Chaosium Digest Volume 2, Number 1 Date: Sunday, April 4, 1993 Number: 1 of 2 Contents: Player Death...The Final Arbiter (Jason Corley) CALL OF CTHULHU A Review of Creatures & Cultists (Shannon Appel) CREATURES & CUL Suggested Rules Changes (Shannon Appel) CREATURES & CUL Berkeley Battle Rules (Eric Rowe) PENDRAGON County Equivalents (Heidi Kaye) PENDRAGON Editor's Note: Dave Hipple (D.R.S.Hipple@open.ac.uk) sent in a couple of questions this time. First, he mentioned that he'd just picked up a copy of the fifth edition of Call of Cthulhu, his first new Cthulhu book in some time. He was glad of the purchase, but wondered about a few mistakes, such as a mysterious "Mislead" skill noted in the Haunted House scenerio, and a lack of indication of the number of spells available from a given book. So, Dave asked if anyone had compiled a list of errata or addition for the fifth edition rules. Anyone out there have such a list or know where it might be available? (Dave does correctly note in his query that The Unspeakable Oath has been running a set of expansions for the fifth edition, but I have little more info on that. Perhaps someone could do a review of the additions that TUO has implemented?) Later in his letter, Dave asks if reviews of out of print material would be useful. I think they would be, to help us collectors get a better idea of what old stuff is good and what isn't. Any other opinions? In Pendragon news, the latest word from Chaosium is that the release of the fourth edition rules has been delayed two months, so that the magic rules can be just right. This should move the release back to July. From what I've seen so far, though, the fourth edition is really something to look forward to. Recent Sightings: This is a new feature that I'm starting where I'm going to try and list current articles published for Chaosium's games in the various Role Playing magazines that exist. There are many gaming magazines out there that I don't read, so if you pick up something new that has an article I haven't mentioned, please drop me a line. * Call of Cthulhu - "Angular Dreams", a thirteen page scenerio in The Last Province #1 [October, 1992] ; "thirtiesomething", four pages of notes for playing Call of Cthulhu in the 1930s in The Last Province #2 [December, 1992] also printed in The Unspeakable Oath #7 * Pendragon - "And Then There Were Nun....", a four page scenerio in The Last Province #1 [October, 1992] -------------------- From: corleyj@GAS.uug.Arizona.EDU (Jason D Corley) Subject: Player Death...The Final Arbiter System: Call of Cthulhu In-Reply-To: V1.9 PC Casualties Reading the comments on player death took a sudden turn to the practical in our campaign the other evening. I left the room to get a soda (it was between sections of a scenario), and left the players to talk things over for a while, as they are pretty good about staying in character. When I returned, they were all sitting there smiling. I was immediately suspicious. "We want," the Author said, "to make out our wills." I smiled. Essentially, they made arrangements with several different lawyers that if they died or disappeared, the lawyers would release evidence and information to dozens of different public sources: newspapers, libraries, book publishers, etc. It would be the 'true' story of what happened (the author was already publishing some of it as science fiction/horror). They, in other words, set themselves up for a PC death scene. They have reached the point where they are realistically expecting death or disappearance to occur at literally any time. And that's the final arbiter for PC deaths...the storyline. If it works, it works. Later! -------------------- From: Shannon D. Appel Subject: A Review of Creatures & Cultists System: Creatures & Cultists One of Chaosium's strengths has long been their willingness to let others produce supplements for their games. The Game Workshop hardcovers for Call of Cthulhu, Runequest and Stormbringer are extremely beautiful productions. I have little doubt that the FASA, Grenadier, Judge's Guild and TOME supplements for Chaosium's various games each expanded upon the games in ways which Chaosium might not have (although, I still have but a smattering of these works). Pagan Publishing seems to be heading down this same path, producing very good supplements for Call of Cthulhu. Before moving on to the actual review of Creatures & Cultists, I'm going to give a bit of info on Pagan Publishing, for those Call of Cthulhu players who aren't yet aware of the company. Pagan Publishing's premier publication is clearly their Call of Cthulhu magazine, The Unspeakable Oath. I've only been able to get one issue of the magazine, but I found it to be an excellent work. The newest issue (#7) had an adventure, rule mods for CoC5 and lots, lots more. Besides this, Pagan Publishing currently has a couple of other Call of Cthulhu items in print, including a T-shirt and a book of two scenerios called Alone on Halloween. And then, there's Creatures & Cultists. It's not exactly a Call of Cthulhu supplement, but rather a game based upon it, in the same way that Arkham Horror was a Call of Cthulhu based game. You get to play a Cult trying to summon their god to earth. Unfortunately, there are a number of other cults trying to do the same. The game reminds me a lot of The Challenge and Family Business. You have twenty-four cultists, each with skills in conjuring and thuggery. In addition, you have a hand of six cards, divided among Mondo cards, Event cards, Thuggery cards, Conjury cards, Defense cards and Sorcery cards. With these cards, you can gun down enemy cultists, summon Cthonians to kill your foes, cast spells such as the Vorpal Tenrec of Tynes, defend with Elder Signs and, just for kicks, Sink the Titanic. The most basic goal is to kill enemy Cultists. By doing so, you get Fuggly points. When you get enough, you'll be able to attempt to summon your god. The best part about killing enemy cultists is the fact that you get to lean over the other player's Cult sheet afterwards, and inscribe your cult symbol upon their late cultist. Creatures & Cultists has a pretty simple game system. You have three different skills, in Conjuring, Sorcery and Thuggery. When making attacks or casting spells, you'll be using one of these skills. You take your base skill number, make appropriate modifications for the skills of the cultist taking the action (if any) and for any other variables (ie difficulty of conjuring, if that's what's going on, if the stars are right, etc) and then roll 3d6. On real low numbers, you crit (spooge in the rules). On real high numbers, you fumble (boof in the rules). Otherwise, you compare your roll to your modified skill, and see if you succeeded or failed. There are some flaws in the game. The frivolous attitude turned me off a bit. A certain card really messed up things in the game we ran, and the end game kind of dragged on. But, I think that the problems will be fairly easy to fix. Since the game was pretty enjoyable overall, and the problems easily correctable, I'd give the game a high rating. It only cost $6.95 and was fun to play; I really can't think of any reason not to go out and buy a copy right now. -------------------- From: Shannon D. Appel Subject: Suggested Rules Changes System: Creatures & Cultists As I mentioned in my review, Creatures & Cultists does have some flaws. I'm going to summarize them here and suggest some additions and changes to make the game better. First, here's what I saw as flaws in the game: * The Card from Hell - There's a certain card labelled "Herbert West" that nearly lets you have an infinitely long turn. You kill people with your cards, give the bodies to Herbert and draw more cards. Again and again and again. * Randomness - A lot of people seemed to end up with the conditions necessary to summon their god at the same time (ie enough fuggly points). Then, only the person who randomly was chosen by the stars got to win. * More Randomness - Another problem with the end game (ie when people have enough points to win) is that unless someone is very, very weak, you get a situation where, either someone has drawn a "make someone else lose a turn card" or the person chosen by the stars wins. Much too arbitrary. * Obscene Scores - By the end of the game, lots of people have real high values in their three abilities. This makes it a bit distracting, because you basically end up succeeding or fumbling. Here's some changes to hopefully make things work better [haven't gotten a chance to try them yet]: * Herbert West - Modify the card to read "Only one corpse may be given to Dr. West per turn." * Permanent Cards - Several Mondos and Effects have a permanent effect upon a player. Herbert West falls into this category, as do cards which add to the various characteristics. Change the rules so that these cards are kept in front of a player that they effect (ie not shuffled back into the deck). This will lower, to some extent, the characteristic inflation that can occur. [I don't want this to be applied to certain things, like the card that makes you reroll your characteristics, so to be absolutely unambiguous, the spells that are Permanent in this regard should be marked such]. * Summoning Your God - Allow players to summon their Gods even if the stars are not right (although the Stars Being Right still does give a bonus). Increase victory conditions by ten Fuggly points to offset this (and, for a shorter game, you can increase the number by less, or not at all). * Add the following cards using the blank cards supplied with Creatures & Cultists: Let's Do the Timewarp Again (Sorcery): Make a Sorcery roll. If you are succesful, your powerful magicians turn back time, so that any Mondo or Event that has just affected you is avoided. This card may be played as soon as you are affected by an Event or Mondo. Spooge: You may choose another person to be affected by the event. Boof: You make the event you were trying to avoid worse. Take double effect, if applicable. The Gods are Angry (Mondo): Apparently, you mixed up eye of newt and wing of bat in that last ritual. Your god has grown angry with you, and begun to remove your gains of recent months. Discard all permanent cards currently in front of you. FBI Raid (Event): You have gained a recruit who has connections in law enforcement. With his help, you can finger one other cult, causing a raid upon their headquarters. The victim should discard all of his permanent cards. Hopefully, this set of rules changes will make Creatures & Cultists into an even more enjoyable game than it already is. Shannon -------------------- From: Eric Rowe Subject: Berkeley Battle Rules System: Pendragon The Berkeley Modular Battle System Here is what we will be using now at our Berkeley game. Basically, every type of battle follows the same flow-chart, but different types of battles require different tables to be inserted in the correct places. Below is the flow-chart for battles and following that the standard tables and their explanations. Specific examples follow for demonstration. Start Here: ________________ ________________ ______________ |Army Commander| |Unit Encounter| |Group Leader| |Battle Roll: | |Table: | |Battle Roll:| ---------------- ---------------- -------------- |%Troop loss. |--->|Foe Table |--->|Weapon |--------\ ---------------- |Modifier | |Modifier | | |Unit Encounter| ---------------- -------------- | |Table Modifier| | | ________________ \|/ \|/ /|\ ----------- ------------ | |Player |---->|Foe Table:| | |Modifiers| ------------ | ----------- | | | | | | \|/ | --------- | |Combat!| | --------- | | -------- | |Battle|<---------------------------------------------------/ |Over? | -------- | | ----------- |Funerals | |and Glory| ----------- Army Commander Battle Roll: Affects Unit Encounter Table, Battle Over roll and Follower's Fate. Modifed by factors in book such as superior knight values. Roll for each side to determine losses. Roll UET/BO Follower Fate (from current forces) Critical +4 No appreciable follower loss Success 0 10% Losses. 2% killed, 8% wounded Failure -2 50% Losses. 10% killed, 15% captured, 25% wounded Fumble -4 75% Losses. 50% killed, 25% captured Unit Encounter Table: Modifies Foe Table. Roll 3d6. Modify roll by result of Army Commander Battle Roll. 03: -3 Witty description here if you want. 04-05: -2 06-08: -1 09-12: 0 13-15: +1 16-17: +2 18: +3 Unit Leader Battle Roll: Modifies Sword Skill. Critical +5 Success 0 Failure -5 Fumble -10 Player Modifiers: We allow PCs to try to make things harder or easier for themselves with a heraldry roll. This modifies foe table. Critical + or - 2: Player's choice. Success + or - 1: Player's choice. Failure No affect. Fumble + or - 2: Opposite player's choice. Foe Table: Roll 3d6. Modified by player modifier and result of Unit Encounter Table. Roll Opponent Skill Damage <= 03 Pretender 07 3d6 04-05: Young Knight 15 4d6 06-08: Young Knight 18 4d6 09-12: Ordinary Knight 20 5d6 13-15: Notable Knight 21 5d6 16-17: Famous Knight 22 5d6 >= 18: Extr. Knight 23 6d6 Combat: Standard rules, one roll to represent a battle round. Optional rule here is you wish to allow additional rolls against current opponent. Battle Over?: Also modified by troop losses, see below table. Roll 3d6. 03: Total defeat. 04-05: Decide to retreat. 06-15: Battle Continues. 16-17: Foes retreat. 18: Total victory. Modifiers: Presently outnumbered -1 (+ if on larger side) Presently outnumbered 2-1 -2 (+ if on larger side) Presently outnumbered 5-1 -3 (+ if on larger side) Loss of 25% of total force. -1 Loss of 50% of total force. -2 Loss of 75% of total force. -3 Result of Army Commander Battle +4 to -4 Glory: Standard from book with modifiers listed there. Specific Examples: 1: Saxon Raid (small) All modules remain the same except for the following: Follower Fate: Critical No losses Success 5% Losses. 1% Killed, 4% Wounded Failure 25% Losses. 5% Killed, 20% Wounded Fumble 50% Losses. 20% Killed, 30% Wounded Foe Table: <= 05: Saxon Youth 10 4d6 06-12: Saxon Warrior 14 5d6 13-17: Saxon Warrior 17 5d6 18: Saxon Chieftain 20 6d6 >= 19: Saxon Berserk 20 8d6 Battle Over?: 03: Total defeat. 04: Retreat. 05-13: Raid Continues 14-17: Saxon's retreat. 18: Saxon's crushed. Glory: 15 per round. Additional 30 any round fighting Chieftan or Berserk. Standard multipliers and modifiers. 2: Large Tournament Follower Fate: Critical No losses. Success 5% Losses. 5% Captured. Failure 20% Losses. 15% Captured, 5% Wounded. Fumble 50% Losses. 40% Captured, 9% Wounded, 1% Killed. Battle Over?: Ends after set number of rounds. Glory: Standard for tournament. If using lengthier optional individual combat rule then instead apply regular (for love) glory awards. -------------------- From: Heidi Kaye [via ] Subject: County Equivalents System: Pendragon The kingdoms in Arthurian Britain are roughly connected with the present-day counties, but many of the names have been changed. Since the Player's Map included in Knights Adventurous is not very detailed, I have worked out the equivalents for the Pendragon names so that GMs can use a modern map of Britain to find locations for adventure settings in the various regions. In the following list, I have excluded those Pendragon kingdoms whose names and areas are the same as the present counties, such as Essex. For those with access to it, the "A-Z Great Britain Counties Map" published by the Geographers' A-Z Map Co. Ltd. is recommended as one of the few maps around with the counties clearly defined (rather than a road atlas). This map is on the same scale as the Pendragon Player's Map, which makes comparison easy. Pendragon kingdom Modern county (pre-1970 county names) Amans east Cheshire and northwest Derbyshire Anglia Norfolk and Suffolk Bedegraine Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Brun Northamptonshire Cambernet Cumberland and south Dumfries and Galloway Cameliard Staffordshire Clarence south Gloucestershire Cumbria Lancashire Deira east North Yorkshire, northeast Humberside Ergyng West Hereford and Worcester (Herefordshire) Fens west Norfolk, north Cambridgeshire Galvoie east Hereford and Worcester (Worcestershire) Gloucester north Gloucestershire and south Hereford Huntingdon Cambridgeshire (Huntingdon and Peterborough) Jagent Somerset Lambor west Leicestershire, West Midlands, north Warwickshire Lestroite west North Yorkshire Lindsey Lincolnshire Lonazep Leicestershire and south Lincolnshire Lyonesse west Cornwall Malahaut central North Yorkshire Maris south North Yorkshire, east South Yorkshire, west Humberside Nohaut Durham Orofoise Shropshire Pase Greater Manchester Rheged south Cumbria (Westmoreland) Roestoc south and west Yorkshire Rydychan Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Salisbury Wiltshire Silchester Berkshire Somerset Avon Southports Isle of Wight, south Hampshire Tintagel east Cornwall Totnes southwest Devon Tribuit north Oxfordshire and south Northamptonshire Wuerensis Warwickshire (Kingdoms from The Savage Mountains) Brycheiniog south Powys (Brecknockshire) Bulith west central Powys (Radnorshire and north Brecknockshire) Cardigan north Dyfed (Cardiganshire) Elfael east central Powys, west Hereford and Worcester (east Radnorshire and west Herefordshire) Escavalon Gwent, Mid and South Glamorgan (Glamorgan and Monmouthshire) Estragales South Dyfed and West Glamorganshire (Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, west Glamorgan) Gomeret Gwynedd (Caenarvonshire) Gwaelod southwest Gwynedd Merionydd southeast Gwynedd, northwest Powys (Merionethshire) Norgales Clwyd (Denbighshire) Powys northeast Powys, west Shropshire (Montgomeryshire) Ystrad Tywi east Dyfyd (north Carmarthenshire) -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium Games which do not have another specific area for discussion. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu