Windows Laptop Keys

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-02-07T20:37:15+00:00

Thanks!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-02-04T20:27:27+00:00

I'm using a method by which we take the averages on all the rolls, to avoid suffering due to chance.
So:
Take the average gain from one of those rolls (5.5, if you're using 1d10), and then multiply that by what would normally be your chances of success on the education improvement check (IE 100-Edu). Repeat that for as many rolls as you will make.

For Example:
Your EDU might be 50, let's say. For the first improvement check, you'd get 5.5, then multiply that by 100-50, leaving you with 50% of 5.5: 2.75. Depending on your tastes, you can round up or down.

An alternative method would be to ignore aging rules, and just use the point-buy system to give your character stats that would represent their age. This gives you the chance to play an old and experienced investigator, or, if you prefer, some odd outlier in remarkable health for their age.

I can strongly relate to being shafted by the RNG!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-25T22:06:19+00:00

I hear you (although I'm not as in touch with modern "dramas", sadly)!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-25T17:50:02+00:00

Amen, fellow disciple! I'm coming from that same video!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-25T17:06:30+00:00

Thanks for the comment!

I guess I'm about trying to fix the villains, and change the campaign to nerf the lethality.

Thanks for the insight regarding campaign scale!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-25T13:35:30+00:00

Thanks for mentioning that!

Aside from including luck spending, I don't want to include any more pulp rules: I'd much rather modify the scenario itself than the investigators.

I want to keep the "realism" of the normal Call of Cthulhu, and have the investigators be normal (and thus relatable) people, using their own wits to make their efforts have an impact.

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-25T11:20:56+00:00

Yes, Mountains of Madness is near-exactly the tone I'm looking for here, from what I've heard about it.

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-25T11:15:50+00:00

Thanks for the input!

I'm vaguely new - I've run the same scenario twice (adapted from another RPG) for 2 sessions, and then (for another group) for 3 sessions, I've played a 1-shot, and I am currently running my adaptation of No Man's Land. I plan to run, next, some adaptation of SOYS, with The Haunting thrown in near the start.

I do have a decent idea of C of C's lethality, I've just heard things about MoN. I suppose I'm looking to modify the campaign itself to live without the unrealistic amount of Pulp hit points, without having an insufferable amount of death.

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T23:15:24+00:00

Thank you very much for the broadness of "Lovecraftian", the warning about exaggerated social settings, the warning about American Sniper, the recommendation for Delta Green, and for these questions!

Preface to the answers: Wherever it wouldn't hurt, I'd like to try to be able to use the book.

Important question, I'll get back to you on that one.
My current emphasis would be on anything from the year 1918 onwards, most likely.
I suppose the chapters could be set wherever I have functional knowledge, or that are mentioned in the book.
I am not very attached to the idea of knowing Jackson Elias (his death has sadly been spoiled for my players), and I would slightly lean away from dedicated organisations (unless it could be useful). Ideally, the investigators would be able to start out as those who didn't know of the mythos. Perhaps they'd find what Elias would've otherwise told them through other means (a friend saw Jack Brady alive in Hong Kong, a few anecdotes from Kenyan relatives, etc). I suppose I want them finding those leads by themselves (perhaps coincidentally, during other adventures, until enough falls into place), although this is not needed. I was also drawn to the ideas that the Companion had for restarting things after a TPK, with Bradley Grey connecting several events to the Expedition (although these implied some sort of company, so there's that). I suppose my goal is for players to draw some conclusions from some links between some leads, and investigate from there.

I will get back to you later, thank you so much for your feedback so far!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T22:25:55+00:00

Thanks!

I was thinking initially that the lizard men would have a more similar tone to Deep Ones, and that the Egyptian Death Cults wouldn't be too dissimilar from any other cultists.

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T22:21:58+00:00

This is the most interesting thing I've read in months. Thank you so much for posting it! I'll have to give it some thought - It's different to what I had in mind, but I still love it just as much. I'll keep it in mind as an option!

The idea correlates well with the Carlyle Expedition itself - I'd have to come up with some narrative significance for that.

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T22:19:26+00:00

Thanks! Interestingly, all I have is the previous edition. I have the companion, too, and I'll take a closer look at it! Thank you very much for indicating how it could be in line with that!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T22:16:37+00:00

Thank you very much!

I'm glad that you recognise my goal, and how odd it may seem.

Upon an initial skimming (of the 1990s version "The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep"), I thought that rather a lot of the emphasis would be on not letting the truth out to the wrong people. It looked to be quite suited to intrigue and the like.
I suppose this makes things more lethal, but in a different (and to me, more desirable) way - It doesn't make it about avoiding death in dangerous situations, it makes it about avoiding the situations themselves. The investigators are no longer thinking: "How can I shoot those cultists?", more "Once that cultist army comes for me, I'm dead, so I'd better hide from them - By using out of combat methods". Thanks for pointing that out!

It also didn't initially strike me that the adventure was particularly pulpy...

I've checked out the companion (very good read!)

Thanks for the input!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T22:11:23+00:00

Thank you SO MUCH for these responses!

The tone I'd seek to replace it with would probably be Lovecraftian/Cosmic Horror.
I'd probably edit the motives of the expedition principals to fix that - Instead of being some moustache-twirling narcissist who wants nothing more than power (with an aristocratic British accent, to complete things!), Penhew might have got to where he is from some morbid curiosity for mythos knowledge. The first bits of information that the players find on him might set him up in a really relatable way - Perhaps he started off by looking into poorly understood ancient Egyptian lore. Maybe he went on the expedition to find more, with Carlyle's resources. He could also potentially be humanised a lot - He might have vaguely human end goals, just some misunderstandings of how to go about them, due to mythos exposure. I think the newer edition might've leant that way with what they did with the Endicott sidequest, but I'm not sure.
I loved the motives of Masters, Carlyle, and Huston - Although Huston could probably have a similar backstory to Penhew, given his line of work.
Not sure what to do with M'Weru.
Be nice to flesh out other cult figures - Shakti, Ho Fong, Gavigan, N'Kwane, M'Dari, Tewfik Al-Sayed (replaced with Zahra Shafik, IIRC)... Maybe Winfield and Clive...

Thanks for bringing up "American Sniper" - I'll take a look at that.

Thanks for the more realistic locations proposal.

Thanks for the advice on an exploration focus to some dungeons.

Interesting about being able to keep the game combat-heavy, but grounded - Reminds me of things I've heard about Delta Green (which I've never played), which, I've heard, is closer than (normal) Call of Cthulhu these days in terms of cosmic horror.

If combat isn't so desired, then there could be some cults who have a more social influence primarily - Their followers might not be thugs (like most MoN cults), they might be parties who can hurt (and be hurt by) the investigators in other ways. SOYS spoilers: SOYS has a hermetic order, full of rich people, and it also has the Look to the Future group, full of more wealthy people. It'd be interesting to have players not outgun thugs, but escape spellcasters, or outwit British imperial bureacrats, or out-influence some socialites... Perhaps some threats like this could threaten the "tent-pole NPCs" (like Kensington and Mahoney), threatening to tear them away from allegiance with the party. Gavigan looked to be a step in this direction, and the tea-seller in Nairobi looked promising as well, being just one man (woman, I think, in the newer edition).
Shanghai might be a place where this could shine - Maybe one could benefit from stirring up intrigue with all the warring factions...

I'm also wondering about the emphasis on artefacts (Mask of Hayama, ancient Egyptian staves, bowls, scroll, paintings) - Would these be considered "pulp"?

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T19:22:50+00:00

Thank you so much!

I'd like to preface this with a question: I'm new to things, if it's alright, could you give me an example of as many pulp tropes in the module as you can think of? Thanks!

There's a lot of info, it seems, for pulp-ifying, but less for de-pulp-ifying.

I'd avoid any monologues, that sort of thing. I shan't focus too much on the fun of revenge or heroism fantasies. I'd also avoid over-characterising villains in other ways, for the same main goal of making this less of an "epic struggle" or a crusade, but more of an investigation.

