I am starting a Call of Cthulhu game, and have to pick a system.
1. Original game, 6th edition
2. d20
3. Realms (the Savage World system)
Does anyone have experience with these and can offer an opinion?
:-)
I am starting a Call of Cthulhu game, and have to pick a system.1. Original game, 6th edition
2. d20
3. Realms (the Savage World system)Does anyone have experience with these and can offer an opinion?
:-)
I've only played one game of this (group kinda dissolved, unfortunately), but I'd advise original system, although I don't know which edition I played. d20 will definitely not have the right feel for it unless they massively changed some of the rules. I don't know anything about the Savage World thing though - it might be a good fit too.
At any rate, don't go d20. d20 is a good system, but it's a "heroic action" type system, not so well suited for CoC.
I've played a number of Cthulhu games in all three systems and I'll say that the Chaosium version (the original game) is the best choice. The system works very well with the Cthulhu Mythos and is a pretty simple system to learn.
You also might want to look for a game called Trail of Cthulhu. It uses the GUMSHOE system and works pretty well.
While I love the Call of Cthulhu d20 game, I would only use it if you are looking for a more "pulp hero" feel to your Cthulhu game. The same goes for Realms of Cthulhu as well.
If you are looking to run a more gritty, dark, and horrific game, I'd go with the Chaosium game or Trail of Cthulhu. If you want to go the pulp hero way, go with Cthulhu d20 or Realms of Cthulhu.
I prefer Chaosium's original version. The skill system is very versatile and the system as a whole lends itself to being as rules heavy or light as each individual group likes.
My second favorite version would be Trail of Cthulhu. Though, I've only played it once.
I've never played Realms of Cthulhu, but I do like the Savage Worlds rules. (I actually need to pick this version up for my library.)
I honestly don't care for d20 Call of Cthulhu. d20 design generally assumes that the PCs are 'heroic' and that really doesn't mesh well with general CoC mindset that PCs are 'regular folk' in nasty situations.
Edit: Damn ninjas...
If you are looking to run a more gritty, dark, and horrific game, I'd go with the Chaosium game or Trail of Cthulhu. If you want to go the pulp hero way, go with Cthulhu d20 or Realms of Cthulhu.
Well said.
Thanks for the feedback. For this game, now I'm going with Chaosium.
But I will definitely check out Trail of Cthulhu soon.
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Honestly, I have to disagree with the advice so far. A system is just a system, and D20 does a fine job with the mythos. Take a look at some of the delta green stuff for d20 and you'll see what I mean. Brilliant Cthulhu modern campaign material that's every bit as good whether you play with Chaosium's ruleset or D20.
The real decision you face is the one any gamer out of college with limited time faces. If you have the time to prep and run a new system AND you have the players willing (and able) to invest the time to learn a new system, chaosium is fun, flavorful and could be a good choice.
BUT, if your time is limited, d20 is a fine fit. Just take the time to examine the unique rule subsets that fit d20 and examine some of the online resources to make sure you give the game the proper feel and ambiance.
The real decision you face is the one any gamer out of college with limited time faces. If you have the time to prep and run a new system AND you have the players willing (and able) to invest the time to learn a new system, chaosium is fun, flavorful and could be a good choice.
BUT, if your time is limited, d20 is a fine fit. Just take the time to examine the unique rule subsets that fit d20 and examine some of the online resources to make sure you give the game the proper feel and ambiance.
If you're pressed for time, you also have to consider product support. d20 CoC has none, that I am aware of. I believe only one of the Pagan Press Delta Green books was dual stated and a handful of other books published by Chaosium. Everything else is BRP only and you would have to convert it yourself. And that is far more time consuming than learning a new system. (And CoC really isn't a hard system to learn.)
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If you're pressed for time, you also have to consider product support. d20 CoC has none, that I am aware of. I believe only one of the Pagan Press Delta Green books was dual stated and a handful of other books published by Chaosium. Everything else is BRP only and you would have to convert it yourself. And that is far more time consuming than learning a new system. (And CoC really isn't a hard system to learn.)The real decision you face is the one any gamer out of college with limited time faces. If you have the time to prep and run a new system AND you have the players willing (and able) to invest the time to learn a new system, chaosium is fun, flavorful and could be a good choice.
BUT, if your time is limited, d20 is a fine fit. Just take the time to examine the unique rule subsets that fit d20 and examine some of the online resources to make sure you give the game the proper feel and ambiance.
All of the delta green books are dual stated now, but otherwise you are correct about the lack of general support. oh, there is also the Nocturne campaign and a couple of other books. However, CoC is about the stories, and Chaosium adventures can be easily used with d20 stats. I've done it quite often myself. It's actually not that hard to do it on the fly. Most creatures are just straight substitution and off yo go.
I am starting a Call of Cthulhu game, and have to pick a system.
1. Original game, 6th edition
2. d20
3. Realms (the Savage World system)
Does anyone have experience with these and can offer an opinion?
Yep. It depends what feel you want.
BRP (Call of Cthulhu) - Classic sanity blasting; generally incompetent PCs do some skills and some fighting but pretty much die screaming. Has vast arrays of support material and sub-settings like Delta Green, and even new licensed adventures coming out recently.
Savage Worlds (Realms of Cthulhu) - If you want to focus on pulp and more combat.
GUMSHOE (Trail of Cthulhu) - If you want to focus on the investigation/forensics aspect and less combat.
d20 - if your players are so ginger about new games that you have to promise them "it'll be like D&D" to get them to play. There's no other real reason to recommend this especially because there was zero support for it.
True20 (Shadows of Cthulhu) - if you still need a loosely d20-based system but can lure players one step further out of the D&D ghetto.
I prefer BRP but more for one shots and less for campaigns. After that I prefer GUMSHOE but that's because I like investigation more than pulp, and because with the various GUMSHOE lines there's a good bit of source material.
Note that you don't have to use a "Cthulhu system" to run a Cthulhulian game; in fact depending on the feel you want you may want to stay away from one. If you want "all Mythos all the time" go with a Cthulhu game; if you want a more general light supernaturaly thing where the Cthulhu stuff only pokes out from time to time (like X-Files with Cthulhu instead of aliens), you may have better results with another system that has a lot of stuff for that.
All of the delta green books are dual stated now.
That's actually good to hear. Still not a fan of d20 CoC, but since I view Delta Green as more of an 'inspired' setting that a true CoC one, they work well together.
Nothing against DG, but like I said, CoC is about regular folk + nasty situations. DG is not 'regular folk'.
I prefer BRP but more for one shots and less for campaigns.
What he said. I like the Chaosium system, but it's pretty deadly. Exception: If you're playing Chaosium's Ringworld, then you can end up fighting opponents with bows and arrows using lasers and force fields. :-)
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I prefer BRP but more for one shots and less for campaigns.What he said. I like the Chaosium system, but it's pretty deadly.
One of the good things about it. Combat SHOULD be deadly. Characters should NOT be able to charge the shotgun-wielding cultist, secure in the knowledge that they'll reach him before he can whittle their hit points down to a dangerous level.
One of the good things about it. Combat SHOULD be deadly.I prefer BRP but more for one shots and less for campaigns.What he said. I like the Chaosium system, but it's pretty deadly.
Right, but that's what makes it "more for one shots and less for campaigns".
In my experience, the only way to have your character survive more than a couple of sessions in a Call of Cthulhu campaign is to be ultra-timid, and that made for a boring game. YMMV.
How much of the anti-D20 thing is bias and how much experience? I ask because I'm generally pretty biased against D20 as having too insane a power curve, too much focus on "powers", etc. I usually turn to GURPS for more "serious" gaming.
However, I recently ran my first Cthulhu game using the WotC book and really liked how the system handled it. The characters were most certainly "ordinary folks in a very bad situation" and only made it out alive by quick thinking and a lot of luck.
