I have some pretty fond memories of playing through the Masks of Nyarlathotep many, many moons ago. Since Pathfinder has aspects of Lovecraft (I know, a little goes a long way) would there be any interest in Paizo creating an AP that is inspired by that old COC campaign?
Call of Cthulhu adventures could really be easy to convert to Golarion (the Antiquites Auction in Entombed with the Pharaohs pop to my mind as a typical adventure intro from a Pulp Chtulhu typical story) but I must admit that I don't really like what Paizo have done with the Cthulhu Mythos up to date... They use part of the Cthulhu mythos without exploiting them really to it's fullest.. I was really excited when I read that there was a Shoggot in Crucible of Chaos, but the creature is use just like any other standard DnD creature and the Mythos feel is just not there ... Same thing with the Hound of Tindalos or the Denizien of Leng in Rise of the Runelords (they add a nice touch, but just not enough to my taste) .
I would really like to see some Sword and Sorcery adventures complety based on the Cthulhu Mythos (Like some Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories)... the heroes trying to stop a group of cultists from unleashing an elder thing on Golarion...
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Just curious since I just purchases the Call of Cthulhu RPG... Is this Mask of Nyarlathotep campaign available somewhere? I looked around here in Paizo's store, but I couldn't find it. Is it out of print? Also, how good is it? I'm looking for a good, long scenario to run for my players as an interesting intro to the game... would this be a good choice?
Sorry to threadjack, but I saw Cthulhu on the sidebar, and couldn't resist...
To keep slightly on-topic, it's the Lovecraftian elements in Pathfinder that made me want to pick up CoC. The Hounds of Tindalos were really cool! Also, I think the Shoggoth from Crucible of Chaos is also from that world? (But I'm really not sure). Either way, they were cool monsters!
Mask of Nyarlatothep is a full campaign, not a long scenario... and it's a very very taugh one.. you could expect a lot of TKP.. so no.. The mask is not a good intro to Call of Cthulhu but it's probably one of the best campaign ever written in the RPG industry.
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Mask of Nyarlatothep is a full campaign, not a long scenario... and it's a very very taugh one.. you could expect a lot of TKP.. so no.. The mask is not a good intro to Call of Cthulhu but it's probably one of the best campaign ever written in the RPG industry.
Thanks! Maybe I'll find a shorter adventure as an intro, but this sounds really intriguing. You're giving it such high praise that now I have to find it!
Just curious since I just purchases the Call of Cthulhu RPG... Is this Mask of Nyarlathotep campaign available somewhere? I looked around here in Paizo's store, but I couldn't find it. Is it out of print? Also, how good is it? I'm looking for a good, long scenario to run for my players as an interesting intro to the game... would this be a good choice?
I'm pretty sure it's out of print. Occasionally it pops up on ebay for exorbitant sums. I am surprised, because most everyone across the board agrees to this campaign's greatness. I seem to recall it being sort of like a really grim Indiana Jones type adventure, so it might be a little pulpy in feel for Lovecraft purists. But I loved it as a teenager.
The big problem with Cthulhu-like adventures and campaigns in d20 is that the feel of desperation and inability to do something when people are hacking demons, casting flames from the sky and summoning celestial beings on a dayly basis ;)
Reason why CoC d20 didnt work very well. Its a game where an old librarian lady can kick the ass of a whole cult because she is level 15 ;)
But that really has to do with most horror-style adventures that are not run on lower levels.
Ive been working on things like that for a long time, but I prefer low-magic settings, using stuff like Green Ronin's rules for masterwork levels instead of magical itens. Fantasy Flight's Darkness & Dread is also a good source of ideas if you dont mind changing the rules a little bit.
Now all Pathfinder chronicles have a bit of Cthulhu in them. Though Id like to see something more alike, with a long plot to raise an Old One-like being and the desperate run to do it. Mmm... Nyarlatothep has been guiding several people thru dreams to do his bidding even if they do not know. The players first face a serial killer to find some strange markings on his body, his journal and his bedroom. It talks about a strange creature of many faces and his raise to bring a new Age of Darkness.. He might even have something to do with the first one!
The campaign goes on with the party getting involved in dealing with terrorism, a noble house going unexpectedly rogue and leading a revolt against the government... and everytime, there are the same markings somewhere.
They ultimately are led to a Cheliax noble, believing him responsible, but in fact the Cheliax are as scared of it as everyone else, because it's not "one of theirs" doing all of these. Chaos threatens to chatter what little of Cheliax is left. The group ends up hired by the Cheliax themselves to deal with the situation. Nyalathotep could show up in various situations all over the campaign, always mysterious, always with that wicked smile on his face, and causing the group to create even more chaos for him. By the end, the players realize they were been played along all the time and that they must prevent a large temple from been consegrated or it will allow an Old One to be released. They face one of Nyarlatothep's many avatars only because they are some sort of divine protection. But, of course, not everything is that simple. Their Cheliax allies decided that, if they can prevent the raising of the Old One, they can also take that power for themselves... And the party ends up in a three-way fight to save Golarion from eternal darkness!
Ok, sorry for all the babbling ;)
Mask of Nyarlatothep is a full campaign, not a long scenario... and it's a very very taugh one.. you could expect a lot of TKP.. so no.. The mask is not a good intro to Call of Cthulhu but it's probably one of the best campaign ever written in the RPG industry.Thanks! Maybe I'll find a shorter adventure as an intro, but this sounds really intriguing. You're giving it such high praise that now I have to find it!
To further derail the thread (sorry!), I have a suggestion for a killer (pardon the pun) adventure you can use as an intro to the game.
Get a hold of Mansions of Madness and run your players through the Crack'd and Crook'd Manse adventure.Lots of great scenes that really can be played up (let me know if you want pointers) and classic investigation and paranoia parts too.
I've played it and run it several times (with lots of different people) and some of the same elements have elicited the same reactions from everyone. That, to me, makes it a classic.
I must admit that I don't really like what Paizo have done with the Cthulhu Mythos up to date... They use part of the Cthulhu mythos without exploiting them really to it's fullest.. I was really excited when I read that there was a Shoggot in Crucible of Chaos, but the creature is use just like any other standard DnD creature and the Mythos feel is just not there ... Same thing with the Hound of Tindalos or the Denizien of Leng in Rise of the Runelords (they add a nice touch, but just not enough to my taste) .
I see your point. I haven't played through Crucible or ROTL 6 yet, but have you considered house ruling the madness rules from Unearthed Arcana on mythos related creatures? I toyed with the idea but haven't sat down and tooled with t he mechanics of it yet.
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To continue with the thread derail :D. I played Masks very recently and it's cool, though a bit... well it's very pulpy globe-trotting, it's also very 80s Cthulhu (lots of ways to die, not necessarily all that creepy), but the setup isn't for all (it can be a bit disjointed, and if I hadn't been keeping copious notes we'd have been utterly lost at times). Also Australia is a pointless red herring of messy death and rather silly, we cut it out. Yes it's AP-esque in terms of length (actually more than an AP in terms of scope, since Cthulhu doesn't have all that lengthy fighting there's way more plot) and yes it's out of print and upwards of $200 to buy second hand, though there's a pdf available from Chaosium for $23. I've also played Horror on the Orient Express which is very similar (including the out of print-ness sadly, as this one doesn't have an equivalent pdf unless you count the illegal ones) but a much better scenario IMO. Tatters of the King is another AP length thing which is actually readily available, unfortunately it's got a similar problem to a lot of the old WoD scenarios, where the party doesn't actually get to do very much, they just get to watch whilst the (admittedly quite interesting) story unfurls, so it's quite lame in that respect.
In terms of recommendations for Cthulhu I'd recommend 3 things. "The Haunting" from the CoC book is a classic one-shot and utterly deadly. Unseen Masters is superb, set in the modern day and consists of three mini-campaigns. Finally Delta Green: Countdown contains some great scenarios that can be used in the modern day Delta Green setting or extracted to anywhere else. In particular "Night Floors" can be used in the classic 20s setting and if run by a good GM is the Creepiest. Thing. Ever. *shudders*
I could see how you could put together something like Masks as an AP, in Osirian and the Mwangi Expanse and so on. Though I always think globe-trotting adventure in a fantasy setting feels a bit weird unless it starts at high levels. Also as someone else said, doing a full-on Cthulhu campaign is tricky in d20 due to the whole players being kick ass and death not being the end thing kind of destroying the whole Lovecraft feel.
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I love Cthulhu, but I look at D&D and CoC like this:
CoC is meant to be about normal people investigating abnormal events, with an atomosphere of horror. The play experience is geared towards investigating and realism in the sense that monsters and guns can kill you wicked easy.
D&D on the other hand is not so much about horror as its about heroic fantasy.The rules are geared towards making combat machines and cool fights. Its not so much about investigating as it is about killing things and taking its stuff.
The fact of the matter is you could run any kind of game you want with the both sets of rules, but the rules themselves will heavily influence the kind of game your going to play.
If I was going to play a Cthulhu influenced D&D game I would emphasize to the players the fact that heroes (like Conan and Kull) are the only thing that can stop the cultists and their mad attempts to awaken Cthulhu.They need both their swords and their wits to win the day.
In a CoC campaign on the other hand I would suggest the players try to be investigative, stealthy, and intelligent, and trying to avoid combat which more often the naught will lead to alot of dead investigators. This isnt to say that combat should be unheard of in CoC. Just not to the same extent as you would see in the typical D&D experience.
Thats kind of how I would set CoC and D&D apart from each other.
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Back in the old old days of dungeon magazine, they used to have adventures for other rpgs. One of the best was a two parter, with time travel involved. The first half you are playing the typical DnD game but when you come up to the end and get ready to face the big bad, game ends. The second take place ages later and your are now playing CoC. You are investigators trying to stop this ancient evil and get to find out what happened to these heroes from the age of legends who once fought this ancient evil that has since grown in power. It was perhaps one of the best reads module wise I have ever had and one of the best games I have ever played in.
Creative Director
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Masks of Nyrlathotep is one of my favorite adventures for any RPG (it's in the top 3, I suspect, along with Beyond the Mountains of Madness and Queen of the Spiders)... and the idea of a MoN type Adventure Path is actually rather intriguing. Not a straight conversion, mind you, but an adventure that starts in, say, Absalom with the discovery of a cult murder that then leads into a world-spanning AP with each installment in a different nation, with some strong cultist/Lovecraftian overtones? Very intriguing indeed!
In the meantime, though... we'll still be going to Lovecraft for inspiration now and then in Pathfinder anyway, most typically looking at stuff from his Dreamlands cycle of stories, since those are pretty much "made for D&D" anyway! :)
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Back in the old old days of dungeon magazine, they used to have adventures for other rpgs. One of the best was a two parter, with time travel involved. The first half you are playing the typical DnD game but when you come up to the end and get ready to face the big bad, game ends. The second take place ages later and your are now playing CoC. You are investigators trying to stop this ancient evil and get to find out what happened to these heroes from the age of legends who once fought this ancient evil that has since grown in power. It was perhaps one of the best reads module wise I have ever had and one of the best games I have ever played in.
I think this one is even older than dungeon, and was found in white Dwarf ... back when this was still a RPG mag.
I still find Masks fairly often at small cons that dealers go to. If you get a chance to check them out, do so.
I still find it one of the best designed campaigns in any game system. The story is complex but if you miss clues, there are generally plenty more to get you back on track. And yes, taking copious notes is a must... as it is for any substantial CoC campaign, really. There's even a d20 conversion for it that works fairly well, though I prefer the original BRP system.
As far as playing it, the Australian segment is pretty optional. It wasn't part of the core campaign as originally published, but appeared, I believe, in Terror Australis as a supplementary segment. The most recent editions of Masks incorporated it. But welcome to the era of re-editing to add stuff back in that had originally (and appropriately) cut. I blame certain DVDs like Aliens and George Lucas for this trend.
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Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
I'm pretty determined now that I'm going to run a few minor scenarios so that my group and I can get a feel for the Call of Cthulhu game, and then purchase the PDF for Masks of Nyarlathotep and run that afterwards! With such high praise coming from everyone, I don't want to miss out on such classic RPG goodness.
If all goes according to plan, my CoC books should be arriving today, and then I'll be able to get started. Again, thanks for the wonderful suggestions!