I'm pleased to announce two new conversions for Trail of Cthulhu, Death in Luxor and The Reeling Midnight, courtesy of Goodman Games and Miskatonic River Press respectively. Get the free downloads here.
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I've updated the Pelgrane website with our product release schedule, and included a few more details of some of the planned products. I've also added a couple of new rules to the GUMSHOE lab to try out
Finally, the gaming group been playing an adaptation of Dogs in the Vineyard for my old D&D setting, moral choices but with spells, magic weapons and everything.
Play report one
Play report two
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Kenneth Hite is interviewed here by 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction. Jump to 54:07 to hear Ken discuss The Esoterrorists and the forthcoming Trail of Cthulhu.
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In many CoC games, you receive a packet of letters and other documents which describe the path that other investigators have taken, so that the PCs can take up where they've left off. Sometimes this is a conceit to allow new characters to replace those that have lost, sometimes it's just part of the adventure set up.
How about this for an idea. After a completed session or campaign, one CoC group writes up their play experiences, De Profundis style, along with any documents they initially received. This could include diary entries, maps, and notes scrawled in game on doodle pads - we've all done this and months later it doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Then, the GM packages this up, preferably electronically, and passes the notes on to another GM in another group. The GM could also pass on any adventure material written; although that is optional. The next GM hands the document package to the new group and they take it from there. You could even repeat the process, although it might be a bit unwieldy, passing on to another group, or back to the first one. You could even worry about time, and have the adventure progress from the 1890s onwards all the way to the present.
I'm hoping that this isn't an original idea, and someone else is already doing it. If so, I'd like to know.
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I've been looking through the Call of Cthulhu survey data.
The following fault lines are developing in the data - we have over 450 responses now.
- A number make reference to system in language developed at the Forge. Others beg that we don't do create something informed by the Forge.
- We have the Pulp vs Anti-Pulp lobby
- There are the SAN death spiral supporters vs those who support greater mental stability for characters
- There are those who think that non-canon play is because of bad players or GMs, and those who think it's a system problem
- Some dislike non-Lovecraft Mythos, vs those who do like it.
- A group are fed up with bashing evil cultists, others love the smell of flamethrower before breakfast.
- Lots of Germans play CoC.
Other trends - Most people value simplicity in a rule set much more than anything else.
- 20% said Masks of Nyarlathotep was their favourite adventure, 10% Mountains of Madness.
- Even those who supported pulp gaming didn't want the characters overpowered.
One comment however stands out: "Every game I run ends up being CoC in the end." That is a GM I would like to play with.
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In a See Page XX article, Robin called for publishers to put together a pithy pitch for their games. This combines well with the Forge / IPR convention tactic of the 15-minute demo game. For The Esoterrorists I gave Robin a taste of his own medicine, a pitch which had to combine a description of the character roles in The Esoterrorists background with a plug for the new GUMSHOE system. This is what he came up with:
You are elite investigators combating the plots of the Esoterrorists, a loose affiliation of occult terrorists intent on tearing the fabric of the world.
The rules system revolutionizes investigative scenarios by ensuring that players are never deprived of the crucial clues they need to move the story forward.
In writing this, he followed his own advice.
This brings me to my question. Imagine that the new Hite/Laws Call of Cthulhu we are working on was ready to go.
What twenty-five word pitch would make you covet the new game?
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I've set up an anonymous survey to find out what people would like to see in the new version of Call of Cthulhu Ken Hite is creating. Please fill it in here.
Please repost the link to anywhere you think appropriate.
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I can't wear my discreet publisher hat for this announcement. Just a moment, voilà, my three-tiered fan-boy hat.
I'm very pleased to be able to announce that the excellent Kenneth Hite will be producing a new version of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu using the new GUMSHOE system devised by Robin Laws for Esoterrorists and Unremitting Horror. If you believe that system matters, then this system and Mythos-based adventures are a made for each other. It's not the first time Ken and Cthulhu have been involved in forbidden congress - he worked on the d20 version, and is an experienced horror writer in the RPG field.
I've been trying to get get Ken to do stuff for Pelgrane for years. I feel like a fly fisher who has finally selected the correct combination of feathers, colours and hook for a successful lure, and after sitting by the old reservoir waiting for old man pike, I've reeled him in and I'm reaching for the club.
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