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DeathBD
2008-10-05, 09:50 PM
Call of Cthulhu is the only table-top game I play, and I'm part of Lycan01's group. (Player 2 in his "Nyarlathotep comes, everyone dies" story.) I've been looking around and noticed that Lycan is mainly the only person around who posts these stories. Does anyone else have any good CoC tales?

Lycan 01
2008-10-05, 09:52 PM
Shall I tell them what happened earlier? :smallamused:


Btw, typo in the title... I think its "Epicly," actually.



I forgot who all told them, but I heard a bunch of good ones on here awhile back, like one where a guy shot another PC and then framed the leader of cult for it. XD

DeathBD
2008-10-05, 10:02 PM
Yeah. Do that. And thanks for the heads up. :smallbiggrin:

I'd tell them myself, but I've proven myself a terrible storyteller in the past.:smalltongue:

Khosan
2008-10-05, 10:04 PM
There's a lot of room for innuendo here.

Lycan 01
2008-10-05, 10:08 PM
Man, I had the acronym for Call of Cthulhu... :smallannoyed:


And I'd rather see some other people post (relevant information) before I start babbling about todays session...

BobVosh
2008-10-06, 12:02 AM
aww, but i <3 your stories

skywalker
2008-10-06, 12:19 AM
I'm pretty sure I already told this story here, but I think it's worth telling again.

The keeper for this tale(and all of mine, actually) soaks up nerd-culture from everywhere. So apologies if this story is from somewhere, I don't know what it is(spoilered for length)

So we were playing a one-off game because one of the players moved to California and the other guy had brought his buddy to game with us. This guy had never played an RPG before. He spent a lot of time doing things that didn't involve rolling dice. Anyway, we went to investigate strange goings-on in a town, and got put up in a lovers' hotel for the night. We discovered that they were being brain-washed thru the food after one member of the party ate that food. We went to investigate the kitchen, where we were attacked by a brainwashed maid and that party member, simultaneously. My character knocked out the party member, who lay bleeding on the floor, beat her severely and tied her up, and then began investigating again. When I picked up some plates that had an occult symbol on the bottom, she twitched. When I dropped a plate on the floor, she was visibly in pain. I tried another plate, she shrieked.

At this point, the new guy said "I'm there, right? I take out my camera and start videotaping this. Can I use my phone to upload it to youtube?" The DM went :smalleek: Then said "Sure..."
The next story is from when the Californian came back and we gathered a ton of non-normal players over thanksgiving. This one actually is a spoiler for Nocturnum(The d20 Cthulhu campaign)
We were taking a train(the orient express?) from Moscow(or somesuch Russian city) to Siberia. Along the way, we realized the big bad of the campaign was on the train with us. Now, a normal party would've at least semi-followed the rails(haha, get it?) and snuck around trying not to be seen on the train. My party's response? Disconnect the train car he was on from the rest of the train, since we were in the second car. The Keeper says:"Who has knowledge... anything that could help you do this? That's what I thought nobody. Anyway..."
"Wait!"
"What?"
"Elektra(I didn't name her character) has a smartphone! We can look up train couplers on wikipedia!"
"Ok, if you can figure out, using the actual wikipedia page, how to disconnect a train coupler, I'll let you do that."
So we brought him a laptop with this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupling_(railway)) page open. Luckily, one of our party members fought with a katana(trust me, this is the only time I thought this was lucky) and it was being run as a katana (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KatanasAreJustBetter). So they used that to disable the coupler. Then, the BBEG transformed into a monster, got into a fight with another guy who turned into a monster, and I tried desperately to keep the train moving. Once one monster landed on the engine and began dismantling. After about 4 rounds, the Keeper looked at me and gave a "duh" look, then said "Intelligence check." I rolled it, asked why, and he said, don't you remember that magic staff you've been... well, I have no idea where you've been carrying it, so don't you remember that magic staff in your pants?!"
My RL girlfriend: "Did he just say you have a magic staff in your pants? And how would he know?!"

only1doug
2008-10-06, 08:20 AM
My Entire Party carry around soda-water dispensers.... No particular reason (whistles innocently) *cough*Fire Vampire*cough*.

Masks of Nyarlathotep spoiler
While exploring the pyramids in egypt:
One of the players had been mind swapped with the head cultist, the player in question has a twisted and backstabbing nature so i let him carry on as the evil dude. he came up with a list of what his cultists were to do to the party.

these instructions included the following:
Drop a camel on one,
capture some, then shove a stick of dynamite down their trousers
trap explorers in dead end and send in the scarab beetles.

the camel adventurer managed to dodge away from the falling dromedery, the PC's stuck in a cage i felt a bit sorry for, so i had my evil player roll an int check for his minions, he failed. they hadn't lit the dynamite (hey, he didn't specify it), some minutes later the players in the cage asked if they were still alive and why.
the others avoided the scarab trap.

Later the party discovered a hidden chamber at the top of the pyramid, there was a Ebon throne and the....
"i'll sit on the throne" says the camel dodger (CD)

Everyone looked at him in shocked silence,

....
some time passed
....


"you want to sit on the throne??"
....

....

"OK"

Insert description of event;


"and what happens to CD?

i know it has a bit here somewhere...

... Ah here it is: your charred corpse falls to the stone floor at the foot of the obsidian throne..."

allonym
2008-10-06, 10:26 AM
So, in 1905 scotland, my players disrupt a Nyogtha witch-cult, enabling their enemy, a Cthulhu cult, to wipe them out. Downtime happens, the players do some research, one of them learns summon/bind Star Vampire, etc. For this session, I forgot my rulebook, so was less than canon about the spell's working - I ended up make it control for a certain length of time, but it did cost twice as much as the official version. This is more the build up. One session, only 4 can make it - two girls playing occultist type characters, one of which was the one with the spell, and two guys playing more straight laced characters - one a biologist, the other a kickass shotgun-using catholic priest. They go back to the Nygotha cult hideout, an old castle, and there, they go into the cellars and from there, into a tunnel underground to a nearby farm. From there, they find (using a map they looted from the drowned corpse of a 13-year-old girl...another long story) a secret passage, leading to a cave system, leading eventually to a gate. Cutting away all the faffing around and interlude, the party enters the gate.

The gate, quite predictably, leads to Nyogtha's underground crib and was used almost exclusively for sacrifices and summonings. The players see a dark, wide corridor with slime on the bottom, and in the distance, two thin passages, one on either side, with no slime. The initial idea was that the thin passages formed a circle, and the main passage went to Nyogtha. If the players saw the warning of the horrible slime and went around the circle passages, they'd find the dessicated remains of Nyogtha's victims...and a lot of stuff, including dynamite from someone with the same aim as them, but less luck. The idea was they get the explosives, leave through the gate and collapse the more vulnerable gate on the Scotland side.

Instead, they press on straight down the middle passage. Facepalm. Fair enough, cue 1d6/1d20 SAN loss. The scientist (who was very strong-willed and moral) promptly loses about 16 SAN and decides to shoot Nyogtha with a rifle. Nyogtha, for his part, is pissed off that his cult was wiped out, but also curious as the investigators are using rituals connected with him (the witch-cult's magic). A rifle round just serves to irritate the GOO, who lashes out at the scientist, toying with him, as well as cracking most of his ribs. One of the players finds his way to the corpses and finds the dynamite, but the rest of them are about to get taken apart by a great old one, and the star vampire they summoned who refused to attack the God it is bound to, when the same character who summoned the SV turns and says...

"I get down on my knees and pray to it."

Silence.

I think for a moment.

"What do you say?"

"Oh great...lord...we have come to pay you tribute for..." and so on.

More silence.

I roll some dice.

"Um...roll this, and tell me what you get. [wait] OK. Roll...luck."

"I succeed!"

