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Lycan 01
2008-09-09, 03:14 PM
So I'm sittin' here working on a few session and campaign ideas for my group. Call of Cthulhu 6th edition, 1920's setting... I've got about 7 players on a good day, and they've all gotten the hang of the game. We've played through the 4 sessions in the rulebook, and now its time to move on to some new things.

I'm flat broke, so buying a book from Chaosium is not an option. And while looking for free ones online might be an option, I dunno where to find good ones...


Now, on the other hand, I have a few ideas bouncing around in my head. I'm hoping some of the other CoC players and Keepers on here and give me some feedback, advice, or anything else they might feel like bestowing upon me. :smallsmile:

My main campaign idea is as follows...

Call of Cthulhu: The Lost World

1923, Arkham, Mass.

The Miskatonic University is putting together an expedition to South America. It seems that several dinosaur fossiles have been found in certain parts of the Amazon, and the University is not going to miss out on an opportunity such as this. They want the Investigators to escort the expedition, providing the researchers with protection from predators, natives, and anything else that might threaten their lives. (The plot isn't too far-fetched, as one player is a teacher at Miskatonic U, and the others have had business dealings with the college over the course of their investigations.)

The players will be dropped off up the Amazon river by boat, along with supplies, tools, weapons, and other useful items. The boat then leaves them, and they begin their trek through the jungle towards a nearby mountain range. There, a research base has been set up on a small plateau, allowing a clear view into the large valley below. There, some NPCs inform them that the current dig sites are down in the valley, but for some reason, they haven't been heard from in a few days.

So hopefully they'll go check it out, and discover... dun dudda daaaaaa! A trashed dig site with mutilated and half-eaten corpses strewn about! Oh dear, what could have done that? Well, the strange tracks indicate some sort of clawed beast. Or more-so, a pack of them...

And then cue the Velociraptor ambush. :smallamused:



So yeah, I'm basically taking the plot of the old movie/show The Lost World (turn of the century researchers and scientist go to the Amazon and discover a valley full of dinosaurs, IIRC...) and splicing it with CoC. I figure I'll have the players fight/run from a few dinosaurs, have them discover the research base in shambles (thanks to pteradactyles), retreat back into the valley, find a tribe or two of villagers that are willing to protect them, defend the villages or otherwise try to get on their good side, recieve info on how to escape from the valley, run from a pack of T-Rexes (they did sometimes hunt in groups, supposedly), flee the valley through a narrow pass, narrowly avoid a rock slide which seals the valley shut forever, and then high-tail it back to the boat, which should be arriving at some point to drop off more supplies...


Sooooo? Stupid? Brilliant? Too cliche? C'mon, gimme some feedback, please. :smallbiggrin:

Voshkod
2008-09-09, 03:22 PM
Not very Call of Cthulhu, really. More Spirit of the Century. Perhaps that's your intent, to through them for a loop.

Unless . . . something/someone is controlling the dinosaurs. A double loop.

Perhaps the dinosaurs have been on the plateau since the great extinction. A recent meteor strike brought a colour out of space/elder thing/squamous betentacled horror #7 to the plateau, and it's taken slow control of the dinos.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps the Elder Race has an ancient city on the plateau, much like their city Beyond the Mountains of Madness. They used to breed dinos as food and pack animals. The Elders have awoken, or their breeding facility has come back on line for some reason.

Lycan 01
2008-09-09, 03:28 PM
I know its not very Cthulhu-y... >.< I'm trying really hard to think of something Cthulhu-y to throw at them...

But the way I see it, they won't expect friggin' dinosaurs to jump out of nowhere. They'll be expecting a Shoggoth, or Deep Ones. I mean, what's more shocking? The same old song and dance, or a T-Rex that I shouldn't even have the stats for?


Although, a small Elder Thing research facility in the valley might be an interesting twist... Perhaps they used their technology to protect the valley from the meteor? And now, millenia later, a few of them are left behind, unsure of what has happened to the rest of their race... Throw in a shoggoth, and I suppose I have another interesting plot hook...


But still, I think a campaign lacking Cthulhu Mythos stuff might be interesting, since it will literally be the last thing they're expecting...

Voshkod
2008-09-09, 03:31 PM
I agree that the ol' switcheroo can be good in CoC.

"The madman was just that, an escaped inmate of the asylum. The book he was carrying? Jane Austin."

But the double-switcheroo is even better. They think it's dinos. They let their "mythos" guard down. And then on the back of the T-Rex they just killed at great cost, they find a massive saddle.

SAN check.

Swordguy
2008-09-09, 03:55 PM
Great Race of Yith. Controlling dinosaurs, like they used to (remember, the Great Race disappeared...65 million years ago).

The Great Race is even known for talking rationally to those investigators who can stand their presence. So let it drop that they're breeding these dinos for a reason. That something is coming from the beyond.

NOW you've got a Cthulhu game.

Lycan 01
2008-09-09, 04:15 PM
Hm. I dunno... Why would the Great Race clone dinos to fight something that they probably wouldn't stand a chance against? And how would they possess the abili-


Ooooooh, riiiiight... Time cube things. I forgot about those. I guess the Great Race could, in theory then, be involved in this personally.

But still... why?


Ooooooh, I know. They were doing an expirament. Freeze the dinos in the time cubes, along with some of their scientists. 65 million years later, they pop out, and the scientists study how they react to the animals and climates of the future. But due to time's passage, what was once a desert or something is now a jungle valley, from which escape is impossible...

Hm... It could work...

SurlySeraph
2008-09-09, 04:21 PM
Have you read The Relic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Relic)? You could borrow plot elements from that pretty liberally for this.

Lycan 01
2008-09-09, 05:38 PM
The Relic would be an interesting concept...


But I still think just plain old dinosaurs would be the best plotline. *shrug*

There's still the issue of getting their stats, though... :smallconfused:

chiasaur11
2008-09-09, 05:56 PM
Hey, whose to say dinosaurs don't have inherent anti cosmic horror powers?

I wouldn't bet on it.

LordMalrog
2008-09-09, 06:01 PM
OK, i'm thinking that you should go with something alittle more... cthulhu esque. With 7 players this is gonna be a tad bit... run & gun. I recommend the undead make the scene as a strange unknown disease spreads along the campus of Miskatonic University. The heros try to find a cure, or a way out of the now quaruntined college .Oh and they may find out whos behind it and why. :smallcool:

Lycan 01
2008-09-09, 10:09 PM
I'm teaching them Saturday that the "gun" aspect of Run & Gun is not something they should always rely on... :smallamused:

I'm actually hoping the Lost World campaign will teach them a few lessons. Namely, ammo is a good thing to conserve, not waste. Also, running is good. Plus, maybe I'll offer them ways to escape that they need to think on in order to succeed... Like a biplane with a busted engine, that requires mechanical repair rolls to succeed...


And as for zombies... I dunno. I wonder if a 28 Days Later modern-day campaign would be interesting. Only for the survivors to wake up at the end to realize it was all just a dream, and they lose all the skill upgrades they got along the way. Naaaah... that would be cruel. XD


Or maybe....




Silent Hill...

Doomsy
2008-09-10, 12:02 AM
A young Shoggoth (round down the stats) wrapped around a dinosaurs skeleton and ambling around using it for internal support.

Maddening, prehistoric, and fairly lethal. You could probably substitute the shoggoth with something else. Mi-Go, Elder Things, and Ythians are old enough to have gotten samples or preserved them for unknown reasons for straight dinosaurs, though that really is more 1920s adventure then horror. You should keep in mind you do not have to make this reasonable. A lot of the Great Old Ones are beyond human comprehension or rational explanation.

Dinosaurs resurrected by an ancient undead local priest in service to (nameless abomination) might make a nice surprise too.

chiasaur11
2008-09-10, 12:05 AM
A young Shoggoth (round down the stats) wrapped around a dinosaurs skeleton and ambling around using it for internal support.

Maddening, prehistoric, and fairly lethal. You could probably substitute the shoggoth with something else. Mi-Go, Elder Things, and Ythians are old enough to have gotten samples or preserved them for unknown reasons for straight dinosaurs, though that really is more 1920s adventure then horror. You should keep in mind you do not have to make this reasonable. A lot of the Great Old Ones are beyond human comprehension or rational explanation.

Dinosaurs resurrected by an ancient undead local priest in service to (nameless abomination) might make a nice surprise too.

I can see it now.

"Cthulu, why did you revive dinosaurs?"

"I thought it'd be cool."

Demented
2008-09-10, 01:25 AM
Dinosaurs can be "cool" dinosaurs (Jurassic Park) or "scary" dinosaurs (Jurassic Park). Cool dinosaurs rush you head-on, roar a lot, and generally make for a good show. Scary dinosaurs sneak up behind you in the dead of night and drag you into the brush by your legs as you dig your fingers into the dirt, screaming.



Also, how's this for SAN-check inducing: A t-rex that regurgitates zombies.

Waspinator
2008-09-10, 01:46 AM
Two words: Pokethulhu Invasion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokethulhu

potatocubed
2008-09-10, 06:15 AM
I've had this CoC idea kicking around my head for a while...

The Innsmouth Mob
(For best results, read the following in a New Yoik accent.)

The player characters are all prohibition-era gangsters who have screwed up one time too many. Calling in the last of their favours, instead of getting whacked they get sent to set up a racket... in Innsmouth. The boss doesn't know anything about the Mythos - he just knows that Innsmouth doesn't have a branch of the Family, it's far enough away that he doesn't have to look at you, but close enough that he can keep an eye on you anyway.

You can't go back or the kingpin'll have your heads, and it won't be pretty. But you'll find out pretty soon that yours ain't the only game in town...

Tsotha-lanti
2008-09-10, 07:55 AM
Where's the horror in dinosaurs? Big monsters chasing you is called action (dinosaurs makes it pulpy action). Horror requires subtlety, and, above all, people. You can do "horror expeditions" (indeed, they're a regular feature of CoC), but you need a big focus on the people involved, and you need the actual horror element.

The number of big monsters in the CoC rulebook can mislead people, but horror really doesn't involve fighting them or running from them. (Almost all the big monsters are in the non-horror bizarre fantasy Dreamworld stories.) They exist as big threats in the background, to be averted or, at the most, exorcised (see The Dunwich Horror).

If you want a horror expedition, you need a bunch of NPC expedition members, and at least one NPC with a personal agenda he/she will go to terrible lengths to follow. Local participants or guides may be cultists leading the PCs into a trap, or otherwise dangerous. Throw in some Tcho-Tcho -style natives (check out Cannibal Holocaust for ideas, if you think you have the stomach for it; now there's a film that manages a level of horror by sheer brutality), a dangerous ancient secret in the jungle, and you're on your way to success. Teeming jungles are inherently frightening and alien places for most modern people, and urban people especially - play that up.

TheDarkOne
2008-09-10, 08:27 AM
So yeah, I'm basically taking the plot of the old movie/show The Lost World (turn of the century researchers and scientist go to the Amazon and discover a valley full of dinosaurs, IIRC...)

Just in case you were not aware, The Lost World was originally a book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.(more commonly known for his character Sherlock Holmes, who interestingly is apparently a popular character to combine with the mythos)

Lycan 01
2008-09-10, 08:30 AM
How does Silent Hill sound, then? *shrug* I dunno why, but that random thought has piqued my interest...

Bierhoff
2008-09-10, 09:14 AM
You idea reminds me of Ultima: Savage Empires, which in my opinion is one of the best retellings of the Lost World story.

The basic story runs:
-you get transported to a strange jungle and discover it is inhabited by dinosaurs.
-you get separated from you companions and knocked out.
-you wake up in a native village and learn that the valley is being invaded by these giant ant like things. You also learn that the chief's daughter has recently been kidnapped by another tribe.
-as you explore the valley you try to unite the tribes against the big ants and rescue the princess.
-You come to one village, it's more of an aztec city, and learn that it has basically been taken over by a mad scientist from you world who has gain magic powers from an ancient city he discovered buried beneath the valley floor (you need to do some investigating to get the whole story. To get that tribe to cooperate you need to cut off the scientist's power supply from the city.
-after uniting the tribes you invade the ants' lair, kill the queen and get a device you need to you get back home.
(here's a link to a walkthrough http://www.uo.com/archive/savage/sewalk.html )

anyways, here's some ways you could cthulhufy the plot
a) the princess could be kidnapped for use in some cult ritual
b) the city could be the home of some aberrations, like Yig and his snake dudes. perhaps it some bizarre place like ryleh.
c) the giant ants could be the product of some elder evil, bent on world domination. Perhaps an elder relic has corrupted an ant colony by enlarging them an the party must destroy the relic lest it again breed an army to challenge the supremacy of mammals.

things to remember, beyond having an elder to break the rules of reality you don't need more explanation than that. There doesn't need to be any more rationale than that as the elders are inherently beyond human comprehension. Why are there dinosaurs and tribes from around the world in this valley? because Yig wants are to be.

Lycan 01
2008-09-10, 10:57 AM
Ah! Yig! An excellent plot device... The snake people have a small colony hidden away in the valley, and they used their sciences and Yig's blessing to revive dinosaurs. The large reptiles then serve as their protectors! Excellent!

Or is that a stupid idea? Hm... Comments?

Voshkod
2008-09-10, 11:07 AM
Ah! Yig! An excellent plot device... The snake people have a small colony hidden away in the valley, and they used their sciences and Yig's blessing to revive dinosaurs. The large reptiles then serve as their protectors! Excellent!

Or is that a stupid idea? Hm... Comments?

Set it in Mexico, and have Yig in the form of Quetzalcoatl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl), and you're golden.

SurlySeraph
2008-09-10, 11:14 AM
How does Silent Hill sound, then? *shrug* I dunno why, but that random thought has piqued my interest...

Silent Hill is pretty close to Lovecraftian horror anyway. Go for it.


Ah! Yig! An excellent plot device... The snake people have a small colony hidden away in the valley, and they used their sciences and Yig's blessing to revive dinosaurs. The large reptiles then serve as their protectors! Excellent!

Or is that a stupid idea? Hm... Comments?

It makes sense to me.

Bierhoff
2008-09-10, 11:22 AM
According to H.P. Lovecraft Yig was Quetzalcoat. He also said Yig was Set in Howard's Conan stories, so he also would have connections with the undead, if you want to play with that. Maybe make the giant ants in my original suggestion zombies or something like that.

ummm dino zombies, that ought to blow someone's mind.

Lycan 01
2008-09-10, 01:16 PM
Okie dokie, how does this sound?


1920's Campaign:

Follows my original idea up until the dinosaur attacks. They get attacked by the raptors, but strange hissing noises can be heard in the background. (Snake-men controlling raptors...) And then, to take an idea suggested earlier...

A T-Rex barges onto the scene, with a Snake-man riding upon its back.

Definitely a "brain 'splode" moment for the Investigators.

Lo and behold, Yig's worshippers thrive in this valley, using the Dino's as their protectors and servants.



Modern Campaign:

A road trip for a bunch of friends goes awry when they get lost in a fog bank while driving along a desolate mountain road. A few failed driving checks later, and they find themselves crashed and lost. Staggering along the road, they come across a sign...

"Welcome to SILENT HILL"


Hee hee, I like that idea. I'd work on it first, but nobody has a modern character at the moment...

SurlySeraph
2008-09-10, 05:45 PM
Sounds good.

Graymayre
2008-09-10, 07:57 PM
For some stellar ideas, I'd suggest reading a few Sherlock Holmes short stories. While it doesn't truelly have any Cthulhulian verse in it, they would only take a few changes and twists to make it a grizzly affair.

Lycan 01
2008-09-10, 08:05 PM
I hear the Hound of the Baskervilles is quite spooky. I'll check my college's library for a copy... Thanks for the idea! :smallbiggrin:

TheDarkOne
2008-09-10, 08:08 PM
For some stellar ideas, I'd suggest reading a few Sherlock Holmes short stories. While it doesn't truelly have any Cthulhulian verse in it, they would only take a few changes and twists to make it a grizzly affair.


As I mentioned earlier, there have holmes-cthulhu cross overs before. They're even collected in a book called "Shadows Over Baker Street". One of the stories is written by Neil Gaiman, which you can find here (http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf).

Graymayre
2008-09-10, 08:20 PM
As I mentioned earlier, there have holmes-cthulhu cross overs before. They're even collected in a book called "Shadows Over Baker Street". One of the stories is written by Neil Gaiman, which you can find here (http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf).

words cannot describe my gratitude in you showing me this. :smallsmile:

Graymayre
2008-09-10, 09:06 PM
It appears I have inadvertently stalled the thread

*turns the ignition key*

How about something where the players have to cooperate with the police for some reason, only to find that the local enforcement are secretly cultists themselves?

Tsotha-lanti
2008-09-11, 03:13 AM
Silent Hill is pretty close to Lovecraftian horror anyway. Go for it.

Eehh, no. Not even remotely. Lovecraft's horror was about cosmic issues and the then-timely topic of the dangers of expanding human knowledge (and the futility - indeed, the danger - of science's search for cosmic truth), not personal and interpersonal issues and emotions.

Pyramid Head and the world-switching fitted into Lovecraftian horror? No way. Lovecraft's Dreamworld, even, was far more inoffensive - heck, it's a place where cthonians, ghouls, ghasts, and nightgaunts are just part of life, rather than sanity-blasting blasphemies.

The basic idea - an abandoned or near-abandoned town (especially one where people seem to have just vanished recently) - would fit great into any period. Using the name... you couldn't make a worse move.


Let's develop this.
(I'll admit right away that I've only seen the movie, not played the games, but it's the feel, not the plot, we want.)

1920s/30s. The PCs hit car trouble on a long trip through the forested Massachusets countryside. A hundred miles or more from the last town, they recall seeing signs for another some ten miles down the road, so they take to walking.

Arriving in town, the PCs find absolutely no one. Everything is deserted - doors hang open, a radio left on (public radio broadcasts - mostly religious programming - started in the 1920s in the US), cold congealed coffee on a restaurant table...

Wandering through town, they can find no one. Night is falling - a little earlier than they would have expected - so they have to find a place to sleep. They may choose an abandoned house, or the empty two-story hotel. They also notice an odd "stickiness" to the air - it is oppressively humid, and seems to leave a greyish, almost oily film on everything over time. And then there are the oddly frequent manifestations of static electricity, sometimes without anyone in the vicinity.

That night, something reaches out to their dreams and turns them into incomprehensible nightmares. Feel free to go all out here - play out a dream without telling the PCs they are dreaming (it starts, of course, with "You all wake up and..."), and include nightmare elements from all their psyches. Do whatever you like. Most importantly, though, every PC loses 1 point of POW.

In the morning, they wake up (unless you prefer to have some or all of them wake up screaming from the nightmare and sit up all night). They all suffer from headaches, which will get progressively worse. If they didn't look for spare parts for their car yesterday, they do it now, and find what they need (the parts, anyway; hopefully someone took Mech. Repair). However, if they try to leave town to take that 10-mile hike back up the road, they find they can't.

That is, the PCs start walking, but after ten minutes or so - barely having put the town out of sight - their minds blur and they find themselves standing in the center of town (fifteen minutes later, if anyone tries this again while staring at a watch). If one or more PCs observe the others doing this, they just see the PCs walk back, completely unresponsive to any words or actions, their jaws slack and their eyes blank.

The PCs mill about town for the day, until an early night falls again. The sun seems to dim while still high in the sky, and the world takes on a grey tint. And then... the Thralls come.

At last the PCs see people. But... something is terribly wrong with them. He comes shambling down the street, bloated and grey of body, puffy flesh extruding in droplets, smelling of methane. Tiny tentacles surround a fanged mouth and sprout from the top of a hairless head. If it speaks, its voice is wet and disgusting - not phlegmy, but watery. Upon being spotted, it crouches and awaits someone to approach, at which point it darts forward with surprising speed and attacks. If the PCs run and hide, the thing will hunt them, slowly but patiently. Feel free to release a few additional ones - more than a couple shouldn't be necessary, but you can definitely give the PCs the feel of there being an unending horde of them. Theoretically, there might be some dozens of them in the town.

(Thrall of Cthulhu, page 28 of Malleus Maleficarum. If you don't have it, they've got +4 to human STR, CON, SIZ, and -4 DEX, a Move of 6/10 swim, 30% attack with a claw doing 1D6+2+DB damage, and regenerate 1D6 HP per round. If reduced to 0 HP, they dissolve into grey gas that stinks like methane and regenerate completely in 1D8+1 rounds. SAN cost 1/1D8. They can't use Bargain, Climb, Fast Talk, First Aid, Persuade, or Ride, but they have Swim and Listen Under Water 65%.)

Exploring the town further, they PCs may now find the church occupied (it was empty if they explored it before). The congregation of a hundred or so, including the informal mayor of the unincorporated township, the parish priest, and several shopkeepers, explain that they live in terror of the grey shambling things the PCs have witnessed, and hide in the cellar of the church (accessed through a trap door).

But these are lies. Examination and exploration of the church (both of which are discouraged by the congregation, but only the latter of which they can attempt to stop physically) turns up odd signs and idiosyncrasies in the design and the religious accoutrements. Cthulhu Mythos rolls or familiarity with Innsmouth can identify correlations with the Golden Order of Dagon.

In fact, the locals worship Cthulhu - more accurately, Chorazin, the Id of Cthulhu that reaches out in dreams and affects the sensitive. Strange electromagnetic emissions localized under the town - for some bizarre reason you might want to invent and include in the town history - have made it possible for Chorazin to exert its power directly, and feed upon the psyches of the locals. It has implanted ideas of worship in their minds, including the terrible rites by which they turn their own neighbors and family into Thralls of Cthulhu. In but a day or two, the

Through interviews, snooping, reading, and other general investigation - which may provoke more night visits from the sunlight-shunning Thralls - the PCs find out more and more of the puzzle. Many of the locals live in fear of the mayor and the priest, but their own spirit to resist is long gone, devoured by Chorazin.

By now, the PCs are suffering from severe intermittent headaches - the locals have it worse, this all having been going on for a week now. As they spend more time around people, they find that most of them suffer from worse - mild to severe insanity, violent phobias, fits of rage, constant nightmares that prevent them from resting, and the like. The PCs' nightmares continue every night they spend here, and they keep losing 1 POW per night.

How you want to resolve the situation is up to you. Stopping the cult won't actually help, because Chorazin can feed on the minds of anyone inside a ten-mile radius. How exactly the investigation is resolved is up to you.

By the book (Malleus Maleficarum, page 140), the PCs are pretty screwed, unless they know a lot about the Mythos as is, and have a handy Mythos tome for reference. The town having some 100-150 people, it will take Chorazin/Cthulhu approximately 2 more days to have absorbed enough POW from them to manifest physically (which means it creates a body and merges with it, then having the full abilities and powers of its physical form, but being free from R'lyeh; no doubt you don't want an apocalypse, so it is unable to leave the vicinity because of some side-effect of the electrical radiation from underneath the town, and eventually dissipates). The PCs might be able to confront Chorazin in its "physical" form and use electricity (power lines, or whatever lies beneath the town) to dissipate it.

Lycan 01
2008-09-11, 04:27 PM
As appreciated as your input is, I am afraid I have already gone ahead and plotted out about 50% of the campaign based on Silent Hill. :smalltongue:

Last night me and my roommate started discussing the idea of a Silent Hill campaign. He's my newest CoC player, but he doesn't care much for the game's plot, just the actual playing. So he was my best bet for a player's input on the ideas without spoiling it.

I managed to actually freak him out with some of my ideas.

Just imagine this.....


The Investigators have been lost in Silent Hill for an hour or two, and they've come across an art studio. Entering, they find a hallway leading to 3 rooms:
-For Sale
-In Progress
-Supplies

The first room is the For Sale room, which contains a menagerie of paintings, sculptures, and other works of a certain artist. Most, if not all, are abstract. The paintings are all painted in red and black and other grim hues, and their subject matter is difficult to describe. The sculptures are humanoid in shape, but monsterous in appearance. Metal skeletal structures covered in barbed wire and bits of steel, strange shapes and patterns arranged on a piece of sheet metal, et cetra, mannequins with mix-matched body parts wearing "blood" drenched clothing, and plaster and/or wax bodies with disturbing wounds and injuries are amongst the works present. (One of the mannequins will jump to life and attack them...)

The next room is the In Progress room. It contains several more skeletal sculptures, each one more twisted and disturbing then the last. They're poses would suggest that they are in states of agony and pain... There are mannequin parts strewn about the room, some drenched in what could either be red paint or dried blood. Hidden off in the shadows of one corner is a rather disturbing piece... A wax sculpture of a man wearing a bloody apron, and wearing a large triangular metal helmet. Is arms are hanging limply to its side, which is different from the flailing gestures the other works show. (This is, of course, the introduction of Pyramid Head. He will not move, attack, or react to the Investigators. He will stand perfectly still, even if shot or hit. However, a Listen roll of less than 1/5th the skill will reveal shallow, labored breathing...)

The Supply Room contains the campaign's first boss. The artist responsible for these works has been murdered in a brutal and gruesome manner. When the investigators enter, they will find bits of metal and a welding torch strewn about the floor, and a small portable radio can be found on a small desk. It seems to be broken, because all that can be heard is white noise... Posed in the corner will be an extremely grotesque work: a wax structure of a man, or what was once a man... Metal rods have been impaled into his limbs, as if trying to replace his bones. Metal shards and plates have actually been welded on to his flesh in some places, while other areas of flesh have been seared off with a welding torch. Barbed wire is wrapped around his body in certain location, and actually loops in and out of his flesh, as if representing veins and arteries. His face is grosely disfigured - his nose is burnt off, and his eyes have been gouged out. His lower jaw has been ripped off and replaced with a crude metal frame, with barbed wire looped around it as if to represent teeth.

Naturally, this will cause a blow to their sanity. Nothing too bad, since it IS just a sculpture...

But then its finger twitches. Another twitch follows. Its hand suddenly clenches. The radio is suddenly flooded with white noise. Metal creaks and flesh rips as the figure slowly staggers forward. Cue sanity loss, and a major choice of fight or flight. Killing him grants a strong sanity reward... and not much else.

As the Investigators leave, they notice something strange as they walk down the hallway: the helmed sculpture they saw in the In Progress room is no longer visible. Further investigation reveals that it has simply dissappeared.....



I have a ton of other ideas already thought up, but I want to see what ya'll think of that part first.

Doomsy
2008-09-11, 05:00 PM
You could use the CoC system for a Silent Hill game, much as I've used the WW system to play Dawn of the Dead as a game. I just would not recommend trying to integrate the two. You are dealing with two vastly different mythos here, and secondly, using the name Silent Hill means everybody is going to know exactly what is going on. Personally, I'd have them pass through Silent Hill, a nice foggy town full of nice kindly people and absolutely nothing of interest, and then suddenly get hauled out of their cars by the Servants of Glaaki constabulary of a little town called Maybury.

But then again. I am a monster.

Lycan 01
2008-09-11, 05:03 PM
None of them know anything about Silent Hill. Well, one or two might... But of the 7 players, I doubt more than 2 will realize how screwed they are.

And just because its a CoC game doesn't mean it has to be imbued with all the content of the Cthulhu Mythos. I can use the system, but leave out Cthulhu... Its that simple. :smalltongue:

arguskos
2008-09-11, 05:07 PM
And just because its a CoC game doesn't mean it has to be imbued with all the content of the Cthulhu Mythos. I can use the system, but leave out Cthulhu... Its that simple.
But... butbutbut.... Cthulhu wants your hugs... you don't love Cthulhu, do you? YOU HORRIBLE CTHULHU-HATER PERSON YOU!!!

Cthulhu now must DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!! (This could have been evaded if youd only hugged him more).

-argus

Lycan 01
2008-09-11, 05:13 PM
Actually, my next 1920's campaign (after the Amazon one, if that one actually happens...) will be the start of the grand Cthulhu-centric campaign. A few NPCs they've met will dissappear, they'll head down to the South to investigate, run into some Cthulhu cults, and begin their trip towards world destruction...

I'm not forgettin' the Big C. But a lot of my players want a Modern campaign, and I just can't think of a good Cthulhu-centric story where they won't try to "nuke" the Great Old One(s)...

Doomsy
2008-09-11, 05:15 PM
Two words: Delta Green. It is THE modern update for CoC.

arguskos
2008-09-11, 05:17 PM
I'm not forgettin' the Big C. But a lot of my players want a Modern campaign, and I just can't think of a good Cthulhu-centric story where they won't try to "nuke" the Great Old One(s)...
Hell, I'd LOVE to see someone try to nuke Yog-Soggoth and think they can get away with it. If they can A). get a nuke, B). use the nuke on Yog, and C). think it'll work, then they deserve to get eaten horribly. Of course, I'm mean, so you can ignore me now. :smallwink:

-argus

Staven
2008-09-11, 05:42 PM
Do a high powered CoC thing. Bear with me here: the heroes, who are time samurai, arrive at miskatonic and find...Cthulu himself. But they have 100 sanity and their trusty powerkatanas. Hilarity ensues. You could make a miniseries.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-09-11, 06:12 PM
You people make a purist cry.

Voshkod
2008-09-11, 07:02 PM
Two words: Delta Green. It is THE modern update for CoC.

Hell yes. Can't beat NRO Delta.

Lycan 01
2008-09-11, 07:38 PM
I'm sorry for not being a "purist" CoC player, but still... what's wrong with trying something different? Especially if it ends up being fun? :smalltongue:


So nobody wants to comment on my Silent Hill ideas?

Devin
2008-09-11, 08:03 PM
Is the last "statue" from the game, or did you make it up yourself? I really like what you have there.

Lycan 01
2008-09-11, 08:04 PM
The Artist is an original enemy. Me and my roommate made him up last night...

Voshkod
2008-09-11, 08:15 PM
I'm sorry for not being a "purist" CoC player, but still... what's wrong with trying something different? Especially if it ends up being fun? :smalltongue:


So nobody wants to comment on my Silent Hill ideas?

Not familiar with Silent Hill myself. Your scenario sounds very "King in Yellow." Abstract surrealistic horror. Nothing wrong with that.

Call of Cthulhu can be played in many modes. There's no right way to play it or any RPG (except Paranoia, of course).

SurlySeraph
2008-09-11, 08:33 PM
I like the scenario you've got cooked up. So far though, it's straight horror. When do the cults and abominations from beyond come in?


Eehh, no. Not even remotely. Lovecraft's horror was about cosmic issues and the then-timely topic of the dangers of expanding human knowledge (and the futility - indeed, the danger - of science's search for cosmic truth), not personal and interpersonal issues and emotions.

Pyramid Head and the world-switching fitted into Lovecraftian horror? No way. Lovecraft's Dreamworld, even, was far more inoffensive - heck, it's a place where cthonians, ghouls, ghasts, and nightgaunts are just part of life, rather than sanity-blasting blasphemies.

Oh sure, Silent Hill's much more personal than Lovecraftian horror. The fact that in at least one of the games the town basically exists to make the characters come to terms with their past proves that. But its external trappings - insanity, cultists worshipping and trying to summon abominations from beyond, people horribly twisted in mind and body by contact with inconceivable things from beyond, etc. - are common in Lovecraftian horror.

Lycan 01
2008-09-11, 09:00 PM
A few more points of interest...

-All the characters will be college students, and they will all be friends. Their age will make them easier to relate to, and easier to know their limits. But the real reason for them being so young and well acquainted is as follows...

-2 players will be chosen at the beginning, unknown to everyone else, to be the ones that Silent Hill is reaching out to. They both murdered a friend of theirs when they were younger. One guy is repentant about it, the other guy doesn't care. Pyramid Head is the punisher of the non-repentant one... But the other players can't leave until the repentant one admits his sins. Then the players must either forgive him, kill him, or leave him. Only when both characters have been resolved will the fog lift...

(I've worked out about 5 different scenarious that could occur... I could describe them if needed, but I won't bother for now since only one or two people would read it. :P)

-Leaving the town is impossible. They just get lost in the fog and drive/walk back into town.

-Plane Shifting from foggy Silent Hill to corrupted Silent Hill can occur at random. Mwah hah hah hah hah...

-Death will be handled in an interesting way. If a character dies an unfair death (freak accident, super-bad fumble...) instead of a plot-centric manner (slain by Pyramid Head, murdered by the rest of the team), they can have a second chance. During the next Plane Shift, the dead player can be heard screaming in the distance. The others must then decide to save them, or leave them. If they save the NPC character, the player can resume control... They might be permanently wounded, or lose most of their sanity, but still... they're alive.

-Enemies will include: Nurses, Patients, Mannequins, demonic children, dog-demons, bat-demons, living walls that will try to eat the player, Pyramid Head, several boss enemies, and possibly the cult... (My group doesn't care much for super-deep plots, I don't think. So a few layers of plot will do good, where-as doing the research for the cult and everything might be a wasted endevour...)

-Pyramid Head will have free-roam of the city. He can appear in foggy and corrupted Silent Hill at will. When defeated, he simply walks away, or fades into the growing fog. Only at the climax (killers reveal the truth) can he truely be killed. But he grows stronger with every encounter - he'll be several times stronger than he originally was at the beginning of the game.

-Gunplay will be a common event, probably. Knowing my party, they'll probably waste all their ammo instead of using melee weapons. So, if somebody is near another person firing a gun, anyone in the line of fire must make Luck rolls to avoid being hit by the stray bullets. (To be fair, if actually hit, a luck roll can half the damage...)

Tsotha-lanti
2008-09-12, 08:09 AM
Oh sure, Silent Hill's much more personal than Lovecraftian horror. The fact that in at least one of the games the town basically exists to make the characters come to terms with their past proves that. But its external trappings - insanity, cultists worshipping and trying to summon abominations from beyond, people horribly twisted in mind and body by contact with inconceivable things from beyond, etc. - are common in Lovecraftian horror.

Hence why my idea kept all of said external trappings. (In fact, I did write "it's the feel, not the plot, we want".)

LordMalrog
2008-09-12, 10:22 AM
Do a high powered CoC thing. Bear with me here: the heroes, who are time samurai, arrive at miskatonic and find...Cthulu himself. But they have 100 sanity and their trusty powerkatanas. Hilarity ensues. You could make a miniseries.

:smallconfused: No. you fail. speaking as a person in your group i'll openly tell you general weaponry, even "Power" Katanas don't work on cthulhu. Now this would be much funnier in d20 modern.

Doomsy
2008-09-13, 05:17 PM
:smallconfused: No. you fail. speaking as a person in your group i'll openly tell you general weaponry, even "Power" Katanas don't work on cthulhu. Now this would be much funnier in d20 modern.

Damn it, got the wrong post and I don't know how to fix it.

Cthulhu kills 1d3 investigators per round. No save, no dodge, final destination.

He *is* a power gamer god.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-09-13, 05:31 PM
Damn it, got the wrong post and I don't know how to fix it.

Cthulhu kills 1d3 investigators per round. No save, no dodge, final destination.

He *is* a power gamer god.

Not really. The reference to "scooping up" 1D3 investigators doesn't actually mean he doesn't use the attack blocks provided - it's just a simplification, since he's got 100% skill and a minimum damage higher than anyone's maximum HP. Nothing says you don't get to Dodge, and the Keeper should definitely be giving Luck rolls to avoid it. (In fact, that's pretty much how all GOOs/OGs/EGs should be run. No stats, just make Dodge / Luck rolls to avoid death.)

Many GOOs/OGs/EGs (gawd, no wonder Trail of Cthulhu simplifies it to "gods/titans") have much more powerful attacks anyway. The Render of Veils, Azathoth...

Brauron
2008-09-13, 05:32 PM
About half of my last campaign took place in a Silent Hill inspired town.

The town was deserted, decayed, fog-shrouded and above all frighteningly silent. A few people lived at the very edges of the town, people who had remained since the town had been deserted and the fog rolled in thirty years earlier.

The PCs came to this town in search of an artifact, hoping to find it before the cult of Cthulhu could get their hands on it. What they found was effectively a four-way Mexican standoff.

The Cult of Cthulhu was present, represented by about 20 cultists, a sorceress, and a couple Deep One hybrids.

Also seeking the artifact was the Brotherhood of the Golden Shepherd, which appeared to be a splinter sect of evangelical Christianity devoted to the ideal of banishing Cthulhu from the earth. In reality it was a cult devoted to the King in Yellow, and was attempting to get the artifact to prevent the Cult of Cthulhu from accomplishing its aims, so that Hastur could claim dominion over the earth.

The PCs want to stop Cthulhu's minions.

The town itself is built on an intersection of leylines, and thirty years earlier the artifact in question was brought here and placed under guardianship of Yog-Sothoth. Being an entity of time, I interpreted Yog-Sothoth as being of the philosophy, "everything in its proper time, and not before nor later." The artifact could allow Cthulhu to rise early, or be prevented from rising. Not good, from Y-S' point of view. Y-S turned the cult that brought the artifact into Grey Children-like guardians, who want to stop all three other groups from achieving their aims.

Kami2awa
2008-09-14, 10:48 AM
My past CoC inspiration sources:

- The Ring/Ringu films (and other similar J-Horror). Ringu has a number of elements highly suggestive of Lovecraft, for example Sadako's apparently genesis from the sea.
- Silent Hill.
- Books on 'real' paranormal activity. In particular I've used crop circles and a time-slip in one scenario.
- The X-Files.

Kami2awa
2008-09-14, 10:51 AM
Just in case you were not aware, The Lost World was originally a book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.(more commonly known for his character Sherlock Holmes, who interestingly is apparently a popular character to combine with the mythos)

How about...

The Lost World of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was real. An expedition to the lost world has brought back some dinosaurs and a mad aristocrat has bred them at his estate in England. Naturally, they've got out, and eaten the aristocrat.

It's not at all Lovecraftian but dinosaurs rampaging around 1890s London sounds a fun scenario in itself. If you wanted to remain close to AC Doyle's story then there might be giant sloths and ape-men too. Who is to say the ape-men don't have a cult of some kind dedicated to an unspeakable lost deity?

Then maybe the presence of the dinosaurs changes history; WWI is fought between Tyrannosaur cavalry and Pterodactyl riders... the USA replaces African slaves with ape-men. Expand the alternate history from there!

chiasaur11
2008-09-14, 01:32 PM
How about...

The Lost World of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was real. An expedition to the lost world has brought back some dinosaurs and a mad aristocrat has bred them at his estate in England. Naturally, they've got out, and eaten the aristocrat.

It's not at all Lovecraftian but dinosaurs rampaging around 1890s London sounds a fun scenario in itself. If you wanted to remain close to AC Doyle's story then there might be giant sloths and ape-men too. Who is to say the ape-men don't have a cult of some kind dedicated to an unspeakable lost deity?

Then maybe the presence of the dinosaurs changes history; WWI is fought between Tyrannosaur cavalry and Pterodactyl riders... the USA replaces African slaves with ape-men. Expand the alternate history from there!

No, some countries have dinosaurs, others don't. Then you have dinosaurs with back mounted machine guns vs. tanks.

Also, slavery was twenty years gone by the 1890s. Not likely it'd be back so soon.

Lycan 01
2008-09-14, 02:46 PM
Silent Hill it is, folks. I've already got the first session planned, several people have created characters, and I've got my entire group chomping at the bit to find out what I have in store.

I've got 8 people signed on to this... Only 3 know what the campaign involves. I had to tell one in order to get him to play... All I had to do was describe my interpitation of Pyramid Head, and he said "Okay, I'm in."

The sad thing is that those 3 think Pyramid Head is the main enemy and plot device. In essence, he is - he is the embodiement of Punishment for the 2 murderers. Once they are dead or revealed, the town becomes escapable. But that's also when it becomes most dangerous depending on how the rest of the team dealt with the 2 players...

I now need to do a ton of research into Silent Hill. How it became so evil, what role the cults play, who the main baddies are... I figure I'll just throw out a few plot hooks, and see if they bite or not. Biting will just makes things worse for them probably. XD


Silent Hill will have 3 planes of existance.

Normal: A normal city full of people. Only seen if/when the campaign is done...

Purgatory: Foggy and desolate, this Silent Hill is inhabited by weaker enemies, and the ever-present Pyramid Head.

Hell: This corroded and vile form of Silent Hill is filled with rusted surfaced, writhing walls, and unspeakable evils lurking in every shadow. Stronger demons can be found here, and death waits around every corner.



I'm going to be using visual cues to help with the game. I'll do sketches of enemies, rooms, and other things. I'll also hand-write files and journals they will come across.


Weapons will be varied. I've added two new skills which start at 25: Small melee weapon, and large melee weapon. Small includes knives, crowbars, and crude clubs. Large includes shovels, chainsaws, spears, and wooden boards.

Kami2awa
2008-09-14, 03:35 PM
No, some countries have dinosaurs, others don't. Then you have dinosaurs with back mounted machine guns vs. tanks.

Also, slavery was twenty years gone by the 1890s. Not likely it'd be back so soon.

Well its alternative history, so the Abolition might have been delayed; but there were allegedly attempts well into the twentieth century to breed and train apes for manual labour.