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Book Club starter questions:
>What works?
>What's cool about it?
>Why is it so effective?
>What is the best part of it in your opinion?
>Thoughts on the characters?
>Is the villain effective?
>If you had to pick a moment that really scared you, which would it be?
>Is there anything you feel could have been expanded upon?
>What would you change?
>Would you use it as inspiration for a game?

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I made this the news post just cause this game looks cool and I want to see if anyone has gotten it yet.

>>97997244
Honestly, I'm judging the book by its cover, and I would stay away from it. It's not even what is being depicted, the artstyle is not horror at all. And if you can't even get a decent cover, how is the rest of the book going to be? The author clearly doesn't understand horror.

Best CoC edition? Should I just get 7th?

>>97999974
Call of Cthulhu isn’t like most other RPGs in that editions are largely cross compatible with each other and each new one is mostly small, iterative changes.
7e is the most different from past ones but you could still run something from 2e with a minimal amount of effort.
So yeah, just stick with 7e. The changes it did make are generally considered great and it adds the criminally underrated chase system.

>>98000000
Thank you

>>98000000
Hmmm, I'm bound to agree with you due to those great SIXs you got there.

>>98000000
Based chase enjoyer

>>98000000
true I was able to run Escape from innsmouth using 7e

>>97999524

This.

>>97997244
Two geriatrics, elf-Zoe from Firefly, and a weeaboo femboy. Spooky.

>>98000000
holy digits

>>98000000
Six Zeroes speak the truth, I fucking kneel.

There's people in my group sometimes saying they'd like to try CoC. I would also love to try it out, but I never pushed for it or looked too much into it because I know them, and they are too goofy and action-oriented (not necessarily in a combat way, but they do like to go around and do stuff, getting a sense of accomplishment) to give the whole thing justice. Simply put, I don't see them playing along with a serious tone for long. We all get together to play after work, so I don't blame them for just wanting to unwind.

The question is: what if I used CoC as a setting and ruleset, but used it for something that's more a mix with delta green and, for lack of a better example, hot fuzz? They could go around, investigate, uncover some conspiracy, shoot a few cultists and then have a run in with a creepy monster. This is the only way I can imagine them playing this, but hopefully they might get into it. Or should I just use something else?

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>>98002372
Pulp Cthulhu. You want Pulp Cthulhu.
Alternatively, if you want a really scary adventure to set them straight and make them understand the tone the game has, hit them with Dead Light.

>>98002372
As someone who had the same issue, but tried running a serious campaign for Delta Green - lean into the pulp aspect a bit more. Try to keep a mix of seriousness but a bit of pulp to lighten things. It certainly helps out, especially after running a one shot and playing up the 1920s setting and people.

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>>97999524
>>98001510
>>98001604
To be fair, the interior art does seem better.
But I may also just desperately want something like a Darkest Dungeon/Bloodborne RPG that I'm willing to try anything. And I like BRP, so it using it is a big plus.

>>98002460
Also wanted to go into further detail as a warning for others - don't run a remotely serious game of Delta Green for people who aren't gonna be just as serious about it. I've found it tends to go VERY poorly.

>>98002448
This really looks like what I had in mind.
>>98002460
Noted. Speaking of the 1920s, how difficult would it be to move the timeline forward?

>>98002464
I could see some vague darkest dungeon influence in the cover art, but it's like they tried to ape it while removing everything that made the art good in the first place. Even the interior art isn't that great I'm afraid, at least it's not working for me. The palette is too bright, everything is too clean.

>>98002460
>>98002467
I got hit with a sheet that's just Alexander Anderson from Hellsing for Delta Green the other day.

>>98002498
>Speaking of the 1920s, how difficult would it be to move the timeline forward?
Very easy. Call of Cthulhu includes modern day costs for items (as well as modern-day exclusive gear) and has an alternate character sheet for modern day investigators, which includes stuff like Computer Use as a skill.

Any recommendations for spicing up Last Things Last? What's a good module to run after it? Did anyone tie in the next module using Baughman's lockbox contents?

>>98002619
I had 2 different ways for spicing it up for 2 groups of 3 that I ran one after the other, before getting everyone into a call together to discuss how it went. Was a lot of fun to see them realize that it was run quite differently lol.

Anyways, I had group A actually get briefed by Clyde before he goes to the restroom and blows his brains out in the bathroom, so they had to improvise when a neighbor rushed over to ask about the bang. Group B got theirs spiced up with a storm at the cabin, and having a nearby Ranger show up after seeing their cars pull up from their tower. Also I made a little bit of foreshadowing for another scenario (a slightly altered Unfriendly) in case the players wanted more, and it was tracing where Clyde got the book/knowledge for bringing Marlene back from and introduced a green box that's located in the back of an occult oddity shop/bookstore with the bookstore owner being a friendly in charge of looking out for anything unusual.

>>98002669
Just to clarify, the extra foreshadowing for another scenario was for both groups and the scenario mentioned is this one (though I had it go either with the serpent man route OR with Ghouls via Ghoul Manuscript): http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/unfriendly

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>>98000000

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>>98002464
Lamentations of the Flame Princess

>>98003436
I dislike the actual system behind LotFP and think the creator’s kind of an asshole but I would be lying if I said that that specific piece of art and some of the adventures weren’t dope as hell.

>>98002598
That's great, thank you

>>98003896
NTA but after doing that stuff, the only thing to really do is update cases to include things like cellphones and modern technology.

As Sandy Petersen himself said: Cultists have access to the same technology as the players. High Priests have The Necronomicon saved as a PDF. The King in Yellow is going around on TikTok and Youtube.

>>98003909
>The Necronomicon saved as a PDF
That sounds even more dangerous than having a copy in a public library.

>>98004036
I mean, realistically, if someone posted the real necronomicon online 99% of people would just think its some prank or larp or arg or whatever. A thousand year old leather bound tome might be a bit more convincing to people, even if just barely

>>98003909
Do you think if YouTube starts to auto-play the second act of The King in Yellow, you’re compelled to finish watching it? Like how if you start reading the second half, you HAVE to finish it?

>>98004036
why did you think they stopped letting us post pdfs on here?

>>98003909
We seriously need an actual exploration of the consequences of that, like what if The Necronomicon somehow reached a shadow library or this idea i read a while ago of a rogue ai chatbot which was accidentally trained on passages of the KiY

>>98004361
What happens if someone puts Family Guy clips and Subway Surfers footage beneath The King in Yellow

>>98005235
>Hey Lois, remember that time we went to Carcosa?

>>98004036
>>98005185


No joke. Always found kinda surreal that in CT the answer is "oh but we have antipiracy software".
Dude, ANYONE on the interwebs since like 1994 wouldn't believe that could stop people.

Do you guys use music during ur games? like to set a mood or for ambiance?
I remember years ago, playing a Call Of Cthulhu campaign, and the keeper had a really good playlist. Like a weird mix of old jazz and like erie ambience stuff.

>>98004469
Deepest lore

>>98007285
I think the idea has a lot of potential but lately I've been playing mostly no screens for convenience, so I never tried it.

This is kind of far out, but you guys know any sources of inspirations for people being victims of something like gangstalking or an organized conspiracy?
Like there's this one episode of the x files I saw ages ago where mulder and scully enter this small town and iirc the kids start acting crazy, and it all gets traced back to the local meat supply being tampered with by some mysterious organization.
I'm planning out a game where something like that will happen to the players so I'm looking for inspiration and ideas of what to do, how to clue them in, and such. Not that I want to go with tainted meat or crazy people, but that's just the one thing I can remember having the vibe I'm trying to go for.

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>>98007285
I use tracks from Tabletopaudio for my Delta Green games. I have a Bluetooth speaker that doubles as a faux flickering torch light in the middle of the table.

>>98004096
>arg
Which means a bunch of zoomers would obsess over it and even the Great Old Ones would blink

>>98003909
It's still not quite as dire as Sandy makes it out though. Miskatonic U. would likely never allow the Necronomicon manuscripts to be digitized. IRL in AD 2026 there are still many grimoires that can only be accessed by academics at institutions or by convincing private collectors. Whateley would still have to go to the library even if he was a zoomer.

Now those translated, but incomplete, print editions would absolutely be available as pdfs and widely distributed on archive and gutenberg...

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>>98002669
Both great ideas, I'll be using the ranger when I run it.
>>98007285
I really like the OST for Alien and feel like it has some good use when I run horror themed games.

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>>98003800
Its def my favorite iteration of D&D B/X. I like Raggi. He's a bit of an edgelord, but he sticks to his guns and pays his creators well.

>>98007285
My go to music for CoC are the soundtracks of Bloodborne, Darkest Dungeon and this guy:
https://youtu.be/n8Na1oEh0-I?si=l97ANSVyeTRIN6eQ

>>98009584
I've never understood why people think Raggi is an asshole. He's a funny little goblin metalhead who, like you say, pays his freelancers incredibly well, puts out a product that he gives a shit about, and is obviously an incredibly loyal friend. The industry would be a better place if we had more Raggis in the field.

>>98009100

There is a shitton of canonical cthulhu grimoires in COC that circulated in print. THOSE would probably be on anna archive.

>>98013083

I'll add that personally I prefer TOC approach to grimoires anyway (which give you no automatic SAN/STA loss). No sure if the "spell diffusion" angle will be touched in the modern campaign frame for second edition, I would suggest that you don't simply get the first Magic skill point just from reading shit.

>>98011861
Honestly, I think people tend to just parrot other people's opinions. Raggi got shit for the Jordan Peterson picture and being associated with Zak S, so delicate smol-bean autists threw him and LotFP under the bus.

>>98003909
Always found it funny how Sandy believes Cthulhu Modern is the "correct" way to play CoC.
The 1920s default setting is one of the highlights of the game for me, though I do play in the other timelines every so often (Invictus especially appeals to me).

>>98014964
80s can be fun with stuff like limited technology and shit like the satanic panic and cold war/nuclear scare affecting everything, but i do agree that 1920s is the best era to play in. 90s and early 2000s could be fun too maybe with the start of the internet, Y2K and conspiracy theories getting more traction.

>>98014964

Never understood this. Lovecraft seems to me the kind of guy who, when used as inspo, can work basically the same from the enlightenment to at very least the seventies, but almost surely to, well, nowdays. And this is not considering that he did have stories set in the classical period.

Granted, you have to adapt the tech: he did write about cutting edge shit for his times, which are not ours. Radio was a thing then (see The Whisperer), it's not now, shit like that. But the basics? Almost absurdly universal, really, it's hard not to imagine his stories in... basically any other modern country.

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>>98015468
To me, it's the fact that when I'm playing an RPG, I don't want to be playing real life. I'm one fo those people who never likes to "play themselves," and I always try to make my characters as different from me as possible. On similar levels, I like the setting to NOT be modern day.
The 1920s appeals to me as a setting because, frankly, not a lot of other RPGs use that time period. It feels like CoC really staked out its niche there and claimed it as its own.
Again, not saying I refuse to play Modern, but it's just not my preferred.

In CoC 7th, can we just start with the core book, or are the player/master handbooks also required? Looking around for second hand stuff and I want to only get the bare necessary until I'm sure we're playing more than a couple of flings.

>>98016783
The only thing you need to start the game is the Keeper’s Handbook.
The Investigator’s Handbook is worth getting at some point, because it has more career options and expanded equipment choices. But it most exists to let your players have a rulebook in front of them without risking spoilers from stuff like monster stats, how arcane artifacts work or the contents of ancient tomes. It otherwise has little in the way of rules that the Keeper’s Guide doesn’t already have.

Just snapped up Cthulhu by Gaslight after based seth reminded me it was out. At this point is Colonial America the only setting book they announced in the 2010's we haven't got yet?

and has anyone tried the scouts book yet? is it just call of kidthulhu expanded to a setting guide?

>>98016783
Honestly you can get the 20 dollar starter and be good for hundreds of hours. The core book is for the keeper mostly and for the sickos at that. The investigoators book is for the turbo sickos that want the nitty gritty of how to RP a 1920's university chemistry professor.

At the end of the day you really want Alone Against the flame to act as your player creation tutorial and Paper Chase to teach the basics. Stuff like gun combat, car chases and magic can come later. For a beginner group just run it like an episode of Columba as written by RL Stine. You get all the basics from the starter and theres tons of free scenarios online so you only get the big books when you are certain you like the game and are going to join us in the sicko pool. Its a great game in general but its also great because theres a very very low cost of entry.

This youtube channel is recommended by chaosium in the rules for how to start and he breaks down the starter here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoVuwcAlTqQ

>>98017924
I got it but haven’t run it yet. It’s much expansive than Kidthulhu. For example, it has rules for taking your kid characters and growing them up to adults, which can be good for carrying the characters forward. In addition, the merit badges your scouts earn give mechanical benefits, which is neat.
>Colonial America
Oh hell yeah, I’ve been wanting a horror game set in that time period ever since I saw The VVitch.

>>98018622
Colonial America was announced in the back of Down Darker Trails if memory serves but they had a big reshuffle of production plans just before covid. I could be wrong but want to say Dark Ages Cthulhu swapped release dates with it but then i think the author get seriously ill.

>>98018622
There is Colonial Gothic and the Zweihander version of it, Flames of Freedom.

>>98017924
>and has anyone tried the scouts book yet?

Read it.

The adventures are astonishingly bad, even for Chaosium; any decent GM would come up with something at least marginally more entertaining. Some vaguely interesting rulings.

Also, non-segregated and apparently going out innawoods with mixed genders (12 yo) in the twenties. No, COC h as not to be a commentary on contemporary politics, neither does it need to be grindless spot on on historical discrimination, but come the fuck on.

>>98018768
You sound like you cried when the onion won infowars.

>>98018817
Nobody cried anon.

Nobody laughed either.

>>98018817

I'm a leftist, probably one the most leftist here. It simply is maaaaaybe a tiny bit cheap, isn't it?
To be fair the racial angle can be ignored with no consequences, but it is pretty funny.

>>98000000
Yep, you're correct and the numbers confirms it.

>>98018857
>I'm a leftist, probably the best leftists, they did tests on me and they were very impressed, they thought they had never seen someone as leftist as me

>>98018969

Definitely think I am not "the best" by any metrics.

Ocean Game tomorrow.

>>98017924

Colonial America is kino but what to put in there specifically that isn't, you know, 1920s shit?

>>98017608
>>98017992
Thank you anons

Whats the last real world thing you have used in a game setting wise?

>>98020032
The London Necropolis Company. In the 1800's england was transitioning from burying people at their local church to modern graveyards and London was exploding in population so for that -and hygeine reasons- they moved all burials to out of the city.
But they couldnt shift that many dying out 25 miles away by carriage so a company was founded with its own private rail lines and trains that pulled up right in the cemeteries outside of london with train cars full of the dead. Still separated by class of course because the toffs complained.

This continued till the trainyard and core line were destroyed by the nazis during the blitz and it was better to write it off than repair it and it was quickly forgotten by the general public but those lines are, shocker, considered super super haunted.

I think Cthulhu by Gaslight actually uses it in an official scenario but i used it in a Promethean campaign as a frankenstein type was doing train robberies for parts and it was pretty kino.

I want to be honest.

The cosmic horror stuff intrigues me, CoC sounds cool as hell with the right people, and there's even a pulp supplement. But I don't know shit about the 20s and I wouldn't know how to nail it. Where do I even start looking into it?

>>98022709
Chaosium is very good about their books including a primer. Down Darker Trails has a large chunk about the history of the americas in the 1800's, Dark Ages is written by two historians and breaks down everything down to "heres the male and female naming conentions of 900's england". They aren't like say D&D which is largely "fuck you figure it out" because its a melange of random ideas from different periods smashed together. Each setting is intentionally curated to be that setting. Did something not exist then? then it doesn't exist. How much was money worth then? heres a table. Its specifically designed to teach you enough about the setting with recommendations for other media you can quickly get a grasp on the important stuff.

Still doesn't stop "that guy" going "uhhh i have a sword cane and a bunch of dynamite and guns i saved from WW1".

>>98022738
That's reassuring, good to know.

>>98022709
I've found that people far overthink this aspect of the game. You're group probably isn't going to care if the game is more or less modern times but with less phones and cars and more jazz. You can work on introducing neat/weird era specific stuff per session (oh, this area's phones are all on a party line so we have to be careful about making calls, oh we need to use a clipping agency to get some information, etc.). The investigator's handbook has more setting info on the twenties, alongside what's in the core book.

If you still find it an impediment, you can always just run games in the 80'/90's/00's/201X, there's nothing that ties the game hyper specifically down to the 1920s.

>>98022772
Yeah, I probably am overthinking it, it's just that I'm used to come up with stuff on the fly in fantasy and sci fi because most of the time you can do almost whatever, but in a real historical situation that's not as vague as the middle ages or antiquity, I don't want to come up with stuff and then have someone look at me like I fucked up because he knows otherwise.

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>>98022772
The thing is some players really struggle with the disconnects no matter how minor. Like the old saying goes "theres a reason shampoo bottles include instructions".

But it goes both ways. I always remember listening to Modern Mythos, the podcast one of the devs and Seth Skorkowsky do, and Seth talked about how people play so much 1920's they mentally struggle with modern day "because i can get my cell phone out and call the cops at any time" and his rebuttal for that was elegant and perfect: Okay you ring up and call the cops and they say okay [player name] we are sending a squad car over. Maybe you notice that you never gave them your name maybe you dont and the keeper goes from there.

The settings are really just a tool box for the keeper to arrange shit around the players for the story. Its all low tier theatre kids shit at the end of the day. I remember running Paper Chase for friends who never played before and the moment the book says "make them roll to look for a path from the house to the cemetery" i had the player that made an extreme success find something in a bush on the path and i handed them a screwed up ball of paper they unfurled and it was a list of books. Because its the 20's and how else is an older man going to keep track of what select books he wants to steal? an app on a smartphone? no its the 20's its paper or nothing. Which gives the players a key on what sort of entity they are setting themselves up for and also by handing them a piece of paper they found ads this level of immersion without breaking the illusion of the setting.

You just gotta hope a turbo autist can still flow with you adding stuff to remind them "yo this isn't 19XX" which in tabletop gatherings can always struggle with one mouthbreathing dumbass.

>>98022738
My character had a sword cane :(
I just think they look cool....

>>98022825
Paper Chase came with a map?

>>98022843
No i took a map from another module and loaded it up in CSP and redrew some of it. For beginners they might find just a character sheet and 'theatre of the mind' a bit overwhelming. But you give them a map that grounds and defines the scenarios setting and it really gets them into it. Its consistently been the way i've had beginners go from that nervous "haha this is so silly and i'm worried i'll be cringe" to going "okay okay hang on lets check the map" and it gamify's it more.

Also if you want to be brave practice accents as a keeper, nothing breaks the ice like putting on a 20's new england accent for an npc and letting them know they can go hog wild.

>>98022857
Oooh, solid advice. I'm running for a bunch of newbs soon, I will keep this in mind.

>>98022814
If you have a history buff in your group, utilize them! It's great.

>>98022828
Even Spoony looked down on sword cane sammys. Fucking Spoony.

>>98023262
I funnily enough have a player using a sword cane in my Orient Express campaign and only recently did he really get a chance to use it (It was during the cultist ambush in the caves outside of Trieste).
Our most capable fighter in the party thus far has been the Cemetery Keeper, who has a damage bonus and carries a shovel around with them.

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>>98023504
>most capable fighter has been the Cementery Keeper

>>98023504
>Our most capable fighter in the party thus far has been the Cemetery Keeper
As it should be. People that play soldiers and the like expecting their Dungeons and Dragons power fantasy are often the idiots that get merked and dont even have a follow up character planned and get pissy and quit. The real shit kick is always the gravedigger, sailor or bum because they have to know how to fight dirty.

>>98023536
>>98023682
The best part was in the second chapter of Horror on the Orient Express when the Cemetery Keeper used their shovel to stab and throw a pseudo-ghost out of a train located in an astral pocket dimension and the ghost faded into nothingness in the void that lay beyond.

>>98023928
>"No ticket."

>>98022709

Just do it nowdays. Or, in reverse, watch some noir movies set in the period. Hell, just rewatch Indiana Jones and set in it your mind with a down to earth power level for the MC.

The possibility of COC adventures having problems because of players not knowing how thing X went back in the 20-30s is basically nonexhistant, for better or for worse.

I always laugh when I think about the fact that Arthur Machen has a horror story called The White People.

>>98026559
I really need to read more Machine. I’ve read The Great God Pan but nothing else by him.
Course, I’m busy with Hodgson at the moment.

>>98020032
Teddy Rosevelt once wrote about being stuck in a cabin and surviving a seige by sasquatch and you better believe i lifted that idea for a Down Darker Trails scenario.

>>98027534
Great God Pan is probably his best work. If you read one Machen work, it should be that one.

However, The White People is really good if a bit hard to parse. It's in the style of a little girl's journal which can make it hard for some people to really get. Three Impostors is also good if you can get past the frame story. It's an anthology but wrapped up inside a novel. If you can get past that, it has some great stories.

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Happy Mother's Day!
How have YOU used Shub-Niggurath in your adventures?

>>98019023
It was out to backers(and pirates) for a while. I downloaded the PDF months ago.

Should ask what happened to the allsop art.

>>98003800
>I would be lying if I said that that specific piece of art and some of the adventures weren’t dope as hell.
Which ones were the good ones again?

I was thinking of seeing if some of these good OSR modules can be remade in a different setting/system.

>>98026559

And an astonishingly good story at that. I'd even say it's the best "weird tale" ever. Yes, better than The Colour Out of Space or The Willows. Wish more author back then would've tried the subjective POV terror way.
Contrariwise I don't get much Great God Pan's vague vaguesy vagueness, yes, I know HPL would clobber me but for example The Terror is way higher up.

Guys, how would you do a naval scenario?

Biggest problem to seems hierarchy. While in a land war the local commander is not really gonna decide everything, the captain of a ship kinda will.

>>98029684
One of the GMs in my group ran a naval scenario recently. Catch was we were passengers, not sailors on staff, so it was more "help out where we can" than needing to follow specific orders.
I would check out the works of William Hope Hodgson for inspiration as well.

I was recommended Symbaroum because it was superficially similar to a setting I'm working on.

Is
>You bleed from every orifice because you ate genetically-modified barley lol
truly horror?

I'm looking to do a campaign about happy little forest critters facing terrible existential threats to their sleepy town, kinda like a horror version of ROOT. I like the idea of something so innocent, and unable to comprehend the horrors of monsters they face, having to save people who will never thank them, due to their own ignorance. I was looking at Vaesen, since I like the mythological aspect, and feels like it could offer some monster-of-the-week vibes. Has anyone given it a shot? Any other system suggestions?

>>98029684
depends on the kind of scenario and the size of the boat, doesn't it?

Degenesis was a b it wanky for my taste, but now it's done, can anyone give me a rundown on how the setting ended? What the basic story of its ending was, if there was one?

>>98030119
>>98032113

Yeah, problem is that we're talking two ideas and both are navy (first is an u-boot, the other is more vague but we're talking napoleonic era maturin-aubrey sheaninigans).

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>>98031118
Vaesen is great art and some really cool ideas but ultimately the system is quite broken in some fundamental ways that would require a new edition to fix.
For one thing it has like a dozen skills but the game is mostly investigation or talking so investigation and manipulation are the only skills that matter for 99% of the player experience. famously one of the scenarios in the core book lists every single skill check as a manipulation roll.

This mostly seems to be because FL just slapped the mutant ruleset onto a new IP without changing anything. But that ruleset was made for a post apocalyptic combat heavy game. Every vaesen can't be killed and fighting them is more fruitless than fighting any mythos creature in CoC and in general its very much a "coffee table book" where you thumb through it and go "ooh thats lovely art" but playing it kind of blows and its a damn shame.

Honestly if you want a basic bitch horror game scenario and you just want a core ruleset to use then go with Call of Cthulhu. There is a reason 7th edition has been around forever and doesn't need to change. You have skills that range from 1-100 and roll a d100 to see if you clear the skill check. Thats fine for most of it. My FLGS owner ran a short campaign using it where everyone played animals based on an indie comic book about cats set during a mass rabies outbreak and it did the job fine.

Maybe try the scouts or call of kidthulhu rules if you want to simplify it.

>>98031118
Mausritter, very light system and easy to learn

I'm looking at running a one-shot with some friends and wanted to know if you guys could help me find a good setting. Looking for something like Stand Still Stay Silent in tone or as close as possible, preferrably with a system attached. Doesn't have to be post apocalyptic - just with civilization barely clinging on or contained to small enclaves in a world of deadly terrors.

>>98032978
Rabid animals you say?
>https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XjKYoSPmzWA

>>98032978
>CoC 7th
Yeahhhhh, its hard for CoC to miss. I originally was drawn to Little Fears, but decided after flipping through both editions I wanted a little more crunch, and investigation, so I just ripped out a bunch of monster ideas from the first ED. CoC is just rock solid and polished for what you ask it to do.
Funny enough I was actually just recommended Feral even though I was going for more Root style of things, I need to give it a read.
Shame about Vaesen, I thought the idea of dealing with myths that you had to learn about, and outsmart through their own rules sounded rad. Shame it isnt that.
>>98032998
Will read, thanks.

>>98033007

Unironically DND.

>>98034253
Yeah Vaesen is a lovely thing from a distance but you look close and its such a failure mechanically. Still the home base stuff is a great idea for other systems to steal.

>>98034598
>Home base stuff
Alright you sonofabitch you got me. It'll probably be worth the pick up for the art, and monsters, but home base rules sounds exactly what I wanted. I have spent more on less.

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>>97997233
>OP pic
I didn't know there was another version of this, neat.

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>>98035468
I like the black and white version

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Stupid sexy... Nightgaunt?

So across all the Call of Cthulhu books Chaosium sells which do you own and which would you recommend after playing them?

