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Calinero
2009-03-22, 03:10 PM
As the member of my group of players who has been slotted as "the Cthulhu DM", it is generally my responsibility to come up with Cthulhu campaigns for us all to play. Right now, I am running two games for two different groups, and am about to begin a third. However, this third group is bit more roll-playing oriented than roleplaying. They're used to DnD, hack n slash style gameplay. So, rather than give them an intricate mystery that they would flounder in, I've decided I'm going to give them a bit of a compromise.

The typical Cthulhu game revolves around investigators investigating cultists or demons or ghosts or monsters in the backdrop of society--while it may influence them greatly, the rest of the world goes on more or less unchanged. Perhaps, at the end of a long, epic campaign, they will have to save the world from cultists. My plan for this game is a bit different--our investigators will be lounging around when, quite adruptly, the results of some other group's failure to stop cultists results in a sort of mini-apocalypse being unleashed upon the city that the investigators reside in--most likely Boston.

Now, obviously, with the great strength and variety of the many Cthulhu monsters, no human would survive too many combat encounters with them. My goal here is for them to run through the chaos of the city, and find what appears to be a safe zone--it's not on fire, it's quiet, and most of the monsters are keeping out. However, unbeknownst to them, that is because this building is where the cult that started all of this is centered. Once they enter the building, they'll be faced with other horrors, and may possibly find a way to save the city--and themselves.

I'm still working on specifics, but how does the idea sound so far? Any apparent flaws, other than a bit of necessary railroading at the beginning? Suggestions.

Mikeavelli
2009-03-22, 05:10 PM
From what I can tell, you're going to open up to chaos, and then put an "eye of the storm" area where everything is still, calm, and monster-free. It should be pretty easy to lure the players there (have NPC's let them know that monsters are staying away from that building, leave it the only non-burning place in the city, etc.)

Have the players in touch with the other group (the failure group) and get to know them. Form some bonds, have the players rescued by the other group, rescue them once or twice, help each other out. That way, when the failure group, well, fails - and gets brain-infested by lovecraftian horrors from which your players cannot possibly save them from - the emotional connection is all the more poignant.

[hr]

only tangentially related, but if you're running a CoC game, check out the SCP Foundation (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/main) - a collection across the internet of all the weird freaky **** the internet can come up with.

JoshuaZ
2009-03-22, 06:03 PM
Man, why are people always smashing up my city? Boston is nice, ok.

Alright joking aside it is actually a very good city to use because it isn't that far away from where Miskatonic actually is. One could also imagine some very interesting encounters/issues in iconic areas of the city, like the Boston Commons and such. I really want to see the Charles River erupt on fire or turn into acid or be filled with terrible tentacled horrors. You could even work in other details, like have whatever horror came come from a summoning that was described in an old book in one of Harvard's libraries or the like.

Calinero
2009-03-23, 08:45 PM
lol, Boston has attracted my wrath because of its proximity to the Miskatonic. I know very little about it, actually, and dread one day running a game with someone who has actually spent a significant amount of time in Boston and can call me out on all my crap. I really like the idea of setting the Charles River on fire--that kind of touch just makes it seem more real.

To clarify, this group is not going to be interacting with the other groups. Separate games--the other groups have a nice, normal Boston to deal with. Well, almost normal.

The main thing that I'm looking for here is ideas for what to do with this "eye of the storm." I'm assuming (God help me) that they will be drawn to it, and I intend to railroad them every step of the way if necessary. They'll recover from the indignity, I'm sure.

What kind of building should this be? I want it to be large, but I'm not sure what kind of skyscrapers Boston had in the 1920's, if any. Or perhaps it should be something totally incongruous with the landscape around it--a medieval castle, for example. Any ideas?

Bierhoff
2009-03-23, 09:19 PM
I'm thinking "Pickman's Model" for this story. Some colonial era housing with tunnels underneath.

Calinero
2009-03-23, 09:48 PM
Pickman's Model? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the term.

Another question I'm looking for ideas on is how to stop the cult that's behind this. Their motives can be simple enough--they want to call their master (some type of evil god thing) into our world. So far, they have only opened the way, and his minions have come through. But, if the way stays open for long enough, He will enter and destroy everything.

So, basically, there's a bit of a time limit.

I want the building that they are in to screw with their minds in the worst possible way. I want every inch of creepy atmosphere that I can find. Puzzles that require difficult moral choices. Freaky NPC's. Scary monsters. The works. I've got some ideas now, but am always looking for more. Later, I might post some specifics to be critiqued.

Lycan 01
2009-03-23, 10:13 PM
You'd be suprised what can be done, not with an intense and hopefully disturbing storyline, but with a few simple tweaks to the Sanity mechanic and a little thinking outside the box.

Case in point - I ran a haunted mansion game a few weeks ago. One player fled the room, in real life, to find a more well-lit area. Another one developed a temporary phobia of the dark. In real life.

If you'd like, I can provide you with that scenario. I've been meaning to post the stories from it up on here, anyway...


Here's a nice tid-bit, though: Passive Sanity Effects. Don't let them know they're crazy. :smallwink: Pass notes to players, telling them small details, such as items they may notice that others missed, or sounds they may overhear. Start to sneak in small things... perhaps a creepy noise outside the window, or blood drops on the rug. It begins to get at them... fast. One player, who'd spent 20 minutes hallucinating that a psychotic French chef was filleting him for dinner, overheard the sounds of kitchen knives being sharpened in the distance. His character ran screaming through the mansion, and almost dove out of a window. Later on, he heard a voice whispering a lullaby in French... He promptly began trying to light the mansion on fire and burn it down on top of himself and the evil within. :smalleek:

So yeah, small things become big things quite fast. And boy, is it rewarding...


So, interested in my scenario? :smallbiggrin: Its set for 1890's, but it can also work for 1920's. With some tweaking, it can also be made Modern, but it still works best in older times... Or, if you'd rather, I can give you a few more pieces of advice and new mechanics. :smallamused:

JoshuaZ
2009-03-23, 11:33 PM
The tallest building in Boston in 1915 was the Marriot Custom House I think (that should be still true through the mid 1920s) . It still a building that many in Boston will recognize. A picture can be found here (http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=522298). It isn't that far from the Harbor. In the 1920s it would have been a thriving hotel. If everything was untouched but that people would notice quickly simply by what they saw when they looked up. There were probably 5 or 6 other substantial sky scrapers at the time but I haven't looked them up.

The_Werebear
2009-03-24, 02:26 AM
One idea for a horror thing for the house: They glance out a window and see the Far Realm (or whatever plane) through it briefly.

Another idea for the house: It/Objects inside are slowly vanishing and shifting. The reason is that they have to send an equivalent mass into the realm to bring their monster of choice out. The entire house is the portal. So, the overturned table they were taking cover behind suddenly winks out of existence to be replaced with a very angry monster. Or if one of them becomes the next object sent through.

An idea for herding them to the safe zone: A mob of mind controlled/hallucinating citizens attempting to chase them down and chop of their bits. The good thing about a lot of humans chasing them is that the can kill them without too much of a problem, getting the traditional hack and slash bloodletting out of the way without having to fudge Sanity Warp Horror's combat prowess.

Radar
2009-03-24, 04:11 AM
Maybe make the house itself slowly change into otherwordly monstrosity. First changes should be subtle. For example: doors not exactly fitting the frame or some appliances not working properly. Upon closer inspection there would be something inherently wrong with them, that makes them unusable - faucet that can be turned freely in both directions without any effect. Gas lamp can have it's knob fused with the base (not welded, but rather made from one piece of metal). General aim would be to make impression of a house made by someone that doesn't know, what a house is for. It should look normal but the details should be all wrong. Second step would be to gradually deform the floor, walls etc. Add rhytmic sound creaking sound accompanied by gusts of wind. Crank temerature and humidity up. Eventually PCs will notice movements of the "house" and interior should get a more organic look. This sort of a scenario has a nice advantage: you can play with the PCs by changing things on the fly or making things up and it's totaly justified.
If there is a portal to other dimension inside the house, similar effect can be obtained by making the portal erratic so that the house will gradually meld with this other dimension

@Lycan 01
:smalleek: You are one scary GM.

Callos_DeTerran
2009-03-24, 11:27 AM
So, interested in my scenario? :smallbiggrin: Its set for 1890's, but it can also work for 1920's. With some tweaking, it can also be made Modern, but it still works best in older times... Or, if you'd rather, I can give you a few more pieces of advice and new mechanics. :smallamused:

I am! Now hand it over! :smalltongue:...Please?

Lycan 01
2009-03-24, 11:52 AM
@Lycan 01
:smalleek: You are one scary GM.

Why thank you. :smallbiggrin: I've actually only just recently figured out all these little secrets to Keeping CoC. I realized that the game appears to be about investigation and fighting the Mythos, when in reality the hardest struggle should be to keep the character you're playing as sane. If you die in a botched investigation or random fight, the only issue is rolling up a new character. But if you botch an investigation and see some seriously messed up crap, then they're stuck with a character who's got damaged sanity.

For example: Screwed up murder investigation? The killer gets away, and a few days later, as your characters are walking along the road on the way to go out to eat, they notice something in an alley. A beautiful young woman, no younger than 20, is dead. Not only is she dead, but she's hanging by her feet from a fire escape, her features mutilated by a blade of some sort, and her innards hanging out through several gashes in her torso. Throw in a few more gruesome details - rats, maggots, or a blood-scrawled note from the killer on a nearby wall - and you've got a recipe for some massive sanity loss.

And what should be done with these newly insane characters? What sort of issues should these players be forced to deal with? One could start to hear voices - pass him small notes during play, with cocky or silly comments written on them. But once his sanity begins to drop again, the notes become less funny and more... disturbing. Eventually, he may even have to start making Willpower rolls to avoid doing things involuntarily.

Or give them a phobia of fire escapes. I doesn't always have to be a bad sanity effect... or one that makes sense. :smallbiggrin:


Oh, another thing I did once... A player decided that his character was too crazy to live, so he tried to make them commit suicide. They placed the revolver to their head, and pulled the trigger. Click... dud bullet. Click... another dub bullet. Click... Click... Click...

I told him his character spent the next 2 days laying on a sofa with the pistol and several boxes of ammo, just pulling the trigger and reloading repeatedly... Not a single bullet worked. The character finally went off the deep end, but thats okay because the person who found him spazzing out was the player's replacement character...



I am! Now hand it over! :smalltongue:...Please?

What time setting? 1890's, 1920's, or Modern? And how deadly should it be? "Kinda creep 'em out", "Make them fear their lives," or "GAME OVER, MAN!! GAME OVER!!"? :smallamused:

Venerable
2009-03-24, 12:50 PM
Pickman's Model? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the term.

It's a short H.P. Lovecraft story. You might be able to find it online.

@lycan 01: seconded, you're an evil Keeper. I admire that.

Lycan 01
2009-03-24, 03:12 PM
Here you go... Pickman's Model (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Pickman%27s_Model)


Oh, there was also one game where one of my players went repeatedly crazy, at one point hallucinating about a battle with a talking moose (:smallconfused:) and a meeting with Nyarlathotep in which he tried to barter his friend's soul in exchange for getting to live. (:smalleek:) Finally, he was mind controlled by something, and I told the player himself to leave the room. The other players were supposed to try and snap him out of it, since his character promptly began to act goofy and try to hurt himself in silly ways. I had hoped they would stop him before things got serious... but they didn't.

The end result?

The character amputated his own leg. With his own bare hands.

I called the player back into the room so he could hear the description of his death, because I didn't want to describe something that graphic twice. It was deeply disturbing... One player actually covered his ears near the end of it, while another began to cringe and clutch his knee as I described what happened to his friend. I myself could barely bare to speak the words that held such graphic meaning, but for the sake of the game... it had to be done. :smalleek:

Oddly enough, the characters themselves didn't seem to care. One shrugged it off, while the other fell victim to a rather funny sanity effect - copying the actions of the nearest person, ie: the other living Investigator. Describing him trying to fire his bolt-action rifle with one hand, since the other player was using a .38 revolver, was quite comical. :smallbiggrin:

Calinero
2009-03-24, 09:22 PM
....remind me to ask you for more details on some of your games later, Lycan. And please, get the Play by Post one going soon. I want to experience some of this. lol

Anyways, as far as my game goes: I did a bit of brainstorming today while bored and otherwise unoccupied, and I've thought of a good introduction to the game. Basically, the group will be out for a party, or a drink, or something, when the smell of smoke and sound of screams lures them outside.

"The city is in flames. Buildings, stores, houses, they all are bathed in an eerie glow. The flames do not look normal--some are red, but others are green or blue. From where you are you see the Charles River. The entire river is a sea of writhing green flames. If you look at the sky you see only twisting black smoke. No stars. And...there are shapes. You see winged forms flying through the smoke. Some of them descend from the smoke and fly into the flames. At ground level, you see a few emerge from ruined buildings and claw spectators to shreds."

Something like that. I will also proceed to tell them that the taste of ash is beginning to fill their mouths, and the smell of burning flesh. Fun. However, hope is in sight! Or is it....

"In the sky, a hole in the smoke can be seen--only a few blocks away. It is almost like the eye of a storm, and none of the creatures fly through it. A tall building appears to be in its center."

Hopefully, they'll take the bait and run for it. If not, they will shortly be pursued by creatures. As they run, I'm going to add a few little details that will hopefully get across how bad the situation is--screaming people getting torn apart, one man getting lifted into the sky by a flying creature, then dropped...and my personal favorite, an enormous tentacle crashing down into the street just in front of them, completely crushing a car. They then either have to go around it, and risk being chased by creatures, or climb over it--and, unbeknownst to them, risk getting hurt by suction cups with fangs.

Eventually, they'll make it to the building (I don't plan on killing them before then unless they do something monumentally stupid.)

"The building is an immense structure, at least a dozen stories high. It at first appears to be in the style of a medieval stone tower, but then parts of it will shine like stainless steel, or speckle like brick. Whenever you look at it, at the corner of your vision it appears to be...shifting. It hurts your eyes to look at it for too long. (A knowledge roll at this point will tell players that this building was not at this address previously--neither was a gap that it could conceivably have filled. A map will show that it does not exist here. The buildings on either side of it will be right next to each other on the map--it should not be able to be where it is. But it is.) It has large, wooden double doors at its front, and several windows. No matter where you go around the building, only thirteen windows are visible, all at different heights and in different shapes and sizes. The top window is a black circle-- but, for a brief second, it appears to flicker like an eye."

The number 13 is negotiable, it's just an idea I had had. You see, I'm thinking some major sacrifice was required to summon this entity--tentatively, that number will be 13. The first sacrifice will be encountered in the first room of the building--a cultist who had an attack of conscience before completing the ritual, and was turned upon by his fellow cultists. The investigators will be told by him before he dies that the ritual is incomplete, and the Old God is gathering strength. Unless they can disrupt the spell before a certain time, he will pass into this world and all will be lost.

I'm still working on some more specific ideas, but I'm liking this as an outline--the only problem I have is that it might be too much like a video game, with clearly defined objectives and "levels" (floors of the building.) Any thoughts?

JoshuaZ
2009-03-24, 09:37 PM
I'm still working on some more specific ideas, but I'm liking this as an outline--the only problem I have is that it might be too much like a video game, with clearly defined objectives and "levels" (floors of the building.) Any thoughts?

Levels are fine as long as they can go up and down them at ease. Also, with the shifting nature they could change floors without even realizing it. Say they are on the third floor, and they somehow they ended up on a different floor. Maybe one or two floors are just out of order (that is the windows reflect incorrect heights for where they should be). The building could get progressively more disordered as time progressed, so they could sometimes take an elevator, go a few floors, feel the elevator moving in one direction and then find that they've gone in the wrong direction of what it felt like, or are on the same floor as they started on (you could do this with stairs as well). One way to play it would be to make it seem at first like they do need to progress level by level, and only start playing with this after it seems a bit too videogamish. Then it starts breaking down...

Venerable
2009-03-24, 09:40 PM
I can't comment on whether that's too much like a video game... but as I read your description, I had this flash of characters running along the street, and watching in horror as a random passerby suddenly rises screaming into the air and is smashed against a building. Yes, there are some malevolent things in the city the characters can't see.

If that doesn't instill some healthy "We must get off the streets!" paranoia, I don't know what will.

Calinero
2009-03-24, 09:52 PM
....that is a very good idea, I like that. Invisible things are creepy.

As for JoshuaZ's idea, I like that too. I mean, it might start out as seeming fairly linear, but the deeper they get into the building, the worse things will get. I might incorporate a bit of the earlier "organic building" idea.

Lycan 01
2009-03-24, 09:53 PM
*clap clap clap*

Me likey! :smallbiggrin:

Seriously, bravo! Very creative, and very well-done! It gives you plenty of room for Sanity attacks, as well as physical combat, not to mention puzzles and mental obstacles.


By the way, did I tell you about the scenario I ran in which Cthulhu attacked New York City on Dec 21, 2012? I named that scenario "Cthulhufield," in a nod to the movie Cloverfield, since it followed the plot closely - people at a party, big monster attacks city, people try to escape city, people see glimpses of something big, smaller baddies chase them around, all is revealed in the climactic ending.

In this case, the ending was them escaping in a helicopter, only to see Cthulhu rear up a few blocks over and swat a flight of F-22's out of the air with one tentacle. One player shot himself, while the other 2 went catatonic. Boy, was that a great game... :smallamused:

Callos_DeTerran
2009-03-24, 10:04 PM
What time setting? 1890's, 1920's, or Modern? And how deadly should it be? "Kinda creep 'em out", "Make them fear their lives," or "GAME OVER, MAN!! GAME OVER!!"? :smallamused:

Give me the scenario as you used it, I plan on adapting it to D&D.

Calinero
2009-03-24, 10:16 PM
Thanks, Lycan.

......Cthulhufield? :smallbiggrin: Oh my goodness...you have no idea how much that made my day. I mean, it sounds like a good game in itself, but the name just makes me giggle.


I'm hoping for a good combination of physical combat, puzzles, and mental obstacles. I'd prefer to minimize the former, but still include a bit of it--but once you get to the point where you can take almost anything in a fight, there's no reason to be scared. I want there to be some things where it is very clear they are not supposed to fight their way out.

Another small detail or two I wanted to add in:

After entering the building, the investigators find themselves in a large, ornate room. It is well decorates, has an enormous chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and an enormous clock face on the opposite wall. However, the clock has no normal numbers on it, and the face is black instead of white--and the numbers are white instead of black. The hands are also fixed. Instead, the face itself rotates. The sacrificed cultist is crucified to the hands.

One of the sacrifices (if not the last sacrifice) is going to be a young girl. The Old God is in the process of draining her spirit, her soul into its passage, but is not done yet. Therefore, she can form the image of a body, but no face. She will appear throughout the building, hopefully creeping the hell out of my players. It's possible that I'll make them find the living girl near the end of the adventure, but force them to kill her in order to prevent the spell's completion. Or, if I'm feeling particularly nasty, I'll give one of them the chance to take her place.

Lycan 01
2009-03-24, 10:48 PM
@Callos: Alright. You want me to post it in this thread, or via PM? At any rate, it'll take awhile to write most of it up...


@Calinero:

1 - The clock is an interesting piece... But if the face rotates, whats the point of the hands? How will they be positioned?

Perhaps on each floor, a clock of varying sizes can be found. Each one is an hour closer to Midnight... or whatever time bad stuff is going to happen at.

2 - Little girls are over-used. :smalltongue: Try a nice mix of feeble old ladies, beautiful young women, innocent little boys, scared little girls, and maybe even a puppy. :smallbiggrin:

Maybe instead of the ghost being that one little girl, it can be of that floor particular sacrifice. You have 2 options from this, too. The longer its been since that person has been sacrificed, the more... different... its ghost will act.

-Perhaps ghosts that have been there awhile are faded and barely there, while newer ones are more solid and visible. That way, they can tell when they're catching up the cultists, like some sort of sick game of cat and mouse.

-Ghosts that have been there awhile have lost their sense of being. They've become mindless entities of hatred, vessels of the Old God's malice. They attack anything they see on sight, and wander the floors they died on. They must either be fled from, fought (highly ill-advised, as they're super-bad), or somehow defeated otherwise (Excorcised, banished, given a proper burial or something...) by the Investigators. OR they can be used as a weapon... If an enemy is giving them a hard time, lead them to that floors ghost, should it be evil... But the newer a ghost is, the less evil and more aware it is. Fresh ghosts might even have advice or offer encouragement... Similar to the above idea, it offers the players a way to measure how far behind the cultists they are...


Oh...

3 - New round of the Cthulhu game is posted up. :smallbiggrin:

Callos_DeTerran
2009-03-25, 01:00 PM
@Callos: Alright. You want me to post it in this thread, or via PM? At any rate, it'll take awhile to write most of it up...

Whichever your more comfortable with.

chiasaur11
2009-03-25, 02:24 PM
*clap clap clap*

Me likey! :smallbiggrin:

Seriously, bravo! Very creative, and very well-done! It gives you plenty of room for Sanity attacks, as well as physical combat, not to mention puzzles and mental obstacles.


By the way, did I tell you about the scenario I ran in which Cthulhu attacked New York City on Dec 21, 2012? I named that scenario "Cthulhufield," in a nod to the movie Cloverfield, since it followed the plot closely - people at a party, big monster attacks city, people try to escape city, people see glimpses of something big, smaller baddies chase them around, all is revealed in the climactic ending.

In this case, the ending was them escaping in a helicopter, only to see Cthulhu rear up a few blocks over and swat a flight of F-22's out of the air with one tentacle. One player shot himself, while the other 2 went catatonic. Boy, was that a great game... :smallamused:

See, this is why Obama should increase our nation's Luchadore budget.

Everyone knows masked wrestlers are the natural enemy of supernatural evil.

Calinero
2009-03-25, 09:38 PM
The hands on the clock are more or less ornamental, perhaps permanently at the midnight position. I might actually strike the clock from the game--I've used it before with another group, and the two groups might communicate and realize I'm recycling ideas.

And yes, little girls are a bit overused...but I'm trying to achieve some emotional effect. I'll try to mix it up a bit--scared little boy, beautiful woman reaching out for help, old man calling out in confusion...I'm going to put some more thought into the sacrifices.

One idea I had for a room in the building, doesn't fit anywhere yet:

The room would basically be a massive ball. A large crowd of unusually beautiful people are dancing in pairs to the music of an unseen orchestra. They are all impeccably matched, but every minute or two there will be a shifting of partners--and all the colors of the dancers change to match. Their movements are impossibly well orchestrated, and soon several beautiful young women (assuming all my investigators are men, which they almost definitely will be) will invite them to dance. If they accept...

The women, once they start dancing with them, appear to be partly decaying corpses. The other dancers are hideously grinning, shrieking skeletons. Their partner's hands are claws, digging into their arms. It is a POW roll to escape, and with each failure a few more hit points are drained away until they join the ghostly dancers forever.

JoshuaZ
2009-03-25, 09:55 PM
So short of like that seen in the Shining but on steroids?

Zen Master
2009-03-26, 08:48 AM
Early Clive Barker includes a tale about a low-key investor who wanted to create a themepark in an old abandoned public bathing pool place.

As he brings his backers to the place, he finds it weirdly decorated with various murals of seamonsters, and the place is surprisingly labyrinthine. The backers vacate the scene, but he goes on exploring, eventually discovering the place to be inhabited by beautiful, naked young women.

The story has a certain, disturbing sexual undertone. Our hero goes on to have sex with ... I dunno, one or two of these girls, drinks milk from their breasts, and loses track of his senses. He wakes up later, with vague memories of the actual pool in the place, misted over but with ripples hinting at something huge moving beneath the surface.

He then slowly changes into a beautiful young woman, and joins the mothercreature in her lair in the pool.

Naturally, the mothercreature - whatever it is - spawns other things besides seemingly normal human girls. Dunno if this is useful, it's not exactly Lovecraftian, but I find it wonderfully weird :)

Calinero
2009-03-27, 11:05 PM
I haven't seen most of The Shining, just read it. But sure. Kinda like that, I guess.

And yeah, Acromos, that's a pretty weird idea. Oddly enough, I had already considered having an evil fountain of some sort. Just not sure what will inhabit it yet to make it evil.

I find myself having several ideas for individual rooms, but being unsure as to how to string them all together, and what order to put them in.

Calinero
2009-03-30, 06:32 PM
Okay, new question. I want there to be a lot of horribleness in this game, but I don't want it to be like...schizophrenic. I don't want to have a series of totally unrelated rooms, it would be nice if there were an overall....theme, I guess. Any ideas?

Crowbar
2009-03-31, 01:54 AM
Well, you should take into consideration who the main Big Bad/Cosmic Horror is. You know, where do they come from, why are they doing this, etc. If there's some key trait to their existence, then that should come up a lot.

For instance, in the anime Mononoke, one episode sees a horde of aborted ghost babies. The characters see all these red ribbons (which represent the link between mother and child) as well as little dolls all around the place.

If clocks are going to be a central theme, the characters should hear ticking frequently and see a lot of gears around.

Calinero
2009-04-02, 09:18 PM
Hm...not sure I want to have a clock theme. Perhaps a hospital...any thoughts?

Innis Cabal
2009-04-02, 09:21 PM
How about a man covered in mouths covered in broken glass that slides across the floor by his tongues. Broken teeth from sliding across the floor and blood from the glass as it grinds into the underside of his flesh.

dspeyer
2009-04-03, 12:20 AM
If you do make use of clocks, you might use a giant space of interlocking gears the players need to pass through -- using non-euclidean geometry. To hint, some of the surfaces might be tiled with convex 13-sided shapes.

If you do go modern, you might make the safe haven a building at MIT. The fun thing about MIT buildings is they connect to eachother without clear indications -- so there is a line the monsters won't cross but you don't know where it is. Naturally, needed materials are outside the space. This also will encourage them to use lab materials and technology -- which makes changing the laws of physics and chemistry so much more devastating (and creepy).

Curris
2009-04-03, 07:25 AM
Congratulations everyone. This entire thread is Highly enjoyable. Totally worth staying up to 6am for. Forgive me if this post has some incoherencies, I am not at my most functional. Some advice, some examples, and hopefully some inspiration to you.

Anyway, my advice. . .
A) If your players come from a DnD Background, take care to break the fact to them that They can't fight everything, and hope to win. They aren't superheroes, or epically geared, or full of magic. You seem to already be aware of this, and have taken precautions, but I see this as the toughest obstacle, were I to run this. (I am the guy in my group that runs everyone NOT D&D. This is the hardest lesson to learn). Sadly, it seems the best way to have them learn this is have them lose a fight, badly, and often, repeatedly. Good luck to you. At least you can ease this in by limiting ammunition. It's easy to be brave while you still have bullets. . . after that, a certain phrase concerning the ratio of discretion to valor comes to mind.

B)Use games like Silent Hill & Resident Evil as references. Since your building seems to be a public place (Hospital? University? Hotel?) Try to draw attention to the *lack* of people, survivors or otherwise. Lonliness is hard to convey, but in between the fights and scares, let it be descriptively known, that they are *isolated* *Cut-off* *alone*. No reinforcements are coming. Use the environment to enforce this. Fog, limits view, makes you suspicious of what you can't see, without putting them in the dark (They'll have that too). They enter the building at high noon, but if they look out the window, they see nothing, as though they are in space, or under the deepest ocean. Let sound be muted and indistinct. Phones that have no dial tone. Or a call rings, they pick up, then garbled static over which they may hear a sharp, indistinct sound. A scream? A foreign, alien, unknown language? feedback, that sounds sinisterly-humored, as though the phone itself is laughing?

C) Remember that monsters are scary, dialogue is scary, but use inanimate objects. They don't have to be scary, they just have to be suspicious or sinister. The players will put the fear into themselves. . . A child's room in a hotel, with a toybox slightly open. (Again this strengthens the notion that people are gone, missing, and they are alone). Have them think they see two cherry red glows in the toybox, but when they look at it, they see nothing out of place? Did that lid just open a slight bit more? No, they must have imagined it. . .

D) Not just fear, but dread. Fear is apprehension about what can go wrong. Dread is despair about what DID go wrong. Being steathly? Someone kicks a musicbox in the dark which begins playing a hauntling slow, and minor keyed tune, before rolling over the floor, and falling off the balcony, crashing with a sour note below? Discordant, jarring, unnerving. This is something bad, because *what* heard them? Is it investigating? Fighting? They win? Good! Rest and congratulate, until the horror that they just riddled with bullets silently stands, and begins to pluck out the bullets from itself with arms twisted at odd angles, or perhaps his hands have too many corners. . .

E) The players should be out of their element. This is the land of the strange. Rules need not apply. Have a physicist character? Great! Tell him that energy is not conserved in impacts *IE, character or mook gets hit by a large, fast object, and just stops. . . The characters investigate, deal with the threat. . . then the body flies across the room to it's splattery end. Or falls with a slight tap. . .* Have a musician? Have them read some sheet music off the piano and play it. . . but as they read it (It reads beautifully) but sounds horrible. Their fingers hit the "right" notes, but it just doesn't "make sense" Or maybe their fingers know something about this song that their eyes can't see.

F)Premonitions. Hard to use effectively. Boosts the paranoia and hype, though. Best ones are the ones that may or may not be true, but maybe you can't do anything to change them, anyway. But there may be a time when a character sees a vision of themselves, panicked, and incoherent. But these are nice as A) a player will rarely willingly attack themselves, or B) How do you attack a vision if it's "not real"?

My example. Tommy gets separated from the group, certainly Bad News. . . But he hears sobbing just down the hallway. He investigates. In the disheveled room, sitting in a pile of dust and broken furniture is a man, openly wailing, occasionally falling silent. Warily approaching, weapon ready, Tommy finally gets a good look at the man. His face. . . unmistakably his own. The clothing mirror's Tommy's own. The scar above the left eye, Tommy remembers well when he earned that momento. Quickly scanning and appraising, the details scream to Tommy . . . He is looking at himself. The room has gotten deeply silent. The sobbing hasn't stopped, it's just *isn't audible*. As his mind begins to process that the other Tommy opens his mouth, apprehensively, as if to speak. Tommy sees the horrible horrible things that other Tommy has seen. . . has done. . . *Has Had Done To Him* In a flash, Tommy is kneeling in the debris, bawling, when the rest of the party finds him again. He has been wounded, self-inflicted by the looks of it. His eyes are glassy, and he is bleeding from where he has struck himself with shattered wood from the wrecked furniture.

