Chaosium Digest Volume 11, Number 2 Date: Monday, June 26, 1995 Number: 2 of 2 Contents: Call of Cthulhu Live Rules (Ford Ivey) CALL OF CTHULHU -------------------- From: Subject: Call of Cthulhu Live Rules System: Call of Cthulhu Following are the rules for the Call of Cthulhu Live System that we have been working on. As a note, these rules were written with a character sheet attached, and there may be things unexplained or unclear because of the lack of that sheet. I will try to cover that deficiency, but may have blind spots due to my familiarity with the material. Ford Ivey =================================================================== Call of Cthulhu Game Notes (Note: Call of Cthulhu is copyright 1995 by Chaosium Inc., all rights reserved. This game is run under a licensing agreement with them.) The Live Action Version is written by Ford Ivey. All rights reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN We will restrict characters from starting as the following: Active duty police, including FBI or any other government agency that carries guns, ordained clergy or members of religious orders, Rich Playboys types, or Elected officials. We also strongly suggest that you refrain from playing characters of the following types: hoboes, tribal members of native American or any other tribe, exceedingly poor or otherwise socially undesirable types. If you choose to play such a character, please recognize that we may only represent a limited portion of the reality you play regularly around a table. We play here at this site, and cannot therefore support the resources and contacts such a character might have. Weapons: When designing a character and planning on attending, be aware that few weapons and limited ammunition will be provided for the characters. This is intentional. If you bring a weapon with you, it will be checked for safety, and put into the game as the event coordinator sees fit. If your character cannot justify having a weapon, you will not be allowed to start the game with one. All characters will be restricted as to how much ammo they have. If you want to make the most of this event, get us your character history and a copy of your character sheet as soon as possible. We will be designing plots and events around those character histories that we have. One warning: Character life is expected to be relatively short. There are no resurrections and no miraculous healings, so don't get too attached to your character. Now, that said, here is how we will deal with character death: we will give the player a choice of bringing in another character or joining the ranks of NPCs for the balance of the weekend, or a combination of the two: NPC for a while, then bring in the new PC at the dramatically appropriate moment. You will have to work with the director of the event on this, and be prepared with variations in costumes. On the other hand, we will not go out of our way to kill players. This is supposed to be fun, and you have fun by beating the evil minions. There is every reason to believe that you will be able to do so. Just don't make a mistake when you don't have any Dodges or Luck points left. CHARACTER DESIGN AND ATTRIBUTES The six attributes (DEX, INT, EDU, STR, POW, and CON) are distributed according to how important they are to your character concept. If, for instance, he is a professor or a Doctor, EDU might be the most important attribute, and would therefore be placed next to the 6. If he is a Private Eye, the most important attribute might be DEX. Also note that skill levels cost more in an area that is not primary to him than one that is. All the skills in a box headed by a given attribute are governed by that attribute. The skill level of the skills in the attributes box can go no higher than the attribute. Example: If the EDU for a character is 4, then none of the skills governed by that attribute (such as History or Anthropology) may start higher than a 4. The skill may go higher, however, due to subsequent assignment of skill points earned during game play. If there are any points left over in an attribute box after initial skills selection, they may be saved and used in combination with general points earned for game play for skill levels in that attribute box only. No skill will start at any level above zero unless bought in this fashion. INJURIES, DEATH AND DYING One of the more difficult aspects of Live Roleplaying (Even more difficult than tabletop roleplaying) is character death. In a game like Call of Cthulhu, characters will die more often than in a fantasy game where healing is so common and so powerful. In this game, Death is just that: Dead. No resurrections or miracles, so expect a short character life, and be ready to move on. Now, that said, here is how we will deal with character death: we will give the player a choice of bringing in another character or joining the ranks of NPCs for the balance of the weekend, or a combination of the two: NPC for a while, then bring in the new PC at the dramatically appropriate moment. You will have to work with the director of the event on this, and be prepared with variations in costumes. Okay, how do you die? To die, you must lose a lot more hit points than you have or bleed to death. You are bleeding to death when you are at a negative number of hit points, but not enough to be outright dead. There are several different levels of health: Healthy, Wounded, Incapacitated, Unconscious, Dying, and Dead. Healthy: Your Character is undiseased and at full hit points. Wounded: Your Character is wounded if he is at less than full hit points, but a total of at least 3. Incapacitated: Your Character is incapacitated if he is at 1 or 2 hit points. If he is incapacitated, he must sit whenever possible, can move no faster than a slow walk, and cannot fight with anything other than firearms. Unconcious: Your Character is Unconcious if he is at 0 hit points. He will wake up and be at 1 hit point (incapacitated) after 10 minutes of unconsciousness if otherwise untreated. Dying: Your Character is dying if he is below 0 hit points (unless he is dead: see below). If below 0, you are bleeding to death at the rate of 1 point per thirty seconds. You should keep track of the total damage in case you go to such an extreme number below 0 that you are Dead. Dead: Your character is dead if he has taken so much damage that he is at a negative number of hit points greater than his total hit points when Healthy. Example: Dr. Carlisle has a CON of 3, and therefore 9 hit points. He gets shot twice for 12 points of damage each time, doing a total of 24 points of damage. He is dead, with no hope of doing anything about it. If Dr. Carlisle had managed to avoid the second shot, he would have taken 12 points of damage, going to -3. He would take additional damage at the rate of 1 point every 30 seconds for three minutes and thirty seconds, at which point he would be dead. (Note: at three minutes, he is at -9, which is not yet dead. Dead is in EXCESS of the negative of the Character's CON. First Aid: First aid at level 1 will stabilize a character after 5 minutes of administering it. Each level of First Aid reduces the time it takes to stabilize someone by 30 seconds. Stabilize means to get someone from -1 to 0 (unconcious). They will then wake up in 10 minutes unless treated with the skill Medicine. Medicine: Medicine is the only way characters can actually get hit points back above the 1 they get from recovery from unconsciousness. Each level of Medicine applied to the character gives the character that many hit points in five minutes. The total is per wound, and is only up to half (always rounded in the character's favor) as many points as the wound (ie: a 14 point wound may be healed for up to 7 points, and it would take Medicine 7 or greater to do that). Each wound treated must be done separately, and each one will take five minutes. If there are more skill levels than points being restored, (such as a skill level of 6 trying to heal a wound of 4) could have the time reduced much as First aid. In the case mentioned, 4 levels of the skill go towards healing, and the other two reduce the time by 1 minute, and it therefore takes 4 minutes to heal the 4 points. It would in no case ever reduce the time for using this skill below 30 seconds. Example 1: Stan has 12 hit points (a CON of 4). In combat, poor Stan takes three wounds very quickly. The first is a shot from a .45 that does 8 points of damage. He can take this and keep on fighting. The next wound is from a sword cane that does 3 points of damage. This puts Stan at 1 hit point: incapacitated. Stan, trying to get out of the fight, takes another hit from a shotgun aimed at someone else that does 15 points of damage. This puts poor Stan at -14. He is dead. Example 2: Stan's friend, Fred, has 12 hit points also. He takes one 12 point shot from a shotgun. He falls to the ground, unconcious. He will wake up again in ten minutes at one hit point and be incapacitated. Unfortunately, Fred is hit again by the mad sword cane wielder for 3 points, and drops to -3. He is now bleeding to death, and will die in 5 minutes if untreated. His fellow Investigator, Dr. Muldoon (who has a First Aid of 5 and a Medicine of 7) rushes to his side and begins to administer First Aid. Due to his proficiency, he is able to stabilize Fred in 3 minutes. Fred is now at 0 and unconcious. Dr. Muldoon has two wounds to work on. He will work on the larger of the two first. In four and a half minutes he is able to return 6 points to Fred since the Doctor had 7 levels of Medicine and could only return 6 points, he could use the other level to reduce the time by 30 seconds). He will be able to return 2 points to the other wound, and it will take 2 and a half minutes, as he can apply 5 levels of his skill to reduce the time. WEAPONS AND WEAPON DAMAGE For the purposes of simplicity in a live rolelaying version of this game, we will generalize the damage done by weapons into the various weapon classes. The general classes of weapons are: Melee weapons and Firearms Melee Weapons: Dagger: A Dagger as defined in the NERO rulebook: no more than 24" overall length with the thrusting tip. A dagger does 1 point of damage plus skill level plus damage bonus. Sword: As defined in the NERO rulebook under Longsword. Some modification of these standards are allowed so long as they are inspected by a safety Marshal. A sword does 2 points of damage plus skill level plus damage bonus. Cudgel: This is a blunt one handed weapon as defined by NERO. A cudgel does 1 point of damage plus skill level plus damage bonus. A rock or table leg or other (approved by a safety Marshal) improvised item may be used under this heading. Waylay: For each level of skill you have at Cudgel, you get one Waylay (as defined in the NERO rulebook) per day. A waylay is a blow aimed at the base of the skill that knocks the unaware victim out with one blow. For the purposes of healing, this does only one point of damage, but renders them unconcious. After ten minutes, when the character wakes up, he is at full hit points minus the value of the Cudgel blow. Firearms: Under firearms are Handgun, Rifle and Shotgun The general type of weapon being used for firearms in this game are the nerf-type weapons. There are several different manufacturers that make this type of weapon, but we will generically refer to them this way. There will eventually be several different types of weapons named by manufacturer and stock number under each of the categories, but there will be many others that will be brought to events that are not named. They will have to checked for safety, of course, but will also have to be checked for appropriateness to the category. The intent of each category is as follows: Handgun: A handgun should be operable with one hand and do moderate damage (9 Points) at most. It may take both hands to load it, and it may have a high rate of fire, hold no more than 6 shots, and have short to medium range, and have only moderate accuracy. Rifle: Takes both hands to hold, load, and fire. May have long range and high accuracy and high damage. Shotgun: May have high rate of fire and high damage, but must have deplorable accuracy. Examples: Handgun: 22 cal 2 points + skill level Handgun: 38 cal 3 points + skill level Handgun: 45 cal 5 points + skill level Rifle: 22 cal 3 points + skill level Rifle: M1 5 points + skill level Rifle: 30-06 6 points + skill level Shotgun: 12 Gauge 8 points + skill level SKILLS Note: All Skills marked with a * MUST be used with the appropriate prop. For instance, when using first aid, the character must have bandages and other first aid type stuff; a Doctor must have a medical bag and a few instruments, someone doing electrical repair must have a few tools, and so on. Any skill noted: "As the Tabletop Game" is referring to the Call of Cthulhu game as published by Chaosium, Inc. There are also several references to the NERO rules, so it helps to have a copy of this available, too. Knowledge Skills: The game of Call of Cthulhu is based to a great extent on knowledge that a character has rather than on his ability to kill things (although that ability has it's uses, as well). Here's the way we do Knowledge-based skills: Professor Thompson has his degrees in Anthropology and History. His skill level in Anthropology is 4, and his skill level in History is 6. During the course of an event, he finds occasion to do research on something and finds a book that could have information in it. The character looks through the book and finds four envelopes in it. The first has written on the outside "History 2, Anthropology 2, Archaeology 2". The second envelope says "History 4, Anthropology 4, Archaeology 4". The third envelope says "Anthropology 6, Archaeology 6". The fourth says "Archaeology 8". There is also a slip of paper that says "There are one or more pages torn out of this book." in a separate envelope. The good professor may open envelopes number 1 and 2, but may open the others only if he uses sufficient luck points. After opening these envelopes, he may note the information separately, and return them to the book, take the envelopes and leave the note about torn pages, or take the book altogether. EDU BASED SKILLS Note: to be an MD, you must have an EDU of 6. A masters or Ph.D. must have an EDU of 5 or 6. A college graduate must have an EDU of 4, 5, or 6. Accounting - As the Tabletop Game. Anthropology - As the Tabletop Game. Archaeology - As the Tabletop Game. Astronomy - As the Tabletop Game. Biology - As the Tabletop Game. Chemistry - As the Tabletop Game. Geology - As the Tabletop Game. History - As the Tabletop Game. Law - As the Tabletop Game. Medicine * Medicine is the only way characters can actually get positive hit points back. Each level of Medicine applied to the character gives the character that many hit points in five minutes. The total is per wound, and is only up to half (always rounded in the character's favor) as many points as the wound (ie: a 14 point wound may be healed for up to 7 points, and it would take Medicine 7 or greater to do that). Each wound treated must be done separately, and each one will take five minutes. If there are more skill levels than points being restored, (such as a skill level of 6 trying to heal a wound of 4) could have the time reduced much as First aid (by 30 seconds for each level applied. In the case mentioned, 4 levels of the skill go towards healing, and the other two reduce the time by 1 minute, and it therefore takes 4 minutes to heal the 4 points. It would in no case ever reduce the time for using this skill below 30 seconds. The skill of Medicine may also give you some information when doing research. Read Other Language - This is a live version of the tabletop skill Other Languages. It gives the character the ability to read whatever language he writes in the blank next to the skill level. If the player has the ability to actually speak the language, so much the better. Pharmacy - As the Tabletop Game. Physics - As the Tabletop Game. Psychoanalysis - The description in the tabletop game describes this skill, but it is applied somewhat differently here: The character may recover, in sanity points, the skill level of the Analyst in a half hour of roleplaying the therapy. If, however, the patient wishes additional sessions, he may do so. The effectiveness of the session reduces by one for each subsequent session. If you later find a Therapist with a greater skill that the one you started with, he may restore to you the points the first did not. Example: Fred has had a rough day. He has had his wife killed horribly in front of him, seen foul perversions of nature shamble out of the darkness and eat his best friend, and then things got really bad. He has lost 35 sanity points, and seeks out Doctor Schmitt, who has a Psychoanalysis skill of 5. During the first 30 minute session, Fred gains back 5 points. The next 30 minute session, he gains back 4, the next 3, the next 2, and the next 1. Dr. Schmitt can help Fred no more. Later that day, however, he meets Dr. McIntyre, who has a Psychoanalysis skill of 7. Fred immediately has a session with this doctor, and gains back 7 points in the first 30 minute session, and 6 points in the next. Doctor McIntyre can now help Fred no more. You will notice that Fred has now gained back as many points as if he had seen Dr McIntyre exclusively. Remember that your sanity points can never go above 99 minus any Cthulhu Mythos you may have. Psychology As the Tabletop Game. DEX BASED SKILLS Dodge - Dodge works precisely like the NERO Dodge skill. you may expend it to escape one physical attack. You get one Dodge per event for each level of the skill you buy. For instance, if you are shot by a shotgun at short range, you may use one of you Dodges to escape the damage. Locksmith * This skill allows you to attempt to open a lock. There will be locks of several different levels, each marked with the appropriate number. It takes you two minutes to open a lock of your skill level. For each skill level you have in excess of the lock level, you may reduce the time it takes you by 30 seconds. For each level the lock difficulty is higher than your skill level, it will add 30 seconds to the time it will take to open the lock. It will always take at minimum 10 seconds to open. For instance: Sam the Snake, who has a Locksmith skill of 4, finds a chest with a lock on it. The lock is marked with a sticker indicating it is a level 2 lock. He gets out his tools and gets to work. He has a skill level two higher than the lock, and is able to open it in one minute. Inside, he finds a small box with another lock. This lock is marked with a tag with the number 6 on it. This lock, being 2 levels higher that Sams skill level, will take him 3 minutes to open. Mechanical Repairs * As the Tabletop Game. Electrical Repairs * As the Tabletop Game. Melee Weapons Each level of skill the character acquires in the specific type of weapon is added as a damage bonus to the base weapon damage. Each skill level of Cudgel gives the character one Waylay each game day as well. POW BASED SKILLS Occult - As the Tabletop Game. Credit Rating - Somewhat more limited than the tabletop game. A high level here along with some decent roleplaying will allow the character to cash a check or get a good reference from his bank. It is also used in combination with EDU to determine a character's income per year. Firearms - Each skill level adds one point of damage to the base weapon damage. INT BASED SKILLS Art - Art in the live version of this game means the ability to appreciate and evaluate works of art. First Aid * First aid at level 1 will stabilize a character after 5 minutes of administering it. Each level of First Aid reduces the time it takes to stabilize someone by 30 seconds. Stabilize means to get someone from -1 to 0 (unconcious). They will then wake up in 10 minutes unless treated with the skill Medicine. Library Use - May work as a general ability to locate specific books in a library or library-like collection of books. May also act as a sort of general knowledge skill. If you do not have Library use (and can read), the default time to find the information in a given book is: number of minutes = number of pages in the book. Natural History - As the Tabletop Game. Navigate - As the Tabletop Game. Photography - Creatures will have a rating which indicates how difficult it is to capture on film. The character must equal or surpass this number or the film just doesn't work. Track - Track is now a Times-per-event skill. To use a Track, find a Marshal and search the ground in an appropriate area, then ask the Marshal if you find anything. If the answer is "Yes", then you have burned a Track, and will be given a direction. If the trail is particularly difficult, you may be asked to use more than one Track. OTHER POINTS Luck - Luck can be used several ways: 1. Increase any EDU or INT based skill. If you have found, for instance, a book that contains what you believe to be vital information that takes, say, History 2 to read, and neither you nor anyone in your party do not have the skill History at all, you may spend 2 luck point to gain that skill for that instance only. (Apparently, it's an area you happened to pick up some knowledge in while dabbling in school). Once the luck points are used, they are gone for that event. 2. To escape dying. If your character takes a shot that would render him dead or dying, you may take a luck point to raise him to the level of unconcious. 3. As a wild card. Luck points may be used in situations where no other skill or ability seems to apply. This is at the discretion of the Marshal. Luck may not be used to augment a times-per-event skill. The times-per-event skills are Dodge, Waylay, and Track. Players should note that we do not guarantee that use of this skill will yield any useful information. It should also be noted that it is an extremely Marshal-intensive skill, and if the Marshal does not know where the quarry went, there is no way he can lead you to it. Luck points are per event. SAN - SAN is the highest level of Sanity the character may have, even with the best of Psychotherapy. Sanity - Sanity is the current state of the characters mind. It may go down with exposure to vile things, or up with Psychotherapy. Income - The yearly income of the character is figured by the following formula: EDU times Credit Rating (to be found under POW) times $1,000. The Event Organizer may give a particular player with an appropriate character background more, and may allow less for similar reasons. When "HOLD!" is called: Stop what you are doing, drop to one knee, and CLOSE YOUR EYES! A final note: This game is to be run by the Event organizers. These rules are not complete, nor do we believe that it is possible to write rules that are. The intent of the rules, however, is clear, and it is the intent that will be played to rather than the letter. Latitude may be given from time to time, but that latitude should be considered the exception, not the rule. Our intent is for you to have a good time by overcoming the challenges we set for you, not through allowing the player to "win" because they were better at negotiating the rules than the player next to them. -------------------- The Three-Lobed Burning Eye is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.org. 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