How do I tweak the Call of Cthulhu RPG such that characters have a longer lifespan?

April 27, 2008 3:42 PM

How do I tweak the Call of Cthulhu RPG such that my players do not go splat like bugs on the windshield while the Great Old Ones play Hogs of the Road along the chilly reaches of the Milky Way with some kind of fantastical, black-glittering Durango 95?

Allow me to explain: we've primarily run standard D&D campaigns, for a long time. We've grown a bit weary of it and await the settling in of the fourth edition. I've been tapped to be Keeper for Call of Cthulhu. Reading through the instruction books, it appears that the useful span for a given character (whether avoiding transformation, permanent insanity, or simply death) approximates that of a red shirt ensign.

I've read Lovecraft and the numerous additions spun off from the original writings (not dissimilar to the countless spawn dripped from Shub-Niggurath herself) and am well-acquainted with the, ah, fragility of the hapless people within. I definitely grok that humanity might merely be a blissfully ignorant, low-dimensioned swirl of color on some vasty iridescent soap bubble embedded in an unimaginable hyperspace, threatened by thorns-not-of-plants all without, doomed in any case to pop forgettably due to inevitable dessication.

Even the most minor of horrors in these books is best avoided, which can be entertaining for a while, but only for a while. Since there's nothing quite like levelling, only increases in skills which, for the most part, do not resolve much of the problem that players, as I read through it, will shuffle off the mortal as easily as a cheap, brittle plastic Slinky, or otherwise drop out to their frangible psyches. What general alterations to the rules have you found that might enable characters to be playable longer, without simply yanking them back from death by Yog-Sothoth ex machina or by transparent fiat? Mind you, I'm not trying to pit them eventually against even something midway as a shoggoth; I just want the characters to stick about for a while to encourage some continuity of roleplay and story.

Did you allow for some glacially slow recovery of Sanity points? Do you pop on an odd hit point or two? Throw in some hard-won, earthly magic that doesn't automatically reduce the caster to a gibbering fool? Reduce play to primarily interaction with human (and near-human) servants? I'm looking for a balance, to keep the terror and madness without leaving a trail of tweed-dressed carcasses whose names all sound like "Weatherby."

I know, some of you will feel compelled to chime in (along with the idiot pipings accompanying Azazoth) that this might not be the game for us: to the Outer Darkness with you!

posted by adipocere to grab bag (17 comments total)

Reduce play to primarily interaction with human (and near-human) servants?

Exactly. We only played a few times, but our interactions with the greater forces in the universe were limited to shadowy glimpses and brief, painful encounters with beings that could not be bothered to kill the whole party. We also had some strong NPCs in the party who were eventually taken over by players whose characters had died.

I don't remember exactly, but I think we had Sanity restored by various refreshing activities -- a swig of Scotch or a roll in the hay with a free-thinking disciple of some minor deity.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:06 PM on April 27

Welcome to C'thuluville, population: you. It's been my primary RPG for about 27 years now, and I really hope you and your group come to enjoy it as much as I have. I've never played the D20 version, as I prefer the BRP version, but my advice is still the same:

FOCUS ON THE MYSTERY

Sure, there are great giant beasts that can drop your sanity points like a Michael Jordan dunk, but I've found that the campaigns that focus on the other scary stuff are the best. I hate rolling dice and I love good character interaction and role playing, this makes sense as I'm also a novelist. I am always thinking about conflict.

Think of the film "Alien". Remember them crawling around in the Nostromo? That's some scary stuff. Think atmosphere. Think tension. Think conflict. Make sure your characters don't get along. Give them grudges to hold against each other. Make sure your characters have creepy people to encounter, and dark creepy places to explore.

My ultimate campaign is "At The Mountains of Madness", a very long, very detailed arctic campaign. Think of all the ways there are to be miserable *there*. Frostbite, starvation, wind, snow, etc. etc. And that's before you throw the monsters in there.

I hope this helps you and your friends.

Have fun! Ia! Ia!
posted by willmize at 4:15 PM on April 27

D20 characters are by all accounts much more resiliant than regular CoC ones, but if you're focusing on player longevity andf "levelling up" or any of that kind of thing you're missing the point and half the fun.
posted by Artw at 4:21 PM on April 27

I agree with willmize.

