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JeenLeen
2010-03-22, 10:37 AM
I'm planning on running Call of Cthulhu "The Haunting" (can be downloaded free at http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=87).

I have a couple questions about skills.

1. What is the 'Credit Rating' skill. It mentions using it to accomplish some goals, but I honestly don't have a clue what it means to use Credit Rating.

2. How does the Martial Arts skill and thing such as punch, grapple, etc. interact if at all?

3. How do language skill checks usually work? If you make it, you can translate something (such as a Latin check). What about your skill in your own language?

Darrin
2010-03-22, 12:12 PM
I'm planning on running Call of Cthulhu "The Haunting" (can be downloaded free at http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=87).

I have a couple questions about skills.

1. What is the 'Credit Rating' skill. It mentions using it to accomplish some goals, but I honestly don't have a clue what it means to use Credit Rating.

2. How does the Martial Arts skill and thing such as punch, grapple, etc. interact if at all?

3. How do language skill checks usually work? If you make it, you can translate something (such as a Latin check). What about your skill in your own language?

The Haunting is written for Chaosium's original Call of Cthulhu rules (sometimes called Chaosium's Basic Role Playing or BRP rules), which has a percentile-based skill system. Credit Rating, Martial Arts, and the language skills are described in the main Call of Cthulhu rulebook. I think they're on version 6.x something? The general skill mechanic is a percentile roll-under kind of thing, the higher your character's percentile, the easier it is to make that roll.

I'm guessing you're using the Call of Cthulhu D20 rules? Those rules are based on the 3.0 SRD, so you'll see some leftovers in there like the Ambidexterity feat.

Credit Rating in the CoC rules allows characters with a certain social/economic background to buy some hard-to-get/expensive items "on credit". This is what allows the Rich Dilletantes to buy a sports car, get into an exclusive restaurant, or maybe convince the town mayor to release your fellow investigators from the county lock-up. In D20 terms, this is probably a Diplomacy or Gather Info roll.

Martial Arts is just an attack skill in CoC. In D20 terms, there's no skill roll, just roll an unarmed attack.

Languages in CoC could be very detailed, but the important ones tend to be Greek, Latin, and Arabic, since that's what most Soul-Sucking Tomes of unspeakable Evil tend to be written in. In D20 terms, characters can buy those languages with skill points, or for the really obscure stuff, maybe make a Decipher Script roll.

If you need to convert (and The Haunting is worth converting), you'll probably have to eyeball the skill check DCs. Keep in mind that 1) most CoC characters don't (or shouldn't) live past levels 1-3, and 2) most CoC characters have percentile skills in the 15-25% range, and skills above 50% to 75% are very rare. Keep the DCs in the 15-20 range for beginning characters.

Also, you want to explain to your players in whatever terms they'll understand that if they are willingly engaging in combat as their first plan of action, *THEY WILL DIE HORRIBLY*. You win CoC (or at least survive) with research and library use (D20 = Gather Info, Knowledge checks). And even then you may still die, but you have a chance to save the world... for a little while.

JeenLeen
2010-03-22, 12:24 PM
Thank you. That does explain Credit Rating well.

I plan to use the Chaosium percentile system, not D20. I also plan to explain those basics--easy to die or go crazy and often investigate, not fight--to the players.



Martial Arts is just an attack skill in CoC. In D20 terms, there's no skill roll, just roll an unarmed attack.


In the character sheet in the Chaosium download, it has Martial Arts with a 1% base chance, but below the general skills in the Weapons section it has Punch (50% base chance) and some other martial moves.
Do these inter-relate at all?

Darrin
2010-03-22, 01:45 PM
In the character sheet in the Chaosium download, it has Martial Arts with a 1% base chance, but below the general skills in the Weapons section it has Punch (50% base chance) and some other martial moves.
Do these inter-relate at all?

I'm not sure what you mean by inter-relate. CoC assumes that all characters have some base chance to succeed at basic tasks without any special training (i.e., completely unskilled attempts). Basically, all characters are assumed to be able to punch someone with a base 50% chance, and they can spend skill points to increase that. I don't recall what Martial Arts does or how it would be mechanically different from punching. I think high attributes/stats do give you a better base chance on some skills.

When your character decides to attack, they usually pick whatever combat skill they have the highest percentile in. Being particularly good in one skill doesn't really have much effect on your other base skills, although a forgiving GM may give you a circumstance bonus if you give him a reasonable argument. I can't recall all the different skills... all I remember is being particularly fond of my professional athlete with a 75% Club skill (Louisville Slugger) that came in handy once or twice. (Athletes tend to do well in CoC because they're often too dumb/unaware to realize what they just saw, and may avoid some SAN loss that way.)