Cthulhu Megathread: It's pronounced "Khlul'-hloo" (Lose 1D10/1D100 Sanity)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Cthulhu Megathread: It's pronounced "Khlul'-hloo" (Lose 1D10/1D100 Sanity)

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PipHelix: Nov 11, 2017

Capfalcon posted:

I made a oneshot called Scooby Doo and the Pooch on the Doorstep. Pregens for everyone, with the Scooby character being the only one who had to roll English to actually be understood (with some bonus skills to make up for it). While making it, I couldn't decide if the joke was "It's just a Scooby Doo mystery with a monster to unmask at the end" or "This time, The Monsters Are Real! (TM)". So, I split the difference and had a fake cult worshiping a real demon monster.

Fun times were had by all, even if half the gang remained convinced that it wasn't real by the end of it.

I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. Or read this module, if you wrote it down.

E:
https://nitter.it/BigDirtyFry/status/1592638866951147522#m
Beat drat AAR Ive ever seen. Hopefully twitter keeps existinba couple more minutes so anyone gets to see it.

PipHelix fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Nov 18, 2022

# ? Nov 15, 2022 05:32

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 00:03

MilkmanLuke: Jul 4, 2012; I'm da prettiest, so I'm da boss.

Baus is boss.

I figure some of you might enjoy this. I'm the Keeper for Call Of Cthulhu Mystery Program and we just wrapped our series doing The Dare. If you're not familiar, it's a pretty solid one-shot centered around kids going into a "haunted" house.

Cthulhu Mystery Program: Night At Howling House

# ? Nov 15, 2022 07:26

Lumbermouth: Mar 6, 2008; GREG IS BIG NOW

Oh hell yeah I adored your playthrough of Behold the Mother, will definitely check this out

# ? Nov 15, 2022 16:42

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

Hey, just wondering - does anyone know of any lists/catalogues of artefacts, for CoC/DG? I know DG has the ARCHINT book which isn't too bad, but I'm mostly after some more 'minor' artefacts/curiosities, that have a much lesser effect than the more major/plothook-worthy artefacts in ARCHINT. (Apologies if this gets asked a lot!)

# ? Nov 21, 2022 01:03

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

I know there was a CoC scenario where they had an auction for a bunch of mystical artifacts (that were not major plot devices). As I recall the scenario was at least 15 years old now. Let me see if I have it around.

Holy poo poo I found my old notes. I do not have a record of the scenario or book name where it was found, but I do have a handout for a handful of mystical or Mythos items. I'm sure someone can identify the scenario based on this.

Edit: I think I found the scenario. It was called "Two Minutes on High" released in The Unspeakable Oath, Issue 11 (1995) from Pagan Publishing.

This list helped me find it. https://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/CoC:Scenarios

Helical Nightmares fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Nov 21, 2022

# ? Nov 21, 2022 01:34

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

Oh nice, thanks - I'll take a look! Those ones you've shown look cool

Also, on the topic of The Unspeakable Oath, is there somewhere I can just get the whole series in a bundle? Since I got one a while ago, which had a cool standalone/one-shot scenario which I'll be using in the coming weeks as an intro, but I wouldn't mind checking out the rest to see what else I can use. I haven't really seen anywhere that offers digital copies of it, but I'm probably just missing something

# ? Nov 21, 2022 02:22

Elendil004: Mar 22, 2003; The prognosis
is not good.

WHY BONER NOW posted:

Speaking of delta green, looks like a new iteration of God's teeth is being playtested:

https://twitter.com/HebanonGCal/status/1571867913203884041?t=SoNQsBY4a9kaN-5Dyk-7Sg&s=19

Yeah I've been playtesting it in Shane Ivey's group. Gods Teeth is...rough. The best scenario so far has been an unrelated kind of filler scenario you can play to move time forward about a drone surveillance program. The Gods Teeth proper scenarios really require you to bring adapted-to-violence-badges. The ideal win condition is to just murder all the children in the first house, wipe it from the face of the earth and live a happy life which is silly.

# ? Nov 21, 2022 04:08

mellonbread: Dec 20, 2017

Major Isoor posted:

Hey, just wondering - does anyone know of any lists/catalogues of artefacts, for CoC/DG? I know DG has the ARCHINT book which isn't too bad, but I'm mostly after some more 'minor' artefacts/curiosities, that have a much lesser effect than the more major/plothook-worthy artefacts in ARCHINT. (Apologies if this gets asked a lot!)

This is a common question for a reason. Interesting artifacts are labor intensive to create, requiring both flavor details and a solid mechanical effect.

The first resource people turn to for Delta Green items is the Green Box Generator. This is a classic for a reason, but to be honest I think it's kind of bad. It's been diluted over the years by lots and lots of low quality submissions, to the point where someone went in and added a bunch of items from the 5E DMG. Consider it a last resort when you run out of other stuff.

I think the Green Box Jam is a higher quality product, but for obvious reasons it has the same lack of thematic consistency.

I went through my own documents and pulled out the items that are the most interesting, the least disruptive, and don't require references to other scenarios

mellon's curated green box items posted:

A short sword of meteoric iron, straight with a curved hilt. The word �torment� is written on the flat of the blade in Yemenite. When grasped it gives the wielder a powerful sense of anticipation, like it�s waiting to leap from their hand into someone�s body.
When it strikes a foe, the blade deals damage equal to half the victim�s remaining HP, rounded down. This damage ignores armor, but not supernatural damage resistance. It can never reduce a target below 1 HP. The weapon �sings� to the wielder as it strikes, costing them D6 SAN per hit.

