Showing posts with label Worthy Links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worthy Links. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Link to 650 Urban Adventure Story Seeds
Sometimes while running your urban adventures you just need a story seed to kick off something amazing. Something that can be cast aside if the players aren't interested. Something that could even just be local colour. This is a .pdf of 650 somethings. Take a look over here! Many of them can even work for a modern game, not just a fantasy one. Enjoy these many somethings!
Friday, January 2, 2015
Village Backgrounds Resources
Raging Swans has produced a pair of beautiful .pdfs with some quality two-page spreads on a dozen different villages including lovingly hand drawn village maps. I don't often do reviews but these are beautifully done and at the moment a chunk of them (32 pages) are absolutely free! Many of the villages have enough cute touches that you could use them as a launching pad (or a breather) for your campaign without being so overwhelmed with plots that you feel compelled to have the PCs remain there for the long haul.
You could drop these villages into any Pathfinder campaign and though it seems they focus on Pathfinder products, I don't see anything that would prevent them from being used in other settings and systems since they're pretty low on stats and high on ideas. They have Village Backdrops I and Village Backdrops II currently available on rpgnow.com
You could drop these villages into any Pathfinder campaign and though it seems they focus on Pathfinder products, I don't see anything that would prevent them from being used in other settings and systems since they're pretty low on stats and high on ideas. They have Village Backdrops I and Village Backdrops II currently available on rpgnow.com
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Worthy Link: Play-by-Post
In place of reading more stuff from me for the week, check out this awesome Paizo Thread on running a decent Play-by-Post!
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Real World Inspiration for Your Fantasy Games
These real world locations and these would make fantastic inspirational settings for both fantasy and world trotting adventures. These are some really marvelous places I would never have dreamt up on my own and it's not so hard to look up more information on these ones. The deepest pool, in particular, would make a great part of a dungeon.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Zombie LARP
Zombie LARP looks brilliant (though alas it seems to have ceased over the past couple years) and I just thought I'd write a post about how brilliant it is. Even better is that it's beautiful website contains some really good descriptions of prior events with links to other players' anecdotal stories about prior events which are really thrilling in their own way. If you're curious about how an adventure LARP can go, especially a boffer LARP, I whole-heartedly recommend taking a look.
Also, their zombie training video and wicked slideshow.
Also, their zombie training video and wicked slideshow.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Campaign Inspirations!
Still being slack with the posts (I know!) but I'll get back into the swing of it soon enough. That's the only problem with running a near daily for a couple years, you end up needing a bit of a holiday. Don't worry, though, I'll be back into it soon enough.
I have thus far purchased these three beauties from Cryptocurium for my Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign (and potential actual LARPs):
And hopefully this one as well if I can get to it before it sells out:
You can purchase some of them yourselves over here.
I've also recently received my Blood & Smoke copy from the God Machine genre in the mail so there's plenty of reading material for me there in preparation for my LARP.
I have thus far purchased these three beauties from Cryptocurium for my Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign (and potential actual LARPs):
And hopefully this one as well if I can get to it before it sells out:
You can purchase some of them yourselves over here.
I've also recently received my Blood & Smoke copy from the God Machine genre in the mail so there's plenty of reading material for me there in preparation for my LARP.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Fanfiction: Outlast Novelisation
I don't normally talk about books on this blog, let alone fan written ones, but since I've just finished both Outlast and its tremendously horrifying DLC: Whistleblower, I've been needing a fix to help me come down from the heights of fear and I've found it over here. Soon I will go over what I learned in Outlast, doing a series of articles on the subject, followed by a Game Translation itself most likely. Anywho, short post for now. I totally recommend checking out that link (though ideally *after* you've played the game) as it's a really good read that captures the feel of it brilliantly and adds so much more.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Final Tweet for Masks of Nyarlathotep New York Chapter
Well, I've done it. I have put up 31 tweets on handy web-sites, prop links and other miscellaneous web sites that'll help you run the Masks of Nyarlathotep New York chapter. You can find the fruits of my labour over here. I'm going to give myself a bit of a break for awhile and then in late April I'll start putting up some good links to travel sites, ship plans, and other such items to help folks in the bits in between chapters.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Lessons Learned from reading about the Underworld LARP
The Underworld LARP is an impressive endeavour with an equally impressive web-site. At another site that I believe is related, there's some juicy session reviews that give a sneak peek into what it was like to actually be there. This can be really help for LARP organisers, as well, as some of the bits and pieces are pretty true across the board.
