Anyone tried a Cthulhu Pathfinder 20's / 30's era game?


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If so how did it work out? I've been invited to run one and we're all used to the Pathfinder system.

I think a few of the hybrid classes and core classes would work quite well. Brawler, Oracle, Witch, Shaman and Investigator seem to fit the theme pretty well.

But has anyone else thought about doing this? (I'd be shocked if no one has.)

Sovereign Court

The idea of classes in a Cthulhu game just feels wrong; in my opinion of course. To offer you some advice you are really going to want to look into ways of making the game feel like a horror or dark myth type story. This is something PF does rather poorly unless you are a prepared GM. Sorry I cant offer you more help. Hopefully you get some first hand experience replies.


Its not pathfinder per se, but they do have CoC d20 rules out there that i would look at. I got the book some time ago and its a very interesting read and converts CoC to the d20 rules to easily grasp.

But as far as using just pathfinder, nah. To many classes with abilities to stop fear and are designed to be powerful while CoC ur trying to convey the PCs are just insects, mites, to the great unknown and pathfinder seems to make PCs that are big enough to slap and get a great unknowns attention at early levels.


I too have the d20 Call of Cthulhu book but have yet to run any games using it. I'd think that the toughest part of running such a game would be coming up with adventures which fit the theme. I suppose that you'd also need to decide whether you want Pathfinder levels of magic and spells right out of the gate or would prefer to keep things a little more low key at least to start.


Redneckdevil wrote:

Its not pathfinder per se, but they do have CoC d20 rules out there that i would look at. I got the book some time ago and its a very interesting read and converts CoC to the d20 rules to easily grasp.

But as far as using just pathfinder, nah. To many classes with abilities to stop fear and are designed to be powerful while CoC ur trying to convey the PCs are just insects, mites, to the great unknown and pathfinder seems to make PCs that are big enough to slap and get a great unknowns attention at early levels.

I've used the D20 COC, it has it's issues but is workable if you are willing to convert old adventures into a new system. And I agree about the classes and the feel... it just doesn't have the sense of desperate imminent doom. Though I think with the proper uses of mad cultists and building a good sense of paranoia... it could maybe work. Not entirely wanting to go where none have gone before... but Dammit Jim I am a DM.

With the players I have, I think they will help sit the mood. They are looking for Role in this than Roll. One has already stated they are going to watch the Great Gatzby again to get into a mind set. Another has set up a rather sweet background idea.

Scarab Sages

I have the d20 CoC too, and the Nocturnum mega-adventure to go with it. It works reasonably well, but the characters are MUCH more capable than standard CoC investigators.


Very low point buy and encounters with unusually high CRs might help out. Maybe PCs based on something closer to the NPC classes from Pathfinder would work well too. Perhaps they'd be able to graduate into PC classes eventually...maybe it could be a P6 variant...maybe both...I'd think that low powered PCs in a world full of guns and dangerous monsters should find life pretty scary.

Depending on the mood of the campaign there are also a lot of non-Mythos adventures which might be fun in the 20s or 30s ranging from stuff with mobsters in NYC to exploring remote corners of the world (which of course could easily lead to Mythos adventures)


Try loking up the 3.5 splatbook heroes of horror. It has some nice rules and prestige classes for a aberration/cthulu based adventure.

Sovereign Court

Well a lot of the Cthulhu mythos monsters in pathfinder are very high levels. So Technically if you go with low levels people, you can still keep this sense of dread. But well in general, people playing pathfinder/d&d don't really do it to feel weak and the likes. If your group of friends is up for it...well go for it then.

Dark Archive

Try 10 Point Buy and make them level up slowly, I would use a lot of artifacts though and give them mythic tiers.

Scarab Sages

I would go ahead and give a 15 or 20 point buy, but limit everyone to Non-magical NPC classes like Expert, Aristocrat, and Rogue.

Grand Lodge

Grokken wrote:

If so how did it work out? I've been invited to run one and we're all used to the Pathfinder system.

I think a few of the hybrid classes and core classes would work quite well. Brawler, Oracle, Witch, Shaman and Investigator seem to fit the theme pretty well.

But has anyone else thought about doing this? (I'd be shocked if no one has.)

The closest I've come is converting Call of Cthulhu adventures into Pathfinder. I'm currently running a group through The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep, which I converted and set in Golarion.

"An old Pathfinder friend, recently returned to Absalom from an overseas trip, is murdered in his inn room by cultists from the Mwangi Expanse...."

Grand Lodge

To celebrate the arrival of Psychic Magic next year I'm turning Carrion Crown into a gaslight adventure set in a mid-19th century alternate Earth with primitive steampunk technology. I'm going for a CoC/Red Death feel but with a dash of cautious optimism. The situation is dire but with a little luck the heroes may delay the inevitable a little longer. I've played straight CoC and loved it but that's not what I'm looking for. I want dark and gritty with a chance of survival.

If that works out then Mummy's Mask gets the same treatment but moves the timeline to the Interwar Period (1919-1939) and raises the technology to emergent dieselpunk.

The potential is there if you are willing to do some genre bending. I don't think you really need to cripple the characters to get the right feel. The Ravenloft material is an excellent source for information on how to diminish the power level of a campaign and keep the players scared but not helpless. The CoC d20 sanity rules are in 3.0 Unearthed Arcana along with the Taint rules from d20 Oriental Adventures. I've heard good things about Heroes of Horror but I haven't read it myself.

SM


What with Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu, I have never seen a need for it. The only real area it might be useful (i.e. superpulpie games)can now be covered with Fate, thanks to the Achtung! Cthulhu Fate hack by Modiphius. I guess, given the thematic differences between pathfinder as a system and the setting, my question would be; "why do it?"


An update:
Classes used will be Pistolero, Shaman, Oracle and Ninja-ish.
Setting it late 1924.
Trick is, magic doesn't really exist for normal folk, and no one wants them knowing. So no flashy spells. Keep it on the down low otherwise it will draw the attention of people with really BIG guns.

Ghouls (CR1) have an intelligence of 13, you think they don't know about guns and possibly explosives? :D

Cultists of course have access to the same spells, same guns and less moral qualms about blowing away innocent seeming by-standers. Again this will be as much or more about role as roll. Considering the way most adventures end in D&D, trying to do it quietly is more of a challenge than any CR I could otherwise dream up.

And there is always the napping Shoggoth under Arkham if things get too out of hand.

Shadow Lodge

I tried it once, but my players didn't like it too much. Mainly because they're usually a bunch of spell casting murderhobos. I didn't let them start as spellcasters (I let them start as gunslingers, rogues, slayers, stuff like that). They gained the option to multiclass into various spellcasters and others as they uncovered...the mysteries of BARON PINEAPPLE! None of them has read OOTS, so I got off on that one. It was set in the 20's, but went over a course of two decades or so. I did some inventing for the newer firearms, giving them less misfire chance and only if the attack roll missed on the one (still misses naturally, but gunslingers have obviously good to-hit). Mostly fought cultists and undead, solving puzzles along the way.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I've been fiddling with a pulp era pathfinder hack for a while. With the release of Occult Adventures it's definitely rekindled the idea.

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