"roll SAN"

"I succeed! (nominal loss)"

This goes on for a short while, with the upshot being that she was sort-of accepted (left alive anyway) and given Contact Nyogtha. Right in her brain. For even more insanity. Then they went to leave, set the dynamite once they'd gone through the gate, everything seems to have gone...just about alright...and then the scientist and the priest turn on the, uh, supplicant.

"Heathen! She's a cultist! A demon worshipper! I *ready* my rifle..."

"I *ready* my shotgun..."

She turns to me. "Is that Star Vampire still bound?"

"Um, I guess so."

They shoot her, and it hits the (invisible) SV, who then is ordered to restrain them, while the women flee for their lives from the (justifiably) insane men. By the time the spell ends, the women are nowhere to be seen.

Lycan 01
2008-10-06, 11:47 AM
Allonym, not only does that story rock, it also seems like something my group would end up doing. I also found myself laughing uncontrollably at one part of your story. The character I use whenver somebody else keeps is a Catholic Priest from Russia named Father Grigori, who weilds a shotgun and has no stat below 12, IIRC. It seems Clergymen are underestimated... :smallbiggrin:


Now for a few stories of my own. I've posted all of them before, but I figured that a few people might like reading them again, or for the first time. Enjoy!


Story One
We were playing Call of Cthulhu, and the players had just finished their mission. No casualties, very well done... I was just about to begin the epilogue when suddenly, one of the players whispered something in my ear. His character was a WWI vet with PTSD, and he wanted to have a flashback. I considered the situation... he'd just seen 4 aliens get machine gunned into paste... so I figured it was okay.

He then plants a knife into the architect of the previously described carnage. Everyone starts laughing, except for the player who gets attacked. He gets pissed and rips up his character sheet... (I was going to say it was all a hallucination, but that screwed up any chances of his character living...) Anyway... the tommy-gun weilding samurai (no, seriously. Bushido Joe... he worked for the Mafia... It was the only way my best friend would play... Which is why I didn't lament him tearing up the sheet. :smallbiggrin:) did not take this sitting down. Ignoring the blade in his shoulder, he emptied a 50-round drum at the attacker, who managed to get some luck and dodge rolls, and hid behind a tree.

Everyone ran for their friggin' lives at this point. The other four players all took off. The two male players ran back to their broken down car, fixed it up ASAP, and drove back to town. They left behind the two female players, who had to hoof it back to civilization by themselves. Meanwhile, Bushido Joe dodged a headshot - barely - and then attempted a Banzai Charge with his katana. The WWI vet did a dodge roll, ducked beneath the katana, and then did a shotgun roll. He got a crit, and the other player failed (or forgot to do) his dodge roll.

The WWI vet smashed the barrel into the samurai's stomach, lifted him up off the ground, and fired both barrels at point blank. The other player's face twisted with rage as I described how the trauma split his character in half... A few of the players actually got up and walked to other parts of the living room in order to get away from what was about to happen.


I spent the rest of the day consoling my best friend, and trying to patch things up between him and the other player. And sadly, the other player was a noobie, and my college roommate who'd wished to make a good impression on my friends, no less...



I have to admit though, it was friggin' awesome that Bushido Joe got blown in half by a psychotic WWI vet who was as much a joke character as he was. XD

Summary: Bushido Joe was cool... but so was his death.


Story Two
As punishment for their trigger-happy and plot-holing attitudes during a previous session, I started this session quit simply with one goal in mind: Kill them all.

I told them that all their characters were sitting in the office of their Paranormal Detective Agency, doing various things - reading, fixing something, et cetra. Well, an old lady came in and asked for the demon trumpet that belonged to her nephew - the trumpet was able to raise the dead as zombies, and was a gift from Nyarlathotep. I'd hinted that Mr. Nyar might show up all week, so naturally they handed it over, no questions asked.

As the old lady opened the front door to leave, a hand reached through the doorway, grabbed her face, and blew her head apart. In strolled The Black Man, one of the 1000 Masks of Nyarlathotep. I decided to be cliche, too, just to prove who he was: Old black man wearing black sunglasses, a black fedora, a black suit, a black tie, black gloves, and black shoes.

They proceeded to freak out.

Now, my main targets were players 1 and 2. Player 3 was my GF, and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Player 4 was an old player with a new character - I said he was late to their business meeting, so he was spared. Player 5 had been informed of what was to happen, and I had made him an extra character sheet in order to perform the following trick...

Players 1 and 2 both started freaking out IRL, so their characters did nothing. My GF said her character simply tried to hide behind her magazine, since she knew she was FUBAR and didn't want to fight fate.

It was at this point that player 5's character walked in - and had his face backhanded off by Nyarlathotep. He acted very convincingly - he sat there in shock, then started to "get mad at me" about it. He then held up his character sheet to rip it - only to have it plucked from his hands by player 4. Player 4 was, naturally, the owner of the late Bushido Joe, who had died at the hands of player 5's character. Player 4 then proceeded to not only shred player 5's character sheet... but he also tried to eat it.

That wasn't part of the plan... :smallconfused:


Anyway, now we get to the good part...



Upon seeing player 4's face get removed from his body without the rolling of any dice, player 2 simply said: "I quit... I just ****ing quit... This isn't right..." while player 1 actually said "Now you're just being a b******... Thats it, I'm leaving..." and got up to put his shoes on.

Now, my feelings were hurt at this point. Not only were my closest friends insulting me, but they were showing an obvious lack of trust in me and my Keeping skills. Luckily, me and the other players talked them down, and the game continued...

Player 2 had his heart ripped from his own chest, and then was kept alive by Nyarlathotep's dark magic so he could see his own beating heart dangling in front of his face. Massive sanity loss, of course... He was left catatonic on the floor.

Player 1 went insane when said heart was thrown at his face, and was sent screaming to the floor by the impact. Nyarlathotep then calmly walked over, pressed his head down onto the ground with the tip of his shoe, and then proceeded to curb stomp his head in.

And then, in a truely Lovecraftian twist, players 1 and 2 then woke up screaming in their beds.

Upon discovering the truth, the two players apologized for their behavior, and agreed that they had learned their lesson. Of course, the trumpet was discovered missing the next morning, and they didn't recover the sanity they lost in the dream... But they didn't care. They said the whole thing was awesomely done in retrospect.

Player 4, however, was extremely pissed to learn that player 5 was still alive. :smallbiggrin:
Summary: Nyalathotep equals pwnage.

allonym
2008-10-06, 12:31 PM
I hope for more of the same, once I finally gather the motivation to run more Cthulhu... I have THE epic Cthulhu story, revolving around a Cthulhu Live game which was constructed out of epic, but this isn't the place for live action...and it was about 9 hours long, so I don't have the room either!

I'm tempted by PbP though...

Clergymen are THE awesome. Perfect CoC characters really, especially if you have less of the meekness and more of the wrath going on...I'd personally be very irritated if people got as annoyed at their characters getting killed as your players seem to, Lycan, although the character gen process can be a bit fiddly...!

I was a bit irritated that campaign got cut short actually, although it was about to end bloodily anyway. The aforementioned insane scientist and the priest went into town to talk to the local vicar and ranted at him about the monsters, which he took seriously enough to tell them to wait while he assembled a suitable group of townspeople, where the session ended.

The vicar was the leader of the Cthulhu cult. There were deep ones in the loch. The scientist's one-sided love interest, an austere local librarian, was a cultist and a werewolf, who they'd unwittingly seen disembowel an old woman. It would mostly have resulted in massive SAN loss and the players dying.

only1doug
2008-10-06, 12:49 PM
Major Spoilers for Beyond the mountains of madness

Don't read this if you ever plan to play in this campaign

Right at the end of the Mountains of madness campaign there comes a time when the damage to the barrier has to be repaired or the world will be destroyed.

These repairs need human Bodies.

The only Humans available are the Party + a few NPC's.

The Party used all the corpses and the barrier seemed to have stabilized.
were the party satisfied? Nope.

"Better safe than sorry" they said and sacrificed all their catatonic (failed SAN check) fellow PC's to ensure the barrier was truly better.

One PC gained an insanity due to the sacrifice of fellow PC's

Caution if you play or ever plan to play in Doug or Trev's CoC game at the Kingston Games Group don't read this next bit.

The Prince (wealthiest character in the group, finances everything) gained the following Insanity: where people normally think Human sacrifice is a bad thing and should be a absolute last resort, your opinion is different: you believe that if there is any indication that Human sacrifice might solve a problem it should be tried as a first resort. That's what minions are for.

DeathBD
2008-10-06, 01:56 PM
One of the players finds his way to the corpses and finds the dynamite, but the rest of them are about to get taken apart by a great old one, and the star vampire they summoned who refused to attack the God it is bound to, when the same character who summoned the SV turns and says...

"I get down on my knees and pray to it."

Silence.

I think for a moment.

"What do you say?"

"Oh great...lord...we have come to pay you tribute for..." and so on.

More silence.

I roll some dice.

"Um...roll this, and tell me what you get. [wait] OK. Roll...luck."

"I succeed!"

"roll SAN"

"I succeed! (nominal loss)"

This goes on for a short while, with the upshot being that she was sort-of accepted (left alive anyway) and given Contact Nyogtha. Right in her brain. For even more insanity. Then they went to leave, set the dynamite once they'd gone through the gate, everything seems to have gone...just about alright...and then the scientist and the priest turn on the, uh, supplicant.

"Heathen! She's a cultist! A demon worshipper! I *ready* my rifle..."

"I *ready* my shotgun..."

She turns to me. "Is that Star Vampire still bound?"

"Um, I guess so."

They shoot her, and it hits the (invisible) SV, who then is ordered to restrain them, while the women flee for their lives from the (justifiably) insane men. By the time the spell ends, the women are nowhere to be seen.


That was a great idea on the girl's part (praying and protecting herself with the vampire), and great roleplaying on the part of the men. I need to start writing notes to DM for stuff like that. A lot of our group would probably change their minds on their actions if some things I want to do were said out loud.

I would brag about not having lost a character yet, but on more than one account, I believe Lycan was just being nice. Not to mention I've only had two anyway. I think I should start rolling up a replacement character at this point.

Doomsy
2008-10-06, 06:51 PM
This one is about the night that one of my players investigators earned the nickname 'Death' from the local ghoul population. They had tracked down some recent murders to a good sized (about forty, all together) ghoul population that used old bootlegger tunnels and other hideaways as a pretty good sized web to move about the town in. Most of them were reclusive and preferred to eat only the dead. Unfortunately, they had also allied with the Tcho-Tcho (they were eating the 'scraps' from the Tcho-Tcho meals.)

The Tcho-Tcho died pretty quickly when the players and a few Triad NPCs hit their hideout in a fairly well planned strike. Things went screwy when the PC in question, a former cop, saw what had happened to his partner who had been poking around too close to the Tcho-Tcho gang - he was literally nearly skinned alive and had died from trauma in the basement where the Tcho-Tcho left their future meals hanging from meathooks. Then he saw the ghouls who were essentially grabbing what they could and ducking into an old tunnel system that connected to the warehouse.

He pulled all of his san rolls but the character essentially went berserk. The rest of the team knew chasing ghouls down into their holes was usually a very bad idea. This guy grabbed a shotgun, one of the Tcho-Tchos machine pistols, and essentially went on a killing rampage almost by himself with a pair of night vision goggles in the ghouls own home. He got insanely good rolls. It culminated in him using a gas line they had exposed to rig an explosion that destroyed one of their shrines. He had killed around twenty of them by the time he was done, essentially solo as the other teammembers were keeping back and playing it safe - half of them never even entered the tunnels and thought he had just snapped. The other two just guarded the exit and hoped.

It only ended when the less wounded survivors of his rampage fled and the ones incapable begged him to stop. He only stopped killing because they stopped fighting back. The deal they made was simple - they don't kill humans or he finishes them all. They are actually good mythos sources and hooks, since they also ran to tell him when a local sorcerer tried to use summon/bind ghoul to get rid of inconvenient corpses/people and the elder ghouls had no desire to have him come back to the tunnels and finish the job. He came out of there with about half his HP gone, some major bites and claw marks, and covered in blood. Probably the most holy crap epic moment of that whole run was when he went hand to hand in close quarters with three ghouls who all missed on their original attacks. Killed one with a combat knife off the bat (impale, stabbed it from beneath the chin up into the brain), hit one with the shotgun for an instant kill next round, then beat the others brains in with the butt in an extended, insane grapple.

Lycan 01
2008-10-06, 10:05 PM
Oh wow. That was the perfect counter-arguement to the "Using guns in CoC is a bad idea" concept. XD

I also just realized that I've never used Ghouls in a single scenario... They seem like good material, so I must wonder why I have failed to grasp at the concept of using them. :smallconfused:

allonym
2008-10-07, 05:15 AM
Ghouls are great. They can be minions or gribblies (which is how I used them, because of their connection to Nyogtha), they can be general bad guys, or they can be non-evil monsters, who can be safely let live. They can even help out in a scenario.

They can also do the most horrifying thing I've ever read in any Cthulhu book ever. If you own Secrets of Kenya, you know what I'm talking about.

Calinero
2008-10-07, 05:41 AM
I'm a bit surprised you found this many good CoC stories. I thought people were too busy getting pwned by Cosmic Horrors to be epic in Call of Cthulhu.

Brauron
2008-10-07, 06:47 AM
I run Call of Cthulhu quite a bit. One time, a little over a year ago now, I was challenged to design and run a CofC scenario centered around bunnies, puppies, kitties and flowers.

I'll give you all a second to parse that.

The scenario I eventually came up with was that the PCs (a pregenerated team of police officers and detectives) were sent to investigate a house. The owner had not been seen in quite a while, and the house emitted strange odors and noises.

Upon investigation, the floors are covered in animal waste. Diseased, dying cats and dogs, sluggish, weak, their fur falling out in clumps, drag themselves slowly through the filth.

In the bedroom they find a rambling, semi-incoherent journal detailing botanical experiments.

In the basement they find a large hutch containing six or eight rabbits who all seemed perfectly healthy and friendly.

The player who challenged me to write this scenario picked up a bunny and started petting it...and then the rabbit exploded in a shower of gore, as a Hell-Plant (Creature Companion and Malleus Monstrorum both have its stats) rips its way out of the creature.

The session ended with one character dead, another with 3rd degree burns over 80% of his body, and the other two fired and arrested for trying to tell their superior officer that they had to burn the house down to kill the deadly plant.

Swordguy
2008-10-07, 09:57 AM
I'm a bit surprised you found this many good CoC stories. I thought people were too busy getting pwned by Cosmic Horrors to be epic in Call of Cthulhu.

The thing about CoC is that when you do cool stuff in the face of ULTIMATE COSMIC EVIL, it's even more awesome than when you do something similar in D&D. In D&D, you're heroes - you're hard to kill, you've got all sorts of crazy abilities, and you generally have some form of "plot immunity" in many games, allowing you to do crazy stuff and get away with it (Rule of Cool).

In CoC, you're just an ordinary person. You aren't a knight, trained from birth to fight and win. You aren't a wizard, with his own form of Ultimate Cosmic Power to draw upon. You're a doctor, or a secretary. If somebody stabs you, once, you're going to be seriously hurt. If you fall 30', you're probably going to die, rather than taking 3d6 damage and waltzing away. Oh, and the makeup of the universe is inherently dangerous to your sanity. Thus, great achievements in the face of all this stacked against you make the achievements even more impressive, simply because you're starting from a place much further down. (The downside of being epic in CoC is that there's a MUCH higher chance of your distinct lack of survival in the process.)

