The Armitage Papers

Game Master greg white 722

Testing the waters to see if there would be any interest in a 7th ed. CoC
game using "The Armitage Papers" by Pelgrane Press.

The setting is classic New England Jazz Age.

The Investigators would be members of the 'Armitage Inquiry', a clique of academics recruited to fight the horrors of the Mythos.

The game/campaign is an improvisational sand-box, where the ultimate direction of the game largely depends upon Player Character actions.

Testing, one, two, three, testing....

I'd be interested, though I've admittedly never played CoC and would have to learn the system.

I'd be interested, though I've admittedly never played CoC and would have to learn the system.

Mechanically it's pretty simple, with a percentile based system.

With its greater emphasis on investigation and role-playing the rules, and their minutiae, are little less critical than they are in either D&D/Pathfinder.

See Quickstart Rules

Do I need anything other than the quickstart rules?

May be interested -- I have the rulebook but no supplements.

Never played COC but know a bit about it, would be interested in trying it out.

The Quickstart rules should be sufficient. In this style of gaming besides there's a lot less emphasis oncombat mechanics and the such.

So the setting is Classic Jazz era New England. Ideally characters should come from an academic background, and have a connection to the storied Mikastonic University.

In the 7th Ed. rules the starting attributes are percentile based (there's actually a little more to it than that, but we'll cover that in a bit).

There are eight characteristics. STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, APP, INT, POW, and EDU.

STR,CON, and DEX are pretty much what you expect, and mean pretty much the same as they do in D&D/PF.

SIZ or Size is just what it says; your physical bulk. A larger SIZ could represent someone who is 'husky', or a tall 'beanpole'.

APP means Appearance; it's a little more straight-forward than CHA, with more emphasis on physical attractiveness, though force of personality can be a factor.

POW means POWER. This includes mental resilience, willpower, and the character's psychic reserves. This also determines the Character's SAN, or Sanity, which is a big thing in this game.

EDU is Education. It measures a character's formal education. This is a game that values brain over brawn.

We'll be doing a point buy: 460 points.

Each characteristic must have a minimum of 15 points and cannot have more than 90 points.

Additionally the INT and SIZ should be at least 40, as anything below this would below 'norm'.

Default ages are for characters between 20 and 30. There are bonus/penalties for characters outside this range, which I'll go over on a case by case basis.

I'm not going to insist on a game that strictly adheres to the socio-sexual realities of the historical period, but I probably won't be completely ignoring them either.

I'll come along for the ride if you'll have me.

**EDIT**
You mention classic jazz era which indicates 1920s and 1930s. I'm trying to think of a character background that would provide a connection to Miskatonic and tying the character in with a certain department. Just need to have an idea of the time frame to better develop the back story.

Thanks!

So long as we start after the holidays, I'd like to play, too.

EDIT: Looking at the quickstart, I'm thinking a dilettante type character, a wealthy heir who jet-sets around the world looking for "relics" but who is really into way too much wine and women for his own good.

Always up for Cthulhu.
I'll have to grab the quickstart since I don't think I've played this edition. Maybe not the last either. :)

Cthulhu sandbox seems like an interesting approach. One I haven't really seen before.

I'd be in for the reporter class. Thinking I'd be from some big Boston newspaper, at Miskatonic to meet up with some old college chaps who have some crazy story to tell me.

I'll come along for the ride if you'll have me.

**EDIT**
You mention classic jazz era which indicates 1920s and 1930s. I'm trying to think of a character background that would provide a connection to Miskatonic and tying the character in with a certain department. Just need to have an idea of the time frame to better develop the back story.

Thanks!

So the campaign specifically begins late in the summer of 1930.

I'll let the recruitment run through till Friday.

We'll take a break for the Holidays, and then the serious character building will start Weds., the 2nd.

Sounds good, I'll take a shot at some concepts and start trying to put something together.

Derived Scores:
POW = SAN.
Magic Points = 1/5 of POW (You spend Magic Points to cast spells).
3d6x5 = Luck Points (which can be spent to alter rolls).
SIZ+CON/10 = Hit Points.

Move Rate
If STR and DEX are less than SIZ: 7
If STR and DEX are both greater than SIZ: 9
If either STR or DEX are greater than SIZ: 8.

That's a character's standard pace. The maximum that a character can move per round is 5x that rate.

Are the personal skills the "any two other skills"?

So you get skills in two blocks, Occupational Skill Points which are a multiple of your EDU score, which can be spend among any of the skills
listed in your Occupation.

And Personal Skill Points , which equal your INTx2. These you can freely spend, among any skills 'justifiable' by your character back-ground.

One Important skill to note is Credit Rating; which is both a measure of your character's ability to earn a wage, and a rating of Social Influence.

Here's a fairly standard occupation block, which would be well suited for this particular campaign:

PROFESSOR [Lovecraftian]—Library Use, Other Language,
Own Language, Psychology, any four other skills
as academic or personal specialties.
Credit Rating: 20–70
Occupation Skill Points: EDU × 4

Note that the Credit Rating is a suggested range: you can have a lower or higher Credit Rating which would note unusual circumstances in your situation: perhaps you have another income, or an inheritance, or unusual expenses.

Are the personal skills the "any two other skills"?

If they're listed in the Occupation Block, they're purchased with the Occupational Skill Points.

So you get skills in two blocks, Occupational Skill Points which are a multiple of your EDU score, which can be spend among any of the skills

listed in your Occupation.

And Personal Skill Points , which equal your INTx2. These you can freely spend, among any skills 'justifiable' by your character back-ground.

That's roughly how I remember it from previous editions. It's not what the Quickstart rules say though. Those give specific point values to be put into each set of skills:

Allocate the following values among the eight Occupation Skills and also the Credit Rating skill: one at 70%, two at 60%, three at 50% and three at 40% (set the skills directly to these values and ignore the skill base values written next to each skill on the investigator sheet).

After assigning points to the Occupation Skills, select your Personal Interest Skills. Pick four non-occupation skills and boost them by 20% (adding 20 to the skill base values listed on the investigator sheet).

Are those the regular 7th edition rules or a special quick start variation?

I think I got this figured out. Been at least 20 years since I played CoC.

cirle wrote:

So you get skills in two blocks, Occupational Skill Points which are a multiple of your EDU score, which can be spend among any of the skills

listed in your Occupation.

And Personal Skill Points , which equal your INTx2. These you can freely spend, among any skills 'justifiable' by your character back-ground.

That's roughly how I remember it from previous editions. It's not what the Quickstart rules say though. Those give specific point values to be put into each set of skills:

Quote:

Allocate the following values among the eight Occupation Skills and also the Credit Rating skill: one at 70%, two at 60%, three at 50% and three at 40% (set the skills directly to these values and ignore the skill base values written next to each skill on the investigator sheet).

After assigning points to the Occupation Skills, select your Personal Interest Skills. Pick four non-occupation skills and boost them by 20% (adding 20 to the skill base values listed on the investigator sheet).

Are those the regular 7th edition rules or a special quick start variation?

Yeah. That would be a Quick Start Rules variant. I'm using the full 7th ed. rules.

When in doubt, there's always the Dilettante.

DILETTANTE [Lovecraftian]—Art/Craft (Any), Firearms,
Other Languages, Ride, one interpersonal skill
(Charm, Fast Talk, Intimidate, or Persuade), any three
other skills.
Credit Rating: 50–99
Occupation Skill Points: EDU × 2 + APP × 2

All right, as of now it looks like we have:

Redac
Thom
LCDR RS
TheJeff
Dr. Hanmer.

I'll check in a couple of times over the next week, to see if there's any questions, and we'll begin/finalize character generation in earnest Wednesday the 2nd.

Is there room for one more, possibly a gangster?

Hmmm Perhaps.

Most of the characters are going to have tie-ins to the academic community at Mikistonic University. I'm not sure how that would work for a gangster.

Gave it a try, please review for accuracy. I pulled the occupation from an older Call of Cthulhu Investigators Companion. Hopefully, that is ok.

OK Hanmer. My only quibble is 'sports medicine' is pretty much a modern specialty. In the 30s you 'wrapped it up' and 'walked it off'.

Shall we call it 'Fitness and Wellness'? It'll basically be the same thing, nutrition, exercise, a little bit of philosophical hokum, through a 30s lens, so you'll be a kind of Jazz Age Jack Lalane.

If you prefer I'll let you re-allocate the points if you would rather.

Personal Weird History

So this is a bit of weirdness in your characters history, that lead to a perhaps 'unhealthy' interest with the bizarre and inexplicable, which in turn lead you to the 'The Armitage Inquiry.'

You are of course free to completely ignore this, or come up with your own Personal Weird History .

We'll start with the journalist: Kiefer Atwood.

It is the ultimate story; and you will never print it, even if you could figure a way to get it past the government censors.

You and as select few journalists were allowed by the US military to visit the camp where the survivors from the Innsmouth raid that took place in '28 were being kept.

They tell you that some of the creatures you saw there, could have originally passed as human, at one point.

They say these things, these 'Deep Ones' have been living along side human beings since ancient times. And that, unspeakably, these 'Deep Ones' can, and do breed with human beings, but invariably, inevitably, these hybrid offspring will display more and more of the
their abhuman blood-line.

Personal Weird History

"Ronnie" Blacksmith.

Your Uncle Abraham knew the bush as well as any man.

For fifty years he made a living as a guide, hunter, and scout. For decades he lived and worked all over the Transvaal and the Limpopo River Basin.

And of course there were stories. Stories of proud Zulu warriors, comic misadventures in camp, and epic hunts.

And when the campfire was dying down; there were ghost stories.
The serpentine Grootslang, the fiendish Tikoloshe, and grotesque were-leopards.

And then there were the 'eaters of the dead': abominable ghouls from the 'deep places of the earth' who feasted upon human flesh.

Your uncle's face would become grim and stern over his pipe when he spoke of these monsters.

And finally, when that time came that Uncle Abraham failed to return from the bush, and it fell upon you to organize his things, there was that skull you found in a closet of his small house. The University man you showed it too declared it was from a 'deformed hyena', but you noted that he was loath to touch it.

Shortly afterwards the skull disappeared, but you never stopped wondering about the stories that your uncle never dared tell.

Jazz Age Jack Lalane works for me.

Personal Weird History

Jimmy Knutson

They called it the Lake Briquelet Serpent.

But you saw it once, and it was not a serpent. It was not an animal; there was a baleful intelligence in its lidless eyes.

Did it see you, from where you watched in the old fishing cabin?
Sometimes you think it did, other times you're not sure.

You saw is glide through the dark waters, into the weedy cove just past the old, rotting dock.

You heard a voice, from the shadows beneath the pines on the shore, apparently entreating with the thing in the waters. You could not make out the words, but there was cringing, servility in the gruff voice voice that called out from the pines.

You had heard that voice before, though you could not place it.

Two years later, when Van Johnson, the half-crazed trapper who had lived alone, on the other side of the lake, since you were a small boy, was arrested for the savage murders of the Olson boys, you knew where you had heard that voice before.

The voice belong to the reclusive trapper, who figured prominently in the mythology of your youth, a grim and intimidating pariah, who died in the madhouse for the senseless murders of James and Lukas Olson. But you know that ultimately it was was the thing in the lake, the thing that, as far you know, is still there, that killed those two men.

Unless I have a sudden brainstorm and want to do some writing, I'll leave my story with the one you wrote.

I'm having an unusually difficult time wrapping my head around how character creation for this works. I'll try to get something up tomorrow some time, even if it has to be fixed.

All right. So far we got Ronny Blacksmith, the South African Dilettante. Keifer Atwood the New England journalist, and Jimmy Knutson, the trainer/asst. coach from the Great Lakes.

Redac is working on a character.

Anyone else?

Anything you particularly could use help with Redac?

To summarize:

--460 points among the eight characteristics.
--Select an occupation.
--the Occupation choice will give you a number of points to spend among
your professional skills for that occupation (usually a multiplier of the EDU characteristic).
--You then get your INTx2 in Personal Skills to spend on additional skills.

Checking in.

No questions? No one else interested in submitting a character?

If we need an extra player, I know of someone who may be interested.

Putting something together right now. Will post it for review shortly. I do have a question, though. What are the numbers in parentheses next to the skills, etc.?

Lorekeeper, I am thinking about submitting an archaeology student who has finished his undergrad and is currently working on his doctorate at Miskatonic U.

Would I use the Professor occupation or is there an occupation specifically designed for Students in the complete rule set?

For what it's worth, I've been working on basically the same character concept and I just used the Archaeologist occupation. I think there is a Student occupation, though.

Of course, if someone else is submitting basically the same build, I might need to work on another one.

For a Graduate Student the Professor Template is close enough: a gifted grad student is probably as talented as a mediocre professor.

Having multiple archaeology students in the group is not a huge problem, the setting is after all a university known for its Antiquities program.

It is just whether you feel you want your character to be unique.

In this game its probably more important that there is a wide spread of skills among the whole party, rather than just a range of character occupations: if there's two archaeologists you probably want to be sure that you work out between the two of you different specialties. Two experts in ancient Chaldean might be a little redundant for example.

As for Redac's question regarding skills: I'm guessing that what you're seeing are the starting skill percentages for untrained skills. For instance, axe starts at 15%, which is to say without putting any points into it, your skill with the axe starts at 15%.

Considering the attrition that these PBP games typically have I don't have a problem taking on 1-2 more player characters.

For what it's worth, I've been working on basically the same character concept and I just used the Archaeologist occupation. I think there is a Student occupation, though.

Of course, if someone else is submitting basically the same build, I might need to work on another one.

Please continue with your idea, I was only speculating about a concept. If I do submit a character, I'll just go with something else. Not a problem.

So how's it going?

Redac, you're still going through with an archaeology grad student?

Logan1138, what ideas are you pursuing?

I'm hoping to have the character builds done this week so we can begin actual game play here soon.

Anybody still out there?

"You fool! Warren is dead! "

Apologies, things have been a little hectic. Still here, still interested. Going with that archaeology student (either a grad student or very recently graduated), or an explorer of some sort -- probably the former.

I'll have a short work day tomorrow so I can probably finish up and post the first pass at a character build.