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Chaosium Digest Volume 05 Number 04
Chaosium Digest Volume 5, Number 4
Date: Sunday, January 9, 1994
Number: 1 of 2
Contents:
Another Mythos Book System (Jerome Tournier) CALL OF CTHULHU
The Resurrection Ritual (Stefan Matthias Aust) ELRIC!
Editor's Note:
Thanks to Stefan Matthias Aust, the archives of the Chaosium Digest
are now also available in the Winhelp format for Microsoft Windows.
If you'd like to access these new archives, they can be FTPed from
/pub/chaosium/archives/windows on soda.berkeley.edu. (the normal
archives have been moved to /pub/chaosium/archives/ascii). Stefan
would like to hear any comments on these Windows archives. He can be
mailed as sma@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de.
Next week's Digest will be a few days late, as I'll be back East at
RQ-Con on Sunday. For any of you going to RQ-Con, I'll see you there.
Shannon
--------------------
From: Jerome Tournier <b2414@hp720u.iut-orsay.fr>
Subject: Another Mythos Book System
System: Call of Cthulhu
In Chaosium Digest V2.7, Matt Grossman reported a method to describe
mythos books. That was, among other things, what inspired this new
method to me. My players like it and so do I. I think that you'll
like it too.
Good Reading...
Describing Mythos Books:
The only change in the usual description for a book resides in the
description of the spells written in it. We can often note in
Lovecraft's stories that mythos books, at least those that his
characters have access to, are usually in an ill state of
preservation. The effect of the decay of the book on Cthulhu Mythos
is mirrored in the percentage of Cthulhu Mythos that the book may
grant to a reader... but it has no effect on spells.
The solution, and the change I propose, is to give to each spell in
each book a percentage to assess the damage done to the text. This
percentage reflects the maximum percentage to cast the spell, so you
must have several books containing a particular spell to have a
maximum of 100% to cast it. Of course, you can go over 100%.
Spells should also be read from these books as they are being cast.
If it comes to the mind of a daring investigator to copy all the texts
into just one, he'll have to copy the good passages from all the
books. Some small mistakes will surely crop up, and their effects are
entirely up to the Keeper's imagination.
The way to cast spells is unchanged in everything but two little details:
* Remember that the maximum percentage you can get to cast a spell is
equal to the percentage (or sum of percentage) available in book(s)
and is not automatically 100%...
* A spell that has not yet been learned can be cast by reading it from
the book(s). The way to learn spells is unchanged.
Using Mythos Books:
It's somewhat upsetting to note that our investigators are far more
vulnerable than H. P. Lovecraft's characters, who sometimes read an
incredible number of Mythos books without becoming in the least bit
insane (well, almost). For example, Winfield Phillips, in "The Lurker
at the Threshold", reads no less than 13 mythos books in only one
night(!) and is still perfectly sane (shocked but sane) the next
morning. Here is a method to keep the balance and to cope with the
advantages that books give to investigators.
Reading a Mythos Book:
Here, I'll make some small changes to the rules given in the fifth
edition of CoC.
If the book is written in a foreign language (that the investigator
can read) and the investigator fails his roll, he doesn't lose any
sanity point (because he couldn't understand anything in the book).
If the book contain spells, the Keeper will have to roll under INT x
"book spell multiplier", to see if the investigator recognises that
he's reading a spell. This should be done for each spell in the book
that the reader hasn't recognised yet. If any of these rolls fails,
the investigator accidently casts the spell for which the roll failed,
with the percentage given in the book (the necessary magic points are
stripped from the caster without any chance to resist). If all the
details of the ritual are fulfilled (ingredients, magic items or
whatever is mentioned), the spell is actually cast, but there is a
little problem: the investigator isn't aware that he did it (unless
there are immediately perceptible effects and the investigator makes
the connection between this and the sudden fatigue seizing him, i.e.,
the loss of magic points).
Learning from Mythos Books:
In the 20s, as well as in any other era hosting CoC adventures, reason
and science are dominant. Thus, mythos books look rather weird (and
silly) to anyone who has never heard of the Cthulhu Mythos (that is,
those that have a 0% Cthulhu Mythos), as they don't belong to the
modern era.
To learn about Cthulhu Mythos from a book, the investigator must make
a sanity roll (or a Cthulhu Mythos roll, if he has any). If this roll
is failed, the investigator learned some things that he didn't know
before, and thus gains Cthulhu Mythos.
The number of points the investigator gets from his reading depends on
the roll he failed and whether or not he had already learned from the
book:
If he hadn't learned from this book yet, the number of points he can
add to his Cthulhu Mythos is equal to the smaller of the 'Cthulhu
Mythos Knowledge' of the book and "'Roll' minus 'Skill Used'", where
'Skill Used' is either Cthulhu Mythos or Sanity.
If an investigator has already learned from a book, he can read it
again to try to learn things he hadn't discovered yet. If he fails
the Cthulhu Mythos roll, just use the formulae above and exchange the
'Cthulhu Mythos Knowledge' with "'Cthulhu Mythos Knowledge' minus
'number of points learned from this book.'" Most of all, players
should not know if they have learned everything there was to learn in
a book or if they found every spell it contains...
Losing Sanity:
If the investigator learned some knowledge from a book, he's also
going to have a sanity loss equal to the number of Cthulhu Mythos
points he got. This represents the fact that the mind of someone
learning about Cthulhu Mythos for the first time will not endure more.
For someone who already knew the Mythos, this represents the horror of
discovering that the Mythos is reaching farther than he first thought.
Insanity and Death:
Mythos books are very, very dangerous according to Lovecraft. The
possibility of death is already taken care of with the chance of blind
spell casting (remember the case of the Mad Arab poet Abd al-Azrad who
died in Damascus in the year 738 AD, "eaten alive by an invisible
demon during daylight").
Insanity is often difficult to deal with because there are few phobias
that fit with reading Mythos book, so here is a list of the one that
look to be fitting:
Amnesia.
Quixotism.
Monophobia, fear of being alone.
Toxicomania.
OptoPhobia, fear of opening one's eyes.
Pyromania.
Graphophobia, fear of writing.
Logiphobia, fear of studies.
The first four are described in the 5th edition of CoC, while the
fifth is described in the "Cthulhu Companion". Here are descriptions
of the last three:
Pyromania (book pyromania):
You must free the World from the monstrosities and the only way is to
destroy their books with the purifying flame so that their Dark Seed
will not contaminate Humanity.
Graphophobia:
Books are a gift of the Devil himself, so that Man could remember His
history. Every book is cursed and contains only lies and spells to
invoke Lucifer in one of his thousand incarnations...
Logiphobia:
Studies are just a cover that They use to hide themselves. You want
proof? Then just think about all these strange discoveries made every
day and about all this cursed knowledge lurking in dark recesses,
especially in universities and in libraries.
Conclusion:
Well, now Mythos books are a lot more dangerous than they were and
this should help some investigators to keep their cool when they see
books on dusty shelves. Of course, magic is also less easy to
practice, but is it not magic of the Mythos and so cursed. And, we
shouldn't forget that Lovecraft's characters are often taking part in
a hopeless fight against Mythos' creatures.
Jerome Tournier.
--------------------
From: Stefan Matthias Aust <sma@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de>
Subject: The Resurrection Ritual
System: Elric!
A new spell for the Elric! role playing game. It may not suitable for
the original setting of the Young Kingdoms, but if you use the Elric
rules for another fantasy world, as I do, this may be useful.
RESURRECTION (24)
[ritual]
This rarely available spell can be used to resurrect someone who died
recently. You need the corpse to use this spell. The body must not
have lost more than negative maximum hit points. Each 24 hours after
the death, the body will lose one additional hit point.
Example: Tanro, 11 HP, loses in a fight again two Bruus. He takes 4
then 8 HP damage and becomes unconscious. A killing blow reduces his
HP by an additional 7 HP. He's now at -8 HP and dead, before his
friends can drive away the Bruus. They need three days to reach the
next town, which reduce the HP by another -3 (Tanro's body is now at
-11 HP). If the priest, who knows the resurrection ritual, doesn't
start the ritual right away, but waits until the next day it would be
too late.
The ritual lasts 1d8 hours. Apply the usual rules. It is suggested
that expensive accessories, chanting, etc be required to fulfill the
spell. The caster has to spend 24 magic points and 1 point of POW if
he wants the spell to be permanent.
At the end of the ritual, the caster has to make a luck roll; 99 or 00
is a fumble as usual. The magic points and the POW point are lost in
any case.
Because of the exertion of the ritual, which forces the caster to
fight with the gods (lords) of death for the soul, the spellcaster
loses 1d3 CON permanently.
Also, the target loses 1d6 POW permanent, because as the spell caster
fights for his soul, to tear him back to life, a small part of his
soul stays where all the dead will be. This part is permanently
destroyed. If the target loses all his POW, he's not alive but also
not dead. He's undead and unless controlled by some other spell,
wanders around purposelessly.
Finally, because of the stress of the resurrection, the body looses 1
point of each STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, INT and APP permanently.
Example: The priest starts to prepare the ritual. He draws a circle,
lights candles and performs a ritual cleaning. Then, he begins the
ritual, pressing the holy sign of his temple onto the body of the dead
Tanro. The 1d8 shows 5, so after 5 exhausting hours, the priest has
to roll against his luck. Let's say, he's successful. He looses 24
magic points, 1d3 CON and 1 POW. Tanro had a POW of 10. His player
rolls a d6: 4. So, he's alive again, losing 1 point of every
characteristic but POW and 4 points of POW. Now the priest tells the
party the price for this resurrection...
The resurrected has 1 HP after the ritual. Use normal healing rules
or magic to regain full HP. First Aid will not work.
A non-permanent resurrection lasts 10 min. After this time, the
target dies again. In both cases, his soul loses 1d6 POW permanent.
-- Stefan
PS: Thanks to Frank Tonn for his ideas and help
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The
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