To make an analogy, what's more impressive? The guy who reaches the top of Mt. Everest from the very bottom, or the guy who gets dropped off by helicopter 10,000 feet up?

DeathBD
2008-10-07, 02:12 PM
^ Preach, brotha! Preach!

I couldn't have said it better myself. Though, if you manage to survive long enough, your character can become quite powerful and out of the ordinary. That's just the reward, I suppose.

Chaosium's answer to being powerful is just perfect: "You wanna summon elder creatures and throw spells at everything? You wanna go crazy too? 'Cause it's a package deal."

xPANCAKEx
2008-10-07, 03:03 PM
i have a passing knowledge of bit of CoC mechanics - but when you run out of San what happens? I know you go insane, but how does it go from there? Is the PC dead (well,... curled up in a ball on the floor quivering)? Or do you roll for effect and see just how mental they've gone?

DeathBD
2008-10-07, 03:05 PM
If all of a character's SAN is lost, they go totally insane and can't be played any longer. The fits of insanity are reserved for when significant amounts of SAN are lost.

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 03:05 PM
With great power comes great responsibility. As well as the ever-growing chance that a Great Old One will show up and rape your brain or eat your Soul or something.


Anyway, time for the story of my last session.

Summary: Two of my players decided to steal the Necrinomicon. I decided to allow it... with a catch.

So my two longest running players, one of whom is DeathBD, have been asking me for weeks if they could steal the Necrinomicon. Player A, who's name is Jasper, actually has a job at the Miskatonic U teaching Latin. Player B, DeathBD, is his business partner in paranormal investigations. Over the course of our inter-connected sessions, Dr. Armitage allowed Jasper to view a few "Evil" books in his little storage room of Mythos Tomes in the library. Jasper bespied the Necrinomicon... and immediately they began planning.

I decided to let them try it. Why? Well, I wanted to see if they can do it. And also... well... you'll see.

So I'd hoped they would take the easy route, and bribe the guard so he'd drug the dogs or something. Heck, I would have allowed them to distract the dogs with steaks. But nooooooo... They decide to drug Professor Armitage and steal his keys.

:smallconfused: Ooookay...

Jasper lures the good doctor out to lunch, and then goes to pour a knock-out syrum into his coffee. Apparently, Player B brewed it up... but I told Jasper to do a Chemistry roll to avoid overdosing the Doctor. (A failure would have killed him, and a crit would have been... a 40% chance of a heart attack, if I recall my math correctly...) However, having a Chemistry of 1, he decides to abort the plan. Player B then just happens to enter the store, and tries to pickpocket Dr. Armitage. Failed Conceal roll, of course. He quickly Fast Talks his way out of it, and scurries off.

This is now an hour into the game, due to all their planning and stuff. I finally just snap - they'd wasted all this time, and they were actually about to steal his coat in order to get the keys and/or trick the dogs with his scent... so I decided to force them down the right path. I thrust a pair of dice in front of them and said: "IDEA ROLL. NOW." The rolled, and both succeeded. I then screamed out at the top of my lungs: "BRIBE THE STUPID GUARD!!!!" The both began to laugh hysterically, both at the fact that they'd broken my patience, and the fact that they were extremely stupid for not thinking of that.

One pursuade roll and 350 bucks later, they sneak their way into the Miskatonic University's library in order to break into the Mythos room. Equiped with rucksacks, a crowbar, two handguns, and some paperclips, they think they have it made in the shade. And they did. A few Locksmith rolls later, and they're standing in a room filled with Mythos Tomes. I handed them a list of every book in the room and how much it weighed... then I told them to have at it.

They loaded up on whatever they could grab. De Vermiss Mysteriis, the R'lyeh Text, the Latin Necrinomicon... as well as several homemade books and journals, such as "The Heathen Gods," "Records of the Salem Witch Trials," "Notes on Necromancy," and Armitage's own personal notes. However, during this race to steal everything, they failed a listen check and did not hear the sickening snap of the guard's neck breaking. A few moments later, they head back downstairs, and out the door. They take two steps...

And find themselves staring down the barrels of several large calibur weapons.

Five men in black robes are standing in a semi-circle around them. The man in the center has one hand outstretched. The two men beside him have handguns drawn. And the men at both ends have Tommy Guns pointed at both PC's torsos - with 0% chance of missing. "You know what we want..." the man in the middle calmly states, flexing his outstretched palm, which is also glowing from a Flesh Ward enchantment.

Player A and B promptly freak out.

A few minutes, several half-baked plans, and an idea roll later, Player A hands over the R'lyeh Text, hoping the cultist will mistake it for the Necrinomicon. "Hm..." he muses, studying the old Tome. "Thanks, we needed this one, too. Now then..." The cultist then grabs a gun from the man to his right, fires a shot into Jasper's leg, and then beats him into unconsciousness with the heavy book. He then shoves the gun into Player B's face and says, "Now be a good little boy and hand it over."

Player B also noticed at this point the very-much dead guard (head twisted 180 degrees around while sleeping...) through a window, thus destroying any hope he had of outside help. He finally gave in and handed him the Necrinomicon. One pistol whip later (well, really it was a Tommy Gun whip...), the two Investigators wake up to find themselves sprawled out on the grass, alone. They then gather whatever books they still have, and book it (hah hah... unintended pun) back to their hideout.

They still had all their books except the Necrinomicon and the R'lyeh Text... as well as a note the cultists left them. "Thanks!" it read on one side, while the other said warned: "Now stay out of our way." They then set upon studying the books they stole, and that's where we ended the session... (Player A's gunshot wound was a flesh wound, so I guess it didn't need treating. Okay, to be honest, I forgot about it while trying to keep track of everything else. XD)

Oh, and after Player A left, I told player B that when his character went to sleep that night, all he could dream about was darkness... and whispers.

And now I must prepare what is next to come... :smallwink:


I felt so evil, dangling it in front of them only to yank it away at the last second. :smallbiggrin:

And its also kinda funny that the existance of a cult wanting the Necrinomicon shocked them. I mean really... its Call of Cthulhu. There are like... 3 cults operating in Arkham, with their own backstories developing as the game progresses.

Voshkod
2008-10-07, 03:09 PM
i have a passing knowledge of bit of CoC mechanics - but when you run out of San what happens? I know you go insane, but how does it go from there? Is the PC dead (well,... curled up in a ball on the floor quivering)? Or do you roll for effect and see just how mental they've gone?

In general, a character who's out of SAN falls into the sway of the Great Old Ones and becomes an NPC cultist. Or blows their brains out. Or eats their family. Or meets some other horrible end.

One of my favorite stories from a modern day Call of Cthulhu game was when the players (Federal agents) were trying to convince their (very) senior bosses that a threat was real. Creature(s?) that could become faces. They'd peel your real face off and flow over your skull, taking over. Very intelligent, very dangerous.

Well, the bosses weren't buying it. The players were getting frustrated. They also just happened to have a captured "face thing" in a steel tube with them. With a flourish (and without consulting her fellow party members), one of the PCs finally opened the tube and poured this living face out on the conference room table. SAN checks for the FBI Director and other senior Federal officers.

Things went downhill from there.

DeathBD
2008-10-07, 03:18 PM
You know, I actually feel worse about trying to pickpocket Armitage more than anything in that entire story. It's so crammed in and out of no where. That's about the point when we ran out of ideas and got desperate.

