap into action without good reason. Thus, the adventure has to come to them, and it should be clear that if they stay home, bad things will happen to them. (Phone calls to their homes is good, but nothing beats the personal touch of hired goons)
Also along those lines, you have to already know how the police will react. (Because really, if cultists are calling/dropping by your home, or if dismembered bodies start cropping up, an average joe is calling 911.) Disinterest/disbelief, combined with the "slow wheels of justice" are the typical responses, although I like to confiscate valuable clues and improperly carried/discharged firearms. It's especially fun to arrest and lock up the guys who went nuts with their handguns, and then went to the cops THEMSELVES, although try not to lock up the whole party or the guy who has the adventure hook. Sprinkle this liberally with the local sheriff is in with the baddies ("tell me what you know of this so-called cult --ka-klik") or really swell cops who buy your story, follow you to the haunted house, insist you wait outside while they check it out, and disappear leaving only a badge/service revolver/ puddle of urine. Say, did you just send Officer Niceguy to his grisly death? San check, please.
As to the horrors themselves, less is usually more. If the players see a bug-eyed ape-slug running around in encounter 3, the game starts to look like a D&D style monster hunt. If they keep encountering a slime trail, a bad smell, or a spectral residue that gives random party members spontaneous nosebleeds, they'll know there's a monster, and now they're really interested in finding it. This also plays into Sanity, my next point.
If you are hoping to run a campaign, rather than a one-shot, take it relatively easy with the Sanity loss. Sanity rolls seem to have more effect when used sparingly. Having been on the other side of the screen myself, a sanity roll behind every door gets old, fast. So does your character. Instead, try setting up scenes that bother the players more than the characters. Items placed where they don't belong (kids stuff at a likely murder scene, etc) and off screen action (checking the guys answering machine, where the clue is somebody desperately pleading for help, which is cut short alarmingly - hell, anyone freaking out on the other end of anyone's phone is great stuff) work for me. So do weird places with poor visibility an short sight lines. (Lots of places for baddies to hide, ranged weapons less comforting) I find the players are actually comforted to see a monster/grisly tableau/gang of bloody cultists after a bunch of suggestive nothing.
I hope some of this helps, and your games will go well enough we get to read about them in story time!
The adventure hook is always key. Unless you really amp up the character creation, the characters tend to be fairly average joes. If they are actually role-playing average joes, (rather than ninja assassins or special forces Rambos or something along those lines) they will be reluctant to leap into action without good reason. Thus, the adventure has to come to them, and it should be clear that if they stay home, bad things will happen to them. (Phone calls to their homes is good, but nothing beats the personal touch of hired goons)
Also along those lines, you have to already know how the police will react. (Because really, if cultists are calling/dropping by your home, or if dismembered bodies start cropping up, an average joe is calling 911.) Disinterest/disbelief, combined with the "slow wheels of justice" are the typical responses, although I like to confiscate valuable clues and improperly carried/discharged firearms. It's especially fun to arrest and lock up the guys who went nuts with their handguns, and then went to the cops THEMSELVES, although try not to lock up the whole party or the guy who has the adventure hook. Sprinkle this liberally with the local sheriff is in with the baddies ("tell me what you know of this so-called cult --ka-klik") or really swell cops who buy your story, follow you to the haunted house, insist you wait outside while they check it out, and disappear leaving only a badge/service revolver/ puddle of urine. Say, did you just send Officer Niceguy to his grisly death? San check, please.
As to the horrors themselves, less is usually more. If the players see a bug-eyed ape-slug running around in encounter 3, the game starts to look like a D&D style monster hunt. If they keep encountering a slime trail, a bad smell, or a spectral residue that gives random party members spontaneous nosebleeds, they'll know there's a monster, and now they're really interested in finding it. This also plays into Sanity, my next point.
