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Chaosium Digest Volume 11 Number 05
Chaosium Digest Volume 11, Number 5
Date: Sunday, August 13, 1995
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Armour and Shield Damage (Matthew Bassett) PENDRAGON
New Skill: Contacts (Wayne Coburn) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
Welcome to another issue of the Chaosium Digest. This time, some new
rules for Pendragon and Cthulhu. As ever, the contributions are
appreciated; keep them coming this way.
Don McKinney (rcs@csci.csc.com) had a question for other Pendragon
gamemasters out there. He says: "We have a number of women playing
Pendragon (which is great!), but they are having problems because if
they have any 'relations' with spouses or amors, they become subjected
to the Childbirth table, which has a 2/20 chance of arbitrarily
killing them. I had a weekend confrontation with the sexist attitude
of this table I want to change. Female knights, magicians and ladies
are all thrown on this one. Has anyone changed these mechanics in
their campaign?" Drop Don a line, if you have any ideas, or, if you'd
like to write an article on Female PCs in Pendragon, send it this way.
NEW RELEASES:
* Nephilim - _Secret Societies_ (Chaosium, $16.95) is a sourcebook for
the secret organizations of the Nephilim world. It contains tons of
information to help flesh out hidden allies and villains alike.
MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS:
* Call of Cthulhu - "To Believe", a nine page scenerio for Kult, with
conversion rules for Call of Cthulhu, suggested for use in a Cthulhu
Now setting, Adventures Unlimited #3 [Fall, 1995]; "Modern Madness",
eight pages of revised insanity rules for Call of Cthulh, Shadis
Presents #19.5 [June, 1995]; "Is this Heaven?", two pages of ideas
for near-death experiences in Call of Cthulhu, Shadis Presents #19.5
[June, 1995]
Note that Shadis Presents #19.5, "All Things Dark and Dangerous" also
contains a number of generic articles, useful to all horror games,
including an explanation of forensic techniques, and several articles
full of ideas for horror gamemasters.
(FRENCH) MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS:
* Call of Cthulhu - "Une Musique dans les Tenebres", a five page
scenerio, Apsara #11
* Nephilim - "Convict of Sin", a seven page scenerio, Apsara #11
* Pendragon - "L'hongail Torgrab" (The Adventure of the Child who
Doesn't Believe in Legends"), a five page scenerio allowing
interaction with the faerie world, Aprsara #10 [Apr/May/Jun, 1995]
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
The Encylopedia Mystica
http://www.bart.nl/~micha/mystica.html
Although not directly related to any of Chaosium's games, this WWW
site will probably be of interest to both Nephilim and Pendragon
players. It's "an encyclopedia of mythology, magic, legends and
folklores" and contains much that is interesting about both the
legendary and the occult.
The Strange Aeons Discussion List
strange-aeons-l@lists.consensus.com
After a long hiatus, the Strange Aeons discussion list, a place to
talk about Call of Cthulhu and much more, has finally returned. Just
drop a line to the above address to get added to the list.
--------------------
From: Matthew Bassett <matthew@te.rl.ac.uk>
Subject: Armour and Shield Damage
System: Pendragon
Here's some small house rules we have used for Pendragon:
One of the things that the Pendragon rules mention is the
effectiveness of Axes at splitting shields, but there is nothing
mentioned to reflect this in the mechanics.
Inspired by this we have recently adopted the following rules:
PENDRAGON: SHIELD AND ARMOUR DAMAGE
When the winner of a melee round is rolling for damage against a loser
who successfully used his shield, each 'six' rolled does one point of
damage to the shield.
(optional complication: if an axe does any damage to a shield, then it
does an extra point of damage; morning stars and flails do one less
point of damage).
Each point of damage done to a shield reduces it's protection by 1
point. Once a shield's protection has been reduced to 0 it is
destroyed and may not be used.
If a shield has not been successfully used then the loser's armour has
been damaged by the sixes: every two whole sixes rolled do one point
of damage to the armour (armour is tougher than shields).
Note that excess damage points from destroying a shield do not soak
through to damage armour.
SHIELD AND ARMOUR REPAIR
Shields can only have up to 2 points of their protection restored, and
regardless of that can never be repaired to more than 1 less than
their original value. This shield repair can be carried out by whoever
the GM feels has the appropriate skills (most likely a knight's
squire), providing the required materials are at hand.
Armour repair is more complicated.
The first 1-2 points of armour damage represents broken straps, bent
plates, and only a few broken links of chain. At the GMs discretion,
if only this amount of damage has been done to the armour (since the
last repair), he may allow the repair of 1 point of this damage
providing appropriate materials and craftsmen are available (i.e. a
leather worker or a blacksmith). These "jury-rig" repairs can
accumulate if a knight collects armour damages of only 1-2 points
between repairs. A total of them should be kept since they are
significant in calculating the cost of a "proper" repair to armour.
If greater than 2 points damage has been done to the armour since it's
last repair, then it requires a skilled armourer to put right. The
following formula shows the cost of repairing each point of armour
protection:
(C * 4) / (P * 3) Where C=price of armour at current
location,
and P=points of total armour protection
Also each point of "jury-rig" repair must be undone before any armour
protection points are restored (the work of the "amateur" must be
undone and replaced by the armourer to get a proper fit), adding to
the cost of armour repair.
Thus, it can be seen that once armour has lost 75% of it's protection
(or even had too many "jury-rig" repairs), it is cheaper to buy a new
suit than to have it repaired. The GM may optionally allow the
character some "trade-in" on the materials value of his old armour.
Example: Sir Hugh has been in three combats in which his trusty 11 pt
chainmail took damage (2 points in one, 1 point in the next, and 2
points again in the last). Each time he has had the blacksmith of his
manor repair the damage, so his armour currently has a value of 9, 3
of which were restored by his blacksmith. However he visits his Lord's
castle and decides to get the armourer to repair his damaged armour
back to it's orginal value: from the formula given above the cost of
repairing each armour point is (C*1)/(11*3) ~= 0.12*C (sorry, can't
remember the cost of his armour), but he has 3 points of jury-rig
repairs to be replaced before the 2 points of protection are restored,
for a total cost of 5*0.12*C = 0.60*C (at least it's still cheaper
than a brand new suit).
Note that it would be very rare for a Knight to get his armour
partially repaired by an armourer!
NOTES:
As part of their starting possessions, we now give each knight one or
two extra spare shields (not only are they handy for protecting the
knight, they also protect his armour!).
GMs who feel the above armour damage rules are too severe can increase
the number of whole sixes that must be rolled to damage armour to
three, and reduce the cost of armour repairs by some fraction.
I would welcome any commments and feedback:
matthew@te.rl.ac.uk
--------------------
From: wcoburn@mamacass.ucsd.edu (Wayne Coburn)
Subject: New Skill: Contacts
System: Call of Cthulhu
Below is a new skill to add to the game Call of Cthulhu. I have used
it in other games systems and I found that it works with CoC as well.
Contacts(00%)
This skill is a measure of who the player knows and how willing they
are to help. The player must specify which groups she has contacts
with and the GM is free to override anything that is unreasonable.
Contacts might be with local police, federal police, at a local
university, or something else along those lines. Starting characters
should only have contacts within their profession, and then not more
than around 20%. Giving this skill away free shouldn't disrupt the
game too much, but keepers might have their players purchase the skill
like any other during character generation.
Contacts should not be used to bail players out of major messes. They
are sources of information and possibly small favors. A successful use
of the skill gives the player the help that she needs. Failure just
means that the contact was either too busy or unable to help the
player. Critical failures and successes should depend on the
situation. As a guide, fumbles should mean that the contact is lost
while a critical success results in an extra bit of help.
For example, a contact at a university library might get the
characters in to see a forbidden book. Or a contact in the local
police department might help get the players out of jail a little
faster. A contact at city hall might allow characters to see sealed
city records concerning that old haunted house on the hill.
Like the Cthulhu Mythos skill, Contacts receive no skill checks. If
the players do some great service to an individual or a group then the
GM can grant the skill at some nominal level. For example, if a group
of characters help a scientist turn back some horror he accidentally
unleashed then they might suddenly find they have a contact in the
Miskatonic U's physics department. This would show up as contact(MU
physics department) 15% on the players character sheet.
Likewise, if the players overuse a contact the GM is free to lower or
remove the skill (as the contact becomes annoyed at being bothered).
Also, just because a character has a contact doesn't mean that the
contact automatically believes everything she is told. If a character
goes to a police contact asking for help against some blasphemy a
local outstanding citizen has conjured up but doesn't bring any proof
then the police will probably do nothing. In this case a fumbled roll
might mean that the character has been institutionalized. The GM has
final say in what the contact can, can't, and wont do.
To limit overuse and abuse of the skill I would recommend that GMs
keep the percentage chance down. There is no reason for any player to
have a contact skill above 40%, and most should be much lower. Any
higher and they might start relying on who they know and not what they
know. NPCs, of course, can have contacts at any level desired by the
GM.
This skill is meant to supplement the fast talk, persuade, and credit
rating skills by offering another means for players to get
information. I thought of this skill while reading the 5th edition
rules. There, it states that the biology skill gives the character
knowledge of noted biologists as well as general biology. But what, if
the character knew a number of biologists but no biology? Then she
would have the skill contacts(local university biology department).
Using this skill properly can add a new way for the characters to
collect much needed information. It shouldn't, however, be used as a
substitute for role playing. I almost hesitate to suggest adding the
skill because it might make the game more dice rolls and less
character interaction. Still, it is a nice way to quantify favors owed
and who knows who. It could also be used for adventure threads, as a
contact comes to the players because she knows they can be trusted. As
long as the skill isn't abused the I think it could make a nice
addition to the game.
Please write me with any comments or suggestions.
Wayne Coburn
Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences E-Mail: wcoburn@ucsd.edu
University of California, San Diego Phone: (619)534-6431
La Jolla, CA, 92093
--------------------
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