Quote from: Christmas ApeI get the rough sense of where he's going, maybe. If it's anything like the difference between "raided a degenerate cult", "dealt with a shoggoth (with casualties), and "pantsed Cthulhu and stole his hat". I think he's finding them so grossly outmatched that even the former is a disaster best left to the authorities, but would sooner they be closer to the second, while Exalted looks a lot like the third.

That's how I read it. Delta Green, maybe?

-clash

Added: Oh Lord! Look! I'm a Community Elder now! What gave me away? Biometrics on the shaking palsied hands? Remote assays on the few, straggling gray hairs? Liver spot analysis? :O

There's a simple solution for CoC D20:  Start investigators at a higher level.

Back in the mists of time I read something someone had done combineng CoC and Feng Shui.

You know there's just something to be said for taking on cultists with two 9mm's  and slow motion.:guns: :emot-rock: :emot-rock: :fhtagn:

I tend to work horror into just about any game I run.  But for pure horror systems, I tend to go to:

Code: Black (an EABA supplement)
Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium (currently oop, but coming back)
Conspiracy X v. 2.0 (classic Unisystem)
Dark Conspiracy (for setting, not mechanics)
Armageddon (classic Unisystem)

As you can see, most of them are more contemporary, although Code: Black and Dread:TFBoP could be used in just about any time period although they're aimed at contemporary.  Dark Conspiracy is a not-too-distant future / alternate reality type setting.

More on topic, I'm a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu (either system, really, though I'm not a fan of using d20 to tackle firearms), Nemesis, and assorted WW stuff (original Werewolf and Mage, both Vampire games). If I could convince my players, I'd run a zombie game in the style of the Urban Dead game. I like working the occasional horror-style scenario into a sci-fi campign - psychic insect natives driving colonists into feral beasts, the intruder on the ship nobody actually -sees-, "It's inside one of us!" type stuff.

Quote from: RedFoxThere's a simple solution for CoC D20:  Start investigators at a higher level.

Or not. It's why I've come to like the d20 version a little better than the BRP one: It's actually rough on the PCs and no gun bunnies.

Seanchai

Well I do use d20 but only when I run wierd wars. Now that was a great set of books. Hitler and his wearwolves is a riot. Possesses tanks, nazi zombies, and of course some goofy magic rules. Whats not too love.

Quote from: SeanchaiOr not. It's why I've come to like the d20 version a little better than the BRP one: It's actually rough on the PCs and no gun bunnies.

Seanchai

Well I was responding to Rubio as explained by Christmas Ape.

I don't typically run straight horror campaigns as it can get tedious really fast, so I toss in some COC during regular AD&D sessions (why do these town people have a strange look?, what is this yellow rune thats all over the place? Why does this guy at the crossroads want to teach me to play guitar?) and it usually works out pretty well unless I tip off the players too soon and they go KODT on poor Innsmouth.

Quote from: RedFoxWell I was responding to Rubio as explained by Christmas Ape.

Okay. Did I say something weird?

Seanchai

Quote from: SeanchaiOkay. Did I say something weird?

Seanchai

A bit.  Here's the conversation as I understood it:

Rubio: "I want a CoC game where the investigators aren't mincemeat but actually have a bit of a chance at surviving."
Me: "Oh, in CoC D20 just start 'em at a higher level."
Seanchai: "Or don't.  I like CoC D20 because the investigators are mincemeat."
Me: "Bwuh?"

Essentially. The impression I got from CoC d20 is that it is the type of game to play if you want your characters to be mincement. Like I said, I figured that the characters there fell into the "Don't Bother" category, as in "Don't Bother fighting back or trying to make a difference, you'll go gibberingly insane and will be fighting with the other investigators over the last cup of pudding within a week if you're lucky." But if your chances of making a difference are "Don't Bother", then the question of rolling up some future asylum inhabitants and playing the game becomes "Why Bother?"

I suppose that if you use the core d20 Modern classes (and maybe the advanced classes from the Shadow Chasers section, NOT the Urban Arcana ones), that'd be a pretty good balance. You could gun down ghouls and perhaps drive off a star vampire, but just try standing your ground against a shoggoth or dhole.

Well I do not know much if anything about the d20 COC. But the impression many people have of true COC is that they are one time adventures that last just long enouph for your investigaters to die or go insane. This is mostly due to the conventions holding COC games like that. One shotters where everyone just goes crazy.

But the best games are ones where the investigaters do not die or go insane in one sitting. The game should be a slow and horrable decent into madness. One that the investigaters do all they can to hold it back long enouph to stop the great evil or at least get away alive. You have to ease the players into the mythos slowly. Do not alow them to see that their is not light at the end of the tunnel until it is too late. The best roleplaying is when the investigaters finnaly realise that the greatest danger is not external but ussualy internal. When as they roleplay the differant psycological problems that arise they realy come to learn who their cheracter is. That is when the threat of madness apears and when the players realy have fun.

 Many RPG's give you stats and an enemy and maybe some flaver text to go with it. Alot of players just look at a problem and throw dice at it until either the bad guy is dead or they are. This approach cannot work in COC. The game lends it self to a more pure form of role play because dice are not necissary to solving most problems. The player may not even have an enemy to kill.

My chalange is easing the investigaters into the story a little at a time. Dribbaling clues to the real threat throughout multiple investigations. The players must learn to empathize and care for their investigaters. For the game too truly work the cheracters must be important too them but also the threat must be one they cannot ignore. Then it will matter when they start to slip into insanity.

With out loss there cannot be any reward.

Quote from: RedFoxA bit.  Here's the conversation as I understood it:

Rubio: "I want a CoC game where the investigators aren't mincemeat but actually have a bit of a chance at surviving."
Me: "Oh, in CoC D20 just start 'em at a higher level."
Seanchai: "Or don't.  I like CoC D20 because the investigators are mincemeat."
Me: "Bwuh?"

Ah. Mines a non sequitur then. Just commenting in general about d20 CoC.

Seanchai