From owner-chaos-digest@chaosium.com Thu Dec 2 21:30:00 1999 Received: (from domo@localhost) by chaosium.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id VAA11417 for chaos-digest-outgoing; Thu, 2 Dec 1999 21:30:00 -0800 Message-Id: <00d201bf3d4b$a1271d80$e7b79cd1@gobackstage> From: "John and Christine Thompson" To: "Chaosium Digest" Subject: Chaosium Digest v29.2 Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 00:02:40 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-Msmail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Sender: owner-chaos-digest@chaosium.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gobackstage@prodigy.net 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 -- To unsubscribe from the chaos-digest ML, send an "unsubscribe" command to chaos-digest-request@chaosium.com. Chaosium Inc., Call of Cthulhu, and Nephilim are Registered Trademarks of Chaosium Inc. Elric! and Pendragon are Trademarks of Chaosium Inc. All articles remain copyright their original authors unless otherwise noted.