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Chaosium Digest Volume 1, Number 9
Date: Sunday, March 7, 1993
Number: 2 of 2
Contents:
A Cthulhu Overview (Jan Engan) CALL OF CTHULHU
Sanity Rules (Jan Engan) CALL OF CTHULHU
PC Casualties (Jan Engan) CALL OF CTHULHU
Linear Scenerios in CoC (Jan Engan) CALL OF CTHULHU
What Requires Investigators? (Jan Engan) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
This Digest is full of articles from Jan Engan, who just signed on to
the list. Lots of interesting discussion and ideas here. If replying
to several articles, please make it clear what replies are in reply to
what (either by sending different replies in different messages or by
putting notes in the message text for me).
Shannon
--------------------
From: Jan Engan <ladyejan@aol.com>
Subject: A Cthulhu Overview
System: Call of Cthulhu
I have been running a ongoing CoC campaign since 1981 when the game
first came out. Our current group has about 25 players from all over
the Bay Area (Berkeley, Novato, San Francisco and as far away as
Salinas/Monterey. Of course I don't referee all 25 at once! They are
broken up into smaller groups!). Of the original 5 players in the
first scenario, three are still regular gamers, and two of those are
still running their original characters (though very much changed from
when they started!).
I have also run seminars frequently at Dundracon and Pacificon on
various aspects of gaming ("How to create realistic NPCs," "Women in
Gaming," "Scripting and Running Live Adventures," "Dealing with
Problem Gamers," etc). In addition, I have acted as a "game
consultant," to help referees of all experience levels increase their
and their player's enjoyment of their games, and to help develop their
referee styles. In 1985, I published "The Servitor," a Cthulhu
newsletter with information on the 1920s era, game mechanics, and
other informational resources for referees. There has been a big
interest in reviving The Servitor from a number of areas, so it's
likely that it will begin publication again. (Interested parties in
getting issues or contributing send me email to AOL, via my name Ladye
Jan). I also produce customized play-aides for Cthulhu referees
(newspaper articles, diaries, etc) for referees to hand out to their
players, as well as write customized scenarios for groups either
reworking published materials or doing all original stuff.
Over the years, I have seen the impression non-CoC players have of the
game change fairly radically. At a convention (Dundracon I think it
was) held not too long after it was released, Cthulhu was known as
"that game where everybody dies or goes insane." Chaosium did a lot
to foster that impression at its company sponsored games. Those run
by Sandy Peterson were "It's not a good game unless you have at least
an 80% kill rate." A number of other Chaosium free-lancers, who I
personally gamed with several times at conventions, helped to continue
this impression. Larry DiTillo was especially guilty of this sort of
thing, in which the game became a violent slasher flick instead of
being true to Lovecraft and presenting dread, horror and suspense.
(By the way - what ever happened to some of those folk? I know
Peterson went to Utah or someplace to work for a computer company and
DiTillo, who used to be a fixture of bay area cons, hasn't been seen
or heard from in years.)
Over the years, the game has become more mainstream and, should I say
it, more "respectable". It is a grandfather in the sense that it has
had more staying power, more recognizability amongst gamers and is
more profitable for Chaosium than just about anything else. Lots of
game systems and genres have come and gone since 1981, but Cthulhu
seems to have the rare qualities that have made it an "institution" in
the gaming world. (The Express, a local paper in Berkeley, even did
an article on Chaosium a month or so ago.)
Today, I find that most people who play the game steadily, (ie more
often that just at conventions, or one shot games) have refined their
individual campaigns into an artform. Cthulhu has in many ways become
a scholars' game, where a good part of the fun is the historical
perspective, the historical references, and the usage of obscure
facts, dates and places that all exist or have existed in the real
world. I think perhaps, for those of us attempting to live up to the
Lovecraft tradition, that this is a good thing. (His Mythos stories
are full of it too!) It provides a framework for taking the game a
little more seriously than just your casual hack-and-slash adventure.
The addition of as many verifiable facts as possible in a campaign
also helps the players feel as if they "are really there." It allows
players to really get a good grasp on the reality of the gameworld,
and (more importantly) because there are elements of the familiar in
it, the players are more touched emotionally by the things that happen
to their characters. As a result they FEEL the horror, dread,
suspense and pain more intimately than in a setting that has no
connection to their own life experiences (a problem that 95% of
fantasy games have).
The other thing that the "maturing" of the game has done is bring more
women into the gaming world. From my observations at conventions, and
talking to others involved with gaming, more women who do referee,
tend to run Cthulhu than anything else. This is due, I think to the
game's emphasis on puzzle-solving and the possibilities of character
interaction it provides. From my point of view, anything that draws
more women into gaming and keeps them there is a plus! There is a
very large pool of creativity and genius denied to the gaming world
because very few women game, or contribute to gaming in a significant
way. (My viewpoints on women in gaming could fill up a whole other
article, so I'll save them for another issue. However let me say that
I am not a radical feminist of any sort, but I have seen and
experienced personally the sort of things that shut women out of
gaming even when they have tried to be involved.)
So much for my overview on CoC!
Jan Engan
--------------------
From: Jan Engan <ladyejan@aol.com>
Subject: Sanity Rules
System: Call of Cthulhu
I hate to say it, but gaining sanity for killing monsters has to be
the single dumbest rule in the game system, especially when you lose
major amounts of sanity for confronting them. My policies are as
follows on this:
I do not automatically require san roles for my players for every
little thing they experience, such as seeing a mangled corpse. Small
things like this I leave to the player's discretion to take or not a
couple of "Gratuitous" points. The player will know the character's
temperament better than I as a referee ever will. If the character
was a soldier in the Great War for instance, a corpse may not rattle
him like it would a sheltered ivory-tower type. I still enforce san
rules for the Elder Gods, their major unnatural minions and spell
usage. Some critters (Deep Ones for instance), I require san rolls
for maybe the first one or two times, but after that let the player
decide. Of course, this only works if you have players who are very
honest about mechanics and very much involved with the emotional side
of their characters.
I do not give out san points as "experience points." You can gain
back san points only in one of two ways:
Taking a total vacation from the adventuring for at least one month.
This means no contact with the occult, no investigations and no
reading mythos books. Complete rest and relaxation. This returns 1d4
per month to the character's sanity. It also gives players an
opportunity to play the characters in "real life." Remember, every
adventure doesn't have to be mythos related!
Seeking professional help. This is per the rules in the manual,
modified as you see fit. Of course, if the characters don't pick a
trustworthy therapist, their secrets may end up as part of a published
case study in medical journals, or worst yet in some yellow-journalism
rag!
This more limited restoration of san points has been very helpful to
us in balancing game play. By making it harder to gain back points,
characters are less likely to become macho sorcerers or use spells or
items that require san loss, and thus become very powerful, beyond the
intent of the game. Of course, the Mythos knowledge effect on sanity
also helps, but unless you want to run a scenario where the PCs go
after their insane companion it's not as useful as you might think.
It also makes characters think a little more about committing
themselves to reading books or spell usage, pointing out how fragile
the mind and soul really is. An extra bonus for refs is that it also
helps keep the characters less powerful longer so that the minions can
be used effectively for a longer time!
Jan Engan
--------------------
From: Jan Engan <ladyejan@aol.com>
Subject: PC Casualties
System: Call of Cthulhu
In-reply-to: V1.4 PC Casualties
Good Stuff on PC Deaths. I agree with everything Jason says. However,
I do not advocate never killing PCs. The guidelines I use are as
below:
Stupidity
"I use my pistol one-handed and my saber in the other, and charge
straight into Shub-Niggarth." Had this happen at a convention game.
What else can one do?
Plot Motivation One - Involvement in a new scenario
Retired characters that a player has abandoned are good for this,
especially if they have played as regular characters with PCs that are
still involved with the campaign. Make sure it's ok with the player
though before you scratch their favorite professor.
Plot Motivation Two - A blaze of glory
Characters who have become no longer interesting to play, players who
are moving or leaving the game for an extended time and people who
wants to do something really wild are great targets for fantastically
horrible deaths for other PCs to witness and find. As in One, though,
conferring with the player is usually needed.
I make it a policy not to kill a PC that must be played as an NPC for
a chapter because the player is unable to schedule.
I also think that at some points PC deaths are needed, for the shock
value of proving just how dangerous involvement with the Mythos is.
Unless you are a very accomplished and experienced referee, players do
not feel the loss of an NPC on the emotional-gut level that Cthulhu
requires to be effective.
Jan Engan
--------------------
From: <ladyejan@aol.com>
Subject: Linear Scenerios in CoC
In-reply-to: V1.4 Orient Express and Gaming Style
System: Call of Cthulhu
Owning a copy of the Orient Express ("completist" that I am!) and
having only skimmed through it, I can't say I've specifically seen the
difficulties with the thing that you mentioned. However, it seems to
follow the format that all pre-packaged scenarios do, and that I find
the same problems with that you do.
The forced linear paths in pre-packaged scenarios are a result of the
way the information is organized for the referee's usage, and the
necessity of cause and effect to explain the plot. (ie Grandfather
Bennie summoned up an avatar to impregnate Grandma and that's why we
all have squinty eyes.) Since most scenarios are organized around the
"mystery section at the front, confrontation at the rear" form plot,
we as referees are better served in using the information to enhance
our own plot lines rather than using them whole cloth. For instance,
I used the Baron Hauptman section from the "Fight Against the
Brotherhood" book to enhance a scenario about an archaeological dig in
Roumnia for religious icons. Using place names, NPCs from the book
and throwing out the whole NWI and other connections, I let him stand
alone for a villain.
For those of us who don't have time or aren't good at drawing maps and
floorplans (like me), these books are a treasure trove that I use like
any other reference source such as the encyclopedia.
I think because of the nature of Lovecraft's writings (which are
form-plotted to a great degree), the pre-packaged scenarios have taken
on those formats, and have since become codified into an editorial
statement/law at Chaosium (why tinker with a good thing when it's
making money). It is a format that works in its presentation and, by
and large, in its organization of material for the referee. In some
of the recent locale books, however, it's a real pain to be constantly
flipping back and forth between town sections to get information for
the players, and who has time to memorize it all? Remember that these
products also have to reach a wide audience with very diverse playing
styles. So, the scenerios are required in many ways to be generic to
be usable at all.
At some other point, I'd like to go into ways of customizing
pre-packaged scenarios, ways of effectively refereeing them and ways
of making them more personally important to your characters. But,
time and space prevents it here.
Jan Engan
--------------------
From: Jan Engan <ladyejan@aol.com>
Subject: What Requires Investigators?
In-reply-to: V1.4 "Investigators"
System: Call of Cthulhu
My big question is why "require" characters to become "investigators?"
Characters are first and foremost people and using the assumption that
they must all work together, or even have a common interest in order
for a scenario to be usable is a limiting one. (Just as limiting as
the assumption in a fantasy game that because we're all in the same
tavern we've just become best friends for life.) Indeed, conflict
between character motivations can enhance scenarios beyond the
imagining and often the design of the referee. (Hide the evidence or
turn it over to the cops? Publish the secret formula or burn it?)
With the proper timing, and the use of physical handouts, one can keep
all the players busy and still run several individual lines of
investigation without leaving anyone with empty time on their hands.
The plot becomes suddenly personally important to the characters
because what they are uncovering is a thing that relates to their area
of interest. Drawing in these threads tighter and tighter through
connections of evidence is what keeps the scenario from getting boring
or falling into the form-plot trap. At last, all the players end up
at the same place either individually or in groups of two or more,
each with a reason to want to pool information and help the others
instead of being part of a "group." This technique is obviously not
good for pre-packaged scenarios, but you can see my earlier opinions
on those. One of the best examples of this is S.King's "The Stand."
In that, he takes many divergent goals and motivations and manages to
pull them together at the end. Read it with a Referee's viewpoint and
you'll see what I mean.
Conflicts resolved in a CoC game should always be of a small nature.
Cultists, evil corporations, fake occultists, etc. The basis of the
game is that you can't win, not against the BIG uglies. Another thing
to consider: using the big guns in every game decreases their shock
value and the sense of their awfulness.
There are a couple of ways around lessening the impact of successive
scenarios, playing "unplayable" characters, etc. But again time and
space limits me addressing these more fully. Topics to be covered in
future issues of this digest.
Jan Engan
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium Games which do
not have another specific area for discussion. To submit an article,
mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu