Chaosium Digest Volume 4, Number 8 Date: Sunday, October 24, 1993 Number: 1 of 2 Contents: Update: More RQ-Con Events (David Cheng) MISC Music for Call of Cthulhu (Alquier Laurent) CALL OF CTHULHU A Breath of Cold Air (Alan Glover) CALL OF CTHULHU Editor's Note: Newly available for FTP is "The Annoted Unspeakable Oath #1". It's an electronic version of the out-of-print first issue of Pagan Publishing's CoC magazine, annoted by Editor John Tynes. You can FTP it from soda.berkeley.edu as /pub/chaosium/paganpub/tuo1. Alternatively, if you don't have access to FTP, you can retrieve it by sending the message 'send paganpub tuo1' to almanac@erzo.berkeley.edu. Recent Sightings: * Call of Cthulhu - "The Dragon Project: Mr. Josh Wellmeat", a four page NPC description, by Sandy Petersen, Dragon Magazine #198 [October, 1993]. Quite interesting. -------------------- From: David Cheng Subject: More RQ-Con Events System: Misc Update-To: V4.5 Update: RQ-Con [this list of events is extracted from a much longer article on RQ-Con that was posted to both rec.games.frp.announce and the RQ Digest] As promised, we've got several promising new events. David Dunham has volunteered to run a "Pendragon Pass" event set in the Grazelands. Mike Young will be running a 25-person Call of Cthulhu live-action game, "Miskatonic Class Reunion." It will probably be held Sunday afternoon. Please note there will be an additional $6 reg fee for this game, to cover materials expenses. Bill Bridges and Andrew Greenberg, both of White Wolf Game Studio, will be attending. Look for a _Werewolf_ Telmori scenario, and a _Vampire_ Vivamort game from these gentlemen. David Cheng (that's me) will probably lead a seminar on "Proselytizing RuneQuest". We've got to grow the next generation of RQ players! Tom Sullivan will be running an Elric! scenario during both Saturday sessions. Charles Keith-Stanley will be running a CoC scenario, "Children of an Elder God." For registration info, please contact: David Cheng drcheng@sales.stern.nyu.edu 313 East 85th Street, Apt 2C New York, NY 10028 (212) 472-7752 RuneQuest-Con will be held in the Baltimore, Maryland area, January 14-16, 1994. That's MLK weekend, for those of you who have the holiday. -------------------- From: alquier@eerie.fr (Alquier Laurent) Subject: Music for Call of Cthulhu System: Call of Cthulhu Being a game-master is hard work... a game-master should literally bring the players into another world, with its landscapes, its towns, its people and its cultures. Imagination is the major tool for that task, while storytelling is another. However, such tools are difficult to handle and need both experience and special effects to become efficient. Music is one of these special effects. Every player knows that the use of background music can create a general atmosphere about a game. Those who don't should try it out; it's the best way I know to create an atmosphere. To understand how to use music effectively in a game, it's helpful to examine the use of music in movies. Remember the last time you saw a very exciting movie? Did you notice the music? Do you still remember it? Probably not. When music is really part of a movie, they can't exist without each other. Take the music alone, or the movie, and it'll become obvious that something is missing. Some great movies could be even better if they had the right music. Harmony is the word, and it should be the same in RPGs. Do your investigators spend the night inside a clandestine club during Prohibition? Use Jazz or Charleston. Are they searching for something in the deep shadows of a forest at night? Use the music of a thriller movie. Do you start to understand what I mean? The goal is to give to the player the same harmony between the pictures (here, the imagination) and the sound. Use CDs or tapes, anything until you can quickly select music adapted to the scene the players are involved in, and the music will do the job. The greatest reward is when you realise that the music was adapted enough to completely forgot it. It's a little paradoxical but, hey, who said RPGs shouldn't have paradoxes. Movie soundtracks are useful, but there are also other recordings that you can use. For example, some years ago, I had players locked in a house in the middle of nowhere. They had to spend three days and three nights in this house to make a report about the strange phenomenons they had experienced during that time. They didn't know the house was a trap and they where planned to become... but that's not the point. To create an heavy atmosphere of threat in that house, I recorded a whole blank tape with wooden-creakings, wind-howlings and shouts coming out of nowhere, and I left the tape playing in background (thanks to auto reverse control...) Sometimes, when the players acted to get out of this trap, they would be interrupted by the scream of a woman or the howling of the wind outside. I can tell you they were disturbed, and I was delighted. One other 'musical tool' useful for the game-master in CoC is his own voice. How many masters describe horrible thigs in the tone they use for every day conversation? The voice must be a whisper when the players are discovering a forbidden secret and then BECOME A SHOUT when that secret appears to be the child of the Thing That Should Not Be. Use light