The characters are supposed to go splat if they do something incautious.

In the games that I've played/kept, sanity was allowed to slowly be regained by dint that the character made it through an adventure (ie., retire to an uncle's countryside estate for six months, travel across the ocean to explore America kill some buffalo, return to private practice for a year, enlist with the French Foreign legion for a campaign, &c - as would the character's wont).
posted by porpoise at 4:22 PM on April 27

You are the DM, or whatever they call it in Call of C'thulu, and the rules are guidelines, not finite demands that you orchestrate the game accordingly or face expulsion from all role playing ventures.

Plenty of Lovecraft's protagonists survived hellish encounters with old ones, visits to unknown Kadeth, ghouls, yada yada yada.

There is no balance in role playing games, you are the balance.

Its story telling, tell a good story.

On a side note, when that game first came out, we couldn't get through the door of whatever preplanned adventure they had in there following the rules.

Imagine a mmorpg with such strict guidelines. Who would play?
posted by Max Power at 4:23 PM on April 27

Focus primarily on the crazy cultist servitors. Avoid the temptation to start having the various Mythos beasties pop up at anything other than passing glimpses, at a distance, when in a longer-haul campaign.

Sanity regain: keep your mind on the often-missed heroic themes of the game. Simply, a functional party of CoC Investigators are Big Damn Heroes: ignore that the world is doomed in the long haul. That doesn't matter--what matters is, the world is ignorant of what's really going on, and that ignorance? That's a blessing. It's the only peace and hope available. Investigators choose to put themselves on the line, to sacrifice their physical nad mental health to protect the world from that knowledge. It doesn't matter if the stars are right in a hundred years if by their work right now, it can keep those crazy cultists from making the stars right this year.

Bearing that in mind, Sanity can and should be regained in small ticks when the characters make progress towards that goal; larger victories should net more.

Many of the inspiring Mythos stories are of a very pulp sensibility, too; adventurers will get shaken and set aflight by certain horrors, but by god, a good inch-thick steak, cigar, and tumbler of whiskey from the local speakeasy should put them, if not to rights, at least back to functioning. Mentally speaking.

Direct clashing combat should be a last resort; avoid putting the characters in situations that force it. Give them plenty of opportunities to choose conflict points to their advantage (the very best way to stop an insane cult dead is to burn down the old barn where they're performing their foul ritual, and machinegun them as they run out; straight-up fights are for chumps), or to get away from those to their disadvantage. It can be a difficult D&D habit to break that fleeing is not only in theme, but a good idea most of the time. (Run-fu > gun-fu.) Sanity regain rewards can be tied to this, too. Seeing something absolutely horrible leaves a mark, sure--but getting away from it lets you catch your breath again.
posted by Drastic at 4:34 PM on April 27

I asked my husband about this, because I've only played a couple of sessions while he has played about 20 or so (I joined his group just as they were finishing CoC.) He says the following:

- Give the characters plenty of skill points
- Our party was always willing to taze first and ask questions later
- The mystery and the story are more important than encounters
- Atmosphere is key. (Apparently before I started playing, the party spent almost an entire afternoon trying to decide how to deal with something wet and squishy in a basement that turned out to be a piece of wet cardboard. That couldn't have happened without a good atmosphere.)
posted by nekton at 4:57 PM on April 27

Part of it is focusing on the cultists.

The other part is that the characters are supposed to "expire". Incautious ones will go splat, of course, but even the cautious ones, by the very nature of the game, are supposed to uncover secrets (solve mysteries, piece together clues) which will inevitably drive them mad. IMO, that's the way the game is supposed to work. It's part & parcel of the tragic pathos of the struggle. Each character is like a candle against the dark. The dark isn't half as scary if you know that (if you are careful enough) your candle can burn indefinitely.
posted by juv3nal at 5:02 PM on April 27

You might consider looking at Kenneth Hite's Trail of Cthulhu, a CoC variant that emphasizes investigation over combat.

In addition to focusing on crazed cultists, consider that the minor entities of the Mythos have their own agendas and eating the players is not high on their to-do lists. I've had players forming alliances, of sorts, with the Great Race (time travellers who project themselves into human bodies) and the Mi-Go (fun guys from Yuggoth), using the "enemy-of-my-enemy" trope.

In the end, though, do give the players a chance to blow things up real good. It's cathartic and a good reward for their patient advance work.
posted by SPrintF at 5:02 PM on April 27

Oh as for "to encourage some continuity of roleplay and story," you can have the players roll up a few extra standby characters per person, each of which would have some plot hook reason to take an interest should something untoward happen to the active one. They can be family members, lovers, friends, professional colleagues etc.
posted by juv3nal at 5:08 PM on April 27 [1 favorite]

I've never played a Call of Cthulhu game, so I don't know how helpful this answer will be, but I know that there is a setting for it called Delta Green where you play as a secret government organization fighting against the forces of madness, X-files style.

I'd imagine that it would at least have some examples of characters that break less easily. Perhaps someone else could offer more information about it.
posted by CheshireCat at 6:02 PM on April 27

Ditto sprintf -- consider Trail of Cthulhu, one of whose raison d'etres is to give players a fighting chance of getting through a campaign alive.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 6:09 PM on April 27

As I understand it Delta Green is utterly killerific if played right.
posted by Artw at 7:14 PM on April 27

Regarding Delta Green: this is a modern CoC campaign setting in which the players are agents of Delta Green, an off-the-books, informal government organization dedicated to confronting the machinations of the Mythos. It is intended, in part, to provide a rationale for an on-going group of investigators dedicated to the examination of occult phenomena. When one character falls, another agent can be recruited into the campaign.

Part of the fun of Delta Green is that it gleefully mixes "real" history with the Mythos. The Roswell crash, Majestic 12, Area 51, the Philadelphia Experiment... the rumors are not only true, they are only the surface of a far more terrifying reality. All blended seamlessly with the tropes and themes of the Mythos. It's well worth checking out if you're interested in playing a modern-era CoC campaign.
posted by SPrintF at 9:11 PM on April 27

It's more often not in print than in print though.
posted by Artw at 10:04 PM on April 27

Nthing Delta Green. If you're an experimental sort, you can mix it up with your favorite set of cyberpunk rules and set it a little further in the future, which gives you more of an economy of SAN to mess with-- some mods will decrease the amount of SAN lost, while the process of having some installed will remove SAN in and of itself (like the mechanics for same in CP2020 and Shadowrun).

The only way my Investigator lost shitloads of SAN in a game like that was by playing what amounted to an extended game of craps with the son of Yog-Sothoth. This isn't recommended as a plot device; it reduces a lot of RP potential to a very friggin' lengthy set of die rolls, casting Call Power of Nyambe ten times in a row, and otherwise being a munchkin.

(In my defense, it was about 2am when this happened and I didn't have a better plan, and our Keeper had a paper due that week.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 10:31 PM on April 27

Go with a Supernatural / Torchwood / X-Files / Stargate / Lost Boys / Ghostbusters vibe - your PCs know what's out there (or at least, they think they do), and they can cope with some pretty hardcore stuff. Of course, having innocent loved ones / bystanders taken down can have a toll of its own, as can betrayal by trusted advisers.

Alternatively, don't let them know they're playing CoC. Start something completely different - AD&D, Ars Magica, Vampire, Top Secret - and gradually weave the mythos through it.

Otherwise, keep it as a genre thing, with the mythos at the edges. There's plenty of man-made horror out there that can be spiced up with a few tentacles. Put them in a war movie ('Marines go looking for stolen art, find Nazi occult horrors in secret bunker instead)', a detective flick ('What kind of man would cut up a woman like that?"), a western ('why'd you go'n lay her to rest at the Injin burial groun', Jeb?"), a pirate romp (voodoo, zombies, cannibals, The Island, oh my!), hint at what might be around, then let them go to pieces all by themselves. You might never need reveal the true horror at all.

Have a look at the trailer for The Objective for an example of a modern war flick gone wrong (or better yet, steal the great ideas from the trailer and run it now before your players get a chance to see it!). Everybody's water turning to sand is hella more scary than ooga-booga monsters any day.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:20 AM on April 29