I've read a good bit of Lovecraft et. al. but I'm not a Cthulhu purist so I do get what you're saying to some extent. By offering many of the same feats, movement, round structure, etc. as D&D it does lead players toward the idea that they should be engaging in combat and such...so I guess that might make it better for games that lean toward the "pulp" side of things.
M
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I think the fact that the d20 Call of Cthulhu book gave rules for advancing your investigator to 20th level was utterly moronic. Really, the game should have set a low hard level cap (say 3rd level), vastly increased the ammount of XP to gain levels (so that you don't basically race to max in no time), and completely rework the skill system to work like the BRP version.
I'm sorry you feel that way Kthulhu. I enjoyed the d20 version of the game because I actually felt I could fight back without being slaughtered out of hand for opening the wrong door at the wrong time. Then again, my only experience with CoC has been with a DM that was rather misanthropic and used the game setting to work out his issues.
All a matter of taste. The d20 rules come with certain expectations that don't mesh well with a classic Cthulhu scenario. The biggest part of that is combat. In d20 games, you fight. It's what the system is designed for. Can you use it to play non-combat heavy games? Sure, but you aren't getting the most out of the system. In BRP you can fight, but it's just another available skill that is no more central to the system than any other skill you can use.
I think the fact that the d20 Call of Cthulhu book gave rules for advancing your investigator to 20th level was utterly moronic. Really, the game should have set a low hard level cap (say 3rd level), vastly increased the ammount of XP to gain levels (so that you don't basically race to max in no time), and completely rework the skill system to work like the BRP version.
So, there are rules for it but it's not like you have to use them. I think my game would likely top out at half that. The level progressions are slow and steady and, if you did want to go higher I assume you'd be putting the characters up against things they couldn't beat in combat anyway. To each his own, of course...but using words like moronic about a game system is a good way to start a flame war.
My game will continue to be a bit more pulpy than standard stories; I'm okay with combat and like having a familiar rules system for playing that out so the D20 rules are great for me. The players (just two of them) made the *mistake* of engaging a minor demon in our first game and just about paid the price for it. They were very, very lucky (and smart) and managed to make it out alive. I'm pretty sure they'll be avoiding combat in the future if possible.
M
How much of the anti-D20 thing is bias and how much experience? I ask because I'm generally pretty biased against D20 as having too insane a power curve, too much focus on "powers", etc. I usually turn to GURPS for more "serious" gaming.
However, I recently ran my first Cthulhu game using the WotC book and really liked how the system handled it. The characters were most certainly "ordinary folks in a very bad situation" and only made it out alive by quick thinking and a lot of luck.
The d20 version of CoC isn't bad. Combat is still pretty deadly (the insta-death from massive damage threshold is dramatically lowered) and the book was well done in general.
But I still think the BRP Chaosium version is better as a fit to the type of game that would be inspired by Lovecraftian literature. Character generation in CoC makes it easier to build the type of character you'd meet in a Lovecraft story. I also think the magic and spells work a little better in CoC rules structures than the d20 version's.
So, in my experience, while d20 is pretty good, Chaosium's BRP version is better for the purpose of a CoC campaign.
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Just as another point of possible interest, the "Red Eye of Azathoth" Open Design project considered another possible system -- Pathfinder rules, NPC classes only. So you'd use (basically) Commoner, Warrior and Expert in a modern setting -- closely corresponding to Modern D20s archetypes of Strong, Skilled, etc. I may give that a try myself when I get the end product (mostly because my wife is very interested in playing, and now that she knows Pathfinder pretty well, it may help to stick with something familiar in terms of a rules system).
Obviously, though, this would require a lot of homebrew work, so YMMV.
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Honestly, I have to disagree with the advice so far. A system is just a system, and D20 does a fine job with the mythos. Take a look at some of the delta green stuff for d20 and you'll see what I mean. Brilliant Cthulhu modern campaign material that's every bit as good whether you play with Chaosium's ruleset or D20.
