New to Call of Cthulhu. Created my first character.
I rolled 85 in Dex and Str, 70 in Edu, 65 in Size and Constitution... and then 50 and 40 in Int and Willpower.
Am I fucked? I'm essentially a big-ass punching, jumping machine with no willpower and average intelligence.
In addition, I chose "Private Eye" as my occupation. What's the difference, really, between that, Police Detective, and Agency Detective? And should I have been something like an Athlete or Big Game Hunter instead?
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>Am I fucked?
In CoC you are fucked no matter what character you make. So throw those DnD notions out the window and enjoy the ride Mr. Skeletal's Insane Ride.
And occupations?
Okay.
Welcome! You have chosen a great game to play. Come back with any questions that might come up.
I see you downloaded the latest version. There's no editions like in other franchises, but 7 made some very good changes, added great options, and is written much more accessibly than any of the previous books.
Now, stats, or primary characteristics... The important one is POW you know? That's your sanity. The idea of CoC is to use health as a very tight resource to make players investigate carefully while sanity is the one that wears down and puts the character in a corner. Luck now entered into the mix with luck spending to boost skill rolls. But sanity remains the backbone of the game. It has a lot of story effects tied to its decay, this is where the mechanics of the game come together.
I really like the quick chargen option where you just assign a bunch of standard values to stats and skills, basically point buy with a limit. It's really fast and you can put your strengths where you want. Random stats are fun if you play a lot of one shots with ever new investigators, just to play investigators with different upsides instead of always the same. But for any kind of campaign structure or persistent characters I much prefer point buy to get players involved with their characters. Immersion is key in CoC.
Occupations set skill cost. In 7 they also determine which stats go into status, but this is minor. Choose your occupation by flavor and skills. You can spend your INT skill points on anything you like, but the EDU skill points go to your professional skills. At least two of those should be central to your character concept or you'll run into trouble.
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So with low Willpower I'm fucked? Lol
How does it say Willpower on your sheet? That's a WoD stat. In CoC you have Power.
That's what I meant by Willpower. Power. I assumed they're interchangeable as terms.
Power also defines your magic points. And it used to determine your luck. It was never just willpower.
And you're always fucked. It's CoC. No pun intended.
The game isn't about dominating with force. It's about revealing while decaying.
What said. CoC is more or less about watching your characters die horribly or go insane and having a great time doing it. It seems like you're trying to optimize your character or trying to make a good "build" but what you should really focus on is trying to make a character that makes sense.
Private eyes are investigators that are hired by individuals or organizations as opposed to police or agency detectives who are part of an official organization. Basically police or agents have more authority but private eyes have more freedom. You can definitely play a private eye as a tough guy who carries out investigations through force or intimidation rather than subtlety.
This is one of the only CoC threads that I could find.
What sorts of things are handy or key to creating a CoC campaign? I've noticed a thread on Veeky Forums has examples of a interdimensional museum and that seems pretty awesome.
What sorts of things might be hidden just beyond the veil? Can any sort of mundane location lead into something far more terrifying?
I suppose I'm just having trouble on where to start.
I'm not trying to optimize. I rolled randomly. I'm just trying to prepare myself for whether I'm going to die within an adventure or two (and thus don't get too attached).
And the one other than private eye that I was considering was Athlete, just because of the stat distribution, it seemed fitting.
You could try using one of the built-in adventures or modules as opposed to designing your own. Or use an adventure from another property and tweak it for Cthulhu.
If you're unfamiliar with HP Lovecraft or writers inspired by him read a few stories to get a feel for the game's source material.
You should probably run or read a couple of published scenarios before writing your own so you can get a feel for how CoC games usually progress. The Haunting is a classic that's designed for first timers.
I only read the OP but that thread seemed way off flavor. More like Stargate really.
A CoC campaign is a big order. CoC isn't really made for campaigns, one shots are the way to go. There are campaigns, but they eat character sheets like a shredder.
Generally you'll want to create a mystery that is revealed to pose a threat through clues testing the sanity of the investigators to breaking. Combat is always dangerous, a gun can kill a character in a round easily with a few decent rolls. The main device is tension. Clues need to be structured and abundant. Then it's a bit of a sand box for the investigators to explore usually, it doesn't have to be. You can also set events or pose a time limit. But you have to make them decide to go looking for trouble before trouble finds them. Then wear down their sanity, luck, and health with challenges and clues. Success here will arm them for the end, reveal insights into the creature, its origin, and weaknesses, change the conditions for the end with allies and intelligence, and maybe even provide them with a relic or ritual that can be a weapon in their fight. But it won't stop the bad things from eating our world. Even the showdown can only stave that off for another day.
Like I said, you can play a PI who is more of a tough guy than a smart guy so if that seems interesting to you go for it. Professions really come down to personal taste and what range of skills you want to have.
You really don't just make random PCs in CoC. The keeper makes pregens or explains the setting of the scenario and helps them make characters that fit. Many scenarios present a situation that only certain occupations or archetypes make sense in. You can't play a noble lady on an arctic expedition, or an arctic explorer in a court intrigue, not without breaking the tone and monopolizing the game. And that's not how CoC scenarios function.
The characters die, go mad, or retire in the run of that story. It's their big brush with death, they don't do this every week. If they did it would be hard to explain how they keep finding those secret monsters all the time and nobody else knows about it. They would also get savvy. It doesn't work like that. Masks of Nyarlathotep does it a little, making the 1920s quite pulpy. There's games for this kind of campaign, DELTA GREEN came to be exactly to fulfill this expectation. In Pulp Cthulhu it's easy to make it happen, with the same scenarios even, it's for playing heroes, not investigators.
But in CoC the best working way to do it is one shots with characters made for just that story.
>You can't play a noble lady on an arctic expedition
The fuck you can't. She paid those guides to do their little expedition, she gets to call the shots to go along.
> stars are right
> stars are clearly on the left
Not even trying/10
I really wish you had kept reading.
>not without breaking the tone and monopolizing the game.
Really? What is the tone of every single artic expedition and how does a noble lady break the tone? I don't understand how that breaks the tone at all. As for monopolizing the game that is on the players and keeper. A pilot can steal the spotlight as much as a noble lady.
Who will fund arctic expeditions if not wealthy nobles? They spent the money, if they want to go along for the ride that's their prerogative.