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Chaosium Digest Volume 18 Number 09
Chaosium Digest Volume 18, Number 9
Date: Sunday, March 16, 1997
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Experienced Characters (Joerg Ellermann) CALL OF CTHULHU
A Matter of Taste: A Tale of Terror (Peter Devlin) CALL OF CTHULHU
Strange Vistas Request for Submissions (Ricardo J. Mendez) CALL OF CTHULHU
The Adventure of the White Stag (Mar Calpena) PENDRAGON
Elric! Cost of Living (Patricio Gonzalez) ELRIC!
Editor's Note:
Greetings all. As promised, an overflowing digest this week (from all
over the world). Next week I have stuff for Mythos lined up, but new
submissions are still extremely welcome.
Shannon
RECENT RELEASES:
* Call of Cthulhu - _The Xothic Legend Cycle_ (Chaosium, 288 pg.,
$10.95), by Lin Carter, edited by Robert Price, is the thirteenth
book in the Cthulhu Cycle series of fiction. It contains the
Carter's Xothic writings, most of it rare and unavailable.
_The Hastur Cycle, Second Edition_ (Chaosium, 320 pg, $10.95),
edited by Robert Price, is a reprint of the first Cthulhu Cycle
book. It contains all of the original stories plus "The Feaster from
Afar", by Joseph Payne Brennan.
_Delta Green_ (Pagan Publishing, 298 pg, $27.95), by Dennis
Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, and John Tynes, is the ultimate
sourcebook on mythos conspiracy in the 1990s. It's got Majestic-12,
greys, saucerwatch, secret governmental agencies, and much more.
RECENT BOOKS OF NOTE:
* Elric! - _Elric: Stormbringer #1_ (Dark Horse & Topps Comics, 32
pg., $2.95) is the first issue of an all-new comics adaptation of
Michael Moorcock's _Stormbringer_ novel. Over ten years ago, Pacific
Comics adapted Elric of Melnibone, and in the following years First
Comics adapted the next four novels of the classic Elric series.
This is the one that finishes the series off.
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
Igrayne's Gaming Homepage
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/5027
This page includes some Pendragon and Call of Cthulhu resources,
though most of them are currently only available in Spanish.
--------------------
From: Joerg Ellermann <j.ellermann@tu-bs.de>
Subject: Experienced Characters for CoC
System: Call of Cthulhu
Peter Devlin's article in Digest 18.8 ("Startup Sorcerers") made me
think about a set of optional rules I could incorporate in my
long-running campaign so that _experienced_ players (only!) can
generate experienced characters.
The idea is:
* To make new characters slightly more powerful by giving them spells,
skills, and some mythos-related experience ("I must confess that I
am not surprised by this strange happening. In fact, I have seen
such monstrous creatures before. A long time ago...")
* To make them pay for it with sanity loss and, maybe, some mental
disorders ("This hideous scar is not from an old war injury, as I
have told you. I received it when running for my life in that remote
part of the arabian desert. Since then, these dreams continue to
haunt me every night...")
* To make players invent a (however short) background story that
explains how the character has confronted the hidden forces "of a
cold and mechanical universe" before. It gives not only depth and
color to the game but provides a handy way for the hard-working GM
to twist the plot of an otherwise simple scenario by adding
something from the character's past ("I've seen this man before!
Back in 1911, when this ill-fated expedition of ours stayed in Cairo
for a few days, we were followed by some sinister Egyptians. Then
came that terrible night when Professor Weatherby was murdered...
I'll never forget this face!"). Remember, it's always nice to meet
an old adversary.
The way we play it is as follows :
1) There should be some prerequisite for playing experienced
characters, e.g. an Occult skill of at least 25% or so.
2) The GM has a list of mythos-related tomes that are common, in his
campaign at least, complete with spells, SAN losses, etc. Some of
these books are nearly useless (poems praising the Big C), while some
are full of useful spells and knowledge and therefore are quite
mindblasting. If a player wishes to play an experienced character, he
randomly determines up to three books he has read before in his life
(Don't let them pick the books or else anybody would choose the most
useful books and the spells with the lowest Sanity loss). The
character then loses half the usual amount of Sanity for the book
(It's been a few years ago that he read them so he could recover from
it) and gains Cthulhu Mythos and other bonuses according to the book.
3) The player learns every spell in his book (if any) and it is
assumed that he has cast every one at least once, so he vaguely knows
the effects. The Sanity loss for a single casting is lost (rolled by
GM). If it is a spell connected with monsters (Summon/Bind, Contact,
Call etc.), he has encountered that monster once in his past, maybe
even fought against it succesfully, so he does not lose SAN for that
monster any more. Of course, he has lost SAN for seeing it the first
time (GM rolls).
4) If the player feels that he has learned enough (or lost enough SAN)
he can stop after just one or two books. Remember, the maximum is
three for every new investigator.
5) After determining all books, the player rolls once vs. his new SAN
to see if he has developed any mental disorders in the past. I highly
recommend Chaosium's _Taint of Madness_ sourcebook on asylums and
madmen, as it provides far more realistic and interesting rules for
playing insane investigators than the basic game.
If you feel that the players have to pay a higher price for being more
powerful at the beginning, make up a simple table for determining POW,
CON, and APP losses. Or perhaps an old enemy is still out there
looking for him after all these years. And what about that Hound of
Tindalos he contacted back in 1907? Did he _really_ throw it off his
track then? Or, thinking back to that incident in 1911, in that french
village, when he shot that evil cultist, Dr. Otto von Grolstein, in
self-defense... the french police may not have forgotten about
that. And there's always Interpol and the FBI.
6) In our campaign we have a table for randomly determining a few
useful NPC connections, aquaintances, and friends for new characters
(lawyers, police detectives, scientists, mafiosi, etc.). For every
book the character read, the player can pick one of those connections
to be a person that has some _minor_ mythos experience, probably
someone with whom the character has confronted the mythos before. It
is quite useful to know a psychoanalyst/lawyer/policeman etc., who
will take the character seriously when he tells him about tentacled
aliens responsible for these unexplained murders in the MU library.
Just keep it in the right perspective. The _players_ are fighting the
unknown. Any connections they have may prove useful in the
investigation, but nothing more than that.
7) Finally, the most important aspect of pre-game-experience: every
player has to explain when and how he has got this knowledge. This
should outline the horrible events the character has experienced and
briefly state how and why he learned and applied those sinister
rituals to solve this particular mystery. Was it an aeon-old cult he
stumbled upon? The ill-fated expedition he undertook in 1886? The
monster in his grandma's bathroom?
Many of those details the players make up can be incorporated into the
ongoing scenario. Cults are connected with each other, the old amulet
he found some twenty years ago and nearly forgot may suddenly go
missing and so on. There can be skeletons in his closet, ghosts of his
past, etc. You get the idea. Adopt, adapt and improve.
Please tell me if you give it a try :
* Joerg Ellermann
* Braunschweig, Germany
* j.ellermann@tu-bs.de
--------------------
From: "Peter Devlin" <pdevlin@scotsys.co.uk>
Subject: A Matter of Taste: A Tale of Terror
System: Call of Cthulhu
A nasty little investigative scenario for CoC, ideally played out on a
hot summer day over the remains of a satisfying outdoor barbecue!
A Matter of Taste
Peter Devlin (c) 1997
Mrs. Jane Crispin is a local character who lives in a little detached
house on the edge of town. Although in her 60s, she is still hale and
hearty despite the handicap of her near-blindness (she is
exceptionally near sighted, and only sees blurred colours through her
milk-bottle lensed glasses). Mrs. Crispin makes a modest living
selling the product of her labours in her well-equipped kitchen. All
across town her pies are famous for their wonderful pastry and
delicately herb-flavoured meats.
Horror stalks the town at night. It has come to light that senior
citizens are being slain in their beds or are disappearing in the
night, never to be seen again. The bodies that remain at the crime
scene are mutilated horribly, missing limbs and organs. The
authorities have been unable to keep the murders from public
knowledge, but they have been able to conceal the fact that they have
been occurring sporadically for over a year!
The glare of the media spotlight has forced the police to institute a
manhunt, and they have no manpower to spare to chase a new (although
very slim) lead. Their lead comes obliquely from Mrs. Crispin, who has
reported a strange man hanging around her herb and vegetable
garden. Under normal circumstances such a report from a blind old lady
would receive little attention, but with a maniac on the loose, things
are different. Independent, discrete, and trusted persons may be able
to assist the police by looking into the matter.
Talking to Mrs. Crispin brings unexpected results. She is very sorry
to have disturbed the police, because she is really fine. The stranger
is no longer a stranger, but a new friend whom at first she mistook
for a potential thief. Her friend George is a shy type not easily
traced. She doesn't know where he lives, but he helps her around the
house and garden, and does errands for her.
Possibilities:
1) Mrs. Crispin is being stalked by George the homicidal odd-job
man. His modus operandi involves befriending his victims to lull them
into a false sense of security. He also gets a thrill from the
stalking. George is a genuine gardener (or social worker), real name
Henry George Baird. He lives out his twisted dark fantasies by killing
the pathetic senior citizens upon whom he depends for his living.
George lives with his innocent Christian wife, Mary, an organizer of
church fetes and charities. Mary provides many of his initial
contacts. George and Mary are childless due to George's impotence, one
of the factors which has sent him over the edge. George has an
extensive collection of tools such as scythes, hammers, axes, and
saws, as well as a furnace, a nondescript van, and a good sized garage
next to his rose garden.
2) Mrs. Crispin's new friend, George, is a genuine ghoul who moved to
town in the last year or so. He has been unable to let go of the world
of man, and can often be seen raking through garbage bins and
scrounging. Unless scrutinized carefully, he appears to be just
another homeless person. Naturally, he is quite sneaky and very good
at moving around unobserved. George and Mrs. Crispin met by accident
when George was attracted to the smell of her cooking. As Mrs. Crispin
couldn't see him, George found it easy to make friends with her.
George has started running small errands, but he keeps the money that
he should spend on butcher meat and substitutes the best cuts from his
victims. Forensic examination of remains has identified odd
partly-human bite wounds on the victims, but this has not been made
public and will only be divulged after much bureaucratic maneuvering.
Mrs. Crispin's usual butcher Andrew Cross will drop the clue that the
amount of meat he supplies her has decreased in recent weeks (as the
rate of murders has increased). The distributor of her pies, Norman
Kent, is most pleased at how well Mrs. Crispin's pies are selling, and
is due to call on her to ask if she can increase her output. Norman
may unwittingly become an ingredient in her next batch!
3) Mrs. Crispin is a homicidal cannibal who has been doing a nice line
in "long pig" pies for over a year. She is inhumanly strong due to her
unnatural diet and, although blind, has the senses of a bat. She is
very adept with her old-fashioned razor-sharp butcher's knives. The
offal from her victims helps her herbs and veggies to grow rapidly.
Mrs. Crispin selects her victims during her bi-weekly visits to the
Women's Guild and senior citizens' outings. She also is a member of
the local Societe des Gourmands, a small club composed of cooks and
food fans which dines out around town once a week, and informally at
members' homes. Mrs. Crispin has a number of loyal friends who share
her dietary tastes, including a local councillor and a minister! All
are just as sneaky and homicidal as Mrs. Crispin. The mysterious
George is a relative of one of her victims who met her just before his
own mother, Eleanor Trent, was killed. He feels sorry for the blind
old lady and is working out his grief (and suppressed guilt at having
left his mother alone to be killed) by looking after Mrs. Crispin. He
should be looking after himself.
Peter Devlin (c) 1997
pdevlin@scotsys.co.uk
--------------------
From: "Ricardo J. Mendez" <ricardo@tecapro.com>
Subject: Strange Vistas Request for Submissions
System: Call of Cthulhu
STRANGE VISTAS
SUBMISSION REQUEST
Call of Cthulhu is a game that can be set all over the world. It is
more likely than not that a keeper doesn't know any specific
information about the country (or state) he's setting his adventures
in, and you can't just go by with the information provided by the
supplements. Also, it is possible that you don't have any information
for, say, Guatemala in the 1920s, and therefore can't set an adventure
idea there which you believe would fit perfectly with their
pyramids. Chaosium has done a great job with their sourcebooks, but we
can't just wait for them to do a World Almanac Sourcebook.
The idea with Strange Vistas is to compile information about every
country in the world in different periods. It might be a period in
which CoC adventures aren't usually set, like the 1530s, but the
information can serve as a background for further campaigns.
So, what is Strange Vistas exactly looking for? Information. Any kind
of world information. Historical, weird, or local myth information is
welcomed. Please state if the information is factual or only local
folklore. I'll be compiling the information and posting it on my
personal web page, so you can send your submissions to
ricardo@tecapro.com.
Now, what isn't Strange Vistas looking for? Problems. Which can be
translated to copyrighted materials, images, or maybe even original
adventures. I'm planning for a second stage in which to include
original adventures that are cross-linked to each period/country, but
first I want to have clearance with Chaosium since it's their system
after all. Also, I haven't decided about an image format, so please
don't send any images yet. Also, images can be a tricky copyright
issue if they were scanned.
It might be obvious, but please don't send any copyrighted material
even if it's copyrighted to the sender. Why? Well, because it's going
to be posted on the Net, up there for grabs for anyone who wants it.
I'm sorry for taking all of this security measures, but the
information is going to be at the company site, and I don't want to
jeopardize them because someone thought his scenario was being ripped
off.
I guess the following could be a submission format. Please contact me
with any suggestions you might have.
NAME AND E-MAIL: Of the person making the submission, so that
you are reachable if anyone wants to ask about it. Please
notify me if you don't want your e-mail included.
COUNTRY: Name of the country to which the data pertains. If
it is a country that doesn't exist any more, please include
both the old and the new name.
PERIOD/YEAR: Year of the data.
STATUS: Historical fact, local folklore, etc.
DATA: The data itself.
Again, please don't mention anything like "an apparition was sighted
that made everyone lose 1d6/1d20 sanity points" ok? Think of it like
you're writing to an occult tabloid. :-)
Any comments are welcomed. Good luck,
Ricardo J. Mendez
http://www.TecApro.com/ mailto: ricardo@tecapro.com
--------------------
From: "Mar Calpena" <igrayne@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Adventure of the White Stag
System: Pendragon
This is the first adventure I ever wrote for Pendragon. I'm afraid
it's not the best, but I still like it. Sorry for the rusty English.
This adventure was first published in LIDER magazine.
This is a Pendragon scenario that touches on the most dreamlike
aspects of the Arthurian universe. The group should contain, at
minimum, a romantic knight and an knight errant. The game master
should emphasize the atmosphere. The scenario may be played as a one
shot, or it may be the start of a campaign set in a forest full of
cursed places, perhaps Forest Perilous. There's no set time for this
scenario.
** The Adventure of the White Stag **
Characters should be passing through a forest when thay heark a
somewhat weird noises, quite similar to a painful whining but more
melodic. When they move closer to the noises they'll see a narrow path
and a beautiful castle looming at a distance. A white stag will run
past the characters, and whatever thay do, thay'll lose track of
it. (The stag is really trying to lead the knights to the castle.)
Once the player knights get to the castle, they'll see that even
though the building isn't too old, it seems completely deserted. The
stag, which is waiting at the castle's door, will lead the players
throuh a dining room into a bedroom. In the middle of it is an
unconscious knight lying on a bed. There are three fire horses
surrounding the bed that will stop anyone getting near the bed.
At this point, the stag will speak: "My name is Mariette, former
chatelaine of this castle and now I suffer this beastly shape because
I refused an alliance with God. My brother, who lies before you, and I
inherited this castle when we were very young. Our lack of experience
led us to a lack of piety and mercy. We tortured and mocked a visiting
priest, who damned us to this fearful curse. However, he was far more
pious than we were for he told us that in seven year's time visitors
would come and rescue us. Now is the time. We have none of our old
pride and we just want our old servants and friends to come back. The
priest left three riddles for our saviours to solve. Will you help
us?"