A brass rod with a green light bulb at the end. It can�t be much older than the 1920s or 30s. The inside of the tube is filled with complex electronics.
When the switch on the handle is flipped, the light comes on. Anyone looking at it is struck with grand mal seizures and paralyzed for 0/D4 SAN from Helplessness. This effect only lasts as long as the light is in their field of vision, which isn�t long (falling over or thrashing around typically removes it from their FOV).

A long wind instrument with a bulbous end, made of a smooth ceramic material, slippery to the touch. It doesn�t look like it was meant to be held with human hands.
When played, the flute emits a loud piping, and becomes invisible, along with the person playing it. This costs 0/D4 from Unnatural the first time it happens. The flute and the musician become visible again when they stop playing.

A wood and cardboard container, padded on the inside, holding a glass ball. The sphere is opaque, with a rubber plug in one end.
History recognizes this object as a Japanese gas grenade from WW2. The gas inside is hydrogen cyanide, a 20% lethality poison with an onset of D6 turns. Due to the advanced age of the device and primitive dispersal mechanism (smashing the glass) targets have a round or two to leave the AOO before the gas fills, provided they realize the danger. (Maysoon is immune to the effect, holding her breath).

A Mayan Stela, limestone, dating from the Terminal Classic period. It depicts an unknown king. His face and tongue are pierced by a barbed rope, typical of Mayan ritual bloodletting. His headdress is shaped like an insect or spider.

A ring, made of polished black hardwood. A glob of amber is set in the face, holding a petrified fly.
Putting the ring on costs D6 WP and inflicts D4 HP damage, manifesting as a flash of intense pain in the finger, which quickly subsides. Taking it off costs 2D6 WP and 2D4 HP, causing a painful tearing sensation and warning the wearer against trying it. Any successful attack made by the wearer of the ring is a critical. Any successful attack against the wearer ring is a critical. This prompts a 1/D4 SAN test from Unnatural, if the wearer survives long enough to realize it.

A chair of varnished teak, probably Tang Dynasty. Sitting in it gives the impression of being watched. Sit long enough and laughter can be heard, muffled as though coming from another room.

A collection of bark masks from the exterminated Selk�nam people of Tierra Del Fuego. Some are wide, some shaped like hammers, some cone shaped - almost phallic.

A Viking Age tapestry from Northern Denmark. Its runic text and images tell the story of a �ship of fools�, which set out from Iceland following a �barrel shaped object� (either a ship or some kind of creature) into the icy wastes to the far north. The tapestry ends halfway through the story, continued on a companion cloth which is nowhere to be found.

A stone earring of Olmec manufacture. On it is a were jaguar, face twisted in anger. Putting it on, the wearer feels their face flush with blood momentarily, as though in anger.
While worn, the wearer always Fights when subject to a temporary insanity.

An old chest of drawers filled with bayonets. They range from modern combat knives with ring attachments to yatagan and sword bayonets from the age of muzzleloaders.

A folder of crime scene photographs from the �lollipop murders�, an unsolved series of killings from 1922, considered an urban legend today. The victims were found coated in foul smelling liquid, their heads melted as though by an enormous sucking mouth filled with acid. Viewing the photos costs 0/1 SAN, but grants the same in Unnatural.

A short story torn from a Playboy: The Magnificent Pond by Ajax Sandoval, 1979. A scientist casts his mind forward in time to observe the future. He catalogs social and technological changes, then hits a wall: no matter how far forward he goes, after about a hundred years in the future there�s nothing but a featureless, yellowish plain. The story ends when he zooms out and discovers the entire continent has been reduced to a protein farm, a pool of biomass used to feed the aliens who have occupied the planet.

A watercolor painting of a man and a woman loving on a balcony. The woman has a dozen heads, blossoming from her neck like a bouquet, some of them female, some male, some like a hyena or dog. The painting is titled �Balcony Scene�.

A birchwood diadem, covered with tiny carven images of skeletons. The label declares it the �Crown of the Dust King�.

An oil painting of a woman, nude except a veil over her face, wielding a shamshir and disc shaped shield, riding a giant camel spider into battle. The Painting is Titled �Cover For Tales of the Fantastic No. 17�

A plaster cast of a 12 foot tall human skeleton, mounted in a walking pose. The label says �Replica of Original, Rub' al Khali 1932�

A small fossil of a worm coiled into a spiral. A bracket has been inserted into one edge of the fossil and a chain run through it, allowing the worm to be worn like a pendant.
The wearer of the amulet gains the ability to convert WP loss into bond damage.

A wooden cigar box with a peeling label: �SNAKE DOCTOR�S CURE ALLS - FINEST FROM AMERICAN HAVANA.� Three robusto cigars inside, the bands depict a snake eating its own tail. Inside the lid, written in sharpie: �warning: this is going to hurt.�.
Smoking a cigar deals D4 damage, but removes any curses or negative magic affecting the smoker.

A walrus ivory fountain pen. The tusk components are lacquered and varnished to prevent them from shrinking. On the side are six �X�s, followed by a spiral glyph. The ink is black in color and unremarkable. The nib is steel or some durable alloy thereof.
If the user writes six words with the pen followed by the glyph, they gain the protection of the Elder Sign (the gestured version). The protection fades when they stop writing, meaning they must write six more letters and the same symbol if they desire continued safety, followed by another, and another. The limits are the amount of ink in the pen, the amount of paper available, and the writer�s endurance.

A blue silk shirt. In the front pocket is a folded note: �But it does hurt you. Oh, tell me it does.� along with a blue lipstick mark.
While worn, any SAN damage taken by the wearer is converted to physical damage instead.

A large wooden crate, containing a stone head of carven onyx the size of a washing machine. The head has no facial features except eyes, which are covered with duct tape and a thick layer of wax. A note stapled to the interior of the box warns: �Do not remove the wax. You WILL die.�
If the statue�s eyes are exposed, they dissolve the flesh of any living thing within their field of vision. This deals 10% lethality damage per-round.

A blood and cum stained mattress, held vertical by a brace of bladed and edged weapons driven through it. The exhibit title is �SEX SEX SEX�
One of the weapons is a coral spear. If immersed in seawater, the pneumatocysts revive. They paralyze anyone stabbed by the spear on a failed CON save.

A twelfth century Byzantine triptych. In the first panel, a monk is interrupted during morning prayers by a star headed angel. In the second, the angel takes him to a star and shows him the world below. In the third panel, the monk is returned to his brothers. His skin is transparent. His eyes are replaced by stars.

A pill bottle, label faded into illegibility. Inside are four gummies, soapy green in color and shaped like five pointed stars.
Eating a gummy guarantees success on the next ritual the user attempts to cast.

An angular ring of polished bronze, shaped like a man chewing on his own foot.
The wearer can choose, whenever they lose SAN, to faint instead. They lose no SAN, but fall unconscious. While unconscious, they have the same fever dream every time: they are compressed between layers of heavy, insulating material. They are safe, but immobilized. There is a sensation of gnawing or grinding.

A sandalwood box with jade and cinnabar panels showing images of travelers on a road. Inside are a handful of modern pharmaceutical �derms in plastic wrappers - drugs delivered by placing a patch on the skin.
The derms drive the user into a rage, equivalent to a fight response from a temp insanity. While attacking, their melee and unarmed damage is doubled.

A five sided ankh of hard, dense, silver colored metal.
Anyone wearing it cannot die. Their body heals non-fatal wounds as normal. Fatal wounds are not healed, but mysteriously do not extinguish their life. The wearer does not age, and does not need to sleep or eat. If the wearer removes the amulet, any injuries they bear (including lethal injuries) affect them as normal.
The exact mechanics of this are all up to the handler - whether severed limbs can be reattached, the effects of total incineration, etc. Notably, the wearer cannot be knocked unconscious. They remain sensate even following the destruction of the brain, without any diminished mental faculties.

A hexagonal tube, made of varnished hardwood, with a flashbulb on the end. Prayers to �Saint Hildegrin of Virginia� are inscribed on the sides in Latin. Anthropology or History recognizes this as a mythical figure and folk hero from early colonial America, who �cast out demons� hiding in human form. Inside the tube is a mummified hand, index and pinky finger outstretched.
When the wielder touches the runes on the tube and expends 3 WP and 1 SAN, it projects a cone of red light. Anything invisible or disguised as human caught in this cone is briefly revealed in its true form.

A bone hilt, large enough to fit comfortably in a single hand. Archaeology or Anthropology suggests Paleolithic provenance. Attached with a strip of wrapped leather is a shard of what looks like iridescent glass. This �blade� shimmers, changing size or disappearing entirely depending on what angle it is viewed from.
The edge does D6 damage, ignoring armor and all supernatural defenses as it cleaves through both higher and lower dimensions.

A large cardboard shoebox, filled with soft paper wadding. At the center is the exoskeleton of a beetle, about the size of a chihuahua.
Science: Biology recognizes this as an exuviae discarded after a moult, and notes that there does not appear to be a head.

A cloth wrapped bundle, tied with twine. Inside is a wooden marotte or Jester�s sceptre, carved in lacquered hardwood. The end is capped with a carven image of a nun making an obscene gesture. Archaeology suggests an origin somewhere in High Middle Ages France.
While the end of the sceptre is exposed, everyone in line of sight feels an inexplicable, overwhelming fear centered on the object. Remaining in its presence, let alone moving closer to it, requires extreme bravery.

A Webley Fosbery Self-Cocking Revolver. A third position has been added to the safety. In this position, depressing the trigger fires the entire cylinder in a single six round burst, a 10% lethality attack if the weapon is fully loaded.

A mason jar, half full of sticky purple pipe tobacco.
While smoking it, the imbiber can pass through walls, at the cost of 1 SAN and 1 WP per foot of material (minimum 1 each). Running out of WP or tobacco while inside a wall is fatal. Passing a breaking point while smoking results in addiction.

A JIM atmospheric diving suit. The exterior markings are well worn, indicating a long period spent neath the ocean. Inside is a skeleton, completely overgrown with coral - which has grown outwards through the holes where the viewports once were.

mellonbread fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Nov 21, 2022

# ? Nov 21, 2022 18:02

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

mellonbread posted:

This is a common question for a reason. Interesting artifacts are labor intensive to create, requiring both flavor details and a solid mechanical effect.

The first resource people turn to for Delta Green items is the Green Box Generator. This is a classic for a reason, but to be honest I think it's kind of bad. It's been diluted over the years by lots and lots of low quality submissions, to the point where someone went in and added a bunch of items from the 5E DMG. Consider it a last resort when you run out of other stuff.

I think the Green Box Jam is a higher quality product, but for obvious reasons it has the same lack of thematic consistency.