If you are hoping to run a campaign, rather than a one-shot, take it relatively easy with the Sanity loss. Sanity rolls seem to have more effect when used sparingly. Having been on the other side of the screen myself, a sanity roll behind every door gets old, fast. So does your character. Instead, try setting up scenes that bother the players more than the characters. Items placed where they don't belong (kids stuff at a likely murder scene, etc) and off screen action (checking the guys answering machine, where the clue is somebody desperately pleading for help, which is cut short alarmingly - hell, anyone freaking out on the other end of anyone's phone is great stuff) work for me. So do weird places with poor visibility an short sight lines. (Lots of places for baddies to hide, ranged weapons less comforting) I find the players are actually comforted to see a monster/grisly tableau/gang of bloody cultists after a bunch of suggestive nothing.
I hope some of this helps, and your games will go well enough we get to read about them in story time!
Shapermc
First Post
Angelsboi said:
Well if you are setting up your campeign still, then... (witout covering what omnipotent wrote well enough) :
1) Make sure that you set up the adventure so that the PC's want to find out what happens. Like a car wreck on the highway everyone complains about it and knows that it is up there and that is why the traffic isso thick, but when they get there they still sit and stare at is as they pass continuing to make traffic slower hoping for a head rolling on the ground or something.
2) Retain the suspiscion of bisbelife. If you ever give the PC's enough evidence to go to the police and have a clear record, 9/10 times they will (if they do go to the police see omni's way of handeling it in his post). Make it so that the police have no solid evidence of anything that the investigators bring to their attention. If the PC's look crazy it will add to your gaming experience.
3) Let your PC's do stupid things. Most people who are new to CoC find it difficult to make the transition from D&D laws (e.g I walk into the bar and kill the evil wizard. DM: The people look at you with questioning faces untill you tell them it was the evil wizard and they all cheer.) to IRL laws (e.g. I walk into the diner and shoot the leader of the cult and start to search his body for the tome. DM: the people of the Diner run out scraming or hide under their table shaking with fear. A passing cop comes into the diner after hearing the gun shot. PC: I tell him that this is the leader of the evil cult. DM: The cop looks at you with a strange twitch in his eye and then pulls out his gun and tells you to get on the gound with your hands behind your back.) and it will cause some interesting situations
. Also by letting them make mistakes they will learn that CoC is more deadly and have to play smarter. (e.g. I take out my club and start to beat the Dhole. DM: Ummm... well... [looks at the dice] you just died.) 4) Put stuff in the game that they have no controll over. Make them want to help NPC Smith stay alive when they find him in the sewer system. But when an unforutunalte tunnel leads them right into the path of half a dozen Mi-Go kill off the NPC with gory detal and then have the Mi-Go leave for no reason. This also makes a PC go hmmmm. Plan for a few situations such as this and your PC's will most likely live longer and still have a good amount of combat/action.
5) Tomes and Spell books. Dear god I love these. Thow them at your party, but it takes them 3 weeks to decypher. But you know the end of the world is comming in 2 weeks!!! E GAWD!
No seriously it is one of the best props to give your PC's. There are plenty of resources for this online to make them ( I even have one for the "End of Paradise" module in the d20 core book at my website www.shapermc.com ). The best place for the source of these books is lovecraft himself. Like in the Campeign for Beyond the Mountains of Maddness you find the tome from the previous antartic expedition, which is really just At the Mountains of Maddness by HP Lovecraft. I hope this all helps, and also I would like to recomend that you run "The end of Paradise" as an opener module. It works really well and it is easy to orginise for decent one-shot game. About 12 hours of planning and reading and creating for about a 6-7 hour game. That is pretty good if you ask me.
Good luck again.
Last edited:
Byrons_Ghost
First Post
Unless you're running some of the older, classic Chaosium materials, I really can't think of a "standard" way of doing CoC. It doesn't fit into easy categories like D&D might, say dungeon crawl vs. city-based adventure. The "official" periods that were supported where Victorian, Jazz Age, and modern day. Modern day tended to be more active, Victorian tended to be more investigative, and 1920s scenarios fell somewhere in between.
Our original style in playing the game 10-12 years ago was pretty mayhem-intensive: lots of dead, insane characters and weird monsters. A lot of this was the BRP system- modules called for constant sanity checks, even for piddling things (such as strange noises or odd-looking doors), and even the weakest monsters could tear a character like tissue paper. Nowdays the published supplements seem to be getting away from that and focusing more on the mystery and Lovecraftian elements.
Your best bet is probably to take some of the things you liked about their the Mythos or the Lovecraft stories and focus on re-creating those elements in whatever genre you're most comfortable with. Odd as it may seem, Lovecraft's original stories may not be the most helpful in creating an RPG campaign, since there's little in them that would appeal to most players- lots of historical research, geneological investigation, that sort of thing. You're better off just borrowing a few elements that you liked and putting them into something you're familiar with than trying to run a Lovecraft story.
One of the biggest problems I've seen in CoC is what we called railroading. In a lot of published material, the players were just yanked along from one scene or encounter to the next, following a trail of clues that a five-year old could interpret and having no other options for dealing with the situation. This is another reason why I think Lovecraft's stories- as written- would make poor RPG modules. Most of the time he wrote in 3rd person observer mode, where the narrator/protagonist is pretty much just a witness to the horrible things happening to those around him. Again, it's effective for fiction, but kind of boring for RPGs, where the PCs themselves are supposed to be central.
The flip side of this is that, if you make the PCs central, then they're the ones experiencing the horrible things, and tend toward messy ends. Here you just have to sort of experiment and find what a good mix is. I would say keep the monsters weak, hint at the larger entities in the background, and only call deduct sanity from monsters, tomes, spells, and really disturbing experiences, like realizing your wife is turning into a Deep One.
Probably the best thing for you to do is keep your game group in mind, if you know who your players are. If you've gamed with them before, then you can determine whether they'd like more investigative style games, whether they're comfortable taking matters into their own hands or need to be put on the run, etc. That will give you the best indication of what to start with, and hopefully let you know the best way to evoke the atmosphere and themes you're looking for. The Mythos elements themselves can then just sort of be the icing.
Our original style in playing the game 10-12 years ago was pretty mayhem-intensive: lots of dead, insane characters and weird monsters. A lot of this was the BRP system- modules called for constant sanity checks, even for piddling things (such as strange noises or odd-looking doors), and even the weakest monsters could tear a character like tissue paper. Nowdays the published supplements seem to be getting away from that and focusing more on the mystery and Lovecraftian elements.
Your best bet is probably to take some of the things you liked about their the Mythos or the Lovecraft stories and focus on re-creating those elements in whatever genre you're most comfortable with. Odd as it may seem, Lovecraft's original stories may not be the most helpful in creating an RPG campaign, since there's little in them that would appeal to most players- lots of historical research, geneological investigation, that sort of thing. You're better off just borrowing a few elements that you liked and putting them into something you're familiar with than trying to run a Lovecraft story.
One of the biggest problems I've seen in CoC is what we called railroading. In a lot of published material, the players were just yanked along from one scene or encounter to the next, following a trail of clues that a five-year old could interpret and having no other options for dealing with the situation. This is another reason why I think Lovecraft's stories- as written- would make poor RPG modules. Most of the time he wrote in 3rd person observer mode, where the narrator/protagonist is pretty much just a witness to the horrible things happening to those around him. Again, it's effective for fiction, but kind of boring for RPGs, where the PCs themselves are supposed to be central.
The flip side of this is that, if you make the PCs central, then they're the ones experiencing the horrible things, and tend toward messy ends. Here you just have to sort of experiment and find what a good mix is. I would say keep the monsters weak, hint at the larger entities in the background, and only call deduct sanity from monsters, tomes, spells, and really disturbing experiences, like realizing your wife is turning into a Deep One.
Probably the best thing for you to do is keep your game group in mind, if you know who your players are. If you've gamed with them before, then you can determine whether they'd like more investigative style games, whether they're comfortable taking matters into their own hands or need to be put on the run, etc. That will give you the best indication of what to start with, and hopefully let you know the best way to evoke the atmosphere and themes you're looking for. The Mythos elements themselves can then just sort of be the icing.
