Ello /tg/. I'm gonna be running CoC for the first time in

>>53810164
use d100

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>>53810164
Yes. Read this Article. It's from White Dwarf 91, released in 1987, back when CoC was still a developing rpg and Lovecraft was new to the gaming world.

It talks more about the concepts of Lovecraft's writing, what makes them so good, and why they work well in an RPG. It's definitely worth reading in order to try and capture the feeling of a Lovecraftian scenario.

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>>53810164
cthulhu thread? I really want one but no one ever seems to want to start one

>>53813899
There's always been the issue of understanding what Lovecraftian Horror is, and it all coming to the misconception of "Muh Tentacled Madness."

The actual concepts of Lovecrafian horror are as follows:

1. The more you know, the less you understand. The antagonist of any CoC game is, by definition, the Unknown. Not Knowing is terrifying, yet what little you learn implicates something even worse. The Unknown can be anything. You can do a Lovecraftian Vampire if you understand how to execute it properly.

2. You are all but powerless. Whatever you do, it's never enough. Lovecraftian characters usually survive through only one of three methods. Becoming/being the horror, Running away as fast as fucking possible and knowing as little as possible, or having whatever entity you're facing be so uncaring that it passes as follows.

There's other tenets, but it's mostly attributes or tropes that add finesse to the style of the writing. Even Lovecraft himself was never perfect at capturing the ideals of the genre.

Anyone had any experience running Delta Green?

>>53810164
dont go the whole "you can't win" thing
in love crafts thing the main characters often did win. They might not kill it forever (expect in that one story)but force to slumber for another aeon or two
Cthullhu gets taken out by a steamboat in his debut
font be afraid to let the party win if their clever and determined enough

>>53814109
Your wrong mate
is my favorite lovecraft story
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shunned_House
they go in to the house try to clear it flame throwers
fail and lose a man
come back with acid
kill the slumbering elder god
and the house is clean.
Its only storys after lovecraft himself were dead that genre became all
muh unstoppable thing
muh maddening horrors
muh you will never win without becoming the monster yourself
even in the bad end story of innsmouth the cult is smashed by the Federal Government

>>53814109
>>53817415
>>53817553
I agree that the players can succeed in thwarting whatever horror or cult threatens them, but often at great cost to themselves and even then, with a sense that it didn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

For example, when I ran the "Edge of Darkness" scenario form the 6e book, my players succeeded in completing the ritual even though one of them died. However, this merely sends the creature back to where it came from. It is still out there, and so is the knowledge of summoning it or it's kin.

In another example, running "Masks of Nyarlathotep", the party succeeded in stopping the cult in the shanghai chapter, a substantial delay to Nyarly's schemes. However, they failed to stop the resurrection in Egypt and died trying to stop the birth in Kenya, so the cults still have great influence in the world.

The evil can never truly be stopped imo, merely delayed.
I'm also planning to run Horror on the Orient express soon. Does anyone have any thoughts on the module?

>>53810164
Cthulhu angrily swiping at a mere boat is so... un-Lovecraftian. It's just wrong.

Whoever made that image deserves an irate anonymous image board post directed against him.

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>>53810164
Don't make your games Monster-of-the-Week. It gets boring fast. There has to be more to the plot than just a hideous outer-dimensional monstrosity trying to invade our reality. That's fine for beginners, but you need to step it up later on.

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>>53813375
>Esprit de Corpse

sensible chuckle.jpg

>>53817915
>Horror on the Orient express soon. Does anyone have any thoughts on the module?
You will have to do a lot of actual and metaphorical railroading to get the party OFF and ON the damned train at the right moments. If they don't cooperate it can fall apart very fast. It's not supposed to be a sandbox though rationally it plays like one, which is where the danger for the GM lies. It's a linear narrative and does not support sandbox play.

>>53810164
Pick a good campaign frame. Gives characters a solid motivation. For example a university society about the occult or private detectives who specialize in the weird. The Investigators Handbook has a few really good sample frames in the organisations chapter.

