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Chaosium Digest Volume 29 Number 02
Chaosium Digest Volume 29, Number 2
Date: Thursday, December 2, 1999
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
* Fate of the Horn (ELRIC!) by Itay Horev
itay-h@actcom.co.il
* Helping Your Players Role-play (ELRIC) by Patricio
Gonzalez - Erekose
octogono@geocities.com
Editor's Note:
The Call of Cthulhu hardback Contest continues with two
Elric! submissions for this issue! I'm sorry it's late but
some personal difficulties have kept me away for a bit.
Still, some more good news. The winner of the Cthulhu
hardback will be chosen by Chaosium! Personally, I think
this gives the winner a few more bragging rights over myself
choosing the winner. So all you budding writers out there,
send us your best submissions! December 30 1999, will be the
deadline for receipt of entries to win the new Call of
Cthulhu hardback. If it's not in my email inbox before
midnight December 31, it's not a valid entry. So don't wait
until the last minute! I plan to send the next issue out the
week of the 12th with the last issue of 1999, my first year
at the helm of the Digest, sent out early December 31.
Hopefully everyone will receive it before midnight just in
case the Internet crashes, R'lyeh rises, the Templars
complete their Grand Plan or some other crisis makes it so
nobody cares.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
* I've created a CGI script to generate family trees for
Pendragon (though it could be used for any system, in
suppose). It runs online at
http://www.reaper.org/~magus/scripts/family.cgi and
basically reduces the work required to generate those
convoluted families that add so much flavor to the game.
Regards,
Mark Cummins
RCM Technologies Consultant at National Computer Systems
Tel: (612) 830-7616
Email: mark_cummins@ncs.com
UPCOMING RELEASES
* >>>DECEMBER Releases
For Call of Cthulhu
>Unseen Masters
>Modern COC adventures against hidden powers
2384, $19.95 ISBN 1-56882-120-4
by Bruce Ballon
Three mini-campaigns set in modern New York State lead
modern investigators through serial murder investigations,
madness, and into an ancient conflict between bitter rivals.
Along the way investigators will be aided by Mysterious
allies, face [the] Cult of the Scared Light and the Black
Brotherhood, and confront immortal horrors beyond time and
space. These three scenarios can be combined to form a NY
state campaign.
For Call of Cthulhu Fiction:
>Song of Cthulhu:
>Tales of the Spheres Beyond Sound.
6032, $15.95 ISBN 1-56882-117-4
Edited by Stephen Mark Rainey
At the heart of the universe, the court of the blind idiot
god Azathoth dances to the insane piping of demonic
flute-players. The sinister music resounds across space and
time, blasting the minds and ripping the souls of those who
hear it. It is the melody of chaos, the sound of madness;
the song of Cthulhu. This book includes nineteen stories and
one essay, linked together by the alien and terrible music
of the spheres. Stories selected by Stephen Mark Rainey.
Includes works by H.P. Lovecraft, Ramsey Campbell, E. P.
Berglund, Robert M. Price, and many other talented
composers.
-----------------------------
Fate of the Horn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The characters are Kargan's (King of the Purple Towns)
personal guard. The scenario begins on Kargan's flagship,
Timber Tearer, as the Purple Towns fleet approaches the
fleet of Chaos (Stormbringer, III, Chapters 3-4). Play out
the battle between the fleets, until Timber Tearer and
Jagreen Lern's flagship are attached and Elric charges into
the ship with Kargan close behind him. At this point, the
characters are pretty far away behind Kargan and Elric, but
they can see Elric slaying Kargan with Stormbringer. The
characters aren't likely to know about Elric's curse, and
would probably think this is treason. However, before they
can approach Elric in order to avenge their king, the Chaos
ships arrive at the place and everybody has to run for their
lives.
Days later, the characters will finally wash up to the
shores of the Purple Cities, only to discover Elric has
already departed on some quest. Later that day, a tall, dark
figure comes to the characters' quarters. The man is
Sepiriz, and he tells the characters he has a mission from
fate for them. On a different sphere, a knight called Roland
is about to be betrayed by another knight called Ganelon.
That Roland will be buried along with his horn, know as
Olifant in that sphere, and later on Elric will have to
travel to that sphere and get that horn in order to save the
world. However, the agents of Chaos have already traveled to
that Sphere in order to save Roland from the treason, and
thus make it impossible for Elric to save the world when the
time comes. The characters will have to travel to that
dimension in order to make sure Roland dies the way he
should die, and if they fail at that, they must murder him
themselves. After saying that, Sepiriz opens a portal to the
Sphere and sends the characters away.
The characters appear on a hill near a large camp. Near them
stands the knight in Jet and Gold. He explains that a war
rages between a nation called France and another nation
called Spain. The camp they see hold the capital of Spain,
Saragosa, under siege. The King of Spain, Marsilion, asked
to negotiate with the king of France, Charlemagne. Any
minute now, Roland and Ganelon are about to argue, and
argument which will end when Ganelon leaves in order to
negotiate with Marsilion, a negotiation he is about to use
in order to betray Roland to the Spaniards. The knight's
guess is the Ganelon will be attacked on his way to the
negotiation, and will be replaced by a Chaos agent, who will
make a true agreement with Marsilion, thus saving Roland
from death.
On his way to Saragosa, Ganelon is indeed attacked. Saving
him shouldn't prove too difficult. He will thank the
characters for saving him and be on his way. Even if
wounded, he will do his best to negotiate himself, as he
still wants Roland dead.
When the characters arrive back at the camp, the knight in
Jet and Gold tells them Roland has been kidnapped, and will
take them to the castle of a lady called Vivian. The knight
will explain that Roland must die, but Vivian must remain
alive, as she is the one who will open the door to Roland's
tomb for Elric, when the time comes. He also says that
Roland must die with honor, on the battle field, not be
murdered while in bed with some woman.
Somewhere in the castle (in a hidden basement) lies the
Horn. Roland and Vivian are nowhere to be found, unless the
characters approach Vivian's private quarters or fight
anyone in the castle (there are a few servants). Roland is
under the influence of some spell. All he wants is to remain
with Vivian, and if he is met under the circumstance
described above, he will be angry for the characters'
behavior, and will invite one of them to a duel. The only
way to awaken Roland from the spell is to blow the horn in
his presence.
When Roland understand the situation he insists on going to
the battle field at once. When they arrive at the place, the
battle is already over. The rear guard of the French army is
killed, and no Saracens can be found. Roland approaches one
of the knights lying on the ground and calls his name
"Oliver". Oliver awakens and asks Roland to blow the horn,
so that the rest of the army returns, and his death can be
avenged. Roland, with tears in his eyes, blows the horn, his
back turned to the characters. As he does this, the knight
in Jet and Gold appears, a Spanish sword in his hand, and
tells the characters to do what must be done.
Once Roland is dead, the knight will take the characters
away from the place, and will tell them they are free to go.
If they ask to return to the young kingdoms, he will say
it's beyond his power, and that the Kingdoms have been
destroyed anyway.
The End.
Well, that's about it. I didn't include a map of Vivian's
castle, as it isn't really necessary. Hope you enjoy it more
than my players did (One of them betrayed the others, as his
allegiance was to Chaos, and he managed to save Roland from
death :)
Bye,
Itay
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Helping Your Players Role-play
-----------------------------
This article is made with Elric! in mind but is useful to
all other BRPs and even other games.
The idea I bring here is to make players fill a Personality
Sheet so that they can define their personality on an easy
and yet complete way. It is also useful to keep track of
personality changes or evolutions which increases
role-playing potential (i.e. Deilar didn't believe in magic
until he met a tribe shaman in the Sighing Desert. The
shaman created a small flame on his hand out from nowhere
and made it dance and shape into curling naked female
figures. Amazed with what he saw, Deilar asked the shaman if
he could learn... magic. Deilar's life changed forever. He's
now a great shaman adventurer and regularly visits his
master.)
The Personality Sheet is divided into three columns. The
first one, contains some situations or topics the PC
could/will react at. The second is the Inner Being column
where the player writes how his PC will feel, react and/or
think in relation to the first column's situations. The
third column is the Outer Being, where the player states in
what way or how his PC will expose his feelings to the
outside world.
Situation Column: Try to define the most common situations
the PCs will make front. Also leave empty spaces. In an
ongoing campaign, PCs may discover new interests and it
should be useful to write down their reactions. In the
examples below, I wrote some of the topics I mostly use in
my adventures. If your campaign is about Melniboneans
roaming the world, a Human Society topic, would be nice.
Inner Being Column: Think deeply about each topic and try to
find many different views to it. Write them all if you want,
or write the most common ones.
Outer Being Column: Again, think deeply how will your PC
expose his inner feelings. He may expose them all. Don't
expose a thing. Or expose a bit, or in a different way. The
most common example of this "mask" in real life is the love
topic. Usually, people show an aspect or a mask of his
feelings. His macho side, her curves, etc. It's extremely
hard to show one's inner feelings without seeming a jerk, at
least in OUR world. Well I think you've got the idea of how
the Outer Being works.
Sample Personality Sheet
Topic Inner Being Outer Being
Morale or Values
Family
Society
Friends
Enemies
First Meeting
Opposite Sex
Religion
Magic
Money
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
Sample PCs
STR: 16
CON: 16
SIZ: 10
INT: 9
POW: 10
DEX: 10
APP: 11
HP: 13
MP: 10
DB: +1D4
NAME: Wafff
NATIONALITY: Org
PROFESSION: Escaped Slave
Age: 19
Physical Description: 1.62 meters, 77 kg. A somewhat hairy
guy, but with normal looks. Heavy built and broad shoulders.
A bit dumb. Black eyes and hair.
Personality Sheet
Topic Inner Being Outer Being
Morale or Values: Feeling good is good, Shows his values
freely. Feeling bad is bad.
Family: Wishes he had some relatives to find caring and
counsel. He exposes nothing of it.
Society: Trusts no one. He'll remain aside if possible. He's
used to being alone and won't talk with anyone unless
survival is at stake.
Friends: Has no friends but wishes to. He won't look for a
friend and won't move to get one, but he awaits his arrival.
Enemies: Will take revenge as soon as possible. He will show
himself valiantly
First Meeting: Won't trust him but He shows himself as a
closed self sufficient guy.
Opposite Sex: Almost superstitious fear of women mixed with
great desire. Tries not to show his fear but fails miserably
every time.
Religion: Doesn't know what it is. Fears cemeteries and the
like, because of the
tales of the ghouls from the hill. He's extremely
superstitious with natural manifestations. Shows his
superstition. He thinks it's logical.
Magic: Can't make difference between magic an other
"strange" things.
Money: Sees money as a tool for survival. Acts as the rest
of society just to not catch much attention.
STR: 8
CON: 12
SIZ: 18
INT: 16
POW: 18
DEX: 14
APP: 16
HP: 15
MP: 18
DB: +1D4
NAME: Ghafar. Also known as the Tower of the Dunes
NATIONALITY: Quarzhasaat
PROFESSION: Merchant
Age: 29
Physical Description: 2.08 meters, 92 kg. Brown skin, light
brown hair, green
eyes, very tall and thin, hard features and quite handsome.
Topic Inner Being Outer Being
Morale or Values: Wants a life of pleasures: money,
prestige, women. Cheats, manipulates and lies to get it.
Restrains his desires to give the impression of a decent
nobleman. He has no bad intentions.
Family: Has a living father and mother. He loves them very
much, and visits them
regularly. Behaves like a winner in front of his parents.
Has a brother from them. Hides his hate for his brother who
he hates very much.
Society: Likes living in society. Seeks benefits or contacts
that help him in his goals. Poses and merges with the high
society.
Friends: No true friends. He behaves like a friend only if
its beneficial.
Enemies: Will revenge if they are in his way. Will do it
subtlety. Smiles and behaves ironically in front of them.
First Meeting: Grabs his attention. Seeks possible benefits.
Behaves kindly and compassionate.
Opposite Sex: He just wants sex and a good time. Puts on his
romantic mask to catch his prey.
Religion: No real beliefs. ---
Magic: Able to cast magic. Distrusts it but he's being
attracted more and more
to its "virtues." Hides his magical abilities. Every time he
is in presence of something magical his eyes sparkle a
little.
Money: Money is extremely important. Money grants a good
life, prestige, women, grimoires, etc. Hides his greed from
possible "contributors"
Melniboneans: Long extinct. Just a bunch of arrogant
people... not like the Quarzhasaati.
Test it, you won't be disappointed. Let me know how it went
at:
octogono@geocities.com
Cheers
Patricio Gonzalez - Erekose
--
