Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 184710" data-attributes="member: 812">My whole campaign works on these lines, and has done for the past year and a half. I've never played CoC though I'm a long-time fan of HPL's writing. Well, the good stuff. Heh.I have three players using NPC classes -- two Experts and a Commoner. On Barsoom, it's much more important to know who that is over there than it is to be able to do huge amounts of damage to them. Because IF they're a threat to you, you'll probably just irritate them.Yes and no. My PCs are constantly being accosted by beings they have NO chance of defeating -- full-on gods and uber-sorcerers and other immortal types fill my world.But I cordially hate the &quot;Puzzle Solution&quot; kind of encounter, so painfully typified by Piers Anthony in one Xanth novel after another. On Barsoom, when the Demon Goddess shows up and wants to tear a strip off your hide, you better talk fast and think faster, because there's just no &quot;secret&quot; that's going to allow a 7th-level Expert to defeat a 40th-level Intermediate Deity. Sorry, you fight, you lose.I don't create solutions. I create problems. And believe me, a pissed-off Demon Goddess is a real problem. The solutions, however, are up to my players.Mystery is ESSENTIAL to any campaign that aspires to be more than hack-and-slash running about. Secrets that the players have to weasel out are the prime ingredient in getting them interested in what's going on -- it makes them curious when they don't understand something, and often finding out the truth can become an obssession the DM isn't prepared for.I'm very interested in CoC and will probably pick it up. In many ways I'm running a CoC campaign in a (sort of) D&amp;D world.(sorry, format fixes)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 184710, member: 812"] My whole campaign works on these lines, and has done for the past year and a half. I've never played CoC though I'm a long-time fan of HPL's writing. Well, the good stuff. Heh. I have three players using NPC classes -- two Experts and a Commoner. On Barsoom, it's much more important to know who that is over there than it is to be able to do huge amounts of damage to them. Because IF they're a threat to you, you'll probably just irritate them. Yes and no. My PCs are constantly being accosted by beings they have NO chance of defeating -- full-on gods and uber-sorcerers and other immortal types fill my world. But I cordially hate the "Puzzle Solution" kind of encounter, so painfully typified by Piers Anthony in one Xanth novel after another. On Barsoom, when the Demon Goddess shows up and wants to tear a strip off your hide, you better talk fast and think faster, because there's just no "secret" that's going to allow a 7th-level Expert to defeat a 40th-level Intermediate Deity. Sorry, you fight, you lose. I don't create solutions. I create problems. And believe me, a pissed-off Demon Goddess is a real problem. The solutions, however, are up to my players. Mystery is ESSENTIAL to any campaign that aspires to be more than hack-and-slash running about. Secrets that the players have to weasel out are the prime ingredient in getting them interested in what's going on -- it makes them curious when they don't understand something, and often finding out the truth can become an obssession the DM isn't prepared for. I'm very interested in CoC and will probably pick it up. In many ways I'm running a CoC campaign in a (sort of) D&D world. (sorry, format fixes) [/QUOTE]

Verification