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I have a secret thing for steampunk which I cannot explain, haha! So even if you don't want to submit a character, by all means post here and tell us what you love about Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft, the 1890s gaslight setting, or steampunk/dieselpunk!
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This will be the excellent adventure called The Machine King by Geoff Gillan and Dean Engelhardt for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game...
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The Machine King takes place in London around 1890. We begin in a very realistic historical setting. But as the madness takes you and the dreamworld spills into reality the Investigators will find themselves in a Steampunk world of Involute Gears and Grinding Brass Metal!
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Although RPGs like Pathfinder are super fun, the Promise of Call of Cthulhu is a just a totally different experience. Instead of playing a character like this, you play one more like this, or this, and powergamers be warned! Combat is usually pretty deadly and insanity is not uncommon. After all, your character will be uncovering the truth of the cosmic Lovecraft-ian horror lurking just behind the veil. So if your the kind of player where the GM can describe,
...the red velvet seats and gold trimmed balconies of the London Opera house where the body was found!
and you can actually post something, this might be for you! But if you need,
...okay, guys, begin round 19 now.
before you post, this might not be your cup-a-earl-grey.
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The promise is backed up by this: Call of Cthulhu is in its 7th edition and the folks over at Chaosium have been publishing role-playing games since 1975. The 7th edition quick-start rules will be sufficient for our game and are available FREE from the Chaosium here. And here is a link to a beautiful 3rd party gaslight themed character sheet by the folks over at cthulhureborn.wordpress.com to get you started.
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Oh my gosh, I proof read that opening post 100 times but missed that mistake. How embarrassing! Make that Feb 5th...Thanks Iron!
I love seventh Ed! I recently played some games with friends, and had a stack of left over back-up characters, so i'll try and engineer something to fit your game. I did have one spare character called the Bird Man. A hobo with 95% Spot Hidden, 95% Listen, and something like 6 starting sanity. Maybe not the best for a play-by-post though....
Hey Violet, I was reading the "Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed. Quick-Start" thinking about the information you provided up top and was reminded of Angus, If you like him I will start on a sheet, if your looking for something a little different, I'm sure I can come up with something.
This Scottish officer is a favorite character of mine; let’s face it who doesn’t want to play someone who talks like Sean Connery. I developed him for a d20 modern game that never developed, do you think he would fit into the general ideas of the game? I was thinking he would take the 'DILETTANTE' occupation from the 'quick start rules.'
His back story would be that he is home from a horrendously vicious tour in India; where they not onely face rebellious natives but also the “Hindu supernatural.” He has returned to convalesce. Because when you send two hundred British, Scottish and Gurkha troops into the jungle and only seven come out with stories of natives, men who turn to tigers, blue woman eight foot tall with six arms and a red giant with a head with three faces and shoots lighting from his eyes; well you must be sick.
So he comes home half insane. As he returns to normal and his mental faculties return he begins to regain his old skills. So as he gains levels he’s “returning to normal.” So about level six or seven he’s back to his old self and then starts learning new things. So he’s just regaining old tools that his brain is letting him use again.
Name:
Angus Elphinstone: third son of John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone and 1st Baron Elphinstone, of Elphinstone in the County of Stirling, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. His two older brothers are named: John and Alexander.
occupation:
officer in the black guard on extended leave of absence to convalesce
Present location
The New Club is a private social club with premises in the New Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1787 as a gentlemen's club, it is Scotland's oldest private member's club. From 1809 the club occupied premises on St Andrew Square, until 1837 when it moved to purpose-built rooms on Princes Street.
Old family residence: Elphinstone Tower
New Family Rsidence
Family information
Intorduction:
Angus looked around the room. The King and the Queen, you don’t see that very often. Angus kept very still, resisting the urge to shuffle his feet or wipe his brow. He kept his eyes down; his hands in front of him. You hear about this sort of thing, but this is the first time it’s ever happened to me He slowly lifts his eyes and looks at the other gentleman gathered round, they also were being very quiet. every now and then some loud mouth braggart “oh this happened or that happened” Not the sort of people I usually believe. The room had gotten deathly quiet Angus knew he needed to say something, it was expected after all. Well I guess when the situation arises you take full advantage of it.
He places his cards face down on the red-velvet top and leans over the black oak table pushing the remainder of his small stack of chips past his discard and into the center of the table. Well boys, I guess I’m all in, I’ve wore Ma’self out, time ta finish. If I win this hand Ma luck changes a wee bit, if not, I go ta bed having lost ma gambling allowance for a whole week again. So whose willin ta pay ta see the cards I acquired on tha’ last go round?
Of the six other gentlemen at the table, two had already folded, Argyle looks at his hand then looking at Angus he toss’ his hand in disgust; while Mc Cloud shuffles his cards again flips through them one at a time, dropping them on the table and pushing them away. Edwards shakes his head I may be English but I’m not stupid, you’ve been bluffing all night, I’m in. and with a flourish he counts Angus’ pile and separating a fourth of his, matches it. Mc Entire takes a little longer; he looks from Edwards then to Angus and back to Edwards. Finally he counts out about an eighth of his stack and adds Well I’ve been lucky all night, Nay a reason not to let you earn a wee bit back, if ya can..
As Edwards turns his two pair, and Mc Entire smiles showing a full house; Angus waits a moment and shows the ‘royal flush’ that he acquired when he was dealt the king and queen, been losing all night, had tha nine, ten an Jack; figured wha tha hell I’m dun one way or tha other.. Angus tips his bonnet to his fellow gamblers and collected his winnings.
first week I’ve come out ahead, I may be finally getting the hang of this gambling thing As he goes to leave the game room a footman approaches with a sealed envelope, Sir, this correspondence came for you , Angus accepts the envelope as he departs to his room.
Expressing interest. Newbie to the game, though I do have some of the books around here somewhere.
Likely to go with a University type character. Well-learned since someone will have to translate any sanity-bending texts we find. :)
Curious if any Penny Dreadful style creatures will make any appearances? For some reason I am obsessed with stories of Spring Heel Jack.
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Hey Violet, I was reading the "Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed. Quick-Start" thinking about the information you provided up top and was reminded of Angus, If you like him I will start on a sheet, if your looking for something a little different, I'm sure I can come up with something.
** spoiler omitted **...
I was going for a Scottish soldier too! Same basic idea, but I'd try to fill the medical and educational role, since I have 80 EDU. We could be connected if you'd like, or I could just be stationed somewhere else.
I was going for a Scottish soldier too! Same basic idea, but I'd try to fill the medical and educational role, since I have 80 EDU. We could be connected if you'd like, or I could just be stationed somewhere else.Hey Violet, I was reading the "Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed. Quick-Start" thinking about the information you provided up top and was reminded of Angus, If you like him I will start on a sheet, if your looking for something a little different, I'm sure I can come up with something.
** spoiler omitted **...
in Angus' story there were other survivors from his unit, you could have been there with him, comrades in arms, or you could be one of the doctors he is seeing, helping him with his 'mental illness'. Of course this is assuming that Violet likes the idea.
@Violet, so tell me where are you at with men in Kilts?
Kilts are hot.
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Kilts are hot.
I agree. Also, Robert, I like both ideas! I'd say the latter though, since my investigator, Lachlan, is relatively sane. Maybe he could have listened to your stories while treating you and become interested in the supernatural? He looks more like this. Still has that hot kilt doe.
As the guy who published "The Machine King" and also designed the Art Nouveau character sheet linked here
Wait...What? WOW! Thanks, Cthulhu Reborn, for dropping by our table! I'm taking your post as an unofficial blessing, haha! Thank you so much!
And oh comooooon, you know you wanna roll up a character and join in with us! PBP can be super addictive, but with no bad side effects *wink*
Is there any way to link the pdf in a way that I don't have to give out my info? I know it's free, I'm just not that comfortable with it.
Sorry IronGiant6. But If I link to unauthorized copywrited content then this Ninja (AKA Liz Courts the Paizo Community Manager) will show up and ninja chop me and delete the post! Which is funny to see when it happens to others, but not if it happens to me!!
@Violet, so tell me where are you at with men in Kilts?
*fans self* Whew. WHEW! make it stop!! Joy is right, Kilks are super hot.
Those are some sexy man knees.
Curious if any Penny Dreadful style creatures will make any appearances?
Oooo, good idea Joy. It would be a brave soul who played a Victorian lady of good stock suffering from the horror of realizing her desires are taking a twisted turn toward dark forbidden fruits...
And so, she wanders in London's Hyde Park late at night under the gaslamps, hoping against hope the "Springer" will find her again...
Haha, I just creeped myself out. I might roll a character that up and save her for another time!!
I have always wanted to play the Gaslight version, count me interested. I will try to whip something up by Wednesday.
No worries aptinuviel, plenty of time. I was thinking about you last night...what about a character like that elephant gun toting, bad toothed safari hunter guy from Jumanji, haha!
No worries aptinuviel, plenty of time. I was thinking about you last night...what about a character like that elephant gun toting, bad toothed safari hunter guy from Jumanji, haha!
I think you mean Van Pelt? Erik Mona of Paizo played a similar character in a Horror On The Orient Express game. Check his facebook, it was excellent.