I went through my own documents and pulled out the items that are the most interesting, the least disruptive, and don't require references to other scenarios

Thanks for that! They seem like good items. And yeah, I know - it's always bound to be rough, making this stuff. I guess I was mostly hoping for some sample artefacts or a "how to make your own" guide on making non-overpowered items, as making things harder for myself by breaking the game is my main concern, haha

Unfortunately I've actually thought up a bunch in the past months, but I initially didn't write them down for some dumb reason. The one I've actually written down (which I have planned as being found in an old temple I'm starting a rough design for, if the team follows up on info gathered in one of the 'Mansions of Madness' CoC scenarios. The one featuring a slime in it, that hints towards where an explorer found it and accidentally brought it home) is an old obsidian sacrificial knife, which gives the target a disease when cut. Resembles a severe case of dengue, and requires all the usual saves in order to recover (or not)
Aside from that though, I'm trying to remember the other ideas I had, ages ago. But thanks for that, in any case - I'll give those tools a look!

Oh, one other thing, if you don't mind! (Sorry :shobon:

) Are there any lists of 'spells'/rituals anywhere? I imagine if details like this exist it'll be in a CoC book somewhere, rather than in a DG book. (Preferably both their effects and a brief description, if such a list exists. e.g. what on earth does the Elder Sign gesture actually resemble? Sticking your middle finger up and swearing at the nearest Deep One, so it might be intimidated into not attacking?)
Is that the case, if anyone knows off the top of their head? If so, I'll see if I can get myself a copy, since that kind of thing may be quite handy. Not so much to make players straight-up occult wizards of sorts, but mostly so I can gradually allow them to find a few of the less powerful rituals and whatnot, if they feel so inclined to pursue them.

# ? Nov 22, 2022 00:23

mellonbread: Dec 20, 2017

Major Isoor posted:

Thanks for that! They seem like good items. And yeah, I know - it's always bound to be rough, making this stuff. I guess I was mostly hoping for some sample artefacts or a "how to make your own" guide on making non-overpowered items, as making things harder for myself by breaking the game is my main concern, haha

We dug into this on the Green Box Show like four years ago. To save you from listening to an hour of audio for a few bullet points of advice, the way I create artifacts is

They should be weird or ancient in appearance.
They should be useful in function, even if the use is very situational
They should have a cost, roughly proportionate to how useful they are
The cost shouldn't be instantly lethal to the user, or should be telegraphed somehow
They might be consumable items with limited uses
If they have limited uses, they should be costly to create more of
Their use is addictive - characters who pass a breaking point from using an artifact may develop an obsession with it

Ordinarily I think artifacts should be easy for the players to figure out the function of, since this makes the Agents more likely to use them. The interesting question is what the Agents are willing to sacrifice in exchange for power, not whether they can even make the transaction in the first place. Berserk would not be very interesting if Griffith hosed up his INT roll and dropped the Beherit on the ground instead of initiating the Eclipse. But you mentioned that you want the players to trust a specific NPC artifact trader, so in this case it's fine if they have to take stuff to him to get it identified.

The only official guidance that I know of for creating Delta Green artifacts is page 164 of the Handler's Guide. It says that an artifact is an item pre-loaded with magic spells, which the user can cast via the item. Thanks guys, super helpful!

Major Isoor posted:

Oh, one other thing, if you don't mind! (Sorry ) Are there any lists of 'spells'/rituals anywhere? I imagine if details like this exist it'll be in a CoC book somewhere, rather than in a DG book. (Preferably both their effects and a brief description, if such a list exists. e.g. what on earth does the Elder Sign gesture actually resemble? Sticking your middle finger up and swearing at the nearest Deep One, so it might be intimidated into not attacking?)
Is that the case, if anyone knows off the top of their head? If so, I'll see if I can get myself a copy, since that kind of thing may be quite handy. Not so much to make players straight-up occult wizards of sorts, but mostly so I can gradually allow them to find a few of the less powerful rituals and whatnot, if they feel so inclined to pursue them.

The Delta Green Handler's Guide has a list of rituals, starting on page 174. It also gives a basic system for ritual design beginning on page 167, although you'll have to use your imagination for anything that strays outside the specified parameters of ritual effects.

# ? Nov 22, 2022 01:29

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

Ah right, yeah that sounds good to me. I had forgotten about the costs to use it though - do you recommend having a 'price' (in Sanity usually, seems like) for even 'trinkets' that has only minor/mundane uses? To provide a quick example off the top of my head, say, an object that effectively acts like a glowstick. So like, you can 'switch' it on somehow, then it stays on until you turn it off.

Hmm... now that I think about it though, I guess you could have it prick you and take some blood (like, 1hp) when you toggle it on, then glows a creepy blood red colour, until you switch it off later on. Would you say something quite minor like that is OK, as an example? It's a pretty tiny cost really, but I guess it's also a pretty mundane effect.

Good memory about the artefact NPC, too. I'll definitely be pointing to him as a potential source for information. Also, my bad on missing the DGHG ritual list - I must've forgotten to make a note of that, when I first went through it!

# ? Nov 22, 2022 02:15

MilkmanLuke: Jul 4, 2012; I'm da prettiest, so I'm da boss.

Baus is boss.

Bummer to hear the Green Box Generator has been watered down. (D&D items...ugh) I haven't used it for years, but it was pretty solid when I used it.

