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Chaosium Digest Volume 26 Number 03
Chaosium Digest Volume 26, Number 3
Date: Sunday, June 21, 1998
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
A Hard Decision (Paul Franklin) NEPHILIM
1890s Campaigns Leave You With Time... (Derek Mayne) CTHULHU 1890s
The Cthulhu Survival Pack (Eric Awbrey) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
Welcome to the newest Chaosium digest. A variety of notes on a variety
of systems this week.
Shannon
RECENT BOOKS OF NOTE:
* Elric! - _The Dancers at the End of Time_ (White Wolf, $22.99) is
the tenth book in White Wolf's collection of Moorcock's Eternal
Champion works. As you might expect, this one brings together the
three core "Dancers" books (with the last two presumably to be found
in volume 13).
* Pendragon - _The Saxon Shore_ (Tor/Forge, $24.95?), by Jack Whyte, is
the fourth book in his Camulod Chronicles series. I haven't had the
opportunity to read this newest selection yet, but so far the series
has been grade A, detailing a historical Arthurian saga in a
realistic and gritty Britain following the Roman withdrawal. If you
have tried the series yet, check out the first book, _The Skystone_,
which is available in paperback.
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
A New Nephilim Page
http://www.io.com/~jwtlai/nephilim
A very nice Nephilim page that currently has a few articles that have
appeared on the digest, and other stuff.
Tim Emrick's Site
http://www.geocities.com/area51/hollow/1970
Still in progress, but already has some very cool rules for using GOOs
in the Iron Dragon board game and assorted other things.
--------------------
From: cthulhu@corpcomm.net (Paul Franklin)
Subject: A Hard Decision: A Nephilim Adventure Outline
System: Nephilim
A Hard Decision: A Nephilim Adventure Outline
Nephilim in and around the SF Bay area are no longer able to enter
into Ka-Vision. Whenever they do, they only get chaotic
visions--strange visions of things they know nothing about. The
Nephilim may be try to triangulate the position of the source of the
disturbance, or they may attempt to do some investigating into the
time when the disturbance in Ka-Vision started happening. The only
significant events that happened that day were the intentional
destruction of a bizarre church (red herring), and the introduction of
a new computer chip that allows people to communicate over a short
distance to a computer. Triangulation leads to the lab where the chip
is being engineered.
The lab is in the heart of San Francisco. It is a computer chip
engineering site that has made recent breakthroughs into the
integration of human flesh and silicon technology. The Nephilim may
also discover this fact by reading recent technical journals and trade
magazines; especially any regarding bio-engineering and genetics will
definitely have information about this breakthrough procedure. They
will not be able to determine how the chip has been implemented, only
that there is a chip in current use that utilizes brainwaves to
operate. Do not let them know that the chip has been implanted in a
human.
The lab is not heavily defended. However, there is a token defense,
enough to make the Nephilim think about how to get in. There should be
state of the art alarms and probably live guards every so often. At
least one of the Nephilim should be able to manipulate electronics and
computers. The closer the Nephilim get to the source, the more the
broadcasts start to infringe upon their vision. As the PCs get closer,
describe snippets of television shows, parts of someone's life, and a
feeling of pity, determination, self-loathing, and strength.
Once they find the source, hopefully to their surprise, they will see
that the source is a real person. And to the further dismay of the
Nephilim, this person is a mute quadriplegic, who is using the chip in
order to talk to other people. Without the chip, this person cannot
communicate with the outside world. This person will have no clue what
is going on, and will be very surprised by the nice people that have
come to visit him/her (GM's choice). This person will communicate
through a computer which they control with the chip in their
head. Each time the source talks, the Nephilim will hear not only the
computer talking, but parts of this personality and their tragedy will
be imprinted upon the Nephilim.
To neutralize the source, the chip will have to be removed from the
patient and the plans destroyed. There will be a doctor on duty who
can perform the operation. However, he will be extremely reluctant to
do so, also mentioning that this is the patient's last chance to be
able to communicate normally with the rest of mankind. If the Nephilim
persist and even threaten the doctor, he will perform the operation.
To destroy the plans for the chip, the Nephilim will have to hack into
the computer to remove all traces of plans and notes for the chip. The
doctor cannot do this, nor will he offer anyone who can. If the
Nephilim thoroughly search the place, they will be able to find an
off-hours programmer there who can do the job, but only for a price:
one million dollars, and a ticket out of the states. The programmer
eats the espionage stuff up and will get totally into it after a
while, calling the Nephilim "secret agents" and the like.
Once the plans have been destroyed, the Nephilim's job is done.
Summary:
1. Ka-Vision does not work in SF Bay area.
2. Discover source of disturbance.
3. Gain entrance to source of disturbance.
4. Neutralize source of disturbance.
5. Stop further implementations of disturbance.
--------------------
From: <derek.mayne@butterworths.co.uk>
Subject: 1890s Campaigns Leave You With Time to Travel
System: Call of Cthulhu
1890S CAMPAIGNS LEAVE YOU WITH TIME TO TRAVEL...
I really like the 1890s setting for Call of Cthulhu, but it brings
with it a whole set of unique difficulties. Two main options exist for
an 1890s campaign. First, you could start from scratch and generate
characters for that time and milieu. Second, it is conceivable that
characters from any period could be transported to the 1890s. I don't
like generating 1890s characters from scratch; in my (limited)
experience players have problems picturing and relating to the
Victorian milieu, so I'll abandon that approach in favour of
considering only the second option.
Time travel gives the immediate benefit of allowing players to utilize
existing, experienced, characters. There are a number of mechanisms
open to the Keeper for time travel and it is worth reading the notes
on this subject in Chaosium's "Cthulhu by Gaslight". For the purpose
of this discussion I will restrict myself to what I believe to be a
new option for Time Travel--the use of the Dreamlands.
USING THE DREAMLANDS FOR TIME TRAVEL
A simple hypothesis must be subscribed to in order for this to be
conceived as possible. That hypothesis is that the lands of Earth's
dreams is coterminous with all time and space relative to the lands of
dream they represent. In simpler terms, the Dreamlands of Earth
coexist with all points on Earth at all points in time. It is
therefore possible to enter or exit Earth's Dreamlands from any place
on Earth at any point in time--the simplest proof of this being that
people from differing periods and places can share the same dream. It
is quite feasible to share a dream adventure simultaneously with both
your great grandfather from Ireland and your great grandson, an
Irish-American. The laws of dreams even mean that it is possible to
share a dream with yourself from a different period in time! It then
follows that if your entry to the lands of dream is a physical entry,
rather than sleep- or drug-induced, then it may be possible that your
exit leads to a completely different time and place. Note that this
contradicts the guidance given in the Dreamlands source book:
Whether or not he exits through a different place than that he
entered by, his waking world point of arrival is always the same as
that through which he entered the dreamlands. A character cannot
travel in the waking world by using the Dreamlands as a shortcut.
Because of this contradiction I suggest that the Keeper employ a
mechanism such as a modified Gate spell to facilitate such travel.
Given the power of such travel--instantaneous movement between two
points in time and space--I feel that Investigators should be victim
to rather than master of any such magics. I suggest that such a spell
be available only in the most rare of Tomes and in the great library
of Celeano.
The Gate of Temporal and Spatial Oneirology
This is a modification of the spell given in the Dreamland source
book under the title of "The Gate of Oneirology".
The spell opens a physical pathway to or from the Dreamlands,
connected to a physical location at a specific point in time (time
relative to the destination), the path being one-way only. When the
gate is created the caster must know both the entry and exit points
and must have at some time visited both locations; the caster is
therefore required to be an experienced traveler in the land of
dream. As such it is impossible for one person to use this spell to
facilitate time travel beyond the sphere of his own existence.
However, two Sorcerers from differing times and locations could
conspire to bring each other together.
The spell requires the sacrifice of 4 permanent points of POW (not
magic points) and opens a gate which will exist for a number of days
equal to the caster's remaining POW; this time period is relative to
the locale in which the Gate was cast. Objects or entities native to
the Dreamlands may not pass through such a gate. Objects originating
in the waking world can pass through such a gate restricted only by
the direction of the gate, even if an object were transformed by its
original passage into the Dreamlands, although once transformed it
would remain so. Thus, if an investigator took a handgun into the
Dreamlands through such a gate, it would be transformed into, say, a
slingshot. When the investigator utilized a second gate or another
physical passage to exit the Dreamlands, the slingshot would come
through, but remain a slingshot. Unlike the simpler spell "The Gate of
Oneirology", this spell may not be used to travel to or from
Dreamlands other than that relative to the locale of the caster. It is
not therefore possible to use this spell to travel, for instance, to
the Dreamlands of Yuggoth from here on Earth.
Practical considerations for using this method for time travel
Investigators travelling to the Dreamlands using such a gate have
several options for leaving the lands of dream and re-entering the
waking world. First, they may employ any of the physical passageways
into the waking world:
An investigator physically present in the Dreamlands can leave
[only] by finding one of the physical paths thereto, such as those
in the Forbidden Lands past the Tanarian Hills, the Ghoul tunnels
from the Underworld, which lead to the waking world, or similar
means. If he walks back up the Seven Hundred Steps to Deeper
Slumber, to find the Cavern of Flame, he can exit the Dreamlands by
proceeding up through the Seventy Steps of Light Sleep.
I have to admit that I have in the past enjoyed playing out a simple
"dungeon bash" through Ghoul tunnels as desperate investigators battle
to return to the waking world. The ideas of them emerging from the
tunnels, weary, wounded, and peering through the dense graveyard mist,
hearing the echo of horses on cobblestone roads as a Hansom cab phases
out of sight into the distance, and leaving them to wonder how they
will ever get back to Boston, oblivious to the fact that they have
returned to the waking world on another continent, some 130 years into
a shadowy past, is enjoyable. Of course a more adventurous Keeper may
employ one of the other exits that exist. One could investigators back
into the waking world stranded in the desert, among the towering
pillars of the fabled city of Irem, where the Serpent People or Sand
Dwellers may make a pack of slavering Ghouls seem almost preferable!
Second, a seasoned traveller in Dream may know of the spell "The Gate
of Oneirology" and attempt to utilize this to leave the Dreamlands.
Unfortunately, if the spatial and temporal version of this spell was
used to enter the lands of Dream the "time slip" will have effectively
occurred. The Keeper may decide that as a result of this the destination
required by the caster is now somewhat different--locations change
over periods of time and the original gate spell requires intimate
knowledge of the destination location as well as its relation to one
other location. In short this spell should not be allowed to function.
Third, a traveller may use a second "Gate of Temporal and Spatial
Oneirology". This is the only guaranteed method of returning to where
you started. Even this should not be easy, calling for Luck rolls at a
minimum to avoid returning to a point in time where you already
exist. The resultant chaos should not take much imagination.
Note, however, that matter passing into or out of the Dreamlands
undergoes a transformation, therefore it is not the same matter after
this transformation, hence an investigator may occupy the same time
and space as an earlier counterpart without the danger of a temporal
or spatial rift. Similarly passage through such a gate abstracts the
matter from its own temporal and spatial zones, and so the laws of
cause and effect no longer applies. An example therefore would be
that, murdering your grandparents after travelling back in time using
the dreamlands would not cause you to cease to exist!
Derek Mayne.
E-mail: derek.mayne@butterworths.co.uk
Or derek@miskatonic.demon.co.uk
--------------------
From: "Eric Awbrey" <cyaneyed@door.net>
Subject: The Cthulhu Survival Pack
System: Call Of Cthulhu
I have found that one of the best things to do for PCs, to assist
them, is to allow them to make a Cthulhu Survival Pack. This idea was
brought to me by a friend and fellow Game Master.
The Cthulhu Survival Pack is a 4'x2'x2' foot locker. Inside this
locker are handy dandy things not intended for killing creatures, but
to make investigators' lives easier. Our typical CSP contains 50' of
rope, three electric torches (flashlights), spare batteries, alcohol
(isopropyl, not rotgut), copper wire, duct tape, kerosene, bandages,
rubber tubing, rags, 6 sticks of dynamite (which can be bought under
the guise of varmit killing, even today), and room for spare ammo and
other equipment.
The locker should be too small for the PCs to carry big guns in; the
occasional spare .45 or P08 Luger is fine. Above all, the locker is
HEAVY, made from solid oak, and filled to the rim with all sorts of
toys--it is possible it could weigh upwards of 150 lbs. This requires
two charaters to carry it safely. Also, the keeper decides what should
and shouldn't be in the locker.
A bit of a warning though: allow only experienced (paranoid?)
charaters to use the CSP. Fresh PCs would have no idea that they need
to haul around such a thing. Then, as a bit of revenge, make your PCs
lug this thing all over the place in a scenerio where it won't even be
opened up, like "The Westchester House."
Happy Hunting,
Eric Awbrey
--
