OOC

For out of game chatter

I'm posting character details as notes in your own threads to keep them private. Please create characters and use the details from the sheets, adding your own details. name gender etc.

Whipped a character up, Including a bit of a backstory. Let me know if I transposed something wrong.

Can't wait to get started!

Outstanding Geni - thank you!

I've changed the plan slightly to keep it at four players. Hopefully that will keep the pace needed for a one shot.

Ok three characters submitted. Just waiting for Lunitar

Sorry working some long hours, working on it now.

No worries, just wasn't sure you'd seen it. OK everyone ready?

Indeed

Do the PC's all know each other?

I'm guessing yes, but like room mates, not friends?

Well we all live in the same building, and at the very least you would know the landlord...

A roll of 100 is like a critical fail...... let the insanity begin!!

If you look at the notes on your character description, it tells you exactly what you know (or suspect) about the other tenants. Unless otherwise stated, you are not friends. Note the Beat Cop and Tough Guy are not present so ignore mention of them.

I'm loving the setup of characters. I'll try to hold back until everyone posts if I can but if we can get a daily run going it'll be great. I'm recording successful skill rolls as that is how experience is calculated, in case these characters go on to have further careers, survival and sanity permitting!

Great!

I'm sorry, I got mixed up: the roll in question is the Spot Hidden Roll, not the First Aid.
So how does that work? My roll was 23% off. Do I spend out of my pool of 35 Luck Points?

Yes I figured it was the Spot Hidden (although the First Aid was not a Hard success it was a normal and yielded results, as such could not be pushed)
Yes, the additional points needed would come from your luck pool. 23 is a lot to blow in one go and might be better used in a more desperate situation. You could push and try the roll again but failing that can give worse consequences. Alternatively you could always call on another boarder for a second opinion on the body

Will be up to my neck in work for the next 48 hrs.

Couldn't help it: made a quickie post. Now I really will be unable to post for two days so Knifesedgegames fell free to just move Karabekian akong if necessary. Thanks!

No worries. Il try not to kill anyone for a couple of days

I promise not to kill you and hide your body... a little stabbing and Chloroform though...

Storming in California at the moment and the internet has been shoddy, so not sure how active I'm going to be able to be while it's raining.

Main game thread was locked so I couldn't roll there. In the event I hold up the game, feel free to move me forward.

Ahcrap sorry sometimes my phone locks the thread

*everyone fails their saves*
*Karabekian saves*

Yeah I sent Keleth some cake. LOL!

Me too, Larry saved

I must have said something that upset him... Maybe I should make a donation...

This isn't a complaint, after all the point of CoC is to watch your PC die horribly, but I think I have flat out failed every roll I made on the first roll, despite having better than even odds of making all of them...

Lol. I understand.

Makes for an interesting game! I'm surprised Mark hasn't died horribly already as punishment for his bad parenting ;)

Ok, that was a lot of fun! I did my experience rolls in
my own character creation thread

I know this is supposed to be a one-shot but I would love to continue if that's an option! :-)

Excellent! I enjoyed it too! I'd be happy to roll onto another scenario, maybe The Haunting that appears in the current book if anyone is interested/hasn't played it. Alternatively, I have a few other options.

I'd enjoy another one!

Great that's two!

Yeah it was pretty fun, and I wouldn't mind a chance to do more then spend an entire scene stunned!

Ha!

Incidentally if any of you would prefer having your own new characters rather than the pregens I'm happy to oblige. That is except Karabekian, who is simply awesome in my book.

Nah, to me the point of this game is to go mad and die, this character has a pretty good head start on that!

I need to at least trip Karabekian! I'll keep Larry.

OK, next up is Luck. Everyone make an improvement check on Luck. Roll above your current Luck and you can add another 1d10 to your current score.

I'm going randomly generate the months that have passed before the next incident

I'd also like to know what each character is doing in the 4 months since the incident at the lodgings. It may involve training a particular skill, reading or researching something, buying something, finding new work or just living your life! ~~Use your character thread for this.