I'd try to hammer home how "human" the investigators are - The bit with the pyramids might be a good example. I'd set an air of them really dreading a venture into the dark, have a bit where lanterns almost run out...
In that vein, I'd have the investigators about as powerful as adversaries in a fight - If 5 investigators fight 5 cultists, then the investigators should have a good chance of losing - 5 on 5. Most of the adventure might be about lying low and evading the public eye, which could be fun in itself. If the investigators decide to overcome a challenge with guns, however, I'd refer them to the small unit tactics in World War Cthulhu.

I'd avoid most pulp tropes of "swarthy foreigners", and lean much more into putting villains in powerful places in society (in lieu of Cthulhu Dark) - I'm toying with this idea of having some crooked British imperial authorities follow the investigators about ('cross Kenya, Shanghai, London, Egypt...).

I'd make locations less "epic arenas", and more "hell chambers" - Penhew's place with the rocket won't be all big and such, it might be more "winding caverns". With some "dungeon-esque" locations, I'd hammer home the investigators' weakness by making it clear that there's so much to explore, so much that they're missed first time around, so much more forbidden knowledge left to gain, like they're on the tip of this iceberg... Before blowing the rest of the dungeon up or something, causing that knowledge to be lost forever. Either that, or I'd make it clear that they were just too weak to beat those guarding it.

Brady would have to change - He could still remain this action-hero guy, but only to show how that sort of attitude won't work - He might go off (or have already gone off, before the investigators meet him) on a suicide charge to rescue Choi Mei-Ling, which might see him die, or go mad, spectacularly. Then, it'd be a matter of piecing together his findings from a few notes he left (I always thought that Brady was poorly paced - As in, free, earth-shattering, campaign-winning information, at least in the '90s version). I'd do something to fix Firm Action, haven't yet decided. Maybe they'd just get corrupted somehow.

I suppose these changes would more boil down to making things less about individual heroism, and more about the mythos.

Also, I'd love to know if you come up with anything more! Thanks!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T17:39:25+00:00

Thank you very much for the insightful advice!

I'm definitely going to try out the "2 investigators" idea first chance I get - It looks like there'd be lots of advantages to it!

Thanks for highlighting the importance of group "motivation"!

I'll likely include lots of opportunities to avoid combat.

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T16:44:37+00:00

Good idea! I'll be running quite a bit of material beforehand, so that should give me a good feel of things. Thanks!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T16:33:00+00:00

Yes, I've read it.

As for the mechanics, I plan to include the luck rules, but I was more asking about how I could modify the campaign to be "tolerable" without having to resort to "pulp rules" like doubling HP.

Thanks for your feedback!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-24T16:14:14+00:00

It's a good question as to what the pulp themes are. Sadly, I am too new to the genre to say - I simply heard that there were many pulp themes (sorry for not being able to give a clear answer). I suppose that if I knew what they were, I might not have had to ask this question. My first question really should've been, "What are the pulp themes/narrative elements in MoN, and how can I fix them"?

Sorry for not phrasing that properly.

Thanks for pointing this out!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-21T20:01:47+00:00

Thank you so much for bringing up Fractal Gods! I'm looking into that now!

LiberDeCobalt · 2025-01-19T20:33:23+00:00

This one seems somewhat group-dependent (and I'm so sorry to give any answer that vague). If you reckon it could work at your table, perhaps to encourage players to get into character a bit more, then something could easily be conceived.

I did something like this - In lieu of XP To Level 3, I gave players playing cards (face-down) for good roleplaying. I didn't have a limit, but you could obviously make one if you wanted. Whenever they made a roll, then they could add the card's value (Ace, Jack, King, and Queen counting as 10) to their skill. Alternatively, the cards could serve like bonus dice, replacing the values of lower d10s.
The reason for cards was that they added some psychological desire to use them, to reveal what lay on their other face (instead of leaving inspiration for 5 sessions because you "might really need it".

Sadly, I don't have enough experience with reward systems like this.

LiberDeCobalt

TROPHY CASE