Quote from: Black Vulmea;937850

I just lost 1d6 SAN.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;937830Oh shit, you mean I'm headed for this?!?

I ran an Old West Call of Cthulhu "campaign" back in 2012 for some CoC newbs. Lasted 3 sessions and ended in a near total-party-kill. The only survivor: the guy that outran the rest of the posse (players) and dynamited the mine shaft before the summoned horror was loose.

Quote from: K Peterson;937889I ran an Old West Call of Cthulhu "campaign" back in 2012 for some CoC newbs. Lasted 3 sessions and ended in a near total-party-kill. The only survivor: the guy that outran the rest of the posse (players) and dynamited the mine shaft before the summoned horror was loose.

Always the first things to make sure of in CoC - new boots, fastest bike/car/zeppelin/horse, insurance policy.

1920s New England as the starting point.  It helps that I live here, I think.  I prefer pre stock market crash to post stock market crash, but it's all fun.

Quote from: CRKrueger;937784Cthulhu is like gaming bacon though, it goes good with anything, even Star Wars...ok maybe not Star Wars.  But everything else.

The very first Star Wars Novel (by Alan Dean Foster no less) had the gang encounter an ancient, ruined temple that was obviously dedicated to ol' tentacle puss.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;937821Post WW1 Eastern Europe. One of the best CoC games I ran started in England and ended in Hungary, the PC's were all veterans of the Great War. If I ever run another CoC Campaign I will set it in the same area.

Is there much material for Hungary?  Magyarorsag is so alien to the rest of Europe that it would be fascinating to take a campaign there.  (Note:  Mysteries of Hungary was a bit disappointing).

Quote from: AsenRG;937828I prefer it in my bowl, with boiling water and spices:).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]619[/ATTACH]

Hey!  Country Calimari!  We put a dollup of ketchup or mustard on top for hair, and poke two holes and put Red Hots or peppercorns in it for eyes.

Quote from: Spinachcat;937858I prefer my CoC in space.

If I run CoC on Earth, I bounce around in time. I like using the 70s. It's the 20s for modern gamers. Also, I often don't run CoC in the USA.

What I came on to post for.  The first "modern" scenarios are over thirty years old.  Playing them as is counts as classical.  "To do research at the library you use something called a 'card catalogue'..."

All eras are good, though I do favor the 70s and 80s.

If you consider when Lovecraft lived, a great many of his stories were contemporary to him. That's the spirit I want to capture, because I think many of his themes weren't era specific.

- new advances of science are suggested, yet a lot of old world religious belief still persists, and it can disguise ignorance or degeneration
- people tend to cluster together in somewhat xenophobic groups, each of which 'otherize' the others
- science should be blazing a trail of hope for the future, yet certain key discoveries suggest something horrible instead
- no matter how much you try to hide among the herd, no trappings or tools of modern day life will save you once you get on the radar of the horrible
- the horrible is either sickening degeneration, or it is so advanced or ahead that the authorities either cannot recognize it or disbelieve it, or a combination of both
- physical death is a risk, but madness is even worse
- the active, intelligent horrors keep scaling up, and only the artistic, insane, creative, or odd can begin to piece together what's happening
- those that perceive the horrors are somewhat envious of the every day joe who lives in blissful ignorance

If unraveling a mystery is as easy as doing a Google search then the mystery isn't much of a mystery. So the horrors have scale forward or, modern contrivances have to be rendered mostly useless.

On the side. I find Lovecraftian horror more interesting as an occasional change-up than as a main course.

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;937933Is there much material for Hungary?  Magyarorsag is so alien to the rest of Europe that it would be fascinating to take a campaign there.  (Note:  Mysteries of Hungary was a bit disappointing).
.."

I'm not sure how much is out there. I basically used the REH story set in Hungary as inspiration, an encyclopaedia, an atlas, and asked a school mate, who was Hungarian, a tonne of questions. I ran this campaign in the late 80's, no internet, so I had to be creative.  I don't know how  "authentic " it was but we sure had fun. I've never seen Mysteries of Hungary, so can't really comment on its merits, or lack of them.

Shemek

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;938111I'm not sure how much is out there. I basically used the REH story set in Hungary as inspiration, an encyclopaedia, an atlas, and asked a school mate, who was Hungarian, a tonne of questions. I ran this campaign in the late 80's, no internet, so I had to be creative.  I don't know how  "authentic " it was but we sure had fun. I've never seen Mysteries of Hungary, so can't really comment on its merits, or lack of them.

Shemek

Do you have it written up?

As far as Mysteries goes, the author's English is much better than my Hungarian, but it is obviously his second language.  For example, because Hungarian has a tiny thesaurus, some of the choices he made for English were...unfortunate.

Quote from: Lynn;937946All eras are good, though I do favor the 70s and 80s.

If unraveling a mystery is as easy as doing a Google search then the mystery isn't much of a mystery. So the horrors have scale forward or, modern contrivances have to be rendered mostly useless.

Use them for the horror, or as part of the horror.

For ex, I know of one story where "Cthuthu" is a world ending computer virus.  His cult has been waiting for enough computing power worldwide to run the program.

Or one Supernatural episode had a MotW who could fake anyone's voice on the phone:  Including dead and gone John Winchester.

Quote from: Lynn;937946- new advances of science are suggested, yet a lot of old world religious belief still persists, and it can disguise ignorance or degeneration

That hasn't changed at all. See: Anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, pro-lifers, ISIS, etc.

Quote- people tend to cluster together in somewhat xenophobic groups, each of which 'otherize' the others

That hasn't changed either. Tumblr, Reddit, 4chan, rpg.net, The RPG Site, Liberals vs. Conservatives, OSR vs. Story Games...

Quote- science should be blazing a trail of hope for the future, yet certain key discoveries suggest something horrible instead

Read Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity by Thomas Metzinger. Contemporary neuroscience suggests that free-will and consciousness are illusions. Your self-awareness is just a black-box; "you" are not the part that flies the plane.

Quote- no matter how much you try to hide among the herd, no trappings or tools of modern day life will save you once you get on the radar of the horrible

Ubiquitous surveillance, social networking, doxxing, etc.

QuoteIf unraveling a mystery is as easy as doing a Google search then the mystery isn't much of a mystery. So the horrors have scale forward or, modern contrivances have to be rendered mostly useless.

Try Googling CP, or instructions for pipe-bombs, and tell us what mysteries you unravel. Not everything is easily accessible on Google.

(Hell, try Googling anything from where' I'm living; I have to use a VPN to bypass government censorship.)

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;9381721. Do you have it written up?

2. As far as Mysteries goes, the author's English is much better than my Hungarian, but it is obviously his second language.  For example, because Hungarian has a tiny thesaurus, some of the choices he made for English were...unfortunate.

1. Unfortunately not. That was almost 30 years ago, and alot of that stuff has disappeared. I still remember the arc, and specific events, but no notes.

It's hard working in a language that's not your first. I'll give him credit for trying, and getting something published.

Shemek.

You know, now I really want to run a contemporary Call of Cthulhu game just so I can play off of the Millennial Google-hubris.

You want to type the search string: necronomicon+cthulhu+summon into Google? Sure thing, the Delta Green agents will be knocking at your door within an hour, assuming the cultists don't find you first.

You need at least a VPN and a dozen proxy servers if you want to safely search for mythos lore online, and even then you aren't sure to find anything of use because:
a) Most of the relevant information is password protected, or hidden on unsearchable onion sites
b) The few snippets of relevant information you can find are buried under mountains of useless garbage. The next time your computer has an error message, try Googling the solution yourself. High tech search tools are only useful if you know what to search for, and even then they might not be so helpful if your problem isn't very common.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;9381911. Unfortunately not. That was almost 30 years ago, and alot of that stuff has disappeared. I still remember the arc, and specific events, but no notes.

It's hard working in a language that's not your first. I'll give him credit for trying, and getting something published.

Shemek.

Too bad.
Plus one.  I make it a habit never to completely trash anything published, because hey, at least the author did the work of putting something out. Unless I'm feeling churlish (not that uncommon, sadly), the worst I will say about somebody's work is "You should have found a better editor."

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;938234Too bad.
Plus one.  I make it a habit never to completely trash anything published, because hey, at least the author did the work of putting something out. Unless I'm feeling churlish (not that uncommon, sadly), the worst I will say about somebody's work is "You should have found a better editor."

I completely agree with the sentiments you've expressed. Too many people these days seem quick to slam another's work, and yet they have nothing to show when it comes to their own endeavours. Constructive criticism is useful, criticism for the purpose of belittling is useless. Your comment regarding editors certainly is indicative of the former.
I really should look at starting a CoC game this year. I had considered doing something with B-tech, but CoC might be more interesting.

Shemek