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I can always imagine the Old One pact Warlock going "Oh god..." party goes "What's wrong?" "...my Patron is HERE!? No, no, no, no, no, no...NOPE! NOOOOPE!"
That's only on the third tuesday though, I think it's because he aligned those ten pebbles on his path that second monday on a sunny day while having berries in his porridge instead of honey.
My Fighter with a story-forced Warlock dip has a GOO patron. Entirely unbidden, I'm RPing him as slowly losing his mind, and turning a bit batty. Then again, sleeping only 2 hours a night (without Exhaustion, because of a Ring of Sustenance) while already not having a full deck probably isn't very helpful. I'm so excited to see what'll happen next. It's great fun, seeing as nobody in the party bothered to ask him HOW he was suddenly able to poke them in the brain. I suppose dying and being brought back to life through a deal with a mystic being like that will make one lose their marbles a bit.
The problem is that Eastern Incomprehensible Elder Horror is still used as the go-to standard in textbooks and courses, specifically the Arkham dialect. Yes, Arkham is the cosmopolitan center of the Incomprehensible Elder Horror culture, I know; but the rural and lower Incomprehensible Elder Horror dialects are the voice of the real people, the deepest of deep speech.
Imagine playing a character that went insane after reading the Necronomicon and your "insane quarks" were things you knew you had to do in order to survive. Crawling backwards through a building infested by horrors is crazy to an outside observer, but it might have been based off of information gleaned from your readings.
1) it's just kinda nice to see Jim not be the expert in the conversation 2) there should always (well usually) be 1 or 2 survivors per adventure in Call of Cthulhu to string adventures together and create a cohesive narrative (and because some Chaosium modules have sequels) 3) Carcosa was invented before Lovecraft started writing. Lovecraft not only encouraged others to write in his universe he wrote the King in Yellow into his universe cause he loved the collection of short stories so much
You guys are the best, bar none! The production is great, sound quality is up there, you can tell this is a genuine friendship with videos on real debates and topics a growing or veteran DM would be interested in. Toss in the live plays on twitch and this is my number 1 watched channel on RU-vid, and if you remove Preacher and My Hero Academia, My most watched thing period. lol
A game I would love to run some time is a standard DND game that is strongly influenced by cosmic horror. But, rather than being insignificant in the scene of things, because of how DND works, the players would be slowly turning into great ones as they level up. Eventually at really high level, I would have they players look in a mirror, only to see that they have become just like that which has been terrorizing the entire world.
I have done this, used the variable stat Sanity. The players had to roll that when they witnessed something from the farrealm. But it worked well, you have lean heavy on your on descriptions and tone to make it scary and other worldly. I created my own monsters called Nephroqi.
I watched some of Seth’s stuff for DnD but not any CoC. It’d be cool since he’s not one of the big names (probably cuz his name is not easy to remember!) but he could use the recognition by these guys.
I was watching this video at 11:00 at night, and that doorbell at 1:45 scared the ever-loving **** out of me and my dogs! We all thought it was my front door opening!
An important point about Call of Cthulhu vs. D&D is that end of a successful campaign in the later is like "hey we saved the world but maybe we are sad cause one of us died in doing so" while the former is "one of us is frothing at the mouth permanently in an asylum and the rest are torn asunder and souls devoured to buy humanity 20 more years". I've seen people have problems adjust to that difference.
Not sure why I would be in Austin Texas at any point in my like. but if I ever did I would want to check out Tribe just on the off chance I would meet you guys.
When you guys were talking about the temporary insanity, and the slow descent into madness and all that, i couldnt help but think of Darkest Dungeon. The way that the game is designed, it revolves around the sanity of your heroes. You have to keep them alive in a fight but all wounds heal when you arrive back in town, but psychological trauma sticks around and must be solved with booze, or prayer, or whatever. Great game, hard, with nice eldritch horror tones
Thank you so much for doing a video on CoC. I've only played with one group, for about 10 sessions and it was SO COOL! For more examples of how unforgiving CoC can be... We went for 4 sessions with nothing going wrong. We were uncovering a mystery and found out about a 'dimensional shambler' that some old guy had summoned decades ago and had been imbued with eternal un-life and was beneath his house. The 'unlife' bestowed on him came from an amulet he wore. When we came across the guy, he attacked and my character grabbed hold of the amulet and tried to pull it off. I failed that roll and it was the monsters' turn. The monster got whats called an "imaple" which, if you've played earlier editions of D&D, is like confirming a crit. But an impale is when you get a critical success on a critical success. My throat was immediately torn out and I was dead. Bam. Just like that. My second character straight up just bled out. We got attacked by some invisible thing and my guy (a martial artist) went to defend a fellow investigator and got carved up bad. Our doctor failed all three First Aid rolls to save my life on our way to the hospital (ironic, huh?) and there goes character number two. Always remember that in CoC, you're just some human. No powers, no magic, nothin'. HELLA fun though.
Love the video, fellas. If you haven’t read it, Matt Ruff’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ is a wonderful exploration of Eldritch horrors. It contrasts the nameless terrors of the Mythos with the perils of Jim Crow America. It’s really incredible.
It’s funny cuz I feel the opposite about reviewing other RPGs - it’s called Web “DM”, so it should be D&D, right? HOWEVER I also love hearing them talk about these other systems for my knowledge and perhaps one day I will play. Call o’ Cthulhu does sound pretty dope.
Well, y'know, it's (most probably) Web DM because of Web MD, so they're sorta doing what Web MD does, but for DMs. And "Web GM" or Keeper, Storyteller, Referee, etc. don't have the same ring to it. :P
I’ve watched many of these web dm vids (love em), and I always thought that was a dm screen on that set...is that the helms deep set from The Two Towers? Pretty sure that was a Christmas gift for me. Best gift ever. I’m sure this has been discussed before but I was super pumped to see it if that’s what it is
Haha, I live in New England and can attest that winter lasts from November to March and sometimes lasts even longer. I remember one year there was snow on Halloween that was heavy enough to cause event cancellations. We're pretty used to it though so most people will still drive through the snow and some people walk around in shorts and tees until the temperature drops below freezing. Of course when we go to Texas, it's way too hot. I played some CoC with friends a couple years ago and I agree that it is a different flavor of roleplaying. I enjoyed that the characters weren't heroes, they're just trying to survive and help mankind live one more day. I think it meant we had to do more critical thinking for puzzle solving and be more aware of our limitations. And it's always interesting to figure out how your character acts when they go insane.
In rifts a palladium rpg they have characters that are insane to start with. Also they have insanity rolls during the game as well. I love playing insane characters so much. Split personality, phobias, obsessions, they have all kinds. It's crazy hehe. Anyways love Cthulhu thanks guys for another wonderful episode. Hope you both take care and stay sane.
It's always worth noting when the idea of the uncaring cosmos and evil Outer Gods is brought up that there are also good (mostly) Elder Gods out there too. The Mythos extends way beyond just Nyar and Cthulhu.
Hearing about lots of people playing the game now is really encouraging b/c it was the first pen and paper rpg experience I had. I don't remember exactly when it was, but I know I was less than 10yrs old - which is pretty bizarre given the game. But I absolutely loved it. Our GM and pretty much everyone else in our group other than one of my good friends was either late high school or college aged. So our games were not "kiddy" themed - if you could even really do that with CoC. I was already a big history lover by that point in my life - and yes, I was a weird kid, and so the historical yet recognizable setting had a definite attraction to me. And that is probably one reason I still like it today.
Hey, here's something I haven't seen developed well: Player owned property and fortress building. I know that there's a large expansion coming out for it soonish, but... I want to know the Web DM point of view.
DM for CoC was one of the most memorable moments in some rpg time I ever have it. and true detective is a inspiration for a lovecraftian plot. love it!
Heya, just wanted to say that I love all of these videos! I'm a tad too lazy to actually kick myself in the rear and get into DMing at the moment, but the information and perspective the two of you provide really benefits me in the area of expanding what roleplaying can really be about. I've always been a fan of having characters that aren't all that great to begin with, and because of your Warhammer video I'm now in a weekly game with a mutated political activist that can spit acid and a woodsman hireling that has by sheer luck cleaved two chaos spawn in half one directly after the other. I've gotta say, I'm loving it so far, and I'm looking forward to gaining actual insanities to reflect just how much hell it's been so far just trying to transport a possessed necklace through the Drakwald. On a related note, how do you feel about the new 4th Edition coming right around the corner? The new Advantage mechanic leading to some strong offensives from one side of a battle as they keep snowballing seems interesting to me, along with the ability to cancel the enemy advantage through Resilience, whatever role that ends up playing. Anyhoo, keep doing whatcha do, fellows! I look forward to some potential coverage on the new release sometime in the future.
Two questions: Have you seen the yellow sign? And have you ever role played through character creation? I start my players as just race and stats, and use stat bonuses, feats, and backgrounds to "level" them over a few game sessions before they get tier first class level. It has worked really well for giving the world feel of being a normal person in a game world b4 becoming a hero
My d&d games tend to draw a lot of house rules from the Chaosium system. I like watching my players as well as their characters go insane trying to power game while it causes their characters to lose worse.
Not sure I'd say H P Lovercaft was a Misanthrope, more like a High-Brow Nerd. Anyway, between reading his work, and R E Howard's, you've got most of what you need a for a wide variety of cool D&D themes and ideas. Great work guys.
My idea is you never win against an old god, you can only maybe survive and maybe crash your car into their foot and pretend you had something to do with getting rid of them. Like you said, humanity is like insects to them, most old ones wouldn't care about us or the ones that do only have a morbid curiosity or want to sweep us off their snow globe collection. We can always fight cultists who understand what's going on somewhat better or the occasional Shoggoth (just a lost cosmic amoeba, might even be friendly), but this is not the story where good wins and defeats evil. Madness will always be there, it just woke up really early this time and we only got a taste of it, we'd be better off in complete ignorance than to understand this situation any more and be powerless to affect it.
Loved the breath of weird air. Can you guys do a video about Dungeon Crawl Classics? No idea if you guys have played it at all, but keeps the weirdness and fantasy combined.
There's a similar system I found recently called Blood. Blood is like a catch-all horror game. It's built primarily for slasher horror but you can do just about any genre of horror campaign you want. I haven't had the opportunity to play it yet but it looks tremendous. Your Hit Points and your Blood Points are two different things.
Heck yeah! The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Call of Cthulhu, and At the Mountains of Madness are 3 of my all-time favorite stories (Lovecraft or otherwise).
Everyone support the game on kickstarter 'Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones'. It's a very cool concept and is based on Lovecrafts works. Very very cool game, check it out if you want a crpg that is related to the Lovecraft universe.
I once dropped a star vampire on a D&D party, it was a long campaign of them trying to figure out what it is and how to kill it and then closing the portal that let it out. worked great would do again but you have to surprise them with things like that. and mind-flyers are basically CoC monsters so anything you want to plop in works out well
I lived in Maine for approx. 20 years. I know exactly what Jim is talking about at the end. The best solution is simply to adjust to the weather over time and/or eventually leave (which is what I did). I can remember Obama's inauguration as the morning that I shoveled snow in pajamas and an open jacket.
"What lies beneath" by Pyromanic games, is an awesome 5e horror campaign. Very creepy, randomly brought together investigators are seduced into a largerworld conspiracy. Very cool.
Look at that! I just ran my first call of Cthulhu game last night and was looking up videos about it and now Web DM's put one out. Speak of Nyarlathotep and Nyarlathotep appears.
I don't know where it is best to request videos on topics, or if you're even taking suggestions, but here goes! As a DN; Improving your descriptions of the world and events. This is pretty important too to the topic of this video; CoC, as the game is almost entirely description based. You as a Keeper explain the action and find the appropriate roll, you as the player have to describe your action as opposed to just saying "I attack" Harkening back to the video about mysteries and investigations (which again, very apt to the topic of this video), it is up to the DM to describe the environment so the players know what they see and what they can do. I as a DM have trouble with that a lot of the time, I don't know if I'm painting a good enough word picture, and much of the time I find myself neglecting the descriptions of battle if I feel I'm not doing a good enough job with the descriptions themselves. Would love to hear your take on the role that descriptions of rolling, golden, windswept fields in games like DnD and CoC plays, and how to go about improving yours. Edit: I should also say, I watched 1-2 videos from this channel last week. And then another 5 or 6.. and now I've watched almost the entire library. Absolute treasure horde of knowledge and perspective, instantly subscribed. Easily one of the best DnD behind the screen channels on RU-vid.
I think another reason Call of Cthulu is having a moment now because more people are experiencing existential dread and horror than ever before, and the game provides a way to play and deal with that.
I actually made a two-shot based of The Shadow over Innsmouth in D&D. It was my first campaign I wrote out my self and it did not run perfectly, but my players were horrified at the end, so I was satisfied.
Thank you for the video. On subject of character frailty, have you done / considered exploring super-killy D&D campaigns, as in vein of 'Return to the Tomb of Horrors'? I think it could be an interesting topic, covering how handling the lethality, player characters, roleplaying, character/player skill and things that just essentially shred character sheets with no save or second chances from true resurrection/wish/miracle. How would such game work in 5e? Cheers.
Start with The Shadow over Innsmouth, then The Call of Cthulhu, then the Horror at Dunwhich, and never read At the Mountains of Madness until long after reading the Nameless City, The Mummy, The Whisperer in the Dark, The Shadow out of Time, and several more Stories which leads up to At the Mountains of Madness. That last Story is best read last after many, many of his Stories as a good setup for the greatest sensation and revelation of Cosmic Horror ever knowing all the rest beforehand, if you want to know. I was glad I failed to finish At the Mountains of Madness until after these other ones.
Kabir ten have While I love the Henderson story I think a video discussing it would be less focused on Call of Cthulhu and more of a Video on how to deal with a toxic DM-Player Relationship because in theory the story of Old Man Henderson could have happened in any system.
I'm planning on running a Call of Cthulu inspired warlock only (although multi-classing is allowed. Some classes don't exist, though, like paladins or bards.) D&D game set in a fictional non-earth version of London in the 1880's. The party are a group of middle-upper class friends, who all come together at the home of one of their married couples friend's houses for a seance. They've done this a few times and are obsessed. (The 1880's were the height of popularity for seances) This time, however, something goes wrong. Each of the participants gets mentally assaulted by a powerful being. (Everyone would choose a different warlock Patron. The only two that are off-limits are Ghost in the Machine and Fiend. GitM for setting reasons and Fiend for plot reasons.) The group would wonder what happened, but then go back to their homes for the night. The next day they'll be visited by the police, each of them being asked if they have any information about the murder of the wife whose home they were at last night. It appears that the husband murdered her in a particularly gory and ritualistic way and disappeared. The party then begins to search for him, but as they do so they begin to be told to do things by their patrons. They can resist, but the patron may try to force their will, resulting in a low CHA save. (which will get higher with each check required) The things the patrons ask will seem innocent enough. For example, a patron might say "Take this vial from the laboratory you're searching and as you pass by the city's water supply, drop it in." The idea is that soon enough the party will deal with their once friend, who became a Fiend Pact warlock. He'll have caused quite a ruckus since then, however and the party may have unintentionally caused a lot of their own problems. The rest of the campaign would be dealing with the consequences of what they've allowed to occur and trying to find out how to stop the things influencing them from gaining any more power in their world. They would also realize that, to an extent, evil has always been beneath their city, they just never knew because who would go into the sewers? Things that were believed to not exist, like magic, are revealed to exist and be yet another example of a danger to their city. But this would allow people to begin multiclassing into other classes that were initially not available. The problem is that knowledge is dangerous and classes like Mystic, while powerful, may increase the risk of going insane.
Nice Crown Royal bag there Pruitt. I used one of those as my first dice bags! The bag looks good and feels nice. Also did Call of Cthulu drive you to drink in order to keep your sanity?
From what I’ve learned from running a couple of games is that the game really comes to life when you take a Dark Souls approach to storytelling where you provide hints of what’s up, but don’t say it outright.
I have run a cosmic horror in 5e. It worked pretty well. But I imagine running same story in COC would make it scarier and harder. Also, HP Lovecraft dream world is amazing.
great video, been waiting since the Numenera video to see more RPG overviews! i'd love to hear what you guys think of the recent edition of 7th Sea, given what you were saying about push-your-luck mechanics in CoC