Hello all
As I've started hunting for CoC materials just recently, I'd like some advice mostly on interesting scenarios that can work for CoC 4th edition. But backstories that can provide foundations for adventures are also interesting.
I suppose they are of varying quality, and some of them might be hard to find. I will be purchasing second hand printed versions, as I don't want to support the woke machine (i.e. Chaosium).
For instance is Miskatonic University Guidebook 1995 edition worth it? And what about The Thing at the Threshold. There is not much in reviews for such productions...
It's gonna depend on what you like. I ran Shadows of Yog-Sothoth and we had a blast. The Asylum and other tales was good as I recall. I like Arkham and Miskatonic because I've read the fiction. But I also wing it using NYC because I know the area and it's iconic. I picked up Secrets of NY but haven't read it yet.
The 1995 Miskatonic book is definitely worth it, especially if your campaign is going to be centered in Arkham. Even if you don't use it, it's a fun read. With 4th edition, of course pretty much everything published from 1st to 6th editions will work with it. Chaosium's CoC line was once of such quality that it would be much easier to pick out the products that weren't good, rather than the ones that were, which was practically all of them.
It's been many years since I played in "The Thing at the Threshold," but recall that our group had fun. IIRC it was pretty pulpy in an Indiana Jones-type way.
As for campaigns, the only one I didn't like was "Horror on the Orient Express" but most people go ga-ga over it, so that's just personal taste. And yes, "Masks of Nyarlathotep" really is the greatest RPG campaign of all time; this has been proven as scientifically objective fact in research laboratories across the globe ;). The Lovecraft Country books (Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, Kingsport, etc. are all excellent but can be pricey. I personally love the Dreamlands, but others hate them. A lot of this will depend on your personal taste. One of the very few I disliked was a collection of scenarios called "The House of R'Lyeh," but then that came out in 2013 so Chaosium was in serious decline by then.
In short, you really can't go far wrong with most of this stuff. On Youtube, Seth Skorkowsky often reviews CoC scenarios so you may get some good ideas there.
A couple of my favorite collections of shorter scenarios are "The Great Old Ones" and "Mansions of Madness."
Hope this helps. I own most of the pre-7th edition CoC stuff so if you have any other questions, just ask.
Quote from: Rift on June 16, 2023, 01:07:06 AM
Hello all
As I've started hunting for CoC materials just recently, I'd like some advice mostly on interesting scenarios that can work for CoC 4th edition. But backstories that can provide foundations for adventures are also interesting.
I suppose they are of varying quality, and some of them might be hard to find. I will be purchasing second hand printed versions, as I don't want to support the woke machine (i.e. Chaosium).
For instance is Miskatonic University Guidebook 1995 edition worth it? And what about The Thing at the Threshold. There is not much in reviews for such productions...
Dude, this is right in my wheelhouse. CoC is one the RPGs I've been with...right up until Chaosium went woke as fuck.
I would agree that everything up to 6th should be mostly compatible with each other.
Some personal favorites:
For campaigns: you cannot go wrong with Masks of Nyarlathotep. IF at all possible, get the Complete Masks of Nyarlatotep which was published 1996/2001. Also if you REALLY want to immerse yourself, get the Masks of Nyarlatotep Companion. It's chock full of info on each location in the main campaign. It's over 700 pages! It may be really hard to find now, but if your interested...
for scenarios: IMO some of the best ones come out of the series of books detailing "Lovecraft Country": Arkham, Kingsport, Innsmouth, and Dunwich. Not only do they have details of each area and it's surroundings, but each book has several scenarios as well. You could have an entire campaign just within the confines of the Miskatonic Valley. With that being said the Miskatonic U. book is a must. The '95 book is good, but the one put out in the 2005 is even better.
Chew on that for awhile. I'll have more later...
More personal favorites:
Terror from The Stars: this is a favorite of mine, not just because of the scenarios ("Pits of Bendal-Dolum" and the "Temple of the Moon"), but the insert of the " Field Manual of the Theron Marks Society". It's meant to be "Found" while on an investigation. It details the workings of the society against the Cthulhu Mythos and how to combat various entities, preparation for investigation, etc.
If you're interested, ask me how I turned "Pits of Bendal-Dolum" into a 1980s inspired scenario and called it "Cthulhu Vice".
The Asylum and Other Tales: If anything, just get the book for "The Asylum". It's the first scenario where we are introduced to the proto-shoggoth in the form of a psychiatrist at the aforementioned asylum
The Great Old Ones: awesome book of adventures where five of the six deal with various Great Old Ones. In "The Spawn." careful investigators uncover a historical dash between local worshipers of Yig and some chthonians: in "Still Waters." the investigators encounter a new breed of Cthulhu cultist: in "Yellow Sign." Hastur stirs in dark Hali as his avatar comes to Earth: in "One In Darkness:' our heroes stumble over an avatar of Nyarlathotep: in "Pale God:' our heroes learn why they might not want a personal relationship with a god (if it's a Great Old One. that is): in "Rad Moon Rising." we learn the fate of the human race and of all things. including the Great Old Ones.
If you're interested in what supplements to get, I can give details on those too.
Thanks for all the advice, it's all very useful to me and I appreciate it.
So far I got a hold of: Rulebook 4e, Miskatonic University, Thing at the Threshold and Grimrock Isle. Looking right now for Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, The Great old Ones and The Asylum and Other Tales. But will get most of those mentioned here if I stumble upon them for a reasonable price.
The older material looks so much better, even the artwork is just miles above the new stuff.
Quote from: blackstone on June 29, 2023, 10:32:27 AM
More personal favorites:
Terror from The Stars: this is a favorite of mine, not just because of the scenarios ("Pits of Bendal-Dolum" and the "Temple of the Moon"), but the insert of the " Field Manual of the Theron Marks Society". It's meant to be "Found" while on an investigation. It details the workings of the society against the Cthulhu Mythos and how to combat various entities, preparation for investigation, etc.
If you're interested, ask me how I turned "Pits of Bendal-Dolum" into a 1980s inspired scenario and called it "Cthulhu Vice".
The Asylum and Other Tales: If anything, just get the book for "The Asylum". It's the first scenario where we are introduced to the proto-shoggoth in the form of a psychiatrist at the aforementioned asylum
The Great Old Ones: awesome book of adventures where five of the six deal with various Great Old Ones. In "The Spawn." careful investigators uncover a historical dash between local worshipers of Yig and some chthonians: in "Still Waters." the investigators encounter a new breed of Cthulhu cultist: in "Yellow Sign." Hastur stirs in dark Hali as his avatar comes to Earth: in "One In Darkness:' our heroes stumble over an avatar of Nyarlathotep: in "Pale God:' our heroes learn why they might not want a personal relationship with a god (if it's a Great Old One. that is): in "Rad Moon Rising." we learn the fate of the human race and of all things. including the Great Old Ones.
If you're interested in what supplements to get, I can give details on those too.
Very interested in supplements as well ! Thanks! :)
My favorite Pagan Publishing CoC scenarios:
- "Grace Under Pressure"
- "In Media Res"
- Walker in the Wastes (it rivals Masks in quality!)
- Delta Green (the classic ones from the '90s, as well as so many good scenarios published for the more-recent Arc Dream/Pagan RPG, including John Tynes' Labyrinth)
Among others:
- the aforementioned Masks of Nyarlathotep and Shadows of Yog-Sothoth (both Chaosium)
- The Vanishing Conjuror/Statue of the Sorcerer (Games Workshop)
Allan.
Quote from: grodog on July 11, 2023, 01:17:25 AM
- The Vanishing Conjuror/Statue of the Sorcerer (Games Workshop)
I see that you are a man of culture.
Quote from: grodog on July 11, 2023, 01:17:25 AMWalker in the Wastes (it rivals Masks in quality!)
This one is ama-zing! If OP can still find it, it works great in the context of recent books and movies about the Franklin expedition, like AMC/Amazon's "The Terror". So, it should be reasonably easy to get into even for players that aren't too much into "history stuff". My problem with it would be, this kind of game, you got to make big. For a weekend-in-hell type of thing, it's probably too unique a scenario.
My recommendation would be "Tatters of the King", even though I think that one's younger than CoC 4e, and really a full campaign on its own behalf. I like how the book is written, though, and how the usual CoC tropes are used to create a storyline that feels original, and even pretty epic. -- Or, if OP can find it, there was an adventure called "The Secret of Mohican Island" (Google got me
nothing) that was short, concise, and pretty "Salem's Lot"-y. I've not DMed CoC since the 2000s, I think, but if I was to do so, I would probably look at this one first.
So far I have managed to locate the following titles which I consider to purchase:
Mansions of Madness
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathothep
In the Shadows
The Great Old Ones
I know some are 5e, and not sure if 5e 100% compatible with 4e or if I need to adjust something on rolls/tables...
Anything 1st-6th editions can be used together easily. You might see skills and spells appear that you don't recognize, but you can just fiddle with them to taste.
Quote from: Baron on July 11, 2023, 04:49:28 PM
Anything 1st-6th editions can be used together easily. You might see skills and spells appear that you don't recognize, but you can just fiddle with them to taste.
Sounds like it's easy to handle. Thanks.
Quote from: Rafael on July 11, 2023, 04:06:10 PM
Quote from: grodog on July 11, 2023, 01:17:25 AMWalker in the Wastes (it rivals Masks in quality!)
This one is ama-zing! If OP can still find it, it works great in the context of recent books and movies about the Franklin expedition, like AMC/Amazon's "The Terror". So, it should be reasonably easy to get into even for players that aren't too much into "history stuff". My problem with it would be, this kind of game, you got to make big. For a weekend-in-hell type of thing, it's probably too unique a scenario.
My recommendation would be "Tatters of the King", even though I think that one's younger than CoC 4e, and really a full campaign on its own behalf. I like how the book is written, though, and how the usual CoC tropes are used to create a storyline that feels original, and even pretty epic. -- Or, if OP can find it, there was an adventure called "The Secret of Mohican Island" (Google got me nothing) that was short, concise, and pretty "Salem's Lot"-y. I've not DMed CoC since the 2000s, I think, but if I was to do so, I would probably look at this one first.
Was this the one you were talking about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horrible_Secret_of_Monhegan_Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horrible_Secret_of_Monhegan_Island)
Quote from: moonsweeper on July 11, 2023, 05:27:48 PM
Quote from: Rafael on July 11, 2023, 04:06:10 PM
Quote from: grodog on July 11, 2023, 01:17:25 AMWalker in the Wastes (it rivals Masks in quality!)
This one is ama-zing! If OP can still find it, it works great in the context of recent books and movies about the Franklin expedition, like AMC/Amazon's "The Terror". So, it should be reasonably easy to get into even for players that aren't too much into "history stuff". My problem with it would be, this kind of game, you got to make big. For a weekend-in-hell type of thing, it's probably too unique a scenario.
My recommendation would be "Tatters of the King", even though I think that one's younger than CoC 4e, and really a full campaign on its own behalf. I like how the book is written, though, and how the usual CoC tropes are used to create a storyline that feels original, and even pretty epic. -- Or, if OP can find it, there was an adventure called "The Secret of Mohican Island" (Google got me nothing) that was short, concise, and pretty "Salem's Lot"-y. I've not DMed CoC since the 2000s, I think, but if I was to do so, I would probably look at this one first.
Was this the one you were talking about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horrible_Secret_of_Monhegan_Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horrible_Secret_of_Monhegan_Island)
YES. thank you! That's the one. :) It's a solid mini-setting for CoC. Below-average in its complexity, but also quite forgiving to beginners. The first part of the adventure is very reminiscent of "The Shadow over Innsmouth", but in a good way that gradually introduces the players to the mythical dimensions of CoC.
Yeah, "The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island" is good. It has two scenarios, the title one (which is heavily based on "The Wicker Man" but has a Lovecraftian slant, and another, shorter adventure about the Mi-Go. Both were big hits when I ran them for my group.
Quote from: Rift on July 11, 2023, 04:26:58 PM
So far I have managed to locate the following titles which I consider to purchase:
Mansions of Madness
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathothep
In the Shadows
The Great Old Ones
I know some are 5e, and not sure if 5e 100% compatible with 4e or if I need to adjust something on rolls/tables...
Out of curiosity, I went on eBay to check out the prices for some of these and HOLY COW I'm almost sorry I recommended them! That said, they are expensive but are excellent products and you'll get years of pleasure from them. In
Mansions of Madness there's a scenario called "The Sanitarium" that's my favorite "first adventure" for CoC PCs (even edging out the excellent "Edge of Darkness" ). I ran that and one of the NPCs in that adventure provided the perfect segue into "The Asylum," another classic that's already been recommended to you in this thread.
Quote from: I on July 11, 2023, 10:45:08 PM
Quote from: Rift on July 11, 2023, 04:26:58 PM
So far I have managed to locate the following titles which I consider to purchase:
Mansions of Madness
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathothep
In the Shadows
The Great Old Ones
I know some are 5e, and not sure if 5e 100% compatible with 4e or if I need to adjust something on rolls/tables...
Out of curiosity, I went on eBay to check out the prices for some of these and HOLY COW I'm almost sorry I recommended them! That said, they are expensive but are excellent products and you'll get years of pleasure from them. In Mansions of Madness there's a scenario called "The Sanitarium" that's my favorite "first adventure" for CoC PCs (even edging out the excellent "Edge of Darkness" ). I ran that and one of the NPCs in that adventure provided the perfect segue into "The Asylum," another classic that's already been recommended to you in this thread.
Yes, they're really pricey. Monhegan Island even more than the others. I have a gut feeling that the quality of these are better than most of the new Chaosium has come up with though.
Quote from: Rift on July 12, 2023, 02:35:57 AMYes, they're really pricey. Monhegan Island even more than the others. I have a gut feeling that the quality of these are better than most of the new Chaosium has come up with though.
This is why I wasn't shy about recomming you "younger" stuff. "King in Tatters", for example, a campaign more focused on Mythos elements borrowed from Robert W. Chambers, goes for 35 bucks on Amazon in my country. It's not a "spectacular" read, but it's well-rounded, up to modern standards in its pacing, generally DM-friendly. And, most importantly, it's complete. You can prepare the first two or three adventures in a weekend, and you don't have to write a private dissertation on some historical fringe topic. (Like the Franklin expedition, for example.)
Full disclosure, I'm having a similar "problem", right now - I wanted to do some really "ambitioned" Ctulhu stuff, in connection with "The Rats in the Walls", a minigame by French designer Kobayashi. Turns out, finding a proper oldschool scenario, vetting it for your group, and then getting into it to a degree that you can run it in a way that at least gives a semblance of historical accuracy etc. takes a long-ass time. :o :P So, little by little, one will tend o simplify things, and drift more and more towards more simplistic approaches. - Like, say, a "Cthulhu Gaslight" set in London scenario is exponentially easier to do than, say, an expedition to 1920s Kenya because you have all the detective fiction set in that era that you can draw upon. You can prepare via Netflix, not via "ten hours of Youtube documentaries". :D
Quote from: I on July 11, 2023, 10:30:21 PM
Yeah, "The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island" is good. It has two scenarios, the title one (which is heavily based on "The Wicker Man" but has a Lovecraftian slant, and another, shorter adventure about the Mi-Go. Both were big hits when I ran them for my group.
Hehe, yeah. A thousand years old, and with handdrawn maps of the comic book kind - but well-written and atmospheric. "Gettable" for the players, more than anything. Compare that one with, I don't know, the haunted house adventure released by Monte Cook games during the pandemic: Not that the other one would be bad, but "easing" into the scenario is impossible. "Monhegan" does that marvellously, which I think is so important for a CoC scenario with new players.
I usually write my CoC adventures so I'm more interested in backgrounds. Having said that...
The combo Arkham + Miskatonic is a killer. If you add Dunwich, Innsmouth, Kingsport and Lovecraft Country in general you can play for years.
Delta Green is CoC only more depressing. I'm not joking. A friend of mine ran his version of the first season of True Detective with DG - but with Hastur for real - and they had a blast.
Adventure wise, the seldom mentioned "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is a masterpiece. I have the French Edition (I paid a kidney for it) and it even comes with an original OST on CD.
A last note: I always wondered why there is almost nothing about Italy in CoC. From forbidden cults in pre-Roman times to Venice in general (not to mention the Vatican) you can throw a stone and get an idea.
Out of curiosity, when Chaosium became woke? I have a lot of published material for 7E and there is no wokeness in it. However, I stopped after "The Cults of Cthulhu" handbook, so I'm missing the most recent developments.
Quote from: Reckall on July 12, 2023, 01:58:43 PM
I usually write my CoC adventures so I'm more interested in backgrounds. Having said that...
The combo Arkham + Miskatonic is a killer. If you add Dunwich, Innsmouth, Kingsport and Lovecraft Country in general you can play for years.
Delta Green is CoC only more depressing. I'm not joking. A friend of mine ran his version of the first season of True Detective with DG - but with Hastur for real - and they had a blast.
Adventure wise, the seldom mentioned "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is a masterpiece. I have the French Edition (I paid a kidney for it) and it even comes with an original OST on CD.
A last note: I always wondered why there is almost nothing about Italy in CoC. From forbidden cults in pre-Roman times to Venice in general (not to mention the Vatican) you can throw a stone and get an idea.
Out of curiosity, when Chaosium became woke? I have a lot of published material for 7E and there is no wokeness in it. However, I stopped after "The Cults of Cthulhu" handbook, so I'm missing the most recent developments.
Thanks for the good input. I might write a few stories as well, but it takes time. Italy is a great idea for a scenario.
As for woke I can refer to the thread somewhere on this site or simply google woke rpg list and it will show up. I discovered it when I saw Pronouns on the new character sheet, but it's much worse than just that.
Quote from: Rift on July 12, 2023, 02:35:57 AM
Quote from: I on July 11, 2023, 10:45:08 PM
Quote from: Rift on July 11, 2023, 04:26:58 PM
So far I have managed to locate the following titles which I consider to purchase:
Mansions of Madness
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathothep
In the Shadows
The Great Old Ones
I know some are 5e, and not sure if 5e 100% compatible with 4e or if I need to adjust something on rolls/tables...
Out of curiosity, I went on eBay to check out the prices for some of these and HOLY COW I'm almost sorry I recommended them! That said, they are expensive but are excellent products and you'll get years of pleasure from them. In Mansions of Madness there's a scenario called "The Sanitarium" that's my favorite "first adventure" for CoC PCs (even edging out the excellent "Edge of Darkness" ). I ran that and one of the NPCs in that adventure provided the perfect segue into "The Asylum," another classic that's already been recommended to you in this thread.
Yes, they're really pricey. Monhegan Island even more than the others. I have a gut feeling that the quality of these are better than most of the new Chaosium has come up with though.
I may have a beater copy of this, remind me to root around over the weekend and I'll take a look.
Allan.
Another upvote for the "The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island".
However, my vote for the "Must-Have" CoC supplement is Kevin Crawford's SILENT LEGIONS book. Easily the best horror RPG GM helper that I've encountered, especially for CoC GMs with groups who've become jaded with the "normal" mythos.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145769/Silent-Legions (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145769/Silent-Legions)
Quote from: Reckall on July 12, 2023, 01:58:43 PM
I usually write my CoC adventures so I'm more interested in backgrounds. Having said that...
The combo Arkham + Miskatonic is a killer. If you add Dunwich, Innsmouth, Kingsport and Lovecraft Country in general you can play for years.
Delta Green is CoC only more depressing. I'm not joking. A friend of mine ran his version of the first season of True Detective with DG - but with Hastur for real - and they had a blast.
Adventure wise, the seldom mentioned "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is a masterpiece. I have the French Edition (I paid a kidney for it) and it even comes with an original OST on CD.
A last note: I always wondered why there is almost nothing about Italy in CoC. From forbidden cults in pre-Roman times to Venice in general (not to mention the Vatican) you can throw a stone and get an idea.
Out of curiosity, when Chaosium became woke? I have a lot of published material for 7E and there is no wokeness in it. However, I stopped after "The Cults of Cthulhu" handbook, so I'm missing the most recent developments.
How popular is the Cthulhu Mythos in Italy at the moment? You can find Cthulhu in all kinds of media in France, from books and comics to rpgs, but I have no idea about Italy, other than that I remember seeing a collection of Mythos stories by Italian authors, but that was almost 25 years ago.
Quote from: grodog on July 12, 2023, 09:44:18 PM
Quote from: Rift on July 12, 2023, 02:35:57 AM
Quote from: I on July 11, 2023, 10:45:08 PM
Quote from: Rift on July 11, 2023, 04:26:58 PM
So far I have managed to locate the following titles which I consider to purchase:
Mansions of Madness
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathothep
In the Shadows
The Great Old Ones
I know some are 5e, and not sure if 5e 100% compatible with 4e or if I need to adjust something on rolls/tables...
Out of curiosity, I went on eBay to check out the prices for some of these and HOLY COW I'm almost sorry I recommended them! That said, they are expensive but are excellent products and you'll get years of pleasure from them. In Mansions of Madness there's a scenario called "The Sanitarium" that's my favorite "first adventure" for CoC PCs (even edging out the excellent "Edge of Darkness" ). I ran that and one of the NPCs in that adventure provided the perfect segue into "The Asylum," another classic that's already been recommended to you in this thread.
Yes, they're really pricey. Monhegan Island even more than the others. I have a gut feeling that the quality of these are better than most of the new Chaosium has come up with though.
I may have a beater copy of this, remind me to root around over the weekend and I'll take a look.
Allan.
Sounds great of you have a copy, it looks like a good scenario book.
Quote from: Rhymer88 on July 13, 2023, 08:47:46 AM
How popular is the Cthulhu Mythos in Italy at the moment? You can find Cthulhu in all kinds of media in France, from books and comics to rpgs, but I have no idea about Italy, other than that I remember seeing a collection of Mythos stories by Italian authors, but that was almost 25 years ago.
They are very popular. It started in the '70s, when some enlightened minds started translating HPL, R.E. Howard and friends. CoC was (and still is) the second most popular RPG after D&D - beating even V:tM. The first Italian edition came out, IIRC, in 1993 and the younger me wrote several adventures for it for its publishing house's magazine. However, we never produced original manuals like the French did.
Today, 7E and supplements are fully translated. We play the English version but I bought the basic books in Italian too, to "support the cause".
For an adventure idea in "mysterious Italy", check the story of the "Dies Irae" by Tommaso da Celano, (the most famous medieval text about Judgement Day). Imagine that the original text is lost, maybe destroyed by the Church due to "demonic contents" (not to mention this guy named "Celano") and you will find yourself down a medieval rabbit hole.
Quote from: Reckall on July 13, 2023, 10:21:58 AM
Quote from: Rhymer88 on July 13, 2023, 08:47:46 AM
How popular is the Cthulhu Mythos in Italy at the moment? You can find Cthulhu in all kinds of media in France, from books and comics to rpgs, but I have no idea about Italy, other than that I remember seeing a collection of Mythos stories by Italian authors, but that was almost 25 years ago.
They are very popular. It started in the '70s, when some enlightened minds started translating HPL, R.E. Howard and friends. CoC was (and still is) the second most popular RPG after D&D - beating even V:tM. The first Italian edition came out, IIRC, in 1993 and the younger me wrote several adventures for it for its publishing house's magazine. However, we never produced original manuals like the French did.
Today, 7E and supplements are fully translated. We play the English version but I bought the basic books in Italian too, to "support the cause".
For an adventure idea in "mysterious Italy", check the story of the "Dies Irae" by Tommaso da Celano, (the most famous medieval text about Judgement Day). Imagine that the original text is lost, maybe destroyed by the Church due to "demonic contents" (not to mention this guy named "Celano") and you will find yourself down a medieval rabbit hole.
Have you checked out Horror on the Orient Express? Part of volume 2 seems to be devoted to Milan, Venice, and Trieste.
Quote from: Reckall on July 12, 2023, 01:58:43 PMThe combo Arkham + Miskatonic is a killer. If you add Dunwich, Innsmouth, Kingsport and Lovecraft Country in general you can play for years.
THIS. It's very traditional "Yoth-Soggot"-ing, but as long as your players are Lovecraft enthusiasts, and not Lovecraft
nerds, this setup is the recipe for a pretty great time at the gaming table.
Quote from: Reckall on July 12, 2023, 01:58:43 PMI usually write my CoC adventures so I'm more interested in backgrounds. Having said that...
My question would be, how much time do you spend writing/preparing? :) Like, I'm reasonably solid with knowledge management and with historical sciences, but I'd classify my my learning curve from I-Know-Nothing to I-Can-Portray-This-Era-Faithfully as a 100-hours-exercise. That's a lot of time when compared to the "Fuck it, we'll set this in Ravenloft" strategy that takes only about an evening to prepare. :)
The short horror story "The Tower" by Marghaniti Laski would be excellent inspiration for a CoC adventure set in Italy. The story itself is not related to the Mythos, but easily could be linked to that. You may be able to find it online. It's not that long of a story.
Quote from: Rafael on July 13, 2023, 12:10:49 PM
My question would be, how much time do you spend writing/preparing? :) Like, I'm reasonably solid with knowledge management and with historical sciences, but I'd classify my my learning curve from I-Know-Nothing to I-Can-Portray-This-Era-Faithfully as a 100-hours-exercise. That's a lot of time when compared to the "Fuck it, we'll set this in Ravenloft" strategy that takes only about an evening to prepare. :)
Usually, a couple of weeks for an adventure 2-3 sessions long. I just love to delve in the period and place - esp. if it is not one of the "usual suspects".
For example, I re-wrote "Under a Winter Snow", a module about the fear of the resurgence of the Spanish Flu in a small town in North Dakota (the idea was good but the development sucked). So, North Dakota in 1919... How was it? I found an incredible amount of photos. Then the culture. The German-American population was still reeling from the treatment they received after the US entered WWI (i.e. concentration camps - something not really remembered). Then we were near Christmas, so I looked for the local traditions. And so on.
The characters were pre-made. Basically, around Christmas 1919, the Mayor of Minot received troubling reports about a mysterious fever killing people in the small town of Eisner, up North. Fearing a resurgence of the flu, he contacts Bismarck (my players were a bit surprised to discover that the capital of ND is called Bismarck). From there they send an anatomopathologist from the Grand Fork University, dr. Lawrence Chambers. Yep, I looked for the best choice in the area and it was Grand Forks. I even found the pictures of the university.
With him the Mayor sends the sheriff, Theodore "Tex" Colbert (I found many pictures of ND sheriffs in 1919-20) and his personal assistant, Elisabeth "Lisa" Hermann to keep a formal record of the events (including taking pictures with a 1919 camera...) Lisa's parents had been held in a concentration camp, and her father had died, shortly after being freed, of "consumption". The player didn't know if this was important or not. It wasn't, but it was a way for her to have an idea of the time and the place.
Basically, I love to surround d the story with elements that give to the players the idea of being "there" in that year. Sometimes you only need a small detail. When they found a letter from the Army about the death of a certain NPC I looked for these letters on the internet and I reconstructed one - including the symbol of the US-AEF at the beginning. It is in Italian but the overall style is simply translated from the original. Researching things like these take only a bit of time but, IMHO, increase the "realism" of the player's surroundings - which in turn will make the dire things even more scary...
Quote from: Reckall on July 13, 2023, 02:58:46 PMResearching things like these take only a bit of time but, IMHO, increase the "realism" of the player's surroundings - which in turn will make the dire things even more scary...
Exactly.
The more "real" and "normal" everything is, the more the "unreal" and the "abby normal" stand out and shock.
Quote from: Spinachcat on July 13, 2023, 04:49:50 PM
Quote from: Reckall on July 13, 2023, 02:58:46 PMResearching things like these take only a bit of time but, IMHO, increase the "realism" of the player's surroundings - which in turn will make the dire things even more scary...
Exactly.
The more "real" and "normal" everything is, the more the "unreal" and the "abby normal" stand out and shock.
I agree. However, this does make me question setting Cthulhu games in the 1920s. Most of my games were in the 1920s - plus some in the 1890s and a few in 1930s through 1940s. Still, there are good reasons to have games set in the present day. Lovecraft generally set his stories in the present day for him, and mostly in his own familiar ("normal") environment of New England.
I've done one-shots of Delta Green and The Laundry, but I feel that making the PCs as government agents is a big shift, and makes things a bit less "real" and "normal". In the future, I'd like to try more Call of Cthulhu set in the present with ordinary civilians as PCs.
Quote from: jhkim on July 13, 2023, 05:17:03 PM
Quote from: Spinachcat on July 13, 2023, 04:49:50 PM
Quote from: Reckall on July 13, 2023, 02:58:46 PMResearching things like these take only a bit of time but, IMHO, increase the "realism" of the player's surroundings - which in turn will make the dire things even more scary...
Exactly.
The more "real" and "normal" everything is, the more the "unreal" and the "abby normal" stand out and shock.
I agree. However, this does make me question setting Cthulhu games in the 1920s. Most of my games were in the 1920s - plus some in the 1890s and a few in 1930s through 1940s. Still, there are good reasons to have games set in the present day. Lovecraft generally set his stories in the present day for him, and mostly in his own familiar ("normal") environment of New England.
I've done one-shots of Delta Green and The Laundry, but I feel that making the PCs as government agents is a big shift, and makes things a bit less "real" and "normal". In the future, I'd like to try more Call of Cthulhu set in the present with ordinary civilians as PCs.
I'm also tending more in the direction of modern-day Cthulhu scenarios. However, I prefer to get away from the "crazy cultists doing weird rituals to call on an outer god" type of thing. I take some inspiration from Lu Cixin's Three-Body Problem and thus have the aliens/outer gods supported by a global group of ecoterrorists, which, in a sense, functions like a doomsday cult similar to real-life "climate activists". These "cultists" would receive extensive funding from big investment companies such as BlackRock and Vanguard, which work on behalf of the aliens/outer gods. Needless to say, the PCs would really have their work cut out for them, especially given the great political clout of Big Capital and the fact that anyone who warns about the alien/outer god threat would be denounced as a "conspiracy theorist".
Quote from: jhkim on July 13, 2023, 05:17:03 PM
I agree. However, this does make me question setting Cthulhu games in the 1920s. Most of my games were in the 1920s - plus some in the 1890s and a few in 1930s through 1940s. Still, there are good reasons to have games set in the present day. Lovecraft generally set his stories in the present day for him, and mostly in his own familiar ("normal") environment of New England.
True. However, HPL's time was perfect for the kind of stories he wrote. Much of the World was still unknown/barely explored. Long-distance communications were difficult. The Earth still had "dark corners" from where "things" could come. Today, I don't think that R'yeh could come up without some US satellites seeing it.
Quote
I've done one-shots of Delta Green and The Laundry, but I feel that making the PCs as government agents is a big shift, and makes things a bit less "real" and "normal". In the future, I'd like to try more Call of Cthulhu set in the present with ordinary civilians as PCs.
I never played a CoC game set in the present with civilians so I can't comment. However, I ran a few Delta Green games in places ranging from Cambodia to Tasmania and, IMHO, the key is again "realism" - from, again, a sense of place to "how do the "alphabet soup" agencies really operate?
One of the best adventures I ever ran (not DG, as the characters are unaware of the Mythos) was "Ladybug Ladybug Fly Away Home". It was so good that I didn't feel the need to change anything. I set it in 2015 and it is about the kidnapping in full daylight of a young girl. The characters are part of the task force which is immediately put together to track the kidnapper(s?), and the story shows the inner workings of this kind of operations. What can such a task force do? How fast? Is a psychologist better than a sniper?
Seth Skorkowski did a wonderful intro to this adventure. A lot of what he says can be useful for other adventures in a similar vein.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YweLN2IWnw&t=0s
Quote from: Rhymer88 on July 14, 2023, 04:52:14 AM
Quote from: jhkim on July 13, 2023, 05:17:03 PM
Quote from: Spinachcat on July 13, 2023, 04:49:50 PM
Quote from: Reckall on July 13, 2023, 02:58:46 PMResearching things like these take only a bit of time but, IMHO, increase the "realism" of the player's surroundings - which in turn will make the dire things even more scary...
Exactly.
The more "real" and "normal" everything is, the more the "unreal" and the "abby normal" stand out and shock.
I agree. However, this does make me question setting Cthulhu games in the 1920s. Most of my games were in the 1920s - plus some in the 1890s and a few in 1930s through 1940s. Still, there are good reasons to have games set in the present day. Lovecraft generally set his stories in the present day for him, and mostly in his own familiar ("normal") environment of New England.
I've done one-shots of Delta Green and The Laundry, but I feel that making the PCs as government agents is a big shift, and makes things a bit less "real" and "normal". In the future, I'd like to try more Call of Cthulhu set in the present with ordinary civilians as PCs.
I'm also tending more in the direction of modern-day Cthulhu scenarios. However, I prefer to get away from the "crazy cultists doing weird rituals to call on an outer god" type of thing. I take some inspiration from Lu Cixin's Three-Body Problem and thus have the aliens/outer gods supported by a global group of ecoterrorists, which, in a sense, functions like a doomsday cult similar to real-life "climate activists". These "cultists" would receive extensive funding from big investment companies such as BlackRock and Vanguard, which work on behalf of the aliens/outer gods. Needless to say, the PCs would really have their work cut out for them, especially given the great political clout of Big Capital and the fact that anyone who warns about the alien/outer god threat would be denounced as a "conspiracy theorist".