>>53817350

Yep, done a fair few sessions with friends. Any questions?

>>53817553

Yeah, the cult is overthrown, but 1) the narrator starts to turn, meaning the corruption will always exist and 2) that's one Deep One colony among many.

>>53826202
i was just wondering, how smooth the system is when running and if you'd reccomend it to a relatively new dm and group of players

>>53826487

Overall the system is pretty easy to understand. BRP is solid. There's some snags on a few things:

Character creation can be a bit weird with the Agent's Handbook. You have to flip around a fair bit if you're not making a generic fed/operator/cop.

The Bonds system is great but requires the players be willing to roleplay or at least discuss seemingly mundane shit like how their wife feels about them missing Christmas (again.)

The full rulebook isn't out yet, but Dennis just posted that the full text will be on his Patreon in not too long, so that won't be anything too crazy.

Are you the Handler? What scenario do you plan to run?

>>53826595
I plan on being the Handler. dont really have a scenario in mind, more of a subtle slow building story. Are there any scenarios youre fond of?

>>53826836

If you want to build a story over time, I recommend starting off with "Convergence" from the original sourcebook. It's set in '95, just after the building of the classic cell structure. It's something of a classic scenario, and leaves a good number of avenues for investigating MJ-12 baggage.

If you want to go for a real slow build, keep the campaign going until 2002 when the MJ-12 coup occurs.

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>>53826836
Convergence is a classic, but whether or not it's a good fit for your campaign depends on how you feel about classic vs new Delta Green. It technically doesn't fit with the modern DG lore, although that's easy to work around. It also has some pretty obnoxious "gotchas" like drinking any of the water or eating any of the food in the town being fatal.

The Night Floors is my pick for a solid introductory scenario. Music From a Darkened Room and Last Things Last are also good, although the latter leans too heavily on the players already having some knowledge about the Delta Green conspiracy. There's also Future Perfect, which is good in the first two scenarios, though the last chapter is a complete railroad).

Since we're on the subject

>Old DG

>Delta Green 6th edition - http://www.mediafire.com/download/3wewotnl3ns5vn3/CoC+-+DG+-+Rulebook+-+Delta+Green+Rulebook.pdf
>CoC Delta Green - http://www.mediafire.com/?njg3a0ne7v130
>Countdown - http://www.mediafire.com/download/f3ygcpda5cfitl7/CoC+-+DG+-+Rulebook+-+Countdown.pdf

>New DG

>Need to Know - https://www.dropbox.com/s/6vc7fuxg5n5jyfd/Delta%20Green%20Need%20to%20Know.pdf?dl=1
>Agent's Handbook - http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1461968691
>Case Officer's Handbook Preview https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3puo-NNPA2bQVNTN2RlLURYX0E

>Shotgun Scenarios at Fairfield Project
>http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/shotgun-scenarios

>>53828163
>>53826836

The classic "intro" campaign is Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays, but the players are sorta railroaded into being feds from the southwest. I like it though, minus the whole Coyote weirdness.

And on the Convergence topic, I'm not 100% sure how it doesn't fit with the current lore, but I always relax the whole food and water thing so they'll be okay for a few days, but more than that they're screwed. By that point they should be able to pick up the protomatter detection stuff.

>>53829528
>I'm not 100% sure how it doesn't fit with the current lore

The Accord is no longer in effect. MJ12 isn't trying to clean up evidence of the Migo's operations on US soil. MJ12 doesn't even exist anymore, they were mashed up together with Delta Green to form The Program some time around 2001/2002.

>>53829806

If you set it in 1995 though that's not a problem.

>>53833197
You could even run it as an effective flashback game. Have everyone rounded up, stuck in a room without windows and grilled over their first op together. If any of them die during the mission that's the signal that their character has been a disguised Serpent Man meddling with people's memories the whole time and their debriefers hauled them in to flush it out.

Once they've been dealt with the survivors plus members of the debriefing cell (replacement characters) are assigned to figure out what they were up to.