# ? Nov 22, 2022 02:20

LatwPIAT: Jun 6, 2011

MilkmanLuke posted:

(D&D items...ugh)

I�m occasionally somewhat tempted to go through D&D books and see how many items are already appropriately Mythos-y, and how many I can pervert to my squamous needs.

The Hand of Vecna and Eye of Vecna are already pretty good.

# ? Nov 22, 2022 02:55

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Boots of Speed except they�re Air Jordans.

Also: you might want to look at the Grimoire of Mythos Magic for inspiration. They should port over to DG ok!

https://www.chaosium.com/the-grand-grimoire-of-cthulhu-mythos-magic-hardcover/

DrSunshine fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Nov 22, 2022

# ? Nov 22, 2022 15:19

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

I'm writing a little blurb to introduce my campaign setting, would love to hear any feedback!

quote:

Steeling himself with a deep breath, the Deuxieme Bureau inspector pushes open the door of a dingy upper room above a Paris bordello, and sees the freshly-slain body of a prostitute lain across the bloody mattress. Her alabaster skin is covered in hundreds of tiny, semicircular bite marks, no larger than a franc. They look like they were made by human teeth, and a viscous amber fluid weeps from them like angel�s tears.

Tearing across the black, dead pines of the Siberian forest in pursuit of what looked like the shadow of a man who died in her arms during the Civil War, the GUGB Division 13 officer scrambles up a freezing hill and swats aside the branches, not noticing the unearthly, prismatic shimmer that the snowflakes make as they scatter. Then she gapes in mute incomprehension as she beholds a massive, jet-black rectangle hovering at the center of the crater below. The shadow of the man is dancing there, along with everyone else who had been part of the missing expedition. He beckons to her.

The CRE agent kneels in the wet grass and kisses the little cross on the rosary bead around his neck for what meager sense of protection it could provide. Half a mile up the road, the armed agents close in through the woods on the cultist compound. This far out into the wilderness of northern Quebec, there should be little chance of word about the operation getting out to the press. All the better, he thinks, as nobody needs to know how, for the past ten years, all the babies that have been born in the compound have had eyes and mouths in places where they shouldn�t have, and babbled happily, lisping with underdeveloped palates about truths that no human should ever know.

As the dust rises from the dig site, a fell wind blows down from the foot of the Himalayas, howling with a dry and vicious heat, and plastering the sweating brown bodies of the diggers with fine red powder. The MPO commissioner squints, regarding the site from the shade of a tent with the aid of a pair of opera glasses, and a smirk wrinkles the edge of his mustachioed lip as he sees the heavy tome winched out from a layer deeper than recorded human history. The onyx binding seems to absorb the Indian sun like a hole in the air, and the green jade hieroglyphics on the cover seem to squirm liquidly in the light. One more prize for the British Empire.

The IIA agent raises a pistol shakily in one hand, clutching a ragged sheaf of notes covered in a madman�s scrawl of insane mathematical equations in the other. Her eyes wild and bloodshot, she takes aim at the back of the head of the man who could end it all. Bent over a writing desk and furiously penning down the last terms of his greatest and final work, the man pays her no heed. How many times had she repeated this day? How many lives did she tear apart? How long had it been since she had any sleep? A bullet slides into the chamber and a firing pin lights a spark.

Irregular Investigations is a campaign setting that depicts the mundane lives of government agents in the foreboding world of the 1930s, locked in a slowly doomed, secret struggle against the inexorable forces of unreality. It is a world where winning means getting to live one more day, where unknown, forgotten heroes sacrifice their lives and their sanity in exchange for the vaunted hope that humanity can someday find a way to break the inevitable cycle of collapse and rebirth.

If the little stories above intrigue you, and beckon you to see more, then the Agency welcomes you.

Welcome to the Apocalypse.

# ? Nov 25, 2022 00:03

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

DrSunshine posted:

I'm writing a little blurb to introduce my campaign setting, would love to hear any feedback!

Not very helpful I know, but I just wanted to chime in to say it sounds good to me!
(Also, are you going to feature any Spanish Civil War or Nazi-related scenarios, out of curiosity? The 1930s is a great time for war-related mystery! I was half tempted to do that myself, for my campaign. The allure of the 1980s is too strong for me, though...

)

# ? Nov 25, 2022 00:14

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Major Isoor posted:

Not very helpful I know, but I just wanted to chime in to say it sounds good to me!
(Also, are you going to feature any Spanish Civil War or Nazi-related scenarios, out of curiosity? The 1930s is a great time for war-related mystery! I was half tempted to do that myself, for my campaign. The allure of the 1980s is too strong for me, though... )

Absolutely. A Spanish Civil War scenario, a Japanese-occupied Manchuria scenario, and a scenario involving the Hindenburg are all on the table.

# ? Nov 25, 2022 00:32

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

DrSunshine posted:

Absolutely. A Spanish Civil War scenario, a Japanese-occupied Manchuria scenario, and a scenario involving the Hindenburg are all on the table.

eeeexcellent, good to hear that - especially the Hindenburg one! Hmm also, have you thought about an Amelia Earhart one? I'm sure there could be a lot you could do, regarding her disappearance.
Like, maybe someone picked up a brief emergency broadcast before a crash, and it turned out she crashed on some creepy island or something, I dunno. Either way, what you've got planned sounds great to me - I hope it all goes well!

# ? Nov 25, 2022 00:49

PipHelix: Nov 11, 2017

Turns out that Lindbergh Baby was the spawn of something truly evil, over and above the evil Nazi who, ya know, spawned him.

