Chtulhu

[tytalan]

:confused:has Anyone converted Call of Chtulhu?

[Captain Obvious]

Some of the critters have character sheets at Surbrook's Stuff (http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationscreatures/creatures.html)

[Curufea]

It's a bit difficult to convert some of the absolutes in CoC to Hero.

[Fitz]

The ambience is easy enough to replicate if you have a decent group who are willing to take on the job.

Use PRE Drains to model courage-sapping effects, PRE Attacks to do the Sudden Horror schtick, and you might want to add a SANity stat as well. The fact that Investigators are generally pretty run-of-the-mill in terms of abilities can be modelled by lowering initial stats to 8, taking NCM down to 15, and probably not going much higher than 50/50 starting points and disads (maybe even as low as 25/25).

All in all, the mechanics are simple to build. As with any of the other CoC builds though, the key to success is in having a good GM who can build the suspense, and a good group who will play along with the genre.

[Lord Liaden]

Some of the critters have character sheets at Surbrook's Stuff (http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationscreatures/creatures.html)


Quite a few, in fact. Surbrook also has fairly detailed system conversion notes between CoC and (Fourth Edition) HERO System on this webpage (http://surbrook.devermore.net/worldbooks/smz/smzcoc.html).

[Midas]

I've considered treating Azathoth and Cthugha as weird energy blasts rather than creatures. After all, they just show up for a few rounds, blast everything in sight, and disappear.

The trick is mimicking the random size and nature of the beasties (esp Azathoth).

Any suggestions?

Midas

[Curufea]

Variable radius with damage shield perhaps?

Theoretically you treat a summoning as an indirect attack from the center of the universe for Azathoth :)

[Markdoc]

I've considered treating Azathoth and Cthugha as weird energy blasts rather than creatures. After all, they just show up for a few rounds, blast everything in sight, and disappear.

The trick is mimicking the random size and nature of the beasties (esp Azathoth).

Any suggestions?

Midas

When I have run Lovecraftesque horror games, I don't bother statting out the major nasties. If they turn up - or even partially turn their attention to the PCs - they are all dead, mindblasted or converted to somewhere/something else. The whole point of cosmic horror to me is that there are things that no human - no matter how resolute or well armed - can even begin to approximate to come close to harming. The whole goal is to avoid drawing their attention. More minor minions are worth statting out, but the biggies? "Rocks fall. Everybody dies."

We play Arkham horror on a regular basis and occasionally we have failed to prevent the Great Old One of the Week from materialising. But as often as not, we manage to fight it off successfully. And you know, after the combat, thinking "Wow, I helped fight off Nyarlothep with my trusty tommy gun and a bottle of whisky" doesn't feel like an achievement .... it just feels wrong.

cheers, Mark

[Susano]

Some of the critters have character sheets at Surbrook's Stuff (http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationscreatures/creatures.html)

More to be added as time permits.

Emphasis on "permits."

[Tom Carman]

When I have run Lovecraftesque horror games, I don't bother statting out the major nasties.

No statting? You should at least try to deal with the effects. For instance, should Azathoth's typewriter attack be one big EB, or autofired?


(Oh, surely you've heard of Isaac Azathoth, Typist of a Thousand Tentacles!)

[Lord Liaden]

No statting? You should at least try to deal with the effects. For instance, should Azathoth's typewriter attack be one big EB, or autofired?


(Oh, surely you've heard of Isaac Azathoth, Typist of a Thousand Tentacles!)

Of course. He's currently going by the pseudonym "Steven S. Long." ;)

[Narratio]

The one time I played in a Cthulhu stated Champions game the GM represented Azathoth as a KFC bucket filled with d6. I mean FILLED. His only comment was "The Elder Gods, when woken, will be miffed."

So I must agree with Mardoc. Stat out the lesser servents, Shoggoths, proto-Shoggoths whatever, by all means. Mike has some very nice stat sheets laid out. But the big boys? Nah. "Earth Destroyed - News at 6.00! But first a word from our sponsors..."

[Sir Ofeelya]

You have probably seen this but...

[Midas]

Variable radius with damage shield perhaps?

How would that work?


Theoretically you treat a summoning as an indirect attack from the center of the universe for Azathoth :)

Well, yeah. ;)

But in designing, you would do the same thing as with the "Druid's Lightning Bolt" spell. While in theory, the range is "cloud level to ground" in play terms it is from Druid to target, with the indirect advantage.

'sides, anybody out if it enough to summon Azathoth would not be to concerned with the no range limit, or even that the radius was larger than the range. :doi:

Getting back to the original post, I would suggest using the "spell as skill" system. ie: You don't spend however many hundreds of points on a "summon Azathoth" spell, you spend two points on the *skill* summon Azathoth. In the same way that a swordsman doesn't buy a 1d6+1 RKA before he can pick up a sword, he buys the "familiarity: Common melee weapons" skill.

Gets a bit more complicated if the GM wants a skill roll to go with it. I'd say just an EGO roll, with no minuses for the power of the summoned creature.

Some of the "contacts" might translate into 5th edition contact rules (they didn't work as contacts in earlier incarnations very well).

Midas

[Midas]

When I have run Lovecraftesque horror games, I don't bother statting out the major nasties. If they turn up - or even partially turn their attention to the PCs - they are all dead, mindblasted or converted to somewhere/something else. The whole point of cosmic horror to me is that there are things that no human - no matter how resolute or well armed - can even begin to approximate to come close to harming. The whole goal is to avoid drawing their attention. More minor minions are worth statting out, but the biggies? "Rocks fall. Everybody dies."

We play Arkham horror on a regular basis and occasionally we have failed to prevent the Great Old One of the Week from materialising. But as often as not, we manage to fight it off successfully. And you know, after the combat, thinking "Wow, I helped fight off Nyarlothep with my trusty tommy gun and a bottle of whisky" doesn't feel like an achievement .... it just feels wrong.

cheers, Mark

Here the gameworld designer has to decide exactly what/who he is trying to emulate. There is a spectrum of writings on the Cthulhu Mythos from horror to monster hunting. Lovedraft on one edge, through (IMO) Smith, Derleth, Carter, Howard, to Lumley on the other side of the spectrum.

If you want to go with cosmically powerful monsters, then just take a look at the total BOD of the character, plus any potentially effective armor, double that number, and call that the amount of area of effect RKA *dice* he just received. However, if you want the characters to have some chance of survival, or just have the proverbial PC-in-waiting to do a "Oh the Humanity!" scene and become the next hero to take up the cause, you need to have range and damage limits.

Midas

[Susano]

Or you can just go with COC's rules and simply declare 1d3 characters per Phase are devoured horribly.

[Egyptoid]

perhaps use one of the space gods in Galactic Champions for stats

[Lord Liaden]

Or the explicitly Lovecraft-inspired Edomite entities statted in the 5E Champions sourcebook Arcane Adversaries. To a group of pulp-era Heroic characters, Vulshoth from that book, even weakened as he is from his long imprisonment, would make a terrifying Old One.

[Maelstrom]

I've been through The Mystic World, and I can't find Vulshoth mentioned anywhere. Is he in another book? My research powers may be weak.

[Lord Liaden]

Your research powers are fine, it's my faculties that are impaired. :o Vulshoth and the other Edomites aren't in The Mystic World, but its companion volume, Arcane Adversaries. I knew that, except when I wrote my last post my brain apparently spasmed. My apologies. (I've corrected that mistake in my original post.)

[Narratio]

And soon he'll correct the spasm in his brain. :)

Even so, rep to the Lord L. for that find. A neat idea, he's horrifyingly powerful for a pulp game.

[Maelstrom]

No apologies necessary. Considering the mass of source material, sometimes I forget that putting enhanced senses in multipowers is illegal until people nudge me halfway through chargen.