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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 12:32:21 GMT -8
So, I gave my group a list of game ideas I wanted to try and amongst them was Super Heros and Call of Cthulu Horror. As a joke, one of my players suggested Call of Cthulu Super Heroes, which immediately sparked my creativity.
Here's my pitch, keeping in mind I don;t own the books for this yet, but I have read the rules before from a friend's copy:
Build Normal investigators in the system, and give them each one low-level spell they can perform at will as a super power...the kicker being that something horrible and insanity draining STILL HAPPENS just like spellcasting would in normal Cthulhu games.
Then put them in situations that are extremely stressful or impossible for normal investigators to get themselves out of...or they could use thier powers and risk insanity or horrible fates to mess with them and thier loved ones.
Question for system vets...can the system handle this? Can the genre handle super heroes (as long as I keep the power levels low?), does this sound fun?
Thanks,
Shoe
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 20:26:56 GMT -8
So, I downloaded the BRP superheroes system and the Call of Cthulu 5th ED book tonight. None of the spells in the Call of Cthulhu book really lend themselves well to super powers, so I am leaning on the BRP "Superworld" book i downloaded, as well as inspiration from the elder gods. I'm leaning towards each of the PC's having a random "power"/spell that they can activate temporarily (sometimes voluntary, sometimes reactionary) that will cost sanity but grant them superpowers. These powers will of course be low level, and manifest in horrifying bodily transformations for the duration.
So I'm trying to decide how to balance characters, because BRP Supers book is not very good. Also I'm trying to decide what powers I want to use and how to flavor each to be creepy enough to work in the setting without being broken powerful.
So far I'm leaning towards: - A guy who can turn his face to tentacles and grapple foes, - a guy who can temporarily boost his strength but his arms turn to boils that look like Yog-Sothoth (http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/35496436), - Flying character with leathery bat wings, - Guy covered in flames?, - Phantom/Phasing power? - Baraka Like Claws (http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/109694/2105940-baraka.jpg) - Shapeshifter that can feel the bones and skin break and change during the shapeshift - Aquaman type who grows gills, webbed feet and the face of an Angler fish.
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Post by henryhankovitch on Nov 20, 2013 19:57:21 GMT -8
I would go with an escalating set of consequences for the powers. Rather than something the PCs have chosen, their powers come from some hidden secret in their heritage, like a Deep One hybrid. At first, they just seem like normal people who notice unusual abilities--wow, I can fly! But by using their powers they're unwittingly embracing their heritage. As their powers grow, give them a few SAN hits for using them. Once they've gotten used to that idea, stop giving them the SAN hits and see who notices.
Then, make the transformations become more permanent. The guy who can grow leathery, regenerating scales notices he has patches of scaly skin that don't go away. The guy who can read minds begins to hear thoughts from things that aren't there. Start giving them plotlines that lead back to their own, unknown origins. What's this about Great-Grandad stealing some Mesopotamian manuscripts from the university library? Give them the chance to become monsters and see who sprints headlong into it. And in the end it may be inevitable: Johnny WILL answer the call to return to the depths of the sea...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2013 5:31:42 GMT -8
that's directly along the lines I was thinking...I love the idea of SAN loss stopping after a while without explination.
I also wanted to try to be sure that thier powers never manifested around Non-PC's that lived. If no one believes that they are superheroes and they all think they are crazy, i think that would serve well.
I also like the idea of them maybe, in the end, being half-something-from-the-mythos and returning to the world under the sea.
I;ve already started to pick out spells from the book i think would make good superpowers. The shapeshifting power that has a permenant effect until it is used again is GREAT!
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Post by Kainguru on Nov 22, 2013 3:45:47 GMT -8
Read 'Zenith' phases 3 and 4 . . . Cthulhu mythos meets super heroes Aaron
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2013 9:44:55 GMT -8
Read 'Zenith' phases 3 and 4 . . . Cthulhu mythos meets super heroes Aaron Read a summary...cool idea I need to read that. I want to go for something a little more Horror-ish, but its still a sweet approach. Definitely a good inspiration. Thanks! -Shoe
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sbloyd
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Post by sbloyd on Nov 22, 2013 20:05:35 GMT -8
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Post by stork on Nov 23, 2013 11:08:43 GMT -8
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D.T. Pints
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JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
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Post by D.T. Pints on Nov 23, 2013 13:36:18 GMT -8
Then there is Pelgrane Press: Cthulhu Apocalypse Living in a post "even death may die" world. Definitely need to be a bit of a super hero for that one.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 7:06:35 GMT -8
So, Here is the idea I am currently running with for the game:
I'm going to build 8 characters - 2 for each player, one as a child (teenager? 14 or so?) and one as an adult (18-20 ish?). As children the players will not yet have powers, and all live in an orphanage. They will be dared by a 5th kid to go into the mansion of a reclusive old man. As players explore the mansion, the man of the house is "out", but really he has delved a little too far into the Mythos and accidentally summoned a shapeshifting creature that has taken his form and uses the house for his home base.
As the players explore, they will stumble into a room that contains 4 insect-like statues that will animate and burrow beneath thier skin, this will be the event that grants them thier powers. Hopefully this will scare the shit out of them and make them leave the house. I may even have them all pass out from it an wake up the next morning in thier beds in the orphanage.
Cut to several years later when they are grown enough to leave the orphanage.
Next dissappearances of townsfolk will have been happening, and the players will hopefully give a crap for some reason I have yet to decide (maybe have the four of them start a Private Investigative agency as thier career...seems a little forced). They will track the dissappearances down to an old abandoned gold mine (leaning towards this being somewhere in CAlifornia in the 1920-30's). There will be a small gathering of cultists sacrificing the latest victim for an unknown reason. When/if the players are noticed they will have the chance to use thier powers (but involuntarily for the first time so they know they got them, and possibly they will self-activate due to proximity to mythos stuff). The cultists will try and excape and cause a cave in, whihc can only be excaped by the Super Strength character.
An aside about the powers: I have decided I want to base the powers off of the four great old ones that are considered by the rules to be most active, and I am a little inspired by a Horror version of the Fantastic Four after looking through it. The entities are:
Nyarlathotep (Mr. Fantastic) - Shapeshifter Cthulhu (the Thing) - Super STrong, Flies, Tentacles. Cthugha (commands Fire Vampires (Human Torch) - Fire control - possibly also add in vampire traits Hastur - This one is less obvious so I may not use it. Flying Polyps are invisible, have tentavles and can fly which would be a cool invisible woman analog. But I wonder if this isn't TOOO much of a rip off of the FF at that point.
Anyway, from the cultists' possessions, they will be able to link the cult back to something they remember seeing in the old man's house 5 years ago and go to investigate tthere again after they escape the cave-in.
At this point, I want to have the old man actually be a GUG who shapeshifts into a man during the day, and haas a cult of followers in the town that sacrifice humans for him to later consume. If the players explore the mansion, they will intreague the creature who will skulk in shadows, watching them, but not attacking initially. It will try its best to be only seen breifly, but wants the players to know something is watching.
Assuming they explore the whole house, in the basement will be the original old man, dead and decomposed for 5-6 years with a manuscript that explains how to summon and contain a GUG (and the containment part is written wrong).
When they discover the body in the basement, then the gug will either attack and try to kill them or appear to them and try to drive them to insanity so they can't do much more than babble.
What do you all think?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 7:13:44 GMT -8
A few notes as an afterthought
-Gug's are 20'tall, probably need to pick a different monster - The players need to have an encounter or 2 with bad-guy humans that arent cultists to show how horrifyinly maddening the use of thier powers is to normal people - I want to use the idea that the players' pwoers first cause sanity loss, the stop causing sanity loss because they get used to it, but thier bodies slowly transform permanantly into monsters from the dream world that are trying to use them as portals to the mortal plane and force them into the dream world forever.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 7:18:59 GMT -8
I think Elder THings would be a good choice here, they experiment on humans and with DNA, so they could have created the bugs to give humans powers/act as a portal for more sinister lords and thus there could be failed experiments instead of sacrifices that the cult is doing in the mine and there could also be failed experiments with warped powers for the players to fight in the mansion too if I wanted a couple of fights VS supernatural things.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 7:21:04 GMT -8
UPDATE ON POWERS:
Nyarlathotep (Mr. Fantastic) - Shapeshifter Cthulhu (the Thing) - Super STrong, Face Tentacles. This player will undergo a faster transformation into a horror Cthugha (Human Torch) - Fire control/form Hastur (Silver Surfer) - Flight (Space FLight)
Other Options I may use, making one for each of the Great Old Ones:
ATLACH-NACHA - (Spider-Man) BOKRUG - (Namor or the Lizard) Tough Hide, swallow whole, spines and webbed feet, breathe water ITHAQUA - Wind Control/Ice? EIHORT - Regeneration
Less useful great old ones:
CHAUGNAR FAUGN - Charm and Blood Drain CYAEGHA - Tentacles and one eye - Not condusive to powers really GHATANOTHOA - Petrification Touch GLAAKI - Spines NYOGTHA - Darkness Control QUACHIL UTTAUS - Not condusive to powers RHAN-TEGOTH - Not condusive to powers SHUDDE M'ELL - Siesmic Control TSATHOGGUA - Not condusive to pwoers Y'GOLONAC - Not good for powers Yig - Snakes YOG-SOTHOTH - Time travel? ZHAR ZOTH-OMMOG
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