THE RIDDLE OF THE GOLDEN FRUIT
Assuming the player knights accept, Mariette will present them with
the first of the riddles. She says: "You will get the golden fruit in
the garden if you manage to make everything harmonic with its parts".
Mariette will suggest looking in the castle's garden, where she can't
go because a sparkling light blinds her. If Mariette accompanies the
players to the garden, she'll start complaining about the light as
soon as they get anywhere near the garden. The light is just a soft
glow that shines from a golden apple hanging from a willow tree.
It initially appears that anyone ascending the tree will be able to
grab the fruit without problem. However, anyone attempting a [DEX]
roll to climb the tree will receive 4 points of damage (no armor)
courtesy of the bee swarm guarding the fruit. Then he or she will fall
into a sad slumber [temporarily -12 to Eneergetic], where he'll hear a
strange tune that doesn't sound proper (it actually sounds rather
discordant because it's being played backwards). Then, he'll wake up.
The trial consists of playing the song correctly. roll [Play (musical
instrument)] to do so. If the player knights do play the tune
properly, the swarm will take a human shape and delicately place the
apple at the feet of the knight playing.
There's hardly another way of getting near the fruit, but you ought to
give players a fair chance of solving the problem if they are
imaginative.
THE RIDDLE OF THE SHALLOW LAKE
When the players get back to Mariette with the apple, she'll tell them
about the next riddle: "Patience and learning are the key to all
doors, even the one at the bottom of the lake".
There's a big pond near the castle. No matter how hard knights look
for a door they won't see one. However, if they spend a whole day
watching the surface of the lake, and succeed at an [Awareness] roll,
they'll see a key ascending to the surface with the last ray of
sunlight. The lake will become very shallow and it will possible for
knights to reach the key on foot. Hopefully the knights aren't wearing
chainmail, for the shallowness will only last for thirty seconds as
the sun sets. The first time the players try and get to the key,
they'll probabnnly make it halfway across the lake before the waters
rise up over them again.
In fact, the key is at the bottom of the pond. The easiest way to
reach it is by having lots of patience and a ready horse.
With the player knights return to Mariette with the key in their
hands, the three fire horses will turn into magical knights. They are
there only to frighten the characters, but don't let your players know
this. They won't attack, at least not until Mariette tells the knights
about the third riddle.
THE RIDDLE OF THE SACRIFICE
The third riddle goes thus: "If you offer everything, you will win
everything. If you lose false life, you'll give true life. Make your
virtues stand and fear not".
The guardian knights will ask for a sacrifice in exchange for the life
of the sleeping knight. If someone offers their life, make them roll
[Trusting], [Generous], and [Brave]. If they succeed, just when the
massive axes of the guardians are going to kill the knight, the
guardians will turn into ash and the sleeping knight will awake.
Mariette will turn into a very beautiful lady and the servants and
furniture will appear out of thin air.
Players may alternatively try and fight the guardian knights if they
wish, but they'll find them to be very tough [use Faerie Knight
statistics].
AFTERMATH
If the knights don't succeed in one of the trials, they'll lose a
point of their religion traits and find themselves at the forest
border. They can't get near the castle or find the path that led them
there.
The knights may receive the following glory during the adventure:
30 glory for anyone solving the riddles
100 for every trial the knights overcome
150 for offering oneself as a sacrifice in the last trial
300 for overcoming the last trial
Finally, the gamemaster has a few options for how to end the adventure:
1.) Happy ending. Mariette and her brother are rich and may make a
good marriage to a knight or any lady they know.
2.) Paranoia ending. Mariette and her brother are complete liars and
they will now pester the players (just as the priest that cursed
them in the first place).
--------------------
From: Patricio Gonzalez <bn884465@intbba1.buenayre.com.ar>
Subject: Elric! Cost of Living
System: Elric!
COST FOR LIVING SUMMARY (in bronzes, per month)
I use this table to lessen the PCs money (hehehe!).
But it's realistic anyway.
This includes housing, taxes, food, etc.
Peasant Style of Living: 95
Low Class Living: 155
Mid Class Living: 520
High Class Living: 1300
Minor Noble: 4100
Wealthy Merchant: 7900
-Patricio Gonzalez- :-)
--------------------
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