# ? Nov 27, 2022 00:39

Rougey: Oct 24, 2013

drrockso20 posted:

Ironically the infidelity reveal probably should have cost her some SAN, that kind of thing can actually do some rather nasty things to a person's mental health(indeed relationship stuff is probably more dangerous to sanity than anything the Mythos could do)

So I got my keeper on board with this, failed the roll, and it resulted in the most SAN loss to date :haw:

***

So we're in the lead up to Christmas and all the various social obligations that make it hard to get a full group together.

As a result two of the least socially capable characters ended up going to charity ball, gaining tickets after giving the organiser a kilo of silver (for the orphans) and a bullet, letting them decide between the two - probably one of the most enjoyable pushed rolls I've done. What followed was us digging ourselves a hole and floundering around being socially inept and acting like the buffoons we where. Two Crit fails on listen rolls from one character in the space of an hour was incredibly improbable but overall managed to advance the plot. It was made more hilarious by us expecting to be attacked at any moment, or for the ball to be the nexus of the evil cult we've been dismantling... but nope, was just a fancy ball for rich assholes and two morally flexible doctors who bribed/threatened their way in.

Love those moments.

# ? Nov 28, 2022 01:55

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

Hey, just wondering, (another DG question - sorry!) are there any scenarios about GRU SV-8? I'm planning on inserting them (somewhat) into the fringes of some other scenarios, but I'd ideally like to have a scenario about butting heads with them directly, before later running Dead Letter, against the Karotechia. Since then if/when they follow it up, I'll present an SV-8 agent who proposes a truce to join forces in order to investigate and finish off Karotechia.

All good if not, though! I'm aware that there have been a few DG books/tales published about them, so maybe I'll have to have a read and make my own scenario, based around stumbling upon an SV-8 operation in progress or something.

# ? Dec 2, 2022 03:25

mellonbread: Dec 20, 2017

Major Isoor posted:

Hey, just wondering, (another DG question - sorry!) are there any scenarios about GRU SV-8? I'm planning on inserting them (somewhat) into the fringes of some other scenarios, but I'd ideally like to have a scenario about butting heads with them directly, before later running Dead Letter, against the Karotechia. Since then if/when they follow it up, I'll present an SV-8 agent who proposes a truce to join forces in order to investigate and finish off Karotechia.

All good if not, though! I'm aware that there have been a few DG books/tales published about them, so maybe I'll have to have a read and make my own scenario, based around stumbling upon an SV-8 operation in progress or something.

The only scenario about SV8 written by the DG devs is Dead Hand, in one of the Unspeakable Oath magazines. It stars a group of Soviet special forces on a clandestine operation at a missile base, around the time of the USSR breakup.

The splatbook Labyrinth has a single SV8 NPC called Agent Renko, which includes some detail on how the agency works in the present day. It has some suggestions for play but the Handler is left to hand craft the actual scenario on their own.

Aside from that, there's the original writeup in the old Countdown splat. Which was written for play in the "classic" era (1990s and early 2000s) and doesn't fit a present day game. Not just because of changes in the Delta Green lore, but because of changes in Russia between the time the splat was written and the present day. So if your game is set in the appropriate time period it should be fine, otherwise it won't be much help.

Beyond that there are plenty of SV8 fan adventures out there, although few of them focus on SV8 interacting with Delta Green.

# ? Dec 2, 2022 04:29

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

mellonbread posted:

The only scenario about SV8 written by the DG devs is Dead Hand, in one of the Unspeakable Oath magazines. It stars a group of Soviet special forces on a clandestine operation at a missile base, around the time of the USSR breakup.

The splatbook Labyrinth has a single SV8 NPC called Agent Renko, which includes some detail on how the agency works in the present day. It has some suggestions for play but the Handler is left to hand craft the actual scenario on their own.

Aside from that, there's the original writeup in the old Countdown splat. Which was written for play in the "classic" era (1990s and early 2000s) and doesn't fit a present day game. Not just because of changes in the Delta Green lore, but because of changes in Russia between the time the splat was written and the present day. So if your game is set in the appropriate time period it should be fine, otherwise it won't be much help.

Beyond that there are plenty of SV8 fan adventures out there, although few of them focus on SV8 interacting with Delta Green.

Ah, right! Well, my game is set in 1984-1985 so it seems like that should more-or-less fit the bill. (End of '84 initially, since I want a winter themed mission early on, for obvious reasons. Probably 'Lover in the Ice', I think it's called? Unless there are better options around - I'm only aware of that one and another old one, which I think was alien-related. Can't remember the name of it, but it's an original/old DG scenario)

Anyway, thanks for that! Sounds like I might be mostly out of luck regarding SV-8 - that's alright though, I'll make something work. As you said anyway, I imagine they and DG try to keep to themselves, for the most part.

EDIT: Oh, I bagged myself "Tales from Failed Anatomies" just then, as it seems to have a few relevant short stories. Hopefully that'll help get the cogs whirring, in any case!
(Also, I should add - thanks again for your help mellon. You're a great resource!)

Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Dec 2, 2022

# ? Dec 2, 2022 04:57

PipHelix: Nov 11, 2017

Rougey posted:

just a fancy ball for rich assholes and two morally flexible doctors who bribed/threatened their way in.

Love those moments.

I once played a mechanic type and tried to bluff my way into a fancy ball - GM had one of the people throwing the party ask what I was doing there. I say I'm there to fix the electrics. GM says "we have no electric light, it's all gas." I immediately start yelling about "this guy here fucken gaslighting me!" and get all the PCs in the room to look over and start booing him.