I'd just like to point out, ever since I first suggested to you that we wanted to steal the Necronomicon, you made a big deal about how tough it would be. We expected to have to fight a security guard, not bribe one. Silly keeper.:smalltongue:

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 03:44 PM
...

Be glad I changed my plans. The original plan I had before the cultists would have broken your mind.

Calinero
2008-10-07, 05:54 PM
*grumbles*

Thanks, now I really want to play a Call of Cthulhu game. *sighs* You know, Lycan, you've probably spoiled me. I'll expect my first game to be as awesome as the ones you talk about, then I'll be disappointed when it isn't. lol

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 06:03 PM
Meh, practice makes perfect. The only reason I'm any good at Keeping is because I studied the rulebook for days on end, and I've learned from every mistake. For all you know, you're Keeper might be better. :smallbiggrin:


Wish I could think of some more stories, guys... I'm thinking about starting a campaign diary in a few weeks when our real CoC campaign gets off the ground. Yay or nay?

Voshkod
2008-10-07, 06:20 PM
*grumbles*

Thanks, now I really want to play a Call of Cthulhu game. *sighs* You know, Lycan, you've probably spoiled me. I'll expect my first game to be as awesome as the ones you talk about, then I'll be disappointed when it isn't. lol

This has been inspiring; perhaps I'll start one on board (diceless, of course - CoC is about atmosphere, not dice).

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 06:23 PM
Um, what? Dude, Cthulhu relies heavily on dice. You roll the D100 to see if you meet the percent chance of your skill success. You also roll to see if your mind can handle the stress of what you see.

Seriously. Cthulhu - dice = grossly unfair, as the DM can just say whatever he wants...

Voshkod
2008-10-07, 06:31 PM
Um, what? Dude, Cthulhu relies heavily on dice. You roll the D100 to see if you meet the percent chance of your skill success. You also roll to see if your mind can handle the stress of what you see.

Seriously. Cthulhu - dice = grossly unfair, as the DM can just say whatever he wants...

Yes and no. For SAN, I agree with you. For combat, I prefer to roll diceless, to keep things moving fast. But that's just me, and when I'm running on a board, as opposed to face to face. If the players can trust the DM, then it can work. But that all goes to my general philosophy of gaming, which is that the purpose is to tell a shared story, not to be a fight between the GM and the PCs.

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 06:33 PM
Still, unless its point blank, I prefer to roll dice, since there's always that chance the gun might jam, you might miss, you might score a headshot, et cetra...

Voshkod
2008-10-07, 06:33 PM
Still, unless its point blank, I prefer to roll dice, since there's always that chance the gun might jam, you might miss, you might score a headshot, et cetra...

In most CoC that I run, combat is pretty rare. But we may be discussing stylistic differences.

Have you looked at Trail of Cthulhu?

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 06:38 PM
Nope. :P


I think guns should be present. I hate it when my Investigators rely on them, but I like them to have that false sense of security. Plus, that way if one person goes completely insane, he can blow his own head off. :smallbiggrin:

Voshkod
2008-10-07, 06:40 PM
Well, I agree with you on that part. It is funny to watch players think the guns will save them . . . .

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 06:54 PM
And as previously stated:

PTSD guy + freak out + shotgun = fun for everyone! :smallbiggrin:

Starbuck_II
2008-10-07, 07:42 PM
*grumbles*

Thanks, now I really want to play a Call of Cthulhu game. *sighs* You know, Lycan, you've probably spoiled me. I'll expect my first game to be as awesome as the ones you talk about, then I'll be disappointed when it isn't. lol

I agree; I've never played but it sounds fun.

Calinero
2008-10-07, 07:44 PM
I vote yes on the campaign diary. I look forward to more awesome stories!

Swordguy
2008-10-07, 09:48 PM
I vote we make Lycan run a PbP game around here...

Calinero
2008-10-07, 09:58 PM
As much as I enjoy mob tactics style coercion, I'm fairly sure he already is running a game or two. However, I am currently looking for a Cthulhu game to play, so if anyone knows of one that's going on, feel free to let me know.

DeathBD
2008-10-07, 10:24 PM
So what I've gathered so far:

1) I'm apparently lucky to have a keeper like Lycan
2) Guns are useless

Got it.

And yeah, Lycan's running at least one PbP game around here. He's told stories. I've never actively looked for it, though I found it on google by accident once. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: And what were the cultists going to do, huh?

Lycan 01
2008-10-07, 10:27 PM
I'll let ya'll know when I start the next one. The one I'm running right now is just now getting into the plot, so I dunno when it will end. Although, they're breezing through it pretty fast, so it might get done sooner than I expected...


My poor character never gets to exist, though. XD I'm always Keeper, and never a player...

Spoiler: Don't read if you're DeathBD. Everyone else can read it...

Of course, my character will play an important roll in the upcoming campaign. He'll be an NPC with the group, but he also might end up as an important side-plot piece at one point...

Swordguy
2008-10-08, 08:57 AM
My poor character never gets to exist, though. XD I'm always Keeper, and never a player...



Same here. I've only ever played in 2 games of CoC in 21 years. I've been involved in...lots more. That why I was trying to pawn the job off on you. :smallbiggrin:

magellan
2008-10-08, 10:08 AM
Never tried CoC, and only ran a handfull of horror games. Some went well, only one went really good. we used Palladium Beyond the Supernatural rules for it. Also it was a oneshot with normal Level 0 people as characters. This is the story of the one that went good:


The night before the session I was still looking for a plot and there it was on TV. The 6 suspects with yvonne carlos and david hamilton. I had read the book that film was based on as a teen and loved it. So i thought "Ok, why not recreate *that*"

So: every player gets a 1950ies scientist as character, working in a close to military research institute trying to find out how to push soldiers to their limits and beyond.

First thing i do in the session is leave the room with every player to talk to him in private. stay out for 5 minutes. Say to each "Sorry, i have nothing to tell *you*. Please dont tell the others. Now lets wait a little."

With that the seeds of paranoia where sown and boy where they going to blossom that night!

The plot moves on: An NPC Scientist colleague invites all (PCs and a handfull of NPCs) after work into his office for an experiment. He puts a folded piece of paper on a needle and asks everyone to try and move it with his thoughts. I go through everyone but a few NPCs and one PC, all fail. the guy who initiated it is frustrated, rambles something about "He doesnt want to show himself" and asks all to try together. And the paper moves of course.

Next morning he has commited suicide.

thats when the attacks from the shadows start. everytime a PC is alone he gets attacked by someone from the shadows who among other abilities can make you blind, mute, paralyzed (but it wears of rather quickly)

One PC observed a house in her car. and suddenly goes blind. hears 3 times the sound of a car door locking. One door opens and she hears the sound of a gun savety. Manages to open the other door and leap out (some lucky rolls there!) runs screaming in a random direction only to find her voice gun. She runs on, wich is when her legs stop working and her vision returns... stuff like that.

Meanwhile the player who didnt ever try to move the paper in the original experiment alone realizes that fact, and tries it in private. And yup. He's obbviolsy able to do telekinesis.

So the plot is obvious to him: There are 2 folks with supernatural abilites. He is one of them, the other wants to be the only one and tries to kill him, and they both dont know who the other is. The rest of the table is still stumbling in the dark. He starts to say "I go to my laboratory to work" a lot having already told me that when he says so he is actually training his new found skills.

One of the PCs has the idea to recreate and expand the original experiment. First everyone tries alone, no effect, then in every possible permutation of pairings, 3Pcs trying to move it and so on. Everytime i ask each of the participants if they really try. everytime the Character who knows he has the powers is part of it i ask him too. Everytime he says yes and shakes his head very very softly. No one at the table noticed.

In the end they find out who the NPC superman is, assault him, kill him, barely survive the attempt. and what does the hero of the piece do? Kills the survivors to walk off into the sunset, thinking "it will be fun to play god" recreating the ending of the original novel without having read it!

He left behind a satisified DM and a very stunned table. Good times!

Calinero
2008-10-08, 10:49 AM
That's quite an awesome story, there. Once again, more proof that I really, really want to get into a good CoC game. As for the whole 'forced into DMing all the games' thing, I've never had that problem. I've always been a player (partially because I don't have any sourcebooks for any system, and would have to borrow someone else's.) However, I've been thinking about starting my own sometime soon--just not sure what system.

Were the other players upset at being killed by the telekinesis guy?

Lycan 01
2008-10-08, 11:46 AM
That was friggin' awesome story! :smallbiggrin: Very nice ending...


Btw guys, here's proof of how evil I am.

DeathBD asked what I had planned before I made up the cultists as the ending to the Necrinomicon session.

My GF plays as a woman who crossdresses as a man in order to be a cop, since it IS the 1920s. I've already proven my skills with copying the handwriting and pictures of character sheets onto a blank copy. Ergo, I planned to make a copy of her character sheet.

My original idea was that Player A and B had to sneak past the guard while he was on break. Once they got the Necrinomicon, the dog would happen upon them and start barking. I figured that they'd shoot the dog... The guard would show up, and I figured they'd shoot or otherwise incapacitate him. He'd scream... and a few moments later, 2 cops who'd been on patrol would show up, guns drawn.

Player A and B would hear one of the cops muttering to the other: "Shoot first, as questions later..." I had hoped they would then open fire and kill the cops.

I would say that one of the cops let out a very womanly scream. I would then slowly pull my GF's character sheet out from under my papers, and with a sick grin rip it in half right in front of them.

Then, as the coup de grace, when we played the next full session, I would hand my GF the pieces of her "character sheet" and point at Players A and B. "They killed you..." I would smirk. I do not know if she would be in on it, though. Probably, since I'd hate to see her get upset... or pissed. :smalleek:



But yeah, basically the whole plot originally revolved around them "killing" my GF's character. (In reality, it was just a man with a very girly scream...)

magellan
2008-10-08, 02:16 PM
Were the other players upset at being killed by the telekinesis guy?

The player who wanted to recreate the experiment was Telekinesis guys RL sister. She was the one who tried to fight paranoia in the group. I've been told by TG guys player that he had to endure quite some "betrayed by my own brother! I cant believe it!" ramblings on their way home...

DeathBD
2008-10-08, 02:26 PM
What's that book called? I think it just made my shopping list.

Calinero
2008-10-08, 03:37 PM
I don't think I would be mad. That ending is too awesome/surprising to be mad over for too long. And I must say, that was a stroke of genius how you made all the players think another had something to hide.

caden_varn
2008-10-09, 08:51 AM
One particular story I remember from a CoC game I ran. It was an old published scenario, think it was called the Compact trail of Tsaugouth. Or something like that.

Anyways, it was a 1920s game, and my players had been investigating stuff in the Canadian wilderness. They had got themselves captured by a tribe of yetis. The yetis were prepared to let them go, so long as they retreived a yeti foot from the university in Montreal. To ensure that they came back, one of them had to stay with the tribe until the others returned the foot.

So player 3 volunteered, and players 1 & 2 wandered down to Montreal to retrieve the artifact. Unfortunately, characters 1 & 2 had gone insane, but it had not manifested yet, so they did not know. I decided to be nice, and gave them a couple of phobias (cold and hari iirc). Not that the insanity made much difference in this case, to be honest...

On the next session, player 3 was not around, aas his character was stuck in the north, so he did not know what happened until much later..

They decided that the best plan to get the foot back was to set a small diversionary fire in one of the university buildings (as that NEVER goes wrong, does it :smallbiggrin:), and search for the foot. In the process, they come across a security guard coming to investigate the fire, and after a short fight they knock him out.
Eventually they find the foot, but by this time the fire has ceased to be small, so they run for it, making no attempt to conceal themselves. Leaving the unconsciouss security guard there.

Well, the next day they see the reports in the newspaper about the fire in the university which killed a security guard, and that the police are looking for 2 men seen fleeing the scene. They decided (wisely) to flee town, and after briefly toying with heading down to warmer and less hairy climes, they eventually screwed up their courage and went back to ransom their colleague. This goes fine, and the adventure basically ends, and they head back down south to the US. Except they decide to stop in Montreal for the night.
me: 'Ok, so you are planning to driving down as far as Montreal, and stop for the night there?'
players: 'Yup'
me: 'Just Montreal? Not planning on stopping anywhere else.'
players (looking a bit confused): 'No, just Montreal'.

Ok, I've tried to warn them.
They stop off in Montreal, as planned, and Player 1 heads out to get some food and other supplies. And does not return. Suddenly, I see the lightbulb go on over Player 2's head, and a lovely look of panic on his face.
Remember Player 3 was not at the last session, and the other players neglected to mention burning half the university to the ground.

Player 2: 'We have to leave, now!'
Player 3: 'But player 1 is not back yet?'
Player 2: 'No, we really have to leave NOW'
Player 3: 'Why?'
Player 2: '....'

This went on for a while, then once I had amused myself enough, I had the police arrive and arrest player 2. He joined player 1 in the cells.

The best part for me was player 3's reaction when he finally found out what the other 2 had done -
Player 3: 'You did WHAT???'

I was generous again - I had them sent to the asylum instead of sending them down for man-slaughter. After all, they were both insane :smallsmile:

magellan
2008-10-09, 01:32 PM
hehe Arson, is there any solution it cant be a problem for? ;)

Anyhows: messed that one up: Its of course a movie with george hamilton, not david. Movie is called the power, as is the book, written by frank M. Robinson.
Cant say i recommend it though . Its a run of the mill thriller, and now you already know the punchline. Sry for that ...

DeathBD
2008-10-09, 02:07 PM
Oh god, that plan sounds as bad as our run of Dead Man Stomp. Oh god, the death count. Oh god.

It's ok about the book. Just saves me money. Hah.

Brasswatchman
2008-10-11, 06:19 PM
In one CoC game I played, our characters were trapped in an insane asylum dominated by a mad psychologist who was creating his own cult from the inmates. (Sound familiar? I believe it was an adaptation of a AD&D 2e Ravencroft module). Our characters were trapped in the island, woke up wearing the distinctive, impossible-to-remove masks of the cultists, and mentally and physically tortured to try and break our spirits.

Our reaction? We all went insane. But not obedient insane. Rebellious insane.

This was a few years ago, so it's hard to remember the exact details. Singing and dancing were involved, unless I'm mistaken. There was also creative use of silverware, and I believe at one point one of my compatriots - formally your classic hardboiled P.I. - dashing out of the asylum cafeteria (where he'd been assigned to dishwashing duty) with a bunch of dishes in hand, and shattering them in the massive vat where the cultists were washing their robes. I also remember the psychologist breaking down and crying in front of us, saying that we'd ruined everything. :) Good times.

Lycan 01
2008-10-12, 03:44 PM
^ In a situation like this, I would not mind my group derailing my session, as long as they made me laugh like that. :smalltongue:

Smittaugh
2008-10-12, 05:05 PM
I've got one story and one epic way my Keeper dealt with Temporary insanity one time...

One time, as will sometimes happen, I went temporarily insane. My keeper rolled a few dice, then looked up and told me to leave the room for a while, he'd come and get me when he needed me.

An hour passed.

When I was called back to the table, he described the scene. I was alone, in my car, which was off the road in a ditch (it was a wooded area and I didn't know where I was), my pistol was in my lap with half the bullets spent, I had blood on my clothes, and I was missing nine hours. What the frelling hell, I thought!

I cleaned myself up, ditched the gun, and drove back to the rest of the party. Once they saw me they started shooting at me. I was winged twice and then restrained before I could talk to them. That character never got to carry a gun ever again. They never told me what the hell I did.

The story was from Masks of Nyarlothotep, so I'll hide it.
We had been captured by a noble family who had a daughter that was a werewolf. They had us in their dungeon, locked up, with the daughter passed out in the cell with us. It was daytime, but it was the time of the full moon, so our time was running out. We had no guns, nor couldd we really fight at all.

The girl's father came down to apologise for locking us in, but he loved his daughter and would not allow us to harm her or report anything to anyone. We had already shot her once in the head earlier in the day, and all it did was knock her down for a few minutes, so treating her to a blanket party wouldn't help us. One of our party kept him there and kept him talking while the rest of us racked our brains trying to figure out how to get out. Dad wasn't being co-operative, standing well away from the cell door with the key on the hook, down the hall.

Nothing plausible occurred to us, so we tried grasping at straws. I had a Hypnotise skill of 5%. I took over talking to the guy. Using a slow cadence and soothing tones, I tried to lull the guy into a post hypnotic state.

I rolled. 00 1. Critical success!

We had a jar of vasoline with us that we'd crushed wolfsbane into. We didn't think it would work, but it didn't hurt. We never got around to using it. I slowly convinced the guy that we wanted to help, that we could cure her. All he needed to do was apply the salve to his daughter, and between the 'medicine' and his love for his daughter, her curse would be broken. He unlocked the door, took the jar, and went about applying it to her. While he was busy, we nipped out the now open door, closed and locked it behind us, then split the scene and vowed never to talk about it ever again.

Sure we lost sanity sending this guy to his death at the hands of his werewolf daughter, but we were alive to lose that sanity.

Ever since then, 'It's a jar!' has replaced 'Trying something stupid, have you got a better idea?' as the answer to 'What the hell are you doing?' around the CoC table.

Calinero
2008-10-12, 07:08 PM
....dang. I would be very curious to know what had happened to me during the period of insanity. I'm definitely guessing that you shot at someone. But still...wow.

I just ran my first ever CoC game a few days ago (my first time GM'ing, as well). I ran The Haunting, and we had a pretty good time. I had an incredibly vague idea of how some aspects of the system work and screwed up the combat quite badly, but I managed to creep out my friends. And that's what's really important, right?

Unfortunately, one of my two players already knew a little bit about the campaign. All he knew was that the bed would knock you out of the window if you got too near to it. He knows better than to metagame, but still couldn't bring himself to stand by it. So, I got more creative. I made the window make noises, but when he investigated it (from the side of the window, where the telekinetically moved bed couldn't knock him out of it) the bed didn't do anything. Instead, there was a fresh, bloody handprint on the window. Then, there was a loud BANG on the wall next to the player. A BANG that I accentuated by hitting the table in real life, giving them quite a jump. They got out of that room in a hurry...at which point the bed tried to flatten them against a wall. They dodged, but still--that's what you get for metagaming.

Lycan 01
2008-10-12, 09:55 PM
Oh, you actually Kept a game? Well come on, give me the details! :D How'd it go? Who died? Did you lose your patience? I'm curious, man!

Calinero
2008-10-12, 10:23 PM
It actually went surprisingly well, considering I knew jack about the specifics of the system. I basically focused on the roleplaying aspect of the game, and winged it when they got to the one fight of the scenario. They spent quite a bit of time researching the house, which was good--I was worried my two players might want to jump straight to "the action." It was funny watching them latch on to insignificant little details and come up with crazy theories for what might be wrong with the house. For example, they actually seriously considered that the house might be on an ancient Indian burial ground (very cliche) and tried to remember what kind of paganism the Puritans had. They got distracted by the oddest details, too...and wanted to go interview people I hadn't even thought of. For example, they wanted to talk to the cultists of the Church who got arrested. I ruled that they had all died in prison.

The game itself went all right. We started running out of time at the end, so I cut out the rat swarms. The fight itself with Corbitt went as well as could be expected, given that I was guessing on most of the combat rules. I didn't get the chance to reward them for their victory, but it was intended to be a oneshot campaign anyway. I just finished reading the entire rulebook, so I've got a better idea of what to do now, and plan on either starting my own campaign of running Dead Man's Stomp.

DeathBD
2008-10-12, 10:24 PM
Ugh... That bed broke both my legs. And now my main character has a crooked nose. Thanks for nothing, gravity.

And be careful about Dead Man Stomp. I think Lycan's got scars from that little venture of ours.

Calinero
2008-10-12, 10:28 PM
*snicker*

I've....erm....I've heard stories. Bit of a high body count there, hm?

Doomsy
2008-10-12, 10:48 PM
Oh wow. That was the perfect counter-arguement to the "Using guns in CoC is a bad idea" concept. XD

I also just realized that I've never used Ghouls in a single scenario... They seem like good material, so I must wonder why I have failed to grasp at the concept of using them. :smallconfused:

I've noticed people tend to fall in love with specific CoC monsters and villains. I tend to use ghouls and sand dwellers quite often, and I have never used a mi-go yet. I work Ythians and Elder Things into my campaigns a lot and very, very few people use them to my knowledge. I also have a marked distaste for Deep Ones and Cthulhu himself - I've flatout refused to run a Innsmouth campaign and I've gone out of my way to avoid them when I do seaside stories. Why? I just don't know.

Lycan 01
2008-10-12, 10:56 PM
Lets see...


-accountant (plot centric - shot through the head)
-old woman (shot to the forehead)
-cop (chokeslam collapsed his trachea)
-Joey (executed - lost 3/4 of his cranial mass)
-2 gangsters (died in a firey car wreck my GF caused)
-Leeroy Turner/Jenkins, depending on who was talking... (survived the car wreck, was shot in the head, was shot again after surviving the first bullet, became a zombie, was curb stomped, shot with a Tommy Gun, and finally decapitated by two .45 headshots, IIRC)
-2 more gangsters (necks chewed through by flaming zombies - the 2 previous gangsters, to be specific)
-Mob boss (hit by a car while fleeing the scene)
-8 civilians (eaten by the zombie horde the Investigater's were responsible for creating and then fleeing from - became zombies themselves)
-5 cops (died while trying to contain the zombie outbreak)


That adds up to a total of 23 people. Dead Man Stomp can be easily derailed and quickly become a Keeper's nightmare. I would advise that you and all other fresh Keepers avoid it like the Plague. Seriously... Don't do it.

Swordguy
2008-10-13, 04:03 AM
Lets see...
That adds up to a total of 23 people. Dead Man Stomp can be easily derailed and quickly become a Keeper's nightmare. I would advise that you and all other fresh Keepers avoid it like the Plague. Seriously... Don't do it.

Nice body count, though IIRC Joey is "supposed" to die, and prolly shouldn't be counted.

Anyway, I'd second the motion about NOT using DMS until you've had at least a few games under your belt. Run The Haunting and The Edge of Darkness first, at a minimum (I'd recommend not running the one with the Mi-go from the book in any event - it's a shoot-em-up against space aliens...not really Lovecraft-esque), before you even consider DMS.

(As a side note, Edge of Darkness is actually one of my favorite adventures, and actually the one I prefer to give newbies. It's got mythos elements, good spooks, not as much of an emphasis on information-collecting [ one of the hardest things for players to get used to] and is loads less lethal than The Haunting. If'n it weren't for the fact that I ran my current players through it in a D&D game, I'd be running it for this year's Halloween CoC game.)

Calinero
2008-10-13, 05:21 AM
That's quite a few people....was it your group that ended up summoning some giant monsters that killed half the town, then erected a statue of the player who summoned the thing?

DeathBD
2008-10-13, 09:14 AM
That wasn't us, but I remember reading that somewhere on the forums. Quite a story, that one is. :smallbiggrin: No, ours started when one of us - can't remember - (accidentally?) clothes-lined a cop and sent him falling to his death in a stairwell. Cops freaked us out from that moment on, and I don't know if we'll ever be able to go back to that city.

We had reason to do what we did, it's just that the results weren't what we expected, IIRC. We didn't intend to kill most of the people on that list. And in the end, we booked it in desperation.

only1doug
2008-10-13, 09:28 AM
<snip>

The story was from Masks of Nyarlothotep, so I'll hide it.
We had been captured by a noble family who had a daughter that was a werewolf. They had us in their dungeon, locked up, with the daughter passed out in the cell with us. It was daytime, but it was the time of the full moon, so our time was running out. We had no guns, nor couldd we really fight at all.

The girl's father came down to apologise for locking us in, but he loved his daughter and would not allow us to harm her or report anything to anyone. We had already shot her once in the head earlier in the day, and all it did was knock her down for a few minutes, so treating her to a blanket party wouldn't help us. One of our party kept him there and kept him talking while the rest of us racked our brains trying to figure out how to get out. Dad wasn't being co-operative, standing well away from the cell door with the key on the hook, down the hall.

Nothing plausible occurred to us, so we tried grasping at straws. I had a Hypnotise skill of 5%. I took over talking to the guy. Using a slow cadence and soothing tones, I tried to lull the guy into a post hypnotic state.

I rolled. 00 1. Critical success!

We had a jar of vasoline with us that we'd crushed wolfsbane into. We didn't think it would work, but it didn't hurt. We never got around to using it. I slowly convinced the guy that we wanted to help, that we could cure her. All he needed to do was apply the salve to his daughter, and between the 'medicine' and his love for his daughter, her curse would be broken. He unlocked the door, took the jar, and went about applying it to her. While he was busy, we nipped out the now open door, closed and locked it behind us, then split the scene and vowed never to talk about it ever again.

Sure we lost sanity sending this guy to his death at the hands of his werewolf daughter, but we were alive to lose that sanity.

Ever since then, 'It's a jar!' has replaced 'Trying something stupid, have you got a better idea?' as the answer to 'What the hell are you doing?' around the CoC table.

Heh, My group completely messed up that subplot

haveing done no research or info gathering they assumed the werewolf was another NPC and spent plenty of time preparing. they kidnapped the NPC (the actual werewolf's brother as i recall) and chained him up ready to try lycanthropy cures on him.
Sadly kidnapping him meant that the real werewolf wasnt safely locked in the dungeon and was out on the town looking for a midnight snack.
Worse; the villagers had all locked up safely and the only snacks the werewolf could find was the party, they shot at the werewolf then legged it, the werewolf settled for eating the snack that couldn't get away (her chained up brother).
They eventually visited the house and "spoke to" the father, he was a bit upset about his sons death and expressed his grief with a shotgun, the party returned his grief so that just left the werewolf...
She had overheard someone and realised she had eaten her own brother and had taken poison.

Hmm, maybe i ought to post this in the epic fail section too...

horseboy
2008-10-13, 02:45 PM
The Cast:
Me: Ace of Diamonds (What? I used to read a lot of Don Pendelton)
Keri: Moll, niece of Chicago chieftain, going to college. (Guess where)
I was there to make sure her move went smooth with the local family.
Kamakasi: Keri's Indian physics professor. (You know the one that you can never understand that teaches the complicated subjects) Who also served in Her Majesty's Infantry back in his younger days.
Moose: Local High School heart throb, pony tail wearing English teacher.
Newt: 15 1/2 year old girl, student of Moose. So much Police sung that campaign.
Rae: Horror novelist, suffering from writer's block, consulting with Moose on local lore trying to come up with a new best seller.
Kelb: Former marine stationed in Okinawa, come back to the States, working for the po-po.
Randy: Paramedic based off of Mother from Mother, Jugs and Speed.
The Keeper: Was a stickler for detail. I got bonus points for listing an odd number of socks in my inventory. He even had us lay out where our character lived and where we kept stuff.

Now, the Keeper had ran the scenario he'd written before with a prior group. It took them three RL months to get through and a month game time. When the new moon was darkest they were going to summon some nasty hobby-joobit and destroy the world. It was a Cthulthu Now modern game.

Fun stories:
We were out in the woods, The cultists weren't actually humans, but THINGS wearing human "skins". We'd found this "pixie dust" that hurt them, so rather than assaulting them directly, we broke into their cars and poured it into their heater vents. That way in the cold New England night, after their ritual they turn on the heaters and spontaneously explode. We got rid of the human ones, but there were these Hell hound/wolfwere things that were guarding the perimeter that caught us as we were finishing. We ran into the woods, and climbed a tree to get away from them. There was much singing about 15 birds in 5 fir trees. To prove I was smarter than Gandalf, I dropped a concussion grenade instead of a Willie Pete. (Take that Mr. Superior hearing!) It scared them off and we ran away. Nobody else wanted to get down out of the tree until I explained how come I had grenades.

Then, at the end of the campaign, we knew that this chemical factory was involved. Everybody else was trying to figure out what we were going to be facing, and what they were doing there and all the leg work type stuff. Then he asked me and I thought about it for a minute and decided the best thing I could do would be to shut down the factory, slowing their progress. The Keeper asked how and I told him I'd call OSHA and tell them Jimmy lost a hand in the machinery. Well, a failed luck roll said there wasn't a Jimmy on 3rd. I bull dogged the idea. I used my mafia contacts to infiltrate the Union there, planted a registration for Jimmy Spicoloi with the union there and started a rumor that Management had removed him from payroll records so they wouldn't have to pay the fines. Well, with a little nudging I managed to get them to strike. This started a big ruckus outside the plant, as scab cultists started crossing the Union picket line. Which meant they had to bring out their armed security so we could see what we'd be facing. Then Randy got the idea that we needed to expound on this plan, so called ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN and sent them the scoop to investigate the corruption. Newt went to her parent's church and told them they were experimenting on fetuses and organized a protest with all the local churches. Rae called NOW and got them to do a counter protest. I dropped some industrial toxins out of the waste flow pipes and killed off all the frogs in the area, then we called the EPA. Kamakazi called in a bomb threat with his foreign accent to the FBI. So you've got all these angry groups in a small area and someone :smallamused: throws a rock. A riot breaks out. The cultists can't make with the mojo because they're on national TV. Then the rest of the group shows up in Randy's ambulance. We infiltrate into the factory and find bins of chemicals in a chemical factory (duh). We go find the Cesium, pull it into a part of the factory with sprinklers, drop a lit cigarette into a trash can full of paper and run. A horrible, horrible industrial accident from a company with a history of hiding poor working conditions. The Keeper was rolling in the floor crying from laughter. He couldn't believe that he had lost control so bad, but it was a great ride. I haven't gotten to play CoC since. :smallfrown:

Calinero
2008-10-13, 02:52 PM
That's quite a sneaky plan you had there. I would have given you some kind of bonus for that, assuming I could stop laughing.

Lycan 01
2008-10-13, 02:54 PM
^ Gosh, that was friggin' brilliant! :smallbiggrin: Kudos to ya'll for being so friggin' creative...

DeathBD
2008-10-13, 05:22 PM
I think that just made the thread. Good job everyone! See you next time! But seriously, that was awesome. If there was ever a place to use my 70 chemistry...

Calinero
2008-10-13, 05:39 PM
I'm hoping my players will be that sneaky once I get a campaign going.

Brasswatchman
2008-10-13, 08:43 PM
^ In a situation like this, I would not mind my group derailing my session, as long as they made me laugh like that. :smalltongue:

:D I seem to recall the GM alternating between bouts of looking horrified and laughing his head off.