[Crossposted to a couple of different fora]
Hi all,
I'm currently running the Great Pendragon Campaign, we've reached the year 551. That will likely run for much of the rest of this year, following which I want to run something else with potential for deep extended play.
I'm considering running a two stage CoC game, probably using either the second edition or seventh edition (if it's out) rules, not that the edition particularly matters. Not ToC though or Cthulhu Dark or whatever. The engine isn't really the point of this post, but it might be helpful for people to know it (nothing against ToC etc, I just really like the classic CoC rules and find them easy to run).
My basic concept is a game set in London in the 1920s which will run for some time, possibly then skipping forward a generation to a game set in World War 2 using the World War Cthulhu stuff. The two campaigns should be linked, but not necessarily directly flow from one another (ie it's ok if in the 20's the horror is laid to rest for a generation, only for fresh horror to surface in the '40s as various individuals once again try to stir that which should be left to rest, it doesn't though need to be the same exact threat in both generations).
In terms of philosophy I plan the mythos to be essentially dormant at this point, save when somehow provoked or prodded. The mythos therefore here is more like radioactive waste or a localised but highly virulent virus. If left to its own devices it might harm those near it, but it won't spill out and endanger a wider group. If you mess with it though you might do all kinds of harm.
In other words, the stars are not yet right, the world isn't of its own accord going to end any time soon, but if people decide to bring back objects from the wrong places, to try to work magics learned from old books, then terrible consequences can ensue.
That's not by the way meant to make humanity cosmically important, it's rather reflecting again that concept of the mythos as presently dormant from our limited perspective unless prodded.
Here's the difficult bit. My players all know CoC as a game really well. They know the critters, they know the stats, they basically know the mythos. That makes it less "what is that thing?" and more "it's a deep one, rifles should work here" (player knowledge versus PC knowledge I know, but even if PCs don't act on player knowledge you've still lost something by the players understanding perfectly well what it is).
Also, I really don't want a monster of the week game. I don't want this week it's Deep Ones, then a guy who's swapped bodies, then a cult worshipping Hastur, then more Deep Ones. It kills suspension of disbelief for me and turns it (for me) a bit into D&D (which I like, but it's not what I want this to be). The monster manual approach isn't what I want here. Ideally I'd have no monsters at all, just outer gods, people accessing forces they shouldn't, and if there are monsters only where someone has unwisely called them up rather than them happening to be in the sewers and nobody's noticed.
So, that's the challenge. I want a game with potential for longevity (months, even a year or two of play) that makes sparing use of monsters and which makes the mythos largely dormant save where interfered with. I think you can do all that and have a game which actually feels fairly Lovecraftian (in HPL the monsters tend to be prodded into activity by us, they rarely just wander along to cause trouble of their own accord), but it's a challenge to keep it interesting and credible both at the same time.
Thoughts welcome. I don't plan to use published materials if that's relevant.
Hi all,
I'm currently running the Great Pendragon Campaign, we've reached the year 551. That will likely run for much of the rest of this year, following which I want to run something else with potential for deep extended play.
I'm considering running a two stage CoC game, probably using either the second edition or seventh edition (if it's out) rules, not that the edition particularly matters. Not ToC though or Cthulhu Dark or whatever. The engine isn't really the point of this post, but it might be helpful for people to know it (nothing against ToC etc, I just really like the classic CoC rules and find them easy to run).
My basic concept is a game set in London in the 1920s which will run for some time, possibly then skipping forward a generation to a game set in World War 2 using the World War Cthulhu stuff. The two campaigns should be linked, but not necessarily directly flow from one another (ie it's ok if in the 20's the horror is laid to rest for a generation, only for fresh horror to surface in the '40s as various individuals once again try to stir that which should be left to rest, it doesn't though need to be the same exact threat in both generations).
In terms of philosophy I plan the mythos to be essentially dormant at this point, save when somehow provoked or prodded. The mythos therefore here is more like radioactive waste or a localised but highly virulent virus. If left to its own devices it might harm those near it, but it won't spill out and endanger a wider group. If you mess with it though you might do all kinds of harm.
In other words, the stars are not yet right, the world isn't of its own accord going to end any time soon, but if people decide to bring back objects from the wrong places, to try to work magics learned from old books, then terrible consequences can ensue.
That's not by the way meant to make humanity cosmically important, it's rather reflecting again that concept of the mythos as presently dormant from our limited perspective unless prodded.
Here's the difficult bit. My players all know CoC as a game really well. They know the critters, they know the stats, they basically know the mythos. That makes it less "what is that thing?" and more "it's a deep one, rifles should work here" (player knowledge versus PC knowledge I know, but even if PCs don't act on player knowledge you've still lost something by the players understanding perfectly well what it is).
Also, I really don't want a monster of the week game. I don't want this week it's Deep Ones, then a guy who's swapped bodies, then a cult worshipping Hastur, then more Deep Ones. It kills suspension of disbelief for me and turns it (for me) a bit into D&D (which I like, but it's not what I want this to be). The monster manual approach isn't what I want here. Ideally I'd have no monsters at all, just outer gods, people accessing forces they shouldn't, and if there are monsters only where someone has unwisely called them up rather than them happening to be in the sewers and nobody's noticed.
So, that's the challenge. I want a game with potential for longevity (months, even a year or two of play) that makes sparing use of monsters and which makes the mythos largely dormant save where interfered with. I think you can do all that and have a game which actually feels fairly Lovecraftian (in HPL the monsters tend to be prodded into activity by us, they rarely just wander along to cause trouble of their own accord), but it's a challenge to keep it interesting and credible both at the same time.
Thoughts welcome. I don't plan to use published materials if that's relevant.
Call of Cthulhu campaign advice sought
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire