Pulp Ctulhu Horror on the Orient Express.

Game Master Paolingou

Talk about the campaign and make character here, also I updated my House rule again.

Will anyone be playing as Non-Human? I need to know before starting the Campagin. I also updated the rules.

I have a question about the character I'm working on. The character is Chinese from Shanghai. Normally "Own Language" would be Chinese (technically Shanghainese or Hu in this case), but it seems highly unlikely this will come up in play. The character's background has her attending a British school in Shanghai though.

Given the need for multiple European languages in this game, could Chinese just be backgrounded in favor of English as "Own Language"? In other words, yes she knows Chinese, no it never comes up, and anyway she's been speaking English for so long in school, university, and for the last 8 years in England that she's essentially bilingual.

This way I could use the skill points I currently have to spend on English for another language, probably French. If this isn't something I can do, I'll probably change my characters nation of origin since it's too expensive to spend points on a third language.

Oh, and I'm playing human.

I have a question about the character I'm working on. The character is Chinese from Shanghai. Normally "Own Language" would be Chinese (technically Shanghainese or Hu in this case), but it seems highly unlikely this will come up in play. The character's background has her attending a British school in Shanghai though.

Given the need for multiple European languages in this game, could Chinese just be backgrounded in favor of English as "Own Language"? In other words, yes she knows Chinese, no it never comes up, and anyway she's been speaking English for so long in school, university, and for the last 8 years in England that she's essentially bilingual.

This way I could use the skill points I currently have to spend on English for another language, probably French. If this isn't something I can do, I'll probably change my characters nation of origin since it's too expensive to spend points on a third language.

Oh, and I'm playing human.

Sure, I wouldn't mind.

Cool cool. Alright, the mechanics for the character are pretty much done. I have the backstory, etc. worked out as well, but don't have time at the moment to type it in. I'll do that later.

Shen Wei aka Billie Shen

It might take a bit of time to "Marry" the house rules with Pulp Cthluhu, but I'll certainly have the character ready in the next week or so. I think I'm going with the priest... and perhaps he'll be from somewhere in Europe, and able to speak several languages due to his missionary work. I'll concentrate on his faith, and languages, so probably not enough points left to be much in combat so I'll leave that to others.

Just so everybody know, you can pick the same Talent Multiple time during character creation to increase in Rank, and Talents that cost 2 Talent slots, are only for Rank 1, you can spend all 3 Talent slot, to have that Talent at Rank 2.

Just so everybody know, you can pick the same Talent Multiple time during character creation to increase in Rank, and Talents that cost 2 Talent slots, are only for Rank 1, you can spend all 3 Talent slot, to have that Talent at Rank 2.

Is this the only way to increase Talent ranks, or will the ranks increase according to some schedule or rule as the game goes on?

...and perhaps he'll be from somewhere in Europe, and able to speak several languages due to his missionary work. I'll concentrate on his faith, and languages, so probably not enough points left to be much in combat so I'll leave that to others.

It might not be a bad idea for all of us to sketch out strengths and weaknesses of our characters, or proposed characters, so everyone can see what is and isn't covered.

Billie is primarily built to handle the group's medical needs. Her communication skills are decent across the board, and she speaks Italian. She's also decent at research unless it takes a specialty, then she's more limited: medical, biology, pharmacy.

She's generally weaker in physical areas, but should do okay at keeping herself safe: swim, climb. She also drives well. In combat she's only going to be good with a firearm.

She is quite rich, with a credit rating of 70 representing the "allowance" she gets from her family. She can play the money bags for the group unless somebody else is really going to lean into the role and go for a 90+ credit rating.

Depending on what other characters look like as they come in, I might cut back some in certain areas if someone else is overlapping Billie. For example, I could reduce skill points in Fast Talk or Persuade if another character is good in those areas.

Is this the only way to increase Talent ranks, or will the ranks increase according to some schedule or rule as the game goes on?

At the end of each chapter, I'll give everybody 1 Talent Point, you can either save it for later, or use it to buy new Talents, Rank 2 Talents cost 2 Talent Point after Character Creation, Rank 3 cost 3, Rank 4 cost 4, and Rank 5 cost 5.

It might take a bit of time to "Marry" the house rules with Pulp Cthluhu, but I'll certainly have the character ready in the next week or so. I think I'm going with the priest... and perhaps he'll be from somewhere in Europe, and able to speak several languages due to his missionary work. I'll concentrate on his faith, and languages, so probably not enough points left to be much in combat so I'll leave that to others.

Is your character ready?

Got a chance to look at the non-human options in character creation. I'm wondering if there are any sources you're drawing from that we could reference to get a better feel for what they're like?

The specific one that looks interesting to me is Magi. What are they exactly though? Where do they come from? What are they like? Is there something you drew from in creating them that we could read to get a feel for how to role play them?

Got a chance to look at the non-human options in character creation. I'm wondering if there are any sources you're drawing from that we could reference to get a better feel for what they're like?

The specific one that looks interesting to me is Magi. What are they exactly though? Where do they come from? What are they like? Is there something you drew from in creating them that we could read to get a feel for how to role play them?