The real decision you face is the one any gamer out of college with limited time faces. If you have the time to prep and run a new system AND you have the players willing (and able) to invest the time to learn a new system, chaosium is fun, flavorful and could be a good choice.
BUT, if your time is limited, d20 is a fine fit. Just take the time to examine the unique rule subsets that fit d20 and examine some of the online resources to make sure you give the game the proper feel and ambiance.
Outside of the GM, you'll spend more time looking up stuff for a d20 game than it will take you to learn BRP.
The CoC Quick Start rules (all a player really needs to learn the system) is a 22 page PDF. And that includes a full scenario as well as cover, title page, into, etc. It's probably the easiest system to learn that I've ever played.
Here is the 'CoC Quick Start Rules' .pdf:
Here are a bunch of free Adventures you can download:
There is an H.P. Lovecraft library and archive:
Links:
Here is a link into the Paizo stacks, you *must* buy all these:
I guess there is Amazon-Cthulhu too.
There is even stuff on YouTube!
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If you want to play a DARK, and I mean DARK, sci-fi version of Call of Cthulhu, I recommend End Times. In it, the stars have become right, and the Earth belongs to the various horrors of the Mythos. The bulk of humanity that's still sane lives on Mars.
If you want to play a DARK, and I mean DARK, sci-fi version of Call of Cthulhu, I recommend End Times. In it, the stars have become right, and the Earth belongs to the various horrors of the Mythos. The bulk of humanity that's still sane lives on Mars.
Cool. There is also Cthulhu Tech. I haven't had a chance to play it and don't know the system, but it's a neat idea (Cthulhu meets Mech Warrior).
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I enjoyed the d20 version of the game because I actually felt I could fight back without being slaughtered out of hand for opening the wrong door at the wrong time.
I think that is exactly what is meant by d20 Cthulhu not having the right feel. CoC is about not being overt less you want to be either dead or insane - or both! By level 16-20 in d20 Cthulhu the investigators can be more "Rambo" than "CSI", this was never the intention of the CoC game designers and if you read Lovecraft not a likely development of the main 'heroes'.
So d20 CoC strikes me as something you play to get some revenge for all the PC's you lost playing the original CoC... :)
2 cents,
S.
Contributor
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Just as another point of possible interest, the "Red Eye of Azathoth" Open Design project considered another possible system -- Pathfinder rules, NPC classes only. So you'd use (basically) Commoner, Warrior and Expert in a modern setting -- closely corresponding to Modern D20s archetypes of Strong, Skilled, etc. I may give that a try myself when I get the end product (mostly because my wife is very interested in playing, and now that she knows Pathfinder pretty well, it may help to stick with something familiar in terms of a rules system).
Obviously, though, this would require a lot of homebrew work, so YMMV.
For what it's worth, I have a lot of respect for the team developing "Red Eye". I was invited to join but had to pass because my son was born. Darn birth interfering with my gaming! :)
I fully intend to pick this up and expect to enjoy the 84 out of space hells of it.
As a general rule, Call of Cthulhu should be enjoyed under game mechanics that can accurately represent the fact that if you roll initiative it means something went horribly, horribly wrong.
I agree. The only thing you do have a chance of defeating are deep ones and cultists. If you have to fight you have already lost. The idea is to stop the gates or summonings from happening, not to fight what goes through the gate or is being summoned. The magic system is as sanity blasting as seeing the creatures. You can lose sanity learning the spells as well as every time you cast one. The same with learning mythos. You need to learn spells and mythos, but you do pay for it in sanity.
I enjoyed the d20 version of the game because I actually felt I could fight back without being slaughtered out of hand for opening the wrong door at the wrong time.I think that is exactly what is meant by d20 Cthulhu not having the right feel. CoC is about not being overt less you want to be either dead or insane - or both! By level 16-20 in d20 Cthulhu the investigators can be more "Rambo" than "CSI", this was never the intention of the CoC game designers and if you read Lovecraft not a likely development of the main 'heroes'.
So d20 CoC strikes me as something you play to get some revenge for all the PC's you lost playing the original CoC... :)
2 cents,
S.
An intriguing point, and I respect your view, but that's not the type of game I really want to play. Keep in mind my experiences with CoC overall have been very poor, and despite the WONDERFUL characterizations after about two sessions, I couldn't help but feel like the DM/GM/Storyteller/Whathaveyou was intentionally killing PCs because he had a really bad day/week/month/year/life.
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An intriguing point, and I respect your view, but that's not the type of game I really want to play.Then basically, you don't want to play Call of Cthulhu.
You can play Call of Cthulhu but it won't reflect the style/feel that Lovecraft imparted in his writing. "Big damn heroes" just didn't enter Lovecraft's warped world I'm afraid.
Not saying your DM wasn't trying to kill you, if so, then I would say that they were mistaken on the purpose of a CoC game. A well run game "may" end up in your dead or insane but getting to that point is very, very fun.
S.
An intriguing point, and I respect your view, but that's not the type of game I really want to play.Then basically, you don't want to play Call of Cthulhu.You can play Call of Cthulhu but it won't reflect the style/feel that Lovecraft imparted in his writing. "Big damn heroes" just didn't enter Lovecraft's warped world I'm afraid.
Not saying your DM wasn't trying to kill you, if so, then I would say that they were mistaken on the purpose of a CoC game. A well run game "may" end up in your dead or insane but getting to that point is very, very fun.
S.
Could be the Keeper was trying to kill you, bad on him. No need to 'try' in a CoC game, it happens quite naturally (and of course, if he was trying to kill you, it doesn't really matter which rule set you were using).
Or, it could be that the players were trying to play D&D instead of CoC, bad on them. Different games, different genres, different mindset needed to be successful.
I play a variety of systems every week and sometimes forget the nuances of each between sessions. This past Sunday my Shadowrunner (Street Samurai, 2nd edition) very nearly died because I walked into the middle of a room and forgot to take cover. Even with Heavy Armor and seriously jacked up Body score, he took a lot of damage. Wasn't the GMs fault, he wasn't 'trying to kill me', I was briefly playing with the wrong mindset and it nearly cost me great Character.
An intriguing point, and I respect your view, but that's not the type of game I really want to play.Then basically, you don't want to play Call of Cthulhu.You can play Call of Cthulhu but it won't reflect the style/feel that Lovecraft imparted in his writing. "Big damn heroes" just didn't enter Lovecraft's warped world I'm afraid.
Not saying your DM wasn't trying to kill you, if so, then I would say that they were mistaken on the purpose of a CoC game. A well run game "may" end up in your dead or insane but getting to that point is very, very fun.
S.
Could be the Keeper was trying to kill you, bad on him. No need to 'try' in a CoC game, it happens quite naturally (and of course, if he was trying to kill you, it doesn't really matter which rule set you were using).
Or, it could be that the players were trying to play D&D instead of CoC, bad on them. Different games, different genres, different mindset needed to be successful.
I play a variety of systems every week and sometimes forget the nuances of each between sessions. This past Sunday my Shadowrunner (Street Samurai, 2nd edition) very nearly died because I walked into the middle of a room and forgot to take cover. Even with Heavy Armor and seriously jacked up Body score, he took a lot of damage. Wasn't the GMs fault, he wasn't 'trying to kill me', I was briefly playing with the wrong mindset and it nearly cost me great Character.
That's just the thing- at one point we really were just walking down the street when we were ambushed by a horde of something or others. We didn't even get a chance to do much of anything other than die. One person piped up that that was unfair, and the DM rolled his eyes complaining about how we need to "go back to D&D". I think this was the third session, maybe -we all died, two PC were lunchmeat before they even got a chance to touch their dice.
It could be the DM wasn't a good one for CoC or just wasn't a good person overall. But what's the point of a game if you are just going to die horribly without ever touching your dice? That's what this guy(and his lackey at the table, come to think of it) described as a good CoC game, and I didn't buy it then, and I dont' buy it now.