All these ideas in the last few posts deserve an open source archive if there is none already ofcourse. I might make some material as well, like handouts, mostly gaslight and 1920 for <6e which I'd willingly share. Just an idea, not sure if it's viable or there is interest or if Chaosium would come after me, they seem rather protective of their game and any material published for it.
There are collections of "freeware" adventures and adventure hooks already available on the internet.
101 Call of Cthulhu Adventure Hooks From the Forums of Yog-Sothoth.com
https://www.seiyuu.com/okamoto/gaming/coc_adventure_hooks.pdf
40 Adventures For Call Of Cthulhu Micheal C. LaBossiere
https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1368065916313.pdf
Quote from: Reckall on July 14, 2023, 06:01:13 AM
There are collections of "freeware" adventures and adventure hooks already available on the internet.
101 Call of Cthulhu Adventure Hooks From the Forums of Yog-Sothoth.com
https://www.seiyuu.com/okamoto/gaming/coc_adventure_hooks.pdf
40 Adventures For Call Of Cthulhu Micheal C. LaBossiere
https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1368065916313.pdf
Yeah I found that last one just recently, should be enough for a few years...The hooks are new to me, looks good.
Quote from: Reckall on July 13, 2023, 02:58:46 PM
Usually, a couple of weeks for an adventure 2-3 sessions long. I just love to delve in the period and place - esp. if it is not one of the "usual suspects".
For example, I re-wrote "Under a Winter Snow", a module about the fear of the resurgence of the Spanish Flu in a small town in North Dakota (the idea was good but the development sucked). So, North Dakota in 1919... How was it? I found an incredible amount of photos. Then the culture. The German-American population was still reeling from the treatment they received after the US entered WWI (i.e. concentration camps - something not really remembered). Then we were near Christmas, so I looked for the local traditions. And so on.
The characters were pre-made. Basically, around Christmas 1919, the Mayor of Minot received troubling reports about a mysterious fever killing people in the small town of Eisner, up North. Fearing a resurgence of the flu, he contacts Bismarck (my players were a bit surprised to discover that the capital of ND is called Bismarck). From there they send an anatomopathologist from the Grand Fork University, dr. Lawrence Chambers. Yep, I looked for the best choice in the area and it was Grand Forks. I even found the pictures of the university.
With him the Mayor sends the sheriff, Theodore "Tex" Colbert (I found many pictures of ND sheriffs in 1919-20) and his personal assistant, Elisabeth "Lisa" Hermann to keep a formal record of the events (including taking pictures with a 1919 camera...) Lisa's parents had been held in a concentration camp, and her father had died, shortly after being freed, of "consumption". The player didn't know if this was important or not. It wasn't, but it was a way for her to have an idea of the time and the place.
Basically, I love to surround d the story with elements that give to the players the idea of being "there" in that year. Sometimes you only need a small detail. When they found a letter from the Army about the death of a certain NPC I looked for these letters on the internet and I reconstructed one - including the symbol of the US-AEF at the beginning. It is in Italian but the overall style is simply translated from the original. Researching things like these take only a bit of time but, IMHO, increase the "realism" of the player's surroundings - which in turn will make the dire things even more scary...
Thank you for sharing this! :)
I love to do this as well, but usually, it just doesn't play out like this - I usually have a Saturday evening to prepare Sunday's game. Long-term projects always run different, but it's been ages since I've tried to get into a new historical period for gaming. I'm trying now, BTW - with "La piel del toro", the Spanish CoC variant. I will eventually get there, I guess, but at the rate at which I am progressing, it's gonna be my Sunday night game of... 2026?!
I have frequently complained about this on other occasions: "Symbaroum", for example, is a fantasy game that I really like. But the setting-building AP is around 1.000 pages. That's three months of reading before I even have a cursory overview, and a year or two until I'm really proficient with the setting. Like, sure you can run stuff before you read this bible; but those who read the whole thing first are always going to have an advantage. The same goes for modern RQ, or my beloved Stormbringer - not to speak of many older TSR settings that have entire library houses full of content. Like, for me, preparing "Delta Green" for a group of adult gamers, that would be 50 hours of reading Max Hastings' all-encompassing books on the historical backgrounds, 30 hours of watching the different HBO documentaries, ten hours of watching the most famous movies, and ten hours for the ruleset and the actual adventure scenario. That's not a buy-in that I can realistically make, and certainly not on a regular basis.
Like, I recently stumbled over what seemed to be a wonderful Cthulhu adventure, "Pastores", about devil worshippers in medieval France. With Symbaroum, La piel del toro, and maybe some actual D&D stuff ahead, this has all the signs of being the base for an awesome game... For the merry year of 2029.
Quote from: Rafael on July 18, 2023, 07:19:05 AM
Like, for me, preparing "Delta Green" for a group of adult gamers, that would be 50 hours of reading Max Hastings' all-encompassing books on the historical backgrounds, 30 hours of watching the different HBO documentaries, ten hours of watching the most famous movies, and ten hours for the ruleset and the actual adventure scenario. That's not a buy-in that I can realistically make, and certainly not on a regular basis.
Allow me to say that your approach is wrong. I'm saying this both as a published author and a creative writing teacher. Your problem is called "The myth of infinite possibilities" - and it is a recognized problem for the creative mind. Basically, since you can do anything, you make the mistake that you must
know everything - with the result that you end up doing nothing.
Start with
one thing. In my example, it was North Dakota in 1919 and it was given to me by the module.. Focus on it. You don't need to study all the 50 States to see if some other place is better. Actually, since the places involved are Minot and Eisner, I didn't research Bismarck. I only mentioned it as the capitol and what orders had come from the Governor.
Then, there are simple rules. Basically three.
1) You only need to know in depth the details of the players' surroundings - and maybe of their background.
2) The more "distant" something is, the less detailed it needs to be. If the king of a kingdom is crazy you don't need to detail what he does on an average day. Maybe a character is fined because of his blue cloak - and the king hates blue and has laws against this color. If the characters decide that enough is enough,
then the king's habits and the castle's layout become important.
3) Realism is created by small details - including some that are there for flavor. When I rewrote "No Man's Land", set in WWI, I read sone testimony from the American soldiers. Two things became immediately clear: they were normal people, literally like you and me, which were told: "Take this rifle, go to Europe and kill someone." No soldier in the World knows anything beyond his surroundings. Don't study the strategic situation on the Western Front in October 1918. There is an offensive, they survive, night falls and the squad realizes that they are lost in some forest - very possibly full of Germans. That's enough.
I then added, back when they arrive at the frontline, the sight of a long line of soldiers walking slowly with their hand on the shoulder of the one in front of them. "They are people blinded in a gas attack", said a veteran, "Good luck". Believe me, this is enough to bring the players on the Western Front in late 1918 - especially if you are the illiterate son of a farmer from Nebraska with 20% in rifles... For a bit of color, I added another angry veteran who said "President Wilson entered the War because the Boche is winning and the US risk to lose the loans to France and England! Crusade my ass!" He came and went, leaving to the characters what to think...
Quote
Like, I recently stumbled over what seemed to be a wonderful Cthulhu adventure, "Pastores", about devil worshippers in medieval France. With Symbaroum, La piel del toro, and maybe some actual D&D stuff ahead, this has all the signs of being the base for an awesome game... For the merry year of 2029.
I have it but I never read it. Out of curiosity I opened the PDF and put my nose in it. Here are my observations/suggestions:
-
It is badly written! What does means:
The Pastores are but the most recent incarnation of a pre-Roman (and indeed pre-Celtic) fertility cult. In prehistoric times, they had commerce with the subterranean civilizations of K'n-Yan
(or their European equivalent)?
Uh? It is clear that the Pastores operated in Europe since forever, so that "or their European equivalent" makes no sense. This is already a sign of bad proofreading.
Then we have a Shock and Awe amount of historical info about them that makes little sense (if the Romans almost exterminated the cult, obliterating a vast region in Southern Gallia, why there is no historical record about this? Had the Romans their own Delta Green? This is a cool idea, but you need to be the one who has it, as the module isn't bothered to think beyond its nose).
Then we have a second shock and awe of what
seem to be alchemical practices - actually bad cthulhoid stuff. But... was this, to the cult, a form of alchemy? Was "alchemy" a cover story? Why the writers of the module use classic alchemical language but never use the word "alchemy" in it?
[My suggestion here: if you like to research things, look for alchemical symbols on the internet. For example, the image for the
Transformatio Passione rite - AKA the first clue for the characters hidden in a hermetic book, can be this one:
https://jahsonic.tumblr.com/image/32879469352 ]
And then we have this gem:
"The entirely fictional Begon county, the Pastores equivalent of Arkham county, lies to the west of the county of Rodez, and north of the county Toulouse."
Begon county isn't fictional. It is near Rodez and Toulouse and I found it in two minutes on Google Earth. Maybe they wanted to say "The setting is a fictional version of the real Begon county." If so, again we have bad editing. If they, instead, wanted a total fictional setting, why to use a real name? They literally devote a box to suggestions about how not to use Begon (just don't use it in the first place, then) or how to explain that the county disappeared from history... except that it is there today! What a mess.
After much,
much more shock and awe, we finally get the first scenario. Now, my suggestion is: start with this scenario and stick to it. Don't bother to memorize the rest of the module. From what I read, your hands are already full with even more info. That's all you need. Maybe, between sessions, glance at the immense background of the Pastors. If you find sone thing interesting
related to that moment in the game use it.
Something can be used for flavor. Maybe a minor noble has a crest showing two broken Roman gladii. If the characters suspect an involvement from Rome in ancient times
only then glance at the part about the Roman invasion of the region. Even here, start small. A buried temple with traces of a battle - maybe a couple of skeletons in Roman armor and traces of... creatures. The rests were not buried because there was a sudden collapse... And this made the Romans miss how the temple hid an entrance to the underworld - but now centuries of erosion are bringing everything up...
See? Have a general knowledge, see things the way your players see, and delve only in what may become important.
BTW, ditch D&D and other systems... or, maybe, get inspiration from the classic "Château d'Amberville" - but only for the atmosphere. This module is already complex enough.
Ooooh! Sorry, @Reckall! Hadn't seen your reply! Will answer once I get a free minute! - Thanks, mate! Te debo una cerveza.
Quote from: blackstone on June 29, 2023, 09:42:25 AM
for scenarios: IMO some of the best ones come out of the series of books detailing "Lovecraft Country": Arkham, Kingsport, Innsmouth, and Dunwich. Not only do they have details of each area and it's surroundings, but each book has several scenarios as well. You could have an entire campaign just within the confines of the Miskatonic Valley.
Which is my current campaign, BTW: those books plus Arkham Unveiled and Miskatonic.
Quote
With that being said the Miskatonic U. book is a must. The '95 book is good, but the one put out in the 2005 is even better.
Word.
The best thing 7E did was "Here is an objectively good evolution of BRP (well, I like it) - but you can adapt 40 years of material on the fly (true: you don't even have to prepare before; you only need to know how to multiply and divide).