Also seeking therapy might be an option following this traumatic experience.

As we're continuing with these characters I'd like to flesh out backgrounds a little so I'll be calling for a series of rolls on your character thread shortly

I just have to do the background stuff for mark and Valentin tomorrow then we can get started on the next scenario.mis very one happy with The Haunting, the sample one in the rule book or have you guys played/read it?

Haven't read or done.

Same boat as Lunitar, usually scrolled quickly past it to avoid spoilers.

Unless they're reusing content from old editions then I think I won't know anything in it.

Great. I've posted on all your character posts so once that is dealt with , i'll get it started.

I'm sorry, I hadn't been following the other Investigators' character generation threads, and so didn't realize the bookstore in Providence was my shop, and that the "son of a gun" was me! Only realized after I went and read Larry's thread. Will post in a little bit. :-)

Ha! Sorry thought it was implied!

I'd been meaning to post that in the intervening months, Larry had started his own PI operation and was in regular contact with the Bookseller, plus you all live under the same roof so are still on speaking terms, perhaps even closer thanks to the trauma you went through together.

I don't know how sincere Getz is in considering Karabekian his friend but based on the familiarity with which he burst into the shop and greeted Karabekian I'm inferring that at least outwardly he's in earnest.

I'm playing it like Karabekian doesn't like Getz all that much but has in spite of this enjoyed helping out with the cases. He will of course be impeccably polite towards Larry.

Don't get him wrong, he uses friend loosely. He feels he saved your hide and you should owe him a debt of gratitude, also, you seemed into the freaky stuff and for that he needs you, someone to talk about that stuff with.

Wait, I have a car?

I hope so, lol

I want the back seat!

Another hectic weekend at work + I'm coming down with something. Probably won't be hearing from me til Sunday.

Is the door locked? Seemed like Karabekian recoiled when he heard the noise and so the knob hasn't actually been tried yet?

correct

Lunitar wants to use Luck or maybe a Push because Larry very nearly succeeded in kickibg it down. If that still doesn't get the door open, Karabekian is goibg to calmly try and turn the knob.

FYI new player.character joining the fun imminently

Hello everyone, I will be playing as Captain James Harper an ex army medic and Doctor of Medicine. He is very knowledgable about science and medicine. I thought that he might be friends with one of your characters and that you might have called him for his medical expertise. Does that sound good to anyone?

Well given what's just happened to Luis that's a great hook for getting you into the game. If you want you can know Marc and he can call you in...

Welcome, Arina! Doctor Harper will be a great addition to the team! Following Knifesedgegames' suggestion I've played it so Karabekian and Harper are old friends.

Perfect. See you in game 'old boy'.

I see you preempted me. Indeed, the Captain knows Karabekian so I'll let you guys hash out the details.

I would just throw in that theCaptain now lives near central Boston.

And incidentally, if anyone wants more Cthulhu action, Arina is looking to run a game too http://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/5392/

Oops! I simply worked from your secret note. Didn't mean to overstep.

No, not at all. I'm happy everyone is taking the initiative!

Thanks for the plug. Yeah I am looking for one more player before we set off.

Hi everyone! Sorry for the extended absence. That was my first vacation in years! I'm back now, and looking forward to slowly getting caught up with all my games. Cheers!

Awesome!!

As posted in the Absences thread:

On holiday til 6th June so not likely to post

As posted in the Absences thread:

Whew that was rough! Turned out to be more like 60hrs. But I'm back and eager to get caught up! :-)

Regarding language skills

I have found a rule regarding this I'd not seen before. If your Own language skill is 50% you have a 10% bonus in other languages from the same group (EG for English - German and Dutch)

If you have higher than 90% you get an additional 10% in those languages. Please amend your sheets accordingly

I'm assuming Greek isn't in the same group as English. :-D

Afraid not!

Stunned silence ???

Waiting for Marc's CON roll. Or can anyone act? Karabekian eould attempt First Aid, maybe. Or drag Marc away and GTFO.

Happy for you or Larry to act. Even if stays conscious he's in danger and the knife is still floating.

What the? I thought I replied to this! So sorry! I'm glad Marc is coming around on his own.

This is heard audibly? We are hearing this command being given to Marc?

No that was supposed to be part of a private note, but I think the tag didn't work correctly. You did not hear this.

hear what?

I just came across this. H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu inspired music (spotify playlist). Good stuff!

I've added some new handouts, particularly following Karabekian's library trip, so scroll back and take a look. (Wish I knew about these sooner!)

Also added the Will that you saw at the Hall of Records. To save you scrolling, here it is.

A visit to the police station abd further investigation of the church were among my intended activities during the interim. As stated here.

I concur :) Was waiting for Karabekian to pipe up that he planned to do that this week :)

Well then he'll go with Lukas and Larry. Now that Getz is a P.I. he'll probably be the best person to take the lead there.

I think Larry might be a little preoccupied this week :)

Study a little harder Larry!

For anyone interested in more horror based shenanigans, our new friend Santouche is looking for players

https://gamerwsplane.com/forums/thread/7390/

Forgive me, but this result means I lose 1 Sanity point, right?

Yes Jabes, Lukas passed so lost only one, but your roll was 1 so lost the same.

As posted to the Absences Thread:

So what's next? Do you guys want to roll this into a full on campaign or perhaps another small one shot? Or has everyone had enough?

I'll keep going, I am going on vacation Friday-Tuesday and internet may not be there, so will post if able.

You’ve not missed much .. still waiting to hear on others .

Sorry I missed the question the first time round...

I’d be fine to go to a full campaign or do another one shot

Sorry for my silence. Those of you who are in other games with me know I've been struggling lately to find time and energy for gaming (more the latter than the former) but I would really like to continue here. :-)

No worries Jabes. Any preference for one shot or full campaign?

OK, given the lack of preference from players I'd like to propose a one shot, a scenario released only last week from Chaosium's Cult of Chaos, entitled The Dreaming Ward. In the event that you'd read the scenario, speak up, otherwise we'll get started soon.

KJ (Lukas) has gone AWOL so I'll give him a week to respond. We also have a new player joining the group, WalkerofSorrow, character to be introduced soon.

I'd also like to give an opportunity to existing characters to do something specific to recover san, read books, train etc, as you wish. Focus on one thing will yield results.

Karabekian would have reacted to his recent experience by spending a huge chunk of his time reading up on ghosts and hauntings and such (in much the same way that he reacted to the dead boarder by poring over the Book of Dreams and trying to learn all he could about Yog Sothoth). I can't recall, is he still in possession of that book? Now as to the other book he found, the one written in Greek, he would definitely have tried to get it translated.

The Book of Dreams is the one in Greek (the other book is a primer in Greek Vocab)

There are a few reasons he'll be unable to get it translated: he doesn't trust anyone enough to leave the book for any length of time, if the book could be translated, little would be gained as most would be lost in translation, the translator might be driven mad..etc...Learning Greek might be the easiest answer. It will take time but seems the best route. I'll be posting a house rule on learning languages shortly.

That sounds very much like Karabekian!

Wasn't there another book that was found in The Haunting thar Karabekian couldn't read?

Actually, you have 46% already, so could try to make sense of it without further training. Given a successful read Greek roll, he could study for 15 weeks to get the full benefit.

From The Haunting you have a tome called Liber Ivonis "an enormous volume,
handwritten in Latin, but so rotten and wormeaten that whole sections no longer can be understood.", written in Latin (found in the burnt out Chapel of Contemplation) as well as the Corbitt Diaries, which Larry has been studying.

As for reading up on ghosts etc, Karabekian is still banned from the University (though there might be a little job on the horizon that will help repair his standing.) so his research options are limited.

Ah it was that Latin one I was misremembering! Karabekian would make every effort to restore that.

Greek roll below to possibly glean more knowledge from the Book of Dreams.

Still banned from the University! Damn that Thomas Jeffrey! Karabekian will scour the books in his own shop first but gets desperate and attempts to go to the library incognito.

Larry wants to study the spell he found if we have 2 weeks

OK there's a 4 month break in game time.

Larry - Hard Int roll please

In the following few months, Karabekian dives deep into the Book of Dreams. He's never read anything like it before.

He finds within several spells, that he could learn if he so chose, after his initial 15 study of the main content.

Sanity roll please

The Book of Dreams
Greek, 1658, author unknown monk
• Sanity Loss: 1D6
• Cthulhu Mythos: +2/+4 percentiles
• Mythos Rating: 18
• Study: 15 weeks
• Spells: Prepare Te Body (Flesh Ward variant), Travel To
Dream Lands (Mind Transfer variant)

What is Marc doing during this period?

We might need to lose Lukas (KJ seems to have gone awol) but we have a new player joining the group, making it 4. I'll give him another few days to respond.

Larry has successfully learned the spell, Call Forth The Opener of Ways.

Karabekian - No Sanity loss . Gain 4 points of Mythos

Note that you can use this book for research into any particular Mythos Subject. This book has an 18% chance of having information on any given subject.

Cthulhu Mythos now at 10% What do I do to learn those spells?

Remember your max sanity goes down by one for every Mythos point. Learning the spell will take another several weeks.

Hi everyone! Sorry, I'm doing my best to catch up.

Is Larry doing anything else during this rest period?

OK looks like KJ hasn't responded, so I'll let Lukas go, so all that remains is anything else for Larry to do in the intervening time and Marc.

And do we invite someone else, or is 4 the sweet spot?

Ok decided to keep it to four, so anything Larry and Marc are doing in the intervening time, now would be good time, otherwise, I’ll crack on.

Alrighty, well, I think I'm set, so just let me know when to step in and how, bearing in mind this is my first Call of Cthulhu experience.

After finally getting out of the hospital Marc spends most of his time reconecting with his son, having been hospitalised some distance from the child, who had to stay for some time with his aunt. Marc will also spend some time trying to get to grips with the strangeness they’ve encountered. Either with Karabakains help or otherwise. (Training Occult knowledge).

During Marc's downtime he spend time with his son. As you key connection, you can make a sanity roll with a bonus die (roll 1d100 and a bonus of 1d10, using the second as tens if a better result.)

In addition, reading some Occult books suggested by Karabekian (who seems absorbed by his book on Dreams) you can make an improvement roll for Occult.

Can I have Luck rolls from Marc, Karabekian and Larry

I’m pretty sure it was his art stuff that was his key connection, so I guess it’s just 1d100...

Ah ok, I looked on your sheet but didn’t see mention of it. That’s fine though.

Gain 1d10 occult.

I’ll deal with the rest once we have everyone’s luck rolls in

I think all of that is only on his character creation thread...

Despite the financial problems in the USA, for Karabekian, business is good. A growing interest in the Occult has brought many to his doors and he sees an increase in his cash flow. (+1d10 Credit Rating)

Marc manages to start selling a few paintings to local galleries, giving him some much needed income (+1d10 Credit Rating.)

Things are not going so well for Larry Getz. Not many clients for the last few months (-1d10 Credit Rating)

Marc also gains 1d6 Sanity for his time spent with his son.

Ok Larry let’s have a library use roll and a firearm training roll. Given the short time, I’ll give a 1d4 training roll if you pass for firearms.

I’ve already done the sanity roll, time for the credits...

Library and firearm

OK, both failed, so no increase in Firearms, and no grimoires to be found this period.

Great, I think that's everything?

I've copied the details onto your sheet, just to make it simpler for me.

New game thread.

https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/8685/

FYI I've started posting info on your various contacts in a new thread.

Just let me know when to get involved, and how I should introduce myself.

Looking forward to your intro, Walker!

Karabekian actually knows James Charles Wilson. He's a regular customer in the book store with an interest in the occult. Might be a good candidate to join you on your mission?

Ah, I think I have a lead I can write on, then. Would a letter or telegram make more sense, given the distance?

As regular visitor to Karabekian's book store in Providence, you'll likely have a reason to visit regularly so more likely he will invite in person.

Been super busy, and somewhat unexpectedly. So sorry for not dropping note before disappearing. Will post before the weekend's over. Thanks!

Just checking you are all aware the new scenario has started....Larry and Marc, you're up.

Away for a few days, back next week

I'd really like to know OOC what's going on with the others. If Knife is concerned about metagaming, or if the other players prefer to keep their scenes private, then no worries, I won't insist. But just putting it out there that if there are scenes of mind-shattering horror going on I'd love to witness them! I am putting Karabekian's scene in spoiler boxes.

You're not missing a great deal, but I feel it does add to the tensionand paranoia if you are unaware that someone else has been taken over by a Mi-Go :)

OK I've edited the notes to spoilers. I'll be round later Jabes to teach you how to make a cake ;)

I feel like I might have offended you. I sincerely apologize if I have. If it sounded like I was trying to tell you how to GM, I assure you that was not my intention! I only meant to express my interest in seeing all scenes as a way of saying that I am interested in the story you are telling. You are right about the importance of not knowing whether someone has been taken over. Again, I'm very sorry if I've overstepped.

It's all good Jabes, I'm just joking with you! If you want to see it, that's fine :)

Things will slow down over the next few days. Hope to get things on tracks next week

I'll be away til friday so may not be posting until then.

I'll be away til friday so may not be posting until then.

Thanks for the heads up!

Back now. Had an awesome time in Scotland!

Welcome back!

Great! 56% of my ancestral home, lol

This being my first ever CoC game, I'm not sure how to interpret and roleplay the Sanity score. Karabekian is currently at 35/93. How crazy is he? At what point is one stark raving mad?

Essentially, yo have two stages of insanity - temporary, which may occur if you lose a certain amount in one go and indefinite if you lose a certain % of your total in a given day. You will be informed if that occurs, along with the process and though at 35 you might be fraying somewhat, you are not suffering any major effects yet.
Stark raving mad is once you hit 0

That's very helpful. Thanks!
Now, take a gander at this menu item from somewhere in Louisiana.

Nice!

This is the current state of your sanity, along with what it will take to push you over, so when K hits 8, the REAL fun begins..

Totals so far + threshold for indef insanity today
Larry 4 (8 threshold)
Marc 6 (12 threshold)
Karabekian 6 (8 threshold)

I'll be on holiday from this Saturday until the following weekend and I'm likely to be completely off the grid, so we'll be on hold until I return. Sorry for those games in mid combat!

Aaaand back!

Welcome back!

Welcome back!

Thanks folks. Had such a good time, we're planning to go again next year :)

New Cthulhu coming - Flotsam and Jetsam.

I'm starting a new campaign using the new organise play adventures by Chaosium, where the investigators work for Strange but True!

STRANGE BUT TRUE! is a weekly newspaper publishing "true" accounts of the bizarre, the weird, and the frankly unbelievable. Elijah Cleaver, the chief editor and publisher, may have a taste for the outlandish, but he knows that the world is filled with darker secrets than most of his readers could care to imagine. When he can, he uses the resources of his newspaper and its loose network of investigators to uncover the truth and present it to an incredulous readership. Whether or not such investigations result in a publishable story, Cleaver hopes to, at least, make the world a safer place.

As with A Time to Harvest, this game will be episodic, though I suspect the release of new episodes will be faster than we can play through. Having said that, I want players that can post at least every couple of days and I will be giving priority to players in my existing games, before offering it up to the 'hoi polloi'.

Let me know asap if you're interested.