Players like to be comfortable, to a point. If things start to hurt, they don't like it. If the weather is particularly horrid, think about what to do with those who push against the plot (especially in a horror game where the risk vs. reward might be a worse ratio than you realised). What might be fun the first time round (crawling through tunnels) can become painful the seventh time around.
I just wish there were more pictures of the events. I'm still just wrapping my mind around how modules work and while I know I lack the resources to properly throw a module-based LARP just yet I'd still love to know quite how they work.
Regrettably I don't think there are any module LARPs in Australia. By module LARP, I mean a situation where most of the players are doing their own thing together but were small groups can branch out to accomplish a specific task in LARP format. Generally when a small group branches out it often becomes tabletop (which is partly because in a World of Darkness LARP the rules are too technical to be modelled physically).
This isn't a bad thing and is most suitable for a modern LARP where the characters could go just about anywhere at the drop of a hat but it does limit my chances to understand how this other type of LARP works.
I also like how Underworld links racial abilities to costuming. Just as many boffer LARPs won't let you deal damage without a boffer weapon or won't let you be armoured without representative armour, so does this one require you to use some makeup or something similar to get your racial abilities. If you don't want to do this, you can always be human. While I don't think this is necessarily appropriate to all games (i.e. Changeling), I do think it works quite well in certain LARPs like this one. Their forums have some good advice on makeup and prosthetics as well.
There's also some neat phys-reps for traps. The pressure plate has to be the easiest, though I can't help but want one that makes a neat 'clicking' sound so you can put it under fallen leaves or something yet still know when it goes off.
Players like to be comfortable, to a point. If things start to hurt, they don't like it. If the weather is particularly horrid, think about what to do with those who push against the plot (especially in a horror game where the risk vs. reward might be a worse ratio than you realised). What might be fun the first time round (crawling through tunnels) can become painful the seventh time around.
I just wish there were more pictures of the events. I'm still just wrapping my mind around how modules work and while I know I lack the resources to properly throw a module-based LARP just yet I'd still love to know quite how they work.
Regrettably I don't think there are any module LARPs in Australia. By module LARP, I mean a situation where most of the players are doing their own thing together but were small groups can branch out to accomplish a specific task in LARP format. Generally when a small group branches out it often becomes tabletop (which is partly because in a World of Darkness LARP the rules are too technical to be modelled physically).
This isn't a bad thing and is most suitable for a modern LARP where the characters could go just about anywhere at the drop of a hat but it does limit my chances to understand how this other type of LARP works.
I also like how Underworld links racial abilities to costuming. Just as many boffer LARPs won't let you deal damage without a boffer weapon or won't let you be armoured without representative armour, so does this one require you to use some makeup or something similar to get your racial abilities. If you don't want to do this, you can always be human. While I don't think this is necessarily appropriate to all games (i.e. Changeling), I do think it works quite well in certain LARPs like this one. Their forums have some good advice on makeup and prosthetics as well.
There's also some neat phys-reps for traps. The pressure plate has to be the easiest, though I can't help but want one that makes a neat 'clicking' sound so you can put it under fallen leaves or something yet still know when it goes off.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Twitter Links Repository
 |
| Twitter's short messages speak to the world! |
The process will be simple. Each month I will pick a topic and endeavour to do a daily Tweet containing a single link that matches that topic. I'll aim for unique links - new web-sites or blogs, generally, though I may include multiple links to the same site if the threads are particularly disparate (i.e. don't share similar tags) or hard to find. I may also put up a monthly tweet to my own blog (with the tag on it) if I have much on the subject. If so it'll be my Day 1 post. I've got good content here (I hope!).
I am fully aware that I may miss a day. Since there's no way to schedule posts with Twitter, I can't see how I can avoid doing that though I will try. Generally it won't be too hard as I can set up the link lists months in advance. I'd just need access to someone's computer and an internet connection to put something up.
February shall be LARP advice articles and web-sites. It's a short month and there's not a lot out there so I think it's fitting. The focus will naturally be on horror and investigative LARPs but I'll throw in some fantasy boffer articles for good measure.
March shall be Masks of Nyarlathotep - New York Section advice. This will include links to adventures I've either run or considered running, alongside good prop reservoirs and research locations. A few of these may be repeats. I do want to gather them all in one place for the interested. Plenty of them are bound to be ones I haven't listed before.
Other likely topics would involve running an Anime-style game (ala Tenra Bansho Zero), horror roleplaying links, world of darkness links, other Mask chapter links, prop links I'm specifically using (or have used) in my upcoming vampire LARP, and other things that are vaguely related.
Maybe some photography or craft links if I get really into claymaking or picture taking for my game recruitment purposes.
Maybe....
Anywho, stay tuned, and feel free to let me know if there's any theme you'd like to see upcoming.
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.
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, January 9, 2014
Worthy Links from Run A Game
I've found a really good blogger who does the Run A Game blog. The person has only been doing it for a year but they've got some good articles up already. The below are my top picks:
Variant Combat Resolutions That Don't Rely On Murder This contains a good list of ideas including how one might utilise them - from how it might begin to what sort of challenges might be part of it.
Golden Rule Chicken The article talks about those situations when players try to get their hands on an incredibly potent power to bypass most plots you could throw at them, forcing you to either nullify that power (which won't be fun for them) or run a non-game where they simply state "I unleash Power X."
God Machine Chronicle System Review An interesting and in-depth look at the new World of Darkness system. Also known as World of Darkness 2.5. This has been really helpful for me as I have put myself forward to run a God Machine based LARP.
Social Arsonists Basically the idea behind LARP Storytellers trying to sow discontent between the various characters to cause them to start having a go at each other. After all, the worse thing that can happen with those big multitude of player LARPs is if peace breaks out. There's generally only so much straight up entertaining a Storytelling team can do for 20+ players.
Contingency Envelopes I considered doing this myself but then worried that it might be too clunky. Apparently it's not. Basically you give players little envelopes with information inside and a label on it saying: "Open if X happens" or "Open at X o'clock." The main issue I have with it is where the players are going to keep them. If they're wearing dresses or skirts or even some women's pants, they're not going to have pockets. Other than that, I really like the idea.
Elysium Style LARP Advice Really good advice on running a social / political LARP. I think the best advice comes from the warning about introducing too much external plot. External enemies have a habit of driving the different factions together and once peace breaks out the game generally dies. After all, there's only so much investigative action that can happen in an Elysium style LARP, which is generally designed for larger groups of players.
Adventure Style LARP advice This one gives advice on how to run adventure LARPs where the external plot is the focus of the game, such as is typical in a Call of Cthulhu LARP adventure.
Variant Combat Resolutions That Don't Rely On Murder This contains a good list of ideas including how one might utilise them - from how it might begin to what sort of challenges might be part of it.
Golden Rule Chicken The article talks about those situations when players try to get their hands on an incredibly potent power to bypass most plots you could throw at them, forcing you to either nullify that power (which won't be fun for them) or run a non-game where they simply state "I unleash Power X."
God Machine Chronicle System Review An interesting and in-depth look at the new World of Darkness system. Also known as World of Darkness 2.5. This has been really helpful for me as I have put myself forward to run a God Machine based LARP.
Social Arsonists Basically the idea behind LARP Storytellers trying to sow discontent between the various characters to cause them to start having a go at each other. After all, the worse thing that can happen with those big multitude of player LARPs is if peace breaks out. There's generally only so much straight up entertaining a Storytelling team can do for 20+ players.
Contingency Envelopes I considered doing this myself but then worried that it might be too clunky. Apparently it's not. Basically you give players little envelopes with information inside and a label on it saying: "Open if X happens" or "Open at X o'clock." The main issue I have with it is where the players are going to keep them. If they're wearing dresses or skirts or even some women's pants, they're not going to have pockets. Other than that, I really like the idea.
Elysium Style LARP Advice Really good advice on running a social / political LARP. I think the best advice comes from the warning about introducing too much external plot. External enemies have a habit of driving the different factions together and once peace breaks out the game generally dies. After all, there's only so much investigative action that can happen in an Elysium style LARP, which is generally designed for larger groups of players.
Adventure Style LARP advice This one gives advice on how to run adventure LARPs where the external plot is the focus of the game, such as is typical in a Call of Cthulhu LARP adventure.
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
Building Player Materials (i.e. Props).
Keepers FAQ Index
Girl Gangs
Horror In Dungeons & Dragons
Taxonomy of Horror
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, September 17, 2013
Revealing Fantasy Cities
Fantasy cities are an interesting conundrum. On the one hand you want to make them vibrant, exotic and interesting. On the other hand you want to tap into the occasional sense of familiarity because, after all, these are the urban spots of fantasy so it's nice to feel connected to them. You're best off creating a city that has a strong theme that ties it all together to distinguish it from other cities, but you also want to ensure that there's enough variation within the city to justify calling it one. You also don't want it to be yet another Medieval or Low-Tech-Version-of-Victorian London but you may not have much information on cities that aren't in that mould.
So what do you do? Where do you go from here?
You could go and google "Fantasy Worldbuilding Cities" or some other similar collection of keywords to look up advice given by writers for writers on the subject. When it comes to worldbuilding and research, a lot of the same issues apply to both Game Masters and writers, after all.
Some decent links include the Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions Document, the Greatest Cities in Science Fiction Fantasy for a look at some famous ones and why they're so cool, and rpggm has a list of links on the topic.
But for today we will look at it in terms of two main factors of city building: Internal Consistency and Something Cool.
The Something Cool part is that little iconic flair or thematic line that sums it up and gives it an essential flavor. It might be something physical such as a city in the clouds or on a dragon's back, something thematic like "the city that never sleeps", or something based around a social custom like foot binding or dueling.
The Internal Consistency part is when you take that piece of iconic flair and run with it. Why is this city (especially a fantasy city) called the City that Never Sleeps? Is it because there are nocturnal races that take the night shift? Is it because the city is on a constant state of alarm due to the presence of dragons in the local area? Is it that the city is known for its decadence? Is it a mixture of the three?
Brainstorming is your friend here. Take that Something Cool and run with it. Come up with as many options you can think of and then weed out all the ones that seem tired, old, or just plain don't work for your campaign or wider setting.
Then take those details and have a real think about them. If the city is known for its decadence, then what does that mean for the paupers? For the nobility? What sort of decadence is permitted and how does that tie in to the wider customs and social interplay? Is the place starting to fall apart because the city wastes its money on nonessential parties? Is morale high? Low? Is it easier to get in through the city gates or harder? Does the decadence spill out into out-and-out corruption?
And what does that mean? How does that affect class boundaries and the presence of magical artefacts? Also what sort of quests might a decadent and sleepless city hand out?
What's that? You didn't think of the city's style affecting the quests?
Shame on you!
Matching the quests to the style in some way is one of the best ways to get your players to know the city. They spend much more time questing than listening to backstory, after all (hopefully).