>>98038239
>Call of Cthlhu core rules - I'm the default keeper sicko so mandatory
>Investigators Handbook - neat but honestly my friends never get in depth enough to need it but it nice to crack open if they want some varied premades
>Regency Cthulhu - fun alternative if you want to mix things up but if you have no tolerance for austin era lords and ladies horseshit will just make you feel like a murderhobo in a noblebright party
>Dark Ages Cthulhu - excellent book, easily the best of the pre 1800's setting guides. Full of info and that blend of pre industrial and societal collapse idea really gels with the mythos
>Down Darker Trails - great if you love wierd westerns but it is dense with historical stuff. If you want to know about the Dine' and how much a horse was worth in silver circa june 1883 you will love it, if not its a bit much
>Deadlights and other tales - This should be your go to as a beginner after the starter box
>Petersons Abominations - mixed bag but a good foot in the door to get your table into modern day setting rules
>The Dare - the og "kidthulhu" darling where you play as kids and has simpler less intense rules to play with younger players if its a family game night well worth the price in drivethru
>French Revolution one i forget the name of - Less a setting guide and more a very frontended scenario from someone with a lot of free time. Its neat and maybe you can work it into a regency game if you fuck about but not a recommended purchase
>The starter box absolutely mandatory, three updated versions of some of the best early edition scenarios and the best way to teach beginners the rules with Alone Against the Flames.

Also got the scouts and gaslight books this week but not played them yet so cant speak to them.

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I feel like using Pulp Cthulhu to run Sutra of Pale Leaves would tempt me into going full Yakuza 0 which would ruin the whole thing but at the same time, it's SO tempting

>>98038268
The French Revolution one is called Reign of Terror, and it’s important to note that the adventure in it ties into Horror on the Orient Express (but is best run AFTER doing that campaign, due to major spoilers therein).

>>98038239
Not a book per say, but the Keepers screen comes with two very good adventures, and it's a good screen, if you're into that kind of thing.

>>98038370
"Ruins" is about perspective. The chad Howardian Yakuza will react very differently to cosmic horror than the virgin Lovecraftian Waseda professor.

>>98038370

Honestly you either do it very purist (so yeah, weapons optional) or very pulpy. Not much middle ground in cthulhian shit.

>>98038239
>Keeper’s Guide
>Investigator’s Handbook
>Keeper Screen
>Malleus Monstorum
>Grand Grimoire of Mythos Magic
>Pulp Cthulhu
Above are all what I’d consider to be the core books. Yeah Monstorum and the Grimoire are mostly just “nice to haves,” but they actually rework some spells and monsters, and I like having a separate book to reference in case the main rulebook is being used for something else. And Pulp can be used for any time period and is a great way to break up standard games and do something different every once in a while.
As for adventures:
>Starter Box
>Deadlight and Other Stops
>Quickstart Guide (for The Haunting)
>Gateways to Terror
>No Time to Scream
>Mansions of Madness
>Horror on the Orient Express

>>98038268
Any other source books that are good?
I have quite a few already but I like them the most.

>>98043653
DDT, Regency and Dark Ages are considered the best. Theres been rumblings of a 1990's book but you gotta wonder how different they make it to delta green. Like its doable since DG is feelbad misery porn about glowies but do they make it feel more like a world of darkness or savage worlds kind of 1990's? who knows.

>>98043653
I would go to bat for Invictus, which isn't done by Chaosium but the company that does do it (Golden Goblin Press) basically got their blessing to take it over. I honestly found it better than the Chaosium source books, which I find are a little too dense with their historical content, much of which isn't always relevant to running a game. Not that they're bad, just that sometimes I feel like I'm reading a history textbook.

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Why is Hastur/The King in Yellow by far the most popular non-Lovecraft mythos entity?
I was just thinking the other day that, behind Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep, Hastur feels like one of the "main" mythos entities that everyone makes games and scenarios around. This felt a little weird because Chambers wasn't part of Lovecraft's circle and there's limited fiction to pull from for Hastur in terms of the originals.
Why not the creation of someone closer to Lovecraft? Why not Tsathoggua by Clark Ashton Smith or Chaugnar Faugn by Frank Belknap Long? What makes Hastur the obvious favorite?

>>98046948
Visual aesthetic. Lovecraftian entities mostly look like kaijus. While Hastur and Nyarlathotep look like a person you can communicate with.

>>98046948
Writers are into it, and True Detective.

>>98046948
I think a large part of it is how evocative Cassildas Song, descriptions of Carcossa and thew excerpts of the play we get are.

As an aside does anyone else like to differentiate Hastur, the King in Yellow and Hastur, the kindly god of Shepard's?

I don't give The King in Yellow the name Hastur and reserve that solely for a more benevolent god of the Dream lands.

>>98046948
simple and more evocative than the others

>>98046948
Because he feels different from the rest of the Mythos, he scratches a different itch, but still fits in nicely with the whole unknowable cosmic horrors motiff.

>>98046948
More visually and thematically appealing i guess. A tall, lanky, mysterious tentacle man that infects your mind is probably more appealing to many than a fat lazy chud frog who sleeps all day and gives magic for free which sucks cause i fucking love Tsathoggua

>>98046948

More human, but not really personified. Most mythos deity-level entities are "correctly" non-anthropocentric but a a tiny bit too uninteresting not to be "oh look, ANOTHER hyperpowered thing without a theme".

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>>98047828
>>98050568
This makes me wonder what we could do to make the other deities more interesting. Maybe try to give each of them more a niche.

>>98049238
What do you like about Tsathoggua?

>>98052083
>what do you like about Tsathoggua
Idk there is something just so fascinating about what he represents, he is basicly the embodiment of hedonism, the lowest of low in terms of human need. His apathy mixed with his infamous sloth makes him the greatest enabler of all time, as long as you feed him he will give you whatever you want (usually magic). His followers depend on him as much as he (somewhat) depends on them, creating an endless cycle of need that will never be satisfied. He is well spoken, he can even be jovial, but it's all part of his ruse to seem aproachable, agreeable, and to make you like him and need him. He is a total jackass, he even rejected the sacrifice in The Seven Geases cause he was already full (the god that is known to be always hungry nonetheless), he truly doesnt give a shit, but also has a "caring" (with all the quotes in the world) side, in The Door to Saturn he gives Eibon (his most loyal follower) a portal to escape, having sensed the wizard was next in the choping block. He is unpredictable, even in a meta way since CAS and Lovecraft wrote him very differently, CAS making him a lazy fuck with magic powers, and Lovecraft making him yet another vicious monster. Such contrasting ideas make him a truly enigma: How should you write him? How should he act? Yet in the end one fact stays true: He sleeps, he eats, and he gives, never moving, always waiting for the next meal, cause he knows no matter how much he has to wait it will come, an endless cycle of death, violence and dependency, all while he looks at his victims with those eternal sleepy eyes.

Tl;dr He's funny

>>98052135
Fair enough. I’m actually personally a big fan of Gla’aki. I like how much more active he is in his cult and the fact he has a unique monster associated with him. Plus, a slug covered in silver spines is such an original design compared to a lot of the deities.

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>>97997233
I’m running a Magnus Archives RPG using the cypher system. My players are newer to tabletop roleplaying but everybody is having fun. I’m really enjoying getting to write out the investigations, it’s cool building suspense instead of just leading up to a combat encounter. Since it’s supposed to be in an alternate universe, my Magnus Institute is here in America, in a fictional city in the PNW. The players are investigating a supposed Bigfoot sighting that’s actually a conflict between two Avatars

>>98052083

Quite the contrary. Go back to big L way: vague names and not much more.
(well, mature L anyway, you get the idea. Less Dagon, more Whisperer)

>>98054987
How is the Magnus Archives RPG? I haven't looked into it, but some friends of mine are big into the podcast.

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>>98052083
What do you like about Tsathoggua?
I like the idea of a monsterous frog god monster. Only other setting that does it is warhammer. A squat hulking frog thing, is cool but for some reason the idea he has fur around his shoulders and back really appeals to me. I think its bnecause irl amphibians don't have fur so its a nice way to show the alien nature of him. I can see him in some lost cave in the mountain tops as a Yeti like beast, lazy and greedy but can strike lightning fast like any irl frog or toad to eat whoever woke him.

What I really like about him is how soem of his alien followers presented in the Mound story.
>they found living things—living things that oozed along stone channels and worshipped onyx and basalt images of Tsathoggua. But they were not toads like Tsathoggua himself. Far worse—they were amorphous lumps of viscous black slime that took temporary shapes for various purposes.
Living black slime, that are mentioned once then never again, shaping their bodie just to worship, who live in the pitch black deep underground and do nothing but worship.
The fact the K’n-yan can never find them again makes me think they over times sealed themselves via manipulating solid rock off to worship in the pitch black forever. Tsathoggua is the only god that has truly alien worshippers, in the sense that we don't even get a name for them or any understanding of their history or culture. I think its cool, Lovecraft making generic slime enemies a centruy before they were a thing and already innovating in what they could be.

