Hi all,
I just signed up on this forum to see if there is any interested in a PbP game of "Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition", either as a player or the Keeper (GM). I've GM'd several PbP games before (in other systems) but have so far never been a PbP player. I would consider either role - player or GM - but the latter would require some work as I don't have anything planned.
Books I own:
- CoC7e Keeper Rulebook
- CoC7e Pulp Cthulhu
- CoC7e Down Darker Trails
Given the above my preferred setting would be the 1920s-1930s or late 1800s "Old West" (either with or without supernatural elements if a pure historical game is desired).
Looking forward to your replies,
Baldrick
I have interest in the system as a player. I do have the 7E Investigator Handbook and Keeper Rulebook, though have not read through either at this point. I'd prefer the 1920s - 1930s but would play anywhere as long as the supernatural is there to drive me insane (or just kill me,) in the most unexpected ways possible.
I have interest in the system as a player. I do have the 7E Investigator Handbook and Keeper Rulebook, though have not read through either at this point. I'd prefer the 1920s - 1930s but would play anywhere as long as the supernatural is there to drive me insane (or just kill me,) in the most unexpected ways possible.
Thanks for your interest. I am happy to run the game (I like rules!) but it would be fun to be a player for a change if anyone else is interested in being the GM. 1920s-1930s horror is fine with me as well.
What sort of character would you like to play? As you don't have "Pulp Cthulhu" we can go with the standard char-gen rules even if we choose the 1930s setting (which is the default for "Pulp"). The system is relatively simple so you don't need to have read anything beforehand. This is a handy site to play around with character creation...
https://www.dholeshouse.org/
I've explored previous editions of the system before (though it's been a while,) and don't recall finding it too daunting. I'd probably also be up to picking up Pulp Cthulhu if there were another couple people interested in playing.
I didn't have any particular character in mind, but what about a Mathematics Graduate Student (maybe second year, just settling on a field, say Game Theory, following on John von Neumann's recent work, and starting to prepare for qualifying exams.) They would have made connections in town with other students and faculty as well as some from outside the University (depending on the area the game takes place in this could be through any sort of hobby/sport/local pub/something else.) Let's say they have an Aunt in town (or the next town down depending on whether it's a big city or a smaller college town,) who is widowed and works as a as a filing clerk in the police department (in a smaller town she probably is their entire filing department.) She doesn't see as many people as she used to since her husband died as he was the social one, so we try to have dinner every week or two.
That should work for about any setting, would be a character who should be able to work with others somewhat well, could probably contribute in some situations, but would be overwhelmed in others, and should have plenty of hooks to pick from to get involved in whatever goes down.
It's also all just off the top of my head, so if the GM (either you or someone else who wants to step up and offer,) would prefer something in another direction that's fine with me too!
I'll take a look at the character creation tool for now and see if it gives me any fun ideas.
Thanks for your reply. I checked out von Neumann and his earlier work on Game Theory was published in 1928, so it was definitely a field of study back then. No reason why your character couldn't be a brainy maths grad student interested in von Neumann's recent work. The occupation to pick would be Scientist, which allows up to three different specialties - so Mathematics plus maybe Quantum Physics and/or Cosmology. I can see this being handy for some situations (several of Lovecraft's stories look at the potential dangers of scientific research). As a Scientist you also get to spend Occupation points in one of the Social skills like Persuade or Charm, which is also very useful.
Re. setting. I would go with something everyone is familiar with from the stories as a focus - Miskatonic University, Massachusetts, circa 1928 (for your Game Theory research) but with plenty of opportunity for globe-trotting (e.g. the eponymous Miskatonic University Expedition to the back of beyond!).
Dotting for interest. Have played CoC 6th, Trail of Cthulhu, and Delta Green stuff. Picking up 7th to familiarize myself with the rules changes.
Great! Thanks for your interest. We could run with 2 players but one more would probably be ideal. Let's see if anyone else bites.
I’m interested in this game too. I have the CoC 6th edition rules and downloaded the conversion guide for 7th edition from the Chaosium website. As for characters, I am thinking maybe a photographer who tries to take images of ghosts. Though I’m still brainstorming some other ideas.
I’m interested in this game too. I have the CoC 6th edition rules and downloaded the conversion guide for 7th edition from the Chaosium website. As for characters, I am thinking maybe a photographer who tries to take images of ghosts. Though I’m still brainstorming some other ideas.
Welcome aboard! I think 3 characters is a good number but we could probably stretch to 4 or 5 at a push. Any more than that and it might be a bit hard to handle and somewhat unrealistic (investigators travelling around in convoys of vehicles seems very un-Lovecraftian). I look forward to your character concept. Ideally PCs should complement each other, e.g. brain, smooth-talker, muscle, etc. At least one with a high Credit Rating is handy too.
The Campaign Discussion Thread is now up so see you there to discuss how to proceed. First thing to tackle - where to store the character sheets.
By the way, there's a very in-depth overview of the 7th Edition Rules on YouTube here, if anyone is interested...
Just checking in to say I'm still in and am watching through the Overview videos. They're very well done. I'm still up for the character that I outlined if it fits with what everyone else wants to do, but I'm also still flexible. I'll have a more detailed character written up in a bit. What were you thinking for character creation guidelines? Point buy or roll or something else?
Just checking in to say I'm still in and am watching through the Overview videos. They're very well done. I'm still up for the character that I outlined if it fits with what everyone else wants to do, but I'm also still flexible. I'll have a more detailed character written up in a bit. What were you thinking for character creation guidelines? Point buy or roll or something else?
For character creation the "Point Buy" method is the fairest so let's go with that. 460 points are shared amongst the 8 characteristics (STR, DEX, INT, CON, APP, POW, SIZ, EDU). All characteristics except INT and SIZ must be in the range 15-90. INT and SIZ must be in the range 40-90. [EDIT] If you want the character to look like it could have been randomly rolled up then ensure each value is divisible by 5 (e.g. 30, 55, 90 but not 67).
Which timeframe will we be working with for the game? I'm thinking about a cross between Hemmingway and a second son bon vivant, a former soldier turned wanderer "finding himself" through adventure and travel...
Late 1920s
I have the chance to pick it up, but am checking before I do, are we using Pulp Cthulhu?
Are we using the Experienced Investigator Optional Rules?
Personally I am thinking about becoming either an Explorer, Investigative Reporter, or Private Investigator, depending on what type of campaign you wish to run and preferences of any other players.
Random Roles to help decide on my character build...
x 5
x 5
x 5
x 5
x 5
x 5
x 5
x 5
Will we roll for Luck or should we allow the GM to do so?
Should we roll for the Age Check for EDU skill points?
In case we should roll Luck and Age Check...
x 5
x 5
In case we should roll Luck and Age Check...
[dice=Luck 1st]2d6+6 x 5
[dice=Luck 2nd]2d6+6 x 5
[dice=Age EDU Improveent Check vs EDU 70]1d100
[dice=If Successful ie over]1d10
Thanks for your interest. For fairnesss I would prefer to use the Point Buy method (outlined in one of my previous posts) and a straight roll of 3d6 x 5 for Luck as per the 7th Edition rules. No optional rules at this stage except for Skills being capped at 75.
You should definitely perform the required changes/rolls for the investigator's chosen Age if you want your investigator to be particularly young or old. Investigators in their 20s are "default" and don't need this.
I can roll each investigator's Luck if you want to ensure it's all fair and above board. I think the Experienced Investigator Skill packages are only in the Investigator's Handbook, which I don't own, so I would prefer not to use them as well.
[EDIT] Re. Occupation choice and the campaign, I was planning on designing the campaign around the investigators rather than the other way around as I still don't have a planned first scenario. I am currently thinking about that.
Sorry about the mistake on the luck rolls. And my attribute rolls were for my own conception of the character, adjusted for the point buy as mentioned. I skilled him out as an Explorer, assuming the others continue with Photographer and Mathematician.
As for Age I assumed 1928 for the campaign which came to 30 yrs old when born in 1898, as I wanted him to have served in WWI. I can adjust if necessary.
If you wish to roll Luck I will wait for that before adding the result to the Character Profile. Look it over and tell me if anything needs corrected.
Sorry about the mistake on the luck rolls. And my attribute rolls were for my own conception of the character, adjusted for the point buy as mentioned. I skilled him out as an Explorer, assuming the others continue with Photographer and Mathematician.
As for Age I assumed 1928 for the campaign which came to 30 yrs old when born in 1898, as I wanted him to have served in WWI. I can adjust if necessary.
If you wish to roll Luck I will wait for that before adding the result to the Character Profile. Look it over and tell me if anything needs corrected.
Age 30 just gives one EDU improvement check so that's fine for your WWI veteran. Here's your Luck Roll...
[dices=Luck Roll]3d6 x 5[/dices]
Luck Roll attempt again.
[dices=Luck]3d6[/dices]
OK, first problem. How do I roll dice!! As I said, I am new to this forum.
[EDIT] Won't be able to post again for about 8 hours. See you later.
use dice without the s
edit: I only rolled two dice in the example as I prefer to allow you to roll the Luck for all of us players, and karmically not boning myself with a roll I wouldn't be able to use.
Here's your Luck...
Multiplying by 5 = 60, pretty average but not terrible.
All other players, I will roll your starting Luck when you ask me.
P.S. Check the rules for Age adjustments. I thought investigators in there 20s didn't have any adjustments but I was wrong.
Do we have an exact year for the campaign? I'd like to keep Stevie at 30-33 years old, an age where he'd be viewed as reasonably competent, mature, too old to not have a "real" job, not old enough to not be active, and have some folks wondering aloud why he hasn't settled down with a good woman like a good man should...
Do we have an exact year for the campaign? I'd like to keep Stevie at 30-33 years old, an age where he'd be viewed as reasonably competent, mature, too old to not have a "real" job, not old enough to not be active, and have some folks wondering aloud why he hasn't settled down with a good woman like a good man should...
Let's go with 1929.
Got it, thanks. Stevie is doing okay for a 31 yr old gadabout. His flat is furnished and comfortable, at least when he's back in Brooklyn. He knows a few people in the antiquities and art world who are happy to send him on "recovery" jobs, and his main squeeze is a regular at his fave speak-easy. Life is looking good, time for the madness to begin...
Got it, thanks. Stevie is doing okay for a 31 yr old gadabout. His flat is furnished and comfortable, at least when he's back in Brooklyn. He knows a few people in the antiquities and art world who are happy to send him on "recovery" jobs, and his main squeeze is a regular at his fave speak-easy. Life is looking good, time for the madness to begin...
Can't wait to meet him! Being new to this site I'm a bit unsure of how each player will make their investigator sheet publicly viewable, so if you have any suggestions let me know. Ideally we should probably have an online PDF of each investigator linked to the campaign. We could use Dholeshouse if there are no other options.
The good news is that we can put the characters right in the profiles (you can see all the stats for Stevie if you click on his name or avatar.) It'll take a bit of work player side to create, but it's not too bad. I usually type things up in an editor offline and then copy and paste them in.
I'm ready for a luck roll for Gene Hansen (Eugene Dan Hansen to his not so friends.) The Dholeshouse character generator already had him fail his one Education Improvement Check and I'm fine with that.
The good news is that we can put the characters right in the profiles (you can see all the stats for Stevie if you click on his name or avatar.) It'll take a bit of work player side to create, but it's not too bad. I usually type things up in an editor offline and then copy and paste them in.
I'm ready for a luck roll for Gene Hansen (Eugene Dan Hansen to his not so friends.) The Dholeshouse character generator already had him fail his one Education Improvement Check and I'm fine with that.
Gene's Luck roll...
Eugene's Luck (11 x 5) = 55.
Stevie's 5 points luckier, but will that be enough when the chaos erupts...
P.S. If you want to use Dholeshouse for character storage/maintenance I created an account (baldrick0712) and can pm you all my password.
[EDIT] Happy to use the "Profile" approach though.
Checking in with an update on my investigator Dorothy Rose Crick (I may change the last name). Please roll Luck for her. The background is very rough at the moment.
These were the listed skills under “Author” in the 6th edition.
I haven’t distributed the points yet for this group, but these are the ones I probably will increase
Gene, Dorothy, welcome to the investigation...
Dorothy's Luck...
x 5 = 60
Does anyone know how the "Players" and "Characters" tabs get populated like I've seen in other campaigns?
Those get populated by the characters/players that post in the gameplay thread automatically. Unless they need adjusting (and I wouldn't know how to do that, never having owned a thread,) it'll take care of itself when we start playing.
