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Chaosium Digest Volume 27 Number 08
Chaosium Digest Volume 27, Number 8
Date: Sunday, February 28, 1999
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
* Ten Killer Cards from the Mythos Standard Game Set
(MYTHOS) Jeff Okamoto
* Secret Motivations in Call of Cthulhu, Or, Why Curiosity Killed the
Cat
(CALL OF CTHULHU) Simon Hopper (simon@westmyth.freeserve.co.uk)
Editor's Note:
This issue, Jeff Okamoto gives us some insight into Mythos cards and
Simon Hopper offers up a possible explanation for why Call of Cthulhu
investigators are so good at uncovering the machinations of the
horrors from beyond. Thanks to them both for their submissions and to
Shannon Appel for the Recent Books of Note listing. If anyone has read
any of these and/or any of the other books that get mentioned here,
how about writing a review? Let us know what you think. Lastly, let's
hear from some of you Nephilim and Pendragon fans! I've not received a
single submission on either game. For that matter I'm out of
submissions as of this issue. You guys need to get me some more or
risk being subjected to my insane ramblings!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The new version of Byakhee (version 3) is available at the following
URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/4173/
RECENT BOOKS OF NOTE:
* Call of Cthulhu - _The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath #5_ (Mock Man
Press, $2.95), by Jason Thompson, is the final issue in Jason's
great
comic adaptation of the definitive Dreamlands novel. If it's not at
your local comic book store, you should be able to pick up all five
issues through Jason's web site, http://www.sonic.net/~jason. Jason
has also recently designed the Cthulhu 2000 t-shirt for Wizard's
Attic, more details of which can be found at the Wizard's Attic web
site, http://www.chaosium.com/wizards-attic/.
_Lovecraft Remembered_ (Arkham House, $29.95), edited by Peter
Cannon, probably came out late last year, but it's too cool a book
not to mention. This 486-page book is full of essays about Lovecraft
by neighbors, amateurs, Kalems, ladies, professionals, fans, and
critics. ISBN 0-87054-173-0.
_Great Weird Tales_ (Dover, $8.95), edited by S.T. Joshi, is a
short collection of weird tales from the golden age of horror. It
includes pieces by Lovecraft, Machen, Blackwood, and several
others. ISBN 0-486-40436-6.
* Elric! - _Corum: The Prince with the Silver Hand_ (White Wolf,
$24.99), by Michael Moorcock, is book #12 in the White Wolf Eternal
Champion collection. It includes the last three Corum novels: _The
Bull and the Spear_, _The Oak and the Ram_, and _The Sword and the
Stallion_. ISBN 1-56504-188-7.
--------------------
Ten Killer Cards from the Mythos Standard Game Set
Copyright (C) 1997 Jeff Okamoto. All Rights Reserved.
The Mythos Standard Game Set contains a number of cards which are
quite
useful in a Mythos Tournament Deck. Here are the ten best cards that
will be of the most use to you. Most of them are defensive cards to
hamper
your opponents, but a few of them are offensive in use (and effect).
Steadfast Deck
1. Sudden Downpour. This Event forces all Investigators to walk even
between
City locations. This especially hampers fast decks, which are usually
based in a single City. They must now either waste a turn walking
or use a (usually scarce) Travel by Land card to regain their former
speed.
2. Insect from Shaggai. Should this Monster survive an opponent's
Threat and
go on to affect an Ally or the Investigator, it eats an opponent's
Spell. Only one other Spell can do the same thing (Song of Hastur).
The best thing about this Monster is that its effects cannot be
Yithian'ed!
3. Cthulhu Rising. This Event causes the top card in the Story Deck
to be
discarded, if it features the Water location. This is about the
worst thing to do to an opponent, since almost by definition, every
Story Deck card is a requirement for an Adventure. The only
disadvantages are the high Sanity cost and the Uniqueness dot.
4. Faithful Hounds. This Artifact can be discarded to force one
Threat card
from an opponent to be Buried. You can use it defensively against
the big monster coming your way, or use it to open up the way for
the monsters in your Threat.
5. Tiara of Opulent Fantasy. This Artifact changes the attributes of
your
current location into that of any other opponent's current location.
Need a gate in a hurry? How about a House or Press location to
complete an Adventure? Got to hide from multiple Phobias affecting
you? It only costs 1 Sanity point to do it!
Corrupt Deck
1. Dysentery. This Event forces all Allies of one Investigator to be
flipped face-down, as well as the Allies of any other investigator
in the same sub-region as the affected Investigator. Your opponent
is now vulnerable to your Threat, and Allies that protect against
theft no longer do so, nor can they use any Artifacts or Spells
they might know. Best of all, it doesn't cost any Sanity to use!
2. Namquit Point. At this Location you can recover Artifacts that
were
buried in your Story Deck. Although these Artifacts still count
towards Adventures, they might be important enough that you want
to use them (especially something like the Sphere of Nath). Now
you can pull them out of your Story Deck and bring them back into
play!
3. Yithian. This Monster can be buried and cause an opponent's Ally
to
take its place in your Threat. You can best use it to get rid of
a pesky Ally whose abilities or Weapon is troublesome. Steal an
Ally with Dynamite and you may be able to completely wipe out an
opponent's Defending Allies!
4. Succumb to Temptation. This Event causes an opponent's Steadfast
Ally
to attack the Investigator. Although the opponent's other Allies can
defend, that only lets more Allies be Buried.
5. Government Cover-Up. This Event forces the discard of the Event
closest
to the bottom of an opponent's Story Deck. Do this to a Unique
Event needed for an Adventure and you just forced your opponent to
spend 1 Sanity to reshuffle their discards back into the Mythos
Deck.
Honorable Mention
Portaphobia. This Event gives an opponent the fear of Gates.
Although it
is relatively easy to get rid of Phobias, this really hurts an
opponent who needs to summon lots of Monsters.
Worst Card
Congregational Hospital. This location restores 5 points of Sanity,
but
the cost is a random discard of a card in the Story Deck. Since
almost by definition every Story Deck card is important, the chances
are very good that you will get hosed when this happens and will
have to spend 1 Sanity to shuffle your discards back into your
Mythos Deck.
Secret Motivations in Call of Cthulhu, Or, Why Curiosity Killed the
Cat
Simon Hopper (simon@westmyth.freeserve.co.uk)
WARNING: For Keepers eyes only...
Most Keepers include red herrings or more mundane horrors amongst
their
scenarios, the esoteric cult that is a money making scheme, the
chemical
contamination of the water supply causing strange deformities, the
local gang
of gangsters etc. Yet ultimately most of us end up making most
adventures
contain a Cthulhoid menace at their heart and it's rare for a
published
scenario to be without one. After all, isn't the interaction between
ordinary
human beings and the Cthulhu Mythos the main selling point of Call of
Cthulhu?
Yet unless you're playing in a setting where Mythos entities and cults
are
really ubiquitous (i.e. the stars are right) the PCs will be getting
an above
average strike rate of discovering the Cthulhoid influence in their
world.
Ever wondered why?
Most players will have built into their character's background a
reasoning and
motivation as to why they do the things that they do, i.e. be an
Investigator
who faces death and insanity, yet this does not account for their
peculiar
ability in rooting out Cthulhoid elements on Earth. What I want to
suggest is
that the Keeper provides an explanation of why the Investigators have
such
success by giving one or more of the PCs a secret ability in
discovering
Cthulhoid influences. One version of this has already been described
in the
Digest (22.12): that of making one of your players a cultist who has
infiltrated the group. My suggestion is to take this a step further
by making
both the group and the character unaware of the reason or cause for
their
Cthulhu hunting prowess. This of course then gives the game setting
added
coherence (at least for the Keeper) and can provide the seed for a
scenario in
which it is one of the PCs who is under investigation rather than the
usual
nephew or old school chum scenario hooks. Below are some particular
ideas as
to how this could work, I'm sure you're capable of devising more.
1) The character has a repressed memory relating to their childhood
that they
are unconsciously trying to work through in their adult actions. An
example
would be that they witnessed the sacrifice of their parents to a
deity.
Unable to comprehend the death of their parents at the hands of such
inhuman
forces the child grows up believing the official story that they died
in an
accident. Subsequently the character has taken to investigating
strange
goings-on as an attempt to "recover" their parents and has developed
an
instinct as to which cases to investigate.
2) The character is a pre-transformation Deep One/Human hybrid. They
therefore have a natural affinity for things related to Cthulhu and
the
transformation process could make for interesting conflicts within the
group.
3) The character, or an object that the character possesses, has been
cursed.
The "bad luck" is exhibited as frequent encounters with the cults and
entities of the Cthulhu Mythos.
4) The character has an entirely different personality submerged
within their
mind. This mind can either be directing strategic behavior (e.g.
Talia
Winters in "Babylon 5") or have previously set up the situation
leading to the
encounters (e.g. like Doug Quaid in "Total Recall"). Alternatively
the
character can be receiving dreams from Nyarlathotep or Cthulhu that
influence
their actions but which they never consciously remember.
--
Simon Hopper (simon@westmyth.freeserve.co.uk)
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