>>98046948
What even IS hastur? When I read The King in Yellow I admit, I was a little disappointed because half the stories were completely unrelated to the titular play/character.
But yeah the first few stories do tell quite an atmospheric narritive that fits in well with a lot of other lovecraftian stuff

>>98059066
God.
"It is a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the living god"

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Ran Dead Man Stomp for the first time last night and... I don't understand the hype for this adventure.
It doesn't really have a strong hook to get the Investigators involved, and it's basically all on them to get involved and find stuff out. And even then, they mostly feel like helpless witnesses to events until the end.
Why is this adventure so beloved?

>>98059066

That's exactly why it works. Even just considering the fragments of the play, it could be a city, a god, a character.

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https://x.com/Akuicia/status/2016767320820224279

>>98059998
His art reminded me that with all those liminality, backrooms, and abstract-horror themes we stepped further in lovecraftianism than Lovecraft himself. It feels like... a right direction. Creatures from original mythos usually described as chimeras of animals or a mass of flesh. Something truly unexplainable should look more abstract, and truly maddening should not be only repulsive, but also somehow beautiful.

>>98059998
ENU zone? I've only been to the Ghooric Zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J6Z67elnDo&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Floneanimator.blogspot.com%2F

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>>97997233
rather appropriate that this thread is starting off with the Dreamlands as I had a new concept literally come to me in a dream last night that I'll be attaching to a Lost World setting I've been tinkering with for a while now, introducing the Yarpul and the Ailap;

>The Yarpul
the human inhabitants of a fairly desolate chain of small islands(having been only formed out of the sea by volcanic activity within the last thousand years or so) on the edges of the main islands of the Lost World, due to the harsh environment of these outer islands and their low resources the tribes of the Yarpul are constantly engaging in various forms of raids and warfare with each other, ritualized torture and cannibalism is common among the Yarpul, they worship a pantheon of chimeric sea gods with frightful tastes, with their most curious and occasionally depraved traditions relating to their relations with the Ailap

>The Ailap
a non-human species of Hominid, short but incredibly strong with very large heads and especially jaws(their jaw and neck muscles are so overdeveloped that it makes them look like they have no neck) covered in fleshy nodules and growths, with red-brown fur on their bodies, Ailap are vicious but are raised as a semi-domesticate by the Yarpul in a role similar to dogs(of which they have similar intelligence to), the most disturbing aspect to the Yarpul/Ailap relationship is that despite how relatively distantly related Ailap are from humans they are capable of crossbreeding, both possible hybrids are sterile but considered blessed by the Yarpul's gods; the "Pale Ones"(Human Father/Aipal Mother") are leucistic Aipal that both stand taller than normal and are about as intelligent as a five year old human(including being able to speak), while the "Ashen Ones"(Aipal Father/Human Mother) are mostly human in appearance but with grey skin, extreme muscular hypertrophy(due to a myostatin mutation), and unusual teeth and nail growth

>>98052083
>>98055061
the obvious path is keep the hard truths to a minimum but flesh out what specific cults and occult traditions believe in, the Cthulhu cult in the swamps of the American South and the Cthulhu cult among the Inuit probably believe quite different things beyond some of the basics for example

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https://x.com/sensible_dude2/status/2051005964820578522

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>>98061611
You know, the official Slenderman movie may not have been good by any metric, but I actually liked their design decision to have him not actually be wearing a suit, but just that his body looks like one from a distance.

>>98061671
Still looks a bit dumb but i fw the "tree monster" concepr they were going for.

>Finally get my copy of Cthulhu by Gaslight
>Check monster section
>All the lovecraftian horrors you expect but also:
>Dracula
>Frankensteins Monster
>Dr.Jeckyll/Mr.Hyde
>Springheel Jack
>The Tripods from War of the the Worlds

Did Guilliermo Del Toro secretly write this?

>>98046948
Iconic look that hasn't been made into a funko pop or slapped on a million shirts like Cthulhu.

>>98065227
Tbf Del Toro's horror is literally lovecraft but replace the racism with horniness

>>98065310
Thats why he will always be /ourguy/

Does anyone here have interest in the Japanese/Korean/Chinese take on CoC? I have been diving deep down the rabbit hole of eastern cthulhu scenarios, slowly going mad as I translate indecipherable texts from a strange land. I plan to machine translate them for personal use, but I might put some effort in assembling translated PDF versions of the adventures if there was any interest. One big roadblock is that the Japanese do not produce PDFs of the official books that we dont have in English. Its also difficult to determine which foreign scenarios are worthy of translating as the quality of various adventures seems to be very mixed. Ive just been going thru what is available for free. Im still searching for the elusive “not even horror” scenarios that always get mentioned in discussions about japanese cthulhu. The closest ive found to what that could be are SAN Recovery scenarios which seem to be like slice of life aftercare adventures meant to restore SAN points. I would really like to know if anyone else has looked into Asian Cthulhu and what they have discovered.

>>98067066
I'd be interested is reading through it

>Slice of life aftercare adventures
Sounds cozy

>>98067066
I don't respect the asiatics as a race or as a culture, especially in the way they handle or interpret western works of literature, so I'm not particularly interested, no.

>>98067066
Oh that sounds hella interesting. I went to Japan earlier this year and it was fascinating seeing a game store there and how much of it was CoC related.

>>98068008
What about their interpretations of how a message board should be structured?

>>98068145
it's ok, like a 6/10

>>98067066
The most famous untranslated one is Mt. Hiei Burning, which is like Sengoku Cthulhu and I think it would be neat to see it translated.

>>98055729
The cypher system is a little simplistic sometimes, because most skills and items just lower the target roll, but my players are new to tabletop rpgs so it’s kind of a bonus. As far as the Magnus archives setting, it works great. Everything is presented in the terms of your game taking place in an alternative universe, so everything is structured around adapting it to your own story. There’s a fun mechanic called horror mode. The GM switches it on when something spooky occurs, and critical failures now occur on a 1 or 2. Every subsequent critical failure increases that number, my players got it up to 9 the first time I tried it. They were completing tasks and still triggering horror mode, it was a fun GM challenge to make a successful roll trigger a nasty consequence

>>98068059
Did you buy anything? I almost cried when i saw a video of someone shopping there and the rulebooks are all like $8USD.
>>98068305
Ill have to look into that. Right now my focus has been modern scenarios because, because Ive read that is their main focus. I am a little disappointed to learn a lot of their scenarios are just escape rooms. I didnt find the poisoned soup adventure that has been translated very compelling.

>>98068637
iirc it's sort of the Regency/Dark Ages/Invictus of Japanese Call of Cthulhu. It's a sourcebook on Sengoku Era Japan with an adventure.

Have you read Summit of Deities?

>>98068305
The Japanese Cthulhu Codex apparently has a Heian period setting among others. I think one book has rules to play as cats. Not sure why you'd do that outside the Dreamlands... unless you want to play the Merrie Supernatural Adventures of Niggerman & Friends.

>>98068637
Sadly by the time I visited the store, it was toward the end of my vacation and I was low on spending money. But I did pick up a cool art book that has anatomical drawings of Mythos monsters.

>>98065227

Trail has most hammer monsters as well, pretty obvious thing to do really.

>>98067066
>but I might put some effort in assembling translated PDF versions of the adventures if there was any interest.

Picture me as really interested. More on the adventures than the period adjustment, which are most of the time really unimportant.

All I know where these ones https://heavens-feel.com/translations.html
(Which, for good or bad, don't seem too exotic to me. The strangest thing is how fucking QUICK the scenario goes. Like, in a session from knowing nothing to facing a Great Old One)

>>98068869
>I think one book has rules to play as cats. Not sure why you'd do that outside the Dreamlands... unless you want to play the Merrie Supernatural Adventures of Niggerman & Friends.

People always want to play the big guy doing heroic shit, and honestly being a cat in the Dreamlands would mean exactly being the larger than life protagonist. And Niggerman was the only one in Rats who know his shit!
More of our interest, Catthulhu isn't total garbage, try to check it out.

>>98065227
This is making me wonder how the War of the Worlds Martians would do against, say, the Mi-Go or the Elder Things.

>>98072304
They and their tripods have official CoC stats in Ye Booke of Monstres II.

I went the route of Arkham horror the rpg for my pulp Lovecraft ttrpg fix since I already got my group into the card game, so this was a natural extension they could understand and the rules are brain dead simple and gives me more freedom as a GM to create my own ideas

My question is, does anyone happen to know a pdf repository I could check out to see if the adventure supplements are worth buying? From the free QuickStart adventure modules, I’m not entirely impressed by the writing style to warrant my dosh and will just continue homebrewing my adventures

>>98073560
I don’t have a repository, but I have to say I agree with you. I got the Free RPG Day module for Arkham and it looked awful, as did those micro-adventures they did in the recent comic book.

