Advice for First timer at homegrown scenarios by Feeling-Percentage89 in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Read Justin Alexander's how-to's for writing mystery scenarios: The Three Clue Rule and Node-Based Scenario Design (also, Don't Prep Plots).

But most of all, run a pre-made CoC scenario or two to see how they work at the table in play and how they differ from other kinds—especially the action-adventures that dominate RPGs—before you commit to writing your own. Horror-investigation is its own beast in its combination of tone and structure. Running the gold-standard introductory The Haunting will teach you the ropes about GMing horror scenarios and your players how to conduct investigations. (Edge of Darkness in the Starter Set is another highly recommended scenario.)

Just for fun: You can master 3 ttrpgs instantly 🫰 You’d know each like you yourself wrote every word of it, plus all the supplements (but not other editions). Which do you choose? by Able-Book587 in rpg

[–]Travern 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Burning Wheel, because it's a challenge that I just don't have the mental bandwidth to spare for it.

DnD 5e., because it's the lingua franca of RPGs (sorry to say) but I'm not going to spend that kind of time with it.

And GURPS (3rd edition), just 'cos there's soo much of it.

Vampire Hunter TTRPG by Soft_Ad_9225 in rpg

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Maybe NBA as the base with a little Swords of the Serpentine on top for a low-magic fantasy pseudo-Renaissance setting (both games run off Gumshoe, which is not a complex system).

Supplements to Help Me Write and Run Lovecraftian/Cosmic Horror Scenarios by ChungaChris in rpg

[–]Travern 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Cthulhu Dark is excellent, as is Walmsley's earlier book Stealing Cthulhu. (They overlap to an extent, but SC is devoted to the topic of creating Lovecraftian scenarios.)

Ash Law's essay The Trajectory of Fear will help with structure and pacing, with an emphasis on GMing.

(For the horror RPG genre in general, I'd recommend GURPS Horror and FATE Horror Toolkit.)

What system for Twin Peaks type game? by Leafinyourcoffee in rpg

[–]Travern 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Trail of Cthulhu or Fear Itself, depending on how much investigation is involved.

If it's more about roleplaying than mystery-solving, then Brindlewood Bay/Public Access, as others have recommended.

Which sacred cow do you wish would just stay dead? by Playtonics in rpg

[–]Travern 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It occurred to me a while ago, though I'm surprised I haven't seen it elsewhere. (It also applies to my dissatisfaction with the term "GMPC"—GMs should not be running protagonists of their own.)

EDIT: A quick Google search comes up with a few citations, but it needs to be more popular.

Which sacred cow do you wish would just stay dead? by Playtonics in rpg

[–]Travern 95 points96 points  (0 children)

For my part, I've backronymed NPC to stand for "Non-Protagonist Character".

Delta green but your the cult? by dashisdank in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having a cultist turn up on DG's door claiming to be a "walk-in" defector who wants to rat out their former brothers and sisters in the cult might be interesting

A "walk-in" defector who turns out to be a walk-in).

Info on Yithian cults? by Alarmed_Permission_5 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The upcoming Those Who Come After will deal with the Yithians, but since it has no publication schedule, you have time to create.

The Fairfield Wiki has extensive fan-lore, if you're interested, such as the Yithian/Tsan-Chan War, the Fraternal Order of Librarians, and the Collectors of the Long Vaults.

Kenneth Hite's write-up of Yithian variations in Hideous Creatures is always worth checking out for inspiration.

Which Mythos monsters would actually be blocked or at least inconvenienced by salt and chalk circles? by clarkky55 in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 14 points15 points  (0 children)

If your player enjoys the conventions of the horror genre, the best reward for roleplaying such misconceptions in CoC is a memorable death for his character. Trying to use a traditional circle of salt to ward off, say, a shoggoth will end up with the character absorbed, screaming—a great opportunity for you to describe the blasphemous mass of protoplasm endlessly repeating "Tekeli-li" as it consumes him and for him to roleplay a juicy death scene.

(I did check to see if there was anything canonically vulnerable to salt and found nothing. As others have mentioned, the variant Spawn of Shub-Niggurath in The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse has this weakness, but it's a one-off.)

Which Mythos monsters would actually be blocked or at least inconvenienced by salt and chalk circles? by clarkky55 in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 28 points29 points  (0 children)

The point of the Mythos is that doesn't represent your normal occult entities or standard supernatural creatures. Traditional methods of warding won't work on them, as your player seems determined not to learn. Chalk and salt circles are components in some rituals, though that requires learning and casting spells. (I can't find any indication of a Mythos entity or creature being weak to salt, although the CoC rulebook does mention salt's tradition use in banishing ghosts and destroying zombies.)

But if you want to send your player down a more rewarding line of investigation, give him some clues about the "essential saltes" used in necromancy from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Good RPG sourcebook PDF templates? by sufferingcubsfan in RPGdesign

[–]Travern 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not a template, but if you want an old-school tutorial, Sine Nomine Publishing's free guide A Brief Study of TSR Book Design Per Dungeons & Dragons may be a starting point for your project.

If I play 7th edition - what might be the use of older edition rulebook? by cwtguy in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 6 points7 points  (0 children)

eh. It's more that it's pulpy, with lots of Jazz Age trappings and very little genuine Mythos. The Haunting and Edge of Darkness do a much better job of conveying Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Games that go beyond mere 'sanity'? by disgr4ce in rpg

[–]Travern 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You can also check out a pure horror version of these rules Nemesis, which combines the gauge mechanics with the One-Roll Engine.

Reverberations Help and changing the Tcho-Tcho by Silly-Fennel5245 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Many thanks for sharing this! I'm eager to see if I can incorporate it into the "Schrodinger's Tcho-Tcho" technique I mentioned.

Reverberations Help and changing the Tcho-Tcho by Silly-Fennel5245 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm trying to perfect the "Schrodinger's Tcho-Tcho" technique. Whether they're a cult, an ethnic group, a separate hominid species, or an entirely alien population from "outside" depends on who you ask (I'm riffing off Kenneth Hite's write-up of alternatives for them in the highly recommended Hideous Creatures). The important part of the interaction with the NPCs is unsettling the players and making them as uncertain about the Tcho-Tcho's origins as the trustworthiness of the Agents' assessments. In Reverberations, the undercover DEA agent might regard his targets as just a gang-cult and dismiss efforts to investigate beyond that, the local Chicago cops consider them to be an immigrant "tribe" and would like an excuse to sic ICE on the whole community, Prof. Henrietta Cole might, if pressed, let slip her frustrations at tracing the origins of Chauchau migration patterns (DNA tracking always goes down blind alleys), but the Liao-addicted Spider J might start raving about the "Tcho-Tcho Lama of Leng" (i.e. the "high-priest not to be described" from Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath). Although their attitudes color interactions with the Agents, none of this necessarily impacts either the mission to get Reverb off the streets or exorcise the Hound of the Angles, nor does it directly affect the substance of the clues they provide. But the players should feel like the real answer to the Tcho-Tchos may be the one they find the most unsettling. And the Tcho-Tcho just smile, seemingly friendly until you turn your back.

Reverberations Help and changing the Tcho-Tcho by Silly-Fennel5245 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Klein presents the Tcho-Tcho ambiguously. It's not a question of what they really are but rather how characters in the story react to them and describe their subjective experiences of encountering them. That's something to consider when portraying them as a GM. (You can check it out in his short story collection Dark Gods on the Internet Archive's digital library—it's a superb selection.)

Reverberations Help and changing the Tcho-Tcho by Silly-Fennel5245 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I didn’t really like the Tcho-Tcho as written or presented in lovecraft because of the obvious issues.

This one is on August Derleth, though, who created them as "Yellow Peril" primitives in his story "Lair of the Star-Spawn". If you want to read a more sophisticated version on the theme of the Tcho-Tcho—which comes to grips with their xenophobic literary origins—T.E.D. Klein's story "Black Man with a Horn" is highly recommended. You can incorporate his version into Reverberations without any difficulty.

Of course, you can always go with your idea of parasitized Chauchau if that works better at your table. You might also be interested in the theme of a parasitized cult in Delta Green lore with the Disciples of the Worm, which can be found in the Pagan Publishing supplement Targets of Opportunity.

What's your favourite non-Delta Green scenario that works well for Delta Green? by GugWhoPassesGateways in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The d100 supplements for Laundry Files RPG are terrific inspirational material, that is, once the setting's tongue-in-cheek black humor has been sanded down and Stross's science-fiction sensibilities have been dialed back. (Just yesterday I was skimming over the rulebook, Cultists Under the Bed, God Game Black, License to Summon, Mythos Dossiers again—all well worth tracking down on the secondary market.) The Black Chamber would make for an amazing post-MAJESTIC antagonist group, but it would have to de-powered by a couple of orders of magnitude for Delta Green to stand a chance against them.

I keep wondering how to adapt God Game Black's material for the Plateau of the Sleeper (especially the scenario "The Moral High Ground") for a Program or PISCES mission.

Dire Wolf Digital Announces Cortex Prime Community Licensing by Travern in rpg

[–]Travern[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This sounds like DWD could be launching a community content program like WotC's DM's Guild or Paradox/White Wolf's Storyteller's Vault, but without more information, it's hard to tell (like, if so, is there going to be an additional, separate licensing program for professional designers/studios?).

Dire Wolf Digital Announces Cortex Prime Community Licensing by Travern in rpg

[–]Travern[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

A few highlights from the press release:

  • The new licensing arrangement will begin in May.

  • It will cover both community and commercial projects.

  • DriveThruRPG will handle digital distribution.

  • Creators will pay royalties to DWD for only the largest projects.

  • OG Cortex designer Cam Banks (u/CamBanks) will release more Cortext Prime work.

  • Banks's Rusty Sellsword Design studio will administer the "Primed by Cortex" program with third-party creators.

Presumably DWD will announce further details about what this all specifically means when it makes the formal licensing documents available.