|
Post by Probie Tim on Dec 7, 2017 12:28:47 GMT -8
I find my character's inevitable descent into madness and/or gruesome death a huge emotional let-down. As a long-time CoC GM, I find that to be a symptom of the GM trying too hard to stick to Lovecraftian stories. For stories, it's awesome to watch the protagonist lose his or her mind, or get torn to bits by a Thing Man Was Not Meant To Know. For RPGs, though, I think it gets a little tedious to have character after character wind up insane or dead. I feel that there are no meaningful choices I can make to avoid these outcomes, except to run away. I think that's something the GM needs to adjust for. I mean, if you wind up going toe-to-toe with Great Cthulhu himself, yeah, you run away or die. Probably run away and die. But there are scads and scads and scads of more mundane cutists and horrors the PCs can deal with long before they get to the point of no return. Honestly, sanity losses for everything is, I think, the one failing of the core CoC system. In early editions, you lost sanity if you saw a murdered corpse. Personally, I save sanity loss for things which should actually cause sanity loss. It really helps to stretch out the campaign. Also, BRP can be quite deadly; the last few times I've run Call, I've used Call of Cthulhu d20... yeah, yeah, vomit all you want at the fact it's a d20 game, but it's a really good implementation of the d20 rules. It works. If I were going to run it again, I'd probably look at Realms of Cthulhu (I think? The Savage Worlds Cthulhu.)
|
|
|
Post by ericfromnj on Dec 7, 2017 12:57:26 GMT -8
I am curious is it the system or the setting? Hi ericfromnj The system is fine, I actually like the mechanics. Though I am not a fan of gore-fest style horror, I don't generally mind psychological thrillers and tense drama. With only two exceptions so far, my CofC forays have been less than enjoyable. While the subject matter makes sense narratively, I find my character's inevitable descent into madness and/or gruesome death a huge emotional let-down. I feel that there are no meaningful choices I can make to avoid these outcomes, except to run away. Perhaps my level of gaming sophistication is inadequate or my understanding of the genre is fundamentally flawed. That I have had two enjoyable sessions indicates it's not the material's fault. cheers CinC Or you just might not like it which is fine. I was just curious if you had played with the BRP system before.
|
|
bobcatt
Apprentice Douchebag
Patron
An infinite number of monkeys can't be wrong...
Posts: 81
Preferred Game Systems: AD&D 1e, 2e, 5e, Top Secret/S.I., Classic Traveller
Currently Playing: nothing at all :-(
Currently Running: completely stalled doing 5e via Roll20
Favorite Species of Monkey: Barrel of
|
Post by bobcatt on Dec 10, 2017 9:59:28 GMT -8
I was playing Trail of Cthulhu yesterday and, in the end, everyone ran away. But it didn't matter since we were all doomed to die screaming in agony within 6 months if we didn't allow ourselves to be reborn as slimy worm-like things in a sacrificial ceremony within a neolithic stone ring in the Lake District.
Really hoping to see how the Gumshoe system worked but the only die rolls we made were for Stability loss.
CinC, done with CoC
|
|
|
Post by ayslyn on Dec 10, 2017 10:57:46 GMT -8
There is no winning in any thematically accurate Cthulhu game. It’s all about the slow (sometimes) descent into madness and/or death.
Think of it like a good Chinese drama. Things can’t end well for the protagonists. However, instead of the beauty of tragedy that a Chinese drama would embrace, Cthulhu is about embracing the horror of it.
There is no fighting the overwhelming cosmic forces.
Except, maybe Delta Green....
|
|
|
Post by ericfromnj on Dec 10, 2017 12:00:37 GMT -8
There is no winning in any thematically accurate Cthulhu game. It’s all about the slow (sometimes) descent into madness and/or death. Think of it like a good Chinese drama. Things can’t end well for the protagonists. However, instead of the beauty of tragedy that a Chinese drama would embrace, Cthulhu is about embracing the horror of it. There is no fighting the overwhelming cosmic forces. Except, maybe Delta Green.... Oh we died horribly there too
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2017 15:43:03 GMT -8
The system is fine, I actually like the mechanics. Though I am not a fan of gore-fest style horror, I don't generally mind psychological thrillers and tense drama. With only two exceptions so far, my CofC forays have been less than enjoyable. While the subject matter makes sense narratively, I find my character's inevitable descent into madness and/or gruesome death a huge emotional let-down. I feel that there are no meaningful choices I can make to avoid these outcomes, except to run away. Perhaps my level of gaming sophistication is inadequate or my understanding of the genre is fundamentally flawed. That I have had two enjoyable sessions indicates it's not the material's fault. cheers CinC I would have to say that I think people who've had a bad time with CoC have had either a problem with expectations or with a GM who thinks it should be some kind of slaughter fest.I think some of it is, in my opinion, horror is hard to run for a lot of people. I think part of it is it's hard to cause a sense of dread in a player - their character sheets put a buffer in between the player and the character. I was listening to John Wick talk about the difference between horror and dark fantasy, and I think that description plays in: horror is the movie Alien, where your only concern is escape, and dark fantasy is Aliens, where you will and can fight the monster successfully even if it is with a high body count. A lot of CoC GMs in my experience have tried to run it and you run into a situation where you can't escape and yet you can't even remotely put up a defense, leading to a pretty blah experience.YMMV. I apologize for being ranty. Starting to get the flu and that always makes me want to write, and be incohesive.
|
|
|
Post by ericfromnj on Dec 10, 2017 18:20:00 GMT -8
Like I said, if you don't like it you don't like it. That's cool. I love it so much I have done 1920's horror LARP. (Hell, that was my gateway into LARP, now I wear the funny fantasy outfits - DAMN HORROR LARP!) It's not for everyone, though, and I believe you have to be a little bit of a masochist to like it...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2017 22:48:28 GMT -8
Fate. The cognitive load of looking for compels is just too much. The game just doesn’t work without the fate point economy, and for the economy to be strong you need to have a good amount of compels. While I haven’t hit double digit numbers for the number of sessions played, I can’t bring myself to play more in the hopes that one day it will click.
|
|
tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
|
Post by tomes on Dec 11, 2017 12:43:08 GMT -8
Fiasco. I've played and enjoyed it. I want to like it enough to run it. But I just can't get over the hump of figuring out how to run and teach it. I don't have this problem with many other games, but Fiasco has just stumped me. I'm totally not motivated at all to figure it out, despite my love for hippie games.
|
|
|
Post by ayslyn on Dec 11, 2017 14:16:35 GMT -8
Fiasco. I've played and enjoyed it. I want to like it enough to run it. But I just can't get over the hump of figuring out how to run and teach it. I don't have this problem with many other games, but Fiasco has just stumped me. I'm totally not motivated at all to figure it out, despite my love for hippie games. I am confused. It was my understanding that you don’t “run” Fiasco. That it was a GMless game.
|
|
|
Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Dec 11, 2017 14:46:19 GMT -8
ayslyn Yes, there's no GM, but being the person who knows how to run things and get it rolling makes at least one person the de facto referee.
|
|
tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
|
Post by tomes on Dec 11, 2017 21:40:34 GMT -8
It was my understanding that you don’t “run” Fiasco. That it was a GMless game. Facilitating ("running") a GMless game is its own type of skill and art, just like running a good "story game" (read: heavy player story-contributed GM-based game) or running a good "trad game" (read: traditional RPG where the players only control the character and nothing more). That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
|
|