>>98073560
Sharethread, there's a trove for Cthulhu stuff

How does chronicles of darkness systems fare for a cthulhu campaign?
Or is better the cthulhu d100?

>>98076027
I personally way prefer Call of Cthulhu to Chronicles. Sanity is probably one of the best fear mechanics in TTRPGs, and the dice system is much more intuitive. Plus, progression is way too slow in Chronicles for my taste.

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Have you guys ever had a player actually spend a long time in an asylum or take psychotherapy sessions?
It's a big section in CoC, but I've never had it come up.

>>98080304

Would hope you're asking about the PC more than the player anon

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>>98080322
Eh, little of option A, little of option B.

>>97997233
A reminder the Symbaroum revision kick starter is running https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/symbaroum-rpg-revised-core-books-and-setting-expansion

>>98007285
I use Syrinscape, it's got great ambiance and tailored made music and scenes for long campaigns such as Two Headed Serpent and Masks of Nyurlathotep.

On another note.
Anyone willing to share any CoC scenario maps?
Looking for Lovemaps in particular. Searched
the trove but no dice.

>>98084150

Does COC even need/get something out of having maps?

>>98084801
Oh yeah, I use them all time. Having players explore a haunted house on a grid map, revealing it slowly room by room, is a great way to build tension. Especially as they start branching off to explore separate areas, so when a threat shows up, at least one person is running over from several rooms away.
Plus, they help with chases, which is a great but underutilized mechanic.

>>98085916

I guess. Seems kinda specific tough.

(amusingly enough I don't think they're a bad idea per se, but they seem pretty dnd-ish - like the players would more or less subconsciouly get that now they have a battle map)

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New H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society box adventure.
https://store.hplhs.org/products/eternity-at-sea
Did anyone get a chance to play Spark Devil yet? I got it but haven't run it.

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Looking for a recommendation:
I want to run a mystery based campaign, where the PCs start by investigating a relatively minor event that snowballs into a town-wide conspiracy, with some minor/subtle supernatural elements. Think 'True Detectives" by way of 'Veronica Mars'. Does anyone know any modules or adventures I can steal from or adapt? Probably gonna use Call of Cthulhu set in modern small town, but system doesn't much matter, I just need help with plotting out the...er, plot.

What's some good 1-2 player CoC/DG scenarios?

I liked the Third Man Factor DG adventure.

>>98089633
There's Coffin Rock for Deadlands which is interesting because it's like the only adventure for that system that makes use of the Fear Level aspect of the setting where shit gets more Evil Dead until the heroes stop it. (Savage Worlds)

There's some Olde DND/OSR modules like Scenic Dunnsmouth which is randomly generated town screnario with a spider cult that might not show up

2/4 of the big modules for that Liminal Horror NuOSR-PBTA-Whatever game are small town with a horror thing adventures.

There's gotta be more given the popularity of the theme but I can't remember

>>98091284

Just use Gumshoe one-2-one

>>98091343
>gumshoe
Maybe if I find a game to play in so I understand the system better.

>>98091408

It's simple as fuck.

>>98091284
Paper Chase is a good one for CoC. I’ve also run The Haunting as a solo adventure to good success.

>>98091408
As the other anon said, Gumshoe is simple as fuck. Even if you don't want to run the system, I'd hazard a guess that reading Cthulhu Confidential might give you some insight into how to run CoC for a solo player, Robin Laws is pretty good at gming advice.

>>98091580
>Paper Chase is a good one for CoC
It's not though.

>>98091444
It's simple on paper but actually making something interesting with it is harder (especially since last I heard the most prominent podcast fags played it wrong)

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>>98091731
What's wrong with Paper Chase?

>>98091927
NTA. Paper chase is boring and dumb. The whole thing takes like 45 minutes. The haunting is bad like this too. Its weird to me that the most recommended coc adventures has almost zero in common with Lovecraft’s style and are really lame.

>>98092011
I haven't played or ran paper chase, so I can't speak to it, but one of the best sessions I ever ran was the Haunting, so your taste in incredibly fucking suspect.

>>98092011
The Haunting is fine, and the ancient, undead sorcerer is actually a fairly common trope in Lovecraft stories.
Tho it is a bit overhyped, I think deadlights is a much better starter adventure.

>>98092011
I think what makes Paper Chase and The Haunting so well regarded is how they prepare new players for what CoC is all about compared to most other RPGs.
In both adventures, straight up action without investigation is the wrong thing to do. Attacking the ghoul at all in Paper Chase is a good way to get yourself set upon by a ghoul mob in numbers you cannot defeat, while charging straight to the haunted house in The Haunting will mean you have no idea about the evil wizard in the basement and the fact his own weapon is his weakness, meaning you’re most likely going to get tricked by the bed upstairs and flung out the window.
However, if you take the time to do your due diligence and investigate every lead, both adventures are pretty easy. The ghoul just wants his books back and means no harm. Meanwhile, if you head right for the basement, Corbitt has less chances to mess with you, and you only need to hit him once with his knife to destroy him, which is simple to do with luck spending guaranteeing an Extreme Success.
While the two might not be all that great for veteran CoC players, they’re the best for getting people new to the game adjusted to what they should do and expect in most investigations.

>>98086996
Neat.

>>98091731
>It's simple on paper but actually making something interesting with it is harder (especially since last I heard the most prominent podcast fags played it wrong)

Luckily enough, 1-2-1 has neat adventures ready to use!

>>98093409
The problem with paper chase is that there's basically nothing to the adventure besides "don't fight the ghouls"

Haunting is a bit better but requires modification to ensure the players don't just run away.

>>98097644
It doesn't require modification, if requires players who understand the point of the fucking game. If they make a character who's just going to leave the scenario, then that character leaves the scenario and they can make a character who has a reason to stick around.

>>98097999
Nice trips but I just rolled a 5 on my san loss so I have to leave

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Anyone here play Vaesen? I'm getting in the mood for a horror fantasy game. Especially one that's more swords and sorcery than DnD.

>>98011242
I go with Cryo Chamber (the stuff that does not sound sci-fi), whatever Dark Jazz I can find that is decent (harder than one might think) and this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwsb3Dnf99w

Srsly though: I find that one almost NEEDS decent Dark Jazz. Not for the pure horror sequences, but the more normal-ish moments. It suits the 1920s era well (at least in people's heads) but most importantly: it helps with the "on the surface it's a normal village/town/city, but there's something fucked up under the surface" feeling.

>>98101281
Yes. It's really, really great. I don't like the back story for how your characters are part of a secret society, but that can easily be thrown away. Other than that I love it. It's got some very neat tips for GMs, for how they should set up and pace mysteries/adventures, in ways that I've not seen in any book before. Not saying that IT CHANGES everything because it's SO REVOLUTIONARY, but they're some really great ways of thinking for when running a game.
>Especially one that's more swords and sorcery than DnD
This ain't it. It's a realistic-ish Swedish setting in the late 19s early 20s. It's got combat and weapons and some very rare instances of magic (the kind of stuff people believed in (like speaking with the dead etc., no fireballs)), but it discourages combat. Depending a bit on what Vaesen the players encounter. Players barely get any equipment, and they can't even keep any they find during adventures (normally).

>>98101495
>late 19s early 20s
I meant late 19th, early 20th century of course. On second thought: more 19th probably. Though they do emphasize that you shouldn't be to hardcore about the history and just roll with what works, as long as it fits in the heads of the players. Like how portable cameras might be pushing it, but it still fits so just roll with it.

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>>98007285
I have a bunch of autistically disorganized playlists.


Current Highlights I can think of.

Ghost Combat:
Death Stranding Combat Tracks

Eldrich Combat:
Chaos Zero Nightmare (A gacha) OST

Eldrich-Er Combat
In the Sky tracks from Drakengard

Also occasional appearance of random songs from certain Animu OSTs like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRZEsr6Kq6Q&list=PLxrMiDunjx93a7gMBpCGoDSBAWLATjdfb&index=2

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>>98007285
Here's a question: What songs do you guys use for when a god appears? I feel like that's a big moment to hit.
Here are my go-tos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mdgCnhQD2A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sr349qR9s8

>Chaosium announce a book thats just a massive collection of weapons up to and including mounted machine guns

Oh you cane sword assholes are going to be a fuckin' nightmare with this one.

>>98101281
Yes. Its sadly very much a "coffe table book" like Mork Borg thats a lot of cool imagery and ideas but mechanically it doesn't really work as intended. Or rather its full of failure points by trying to turn mutant league zeros rules into a game about immortal fae creatures who cannot die, be hurt or anything really but parleyed with.

This is a very fair take on it but personally its my biggest horror disappointment in the genre.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwD4gdXyEG4

>>98092011
Paper Chase is part of the starter tutorial for a reason. Its not meant to be a full length scenario experience. Its just to teach the explore and investigate basics.
>Alone against the flames: how to read and use your character sheet and what dice to roll when
>Paper Chase: how to move about the 'map' and interact with the world with your own decisions rather than the choose your own adventure stuff
>Third one i forget the name of: now lets add combat to the mix, also the chase if you nasty
>Deadmans Stomp: now heres magic and the last of all the basics.

Stuff like Dead Light is the actual "congrats heres your basic bitch big boy scenario" for beginners.

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>>98106293
Third one is Edge of Darkness, which is the most straight horror one of the scenarios.

So at least this year chaosium is gonna give us something decent, as there is a new edition of the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana

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Does Ravenloft count as a horror setting?
>inb4 it's not scary
Neither is any other TTRPG setting

>>98107306
I'm sure it's terrifying if you're underleveled and the DM plays up the horror.

>>98106207
>Chaosium announce a book thats just a massive collection of weapons up to and including mounted machine guns
What's the name of the book?
I've looked around and haven't found anything.

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>>98108624

>>98109070
Thanks!
I think it will be the Chaosium version of "Investigator Weapons volume 1: 1920s & 1930s".

>>98109070
That's a really shitty cover. I do hope the book is good, though.

>>98109079
Kind of lame they didn't include the guy who wrote investigator weapons. That's been like the standard for a decade. I wonder if there is any reason to pick this up over that.

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For those wondering, here are all the other releases Chaosium announced.

>>98109529
This might be like the Grand Grimoire, in that it’s a collection of disparate info from across published modules? That’d be my guess.

>>98109529
Probably they didn't want to pay him and decided to make a worse in-house product.
Btw, the author is Hans-Christian Vortisch, who did a fuckton of GURPS weapon and tacticool manuals, and knows much better than them what he's talking about!

>>98110078
I’m not sure why that would be da case, considering they just did a two-part campaign with an outside group and collab with the HPLHS all the time. They’re not really opposed to working with outside groups/people.

>>98110078
>>98111082
Yeah, that's why it surprises me, I'm pretty sure they hooked up the Masks of Nyarlathotep companion guy with the newest edition of that, it's weird they wouldn't hook that guy up as well.

>>98106110
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVnlCYQ_fdM

>>98109568
Elfquest? Huh.
Might check that out.

>>98113381
It's a rerelease of the 80s game.

>>98109568
Cant wait for the new Encyclopedia

>>98116251
Yeah that does seem cool. A big thing that got me into the Mythos was reading the bestiary out of the 5.5e Call of Cthulhu rulebook.

>>98116380

If you think the Encyclopedia is something like that, you will be probably VERY disappointed.

Mind you, it's basically an obligatory book for any actual fan, but.

>>98116979
Not sure what you mean. Also, didn’t your praise the Encyclopedia earlier?
>>98107189

>>98117808
NTA, but the Encyclopedia is just that. Has an article or at least a few sentences for every key term present in notable Mythos stories.

>>98106110
this maybe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqjE0ne-bdU

>>98007285
I'm planning on using these themes for suspense/investigation on increasing horror

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtV27AaASWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJw4LQ1GvI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4MVn0xh95c

>>98106110
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9j5aOqSicw

>>98106110
If you are gonna have a chase scene you can't miss this one

Like a dream I can´t awake from (8)
Who's eyes am I dreaming ?
Who's this doomed face ?
Vague voice I overhear
and echoes as a distant scream .
How to see, how to spot,
somebody else´s image to embrace _
Of my face confused,
to turn sin into hope _
With my heart I will seek
a way in destiny unknown,
I have not mother´s protection,
I have nothing in this world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F7BYZ5KGTw

Can cosmic horror be combined with more traditional horror without ruining the experience?
Do you use more traditional horror tropes in your CoC campaigns?
How memorable are your antagonists?
Video related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPpJl9LI68U

>>98119224
I'd argue that most CoC is more traditional horror than cosmic horror, just with a Lovecraftian paint job. It's hard to actually do cosmic horror in a game.

>>98119239
Maybe you are right, but some aspects of cosmic horror and the lovecraft mythos do play a role.
In traditional folklore "monsters" tend to have profound human elements. Envy, greed, ire, lust. You can even say that folklore monsters are exaggerated human elements.
On the other hand Lovecraft mythos in CoC is a subversion of traditional folklore replacing more common sightings for profoundly alien entities.

>>98119256
I feel like usually the alien entities are being funneled through a very human element. You're usually fighting witches or cultists or a kid accidentally summoning a byakee, that kind of shit. It's rare you're actually dealing with the truly cosmic, because the truly cosmic is to weird and almost anti narrative. It's why there's only one kind of color out of space scenario; there's really only one way it can play out.

Trail of Cthulhu has some truly *cosmic* horror scenarios, they're collected as "the Final Revelation." They're interesting as sort of an object lesson, but I don't think I'd even run any of them, because they all kind of end with "everything you thought you knew was a lie, nothing you held dear actually matters, everything you did was for naught."

I feel like it takes a very specific group to rock that kind of game.

>>98119303
thanks anon
you are a gentleman and a scholar

>>98119303
I mean, one of the cornerstones of "True" Csomic Horror is, imo, the irrelevance of the protagonists life and personality, which is sorta antithetical to ttrpgs, where that's more or less front and center.
Still, you can sorta get close to cosmic horror, you just have to play up the revelation angle, make the monsters distinctly foreign and alien, and have a sense of open-endedness at the end (never have them actually fully defeat the monster or close the gate, always let a lingering doubt exist afterwards), and you can get close enough imo

>>98119303
>I feel like usually the alien entities are being funneled through a very human element. You're usually fighting witches or cultists or a kid accidentally summoning a byakee.
And that's a shame, because the witches and the cultists are the least interesting part of the Mythos. Compare them to the cold, emotionless alien malevolence of the Mi-go, the mathematical willingness of the Great Race to sacrifice untold billions of lifeforms to sustain themselves, the great sagas of the Elder Things and their cities older than life itself, the strange artifacts working in the folds of space and time, and the alien, all-powerful gods whose mere mental shadow rots the mind and soul...
Meanwhile cultists are just... cultists. In fundamental terms, sure, a Cthulhu cult is very different from, say, a Satan cult, but im practice they do the same thing 80% of the time. And it's a damn shame considering how much more interesting the rest of the Yog-Sothothery actually is.
Cultists are fine, and they should be present, but making them the core enemy was a blunder.

>>98119668
Eh, on the one hand, I get where you're coming from, but on the other hand, I think one makes for more fulfilling gameplay and is also easier to write, while the other is a bit harder to pull off. I think it's a matter of peppering the more traditional horror with a bit of the cosmic to make it distinct.

>>98119668
I remember the Cults of Cthulhu book Chaosium put out saying something along the lines of “Cultists are the scariest part of the Mythos” and it’s probably the worst sentence I’ve read in a book of theirs. Like, way to miss the point.
I think a good way to play up the cosmic horror in a scenario is showing that the monster or god doesn’t care that the PCs are there, and any damage it does to them is incidental to its actions. The summoned god doesn’t fight back or dodge or even directly attack the investigators. It’s going to do its part of the ritual, no matter what.

>>98119224

Buzzwords, mostly. There is no clear distintion, or at least I'd argue it's the "cosmic" part that is not a genre per se.

That being said, COC cultists are really, really bad 99,99% of the times - we're talking GI Joe Cobra levels of absurd, without the funny.
HPL used them sparingly. I would argue you don't need the follow him so much there, but let me put it this way: his cultists are not the answer to the question "what the characters need not get killed by". His cultists are real people, if extreme, generally rational (yes, even the Cthulhu cult), with very real needs. Not exactly the most socially adjusted needs, mind you, but the examples are surprinsgly down to earth in this regard.
Innsmouthers? They need to be this secretive and scared shitless of strangers. Because if not, well, reread the intro and remember when it was written.
Cthulhu cult? Sure, they're degenerates, but that's exactly the point. They're end of the line addicts - their drug are the rituals, their world has no meaning beyond that.

In the end, they're not Bond-style megalomaniacal weirdoes. They're not here for the evulz The cult is not a Spectre-style mob, either: they're in the cult because they can't escape, they can't even WANT to escape, and you wouldn't either if you were this deep in that.
(he also generally drifts towards religious "parody", with his cults a point that is generally lost on readers, but probably accessory for gamng)

>>98119303

Those scenarioes feel kinda bad, as they're "what if we used purist mode more than we could ever?" and the end result is "hopelessness". Not the rest that is in HPL, just hopelessness, and I argue hopelessness isn't even really that much a core part of the Mythos (yes, I do know I'm in the minority here, but still).
You can certainly do a doomed scenario, hell I think people should it do more, BUT.

>>98122306

>Buzzwords, mostly. There is no clear distintion, or at least I'd argue it's the "cosmic" part that is not a genre per se.