Posted a boilerplate statement to the Gameplay thread, to add Stevie to the player tab. Should be vague enough to be worked into the game when ready.
Those get populated by the characters/players that post in the gameplay thread automatically. Unless they need adjusting (and I wouldn't know how to do that, never having owned a thread,) it'll take care of itself when we start playing.
The thread owner can edit and remove past players from those tabs from the campaign tab, at the bottom I believe.
Right, Zorblag's character here. I still need to type up my backstory, though I've got it figured out other than names. Here are the basic stats if you want to take a look and see if anything looks off. I did go with Scientist as Occupation (though Student would have fit as well.)
I'm good for a purchased adventure; I won't have read it and if it saves you some work that sounds like it's worth it to me!
Right, Zorblag's character here. I still need to type up my backstory, though I've got it figured out other than names. Here are the basic stats if you want to take a look and see if anything looks off. I did go with Scientist as Occupation (though Student would have fit as well.)
I'm good for a purchased adventure; I won't have read it and if it saves you some work that sounds like it's worth it to me!
I checked Eugene's stats and he's exceeded the 75 Skill Cap in one of them, but not by much. Maybe you could check that. I will have to trust players on actual skill point spend totals for the most part as it would be too time consuming going through every skill deducting the base amount to figure out how many points were spent.
I bought "Sun Spots" but I may not use it after all. Instead, I've been watching some old creepy dramas for ideas and have the bones of a story already in mind that I think you will all enjoy. I will flesh it out further whilst waiting for all of the investigators to be finalised.
I think we are waiting for Eugene and Dorothy's stats/background to be finalised but let me know if there is some other delay.
Stevie is here and ready, or as ready as he can be without knowing the plot hook...
Stevie is here and ready, or as ready as he can be without knowing the plot hook...
Yes, sorry about there being no plot hook yet. I bought "Doors to Darkness" (5 scenarios for CoC7e new players/GMs) at the weekend as "Sun Spots" turned out not to be very suitable. I've also been watching YouTube vids on how to create CoC scenarios and campaigns. I also had a plot in mind from an old drama series that I was hoping to adapt and flesh out. So far nothing is finalised but I have plenty of "potential" plot lines in mind.
Having also recently listened to quite a few H P Lovecraft audiobook stories on YouTube for inspiration it has struck me how different they are to the typical CoC scenario. The typical Lovecraft protagonist very rarely rescues anyone or defeats anything. Most of the time they just reminisce about some horrifying experience that drove them insane!
I will come up with something soon, I promise.
[EDIT] It would help me a lot if the other two investigators were finalised soon however as my first job is to figure out how they come to know each other or be working together.
Lovecraft was definitely all about learning just enough to realize how terrible doomed the protagonist in particular, and mankind in general, really was. It might not make for a typical CoC scenario, but if that's the way we end up (by design or due to how play goes,) I'll chalk it up to theme and be fine as long as we had fun getting there.
My quarter just started today, so I've been spending a bit more time preparing classes and less time getting the backstory typed up, but I think I can get it done by tomorrow at the latest.
For the skill that was over 75, that was Language English (my native language) which Dholeshouse had set to EDU (80) by default. I'm happy to bring that back to 75, and it shouldn't effect any of the other scores as I hadn't put any points in it.
For the skill that was over 75, that was Language English (my native language) which Dholeshouse had set to EDU (80) by default. I'm happy to bring that back to 75, and it shouldn't effect any of the other scores as I hadn't put any points in it.
No, leave it at 80. The Skill Cap of 75 is an optional rule without much elaboration so I will interpret it to mean you can't spend skill points to raise a skill over 75. If it's already over 75 without spending skill points (e.g. Own Language for a highly educated investigator) then this should not be adjusted downwards.
If nobody owns or has read "Doors to Darkness" then there is a scenario in it that could get us going pretty quickly as I can see it linking to Dorothy the Author. She would begin the scenario concerned for the wellbeing of a fellow author of her acquaintance after receiving some disturbing letters from him. Not wishing to investigate on her own, she decides to ask Stevie and Eugene to accompany her. We would still have to come up with a reason for her to know them or hire them but I'm sure that won't be too hard. How does this sound?