These are good to give a character the "oracle" trait, or the few off the wall clues "divine inspiriation" moments. Careful in this though, can be railroaded depending on it's use.

G) My other real good idea that I almost forgot. Of course they are fighting the creepy dark nasties, but occasionally, have them meet some agent of good of various levels of power. A) the one remaining cop fighting what he can. May be cannon fodder, but you can show him start to corrupt and twist in subtle then obvious ways. Then have maybe a higher power level to counter your horrors, and winged nasties. Maybe a pure white glowing spirit swoops down and strikes a spear of light into a foe, who shrieks and "dissolves" into fragments of shadowstuff. Again, you can have this force be stopped by the greater power of evil, by the evils of man*(have your party kill/wound/corrupt/betray) it, or best yet, have it be a form or apparition of the main bad guy, beguiling it's way into your midst, as it's aware of your meddling with it's prophecy, and just wants to get the characters alone, one at a time.

H) separate the characters. Not all the time, or in rapid succession, but can be fun.

I)To connect your rooms more cinematically, think of a museum or or decadent hotel. There are paintings on the wall, and furniture. but rooms nearby should have similiar decor. Damage too. If this room is flooded the adjacent ones should be too. Maybe it's well lit here, but the hallway only has one working light, and the next room's light flicker's sporadically.
If there are gouges and axe strikes in this door, maybe there's blood in the next room. Creatures move, and try to show causes and effects from room to room to help link them. Heck, maybe even the House moves them.

J) Watch the Shining, Rose Red (and remakes) and amnityville horror. Give things a feeling of sentience. Make them feel they are being watched. Seriousness surrounds every trivial, mindracking decision. The fear of Judgment should hang over them, judgement from a fickle and unempathic (at best) spectator. Security cameras may not fit your time period, but maybe some sort of scrying orb, pool, mirror lets you see the rooms *you were just in!* and footsteps in the dust indicate someone was here, watching you. One effect I Love is the false painting behind which sits a real person. Complete with the eyes cut out. Especially observant characters may notice that they are being tracked by these eyes. . . or that the painting with eyes now has two blank holes.

K) Last suggestion for now. . . You probably have this set up already but vary the nature of Your horrors from beyond, complete with separate factions. Let them know that even beyond this disaster/apocolypse, THIS Is Bigger than that. Even as the players are fighting and defeating the fishmen & Cultists, and stopping their ritual, let them come into a room where they see a man investigating a body, or symbols on the floor, or a book. Or rather, a silouette of a man. More ephemeral and shadowstuff, he stands more rigidly and turns to face you.(if you could say that of the smokey figure) Standing in his presence, you feel cold radiate from him. You ready an attack but pause. Something in your brain tells you that if you were to hit him, you might fall. . . Into nowhere. A droning fills your head, as though anti-sound surrounds his presence. At the spot where the not-a-man's eyes would be, he seems to regard you. Not an acknowledgement, or appraisal, just awareness, then he returns to his first work, says something cryptic (like If the Beast falls, the time will be right. . .) And sinks into the floor. Clearly he is not affliated with the main enemy, but is sinister and frightening in his own regard. Could be a later threat. Win or lose, this situation is playing to something's advantage. . .

Sorry for the really long post. Sorry for writing it somewhat disjointedly. I hope this helps and is clear; may it inspire and advise. Good gaming to you.

Calinero
2009-04-03, 11:42 AM
Wow, thanks for the post, Curris. Glad to know this is an enjoyable thread.

As for my building being a public place...that is my current dilemma. I had originally planned for it not to have any correlation in the real world--the building was not there yesterday. But then I ran into the problem of not having any idea of a theme to interconnect my random ideas, no idea of what to make the building like. But, if I made the building originally have had some actual purpose, then I have something to start with. I have considered hospital, museum, hotel...I like some of the possibilities with hotels the best, except for the fact that another game being run by one of my friends has used hotels before. I'm still debating whether I will use a hotel as the setting. Of course, I doubt it will stay a hotel once they've gotten far enough in...

I like your idea of creepy, Other factions among the demons. And the idea of powers of good attempting to intervene. Many stray from the idea of having anything good in CoC, but I like there idea of there being a little Good...of course, it doesn't always win. And I also like the cop idea, I don't want them to be the only people they ever encounter.

Kantur
2009-04-03, 12:11 PM
Persoanlly, I think the hospital idea could work well, even with the Danse Macabre ballroom idea you had.

For one, you have plenty of people who've died in gruesome looking ways (Botched surgery where arteries were accidentally nicked and the patient bled out), potentially painful deaths (Cardiac arrest, etc), emotionally painful deaths if you want a few poltergeist types (Degenerative illnesses), patients who've come in off the street after being attacked by people, accidents that meant the patient had to go to the hospital but nothing could be done, etc...

And for the skeletal ball, it could be that on the night all this began, there was a fundraiser happening at the hopsital and something in the Mythos has caused them to keep dancing and trying to get others to join them.


But the other idea I had would be to have something happening on the top floor of the hospital (Perhaps the head cultists are there, planning their next move and watching the destruction), and something in the depths of the basement (Perhaps the remains of the ritual that caused this, trapped starving prisoners that'll be sacrificed for the next stage, perhaps a room full of 'windows' that look out onto various parts of the city and some that look into Places That Shouldn't Be Looked At with these 'windows' being portals that the cultists used to get the summoned creatures out across the city quickly and is why there aren't many around the hospital itself).

And of course, if they stop the cultists, the portals are still active, but if they head downstairs and shut down the portals, they still have to deal with the cultists - who've now had a chance to escape...

The only concern I'd have is how you're going to introduce new characters when characters die or go permanantly insane, but I suspect you'll have something in mind for that already.

Calinero
2009-04-03, 08:11 PM
Well, the current plan that I had was that if a member dies or goes insane, they can meet up with someone else who has been wandering the building--another reason it might be important to establish that there are other people in the building besides them and the cultists. Of course, not all of them will be friendly--and not all of them will survive.

Now I'm getting really torn between a hospital and a hotel, and I really don't know how to decide...

chiasaur11
2009-04-03, 08:28 PM
Well, the current plan that I had was that if a member dies or goes insane, they can meet up with someone else who has been wandering the building--another reason it might be important to establish that there are other people in the building besides them and the cultists. Of course, not all of them will be friendly--and not all of them will survive.

Now I'm getting really torn between a hospital and a hotel, and I really don't know how to decide...

Well, I settle tough decisions with one of two methods.

1)Coin flip

2) Thunderdome.

I'm a simple man that way.

Calinero
2009-04-03, 10:57 PM
I understand the first one. But how does one enter a theoretical hotel and theoretical hospital into a thunderdome?

chiasaur11
2009-04-03, 11:34 PM
I understand the first one. But how does one enter a theoretical hotel and theoretical hospital into a thunderdome?

That is a tough one.

I usually handle this one by appointing a cosmic horror as a representative for each concept, and then having them fight.

If cosmic horrors aren't available, try dinosaurs.

BlueWizard
2009-04-04, 02:52 AM
You're supposed to almost overwhelm the PCs, and make them feel all is lost.
A lot of players won't like it.

Doomsy
2009-04-05, 03:50 PM
For a Yog-Soggoth related cult thing I once had a twelve story hotel become scenes from the cult leaders past. As in, literal chunks of his childhood and life warped all out of perspective and slammed into the present day building. I basically decided the 'levels' at random as well, with a deck of cards I shuffled. Each time the investigators went up or down, I randomly yanked out a card and had the number of it be the next floor. Including ones they had already visited or were just leaving. It made for some real interesting times, though I only introduced the Ace (the final confrontation) after they had explored for a bit and I removed any floor they visited twice already from the mix.

Also, I would make the place you're using dependent on the theme of the Eldritch Horror being summoned. A hotel is kind of Yoggy - an in and out place, inbetween. Have the rooms be jumbled in time as a quiet sort of thing - a few rooms from various places in time and space, but all hotel rooms, etc. Or maybe parts of homes. A hospital could be a Shub place, a place of birth and life run amuck in so many different twisted ways.

Calinero
2009-04-08, 03:16 PM
I haven't quite decided on a theme for the horror being summoned, other than big and nasty. And perhaps fire, I think it likes fire. I haven't gone through the handbook and picked out a specific deity that I want it to correspond with, it might end up being my own personal made up monster. I didn't think it was too terribly important to stat the thing out, because they would never fight it--it would kill them or drive them insane just by encountering them. Their only hope of survival is to prevent it from arriving.

Now that you mention it, though, it might be helpful if I picked one from the book for inspiration. It might help me think of a theme, anyway...

Lycan 01
2009-04-08, 03:45 PM
Daoloth. (sp?) He's basically a Great Old One in the form of a big pile of geometric shapes and stuff, which continue to grow and morph and drive you crazy from looking at them. Read his description - anything that touches him is dragged into non-existance.

Basically, once he gets summoned, he'll start to expand. Once he fills up a room, he absorbs the walls and enters the next one.

So, worst case scenario, Daoloth emerges from the portal, and begins to slowly expand. Any bullets fired will be absorbed. Any melee weapons will be devoured, possibly along with the Investigator. He just starts to grow... and grow... and grow. CUE CHASE SCENE!! :smallbiggrin:

No really, everything switches up. Now instead of trying to get to the top, they're trying to get to the bottom ASAP. In fact, add that when he eats people, he stops for a moment. Maybe one of the players will pull a heroic sacrifice in order to buy the rest of the players just a little bit of extra time... :smallamused:

What happens when the players escape the tower? Dunno... It really won't make any difference. Once Daoloth gets to the front door, he'll just spread beyond its gates into the city beyond... Where will he stop? I don't know. A few blocks? The city limits? State lines? International borders? Continental shelves? Who knows... One of the Outer Gods would stop him before he destroyed the whole planet, though. They've already got dibs on that, according to some literature...

Calinero
2009-04-08, 06:52 PM
Hm. Sounds like an idea, but I was really thinking that once whatever is being summoned is summoned, that's it. Or, to quote, "That's it, man! Game over!" The world will be over. When these players lose, they will lose. I wasn't really planning on giving them a chance to survive their failure...of course, I'll give them plenty of chances to prevent the summoning. I just want them to realize that this thing is bad. No chance of survival.

Lycan 01
2009-04-08, 06:56 PM
Aaaahhh...

*scratches head*

Azathoth. There's no stopping that thing... :smalleek:

chiasaur11
2009-04-08, 07:20 PM
Aaaahhh...

*scratches head*

Azathoth. There's no stopping that thing... :smalleek:

With the rather obvious exception of Squirrel Girl using delicious Hostess fruit pies.

Calinero
2009-04-08, 09:09 PM
Don't be ridiculous. Fruit pies? I'm not giving them that kind of firepower!

Berserk Monk
2009-04-08, 10:47 PM
You want to introduce some real horror into you campaign? Here's how you do it: weapons not longer crit for any monster or creature, and a natural twenty doesn't mean anything. Your PCs will be too scared to fall asleep any more. HA! HA! HA!

Calinero
2009-04-09, 09:23 AM
Bah, natural 20's....real men play d100 Cthulhu!

Calinero
2009-04-28, 08:04 PM
All right, been a bit longer than I had intended since I poked around with this game...but I've made some progress. I've got the beginning planned out. Here goes:

After their initial entrance into this horrible world, which I have already posted and do not wish to make you read through again unless you want to, they will enter the building--which I have decided is a hotel.

The first room they see is a lobby. There are a few bullet holes on the wall to the left of the door, and a few next to the elevator--one appears to have struck the call button. A man in what was once probably a very nice suit is pinned up to a clock face--it appears that the hands of the clock have been broken off and stabbed through his wrists and feet. He has also suffered from a beating, and upon closer inspection has a bullet wound in his shoulder. It is clear that he is not much longer for this world.

If they attempt to help him, or even talk to him, I plan to have a Gray Box prepared. I'm not sure how widespread the use of that term is, but among my friends and I it is a pre-prepared speech for an NPC, hopefully to be gone through without interference from the PC's. Great for plot dumping. Anyways, the gist of this Gray Box will be that the man was a cultist who had an attack of conscience, and was betrayed by his comrades. He tells the players that the ritual is incomplete, and hinges on one final sacrifice--if that sacrifice is made, the Old God will pass through and the world shall most likely end. Obviously, this is to be avoided at all costs. The sacrifices that have already been made are now bound into the Old God's service, and will be used to try and stop them, and some of His creatures are loose even in the hotel--though, as the epicenter, they are safe from the worst calamities. However, once the Old God passes through, nowhere will be safe. I also plan to have some sort of marking he describes that will distinguish the sacrifices, so they will recognize them when they see them.

After this lovely bit of exposition, the man will die. There are only four apparent avenues of leaving the lobby--through the door the players just came through, through the elevator (which will not respond to calls, as the call button is broken), a hallway that is labeled as leading to a lounge, and a doorway that leads to a staircase.

The lounge: The lounge is totally empty. It is relatively neat, but a chair cushion has come dislodged, and a small table has been knocked over. A few cigarettes lie in ashtrays, still smoking. The place is totally noiseless--not even the chaos outside can be heard. If they walk into what looks like a hallway leading to the bathrooms, bullets will come flying at them the instant they pass the corner--but they will miss. They will then hear screaming, a male voice. "You things get away from me! This place is safe, and it's mine! You can't hurt me! YOU CAN'T HURT ME ANYMORE!" Then, a few more shots, then silence. If the investigators continue on to the bathroom, they will find an impromptu barricade almost holding the men's room door shut, though they can open it. Inside, a man will be slumped against the barricade, apparently having shot himself in the head. You see, this man also noticed the sanctuary offered by the hotel, but was more unhinged than the players by the events around him. He heard the players and thought they were monsters, and killed himself rather than be ripped apart. The gun has no bullets left.

The stairs: The stairs are dimly lit, with flickering lightbulbs. As the players head up (the stairs do not go down), it seems that shadows pool at the bottom of the steps. Everyone rolls against Power X 4.

Those who fail will start hearing....voices coming from the shadows. Calming, indiscernable whispers. Soft, and inviting. It looks nice and cool in the shadows...another Power X 4 roll, or they will stick their arm in it, and take d4 damage a round with another chance to save each round until death or removal from the shadows. Those who do not fail their rolls resist its call, and can snap their comrades out of it by slapping them or sufficiently jarring them. Once they begin to move away from the shadows, a lightbulb bursts--the shadows spread. They need to begin running. They make a Dex X 5 check, if they fail the shadow clips them--maybe d3 damage? I'm worried about damaging them too much too early. Nyeh.

Anyways, they will then reach a door. The shadows lurk at the top of the stairs as well, hopefully they will open the door. Once they are on the other side and close it, the whispers turn into a horrible scream, then cut off. That is when they meet the first Sacrifice...still working on that one.

Any thoughts?

Calinero
2009-04-30, 09:48 PM
Okay, specific question this time. What do you guys think I ought to do about the Sacrifices? How many should there be? Should the players have to fight them, or communicate with them, or both? I'm thinking fight with them....how should they look? Should they be horribly twisted or altered, or look like decaying humans? How should they be easily recognizable as Sacrifices?

Shinizak
2009-05-01, 06:09 PM
I think they should be easily recognizable, but I also think that there should be a few "fake" ones. Knowing that there's a possibility that the cultists might not succeed the [insert big bad here] would probably create a contingency plan. For instance, you know that innocent sacrifice? What are the chances that she's really just a useless leftover from the ritual and doubles as a delayed secondary gate?

What's that? Destroying her would stop the second gate from opening? Oh, you already killed her? I shoulda mentioned that killing her would also alert the monsters, cultists, to the 4 beautiful new sacrifices for [Big Bad].

Calinero
2009-05-01, 09:32 PM
Hm. Interesting idea, but if I were to do it, I would want to make sure they eventually found out that they were decoys. I don't want them to think I'm just arbitrarily screwing with them and changing the number of sacrifices. I've had an idea for the first one--he is chained by a collar around the neck, his eyes have been gouged out, and his hands cut off. He is quite insane, by this point, and will mumble "He used my eyes to find the way, and my hands to open the door...don't let him take you, die if you can...." Or something along those lines. I've also decided on seven sacrifices, counting the final sacrifice (who I am considering making a young girl (yes, I know, cliche, but for a reason--it works) named Alice, who is the daughter of the leader of the cult).

ondonaflash
2009-05-02, 11:11 AM
you've probably moved past this point, but I do feel the need to throw my tips into the ring. The key to any horror is suspense right? so there are a few tricks I use to scare the piss out of people.

So the party enters a room, it has a piano, grim paintings on the wall, a candelabra burning, they inspect the paintings, when they turn around the candelabra has been knocked over. (keep it small, trite, inconsequential).

Another execution would be to have a row of knights holding swords, with the blades pointing up. the party looks away and suddenly the knights are all holding Halberds.

A locked door is now open, inviting the party onwards.

Another rule I use is this: The scariest sound you can ever hear in a horror movie? Silence.

have them enter a floor that is completely normal in every way. After subjecting them to nightmares. They'll go mad trying to find out what's wrong with it, but its just a place that's a little too quiet.

Lullabies are always creepy, but I have a special place in my heart for "Hush Little Baby". (Start on the Diamond Ring to Looking Glass Verse, trust me)

A classic: the man in the duster walking away. Use him three times, then have them catch him and turn him around, he's got a hideous decayed face with a rictus grin. Once they catch him, don't have him disappear. Leave the body there.

Ambient Noise: If you go with the clock motif always have there be a resonant ticking. that way when it stops its all the more noticeable. If you can actually get a track of a clock ticking to play in your sessions, all the better. Only have it go off once, at the climax, but have it stop right before something awful happens. Plus ambient noises associated with fear have been known to drive people crazy. (I may have made that up, but it sounds like it could be true)