However, I am by no means advocating a Rambo-style game where Cthulhu himself is killed by a rocket launcher fired by the sole survivor of his platoon while he has his way with the one non-hideous female member of the cult that killed his buddies. Just because I want to be able to fight back in some way doesn't mean I want a cakewalk, I just want to be able to touch the dice at least thrice before having to roll up a new character.
That's just the thing- at one point we really were just walking down the street when we were ambushed by a horde of something or others. We didn't even get a chance to do much of anything other than die. One person piped up that that was unfair, and the DM rolled his eyes complaining about how we need to "go back to D&D". I think this was the third session, maybe -we all died, two PC were lunchmeat before they even got a chance to touch their dice.
It could be the DM wasn't a good one for CoC or just wasn't a good person overall. But what's the point of a game if you are just going to die horribly without ever touching your dice? That's what this guy(and his lackey at the table, come to think of it) described as a good CoC game, and I didn't buy it then, and I dont' buy it now.
Well, I'm not afraid to say it. That may be a terrible Call of Cthulhu game! Where's the increasing sense of horror gnawing at the PCs? Did he at least give you that in the sessions before you got mobbed?
I won't say that not getting to touch the dice is the problem. Ambushes and luck with RPG combat can be like that. I don't have a problem with that at all. When the hounds of Tindalos come out of the corners at you or the invisible star vampire gets ahold of you, it was nice knowing ya. I'll be missing those sanity points I lost witnessing your demise. But CoC usually involves some kind of build-up of tension, lurking horrors you can barely perceive or find in evidence. If it all ends up in a TPK, I'll at least have the satisfaction that it's because I was meddling in things I should have left well-enough alone.
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Yeah, I think that ref may have fallen into a common COC "trap".
All players must die, PCs are a dime a dozen, horrible stuff done to PCs just because it's expected, etc. It's a very common trap for GMs who think they need to earn some kind of credibility if they can get players to die in very horrible ways. I think that mentality came out of an "anti-D&D" outgrowth in the 80's increased PC survivability in that game. So having players die in droves, cheap PC lives, etc, became a GM trap. If any of these GMs were actually inspired by horror, or even read any HPL the level of in-game absurdity CoC GM war stories would have been considerably lower. GMs see stats for some super-monster and feel compelled to use them in a contest with PCs have no hope in winning. Again for some GMs it was the justified "anti-d&d", when it should have just been a horror game.
I've run a few CoC campaigns and I had sessions where PCs died, but a more common occurrence was having PCs survive. They even read books and learned a few spells - a sustainable and viable campaign is a reasonable possibility if you have players who are:
Prepared
Take their time
Prepared to run
Know when to use dynamite and guns
Know when to run
There is a great disparity in the power between PCs and most monsters in CoC - or any horror game. That would imply that running it like a D&D game (ironic the GM brought that up) was the GMs fault, not the players. I would never run something as deadly as an ambush - even with very killable creatures - unless things were foreshadowed or built up in some sort of way. Not, "this is Cthulhu, PCs die so deal with it", nonsense justification.
The PC are getting close to story resolution may sense a coming retaliation, clues that a large number of creatures may be involved a tool or force of the nemesis from other evidence, etc. Springing an encounter where the PCs get ambushed with no rhyme or reason may work well in D&D as a thematic element - doing it out of the blue with no story setup in CoC is just failure as GM. As Mr Dunn said in the post before mine:
If it all ends up in a TPK, I'll at least have the satisfaction that it's because I was meddling in things I should have left well-enough alone.
Running a game of CoC isn't a contest to see how many PCs a GM can kill or drive insane; the game is ultimately about experiencing the HPL world/Mythos but from a RPG perspective. That being said you will have some RPGisms (survival, character progression) which may go against the single story protagonist formula used in HPLs stories.
And sure you can have heroes - they won't be the same type as in D&D, but a DG operative who thwarts a plan hatched by the nefarious Karotechia, or some 1920's adventurers who stopped something bad from happening in village X are just as heroic as fantasy PCs, even more so due to their relatively mundane nature.