Or, there is a direct structural difference, but not an hard "style" difference (think of Machen, perhaps: he's more in between in regards to gothic sensibilities and HPL and his followers).

Standard horror is about something -generally with a more or less human mind- stalking you and wanting to prey on you. With or without a broken taboo to get the antagonist mad - I'd argue greater horror doesn't need that, as a thumb rule.

Lovecraft tends not to do that (and when he does, it's not the whole of the drama).
It's about the protag -basically the reader, really, not much of a protag in HPL, right?- being fascinated by something that is out of human experience.
(human experience, I might add, in a post-religious worldview. If there is one writer than is impossible to handle without atheism and science in mind, it is him)
The rest is just getting to know more - antagonists' direct action is sparse, if even really present. Hell, in some cases the creepiest part, the core of horror, is the possibility of them being NICE to us or just wanting to know more about us.

>>98122393
>Hell, in some cases the creepiest part, the core of horror, is the possibility of them being NICE to us or just wanting to know more about us
I really like it when the "villain" is more neutral in that sense. When a monster is presented as purely evil the conflict becomes more simplistic, we can just chalk up any otherness to them being evil. But when the monster is more neutral it becomes more confusing, like what if they like us but still do is harm? Why do they do that? Do they understand pain? Do they like us legitimately or just as a way to entertain themselves? etc

>>98122742

I tend to agree in general, but at same time is true that the OG pure "villains" in Yog-sothothery are the sorcerers. And those are... well, pretty evil indeed.
I mean, who is the most down to earth one there? Old Man Whateley? I dunno man, dying because maybe your grandson will inherit the earth as a some ungodly abomination sounds like the guy DOES have some issues.

I think I would take an hint from a comment I read on Providence (the comic) and focus them on their ways to obtain immortality. Hezekiah seems to work on that direction, even if that story is, well, quite obscure in its inner workings.

>>98052083
Any "family tree" related bits tied to the Mythos are pure Dereleth faggotry and should be lambasted and forgotten about as soon as it's brought up.

Except for everything stemming from the elemental chaos Azatoth.

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>>98123136
The family tree comes straight from Lovecraft, from a letter he wrote to James F. Morton.
https://cthulhufiles.com/family_tree_of_the_gods.htm
Now, it's admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but he did write it.

>>98123316

>descending from the Welsh

The horror! THE HORROR!

>>98052083
do you think shub has mad pussy gam y/n

>>98123316

Fair enough, I guess what I meant was "taking a joke family tree from a letter seriously because you're such a hack writer you're desperate for material" is pure Dereleth faggotry and should be lambasted.

As much as taking anything of this nature "seriously" should be lambasted, I'll readily admit.

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>>98125737
I like to imagine the family tree is something cultists or, perhaps, Alhazred came up with in an attempt to understand the incomprehensible. Like, Azathoth spawned everything, but Yog-Sothoth also IS everything, and that's a concept that makes sense to the deities but not really to mortals.

>>98125545
As the all-mother with a thousand young, I imagine Shub has endless number of vaginas, some of them birthing constantly, others virgin, and new ones forming all the time. As such, she has both good and bad pussies.
Sadly, as Yog-Sothoth inhabits all of space, he had to fuck all of them to get her pregnant.
Though Lovecraft described Shub as looking like a cloud, so make of that as you will.

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>>98126664

HPL generally didn't describe much his gods (which is a wise option in my book).

That being said, I suppose the idea of SN as a sexy deity isn't exaclty new. Pic more or less related.

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>>98126664

>>98125545
>>98126664
I always interpreted Shub as less of fertility goddess, and more of a goddess of life itself. Like if Azathoth is the primordial furnace of creation, she is the primordial furnace of all living things. As such her "reproduction" is far more primordial than sex, or even stuff like spores, I think the dark young just sorta manifest out of her, like she sweats little blobs of darkness from her enormity and they begin moving and acting on their own.

>>98128703
I unfortunately feel like Abhoth got the better depiction of being a horrendous life god than Shub has ever had.
Constantly spawning new life from its bulk and devouring most of them before they can escape, the things born from it often living for no more than a few moments anyways because it cares more about the raw act of creation than sustaining. That feels like a representation of the randomness and cruelty of mutation, life and nature.

>>98126664
>>98126723
Renaissance Grimoires often include commands or incantations to make spirits take human, less terrifying forms when conjured. I sometimes think of Waifu-Niggurath as a result of this.

>>98130093
That's fake human magic tho, doesn't work on mythos entities, they need the real deal.

>>98130130
These things tie into each other. Other than parts of incantations being in the language of R'leyh, there's not much difference between the procedures of human and mythos magic in the actual stories of Lovecraft and his circle. Form a Mythos perspective the former is derived from the latter.

This is especially true in the Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

>>98130296
That's true, but in Charles Dexter Ward the invocations were clearly using terms and phrases and symbols of alien origin. Calling forth the powers of Yog-Sothoth and the likes.
My point is, a Grimoire asking for the help of Satan or Beelzebub or using the pentagram or kabbalah is never going to work. You need to ask Nyarlathotep, you need to use the yellow sign.

>>98130093
>>98130130
>>98130296
>>98130323
In a world were mythos exist and magic is real you could argue that a lot of grimoires will have some real knowledge of the mythos.
A ward to expel spirit maybe some 4rd dimensional mi-go command in the form of the rune that affect reality creating a barrier.

>>98130323
There's a 97% chance Satan and Nyarlathotep are identical. It's just a human name for him. Could also be linked to Thasaidon.

>>98130419
I don't think Nyarly would respond to a ritual to summon Satan.
Actually he might, but it's more if he feels like it desu.

>>98130487
Fuck now im imagining a satanist going full gamba mode with his rites just so see if they're gonna work this time

>>98130093

I don't think using SB power as a waypoint to a tulpa or a flesh and bone catgirl is the safest course of action.
Altough I can concede that most spells in Lovecraft seems suprinsingly mechanical and without failures...

>>98130093

Lovecraft tends to really divide the two. I mean, yes, Gorgo is an actual myth with an actual hystorical incantation, but the spells aren't the same in CDW and so one. And surprisingly enough sorcerers to me seem to know that most "magic" is bullshit.

I guess in actual play you can choose to ignore that and mix it up, maybe some alchemists were unknowingly using actual working cthulhian magic, altough "pure" sorcerers with true Cthulhy Mythos insight would be higher level so to speak (more efficient, more powerful spells, less bullshit).

>>98130945
>Altough I can concede that most spells in Lovecraft seems suprinsingly mechanical and without failures...
Lovecraft magic is just math. It's the geometry described in Dreams in a Witch House, if you know the forumla, you know the spell. It's the kind of magic that is only magic to us, the aliens and entities of the Mythos don't view it as magic, they view it as a simple natural force of the Universe, on the same level as gravity of electromagnetism, it's only magic to us because we're stupid and retarded as a species, and don't know DA TRUTH.

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>>98132960
Yeah, it's why in CoC that once you correctly perform a spell once, you no longer need to roll a Hard POW check to cast it. The mechanics of the spell is always the same, because you're actually just hacking into the source code of existence.

>>98126723
Kill it with fire.

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Lovecraft has certainly made his mark, but what would a horror RPG based on the works of other horror authors be like? Where's the Stephen King or Edgar Allan Poe RPG?

>>98142086
>Stephen King
You could do a TTRPG based on the Dark Tower i guess
>Edgar Allan Poe
At that point just join an RP discord server

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How do we feel about Ramsey Campbell?

>>98145919

Pretty good, if his better pieces tend to be a tiny bit too... vague in the end.

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Give me your best weeb horror simulators anons

As in, games/settings/scenarios that cather toward japanese horror sensibilities

Pic presumably not directly related.

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>>98152495
There was this from a few months back.

>>98153557

Can't take Chaosium seriously after Secrets of Japan.

>>98153586
The book from 20 years ago?

>>98153622

Yes. I mean, it's definitely not the only cringely shit I've read from them, not by a long shot. But it's... too glaring, for a company that is so "traditional" (as in, they still republished old as hell adventures, the whole gaming line is very conservative).

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I'm a complete whore for thematic dice. Looking to get something for Call of Cthulhu. Official ones look.... fine, I guess. A bit hard to tell what they look like IRL from their promo shots, so no idea which colours to get. Especially since I can't tell if it's easy to see the "pips" if playing in low lighting. Or maybe I should get something else entirely? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

>>98152495
>As in, games/settings/scenarios that cather toward japanese horror sensibilities
Like what, a little girl with black hair

>>98152495
I'm thinking we've got two options here: either J-horror (Ring, Grudge, Dark Water, Marebito, Noroi etc.) or yokai (spirits, monsters and "demons" from Japanese folklore).

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>>98155403
I'm mostly Delta Green, but I have some brass metal bullet dice I love. I also have a set of blood splatter metal dice I like.