Not taking the whole "incomprehensible" aspect into consideration, how convoluted are your games? How many layers does the mystery have? Are they layers at all?
Kayden Barnes
The more the better, I think.
My current DG campaign is, as follows:
>a cult of Ithaqua is prolonging the winter by unnatural means >they are supplied by shards of the Majestic-12, that, ironically, are now a shattered illegal conspiracy based on small groups, and who want to restore their power, contact with ayys and the Accord, and need this to divert Delta Green's watchful gaze from their alien artifact hunt >and who are, in turn, manipulated by a branch of Russian paranormal agency working together with with a branch of Delta Green to divert Majestic's attention from their own secret project >the Russians are infiltrated by the cult of Ithaqua, with the help of the Grey technology >and the branch of Delta Green is corrupted by Hastur and also infiltrated by his followers, particularly Brothers of the Yellow sign, who are using it for their own goals in their secret war against the Mi-Go >the mentioned secret project is a global covert network of secure bunkers and storage facilities, designed to be resistant to unnatural >because according to some sources and predictions, the end is actually nigh this time >the sources which the predictions are based on is old Majestic disinformation campaign that targeted the higher elements of world powers to make them actually proceed with that project, so that Majestic would move in and seize them as an "authority" in that matter; unfortunately, Majestic was defeated and officially disbanded >the facilities would actually be used for hunting alien artifacts all over the world and aiding the Grey activities in exchange for knowledge and technology
>all of that is generously sprinkled with rogue elements, minor threats, opposing branches, and actual unnatural entitites
I sure as fuck intend on letting the players explore all that stuff. Maybe with multiple characters, but still.
Jaxson Martin
I command this thread to continue existing.
Eli Brooks
whats the best automatic to give to my players in a 50/60s setting? tommy guns are plausible as war surplus, but it would look too much like the normal 20s setting the uzi could also work, but its too associated with the 80s should i go for the FAL?
Noah Ortiz
What should I read of Lovecraft first?
Jose Collins
The iconic stories. Shadow Over Innsmouth, Mountains of Madness, Colour from Space, Call of Cthulhu.
I, personally, read The White Ship first, and liked it. It's my favorite story to this day.
Joseph Powell
You can always give them an old machine gun if you absolutely must. Works every time.
Also, you have to actually decide if it's the 50s or the 60s. The decades were quite different in all senses. I think 50s were quite similar to the 20s, but 60s definitely not.
As of weapons, go to Wikipedia, and look at the lists of weapons used in the Korean War and Vietnam War. It's a pretty good summary of what weapons were commonly used.
Ryder White
if the year is 1961, just before mass involvement in vietnam then korean war weapons will do the M3 grease gun might be some cheap surplus
Carter Green
Care to elaborate on why do you need your players to have an automatic weapon?
Juan Collins
How is Trail of Cthulhu compared to Call of Cthulhu?
Ethan Myers
Case Officer's Handbook never
John Kelly
Dont remind me
Thomas Thomas
Don't worry, user, it'll come out any day now... r-right?
Tyler Green
Ill just sit here writing my 10 plus scenarios then..i-Im sure I wont have to revise a ton of shit to fit with mew fluff and stats tho right guys?
Justin Morris
Anyone have the released pages? At least we know they are working on it. Delta Green seems popular enough that people would eat that shit up.
Jackson Garcia
>Trail of Cthulhu I haven't played it but from what I know you have a pool of points that you can use in investigations to get additional information from clues. If you have a certain investigation skill you won't miss clues during a investigation, but spending points can allow you to modify how the clue is interpreted. It uses GUMSHOE which I also have never used. I mainly use Delta Green rules in a lot of my normal CoC scenarios because in a similar way to trail if you have a certain amount of a skill you won't fail if under pressure. Rppr has a couple of Trail games on their website so you could listen to them to get a better idea of how the game is played.
Christopher Carter
I personally prefer it, but some people have an irrational hatred of GUMSHOE, the ruleset it runs off of.
Luke Ortiz
The Thompson was still common in police and military use, as was the M3. The Reising was also used by many police forces.
Lucas Wilson
I don't think I'd ever run it over CoC for mythos stuff but how is the base system? What kind of scenarios are it usually used for? I kind of want to run a And there were none or Umineko based kind of game.
Ryder Jones
The dice system is very good. It allows you to guarantee that a character who's supposed to be good at something will be good at it, and allows characters to guarantee solid performance at the cost of expenditure of resources. It achieves what most dice pool systems set out to do with a minimum of complexity.
It's not without its problems though. The main area that causes confusion is the bifurcation of skills into 'Investigative' and 'General' abilities, which each have completely different mechanics associated with them. Then, some general abilities double as investigative abilities, some investigative abilities function differently than others by acting on gradations rather than as binary switches (where having any number of points is treated identically, as long as that number of points is greater than zero). It also leads to things that make sense from a system perspective but is nonsensical in the game world itself. Using up points from your Athletics pool makes sense, because your character gets more tired the more physical work he does. Using points points from your Firearms pool creates a situation where every shot you take at a single target makes your aim successively worse.
Splitting sanity into 'Sanity' and 'Stability' is a bad mechanic. You can soak Stability damage by converting it into a smaller amount of Sanity damage. But there's no penalty for losing Sanity until you run out completely, whereas Stability damage has huge mechanical consequences at certain thresholds. The game frames it as a tradeoff, but it's really a no-brainer to swap out any Stability hit over a certain amount for Sanity damage instead.
The idea that you "don't need to roll" to find clues isn't even worth discussing. It's brought up a lot by the devs, and by people who have never played the game but heard other people talk about it, but it's totally irrelevant because it can easily be done in any system and has nothing to do with Gumshoe's actual mechanics.
Jacob Robinson
Anyone have recommendations for 1890s scenarios? I fucking love the time period but it doesn't seem to get a lot of love. Could maybe start of with a prewritten scenario in london then go full Heart of Darkness and bring the investigators to Africa.
Carson Torres
I'm running a King in yellow campaign in Delta Green right now. I Used Last Things Last to drop a yellow sign in the investigators pockets and a book on native american skydevils. There's a scenario involving Byahkees I'll run and then I'll do Night Floors. This will transfer them basically into Carcosa either because they fuck up in the scenario and are transported or hopefully one gets trapped in Carcosa and the others will go and rescue him.
Nathaniel Moore
One more thing
The Trail rules are dramatically less lethal than Call of Cthulhu. Players have a huge pool of health to burn through before they even risk unconsciousness, let alone death. A burst of SMG fire does the same damage as a pistol shot and if the players actually get in a serious gunfight it can feel a bit silly as both sides chip away each others HP over the course of a few turns (although NPCs at least drop when they reach 0). Overall the Trail rules are a lot worse at handling combat. Having said that I think they're tilted toward keeping the players alive long enough to go insane and get killed by whatever is waiting for them at the end of the mystery, rather than by the first cultist or goon who points a gun at them, which is something that I think can get lost in some of the more lethal CoC campaigns. The system is designed to keep characters around long enough to actually accumulate SAN damage and disorders.
I prefer the new DG rules to either one.
Attached PDF is a campaign journal from our Trail of Cthulhu run of Beyond the Mountains of Madness, a classic Call of Cthulhu campaign.
Ayden Parker
>prefer the new DG rules I agree with you there. DG is what I would have wanted from a new CoC rule book. I still think lethality should be very high for the players in any situation whether it be gun wielding humans or monsters. It's up to the keeper to make sure every encounter isn't always a tpk and up to the players to not wander into an infested sewer unarmed and without a light source. I've never really had problems with lethality in CoC or DG unless the players were absolute retards or they were just unprepared to face the horrors they saw.
Levi Cooper
First draft of "The Evening Redness in Yoth" - scalphunting in 1840s Mexico using the new Delta Green rules
Grayson Sanchez
1 action per turn kinda irks me, like i feel like the rule needs to be bent a lot
Owen Cruz
You get 3 free meters of movement with anything except a move action
It does create some absurd situations by compressing or stretching the amount of time some actions take to make them all the same. Pulling out your pistol when your primary runs dry is pointless when reloading and drawing a weapon both take one action.
Ethan Ward
The situation im thinking of is "a slime like monster crashes its way through your covers left side but you are ok, you can either run back and thats it, or stay and ready/ shoot your gun. Its less natural. Running and firing should be a more viable option or slowley backing up, or even running a short distance and firing off a round or 2
Tyler Gutierrez
Yeah I understand but I tend to play more free form when it comes to combat anyway. I just mean stuff like bonds and not having to roll to find a piece of paper on the ground when you have 90% search
Charles Reed
Well the book says to not use rolls for easy stuff or times when all time can be taken. Im not sure whats your deal with bonds, i always rp it as happening later, like agent larz screams at his wife for asking why he got that scar on his face and she cries and locks herself in the bathroom while larz keeps trying to unlock the door.
John Lewis
No I mean I like both of those things. I think bonds were a great addition to the game and can add to the survivability of characters while making for some good rp.
Matthew Torres
>Anyone have the released pages? Yep.
Caleb Roberts
There was another one. With rules for magic.
Jack Foster
So go back in the archives and find it
Austin Watson
There's this, but that's all I could find on Detwiller's Patreon regarding the new magic rules.
Cooper Jones
Oh, there was also this a little farther up.
Elijah Ramirez
>hypergeometry
Who comes up with this shit? Just call it "magic"
Eli Robinson
>Who comes up with this shit? ...Lovecraft?
Evan Butler
From which of his stories does the term 'hypergeometry' originate?
Cooper Lewis
There is an explanation in the book.
Anthony Parker
Not OP but I'm fairly sure its Dreams in the Witch House
Jacob Reyes
Other than Lovecraft, what are some essential reads for the mythos?
Ryan Martin
The King in Yellow.
In general, I'd recommend Ligotti, but mind that he's pretty different from HPL. Still good. And don't do it if you're depressed. I did and attempted suicide right after.
Clark Ashton Smith is also decent.
Hudson Flores
I'm a personal fan of Ramsey Campbell. Glaaki, Daoloth, Shaggi, Groth there all very lovecraftian.