I borrowing a lot from from Chronicle of Darkness, but there are some lore change I will be adding.

I found a wiki for Chronicles of Darkness, thanks! There's a lot of stuff to read through there. I'll give it a look as I find time.

@Paolingou: In case you didn't see it, I sent you a private message.

Hi Paolingu, I have a some questions about the new skills you posted.

1. Does the new skill "Sense" replace the existing skills that are similar like "Spot Hidden" and "Listen"? If it dos not replace them, what does it cover that the others do not?

2. Is the "Etiquette" skill specialized by locations, class, or some other factors? For example, would this be etiquette (Venice), etiquette (Italy), etiquette (rich people), etiquette (academia), etc.? Also it seems to be a skill that modifies other communication skills? Like a success in etiquette (XXX) would give a bonus to Persuade or Fast Talk, etc.? Does it ever stand alone, or is it always a modifier for another skill?

3. The training skill seems to take a very long time to use considering the benefits (if any) received? I don't know how well this applies to the game, but in the late 1800's a round trip on the Orient Express took a week. A failed teaching check results in nothing taught and 2d6 days used. An average number of days used then would be almost as many as a round trip takes.

Hi Paolingu, I have a some questions about the new skills you posted.

1. Does the new skill "Sense" replace the existing skills that are similar like "Spot Hidden" and "Listen"? If it dos not replace them, what does it cover that the others do not?

2. Is the "Etiquette" skill specialized by locations, class, or some other factors? For example, would this be etiquette (Venice), etiquette (Italy), etiquette (rich people), etiquette (academia), etc.? Also it seems to be a skill that modifies other communication skills? Like a success in etiquette (XXX) would give a bonus to Persuade or Fast Talk, etc.? Does it ever stand alone, or is it always a modifier for another skill?

3. The training skill seems to take a very long time to use considering the benefits (if any) received? I don't know how well this applies to the game, but in the late 1800's a round trip on the Orient Express took a week. A failed teaching check results in nothing taught and 2d6 days used. An average number of days used then would be almost as many as a round trip takes.

1. Sense skill doesn't replace Listen or Spot Hidden, it cover Taste, Smell, and Touch.

3. You will be stopping at many location, and spend more than a few days at each of those location, so this game will take more than just 2 weeks in gametime.

Yeah, I didn't expect the journey would be made blazing through the whole route as fast as possible. It just seems like a lot of days (if those are considered whole days spent) for teaching.

Maybe it works fine in a single location if months are passing by in the campaign, but it's hard for me to justify putting any points into the skill if I can only expect it might get used one or two times and it does so little if it succeeds.

I might feel different about it if it took a flat 1d2 or so days regardless of success or failure, but I don't see myself ever deciding to spend 3d6 days on something for a 1d3 point increase in somebody's skill in an area. That's especially true since it's possible to actually LOSE skills points along with days wasted on a failed attempt (which makes no sense at all).

I was going to go private investigator and hard boiled. Human British

Hm, Private Investigator.

One of the things requested for investigators is they have some sort of connection to another investigator. My character came to the UK for college a few years back. She's from a very wealthy family, so maybe her father hired your character to provide security or bodyguard services for her for a while until his nerves settled?

What do you think?

Or maybe he hired your character to spy on her, make sure she's really going to school and not getting into too much trouble, that sort of thing. They have that kind of relationship. My character doesn't know your character but he knows her.

Hm, Private Investigator.

One of the things requested for investigators is they have some sort of connection to another investigator. My character came to the UK for college a few years back. She's from a very wealthy family, so maybe her father hired your character to provide security or bodyguard services for her for a while until his nerves settled?

What do you think?

Or maybe he hired your character to spy on her, make sure she's really going to school and not getting into too much trouble, that sort of thing. They have that kind of relationship. My character doesn't know your character but he knows her.

As a bodyguard/baby sitter (lol) works great!

Alright, sounds good. Billie doesn't like you of course. Nothing personal, it's just that the situation rankled her, and the bad taste it left persists to the present. :)

Life has grown crazy recently, and my time for character creation has been limited... but still want to play, it just might take a while for Father Fergus Garrity to be complete. Should have some time off during the holidays so new year is still doable.

What flavor of Christianity is Father Garrity working for?

Thinking about Judaism or Orthodox… so maybe Rabbi

Here's the latest version of my character sheet, now with background included. I still haven't sorted out possessions completely. I'd rather wait on that part until around starting time when we know a little more about the campaign.

Shen Wei aka Billie Shen

Here's the latest version of my character sheet, now with background included. I still haven't sorted out possessions completely. I'd rather wait on that part until around starting time when we know a little more about the campaign.

Shen Wei aka Billie Shen

where did you get the sheet?

where did you get the sheet?

Paolingou posted a link to it over in the recruitment thread on November 28th.

I updated something.

I updated something.

Is there something missing from this post maybe? What did you update?

Paolingou wrote:

I updated something.

Is there something missing from this post maybe? What did you update?

Character Creation Guideline, New Talent in Talents, and new Belief Magic System.

You can put Heritage in Trait.

I didn't see stats for a Webley I'll just say it's a .45 caliber revolver like in 7E if that's OK.

Do we get 3 talents? The book said 2.

It's fine.

Do we get 3 talents? The book said 2.

The book have a Pulp o meter option of letting your player have more than 2 Talents.

Qstor wrote:

Do we get 3 talents? The book said 2.

The book have a Pulp o meter option of letting your player have more than 2 Talents.

OK cool. I'll update

Paolingou: Looks like you need to make your links public again. I can't access them. I think you have to do that again each time you make changes.

Paolingou: Looks like you need to make your links public again. I can't access them. I think you have to do that again each time you make changes.

Can you access them now?

There's all working except for the Talents link.

There's all working except for the Talents link.

How about now?

Yeah, all working now.

I've transferred Billie's character sheet over into this alias. The downloadable character sheet is very handy for doing all the math automatically, but I don't think it will be as easy to keep updated as the alias since the sheet needs to be uploaded again every time there's a change.

I'll just link the sheet in the alias and update it if a change is permanent.

Can’t open the options on my iPad. I’ll try on my p c tomorrow. Thanks!!!

I've transferred Billie's character sheet over into this alias

Have you look at Talents yet? I change Hardened Talent, it's just less you take 3 Less Sanity from mundane horror to minimum of 0.

Can’t open the options on my iPad. I’ll try on my p c tomorrow. Thanks!!!

Here are your characters, I recommend having either French or Turkish.

Billie Shen wrote:

I've transferred Billie's character sheet over into this alias

Have you look at Talents yet? I change Hardened Talent, it's just less you take 3 Less Sanity from mundane horror to minimum of 0.

That's too bad. The original Hardened talent was ideal for a surgeon, who might well expect to come across the things it covered on any given work day. For example, dissection of animals, then human cadavers is something a medical student is doing in their first year of school. There really isn't an "ick!" reaction left in them from viewing something like that by the time it's over because they do need to be able to function professionally when exposed to things like corpses and major wounds without freezing up, running away, getting sick, etc. when it happens.

I don't know what "ordinary" horror might be, the phrase seems contradictory, but depending on what's covered I might keep Hardened anyway since it's an integral aspect of the character, and I suppose 3 sanity saved is better than none. But that depends on what ordinary horror means.

I suppose I'll go talent shopping to see about a replacement if I need it. I can always pick up Linguist in a pinch if nothing else.

scranford wrote:

Can’t open the options on my iPad. I’ll try on my p c tomorrow. Thanks!!!

Here are your characters, I recommend having either French or Turkish.

Grizzle Rabbi
Faithful Priest

The links aren't viewable, you'll need to change the setting to anyone with the link. Same with the Prof. Smith link in gameplay.

Paolingou wrote:

Billie Shen wrote:

I've transferred Billie's character sheet over into this alias

Have you look at Talents yet? I change Hardened Talent, it's just less you take 3 Less Sanity from mundane horror to minimum of 0.

That's too bad. The original Hardened talent was ideal for a surgeon, who might well expect to come across the things it covered on any given work day. For example, dissection of animals, then human cadavers is something a medical student is doing in their first year of school. There really isn't an "ick!" reaction left in them from viewing something like that by the time it's over because they do need to be able to function professionally when exposed to things like corpses and major wounds without freezing up, running away, getting sick, etc. when it happens.

I don't know what "ordinary" horror might be, the phrase seems contradictory, but depending on what's covered I might keep Hardened anyway since it's an integral aspect of the character, and I suppose 3 sanity saved is better than none. But that depends on what ordinary horror means.

I suppose I'll go talent shopping to see about a replacement if I need it. I can always pick up Linguist in a pinch if nothing else.

Ordinary Horror cover anything that isn't supernatural, with the original Hardened you don't lose sanity from attacking other Human, viewing horrific injury, or the deceased, but ordinary horror cover feeling of helplessness, isolation, damaging one self image, and violence upon oneself.

What is Shen relationship with Prof. Smith?

Well, the logical connection would be something through the university since they're both there. However, Billie isn't really involved in the subjects Prof. Smith does research on. If he teaches literature classes, she may have taken a class of his as a first or second year undergraduate. It's possible I suppose that she could have taken a basic linguistics or archaeology class back then instead if he doesn't teach literature at all.

One thing she may have gone to him for help with could be finding a speech tutor. She'd really want to get rid of her accent, so she may have asked him about locating a private tutor for enunciation, elocution, diction, those sorts of things. Billie is highly fluent in English, but even now can't quite pass as a native speaker. Back seven years ago her accent was far more pronounced.

This is Calabanian's first strike at a character!

I don't love the icon for him but I think the crunch is good and I like the photo on the profile!

I'm a touch worried cause he is fully incapable in combat, but I know that's not atypical in Call so hopefully it'll be alright! Also, GM, are there any languages I don't have that would be very beneficial and make sense?

And rdknight I hope you don't mind that I took your formatting!