Hey ya'll! The gameplay thread is up now so if you want to dot in and then immediately delete your post, this game will show up in your campaigns page, giving you the little (x2 new) tags. Makes watching recruitment a lot easier.
Thanks NerdOfTheYear, I'll check Erik's posts out tonight:D
Also, I have a freebie for you all...stop me if you've heard this one:
A goth was coloring one day when her black crayon broke. She reached in the box and grabbed the brown crayon to finish her coloring and BAM! Just-like-that, steampunk was born...
bwahahaha!
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We're using the quickstart rules for character creation, correct? Not rolling things and such?
I like the idea of an explorer. I also have an idea for an antiquarian, clock maker, and bookseller bouncing around in my head. So many ideas! I'll try to make up my mind soon, but in the meantime I'll keep posting and trying to sort them out...and bump the thread as a bonus!
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So I asked Violet about gear and she responded with this:
Buying gear is fun for some players and not for others. But I can see you are like me and enjoy that part of the game! So do this: you can either just imagine gear reasonable for the time period and character, OR go ahead and buy gear by using the rule that your character starts with 5x her credit rating in $USD$. Then use this link to pick some gear!
Beware that spending ALL your money on guns leaves you nothing left for room and board, haha! I'll check characters to make sure they seem realistic so everyone can feel like they are in the REAL 1890s dealing with REAL horrors!
Violet asked me to post it here for all of you, so here you go!
My soldier would probably only carry around a .45, while my backup would carry an elephant gun plus some other guns like that. I have my investigators nearly done, so I might send them over to Violet. Very excited for this game!
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Here are my completed character sheets. I plan on playing my vigilante for as long as possible, and his backstory is going to be very vague/secretive. You won't even get a last name. Anyway, I made a mistake with him because it didn't save. I switched INT and POW but they reverted. So treat my POW as 60 for sanity and MP please! EDIT: Also realized Lachlan's revolver should have 100 bullets, not twelve.
James is a vigilante and bounty hunter from Bristol. All you know about him is that he is merciless to criminals, but keeps a classy demeanor. He knows his way around most weapons, and can fire an elephant gun without falling over in the process. He came about the supernatural when one of his targets was a cultist who had been kidnapping for sacrifices. James is a heavy fighter, both offensively and defensively. He is not afraid to work with others, but is also competent alone. His tracking skills are above average and he can deal with stressful situations better than most.
Lachlan is a Scottish soldier and combat medic. He is very good at what he does, and had planned to be a doctor before becoming a soldier. While listening to one of his more delusional patients, he became interested in the supernatural, and began research. Discovering that these ramblings by the soldier were actually quite accurate, he seeks this man again to question him more. He is dependent on other fighters for protection, but is one of the best medical professionals out there. He is a great researcher, and excels out of combat, but does not fail completely under such circumstances either.
Okay been re-reading the module and it's just awesome. There are terrible horrors, steampunk juggernaut monsters, wild dream-scapes, high-speed locomotive collisions! And that's just if you guys choose to stay on the module and not go exploring 1890s occult London...
And also in the shower last night I thought of a really clean way [pardon the pun] to handle Cthulhu combat in pbp. Should be super cinche and fun!
Violet says I should drop in here, this is RH's character icon, I don't have the crunch finished yet, been a busy week, I will have him finished hopefully by Thursday morning, still doing the work at night thing.
Yikes! Makes me sound so pushy:( sorry Angus!
I appreciate very much everyone being willing to try something new and getting cool characters together!
I've not played 7th but have played various incarnations from 3rd - 6th.
If I may I'd like to make a version of my repeatedly reincarnated Cthulhu Character Miss Eloise Cartwright, heiress and adventurer.
I can't download the newer rules where I am, but will endeavour to take a look shortly.
We also usually play Cthulhu with a whole bunch of house rules on the tabletop, so I'll have to try and clear my mind as to what are actual rules.
EDIT: Just realised I've already claimed the name, though the profile is for a Cthulhutech version...
Eloise/spinningdice! Awesome to hear from you! We played this one together a while back together and I had a lot of fun...
Yikes! Makes me sound so pushy:( sorry Angus!
Sorry, didn't mean it bad. I'm still working on Angus, hope to have him ready soon for your approval.
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I'm leaning towards a lower to middle class character at the moment. Maybe a butler or a criminal? It depends on whether we'll have someone for the character to be a butler to. Otherwise I might go with the criminal idea. I should have a better idea by tomorrow and I'll finish the character sheet up right away. (The quick start rules make that part really fast!)
Nixie, I didn't realise it was you. That game was a lot of fun.
Slapped some numbers onto my profile, from the quickstart rules, are there any different skills in Gaslight, can't think of anything off the top of my head.
May well swap some numbers around, her combat skills may be a bit too high at the moment. Though she needs some as she styles herself an adventurer and practices such things.
Need to extract background from head to profile, change the avatar and maybe pretty things up a little.
Eloise could have a butler/chaperone, if you want a target Aptinuviel her family are wealthier than she is and force her to live at a lower level of luxury (only 60 credit rating - almost a pauper really) until she finds a suitable husband. If the family could have someone keep an eye on her it would fit quite nicely (the original version of this character in tabletop had an npc maidservant, with a fair few thief-type skills). But it's up to you.
I'm very interested and am tossing some ideas around. I did want to echo the implied question - are there any different skills or anything that I should be aware of for a gaslight setting?
I'll look through Gaslight tonight and post see what I can find you might be interested in. I know DRIVE AUTO becomes DRIVE CARRIAGE:)
Okay as promised, from Call of Cthulhu Gaslight! This entire post is optional as quickstart rules are sufficeint for our game.
Victorian Era Occupations
-Adventuress
-Antiquarian
-Aristocrat
-Artist
-Author
-Cab Driver
-Consulting Detective (ie, Sherlock Holmes!)
-Craftsman
-Criminal (yeah baby!)
-Dilettante
-Entertainer
-Ex-Military
-Explorer
-Inquiry Agent
-Journalist
-Laborer
-Lawyer
-{hysician
-Policeoman
-Professor/Scholar
-Scientist
-Servant
-Shopkeeper
-Soldier
-Spy
Then there is a massive table of Character Traits. You roll 1d6 & 1d20. Some are helpful and some are detrimental. If you get a detrimental one then you get an extra 3d20 skill points to make up for it! Anyone want to try their luck??
SKILL ALTERATIONS
-Drive Carriage replaces Drive Auto, base is 20%
-Electrical Repair drops to 01% base
-Operate Heavy Machinery (this is an important skill in this scenario)
-Pilot Balloon replaces Pilot Aircraft. This also applies to deridgables, and I'm going to tell you know that there Zepplins in our game.
Finally
In the period covered by this book the British Pound = about $5. Annual average incomes are:
lower class: 1d2X100 pounds
middle: 1d3X100 pounds
middle upper class: 1d3+2 X 100 pounds
upper class 1d10 X 1000 pounds
These are the only differences in the gaslight book for character creation!
ooohhhhh always willing to try my luck... since we have a dilettante should Amgus go military or ex-military or will it make that big of difference. Even as a dilettante he will use his extra training for military type things, ie: fencing and another weapon, maybe artillery would that count as operating heavy machinery?
oh the rolls just one 1d6 and 1d20?
Wow, Angus! 2,10 in Gaslight says:
Excellent Weapon: A gun may add 50% to normal ranges; a melee weapon may add 5% to user's skill or add 1d2 to damage; the weapon may alternately be harder to damage (more HP) or be of a more expensive quality than normal examples.
You are sooooo lucky, cause there are some NASTY detrimental ones on the list!
better lucky than good right...
Why not,
Also it appears the one roll you do have to make in character creation is Luck
EDIT: Also updated profile with some background, just kind of slapped it down on the page, so I'll re-read it after work and probably cringe a bit and re-write.
sounds like 5,8, is a criminal, that's sort of funny, a Dilletante criminal, maybe she has a shoplifting problem...
ok, new to Cthulhu, other than rolling my luck score and figuring out wealth to purchase a few things, what does Angus need to do to be done?
You are close! But take PERSUADE as an example. You assigned 70%, but every skill has a base chance, just for being alive, in addition to what you assign. The base chances appear on the character sheet. For example, it shows "Persuade(10%)". So you add the 10% to the 70% you assigned for a total of 80%. Which means half is 40%, and 1/5th is 16%.
I left the gaslight book at home cause I didn't want anyone to see me reading it at work! So I'll check it as soon as I gets home for 5,8...
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You are close! But take PERSUADE as an example. You assigned 70%, but every skill has a base chance, just for being alive, in addition to what you assign. The base chances appear on the character sheet. For example, it shows "Persuade(10%)". So you add the 10% to the 70% you assigned for a total of 80%. Which means half is 40%, and 1/5th is 16%.
I left the gaslight book at home cause I didn't want anyone to see me reading it at work! So I'll check it as soon as I gets home for 5,8...
Woah, didn't know that. I'll do that now! I had it so that it was just a flat 70%, 60%, and so on. That means my rifle skill is 95% :0
Against the eldritch horrors of Lovecraft's mind your 95% shall be as tuppence! Mwahaha!