Ah, Call of Cthulhu. After D&D, I learned to play CoC and it became my favorite game. I will not go into the details of my first character's death, but suffice it to say that I learned a lot about the value of running that day...
The best advice I can give you is to buy a sourcebook or adventure and use it for ideas or to run. Since the only d20 CoC stuff is the rulebook and Nocturnum (by FFG), the stuff you get will have to be converted, No big deal since the conversion notes are in the d20 rulebook (although it does take some time). Here are some of my favorites:
1) Coming Full Circle by Pagan Publishing. Not really Cthulhu Mythos, but subtle and a great read. 4 adventures in rural New England.
2) Masks of Nyarlahotep. Classic, big budget Cthulhu. Get it; read it, but don't worry about running it for awhile.
3) Beyond the Mountains of Madness. Same as for Masks.
4) Escape from Innsmouth and Return to Dunwich. Classic sourcebooks that, literally, have hundreds of adventure ideas and a few adventures. The last adventure in EfI is one of my all-time favorites in any genre.
5) The Keeper's Compendium Vol. I Great ideas and a reprint of some out-of-print stuff.
Check out these at a good FLGS or look on eBay for some bargains. Good luck and welcome to the fold...
The best advice I can give you is to buy a sourcebook or adventure and use it for ideas or to run. Since the only d20 CoC stuff is the rulebook and Nocturnum (by FFG), the stuff you get will have to be converted, No big deal since the conversion notes are in the d20 rulebook (although it does take some time). Here are some of my favorites:
1) Coming Full Circle by Pagan Publishing. Not really Cthulhu Mythos, but subtle and a great read. 4 adventures in rural New England.
2) Masks of Nyarlahotep. Classic, big budget Cthulhu. Get it; read it, but don't worry about running it for awhile.
3) Beyond the Mountains of Madness. Same as for Masks.
4) Escape from Innsmouth and Return to Dunwich. Classic sourcebooks that, literally, have hundreds of adventure ideas and a few adventures. The last adventure in EfI is one of my all-time favorites in any genre.
5) The Keeper's Compendium Vol. I Great ideas and a reprint of some out-of-print stuff.
Check out these at a good FLGS or look on eBay for some bargains. Good luck and welcome to the fold...
Last edited:
Turgenev
Legend
Angelsboi said:
I've been playing CoC off and on since the mid 80s - one of my favourite RPGs of all time. Great game. There has been a lot of good advice in this thread - it's always nice to see so many surviving CoC players.
Here's my 2 cents worth...
CoC is a game of mood. Set the right atmosphere and watch the players jump at the slightest bump in the night. I liked Omnimpotent's comment about building up to the "monster's unveiling". Good advice. Have the PCs encounter monster spoor, strange odours, unusual stains, etc. as they investigate the otherworldly horrors that surround them.
Shapermc also had a good idea about playing at a low-light setting. I've been fortune enough to play in some interesting places that have heightened the playing experience: an old house that was reputed to be haunted (that place was something else when the wind started to blow), and an isolated country cottage at night (there is nothing like listening to the crickets crescendo as you play and then go silent as the main bad guy enters the game).
One thing I've found in my experience is the Police are often a danger instead of a source of help. They get testy when you start shooting up cultists or cause some significant property damage.
How many laws are you breaking in your attempt to save the world? Here's some PC Advice:
1) Tape/tie a flashlight to the end of your shotgun. So when you are in those dark & damp caves, you just have to point and shoot.
2) Attach a wrist strap to your pistol and/or flashlight. That way should you be knocked to the ground/fall - you have a better chance of keeping your pistol/flashlight.
3) Don't split up (even though you will anyways)!
4) Run! And run again!
5) Adapt a code so if you are talking on a public phone, then anyone listening in (police? cultists? the illuminati?) won't understand the precise details. My old group's favourite line was "Need more bowling balls!" Bowling balls = dynamite.
Just a few CoC tidbits.
Cheers,
Tim
Barendd Nobeard
Explorer
Also, H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham just came out. It's dual-statted for both BRP and d20. Just got it two days ago, so I haven't finished it, but so far it's great.Morpheus said:
