ST Wild: On Roleplaying: Call of Cthulhu

Showing posts with label Call of Cthulhu. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2016

First Ruminations on how Trail of Cthulhu can meet Demon: the Fallen

After musing awhile on how best to integrate Demon: the Fallen with Call of Cthulhu, I've decided that the greatest horror I can give to my players would be to make many of these horrors more personal. Since the Great Old Ones make great fodder for the new Earthbound (as do Masks of Nyarlathotep), and the War with Heaven led to the construction of many warrior races, I'm figuring what about laying the blame for many of these horrors further at the fallen's feet.

See the horrors of Ithaqua? Of Cthulhu's Siren Song? Those are your brethren turned mad. That is your potential fate.

See the Mi-Go? That is what some of your people in the Silver Legion made of humanity to make them 'Better' in the war. Of course, now they have been contacted by the Things Beyond many of them have warped further still. What of the Deep Ones? Well, Belial (now Cthulhu) needed a hobby and through dreams and lore they were carved of mortals who walked into the waters well after the Earthbound were re-summoned to Earth.

In this version, however, the Fallen didn't make the universe but the galaxy and God is an entity that sits within the sun. It consumes sentient thoughts, hope and faith, having been gutted by its brushes with the Things Beyond and having heard the tunes of the Court of Azathoth since the Fallen rose humanity to sentience and thus shook the foundations of reality itself. God never smote the world in revenge against the Fallen. It never cursed them out of spite. Oh no, it simply offered the only real way to keep reality in check. And when humanity became sentient, reality cracked as the slithering tendrils of the Things Beyond began to roam. Knowledge is a potentially deadly and corruptive force in the Lovecraftian worlds, after all.

Thus, everything the Fallen ever believed in is a Lie. They live in a crumbling reality filled with an essential decay which has snaked into their brethren (the Fallen) and slowly warped them in horrifying and maddening ways. Of course there could be some Great Horror with what God was doing with human souls, perhaps using them to shore up reality itself, but to be honest it's more horrifying if God was simply a compassionless figure who couldn't understand reality but wished to create a place to slumber.

Then Second World spoken of for the Slayers which was slowly being built by the dead spiritual matter of plants and animals could well become the holding place for human souls, lacking a better option, since humanity contains a spark of the Thing in the Centre of the Sun but were too contaminated by reality to rejoin with it. Perhaps? I'm not sure what to do with that.

Naturally Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth would remain essential principles within the universe rather than sentient entities in their own right because it's simply cooler that way.

And yes, it definitely changes the feeling of Call of Cthulhu, but having allowed my players to become supernatural does that on its own. So why do it? Well, I love Demon: the Fallen characters but I love the Call of Cthulhu campaigns and while it changes the setting immensely and the style of horror invoked it doesn't change that these campaigns will still be good and fitting for what I want to do.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Masks of Nyarlathotep Murder Mystery Event

One of the many great things about Masks of Nyarlathotep is how it has so much fan-generated content, possibly more than any other roleplaying campaign ever made. There's an entire Companion, plenty of prop downloads, and oodles of advice but how to expand on it or just plain old make it better. So I wondered if I could use the New York chapter as the foundation for a Murder Mystery Event / Conspiracy LARP.

Basically Erica Carlyle pulls together interested buyers in her brother's books *and* those involved or surrounding the mystery of Elias Jackson's death to a single great soiree to see the lunar eclipse and finally get to the bottom of Elias Jackson's claims. Naturally there's a number of investigators, cultists, witnesses, conspiracy theorists, and hardened killers to sweeten the pot.

I've managed to grab a venue that has four main rooms and a foyer - one of which stands well as a library - and there are plenty of props and handouts to bring to hand, including Cryptocurium's excellent Bloody Tongue Avatar statuette that can be brought into game. The rules will be very simple to keep it fun for all and the focus on the characters rather than the traits.

The main mystery I'm figuring out now is how to include all the various props without over complicating it and making it impossible to solve. I'm figuring that I'll have the props around, as props, but ensure that you can solve it based on what people know (through their character kits) than the handouts they bring to game or which are already there.

You can read more about the advertising spiel of it over here and view the actual Eventbrite booking page over here.

Friday, February 28, 2014

The Last Express Play-by-Post Game

Inspired by The Last Express, a beautiful and elegant videogame set in 1914 which I did a Game Translation on, I've been running a play-by-post game using the Call of Cthulhu system and setting over here. You can see the written trailer over here which has a nice set of pictures and introductory statements that I think helps advertise it.

The game is built on a different premise to most play-by-posts that makes it more robust to player attrition, which is good, because so far I have lost about 10 players. Basically each player develops a character independently of the others and boards the train with their own goals to complete. These goals might be mundane and sociable or they might be intensely malevolent or even supernatural.

Generally most of the goals have been inadvertently at cross purposes though there's been thus far a distinct lack of lizardmen and a greater number of academics than I thought would happen. So much for opening the floodgates by making that a possibility!

Basically each individual then boards the train which contains both NPCs and PCs where they are slowly exposed to stranger and stranger details until finally they're hooked into one adventure or another. Since they're not encouraged to investigate together (though that does occasionally happen), there's less likely to be bottlenecks where one player drops out and the game grinds to a halt as the other players are forced to wait -- often dropping out themselves as they grow bored of waiting.

The main threat to this game's sustainability is that only self-motivating players can get involved. Those who are easily confused or too timid to take an excuse to involve themselves or talk to people quickly find themselves lost and alone. I've tried to help that where I can but it's still pretty hard in this sort of game.

On the plus side, no other traditional play-by-post would survive the kind of player attrition I've had. The game also moves quite quickly (generally 15 minutes passes each week or whatever time interval would take them to the next stop with Time Stamps placed to remind them) which it couldn't do if we all had to wait for the same folks to post.

Especially since there's about 5 - 8 active players at this time (at different rates of activity).

So the first day is done and now the night time antics are beginning, if any of my beloved readers would like to dip their toes in, now is the time! Mosey on over here to sign up and get involved!

Monday, February 17, 2014

He Who Laughs Last: A Playtest

A couple weeks ago I was invited to playtest and review a Cthulhu Dark adventure called He Who Laughs Last. It was an enjoyable and entertaining read with some really interesting takes on police involvement, style of magical power and methods of PC involvement.

Boy is this a hard review. So many potential spoilers!

The characters are pretty solid and well-rounded, giving the first half of the game a police procedural feeling to it with a few NPC interviews that could get pretty colourful pretty quickly. Regrettably my players leapt on the nudges toward social media and technology that were indicated when they got their hands on a certain mobile phone and because their character sheets were decorated in a Facebook style.

They let their fingers do the walking and quickly determined the most important NPCs, identified prior events that were similar in nature to their current investigations, avoided one witness who looked pretty dangerous once you took a look at him (they later executed him in a *knock, knock* "Hello?" *headshot* kinda way), and leapt ahead to the guy who had all the answers. It was pretty amazing watching them use modern technology to quickly move through the scenario though.

Since they were taking a rather streamlined approach, I ran with it. I could've nudged them back on track but there were even chances they'd keep circling the obvious baddies rather then branch out to interview the red herrings and character witnesses. While it meant the game was a little lean, and they missed out on an epic scene by having the right *key* earlier then they were supposed to, it still all worked out and was a fun and interesting game. Not as scary as it could be, especially since they didn't try to engage the police, but still worked out great.

Their shortcuts cut the game down to three hours, though if they had followed the trail correctly I think it would still have only been 4 hour longs, not the 6 - 8 hours advertised. While you could bulk it out depending on individual play styles and the length of time players spend roleplaying their characters, I would advise folks to expect it to generally take 4 - 5 hours. This isn't a bad thing, though, since most folks' sessions are about that long so there's a good chance it can be done in one night.

So in short, my players played the game in a way it wasn't quite supposed to be played, utilising all of the modern world's technological marvels to discover information that is now more readily available. They enjoyed the chance to do that since most games actively work against that style of investigation whereas this one opened the door a little, inadvertently or not.

The adventure, as a whole, was inspiringly creepy to read and though I didn't manage to play it to its full creepy potential, it's still nice to know it can still take a bunch of dedicated and experienced players leaping toward the conclusion without falling apart.

My only real complaint is that there's not enough advice on the ending. I understand they left it open to the Keeper's discretion, but it really needs some advice or anecdotes to get the creative juices running. I've mentioned that to them and as they're still planning on going through the editing and layout phase, that should hopefully be rectified in the finished product.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Cthulhu Dark Adventures with Unknowns

So a week or so ago, I got a request from a Cthulhu Dark adventure writer to do a playtest + review of their new Cthulhu Dark scenarion: "He Who Laughs Last." As I haven't run it yet, I can't really talk about the actual adventure but what I can say is that I'm looking forward to running a game for some honest to goodness Cthulhu players. I've posted a Request for Players on both yog-sothoth.com and the Adelaide Roleplaying Facebook group and managed to cobble together a five player party.

I've gamed before with two of them (one of which being my husband) but not with the other three so I'm both excited and a little nervous.

Most of my roleplaying history is with players I knew quite well socially. Even the convention game I once raHaving to wear my purple striped hat to the public venue so folks know who I am is a pretty different experience for me and one I'm looking forward to.

I'll let you know how it went sometime next week.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Worthy Links: Call of Cthulhu Horror

It's that time of year where everyone dusts off the old bits and pieces that float around their house in the hopes of finally using them in the New Year. I thought that I'd celebrate by putting up some of my old linked Favourites for you guys to peruse.

Lovecraft Bestiary An awesome map of the various Cthulhoid entities paired with a neat little occult symbol. You could even use it as a prop if the investigators arrive at a place owned by someone who knows a little too much about the cosmos. The picture comes from Rogue Cthulhu which is a neat site in its own right. Hey hey! I rhymed.

Some cool music sites include Nox Arcana, Midnight Syndicate, and The Unquiet Void. These are some creepy songs that can be bought independently and downloaded off the internet.

Some neat sculptures over at Arkham Bazaar includes a nice glow in the dark crow pendant I adore. I am so planning on buying that at some point.

Zarona's Mythos Tome prints are beautiful works of art that I would love to frame AND use in a variety of game situations.

Meatspider has some very creepy sculptures of Cthulhu idols. Oddly enough, there are no byakhee whistles for sale anywhere that I can see which seems to be a very missed opportunity for an absolutely fantastic prop. Is making a whistle really so very hard?

Free 5 hour Egyptian Soundscapes have got me really excited for the Cairo section of the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign.

New York Public Library Menus These are brilliant for anyone who wants to be able to print out props of old school menus and let your players salivate as their characters actually choose what to purchase.

Phrasebook Just because it's pretty awesome and certainly useful for folks who want to accurately give a sense of someone speaking a foreign language without having to memorise loads of phrases. These are the most likely ones in a Cthulhu campaign, at least.

The Nyarlathotep Idol *is* something I'm planning to purchase for my Masks campaign. It's just so dang creepy. Of course, I won't be telling my player that.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Masks: Half Moon Cult Ideas

I really like the Secrets of New York book. I especially like the "Half-Moon Cult" adventure although it's lack of a box out timeline did make it rather painful to piece together when everything happened or was about to happen. It was also problematic having Mogens and Eugene Vanderklei's stats printed in the Yorkville section rather than in the adventure section. Still it was pretty solid for a one-shot scenario. I've used it to draw James Paterson to New York so I can later start my Masks campaign.

But if you have a player like mine who pokes into everything, you will need to have a bit more information on this cult. Firstly, witch-cults aren't known to include several dozen cultists which indicates that a few things. Firstly there's eight apartments in the facility itself. They're quite small apartments, little more than a cramped room or large-ish office, which indicates that there are eight cultists though they might be hot bedding (sleeping when the other's on duty). I determined that there were six cultist security guards in the facility who were probably younger sons of the cultists and who alternated twelve-hour shifts five days a week with some overlap. These were also the individuals used for retrieval. There's also Albert Day, the chief of security.

In truth anyone in the facility needs to be either a cultist or controlled in such a way that they might as well be. I assumed that the cook was a cultist, placed the nurse as Eugene's wife, and then included the two assistant scientists on the payroll. It explains that while the facility is pristine there just isn't much experimentation going on because there's not enough people to really get it cranking. Besides which, in occult experimentation scenarios there's very rarely a fleet of scientists helping each other. It's normally just a few mad geniuses having flashes of insight.

Mogens is a cultist. I put in the claim that he had a wife just as all of his ancestors have had a wife. In truth it's a lie and a cover for when he recreates himself as his own son. I see Mogens as an aromantic asexual. His interests lie elsewhere. This is mostly because giving him a family or anything similar just adds complications. His home security guards are regular people who know nothing of the occult. They do know that their employer is scary, however, and will kill them or their family members if given reason to do so. This means that they don't need to be slain to end the cult.

So we have Mogens, Albert Day, Eugene Vanderklei and his nursely wife, Vanderklei's two assistants, six security guards. I decided to limit the coven at twenty four + Mogens. That's a nice manageable number who could attend ceremonies in Mogens' home (as described in the book). The others are all dilletantes, media moguls and key businessmen. A husband and wife team of dilletantes are Mogens' heavy hitters and know a few spells to compel others to do their bidding and then forget the memory afterwards.

The next main question is: What occurs at the ritual? The adventure assumes that the only natural choice is to head to the laboratory but there is an equal chance the players will want to straight to the source and attack Mogens. Is this a good idea? Hell no! But we need to have some idea of a ritual to make it work as well as some objects and religious paraphernalia that can be found locked away in Mogens' bedroom. If you look at Mogens' spell list, you'll see that he can create a number of items, so those should certainly be present. What else?

So we have a New Moon Cult. Areas of light and darkness will matter. Black and white ritual table cloths. While the other cultists wear full black, I like the idea of Mogens wearing a half black / half white suit, like two vertical halves of a suit sewn together, with a tie that shows rather disturbing imagery of Nyarlathotep, a coven and some sacrifices. A tie that causes 1 sanity loss to any who pays too much attention to it. A glance at it while talking to Mogens is fine but a closer examination - enough to give a full description - is a 0/1 sanity hit.

So that covers some of the decorations. But what could they spend their time doing during their rituals? A eugenics cult of business people doesn't really work for ecstatics and, besides, I have the Bloody Tongue cult for that. I wanted something sedate. So I see them interlinking hands in a circle around the ritual chamber, intoning strange syllables that feel like the rising and crashing of waves across alien shores, and whose sounds create flickers of imagery in one's minds - imagery of alien worlds and bizarre cityscapes and possible futures of humanity. Just brief flashes, nothing more.

Mogens leads them in this prayer and then once per month they take a sedated homeless victim of another race and lay him upon a thick round table made entirely of folded bandage-like material and wrapped in a white sheet, perfect for soaking blood. The victim is both sedated and given a paralysing draught but the sedative is a weak dose designed to keep them in a half state for the start of the ritual when each participant strides forward to carve a moon-shaped line in the victim's flesh while the other's intone. By the time Mogens must take his place to scoop out each of those twenty four circles with a melon baller, the victim is fully aware but unable to scream.

Out of the shadows behind Mogens coalesces Nyarlathotep in his avatar of the Black Man and the shadow seems to thrum and vibrate, not fully drawn into our reality (because that should not be such a regular occurence) but vaguely there, and it reaches out and pulls the essence of the victim into itself and leaves the victim's corpse in a state of terrified rictus with a multitude of round cuts from its body. Then, and only then, do the intonations begin to drop away, the shadow dissipates, and they all retire to one of the other rooms for a brandy.

The servants are worshipful and devout to Nyarlathotep but aren't allowed to be true cultists. There's a housekeeper, maidservant, cook and general dogsbody.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Dark Young Conversion

I used this entity against James Paterson in a new World of Darkness conversion of "The Dark Child" which, I believe, can be found in the Cthulhu Britannica books. I hedge my bets when I say that because it's been several months since I ran it. Since James was alone and didn't have much in the way of armaments, I played it more like an environmental obstacle. Despite being a vampire at the time, he nearly died and was only saved because its summoning demanded that it avoid leaving a certain (rather small) radius of the house. Bear that in mind when fielding this in World of Darkness. Cthulhoid monsters are meant to be very tough and very scary. This certainly manages to be both.

The Dark Young are greater (yet less sentient) splinters of the idigam, Shub-Niggurath, which can materialise and become fully corporeal in the real world. This is why the Dark Young haven't been discovered in our world despite our dwindling woods - they exist mostly in the Hisil. They are still potent and terrifying beings, however, whose mere presence can force you to flee in terror. They appear much like trees yet their ropy branches writh and thrash and their bark-like hide splits to reveal gaping mouths with gnashing teeth that drools green sap whose trunks function as short legs yet they smell lie the charnel house. They are also quite thick for their height - generally only reaching between 12 and 20 feet high. Among its ropy branches it possesses four ropy sinuous tentacles which it uses to attack up to four different targets in a round. These can strike or grapple their foes or it might trample a victim with its massive hooves. It makes hooting and bellowing sounds.

Rank 4 Spirit

Power 9, Finesse 3, Resistance 15. Essence 25. Defense: 15. Size: 12. Health: 27. Initiative: 18. Speed: 13 (Species Factor 1).

Numina: Ban of Power. Ban of Power. Camouflage (look like tree). Chorus (commune with other Dark Young). Fearstruck (instinctively cast on all viewers). Gauntlet Breach (allows it to cross the gauntlet whenever it pleases). Materialise (becomes solid in our world). Stalwart (harder to damage). Elemental Immunity (Fire, Acid, Electricity). Multi-Attack (May spend essence to gain additional attacks up to four attacks that each use Power as their dice pool and must be used against creatures on the same plane of existence - mundane world, Hisil, Twilight - these manifest as tentacles). Knockdown Attack (May spend a point of essence and roll a resisted Power versus Strength or Power to knock down an opponent who is on the same plane of existence using the Trampling Hooves attack - if the Dark Young fails this roll then the target still takes damage but isn't knocked prone).

Attacks

Trampling Hooves +5B (14 dice - Power with a +5 bonus due to size)

Sucking Mouth

Tentacles +1L (10 dice, may grapple for 9 dice)

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Worthy Links for Props, Call of Cthulhu and Horror

Off to see a Bon Jovi concert with my mother tonight (haha Flat Mates, you miss out!) so I thought I'd post my latest set of cool links.