Maybe the only time I've passed a challenge no-roll cause I got the GM as flustered ooc as I was trying to get his NPC in character.

# ? Dec 6, 2022 01:29

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER; Ultra Carp

PipHelix posted:

GM says "we have no electric light, it's all gas." I immediately start yelling about "this guy here fucken gaslighting me!" and get all the PCs in the room to look over and start booing him.

# ? Dec 6, 2022 11:27

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

PipHelix posted:

I once played a mechanic type and tried to bluff my way into a fancy ball - GM had one of the people throwing the party ask what I was doing there. I say I'm there to fix the electrics. GM says "we have no electric light, it's all gas." I immediately start yelling about "this guy here fucken gaslighting me!" and get all the PCs in the room to look over and start booing him.

Maybe the only time I've passed a challenge no-roll cause I got the GM as flustered ooc as I was trying to get his NPC in character.

drat, I'm glad you got away with it! Sounds great, haha

Also, DG question: Regarding the general 'Delta Green' bond, is that bond between members of the team itself on a more personal level, as well a more broad 'disposition towards the organisation itself' kind of deal? I'm not phrasing this very well, I'm sure, so apologies for that.
Since to provide an example, the scenario here is if the group spend a downtime slot doing something together (falling under the "fulfill responsibilities" pastime, I guess) between missions to relax and bond etc, would the bond boost go to the DG bond? Or does it fall under a separate team/group bond? (Since there are some examples where a bond might be a group of friends, or 'your old squad from your military days' etc.)

# ? Dec 8, 2022 01:46

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Major Isoor posted:

drat, I'm glad you got away with it! Sounds great, haha

Also, DG question: Regarding the general 'Delta Green' bond, is that bond between members of the team itself on a more personal level, as well a more broad 'disposition towards the organisation itself' kind of deal? I'm not phrasing this very well, I'm sure, so apologies for that.
Since to provide an example, the scenario here is if the group spend a downtime slot doing something together (falling under the "fulfill responsibilities" pastime, I guess) between missions to relax and bond etc, would the bond boost go to the DG bond? Or does it fall under a separate team/group bond? (Since there are some examples where a bond might be a group of friends, or 'your old squad from your military days' etc.)

I'm pretty sure it means a bond to a specific member of the team, as I've always interpreted it. It's like what you said in your second parenthetical - your "squad". If you should lose any of them during a mission, it'd be really bad. I'm not sure, in terms of mechanics, though, whether that means every single member, or one in particular.

# ? Dec 8, 2022 01:55

mellonbread: Dec 20, 2017

Major Isoor posted:

Also, DG question: Regarding the general 'Delta Green' bond, is that bond between members of the team itself on a more personal level, as well a more broad 'disposition towards the organisation itself' kind of deal? I'm not phrasing this very well, I'm sure, so apologies for that.
Since to provide an example, the scenario here is if the group spend a downtime slot doing something together (falling under the "fulfill responsibilities" pastime, I guess) between missions to relax and bond etc, would the bond boost go to the DG bond? Or does it fall under a separate team/group bond? (Since there are some examples where a bond might be a group of friends, or 'your old squad from your military days' etc.)

Delta Green bonds are between individual Agents. They represent the Agents bonding with each other after a traumatic event, and you roll to form them when that happens. Things like an Agent dying, an Agent saving another Agent's life, etc. They sap your normal bonds to reflect how the Agents' real world social connections break down as they are sucked into the underworld, trusting and relating only to people who share their lifestyle rather than normal people who "don't get it".

# ? Dec 8, 2022 03:28

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

Right OK - so there should be one for each member of the team, as these events happen? I do remember reading about the traumatic stuff creating the bonds (which I quite like the way it works - I imagine it's similar to what soldiers go through, and how it can be difficult for vets to reconnect after coming back, etc.) but I must've misread it and thought it worked, since I thought it was just one "DG" bond, not one for each team member involved. Good thing I asked!

That's cool though. I imagine things like bond damage/sanity loss can really ramp-up if all but one team member dies on a bad mission. They might even need to be put away due to insanity - at least for a little while. I imagine it would also be pretty rough, forming a new team! Since all your DG bonds are gone, and you probably don't have many other bonds due to your DG experience/bonds sapping away at the other bonds as time goes on. It's an interesting system! I do like the way 'back at home' pastime vignettes interact with bonds and the like - much more in-depth compared to other RPGS

# ? Dec 8, 2022 04:08

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Major Isoor posted:

I do like the way 'back at home' pastime vignettes interact with bonds and the like - much more in-depth compared to other RPGS

Yeah, this is really really good, one of the best features of DG, in my opinion. Though my campaign uses CoC7e mostly, I've incorporated this aspect into it , and I think it really helps contrast and heighten the horror as well as flesh out the world and make it feel believable and have an existence outside of the investigations.

# ? Dec 8, 2022 04:20

Rougey: Oct 24, 2013

PipHelix posted:

I once played a mechanic type and tried to bluff my way into a fancy ball - GM had one of the people throwing the party ask what I was doing there. I say I'm there to fix the electrics. GM says "we have no electric light, it's all gas." I immediately start yelling about "this guy here fucken gaslighting me!" and get all the PCs in the room to look over and start booing him.

Maybe the only time I've passed a challenge no-roll cause I got the GM as flustered ooc as I was trying to get his NPC in character.

That's gold.

Our recent session continued the adventures of the two characters least suited to social interaction, again due to IRL Christmas parties. Ended up in a fight with some goons guarding a warehouse who were largely innocent and now we may be wanted for double homicide. Ended up stealing a couple of black burkas to disguise ourselves then eventually skipped town after going back in the middle of the night for some minor assault and B&E, which really should have been plan A.

The whole thing has actually opened us up to the idea of using weird science to create gadgets to offset just how loving bad we are in social situations; pheromone spray (flat 40% boost to a given skill, more for a hard or extreme success) and that MiB flashy thing for wiping memories (that causes the subjects brain to explode on a fumble).

We always roll the skills creating for the devices when we use them in the field, which speeds the game up somewhat and has made for some great moments of tension 'cause we're not sure if my bullshit is gonna work or not.

# ? Dec 11, 2022 04:57

mellonbread: Dec 20, 2017

Submissions for the shotgun scenario contest wrapped today. There were 53 submissions this year, about on par with last year. You can read the submissions, submit feedback and vote for your favorite here.

# ? Dec 16, 2022 05:03

Elendil004: Mar 22, 2003; The prognosis
is not good.

mellonbread posted:

Submissions for the shotgun scenario contest wrapped today. There were 53 submissions this year, about on par with last year. You can read the submissions, submit feedback and vote for your favorite here.

Good post.

# ? Dec 16, 2022 05:06

Alderman: May 31, 2021

Me and some friends have been having a lot of fun with the Arkham Horror card game, which has me thinking about running/playing some CoC.

Thing is, AH has sort of highlighted for me is something I've found lacking whenever I've played CoC previously. In the card game, a lot of the characters end up utilizing a mix of spells, strange artifacts, and odd tricks to manage whatever strange gribblies and problems they encounter. There's this feeling of employing a half-understood bag of weird tricks to a new and strange situation, muddling through by dent of luck and supernatural duct tape.

In short, I'd like the characters to have the opportunity to start with a strange trick or two - a spell they've picked up, a weird artifact that does something they kinda sorta understand. That sort of thing - you're people who dabble in the occult and the uncanny, and now you have to apply your (probably misunderstood and misinterpreted) read on the situation to whatever's going on.

Someone who knows more of what's available out there, is there a version/supplement/different game that'd fit this approach?

# ? Jan 1, 2023 19:49

Dr. Lunchables: Dec 27, 2012; IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD

Sounds like Pulp Cthulhu could be handy, they�ve got mechanics for distributing weird science and artifacts. Otherwise there�s the Grand Grimoire of Mythos Magic, basically just a big book o spells

# ? Jan 1, 2023 19:57

mellonbread: Dec 20, 2017

Alderman posted:

Me and some friends have been having a lot of fun with the Arkham Horror card game, which has me thinking about running/playing some CoC.

Thing is, AH has sort of highlighted for me is something I've found lacking whenever I've played CoC previously. In the card game, a lot of the characters end up utilizing a mix of spells, strange artifacts, and odd tricks to manage whatever strange gribblies and problems they encounter. There's this feeling of employing a half-understood bag of weird tricks to a new and strange situation, muddling through by dent of luck and supernatural duct tape.

In short, I'd like the characters to have the opportunity to start with a strange trick or two - a spell they've picked up, a weird artifact that does something they kinda sorta understand. That sort of thing - you're people who dabble in the occult and the uncanny, and now you have to apply your (probably misunderstood and misinterpreted) read on the situation to whatever's going on.

Someone who knows more of what's available out there, is there a version/supplement/different game that'd fit this approach?

Silent Legions marries the CoC theme and setting to a pseudo-dungeon crawl approach with character classes that accumulate magic items and knowledge as they explore and collect clues. My understanding is this is how the Arkham Horror card game works.

# ? Jan 1, 2023 20:04

Alderman: May 31, 2021

Pulp Cthulhu is very good for my purposes, here - silent legions does sound somewhat similar to the AH thing, but I'm not really after replicating the gameplay as much as the vibe of investigators macgyvering their way through an adventure with a grab-bag of ill-understood mythos lore. Is there a similar resource to the Grand Grimoire of Mythos Magic (which also looks excellent for my purposes) but for strange artifacts and mystic geegaws?

# ? Jan 2, 2023 02:19

Dr. Lunchables: Dec 27, 2012; IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD

No, a book doesn�t exist for that. Most items are usually related to specific scenarios and adventures. There are sections in Grand Grimoire about amulets and the like. Basically any spell could be associated with a specific item (usually).

As CoC doesn�t really set things up like D&D, you�re not assumed to accumulate magic items or spells, so producing items that aren�t related to the adventure you�re writing is just wasted time for the writers. Pulp Cthulhu has stuff for that though, and has a page worth of sample gadgets.

# ? Jan 2, 2023 02:36

Alderman: May 31, 2021

I mean, you're not assumed to be accumulating spells either and there's a book for that - seems like the sort of thing that could be useful as inspiration if nothing else. But it is what it is.

# ? Jan 2, 2023 02:50

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 00:03

Dr. Lunchables: Dec 27, 2012; IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD

Yeah, I think Grand a Grimoire is a collection of stuff that was already produced, with a few extra things thrown in. Almost all adventures deal with a spell or ritual, but a whole let less have artifacts.

Not saying it shouldn�t be made, just that they haven�t yet.

# ? Jan 2, 2023 02:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Cthulhu Megathread: It's pronounced "Khlul'-hloo" (Lose 1D10/1D100 Sanity)

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