A decadent city might use fetch quests, hunt quests, dungeon quests and delivery quests just like your regular fantasy campaign but the flavor should generally be decidedly different. Fetch quests might be given by alchemists to collect rare herbs for a potent drug, given by the merchant in search of clues to an enemy's dirty secrets or by a noble in search of expensive bottles of alcohol. Hunt quests could involve finding attractive dancers for the ball, hunting an impressive creature with the nobility through the parklands, or trapping a nymph to be the spectacle for a gala. Dungeon quests could become quite literal with fantastic creatures getting loose beneath some noble's playhouse ... succubi and nymphs and dryads, oh my! Delivery quests could involve tokens of affection, letters between the beloved or a love potion that needs to be imbibed by the right person at the right time.
Let's face it, if you were part of a party who had to go through all of that you might get a sense of what this city is all about - socially, politically and thematically. It's a great and easy way to do it and it sure beats having to use more exposition.
Of course, the micro-settings you pick for your scenes are vital as well. A meeting in an opium den, battle in the rafters of an opera house, or gathering in the private wing of a mansion dedicated to a noble's heir can all add to the vibe and allow you to really immerse the player characters in the uniqueness of this city. Now this doesn't mean you can't have classic taverns, cozy cottages, or other non-decadent-urban-spaces but they should feel a bit different, a bit special, by providing contrast to the main points of the story.
After all, the more normal and broad a city's vibe, the more generic it becomes.
The more unique and consistent a city's vibe, the more exotic and interesting it becomes.
So what do you do? Where do you go from here?
You could go and google "Fantasy Worldbuilding Cities" or some other similar collection of keywords to look up advice given by writers for writers on the subject. When it comes to worldbuilding and research, a lot of the same issues apply to both Game Masters and writers, after all.
Some decent links include the Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions Document, the Greatest Cities in Science Fiction Fantasy for a look at some famous ones and why they're so cool, and rpggm has a list of links on the topic.
But for today we will look at it in terms of two main factors of city building: Internal Consistency and Something Cool.
The Something Cool part is that little iconic flair or thematic line that sums it up and gives it an essential flavor. It might be something physical such as a city in the clouds or on a dragon's back, something thematic like "the city that never sleeps", or something based around a social custom like foot binding or dueling.
The Internal Consistency part is when you take that piece of iconic flair and run with it. Why is this city (especially a fantasy city) called the City that Never Sleeps? Is it because there are nocturnal races that take the night shift? Is it because the city is on a constant state of alarm due to the presence of dragons in the local area? Is it that the city is known for its decadence? Is it a mixture of the three?
Brainstorming is your friend here. Take that Something Cool and run with it. Come up with as many options you can think of and then weed out all the ones that seem tired, old, or just plain don't work for your campaign or wider setting.
Then take those details and have a real think about them. If the city is known for its decadence, then what does that mean for the paupers? For the nobility? What sort of decadence is permitted and how does that tie in to the wider customs and social interplay? Is the place starting to fall apart because the city wastes its money on nonessential parties? Is morale high? Low? Is it easier to get in through the city gates or harder? Does the decadence spill out into out-and-out corruption?
And what does that mean? How does that affect class boundaries and the presence of magical artefacts? Also what sort of quests might a decadent and sleepless city hand out?
What's that? You didn't think of the city's style affecting the quests?
Shame on you!
Matching the quests to the style in some way is one of the best ways to get your players to know the city. They spend much more time questing than listening to backstory, after all (hopefully).
A decadent city might use fetch quests, hunt quests, dungeon quests and delivery quests just like your regular fantasy campaign but the flavor should generally be decidedly different. Fetch quests might be given by alchemists to collect rare herbs for a potent drug, given by the merchant in search of clues to an enemy's dirty secrets or by a noble in search of expensive bottles of alcohol. Hunt quests could involve finding attractive dancers for the ball, hunting an impressive creature with the nobility through the parklands, or trapping a nymph to be the spectacle for a gala. Dungeon quests could become quite literal with fantastic creatures getting loose beneath some noble's playhouse ... succubi and nymphs and dryads, oh my! Delivery quests could involve tokens of affection, letters between the beloved or a love potion that needs to be imbibed by the right person at the right time.
Let's face it, if you were part of a party who had to go through all of that you might get a sense of what this city is all about - socially, politically and thematically. It's a great and easy way to do it and it sure beats having to use more exposition.
Of course, the micro-settings you pick for your scenes are vital as well. A meeting in an opium den, battle in the rafters of an opera house, or gathering in the private wing of a mansion dedicated to a noble's heir can all add to the vibe and allow you to really immerse the player characters in the uniqueness of this city. Now this doesn't mean you can't have classic taverns, cozy cottages, or other non-decadent-urban-spaces but they should feel a bit different, a bit special, by providing contrast to the main points of the story.
After all, the more normal and broad a city's vibe, the more generic it becomes.
The more unique and consistent a city's vibe, the more exotic and interesting it becomes.
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!
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Disaster based behaviour
People always assume that a disaster will involve running and screaming and people clawing at each other to get past. Not only is that often not entirely true (most people have families or friends with them, notable instances of people in crowds helping each other have been found) as it's less that no one cares or is trying to help and more than it's difficult in a tight crush of people to help those who have slipped (if you even see them) but it can even be the complete opposite of that. Sometimes people will just pretend that everything is normal. Weird but true. So if you're going to be running a crowd in a risky situation then you can create a more unique situation by including a bunch of people who have chosen to wait.
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?
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?
Monday, June 17, 2013
Family Problems Links
So you have a player whose chosen to give themselves a family member, whether as a flaw in a point-buy system or simply for some flavor, and you don't much know what to do with them because they weren't part of the plot you came up with. Or perhaps your plots are all big, bad and nasty and you know you can only get so many 'kidnap the relative' plots in before the players start rolling their eyes and deciding never to have a relative next time.
So what do you do?
You read this article for a start. It's fantastic!
I'm really looking forward to including more interactions with Lhye's mother and Miami's children + parents-in-law now. Lhye's mother hasn't been a problem for awhile since they managed to find her in time (and rescue her from her own safe haven) and Miami's at a pivotal moment where he knows where his stolen books lie. This is a good time to have them all start to matter a little more.
What if there's an important Santerian ritual coming up tonight so the In Laws can't look after Miami's kids?
What if Lhye's mother decides that, actually, she is quite mad at him for disappearing for ten years to another country in search of the fabled 'Nice Tiefling Place' when he could have stayed at home. And what are they doing with all of this is piratey business? If Andoren is so nice then maybe they should go there for awhile? This whole traveling business has been mostly boredom and salt with the odd moment of the rest of them rushing off on their own. As a Level 6 Bard, she's of their level and could easily demand to be taken along.
What about you? How might this inspire you?
So what do you do?
You read this article for a start. It's fantastic!
I'm really looking forward to including more interactions with Lhye's mother and Miami's children + parents-in-law now. Lhye's mother hasn't been a problem for awhile since they managed to find her in time (and rescue her from her own safe haven) and Miami's at a pivotal moment where he knows where his stolen books lie. This is a good time to have them all start to matter a little more.
What if there's an important Santerian ritual coming up tonight so the In Laws can't look after Miami's kids?
What if Lhye's mother decides that, actually, she is quite mad at him for disappearing for ten years to another country in search of the fabled 'Nice Tiefling Place' when he could have stayed at home. And what are they doing with all of this is piratey business? If Andoren is so nice then maybe they should go there for awhile? This whole traveling business has been mostly boredom and salt with the odd moment of the rest of them rushing off on their own. As a Level 6 Bard, she's of their level and could easily demand to be taken along.
What about you? How might this inspire you?
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.
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