descriptions when the players are running fast and plenty of details when they are looking for a secret door. The voice should reflect the rhythm of the action of the players. Voice, soundtracks and sound effects are not an absolute requirement to have a good time. Like anything else they should be used as an extra help, not as a wall hiding the weaknesses of a story. And, what a joy when players who hear music remember the story where that music was used, before the movie when it was taken from... Finally, here is a list of situations and some examples of music that could be used with them. May the Great-Old-Ones provide you life and glory... Investigation in downtown : Private detective stories, "Angel Heart" (movie by Alan Parker), "Birdy" (movie by A. Parker, music by P. Gabriel). Sacrifice or a great creature appears: Gregorian Chorus, Religious songs, extracts from the music of "Hellraiser", "Hellbound" and "Indiana Jones" (all three movies). Storm, lightnings, rain... : Old horror B&W movies, sound effects... Other interesting soundtracks include: Alien, Aliens, Alien(3) (movie soundtracks) Dead can dance Vangelis (1492, ...) The Fugitive (movie) Freddy's Nightmares Basic Instinct If you have any comment or question, you know where you can Email. Laurent. (aka Agiel, the lonely netrunner) (aka Brother U'Jan, from the Ktulu Kult Klub) PS: Does anybody know were I can find an example of music corresponding to the sound made by any creature? -------------------- From: Alan Glover Subject: A Breath of Cold Air System: Call of Cthulhu Introduction ------------ This isn't a full scale scenario. It started as notes for a wider campaign I'm slowly building. I've not included stats or skills for the characters, since they aren't really needed. If you want them, do them. This was inspired by the HPL story "Cool Air". Reread it if possible. Requirements for beginning the scenerio are: * an investigator staying on the highest-but-one floor of a none-too-fussy boarding house. * preferably the investigator should be out of touch with the rest of the party and have to rely on NPCs. It will not work with a typical 3-6 person group. * the investigator should be in poor health, since a mild heart attack is the best way of launching the scenario. An ideal situation is where an investigator is too sickly to be with the main party. It can be used either as a diversion in a running campaign or as a scenario in its own right for one or two investigators. Keeper information ------------------ Dr Jacobson is dead. He just hasn't stopped moving yet. Although his heart failed five years ago, novel surgical techniques and a strong will have allowed him to survive. However, gradual decay is setting in, and his environment must be kept below a certain temperature to remain bearable. This temperature becomes lower as time goes on. Every lapse in this environment accelerates the inevitable. Player information ------------------ You've finally managed to obtain a room in a reasonable boarding house for a reasonable rate. The housekeeper, Mrs Jones, shows you to your room on the second floor of the the three story building. She explains that the whole of the top floor is rented to a Dr Jacobson, but he is ill and doesn't socialise much. The other flats are rented by art students who are rarely in. The room is reasonable. Nothing more, nothing less. Maybe now you'll get that well deserved rest... The scenario ------------ i) Beginnings During the first few nights, light sleepers will be conscious of a rhythmic thumping coming through the walls or maybe the floor or ceiling. If the correct direction is ascertained (the ceiling), and the investigator decides to find out more, go straight to 'the encounter'. A few nights later the investigator will become conscious of a liquid dripping through the ceiling. It is pungent and irritating. Most investigators will probably be able to identify it as ammonia. Assuming the investigator decides to find out more, he can either try to find the landlady, or go upstairs on his own. None of the art students are in (nor will they be until possibly the end of scenario). The landlady will explain in a slightly bemused note that it's probably one of the doctor's chemicals leaking again. She goes up there (politely brushing off any offers of assistance) and after a bit the dripping stops. She stops by the investigator's room on the way back down and if brought into conversation will comment that the Doctor uses a whole range of strange things that her son fetches from the local stores. Allow a day or so to pass. The investigator suffers a mild heart attack. Enforce the urgency of the situation by reducing a hit point every minute or so. An Idea roll will remind the investigator that there is doctor upstairs. Try not to kill the Investigator before he reaches the doctor! ii) The Encounter (If the investigator has decided to go upstairs and investigate before the heart attack at the end of the previous section, trigger it whilst the investigator is climbing the stairs) The doctor will respond to a knock on the door by asking who is there, and what their business is. Once things are explained, he will open the door to admit the investigator. The doctor looks very ill. His skin is grey, his features pallid. His touch is cold. [SAN loss of 1/1d4]. The room is very cold. The doctor quickly begins to tend the heart attack. The investigator can feel the improvement very quickly even though the touch of those cold clammy fingers is quite repulsive. As he works, he talks, as much to himself as to reassure the investigator. When he finishes, the investigator is fully healed. Aside from rambling about past exploits and the frailty of the human heart, the doctor will comment that life is more than just a collection of co-functioning organs and that he himself was at death's door five years back when his heart failed. The treatment complete, he gently but insistently asks the investigator to return to his room. iii) Keeper's Choice This part may be made as long as you wish. The Doctor can be developed as an ally with expert medical knowledge who will befriend the investigator in time. As the friendship develops, he will ask the investigator to run errands, often strange but never illegal. Mrs Jones gladly tells her son not to run any more errands, leaving the investigator with the task. If you need it, the Doctor could also have a reasonable store of Mythos knowledge. At some point, the investigator will find that the room contains its own air conditioning plant. It is the pistons which produce the rhythmic thumping heard earlier. However, all good things come to an end... Proceed to the next stage whenever you feel the time is right. iv) A breath of cold air (Note: If an ingenious player thinks of some way to avoid the tragedy about to unfold, return to part iii and restage the tragedy again in a few days. Note that each time the Doctor is much nearer death, and will eventually be beyond even the promptest assistance) As has become habitual, the Doctor is asking the investigator to come upstairs. However, this time the rap of his cane on the floor is less distinct and sounds more urgent. A Listen roll will reveal that the pumps are not working. It is about 1am in the morning. When the investigator arrives, he learns that the pump in the air conditioning plant has broken. The doctor explains that temperature is very important. The pump MUST be repaired. In the meantime, as much ice as possible should be brought. The doctor retires to the bathroom, and the investigator can hear ice cubes being poured into the bath. Initially the investigator can try to bring ice from the house refrigerator, and may think of something more ingenious. When morning comes however, there is a dilemma. Even more ice is needed, since the temperature is rising, and someone must find and fetch an engineer to mend the pump. If the investigator wants to sort out the mending of the pump, he must first organise an ice carrier. A local urchin will take money and do it, or kindly keepers may have one of the Art students home for once. It will take at least an hour to find an engineer who can identify the part needed, and another hour for the engineer to be able to come and fit it. If the investigator wants to sort out the ice, and get someone else to find an engineer, this should be discouraged. Whomever the investigator tries to enlist fails to understand the mechanical details involved. Eventually, frustration or an Idea roll will indicate that the only way to get the right part is for the investigator to arrange it himself. As the investigator returns to the house, a commotion will be noticed. Most people there don't know what's going on, save that someone ran out screaming a few minutes back. This was the ice-carrier, who presumably got too curious and looked in the bathroom. Going up to the room will reveal that the door is open, and the temperature inside is much closer to normal than it has been before. There is a wet trail from the bathroom to the desk, and a puddle has gathered around the chair by the desk. There is a note on the desk, which reads: "There is no more ice, and I fear none will come in time. As you may have realised already, I have been living by the force of my will since my heart failed five years ago. Alas, I had not anticipated the gradual decay which has needed ever colder temperatures to sustain my fading tissue. My time has come. Continue the fight." Towards the end the writing becomes less and less distinct, partly obscured by drops of moisture on the paper which have smeared the ink. v) Conclusion This is a no-win scenario, but it's a good exercise of role-playing ability. If the investigator has shown interest in the doctor and expended their best efforts to get the pump repaired and ice supplied, award 1d6 SAN as recognition of humanitarian interest. This may be scaled down to 1d4 if a lot of hints were needed. If the urgency of the situation was not recognised (eg by calling a normal doctor), there is no reward. If the investigator failed to be diligent in caring for the doctor, there should be a 1d6 SAN loss for the mental anguish associated with not knowing whether the tragedy could have been avoided. It is up to the Keeper whether the investigator really died. Do they start feeling far too hot in normal temperatures? Do they start having cold baths whenever possible? Do they develop a phobia about heat? Do they discover a spell which kicks the heart back into life? -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial 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.