May 19, 2022 5:26 pm
Do you like cats? Do you like Lovecraftian horror? Do you want to play both at the same time? Well, if you are one of the select few that fits in that Venn diagram, the I may have just the game for you: Call of Catthulhu! Using setting material from the Cats of Catthulhu rpg and rules hacked from World of Dungeons: Turbo, I intend to run a one-shot adventure that will pit (mostly) ordinary cats against forces of cosmic horror. I can't promise that it will be funny, but it will certainly be absurd.
Need a little more information? Of course you do. You're an investigator at heart, right? So read on...
"Welcome to the real world... the world in which human civilization exists for the comfort of cats, in which incredibly ancient and powerful spirits vie for control of reality, in which only brave and clever felines have the wit and wherewithal to oppose grim and mystic cabals, and in which two-footed people live in blissful ignorance of all of these facts." - excerpt from the Nekonomicon by Joel Sparks
Rules: My own hack of World of Dungeons: Turbo, which itself is a very rules-light Powered-by-the-Apocalypse hack. If you aren't familiar with WoD:T, or even with PbtA, don't worry. The entire rules system takes up slightly more than a page, and it's all going to be in the game forums for reference. If you can make about a half-dozen choices to fill in your character sheet, and if you can roll 2d6 and do some addition, then you'll be fine. Oh, you also have to be able to act like a cat.
Characters: The cats in Call of Catthulhu are mostly ordinary cats - no thumbs, no human-talk, nothing that special at all, except that they are cats, which means they are the center of the universe. And they also understand that cosmic horror is real, and not just some fairy tale like the dim-witted (but useful) humans think. Cat characters are simple - defined by four traits, a talent, and some obvious identifiers (breed, indoor or outdoor cat, etc).
Adult content/themes: Cosmic horror isn't always pretty. I don't intend for this to be an R-rated horror game - more PG-13. And I certainly don't intend for there to be any *ahem* mature cat-related activity.
Post Frequency and Game Duration: I'm going to say 4-posts/week. That's not quite every weekday, so there shouldn't be too much pressure. I want the post rate to be relaxed but still keep things moving. I intend for this to be a one-shot, not an ongoing campaign. I don't have a good feel for how long it will take as a play-by-post game, but it's a pretty straightforward adventure, so it shouldn't be too long as these things go.
Player Experience Requirements: You don't need to be familiar with the rules at all for this game. I do, however, expect a reasonable level of experience with cats. ;)
Inclusivity: Everyone is welcome in this game, just as all cats are welcome in this game world. I run my games as inclusive as I can (acknowledging that I'm and old white guy, and I can only do the best that I can), and I expect all my players to treat each other with respect. We're all cats here, and that means we're all awesome and fabulous.
How to join: State your intention to join here in this thread. I don't really have any qualifications for players, so it will mostly be first-come, first-served. However, priority will be given to anyone that posted in my previous "Interest Check" thread. I tend to get nervous as a GM (or "Cat Herder", as I'll be in this game) if I have more than 5 players, so that's kind of the upper limit I'm hoping for. But if there are one or two more people that just REALLY seem to have a good cat vibe, I'm willing to bend that limit.
When do we start? I'll give this recruitment about a week, or until I get 5 players, whichever comes first. Caveat: I'll be on vacation the week of May 29th. I hope to get all the players into the game forums before then so folks can start chatting about characters, but the game won't seriously get underway until June 6th.
Meow.
Need a little more information? Of course you do. You're an investigator at heart, right? So read on...
"Welcome to the real world... the world in which human civilization exists for the comfort of cats, in which incredibly ancient and powerful spirits vie for control of reality, in which only brave and clever felines have the wit and wherewithal to oppose grim and mystic cabals, and in which two-footed people live in blissful ignorance of all of these facts." - excerpt from the Nekonomicon by Joel Sparks
Rules: My own hack of World of Dungeons: Turbo, which itself is a very rules-light Powered-by-the-Apocalypse hack. If you aren't familiar with WoD:T, or even with PbtA, don't worry. The entire rules system takes up slightly more than a page, and it's all going to be in the game forums for reference. If you can make about a half-dozen choices to fill in your character sheet, and if you can roll 2d6 and do some addition, then you'll be fine. Oh, you also have to be able to act like a cat.
Characters: The cats in Call of Catthulhu are mostly ordinary cats - no thumbs, no human-talk, nothing that special at all, except that they are cats, which means they are the center of the universe. And they also understand that cosmic horror is real, and not just some fairy tale like the dim-witted (but useful) humans think. Cat characters are simple - defined by four traits, a talent, and some obvious identifiers (breed, indoor or outdoor cat, etc).
Adult content/themes: Cosmic horror isn't always pretty. I don't intend for this to be an R-rated horror game - more PG-13. And I certainly don't intend for there to be any *ahem* mature cat-related activity.
Post Frequency and Game Duration: I'm going to say 4-posts/week. That's not quite every weekday, so there shouldn't be too much pressure. I want the post rate to be relaxed but still keep things moving. I intend for this to be a one-shot, not an ongoing campaign. I don't have a good feel for how long it will take as a play-by-post game, but it's a pretty straightforward adventure, so it shouldn't be too long as these things go.
Player Experience Requirements: You don't need to be familiar with the rules at all for this game. I do, however, expect a reasonable level of experience with cats. ;)
Inclusivity: Everyone is welcome in this game, just as all cats are welcome in this game world. I run my games as inclusive as I can (acknowledging that I'm and old white guy, and I can only do the best that I can), and I expect all my players to treat each other with respect. We're all cats here, and that means we're all awesome and fabulous.
How to join: State your intention to join here in this thread. I don't really have any qualifications for players, so it will mostly be first-come, first-served. However, priority will be given to anyone that posted in my previous "Interest Check" thread. I tend to get nervous as a GM (or "Cat Herder", as I'll be in this game) if I have more than 5 players, so that's kind of the upper limit I'm hoping for. But if there are one or two more people that just REALLY seem to have a good cat vibe, I'm willing to bend that limit.
When do we start? I'll give this recruitment about a week, or until I get 5 players, whichever comes first. Caveat: I'll be on vacation the week of May 29th. I hope to get all the players into the game forums before then so folks can start chatting about characters, but the game won't seriously get underway until June 6th.
Meow.
Last edited June 3, 2022 2:10 am