Building Player Materials (i.e. Props).

Keepers FAQ Index

Girl Gangs

Horror In Dungeons & Dragons

Taxonomy of Horror

Friday, November 22, 2013

A Different Sort of Play-by-Post

I hope I never sound as pompous as this guy looks right now.
The Last Express
(buy it on www.gog.com)."

I've had a lot of trouble with play-by-posts. Players drop out. I paint myself into corners and can't think of a decent resolution to the current predicament facing them. The pacing falls off the page when one player disappears for a couple weeks. Tricky, tricky, tricky.... But then I take inspiration from my own Game Translation article and decide to do a game based around the brilliant The Last Express.

Oh, by the way, I don't know about that Game Translation article but I know my play-by-post has caused the purchases of at least three copies of that brilliant and loads of gun game. It's cheap. Go and get it!

(Complete tangent: Google.com has a walking set of Doctor Who's in their image! Loved it. Can't wait to see the new Doctor. Terribly sad to see the last Doctor go.)

Anyway, onto my game which is also called The Last Express and is also set on board the Orient Express mere days before the invasion of Poland. Rather than setting everyone up in a party and splitting threads every time they split up, thus ensuring that the various players need each other to continue the game, I have split the locations into separate threads.

Each location has its own forum sub-category split as follows: Private Car, Agatha Sleeping Car, Yennifer Sleeping Car, Jeanette Sleeping Car, Social Cars, Staff Cars. It's split like that because while the sleeping cars have a multitude of compartment threads, the social cars really only need one thread apiece. The Social Cars contain a Lounge Car, Smoking Car and Dining Car. Players are discouraged from reading inside threads their character isn't currently involved in and each character is made separately from the others - with no expectation that they work together.

In fact, it's quite possible for someone to create a Mythos sorcerer with the aim of destroying the other investigators. This may, or may not, have happened. I really can't say because some of my players read this blog. What is true is that the majority of players have created investigators with interesting but not overwhelming backstories. Which is fantastic because while having one or two folks with overwhelming backstories (i.e. Deep One hybrid) wouldn't be a bad thing, it gets a bit silly when a train is populated with them.

Every Friday I update the game by fifteen minutes, whether there's been two posts or twenty. Hollywood Time is in progress here. A lot or a little can happen in that same set amount of time. This pushes me to include something interesting every week, ensures the players feel that slight bit of time pressure, and means that we don't have to worry about a dinner period lasting for several months because two players are really getting into it while a third is merely passing the time.

I've still lost a lot of players (likely due to the unfamiliar format, subtle plot lines and need to be very proactive) but the game has weathered their loss quite well. While I personally find it a shame as their investigators were all awesome, I can manipulate them out of the way of the other players so that the game can continue. This wouldn't be possible if I was running a standard format game where all of the other players would be forced to wait for the missing players to post as they'd all be expected to be together. Sure, the player attrition wouldn't be so fast or extreme (I've lost about half - normally within their first ten posts) but the game itself would be hobbled a lot more readily when even one dropped out.

And in play by post, it's very routine for at least one to drop out.

So if you would like to read the forums and take a look, you can find it here.

Alternatively if you'd actually like to play it (as reading the threads is a quick way to over-educating yourself and preventing you from playing it in future), you can read the recruitment thread over here. The recruitment thread also provides a neat summary of what the game is about.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

My, my, Investigations CAN be mapped like a Dungeon

I haven't attended ALASS for awhile (stuff keeps coming up and I have no foam swords) and it's not Game Translation Day so I thought I'd instead share something I found today off a thread in the beautiful Yog-Sothoth.com Through that thread I found a blog and on that blog I found a ... dungeon map for Cthulhu investigations. Check it out on Dreams in the Lich House. Read it yet? Seen the pretty pictures? Don't worry. I'll wait. Basically the premise is pretty much a bubble map but instead of bubbles you draw rooms and instead of lines you draw corridors. Somehow, oddly enough, I find this way more easy to comprehend and memories than I ever could with bubbles. I think it's because my brain comprehends the corridors as "You Can Go Here From Here" much better than it does lines. It's also neat because you can always use secret door symbols to represent clues / threads that are obscure or hard to reach and stair symbols to represent characters leaping to an overseas or interplanar destination. Anywho, food for thought. What do you guys think?

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Masks: Prettying the Files

At present I've been downloading some of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial files from www.soundbible.com and ccmixter.org so that I can make the Masks audioplays a little more interesting for those listening in to it. Why? Well, why not, really? I'll be using Audacity - a free program - to put it all together and hopefully make it sound as thrilling and tense as it plays.

We've done the first two sessions, by the way, and last left it with James Tyler on the cusp of the Half-Moon Cult adventure. The hurricane is raging but he hasn't yet cottoned on to the fact that it's anything more than a sudden storm. Considering he's in Brooklyn at the moment that may end up getting interesting if he gets cut off due to storm surges. I know they just down the Brooklyn tunnel though I'm not sure when they did so.

When in doubt, go with whatever is most interesting, yeah?

By the way, does anybody know a good sound hosting service? I want to put them up in approximately one hour sections as thus far it's held a variety of mini-arcs within each hour. Also because I find one hour is just long enough to listen to it all in one sitting and thus reduces the need to keep finding your spot every time you pick up the sound file.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Masks of Nyarlathotep: Keeping It All Straight

One of the trickiest parts of Masks is to know enough about Masks and the local surrounds / times in order to run it convincingly enough to provide a fully immersive experience. Okay, so you don't necessarily have to go to those lengths but if I'm going to run THE Masks of Nyarlathotep, I will use it as an excuse to go all out in doing so.

The trouble then is to find the information you need (LOTS of Google coupled with research already completed for Horrors on the Home Front) and then writing down that information so that you can find it elsewhere. Sometimes you'll even find little props that you don't know what to do with just yet but may figure out a use for them in future.

My current storage includes a deep drawer in a tallboy. Inside this tallboy is a ring folder containing plastic sleeves for the paper props. Each plastic sleeve contains a grouping, or scene, worth of props. Each sleeve also has a mailing address label on it that has the scene information on it. A few of these sleeves also include clue maps nabbed from Yog-Sothoth.com

The tallboy drawer also contains a shoebox which contains all of the NPC and artefact cards as well as my scene paper (strips of card containing vital information on the scenes) and dialogue cards (these aren't speeches, they just contain scraps of slang that may come in useful).

The drawer also includes a big, black notebook where the players' props are pasted once he receives them alongside a small pocket journal with an elaborate and fancy cover that functions as his notepad. His character sheet can be found held between the covers of this notebook. The voice recorder also sits in this drawer alongside various other random props from World War II that I purchased on ebay and will use later on in the campaign or simply put about to provide a better sensory map for a more immersive experience.

Naturally I also have the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign book though I am also keen on having a printed copy of the companion once it has been finalised.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Exploring Race, Gender & Sexuality in Masks of Nyarlathotep - New York

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: This is in no way a criticism of the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. Please do not take it as a criticism. The campaign is designed to engage as many pulp tropes from the era while at the same time avoiding any nasty assumptions about those stereotypes actually being true. At no point does the campaign blame inherent characteristics of any race for any of the Mythosy unpleasantness and there are plenty of examples of every race getting in on the Nyarlathotep action. There are also plenty of examples of nasty people of either race and gender included as well though the 1 named woman to every 9 named men is a bit unfortunate (while still making sense given the tropes and era involved).

I ADORE this campaign and do not wish nor desire for there to be any permanent changes to the campaign book. This is a more an examination of how some elements of the campaign could be changed to create a greater diversity and richness within the characters. I am in NO WAY saying that you *should* make these changes or that you are a bad person if you don't see any reason why these changes are necessary. They're not necessary. They're optional. Play it as you please.

SPOILER WARNING: There are plenty within. I thought I would create a few more opportunities for important and powerful female NPCs in my version of the campaign. While I have to give kudos to the authors for Erica Carlyle, M'Weru, Nitocris (if summoned), Miriam Atwright, Agatha Broadmoor, Mei-Ling Choi, Nyiti, Bertha Shipley, Natalie Smythe-Forbes, Eloise Vane, Ewa Cowles, and Yaleesha from the core campaign and the companion writers for Fat Maybelle and Helen, I want to have more than 12 key characters out of 92.

Part of this can be dealt with through airtime. Even if only 12 named characters out of 92 are female, if those 12 characters are highly significant than that can most assuredly help mitigate the difference. Unfortunately since most of the cultist bad guys that consistently oppose you are men this is a bit trickier than one might initially suppose.

Still I am assisted by the fact that I am running this campaign nearly twenty years later during World War II and that I am creating a few NPC allies to assist my solo PC in his journeys and some of them will be women who will both fit within the era and yet counter the era's expectations of them. These allies will be introduced during the Half-Moon Cult and will include his apprentice hunter, Charlotte Adams; Sydney Silver's bisexual girlfriend Martha Collins who can help track her down; and Jane Fisher, the daughter of the Byron Fisher who provided Claude Porter with some advice after the monster sighting was leaked to the press.

I have also gender swapped Sydney Silver from the Half Moon Cult (female reporter working under a male byline) and Jonah Kensington (now Julia) from Prospero Press is now a successful divorcee who had built the company up using her inheritance and who is now officially in charge since divorcing her husband.

I will also be including some violent female cultists as the Cult of the Bloody Tongue seems a lot more open to female power than either of the other two cults. This will come up as a real issue when James Tyler takes out Mukunga as his chief wife will then step up to take control over the remnants who will meet at Fat Maybelle's.

Another problem James will face will be a female member of the Half Moon Cult (as he will have upset them first) who will prove to be a seemingly helpful femme fatale whom he will probably meet at Erica Carlyle's party. She won't be a mystical threat, really. More of a 'web of deceit and legal machinations' sort of person.

The New York Cult of the Bloody Tongue Masks of Nyarlathotep is an immense campaign that deals with the rather delightful aspects of a bloodthirsty, violent and utterly unsympathetic collection of cults that will do anything to achieve its evil aims. Suitably pulpy, yet with plenty of investigative and social avenues, this campaign deals with that essential human fear that there are some folk out there who will stop at nothing to achieve their awful aims and care nothing for those hurt along the way.

They are blinded by their drive for power, excited by sadistic cruelty, and yet can still blend within society. They are every fear of serial killers, doomsday cults, and vicious criminals that haunt our dreams at night. Now take that and mix in the primordial terror of ancient gods who want only to destroy us alongside a modern horror that our scientific exploits will doom us all (aka the Rocket).

Both cults also have a mixture of white and black cultists, though the white cultists tend to be richer and the black ones poorer. This is likely because the religion was brought over by black migrants who are actively discriminated against by the surrounding society but who target white cultists who have more wealth and influence. Odds are they are mostly middle class but have the kind of bureaucratic positions that can be painful to fight. I do, after all, want to keep them distinct from the wealthy Cult of the Black Pharoah.

Since wealth in any cult tends to be funneled into the cult leader's pockets, it would make sense for Mukunga to become quite wealthy as well. While there is a good chance that he will remain a shadowy figure in the background, knowing James' style he will probably be investigated so I'd be better off answering a few questions for myself. I have given him a residence on Sugar Hill and a couple of wives who are as dangerous as he is and who would take up the position as cult leader should he be killed. His lawful wife would take control first as she never attends the same cult meetings as Mukunga so that if one were killed (or arrested) the other would remain free. His second wife masquerades as his chief maidservant. The third pretends to be the nanny-turned-housekeeper. The children are all enrolled in a boarding school to give them the best possible education.

This means that no matter what James does, the Cult of the Bloody Tongue will probably resurface in New York later on. Religions are pretty hard to stamp out, after all. If he does somehow manage to put enough effort into it without running out of time before the Big Ritual, so to speak, then the lack of religious influence on the kids may mean that they drift off into ordinary lives. He'll never really know.

Initially this was just going to be about race and gender but after reading The Post-Modern Masks of Nyarlathotep treatment in a Trail of Cthulhu Actual Play, I've decided to throw in some sexuality issues as well as you may have noticed with Sydney Silver's romance with her bisexual live-in lover. I'm taking Aviatrix's suggestions of having Jack Brady and Roger Carlyle be homosexual lovers. This isn't just to 'inject some LGBT-ness' into the storyline. I actually think it makes a lot more sense within the plotline if you inject some romance.

Why would Roger Carlyle suddenly become so interested in a jailbird that he'd even condescend to interview him in jail about the murder, let alone lawyer him up? Why was their loyalty so tight that Jack Brady travelled halfway around the world to save him and turned into a vigilante?

Sure, there are friendships that are that tight and sudden but this is fiction and fiction requires work to make coincidence logical. Romance is a far better shorthand.

As this is Masks, the NPC romances won't be a big part of the campaign anymore than a straight one would be but they do exist and may be referenced within the campaign itself if James is quick enough to pick up the clues.

Happy for discussion in the comments section below on your personal experiences with this campaign alongside any tweaks you may have made to the campaign, in whatever direction you may have done it.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Masks of Nyarlathotep: New York Timelines


Such a helpful resource even when for the 1940s.

This is where my Masks (or rather Half Moon Rising) preparation gets tricky. I'm going to use the 1938 New England hurricane as the justification for how Mogens' experimental test subject got loose but that will likely occur after James arrives in New York. Unfortunately this means working out the timelines for all of the events in the scenario as there's no real series of "This happened three days ago, this happened yesterday" in the scenario itself. I did figure out how I would do it, however, and how to distract James so that he doesn't get ahead of himself and get too involved in the newspaper agency before the journalist goes missing.

James Tyler will wake up in hospital as a human being on the 30th August which gives him about a week to set himself up and reach the point where he can hop an ocean liner by the 10th (at the latest) to get to New York by the 18th (at the latest).

September 18th
James will be almost out of money. He'll need to find a place for him and Charlie to rest up for the night. Introduce New York docklands. I found some menus from the era using the New York Public Library's "What's on the Menu?" project. This gives the player a bit of an idea about prices in that era and it gives me a chance to drain his coins all the more as I really want to play with the reality of near homelessness

September 19th - 20th

Settling in. I imagine James might try to con / gamble his way into money. This might work out for a bit but if he relies on it I will find ways to bankrupt him. It'll keep him busy at least. He may also seek out an illegal gun. I have a short conflict for when he starts looking at moving into a rental apartment since it'd be cheaper than a hotel. There's a very cheap place that's $3 a week in Hell's Kitchen where he could get away with just paying two weeks in advance and having an otherwise nice enough place at that rate (normally would be $4 a week) if he kicks out a violent couple of men who are terrorising the apartment building and forcing the owner to give them most of the rent money. If James can evict them, James can keep their furniture as well.

September 21st

A full moon AND the Autumnal Equinox. Also Hurricane Day. Haven't figured out whose magics will be partly responsible for this, if anyone, but I am considering the possibility. At this stage I'll stop distracting him and let him start researching Eugene Vanderklei, attempt to get in contact with the lawyer who busted out Jack Frost (can get an appointment next week), or try to speak with Sydney Silver at the office (Sydney is off investigating, the receptionist can take a message).

Researching Eugene Vanderklei will reveal his university degree in biochemistry, his marriage certificate, and birth certificates for their six children of which Jack Vanderklei is the youngest. If he does quite well he'll also see that Jack Vanderklei won the 'Better Babies' contest of his youth as being a perfect baby. Naturally he'll have to go through the New York Public Library newspaper stacks or the Hall of Records for information. Probably a mix of both.

From about 10AM he'll notice a strong wind from the north. At 11AM, the wind will shift east and soon blow almost a gale from the North East with heavy rain but that's expected this time of year. At around 1AM he may be near a radio in which ase he will hear that "The West Indies hurricane is in the Mid-Atlantic". From 2PM: Winds switche from the east. Clouds race by the sky. 2:30PM begins the white water storm surges.

Extensive street flooding due to blocked drains and very high winds will make the hurricane obvious even in New York. The East River will flow three blocks and flooded a Consolidated Edison power plant at 133rd Street which causes power failures all the way north of 59th Street and in the Bronx for several minutes to a few hours. I'm still uncertain on the exact timeline for that so I'll do it at around mid-afternoon and just avoid giving an exact time for it. I doubt James will spend anytime north of 59th on that particular day so he'll probably not have to worry about power failures so much. Railroad and ferry services will be suspended just as bridges and tunnels connecting Manhattan to the outer suburbs will close until the following afternoon. This might make an impact on him if tries to go to Sydney Silver's offices as I've moved them to Brooklyn Heights since Fleet Street is no longer as much of a thing by 1938.

That night the creature gets loose and is spotted by one of the sanitation workers brought onto the late shift to help clear up the debris. He mentions it to his friends and it spreads like wildfire.

September 23rd

Sydney Silver hears of the "monster in the sewer" and interviews the sanitation worker.

September 24th

The "Monsters in the Sewers" article runs. The sanitation worker is threatened during the day and then kidnapped overnight by Mogens crew. His hotbed friend is convinced that he ran away from the hostile media attention due to a letter left behind. Sydney Silver is threatened by Mogens crew who try to grab her when she returns home that night and it's only by fleeing on foot and hopping between subway trains that she gets away. This means that even if James is straight on top of it he won't be able to contact the sanitation worker or Sydney. During the daytime, both will just be busy doing other things and therefore be hard to reach.

September 25th

This is the time when I'm hoping James gets drawn into the middle of things.

September 28th

Mogens 'Half Moon Ritual' will occur. I'm not giving him much time as I know the player well enough to realise that a four day timeline is all he needs to follow these breadcrumbs more than likely.

Ahh, research. I love doing it. And I really love when natural events happen to coincide with plots.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Masks of Nyarlathotep: Early Campaign Preparation

My Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign will begin with the excellent New Moon scenario from the Secrets of New York book. In order to set everything up I asked myself several questions.

How Will I Adapt Vampire to Call of Cthulhu?

This is worth a whole article in and of itself but as I'm still ironing out the little details I will give you the basics. I decided to pop my Walsh-plot and have it that all of the recent strains and conversations about returning James Tyler to humanity had culminated with growing insanity and therefore power within Walsh as his two selves began to separate, allowing greater access to power at the expense of his sanity. Much of this slipped by James, much to his chagrin later on. Walsh's several hundred year old plot to save an old changeling friend of his / hers by cutting Jack Frost's bonds to its titles and reintroducing a recombination of soul fragments gathered over the centuries also would come to fruition in a great big ritual that required the murderous sacrifice and painful destruction of almost sixty vampires in the London court.

When James awakens, he is not only a human patient in a hospital but he seems to be back in the past. It's no longer 1956. It's 1938. Charlotte Adams is cagey about whether she knows anything about 'supernaturals'. Any suggestion that he was a vampire is met by consternation on her part. She will declare that something in his investigations with Walsh caused him to go insane and start believing in that delusion. Largely she will avoid the subject, not wanting to draw his attention back to it. It wasn't a vampire gathering that was destroyed. It was a gathering of Society types and the influential middle classes at an art gallery. A gas main explosion levelled the building and set fires that burnt a few individuals in an unusual manner (suggestive of Fire Vampires, but he lacks the knowledge to identify that). There were three survivors. James (who was thrown through a window by the explosion), a janitor (who was protected by a falling wall) and some other person (who was sent to Colney Hatch - Friern - Mental Hospital shortly thereafter).

Walsh was killed instantly and had been buried while James was in a coma. Her wake is scheduled for after James wakes up and Charlie will arrange that in James' private investigations office. I expect this'll hit Walsh hard.

The other person is the high functioning schizophrenic "Jack Frost" who can both endorse James' view of the events but who simultaneously rememembers his childhood as Eugene Vanderklei's son and the youngest child of Mogens' experiment. He is another link to the New Moon scenario as after James makes contact with him, "Jack Frost" will be picked up by Vanderklei's lawyers and brought back to New York. James can find out about this familial connection but will need to go to New York to investigate further. Which he will do since "Jack Frost" might well be the only person who can vouch for his believed timeline.

Basically the point is to give James enough clues that he's probably mad while leaving it open that he might somehow be right. While time tavel is impossible in the World of Darkness, it is certainly a possibility in Call of Cthulhu. On the other hand, the God Machine could theoretically 'reset everything' if the situation was growing dire enough that reality was about to have a hole blasted into it, such as perhaps if a cult were going to use modern technological advances in nuclear technology to create a more powerful rocket. Is James mad? Was he mad all along? Is he sane now or more mad? Or is just layers of insanity and neither reality is really real? This is something I want to play with. The division between sanity and reality.

How Will I Draw My PC From London to New York?

This was quite easy as James had previously brought to the media's attention a Nazi-run eugenicist experiment in London. Funnily enough, I'd run that before I'd read New Moon so it wasn't that I was clever enough to embed that connection. It was just my good fortune. I had, however, used this as an opportunity to introduce him to Jackson Elias who was one of several journalists called upon by Walsh to take a look at the place. The British government, fearing embarrassment, shut down the media's attempts to reveal this experiment to the general public. Jackson Elias, being an American writer, knew that he could always write about it later and publish it in New York but lacked enough information to publish a book. He offered James and Walsh a cash incentive to provide him with any further information they might find out about the organisation.

Jackson Elias will return at the funeral to have a chat with him and, if he notices James Tyler's avid investigations of any connections to Walsh's death (which he will doubtless do), Elias will connect him to a British Intelligence agent called Threepenny Jack. He will also point out that there's a journalist in New York who is examining some sort of eugenics movement down there as well - Sydney Silver. I made a point to avoid referring to Sydney's gender as, in this instance, Sydney Silver will be a girl reporter whose skilful enough to get some good reporting roles but who writes under a masculine byline to maintain respect from the readership.

Threepenny Jack will be happy to have the assistance as his hands are tied when it comes to foreign soil. While they do have assets in New York, there are none who could be quite as flexible as a desperate PI. So he will offer to pay James' way to New York, especially since the investigations in London need to be of a more ... delicate nature due to some of the influential families involvement. To this end Threepenny will provide a copy of a telegram found in the London experimental chambers that was sent via a New York telegram office and which required additional shipments of some chemical listed only by initials and numbers. Naturally I have a little typewritten prop for that. I've also created a slip of cockney slang and phrases that Threepenny Jack is likely to use during this conversation.

Next week I'll talk about the September 1938 timelines for the 'New Moon' scenario and how I will be using a historically accurate hurricane to justify the escape of Mogens' creation.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Masks of Nyarlathotep Worthy Links

A beloved campaign run by many.

I've been doing a lot of research for this campaign. And I mean, a LOT. I've always wanted to run this campaign and I see a lot of possibilities from my weird infusion of psychological horror and Call of Cthulhu meets World of Darkness (or does it?) so I'm pretty eager to get it right. Besides which, I love having the excuse for so much research and for creating the kind of beautiful peak performance game that's only possible when you have 20+ years of other people's experiences and props to draw upon. I mean, this campaign book already has an unofficial companion for it! I don't know of any other campaigns that have had that kind of good fortune.

Far Beyond Capacity

There's a link at this blog to a fantastic corkboard of clues that you can zoom in on if you'd like some copies of some of the props. The Actual Play is also quite comprehensive and also discusses playing the game on Fantasy Grounds (an online assistant) so that can be great if you're looking to do the same. The players in this game also veer more towards pulpy so if you have characters that are prone to violence then this Actual Play is a good read so you can have an idea about what troubles you might face.

Masks of Nyarlathotep Fan Trailer

This is a pretty neat trailer for the campaign and one that I'm going to show my solo player to get him all excited about playing it. It might take some of the sting off the inevitable death of several of his allies over the course of the game. Although there are doubtless a few spoilers in there the fact (mostly in regards to likely location) since it's taken from a variety of clips from different movies it can't get too specific.

Carlyle Expedition Notes

Some very interesting youtubes that provide a more cinematic option for the Carlyle news clippings.

Audio Sessions Plus Audio Keeper Diary

For those who rather to listen to sessions rather than read about them there's this nice collection of audio files.

Nyarlathotep Companion on Obsidian Portal

While the campaign notes are quite brief there's a link on 1920s slang and plenty of links to various pieces of evidence that could be wrangled as props for your own games.

Brief Nyarlathotep Actual Play

This one goes over things very briefly for the New York and part of the London chapter but that can be a helpful read for people who want a vague outline of events.

Masks Wikidot

One Keeper's basic campaign notes filing system. This wiki is great for people who want to brush up a bit on the locations and dramatis personae but not a whole lot else.

Campaign Trailer Screenplay

While this doesn't actually show any clips the run through of the trailer is evocative in its own way. The blog's Drama Tools articles are also quite neat.

The Grim Keeper

This blog has some really neet Cthulhu-based blog articles as well as some really swell simple articles and thorough and entertaining Actual Play posts on the campaign. Those after paper miniatures will find the initial cultists and hunting horrors in the blog. There's a lot of delightful local colour available within. There is one article in particular that really captures what reading a Mythos Tome should feel like which is well worth reading. The author has an article all about their inspirations in creating that tome as well. There's even an article about issues with the Ju-Ju House (namely size). Unfortunately it stops short of London.

Total Party Kill

One Keeper's musings on Masks of Nyarlathotep, especially its high lethality. This particular Keeper has run the game three times so its well worth a read.

Masks of Nyarlathotep at Cthulhu Parade

For those who would like to listen to audio logs of the actual sessions than this is another good one for you.

Held Action

There's only a few articles here but one of the very important ones involves a consideration of PC motivations. One of the things I've found just from a read through of the campaign is that it has some very pulpy expectations. Scuffling inside a hotel room? Why, one should absolutely smash down the door! Even if you thought it was a thief rather than room service it would be a rather heavyhanded approach for most investigators.

Portfolio: Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion

Those looking for better quality props from the various adventures in the companion need look no further as you can find them all here. You should absolutely look here for more information.

Propnomicon Masks Series

This article in Propnomicon links to a thread filled with so many glorious props ranging from Egyptian postage stamps to maps to pictures.

Masks Floor Maps

Beautiful maps. Wonderful maps.

Fringe Masks

Only two articles present on this blog but the bottom one does have a number of player character questions that are worth considering.

Masks Links

Not only does this website contain a large series of journal entries and amusing photographs but it also contains links to a variety of 1920s web resources. Katya's Fun Facts, in particular, are wonderful to read. http://www.yog-sothoth.com/threads/19232-Maps-for-entire-Masks-of-Nyarlathotep-campaign?p=269700#post269700

Hopefully these will help you as much as they have helped me. If you have any good links on this campaign, please share them with me in the comments section below.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Cthulhu Monster Balance

Anyone interested in a really insightful consideration of how to balance, and choose, different Cthulhu monsters for different tasks? Or how to determine whether some Cthulhoid critter might well be too problematic to use in a story? The wonderful author of Libraries and Leviathans has done a fantastic article on just that. I couldn't recommend this article highly enough. Thought-provoking stuff and well worth reading twice! This is quite a handy little article because Cthulhu monsters are all quite powerful beasties and sometimes you don't want to just have a TPK. You want to have a story as well. Now I just need to find an article about this with the very difficult to balance World of Darkness system and I'm all set. Happy reading!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Lovecraftian Play-by-Posts

If you're anything like me you enjoy thinking about games and indulging in little bits and pieces of games across the week. Since I love the sight of my own written word - you may have guessed this by seeing my daily posts - I've also been involved in play-by-posts since 2006 and have racked up 10,401 posts across a dozen different games that I have either run or played within. In truth I've only ever played at www.callofcthulhu.org.uk due to a mixture of easy lay out (each game has its own sub-forum) and its very friendly and inclusive users. Besides which they combine horror with investigation which is something that I don't get to focus on because my players have other tastes that are happy to tilt that way occasionally but not constantly.

At present I'm running four games - two of which will soon be ending and which I will be replacing with two others.

Welcome to Silent Hill contains two separate adventures where two different characters try to survive the town and its psychological mindscrews, Order cultists, and general violent monsters that aim to destroy them. Two adventures have thus far been concluded with a resurrected madman called Jack and a distracted mother whose daughter drowned in Lake Toluca (and who later drowned herself as penance). At present a violent thief was sucked into foggy and dark Silent Hill after stealing a book from the Order (Father Vincent) and a private investigator has entered the town in search of his client's wife who went missing a few years after the PI found her cheating on him.

Misery Orphanage is set in a country area, UK, during World War II where a group of orphans have to survive an encounter in the cellars where they find a doorway into what appears to be a burning section of the Middle Ages. The matrons of the orphanage appear to know what's going on but no one else down there does.

Home Front Mythos is set in Norbury, UK, during World War II where a group of characters head to an air raid shelter but a direct hit on the top of the underground shelter knocks them to the ground. By the time they clear the rubble (while the air raid continues), they find the shelter within emptied out and a hole burrowed into the ground that leads into a series of tunnels that leads to a man's cellar where a group of shelterers are kept naked in a large cell. The shelterers appear to be drugged ... but it turns out to be so much worse.

I will also be running The Last Express by the end of July where players pick up passengers aboard the Orient Express in August, 1939, shortly before the onset of World War II. It takes inspiration from the computer game of the same name where the Orient Express is a hotbed of intrigue, romance, wheeling and dealing, and occult involvements. Every week of real time will progress the game by fifteen minutes and the players can freely move between various compartments and most of the train cars interacting with each other and the NPCs. Rather than playing the part of investigators, per se, each character could be friend or foe - cultists, arms dealers, spies, family members, businessmen, and ex-nobility could all number among them. The game has plenty of opportunities for people to board at each train station so feel free to drop me a line over there to join.

I will also be picking up Raiko's Masks of Nyarlathotep game in which I used to be a player and am currently in the process of figuring out which of the old players would like to come back as it stopped about a year ago in the second chapter. If anyone would like to pick up an established character (some only have about 8 - 12 pages of quite entertaining readings) then feel to say so in the Chit-Chat section.

Anyone else tried their hands at play-by-posts? Had fun with it? Gotten frustrated? What web-site do you use?

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Horror on the Orient Express links

I've found a really good blog about the Call of Cthulhu campaign called Horror on the Orient Express. I've never been all that interested by the campaign until I saw this blog and the wonderful research the Keeper has done in preparing for it. It made me realise that part of the glory of the train campaign isn't so much what occurs on the train itself but more the opportunity to visit and investigate the world beyond the train. If you'd like to see this blog yourself, take a look over here.