Chaosium Digest Volume 3, Number 11 Date: Monday, September 6, 1993 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: Pendragon Pass: Adding RQ Magic (David Dunham) PENDRAGON Prince Valiant Variants (David Dunham) PRINCE VALIANT Necronomicon Notes (Scott Plumer) CALL OF CTHULHU The Further Cases of Titus Crow (Shannon Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU Editor's Note: A few short notes from subscribers this time around. Scott Plumer (splumer%WESTLRC@ibm4381.onet.edu) said that he had come across a computer game quite similar in feel to Call of Cthulhu. It's called "Defender of Boston". If you're interested, you should drop him a line. Also, Tim Beecher (timbee@timbee.rnd.symix.com) commented that players at conventions tend to gravitate towards the characters with the most flaws. He said that people seem to prefer the chain smoking, alcholic, raving professor over the town librarian. He wondered if anyone had any comments on this curiosity. Shannon Recent Sightings: * Call of Cthulhu - "Thin Jack", a five page adventure set in the Cthulhu Now era, Challenge #70 [August, 1993] Frederic Moll was kind enough to pass on a number of Recent Sightings in French magazines to me. If anyone else would like to contribute information on Foreign Magazine Sightings, it would be much appreciated. The following articles are all French: * Call of Cthulhu - "Theatre d'Ombres" (Shadow's Theater), a scenerio for CoC which includes a new tome, called The Liber Lacrymae, Casus Belli #76 [July/August, 1993] ; "Ong Cop", a nine page tournament scenerio set in 1929 Indochina, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30 ; "La Pierre" (The Stone), a six page adventure involving a search for the Stone of the Forgotten Gods, and a trip to a Fantastic Medieval World, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30 ; "St James Square", a four page adventure for beginners in Great Britain, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30 * Stormbringer - "L'Eventreur de Uktel" (Uktel's Ripper), a four page adventure for followers of Law or the Elements, Casus Belli #75 [May/June, 1993] ; "Affaires de Familie" (Family Affairs), a five page scenerio, Chroniques d'Outremonde #30 -------------------- From: David Dunham (via RadioMail) Subject: Pendragon Pass: Adding RQ Magic System: Pendragon [a variant of this article appeared in the August 24th RuneQuest Daily. It provides rules for using RuneQuest Magic with the Pendragon game system. -sda] I've long been an admirer of Pendragon's simple and fast combat system. However, I didn't feel comfortable GMing an Arthurian game, since some of my players knew the background better. In 1985, I started a Gloranthan campaign depicting the colonization of Dragon Pass. I chose Pendragon instead of RuneQuest as the base rules because they were better suited to a long-term campaign spanning decades of game time. I tried to use straight Pendragon as much as possible, with RuneQuest's magic system (so I could use all the existing cult material). I called the result "PenDragon Pass." I didn't get to run the campaign very long, but I described the experience in Tales of the Reaching Moon 6. (Refer to that article for more detail, especially about the Gloranthan setting.) About a year ago, Greg Stafford asked me to take another look at Griffin Island, a RQ campaign which I'd not given much thought to because it wasn't as good as the original Griffin Mountain. Well, it's still not as good as the original, but did have some cool stuff, and useful handouts (only the religion handout makes any mention of game mechanics). I decided to dust off the PenDragon Pass rules and run Griffin Island. Statistics To accommodate magic, I added the POWer stat. As in Arthurian Pendragon, each culture has modifiers to the stats (see TRM6 for Gloranthan cultures), and different starting skills Traits and Passions I kept the personality rules. For example, Hilme (the Sun God in Griffin Island) values Chaste, Generous, Honest, Just and Valorous (see TRM6 for Gloranthan virtues). To become an initiate, a candidate must make 3 of the 5 rolls (as well as the normal RQ requirements). Likewise, priests (or Rune Lords) must not only make a POW roll (on d20) but make 4 of the 5 trait rolls. This screens out unworthy candidates. Hate passions seem popular. I haven't been doing the best job coming up with scenarios to test traits and passions (Griffin Island isn't much help). Status Knights seek Glory, but in PenDragon Pass you gain Status not only for performing great deeds, but for healing or leadership responsibility (this hasn't come up in the current campaign, but a PC can certainly aspire to leading a clan). Pendragon halves Glory obtained through use of missile weapons; I kept this rule, but haven't always been applying it. I'll probably drop it soon (it makes sense for knights, but not for elves or horse nomads), but I'm open to argument. Skills I dropped several Pendragon skills because they were too Arthurian (eg Hawking, Heraldry), and added Animal Lore, Bargaining, Custom , Devise, Industry, Mathematics, Memorize (limits magic, and can be used by heralds), Mineral Lore, Plant Lore, Ritual (this covers all the RQ3 ritual magic skills), Shamanism (this covers all the RQ4 shaman skills), Sleight, Sorcery (also the various manipulation skills), Stealth, and World Lore. Combat I added several tactics (Break Shield, Disarm, Flurry, Guard) from RQ4, but I don't think anyone's used them. When iron weapons enter the campaign, they'll be more durable (swords won't break them on tied resolutions). Magic (Note: This magic system is translated RuneQuest. I don't propose it as being at all appropriate for Arthurian Pendragon.) Spirit combat is simply opposed resolution of MP. The loser loses d3; if he makes a partial success, the victor loses one MP. I kept most spirit and divine spells. Most point values remain the same so they tend to be weaker (since hit points, damage, and armor are larger in Pendragon than in RQ). Over the winter, you can learn a spirit spell instead of one point of skill. You can learn as many total spells as your Memorize skill. To keep things simple, you only learn a variable spell once -- you can cast it at up to POW/3. Casting is a POW roll (the same roll may be used to oppose against a target's MP, which is somewhat kludgy). Divine magic is just like RQ3. Only Regrow Limb eliminates a major wound. I added sorcery rules vaguely based on an RQ4 proposal. You cast spells as an opposed roll of your Sorcery skill vs the points in the spell. You can use Duration, Intensity, Multispell or Range at up to that skill level, and the total points in a spell can't exceed your Sorcery skill. Only one PC knows sorcery, and since he's not a specialist, he's weak at it. Magic can heal a wound only once (and most magic won't remove a major wound or negate the need for Chirurgery). In my campaign, PC magic has saved people from death, but it doesn't eliminate the need for long-term care. Enchantments require a Ritual roll as well as a POW sacrifice. In this campaign, there haven't been any magic items, but the earlier Dragon Pass campaign did have priests as parents or grandparents, and thus a certain amount of heirloom magic. Occasionally, magic has been more powerful than it should (such as the time a warrior took on a gorgosaur with 18 points of battlemagic), but the transition from RQ3 cults works pretty well. A few features still feel bolted on, and it's not as simple as I'd like. As in standard Pendragon, truly powerful magic is still the domain of the GM. Converting I occasionally have to convert an NPC from RQ3 to PenDragon Pass. It's usually straightforward, dividing skill percentiles by 5 (sometimes finding a similar skill), figuring out what sort of armor's worn and using the equivalent Pendragon value, etc. Comments Play is much faster, and the game easier to explain, than RQ4. It's a little foreign to veteran RQ players. Wounds can have permanent effect, and can take weeks to recover from, which makes the game feel far more realistic than RQ (despite the lack of detail). We have some high level PCs (e.g. a Hilme Priest), since I'm not limiting the starting age (though aging rolls start at 35). This hasn't been much of a problem -- the priest has rune magic, but not the gear he'd have had if he attained the rank through play. I'd hoped to run one year per session, but haven't always been able to (Joh Mith's caravan route took about 4 sessions to play). Still, we've managed to get through 4 game years, and several characters are now married with children. The Future I plan to run a PenDragon Pass game at RQ-Con. By then, I may be using the new edition of Pendragon. Copyright 1993, David Dunham David Dunham * Software Designer * Pensee Corporation Voice/Fax: 206-783-7404 * AppleLink: DDUNHAM * Internet: ddunham@radiomail.net -------------------- From: David Dunham (via RadioMail) Subject: Prince Valiant Variants System: Prince Valiant In-Reply-To: V1.3 Editor's Note When Prince Valiant first came out, I ran a little campaign, using more of a Pendragon background (none of us serious gamers wanted to use the Hal Foster background). In retrospect, this could have been a mistake, since the campaign turned into something of a religious war between Pagan and Christian PCs -- a probably ahistorical level of intolerance. Because of this, my enthusiasm to continue the campaign was too low. On the plus side, one weekend when I was out of town, one of the players GMed in my absence. I found this pleasing. The players were interested enough to continue, and things were simple enough that they could. I'd lost my Pendragon map, so I was using the map from SPI's wargame Albion, full of faerie sites. I started the characters in a very poor area; the local castle didn't even have a bailey, just a motte. A few months later, I started an Icelandic campaign, set in the Salmon River Valley (Laxdaela, for all you saga fans). The first session involved a man who turned into a bear. The second session would have involved a lawsuit resulting from the actions of the first scenario, but I was in the middle of meeting my wife-to-be and moving, so the campaign never continued. Anyway, the Saga character sheet (half a page) had the following skills (B is a Brawn skill, P a Presence skill): Agility (B) Farming (P) Oratory (P) Alchemie [p] Fellowship (P) Poetry/Song (P) Archery (B) Gaming (P) Riding (B) Arms (B) Glamourie (P) Runes [p] Bargaining [p] Healing [-] Shiphandling (B) Battle (B, P) Hunting (B, P) Speak Norse (P) Brawling (B) Law [P] Speak (language) (P) Courtesie (P) Lore [-] Stealth (B) Crafting (B, P) Math [p] Dexterity (B) Money-Handling (P) Disguise (P) Naturalitie (P) The campaign included magic, but I was treating this as in Pendragon, As a GM plot device. David Dunham * Software Designer * Pensee Corporation Voice/Fax: 206-783-7404 * AppleLink: DDUNHAM * Internet: ddunham@radiomail.net -------------------- From: "Plumer, Scott" Subject: Necronomicon Notes System: Call of Cthulhu Whilst perusing H.P. Lovecraft's _Selected Letters_, I happened upon this letter, dated November 27, 1927, that he sent to Clark Ashton Smith. It gives some details on the Necronomicon not noted by Phileas Sadowsky: I have had no chance to produce new material this autumn, but have been classifying notes & synopses in preparation for some monstrous tales later on. In particular I have drawn up some data on the celebrated and unmentionable *Necronomicon* of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred! It seems that this shocking blasphemy was produced by a native of Sanaa', in Yemen, who flourished about 700 A.D. & made many mysterious pilgrimages to Babylon's ruins, Memphis's catacombs, & the devil-haunted & untrodden wastes of the great southern deserts of Arabia -- the Raba el Khaliyeh, where he claimed to have found records of things older than mankind, & to have learnt the worship of Yog-Sothoth & Cthulhu. The book was a product of Abdul's old age, which was spent in Damascus, & the original title as _Al Azif_ -- _azif_ (cf. Henley's notes to _Vathek_) being the name applied to those strange night noises (of insects) which the Arabs attribute to the howling of daemons. Alhazred died -- or disappeared -- under terrible circumstances in the year 738. In 950 _Al Azif_ was translated into Greek by the Byzantine Theodorus Philetas under the title _Necronomicon_, & a century later it was burnt at the order of Michael, Patriarch of Constantinople. It was translated into Latin by Olaus in 1228, but placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_ by Pope Gregory IX in 1232. The original Arabic was lost before Olaus' time, & the last known Greek copy perished in Salem in 1692. The work was printed in the 15th, 16th, & 17th centuries, but few copies are extant. Wherever existing, it is carefully guarded for the sake of the world's welfare and sanity. Once a man read through the copy in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham -- read it through & fled wild-eyed into the hills........but that is another story! [Volumes 1, 2, 4 and 5 of HP Lovecraft's Selected Letters are available from Arkham House. If you can't find anyone who stocks Arkham House books, they can be contacted at: Arkham House, PO Box 546, Sauk City, Wisconsin 53583. I haven't picked up copies of the Selected Letters yet, but I've been told that they're a must-have for people interested in the writings of HP Lovecraft -sda] -------------------- From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon Appel) Subject: The Further Cases of Titus Crow System: Call of Cthulhu In V3.6 of the Digest, I gave synopses of the first five Titus Crow short stories, and provided some story ideas to go with them. This article concludes the chronicling of the stories of _The Compleat Crow_. Be warned that spoilers abound for the Crow short stories. Also, in my previous article, my listing of Titus Crow stories was a bit short. In all, Lumley's Cthulhu Mythos series consists of: _The Burrowers Beneath_, _The Transition of Titus Crow_, _The Clock of Dreams_, _In the Moons of Borea_, _The Compleat Crow_ and _Elysia: The Coming of Cthulhu_. They're all in print by Ganley (US) or Grafton (UK) [actually, I can't verify that _Elysia_ has been published by Grafton]. Lumley has also written a number of other Lovecraftian stories including four books on the dreamquests of David Hero and three books set in the ancient Primal Land. The Further Cases of Titus Crow: AN ITEM OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: One of Lumley's shortest stories, this tale tells of Yegg-ha, a ten-foot featureless winged monstrosity which killed scores of Roman soldiers centuries ago. When Titus Crow writes a fictional story about this beast, one detractor considers it badly out of date and unrealistic. Only when Crow shows him the skull of the ancient creature does the detractor change his mind. The Old Ones have dwelled upon the Earth for millenia, since before the first man walked upon the Earth. This short story leads one to wonder, what affect might the Old Ones, and other Lovecraftian horrors, have had upon human history? A fun CoC run might involve the investigators uncovering some ancient conspiracy. Learning how deeply alien monstrosities have manipulated humanity could be a very satisfying conclusion to a story. BILLY'S OAK: This is a ghost story which tells of a man hung from a tree long ago, and how that tree can still be heard to creak, as if a body hung from it. The tree was cut down years before, but still the creaking can be heard. Like THE VIKING'S STONE, I don't see a huge amount of application for this story. Learning ancient secrets of your dwelling might be interesting, but beyond that ghost stories don't seem too Lovecraftian. DARGHUD'S DOLL: This story deals with an African witch-doctor using a voodoo doll to enchant a missionary. The doll is regained by the victim, but when his wife tries to preserve it by encasing it in resin, he dies of suffocation. The secrets of darkest Africa clearly suggest ideas for CoC adventures. Who knows what unnameable Gods might be worshipped there. This story is also intriguing due to the magic this is used in it. The magic follows both the Law of Sympathy and the Law of Contagion, affecting the victim due to the likeness of the doll and a bit of hair originally from this victim. Using this type of magic in CoC might add a lot to the game. I'd suggest using 'Authentic Thaumaturgy', a long out of print Chaosium book, as a reference, if you can find a copy. DE MARIGNY'S CLOCK: This story focuses on an odd coffin-shaped clock which was first described by HP Lovecraft in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". It has come into the possession of Henri-Laurent de Marigny, Crow's apprentice, by the time of this story. The story itself is very reminescent of "The Terrible Old Man". Two robbers invade Crow's house looking for something to steal. When they open De Marigny's Clock, however, they are sucked inside. De Marigny's Clock is an element in Lumley stories that I'd just as well ignore. An enigmatic time machine, it drags the stories too far into the realm of science fiction. An invasion of an investigator's home might be a pleasant diversion, especially if the investigator then tries to make much too much of it. Beyond that, I found little of use in this story. NAME AND NUMBER: Perhaps the best Titus Crow story, this involves the coming of Anti-Christ. I won't get into the delightful specifics. Suffice to say, however, that Crow eventually puts the Anti-Christ down, by revealing his name and his number. If you can find a copy of this story, I'd suggest it. Besides THE COMPLEAT CROW publication, I believe it also appeared in the July 1982 issue of Kadath. This story suggests what a great source the Bible's Revelations would be for a Cthulhu campaign. Given that the Old Ones and other Lovecraftian horrors exist, what might Revelations _truly_ have been speaking of? Is Revelations really prophetic or does it speak of some time long gone? Does it tell of the time when the Stars are Right? Since I'm not currently running a CoC game, I haven't scanned Revelations for more specific ideas, but I'd heartily suggest it for anyone currently running CoC. I think it could be very interesting. THE BLACK RECALLED: The last of the Titus Crow short stories is set in our very recent past. It concerns the meeting of two masters of the arcane, once apprentices of James Gedney (see THE CALLER OF THE BLACK). Shortly, they move to betray each other, each determined to steal the secrets of the other. Geoffrey Arnold tries to kill his foe, Ben Gifford, by calling the black. Gifford, however, reveals that he has become the very avatar of Yibb-Tstll. His body is black as ebony, the color of Yibb-Tstll's blood. Pointing a finger, Gifford causes the Black to erupt from his body and slay his foe. But, the story does not end there, for the meeting between the two masters of arcana had occured in the ruins of Blowne House, the once residence of Titus Crow. Although Crow is gone, and the mansion lies in ruins, there is still magic there. Mists fall upon Gifford, and then there is silence. This story suggests several good ideas. First, there is the avatar of Yibb-Tstll. Although Gifford is killed, surely a new avatar will eventually rise. Like Gifford, this new avatar will probably be the head of some cult, heart of some mystery that the investigators face. Then, there are the ruins of Blowne House. Still covered by mystical protections in the Cthulhu Now era, it is an eerie, mysterious place. What secrets might lie within the ruins? I plan to present stats for Titus Crow and information on the books and mystical items in Blowne House in future issues of the Digest. Shannon -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium's Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.