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Chaosium Digest Volume 03 Number 11
Chaosium Digest Volume 3, Number 11
Date: Monday, September 6, 1993
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Pendragon Pass: Adding RQ Magic (David Dunham) PENDRAGON
Prince Valiant Variants (David Dunham) PRINCE VALIANT
Necronomicon Notes (Scott Plumer) CALL OF CTHULHU
The Further Cases of Titus Crow (Shannon Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
A few short notes from subscribers this time around.
Scott Plumer (splumer%WESTLRC@ibm4381.onet.edu) said that he had come
across a computer game quite similar in feel to Call of Cthulhu. It's
called "Defender of Boston". If you're interested, you should drop
him a line.
Also, Tim Beecher (timbee@timbee.rnd.symix.com) commented that players
at conventions tend to gravitate towards the characters with the most
flaws. He said that people seem to prefer the chain smoking,
alcholic, raving professor over the town librarian. He wondered if
anyone had any comments on this curiosity.
Shannon
Recent Sightings:
* Call of Cthulhu - "Thin Jack", a five page adventure set in the
Cthulhu Now era, Challenge #70 [August, 1993]
Frederic Moll was kind enough to pass on a number of Recent Sightings
in French magazines to me. If anyone else would like to contribute
information on Foreign Magazine Sightings, it would be much
appreciated. The following articles are all French:
* Call of Cthulhu - "Theatre d'Ombres" (Shadow's Theater), a scenerio
for CoC which includes a new tome, called The Liber Lacrymae, Casus
Belli #76 [July/August, 1993] ; "Ong Cop", a nine page tournament
scenerio set in 1929 Indochina, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30 ; "La
Pierre" (The Stone), a six page adventure involving a search for the
Stone of the Forgotten Gods, and a trip to a Fantastic Medieval World,
Chroniques d'Outremonde #30 ; "St James Square", a four page adventure
for beginners in Great Britain, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30
* Stormbringer - "L'Eventreur de Uktel" (Uktel's Ripper), a four page
adventure for followers of Law or the Elements, Casus Belli #75
[May/June, 1993] ; "Affaires de Familie" (Family Affairs), a five page
scenerio, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30
--------------------
From: David Dunham (via RadioMail) <ddunham@radiomail.net>
Subject: Pendragon Pass: Adding RQ Magic
System: Pendragon
[a variant of this article appeared in the August 24th RuneQuest
Daily. It provides rules for using RuneQuest Magic with the Pendragon
game system. -sda]
I've long been an admirer of Pendragon's simple and fast combat
system. However, I didn't feel comfortable GMing an Arthurian game,
since some of my players knew the background better.
In 1985, I started a Gloranthan campaign depicting the colonization of
Dragon Pass. I chose Pendragon instead of RuneQuest as the base rules
because they were better suited to a long-term campaign spanning
decades of game time.
I tried to use straight Pendragon as much as possible, with
RuneQuest's magic system (so I could use all the existing cult
material). I called the result "PenDragon Pass." I didn't get to run
the campaign very long, but I described the experience in Tales of the
Reaching Moon 6. (Refer to that article for more detail, especially
about the Gloranthan setting.)
About a year ago, Greg Stafford asked me to take another look at
Griffin Island, a RQ campaign which I'd not given much thought to
because it wasn't as good as the original Griffin Mountain. Well,
it's still not as good as the original, but did have some cool stuff,
and useful handouts (only the religion handout makes any mention of
game mechanics). I decided to dust off the PenDragon Pass rules and
run Griffin Island.
Statistics
To accommodate magic, I added the POWer stat. As in Arthurian
Pendragon, each culture has modifiers to the stats (see TRM6 for
Gloranthan cultures), and different starting skills
Traits and Passions
I kept the personality rules. For example, Hilme (the Sun God in
Griffin Island) values Chaste, Generous, Honest, Just and Valorous
(see TRM6 for Gloranthan virtues). To become an initiate, a candidate
must make 3 of the 5 rolls (as well as the normal RQ requirements).
Likewise, priests (or Rune Lords) must not only make a POW roll (on
d20) but make 4 of the 5 trait rolls. This screens out unworthy
candidates.
Hate passions seem popular. I haven't been doing the best job coming
up with scenarios to test traits and passions (Griffin Island isn't
much help).
Status
Knights seek Glory, but in PenDragon Pass you gain Status not only for
performing great deeds, but for healing or leadership responsibility
(this hasn't come up in the current campaign, but a PC can certainly
aspire to leading a clan).
Pendragon halves Glory obtained through use of missile weapons; I kept
this rule, but haven't always been applying it. I'll probably drop it
soon (it makes sense for knights, but not for elves or horse nomads),
but I'm open to argument.
Skills
I dropped several Pendragon skills because they were too Arthurian (eg
Hawking, Heraldry), and added Animal Lore, Bargaining, Custom
<culture>, Devise, Industry, Mathematics, Memorize (limits magic, and
can be used by heralds), Mineral Lore, Plant Lore, Ritual (this covers
all the RQ3 ritual magic skills), Shamanism (this covers all the RQ4
shaman skills), Sleight, Sorcery (also the various manipulation
skills), Stealth, and World Lore.
Combat
I added several tactics (Break Shield, Disarm, Flurry, Guard) from
RQ4, but I don't think anyone's used them. When iron weapons enter
the campaign, they'll be more durable (swords won't break them on tied
resolutions).
Magic
(Note: This magic system is translated RuneQuest. I don't propose it
as being at all appropriate for Arthurian Pendragon.)
Spirit combat is simply opposed resolution of MP. The loser loses d3;
if he makes a partial success, the victor loses one MP.
I kept most spirit and divine spells. Most point values remain the
same so they tend to be weaker (since hit points, damage, and armor
are larger in Pendragon than in RQ).
Over the winter, you can learn a spirit spell instead of one point of
skill. You can learn as many total spells as your Memorize skill. To
keep things simple, you only learn a variable spell once -- you can
cast it at up to POW/3. Casting is a POW roll (the same roll may be
used to oppose against a target's MP, which is somewhat kludgy).
Divine magic is just like RQ3. Only Regrow Limb eliminates a major
wound.
I added sorcery rules vaguely based on an RQ4 proposal. You cast
spells as an opposed roll of your Sorcery skill vs the points in the
spell. You can use Duration, Intensity, Multispell or Range at up to
that skill level, and the total points in a spell can't exceed your
Sorcery skill. Only one PC knows sorcery, and since he's not a
specialist, he's weak at it.
Magic can heal a wound only once (and most magic won't remove a major
wound or negate the need for Chirurgery). In my campaign, PC magic
has saved people from death, but it doesn't eliminate the need for
long-term care.
Enchantments require a Ritual roll as well as a POW sacrifice. In
this campaign, there haven't been any magic items, but the earlier
Dragon Pass campaign did have priests as parents or grandparents, and
thus a certain amount of heirloom magic.
Occasionally, magic has been more powerful than it should (such as the
time a warrior took on a gorgosaur with 18 points of battlemagic), but
the transition from RQ3 cults works pretty well. A few features still
feel bolted on, and it's not as simple as I'd like.
As in standard Pendragon, truly powerful magic is still the domain of
the GM.
Converting
I occasionally have to convert an NPC from RQ3 to PenDragon Pass. It's
usually straightforward, dividing skill percentiles by 5 (sometimes
finding a similar skill), figuring out what sort of armor's worn and
using the equivalent Pendragon value, etc.
Comments
Play is much faster, and the game easier to explain, than RQ4. It's a
little foreign to veteran RQ players. Wounds can have permanent
effect, and can take weeks to recover from, which makes the game feel
far more realistic than RQ (despite the lack of detail).
We have some high level PCs (e.g. a Hilme Priest), since I'm not
limiting the starting age (though aging rolls start at 35). This
hasn't been much of a problem -- the priest has rune magic, but not
the gear he'd have had if he attained the rank through play.
I'd hoped to run one year per session, but haven't always been able to
(Joh Mith's caravan route took about 4 sessions to play). Still,
we've managed to get through 4 game years, and several characters are
now married with children.
The Future
I plan to run a PenDragon Pass game at RQ-Con. By then, I may be
using the new edition of Pendragon.
Copyright 1993, David Dunham
David Dunham * Software Designer * Pensee Corporation
Voice/Fax: 206-783-7404 * AppleLink: DDUNHAM * Internet: ddunham@radiomail.net
--------------------
From: David Dunham (via RadioMail) <ddunham@radiomail.net>
Subject: Prince Valiant Variants
System: Prince Valiant
In-Reply-To: V1.3 Editor's Note
When Prince Valiant first came out, I ran a little campaign, using
more of a Pendragon background (none of us serious gamers wanted to
use the Hal Foster background). In retrospect, this could have been a
mistake, since the campaign turned into something of a religious war
between Pagan and Christian PCs -- a probably ahistorical level of
intolerance. Because of this, my enthusiasm to continue the campaign
was too low.
On the plus side, one weekend when I was out of town, one of the
players GMed in my absence. I found this pleasing. The players were
interested enough to continue, and things were simple enough that they
could.
I'd lost my Pendragon map, so I was using the map from SPI's wargame
Albion, full of faerie sites. I started the characters in a very poor
area; the local castle didn't even have a bailey, just a motte.
A few months later, I started an Icelandic campaign, set in the Salmon
River Valley (Laxdaela, for all you saga fans). The first session
involved a man who turned into a bear. The second session would have
involved a lawsuit resulting from the actions of the first scenario,
but I was in the middle of meeting my wife-to-be and moving, so the
campaign never continued.
Anyway, the Saga character sheet (half a page) had the following
skills (B is a Brawn skill, P a Presence skill):
Agility (B) Farming (P) Oratory (P)
Alchemie [p] Fellowship (P) Poetry/Song (P)
Archery (B) Gaming (P) Riding (B)
Arms (B) Glamourie (P) Runes [p]
Bargaining [p] Healing [-] Shiphandling (B)
Battle (B, P) Hunting (B, P) Speak Norse (P)
Brawling (B) Law [P] Speak (language) (P)
Courtesie (P) Lore [-] Stealth (B)
Crafting (B, P) Math [p]
Dexterity (B) Money-Handling (P)
Disguise (P) Naturalitie (P)
The campaign included magic, but I was treating this as in Pendragon,
As a GM plot device.
David Dunham * Software Designer * Pensee Corporation
Voice/Fax: 206-783-7404 * AppleLink: DDUNHAM * Internet: ddunham@radiomail.net
--------------------
From: "Plumer, Scott" <splumer%WESTLRC@ibm4381.onet.edu>
Subject: Necronomicon Notes
System: Call of Cthulhu
Whilst perusing H.P. Lovecraft's _Selected Letters_, I happened upon
this letter, dated November 27, 1927, that he sent to Clark Ashton
Smith. It gives some details on the Necronomicon not noted by Phileas
Sadowsky:
I have had no chance to produce new material this autumn, but have
been classifying notes & synopses in preparation for some monstrous
tales later on. In particular I have drawn up some data on the
celebrated and unmentionable *Necronomicon* of the mad Arab Abdul
Alhazred! It seems that this shocking blasphemy was produced by a
native of Sanaa', in Yemen, who flourished about 700 A.D. & made
many mysterious pilgrimages to Babylon's ruins, Memphis's catacombs,
& the devil-haunted & untrodden wastes of the great southern deserts
of Arabia -- the Raba el Khaliyeh, where he claimed to have found
records of things older than mankind, & to have learnt the worship
of Yog-Sothoth & Cthulhu. The book was a product of Abdul's old
age, which was spent in Damascus, & the original title as _Al Azif_
-- _azif_ (cf. Henley's notes to _Vathek_) being the name applied to
those strange night noises (of insects) which the Arabs attribute to
the howling of daemons. Alhazred died -- or disappeared -- under
terrible circumstances in the year 738. In 950 _Al Azif_ was
translated into Greek by the Byzantine Theodorus Philetas under the
title _Necronomicon_, & a century later it was burnt at the order of
Michael, Patriarch of Constantinople. It was translated into Latin
by Olaus in 1228, but placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_ by Pope
Gregory IX in 1232. The original Arabic was lost before Olaus'
time, & the last known Greek copy perished in Salem in 1692. The
work was printed in the 15th, 16th, & 17th centuries, but few copies
are extant. Wherever existing, it is carefully guarded for the sake
of the world's welfare and sanity. Once a man read through the copy
in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham -- read it through
& fled wild-eyed into the hills........but that is another story!
[Volumes 1, 2, 4 and 5 of HP Lovecraft's Selected Letters are
available from Arkham House. If you can't find anyone who stocks
Arkham House books, they can be contacted at: Arkham House, PO Box
546, Sauk City, Wisconsin 53583. I haven't picked up copies of the
Selected Letters yet, but I've been told that they're a must-have for
people interested in the writings of HP Lovecraft -sda]
--------------------
From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon Appel)
Subject: The Further Cases of Titus Crow
System: Call of Cthulhu
In V3.6 of the Digest, I gave synopses of the first five Titus Crow
short stories, and provided some story ideas to go with them. This
article concludes the chronicling of the stories of _The Compleat
Crow_. Be warned that spoilers abound for the Crow short stories.
Also, in my previous article, my listing of Titus Crow stories was a
bit short. In all, Lumley's Cthulhu Mythos series consists of: _The
Burrowers Beneath_, _The Transition of Titus Crow_, _The Clock of
Dreams_, _In the Moons of Borea_, _The Compleat Crow_ and _Elysia: The
Coming of Cthulhu_. They're all in print by Ganley (US) or Grafton
(UK) [actually, I can't verify that _Elysia_ has been published by
Grafton]. Lumley has also written a number of other Lovecraftian
stories including four books on the dreamquests of David Hero and
three books set in the ancient Primal Land.
The Further Cases of Titus Crow:
AN ITEM OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: One of Lumley's shortest stories, this
tale tells of Yegg-ha, a ten-foot featureless winged monstrosity which
killed scores of Roman soldiers centuries ago. When Titus Crow writes
a fictional story about this beast, one detractor considers it badly
out of date and unrealistic. Only when Crow shows him the skull of
the ancient creature does the detractor change his mind.
The Old Ones have dwelled upon the Earth for millenia, since before
the first man walked upon the Earth. This short story leads one to
wonder, what affect might the Old Ones, and other Lovecraftian
horrors, have had upon human history? A fun CoC run might involve the
investigators uncovering some ancient conspiracy. Learning how deeply
alien monstrosities have manipulated humanity could be a very
satisfying conclusion to a story.
BILLY'S OAK: This is a ghost story which tells of a man hung from a
tree long ago, and how that tree can still be heard to creak, as if a
body hung from it. The tree was cut down years before, but still the
creaking can be heard.
Like THE VIKING'S STONE, I don't see a huge amount of application for
this story. Learning ancient secrets of your dwelling might be
interesting, but beyond that ghost stories don't seem too
Lovecraftian.
DARGHUD'S DOLL: This story deals with an African witch-doctor using a
voodoo doll to enchant a missionary. The doll is regained by the
victim, but when his wife tries to preserve it by encasing it in
resin, he dies of suffocation.
The secrets of darkest Africa clearly suggest ideas for CoC
adventures. Who knows what unnameable Gods might be worshipped there.
This story is also intriguing due to the magic this is used in it.
The magic follows both the Law of Sympathy and the Law of Contagion,
affecting the victim due to the likeness of the doll and a bit of hair
originally from this victim. Using this type of magic in CoC might
add a lot to the game. I'd suggest using 'Authentic Thaumaturgy', a
long out of print Chaosium book, as a reference, if you can find a
copy.
DE MARIGNY'S CLOCK: This story focuses on an odd coffin-shaped clock
which was first described by HP Lovecraft in "Through the Gates of the
Silver Key". It has come into the possession of Henri-Laurent de
Marigny, Crow's apprentice, by the time of this story. The story
itself is very reminescent of "The Terrible Old Man". Two robbers
invade Crow's house looking for something to steal. When they open De
Marigny's Clock, however, they are sucked inside.
De Marigny's Clock is an element in Lumley stories that I'd just as
well ignore. An enigmatic time machine, it drags the stories too far
into the realm of science fiction. An invasion of an investigator's
home might be a pleasant diversion, especially if the investigator
then tries to make much too much of it. Beyond that, I found little
of use in this story.
NAME AND NUMBER: Perhaps the best Titus Crow story, this involves the
coming of Anti-Christ. I won't get into the delightful specifics.
Suffice to say, however, that Crow eventually puts the Anti-Christ
down, by revealing his name and his number. If you can find a copy of
this story, I'd suggest it. Besides THE COMPLEAT CROW publication, I
believe it also appeared in the July 1982 issue of Kadath.
This story suggests what a great source the Bible's Revelations would
be for a Cthulhu campaign. Given that the Old Ones and other
Lovecraftian horrors exist, what might Revelations _truly_ have been
speaking of? Is Revelations really prophetic or does it speak of some
time long gone? Does it tell of the time when the Stars are Right?
Since I'm not currently running a CoC game, I haven't scanned
Revelations for more specific ideas, but I'd heartily suggest it for
anyone currently running CoC. I think it could be very interesting.
THE BLACK RECALLED: The last of the Titus Crow short stories is set in
our very recent past. It concerns the meeting of two masters of the
arcane, once apprentices of James Gedney (see THE CALLER OF THE
BLACK). Shortly, they move to betray each other, each determined to
steal the secrets of the other. Geoffrey Arnold tries to kill his
foe, Ben Gifford, by calling the black. Gifford, however, reveals
that he has become the very avatar of Yibb-Tstll. His body is black
as ebony, the color of Yibb-Tstll's blood. Pointing a finger, Gifford
causes the Black to erupt from his body and slay his foe. But, the
story does not end there, for the meeting between the two masters of
arcana had occured in the ruins of Blowne House, the once residence of
Titus Crow. Although Crow is gone, and the mansion lies in ruins,
there is still magic there. Mists fall upon Gifford, and then there
is silence.
This story suggests several good ideas. First, there is the avatar of
Yibb-Tstll. Although Gifford is killed, surely a new avatar will
eventually rise. Like Gifford, this new avatar will probably be the
head of some cult, heart of some mystery that the investigators face.
Then, there are the ruins of Blowne House. Still covered by mystical
protections in the Cthulhu Now era, it is an eerie, mysterious place.
What secrets might lie within the ruins?
I plan to present stats for Titus Crow and information on the books
and mystical items in Blowne House in future issues of the Digest.
Shannon
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium's Games. To
submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests
are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and
may be retrieved via FTP.
