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Chaosium Digest Volume 02 Number 06
Chaosium Digest Volume 2, Number 6
Date: Sunday, May 23, 1993
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Special Effects in Call of Cthulhu (Alex Antunes) CALL OF CTHULHU
Sanity and More Sanity (Alex Antunes) CALL OF CTHULHU
Pendragon First Edition Reviews (Shannon Appel) PENDRAGON
Family Trees (Heidi Kaye) PENDRAGON
Editor's Notes:
After several weeks of downtime, finally a new digest. A couple of
short notes, to start off with.
In Volume 2, Number 5 of this Digest, Jason Corley reviewed Escape
from Innsmouth. The next issue of The Unspeakable Oath (issue 8/9)
contains a review of the same book by Liam Routt. If you'd like to
see another person's view of the supplement, you're encouraged to pick
up a copy when it hits the shelves.
Liam also noted that the Castle of Eyes (which was recently released,
as I mentioned in the last issue) was based to some extent on a
Stormbringer campaign.
Finally, Sam Shirley asked me to announce that Chaosium's email
address has changed. All electronic correspondences to Chaosium
should now go to: chaosium@netcom.com, and not the old American On
Line address.
Shannon
--------------------
From: Alex ANTUNES <alex@astro.isas.ac.jp>
Subject: Special Effects in Call of Cthulhu
System: Call of Cthulhu
In-Reply-To: V2.5 Comments on Grace Under Pressure
One issue with Call of Cthulhu is "How necessary are special effects
in creating a terrifying mood?" Most gaming relies on words and
descriptions to achieve its effects, with special props and lighting
optional. It seems CoC is the most natural candidate to move closer
to live role playing/improvisational theater. All the live games I've
run or helped run have been Cthulhoid in nature, and it seems that at
least one scenario out there requires special effects and advanced
staging, "Grace Under Pressure".
Recently, John Tynes wrote an eloquent reply to my review of "Grace
Under Pressure", bringing up the issue (to use his words) that "the
same game doesn't come off the same way with all groups." I think
this is especially true of prop-heavy scenarios. Without the
necessary extra effects, the scenario cannot create the proper mood.
When we ran GUP, we had to make due with a single keeper, one room
with a choice of light or dark, and a voice modulator to mimic the
connection with the surface ship.
Mr. Tynes's group ran "in a dark room lit only by green glowsticks and
penlights. Two tape decks run in the background; one has a long tape
of whalesong, the other a short endless loop tape of sonar pings. A
pair of walkie-talkies is used to keep the two groups in touch when
they split up...We use a separate room for the minisub..." (He
mentions that the reprint of GUP will include more staging
information, btw.)
Pagan Publishing's run of GUP seems to be bridging the border between
regular CoC and live role playing, or at least improvisational
theater. I think that "production notes" are a good idea, and clearly
required. As a sit-down adventure, GUP exemplifies the worst of the
spectrum: a very forced scenario, characters who initially are very
limited to a specific role (role, character class, your choice of
expression), the very reasons I gave up D&D. On the other hand, this
is the perfect setup to run a more theatrical production, where the
focus is less on free action and exploration and more on reaction and
survival. Clearly there is much room for roleplaying in that context.
So, to bring this ramble to a conclusion, I find the possibilities for
CoC for more theatrical role-playing are a strength for the game, and
would be interested in knowing how many keepers out there are doing
"CoC + theater" games/campaigns.
Cheers,
Sandy alex@astro.isas.ac.jp
--------------------
From: Alex ANTUNES <alex@astro.isas.ac.jp>
Subject: Sanity and More Sanity
System: Call of Cthulhu
One issue in Call of Cthulhu is "what is Sanity". It seems there are
two definitions, both concurrent, both held in one little statistic.
First, we have "societal sanity", ie how well can this character fit
into the mainstream world. Most investigators start off high in this,
able to meet associates for breakfast, go to work, etc. As they
experience more and more of "the darker side of reality", however,
they lose the ability to fit in. Breakfast starts to become a
challenge-- "are those REALLY just... eggs? Why is the waiter staring
at me? Perhaps he is a cultist who has poisoned my food! I should
strike first!"
Second, we have "individual sanity", or grace under pressure. This is
the ability of the investigator to remain in control of their actions
in a given situation. As the slimey tentacled mass moves forward, a
"sane" character will have the necessary self-awareness to climb the
rope and escape out the trapdoor. An "insane" character may pick up a
nearby lamp and charge the slime.
CoC rules suggest that magicians have low sanity, since the way they
perceive the world (ie magic works) is at odds with the mainstream
approach. Also, the more weirdness one encounters, the more one
realizes just how off the mainstream view is. But this is difficult
to balance with individual sanity, which is contained in the same
character statistic but measures how able the investigator is able to
deal with the oddities. One can argue that the more horror one sees,
the less is able to deal with it, until eventually one surrenders to
the horror (a classic Lovecraftian ending is "and so now I commit
suicide", after all.)
However, I find this difficult to work with. As keeper I enjoy having
characters who are able to face cumulatively greater amounts of
weirdness without automatically going to pieces. Thus I use sanity as
a measure of "individual sanity" and let them roleplay the "societal
sanity" instead of just applying a number.
This works out very well. The players are certainly paranoid enough
after a few sessions that their attempts to mix with mainstream
society clearly show their sanity loss, without any numbers being
consulted or any dice being rolled. Sanity loss and the resulting
rolls measure only self-control, or whether their character is stable
enough to remain "sane" for the given situation. Insane characters
(temporarily or not) lose control of some or all of their actions.
This allows a richer variety of characters. Some like to be "normal"
and fall to pieces when facing monsters (traditional Lovecraft
hero/victim), some like to be very offbeat and really only at home in
the weird world (Randolph Carter types).
When it comes to regaining sanity, well, it is very difficult to undo
the effects of discovery, but it is easy to gain self-confidence. As
we play it, a character who regains a few points of sanity hasn't
generally thought "It didn't happen, that thing didn't exist" but more
"Well, it may have been a putrid gob of sentient goo, but it's nice to
know it wasn't totally indestructable".
To give an example of the two types of sanity, my SO Emma has
suggested the Ghostbusters. (Unfortunately, I could only remember one
character name, the rest are listed by actor's names)
Character Society interaction Self control
Egan: clearly low sanity for society very high self
interaction-- he sees the world control, quite
as too weird a place for most sane as regards
people to understand him his abilities
Acroyd: low sanity for society interaction, low self control,
again he is a bit too weird to thus low personal
fit in sanity
Murray: high sanity for fitting in with high sanity for
mainstream society most self-control
situations
Weaver: high sanity for fitting in with medium-low sanity for
mainsteam society self-control, i.e.
she doesn't quite
have an easy time
dealing with things
Okay, so you have here the four possible varieties:
low social but high self-control,
low social and low self-control,
high social and high self-control,
high social and low self-control.
Difficult to model with just one number, no?
I would be interested in knowing how other Keepers and Investigators
deal with the two faces of Sanity.
Cheers,
Sandy alex@astro.isas.ac.jp
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Pendragon First Edition Reviews
System: Pendragon
One of the pieces of mail that I've gotten since the last digest was a
request for reviews of the out-of-print items for Pendragon. So, I've
written up some comments on them below.
Pendragon First Edition (2701-X)
Pendragon Second Edition (? 2701-X)
The first couple of editions for Pendragon are pretty similar to the
most recent one. There have been some changes in how glory works, and
some changes in holdings, but besides that, almost everything else is
identical (besides the fact that the original editions of Pendragon
were in boxes, of course).
There are a couple of things in the first edition not in later ones
that made it worth picking up. These included an eight page booklet
of 27 of the most famous Round Table knights and lots of interesting
margin notes throughout the books.
I've never actually seen a copy of the Second Edition, but I've been
told that it's identical to the first (which I've described above),
except for the fact that the arrangement of the books and their
contents is different.
Clearly, Pendragon has evolved since the first couple of editions, and
the latest edition is indeed better than the first ones for this
evolution. However, the first couple of editions of Pendragon still
have several pearls which can be used by the Pendragon gamemaster.
The Pendragon Campaign (2702)
This is a useful book. I hadn't realized quite how useful it was
until I went back and picked it up again. It includes lots of notes
on the setting of Arthurian Britain (some of which has been expanded
upon in more recent supplements, some of which has not), several pages
on magic in Pendragon (less than will be in the fourth edition,
surely) and stats for many creatures. There are also a few pages of
notes on the knights and clans of notes and lots of chronologies, both
for individual knights and the campaign as a whole. Finally, there's
a nice bibliography and some interesting designer notes. Overall, the
Pendragon Campaign is somewhat of a miscellany. However, there is a
tremendous amount of useful information in it.
Noble's Book (2703)
This is one of the two truly great First edition Pendragon
supplements. It's much more coherent than the Pendragon Campaign and
the result is a book that is even more useful. There are three
sections to the Noble's Book: Nobility, Economy and War. The nobility
section has an excellect section on heraldry, and also some notes on
titles and tournaments. The economy section has a fun (much more
detailed) system for controlling a knight's holdings. There are also
notes on taxes and castle defenses. Finally, the war section has yet
another set of rules for battles. A lot of the stuff in the Noble's
book is really good. If you can find a copy, buy it.
The King Arthur Companion (2704)
Absolutely, the King Arthur Companion is the best of all of the First
Edition Pendragon supplements. It's an Arthurian encyclopedia broken
into three sections, on people, places and items. Minor characters
just have a paragraph of notes, while major knights have several
pages. The Companion is an excellent reference book for Pendragon.
The Grey Knight (2705)
This was the first of two adventures written for First Edition (and,
the better of the two). It's set in 515 and interweaves many elements
of the history to form an interesting background. I don't want to
spoil anything, but suffice to say, this adventure is very well done.
Tournament of Dreams (2706)
This is actually a set of two adventures, the Tournament of Dreams,
and the Circle of Gold. They're both designed to be set in Phase 2,
like the Grey Knight. The adventures are both somewhat linear, and I
only found the first (the Tournament of Dreams) to be truly
interesting. This is probably the weakest of the First Edition
Pendragon supplements.
All told, there were a lot of fun things published for the first
edition Pendragon. If you're an avid Pendragon player and you don't
have them, you might want to look into used game stores around you.
Shannon
--------------------
From: Heidi Kaye <P.A.Snow@gdr.bath.ac.uk>
Subject: Family Trees
System: Pendragon
Some of the Arthurian figures have quite complicated family
relationships. I've drawn up some family trees with the help of Ronan
Coghlan's ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ARTHURIAN LEGENDS (1991).
Key: = married ~ unmarried
Marhalt, King of Ireland = Iseult King Hoel of Brittany
| Melodias, King ___|______________
| of Lyonesse | | | |
_______________________ = 1/Elizabeth = 2/ | Kahedrin |
| | | | Runalen
Marhaus Mark = Iseult ~ Tristram = Iseult Blanche Mains
| |
_________________ ___________________________
| | | |
Amoraldo Golistant Tristan = Maria Ysaie the Sad = Martha
the Younger |
Marc = Orimonde
These are so complex I'll have to do them in sections:
Amlawdd Wledig = Gwen
|
|
1/Gorlois = Ygraine ~ Uther/2
| |
| Arthur
______________________________________
| | |
Lot = Morgause Morgan = Uriens Elaine = Nentres,
| | King of
| | Garlot
(See next part) _____________________________
| | |
1/Esclados = Laudine = 2/Owaine<-(twins)->Morfudd Marine
Lot = Morgause
|
|
_____________________________________________________________________
| | | | | | |
Gawain Eries Agravaine Gaheris Gareth Soredamor = Alexander Clarissant =
| Laurel = Lynette = Lyonesse | (Byzantine) Guiromelant
| (Damosel Cliges |
| Savage) Guigenor =
______________________________________ Aalardin
| | | | |
Guinglan Wigalois Florence Lovel Biausdous = Biautei,
(See below for more detail) daughter of the
King of the Isles
Lynette and Lyonesse were sisters, their brother was Gringamore, and
Laurel was his daughter, their niece.
Gawain was a real ladies' man and had several wives and mistresses:
King Joram's niece, Florie = Gawain = Ragnell (loathly lady)
| |
Larie = Wigalois Guinglan (Le Bel Inconnu) = Blonde Esmeree
a.k.a. Lybius Desconus
Other marriages and relationships:
Amurfine = Gawain ~ Ydain ~ Brandiles' sister
It is not clear who the mothers of his two illegitimate sons, Florence
and Lovel, were. Nor is it clear whether Biausdous is legitimate or
illegitimate. All of Gawain's sons tend to come to the King's court
unaware of who their father is, even the legitimate ones, so
presumably he never spent any time with them.
Lancelot's family is also complicated:
Lancelot the Elder = King of Ireland's daughter
|
|
____________________________________________________
| | | | |
King Ban King Bors Nestor Guinebaut Ivoire = King Constantine
(See below) (See below) | (wizard) | of Britain
| |
____________ _____________________
| | | | |
Blamore Bleoberis Ivoine Pandragon Uther ~
| (Constans) (Ambrosius) Ygraine
Nestor |
Arthur
Elaine = King Ban ~ Agravadain's wife
| |
| |
Pelles ___________ \_____
| | | |
Elaine = Lancelot Liban ~ Pandragus Ector de Maris = Perse
| |
Galahad _________
| |
(twins)
Evaine = King Bors
|
______________________________________________________
| | |
Lionel Bors ~ King Brandegoris'daughter Helain the White (son)
|
Elyan the White (son)
Elaine and Evaine were sisters who married the brothers Ban and Bors.
That's all for now.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium Games which do
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