I have had PCs die in CoC - more so in Chill since I ran that more often because I felt it was a superior game - but every time a PC died in a horror game it was very justified. It was either bad circumstances and chance the PC took, or during the course of dealing with the threat and just running out of gas/steam/options. My players always felt that when their time came it was because they either made a bad choice or put themselves in a bad spot - it was never to just further the horror meme, the horror thing just happened as events followed their course.
That's just the thing- at one point we really were just walking down the street when we were ambushed by a horde of something or others. We didn't even get a chance to do much of anything other than die. One person piped up that that was unfair, and the DM rolled his eyes complaining about how we need to "go back to D&D". I think this was the third session, maybe -we all died, two PC were lunchmeat before they even got a chance to touch their dice.
It could be the DM wasn't a good one for CoC or just wasn't a good person overall. But what's the point of a game if you are just going to die horribly without ever touching your dice? That's what this guy(and his lackey at the table, come to think of it) described as a good CoC game, and I didn't buy it then, and I dont' buy it now.
Well, I'm not afraid to say it. That may be a terrible Call of Cthulhu game! Where's the increasing sense of horror gnawing at the PCs? Did he at least give you that in the sessions before you got mobbed?
I won't say that not getting to touch the dice is the problem. Ambushes and luck with RPG combat can be like that. I don't have a problem with that at all. When the hounds of Tindalos come out of the corners at you or the invisible star vampire gets ahold of you, it was nice knowing ya. I'll be missing those sanity points I lost witnessing your demise. But CoC usually involves some kind of build-up of tension, lurking horrors you can barely perceive or find in evidence. If it all ends up in a TPK, I'll at least have the satisfaction that it's because I was meddling in things I should have left well-enough alone.
This is from a session that happened several years ago..I can't remember too much of it. I remember that the first session was AMAZING, however, lots of build up as the "party" met one another. That was about it for build up though. I think I was some kind of scholar-warrior of some sort, from New England. I didn't know any magic, but I knew such things existed, and that knowledge crawled behind my eyes like roaches through garbage; I was "adventuring" in the hopes that I might enjoy a good night's sleep. I just wish I had a chance to get into that backstory more before I got slaughtered.
I'm not all gloom and doom on CoC however, despite my poor experiences. I've added a bit of their sanity mechanic to how things work for Clerics and Paladins in my homebrew since the gods are almost definitely living impaired. I LOVE the fiction and fanfiction and homebrewed stuff. While I do find the majority of the players and DMs a bit stuffy and/or arrogant(sorry, my experience has blinded me a bit there), they know their stuff, which is more than I can say for myself and D&D, no matter WHAT the incarnation. But I will always take issue with the idea that in a game that relies on roleplaying and dice rolling to interact with people and things in the game world, all that the vast majority of the people at the table died without a chance to do anything but glare at the DM's sh!t eating grin.
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I think the problem was with your DM, for whatever reason sounds like they were the ones that lost the plot. What a waste, sounds like the story was developing nicely. Shame they couldn't be bothered with a little bit of "fiat" once they saw the encounter was going too pear shaped. In my experiences of CoC deaths always seemed squarely at the feet of the over-curious and not the DM.
I really am sorry for your experience as from mine CoC (original) rates as one of my most enjoyable RPG's I have ever played in.
Cheers,
S.
Succeeding in CoC is different then most games. I had a friend that was in a CoC game, where his character went insane, killed the other players blowing up the mansion. He did seal the gate, therefore everyone he played with considered it a successful game as they and my friend made new characters.
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Succeeding in CoC is different then most games. I had a friend that was in a CoC game, where his character went insane, killed the other players blowing up the mansion. He did seal the gate, therefore everyone he played with considered it a successful game as they and my friend made new characters.
Success in CoC is delaying the inevitable End Times and fall of humanity. It doesn't matter if you die, go insane, or whatever. If you delay the End Times in the process, you were successful.