Call of Cthulhu General

Do we have a MEGA with PDFs of all the rulebooks anywhere?

>the sketch shown above was done my a young woman who was arrested for the Blownehouse massacre
>she claims that it's the "thing" that butchered those people
>she drew this shortly after arriving at the institution, and one of the staff made a joke about how the man was covered in armor but got stabbed in the face
>the deranged woman attacked the worker, taking out one of his eyes in the process
>during a subsequent therapy session, all she would say about the event was that it was no man and it wore no armor

I'd recommend buying 7th edition, it's a real step up from 6th, it's a shame Coc threads are never really that popular despite Coc being in the top 10 most played rpgs

shoggoths should be used sparingly, when used they should be a huge, nearly insurmountable obstacle to the players, they should never just be cannon fodder in my opinion

I think they're wasted as just a big brute that smashes people with tentacles.

They're the all purpose labor machines of an advanced civilization... perhaps they'd continue manufacturing something like children's toys, even millenia after destroying their masters, or become obsessed with some mundane human device and replicate it (until, say, all the biomass of a small town is rendered into knock off designer handbags).

How's the new Delta Green?

My GM ran a fantastic session with a twist. When we were investigating a town in America (In the Louisana area) with strange rituals and hooded figures at night performing suspicious acts, we started looking for Mythos activity, and found there was no Mythos activity. It was just the KKK.

As it turned out, the actual cultists were Deep One hybrids near the swamps, at an old plantation. We only had four players, so we couldn't go in ourselves.

And then one of the PCs had the absolute worst idea ever. He rallied the KKK against them, and we rode into battle with the Loyal White Knights against the 'darkies' committing the horrid sin of miscegenation.

We won, but I'm pretty sure our characters are going to hell anyway.

That's fucking hilarious, i'm gonna steal that idea, "you fish smelling nigger, get back here so I can shoot ya" I can't imagine what could stop 40 klansmen with shotguns though, the deep ones would probably flee or try to summon Dagon or Hydra, it would make for a good campaign

The hilarious part is that they completely didn't expect it. Like, they did have cultists and so on, but they didn't expect men to drive up (or ride up, on horses) and start lobbing Molotov cocktails and brandishing burning torches.

Got any resources for a newbie (who's only familiar with 3.5, 5e, and pathfinder)? I've been thinking about doing my first horror campaign and this sounds like it would be a good place to start.

you can get the quick start rules and a free scenario from the chaosium website, plus character sheets, i'd recommend running the haunting for your first game, have fun

bump for the men of Sarnath

How is 7th improved from 6th edition? I haven't had time to look at into it much.

there's not much difference. you take your base characteristics and multiply them by 5 and use them as skills. this simplifies things somewhat, for example instead of using jump/climb/athletics you can just roll DEX.
also income/assets/cash are replaced by wealth level that goes from 1 to 100.

Rules wise, it's great. The book that covers all of the setting updates is still in the works but what is known about it sounds as good as ever. Essentially it's a simplified, more narrative focused CoC 6e and the sanity system took some notes from Unknown Armies (SAN loss from different sources, becoming adapted, that kind of thing). There's also the "Bonds" system which basically means you have a few people that are important to your character outside of the job and you can reduce your SAN loss by projecting it onto your bonds, so you might not get as freaked out by seeing the Shoggoth but if your character makes it out alive he goes home and takes the stress out on the people he loves. It's pretty bleak but it's become my favorite way to play mythos games.

Here's a basic rundown of the rules with some premades and a pretty good scenario, check it out.
>delta-green.com/2016/02/download-delta-green-need-to-know/

Where can I get a PDF of the Investigator's Handbook?

They robbed the jewlery auction at the Paris Opera House by using a hot air balloon to pump sleep gas into the theatre thru the air conditioning then rappelled in wearing Ninja catsuits. Riding the hot air balloon away, they dispersed using hang gliders that they burned as firewood.

They robbed the offices of the Paris Tribune and stole the files of a reporter who had been investigating their organization.

They called themselves De Charnes De La Nuit: The Night Gaunts. After a family legend of Jean Karlikovas, one of the founders of their criminal fraternity.

A mysterious Prussian, Baron Hauptmann, and his Chinese partner Lang Fu hired them to burglarized 1 Rue De Richelieu, the former chief residence of Cardinal Richelieu, who willed his house and more importantly, his personal library to the people of France. The building became llknown as the Bibliotheque Nationale. Hauptmann wanted the Night Gaunts to retrieve a rare Greek Manuscript titled Names of the Dead, or Necronomicon, which had been left in bad condition (burned and bloodstained) at the library by a furtive man of foreign caste in the late 1800s. That man was later found poisoned by unknown means in a Paris slum.

The game fell apart after that due to lack of interest by the players.

I've run the haunting twice now, for two different groups. (Well, with one person in both who knew not to be an asshole)
I've also run a couple of other single session adventures.

My question to you guys, as a fairly inexperienced keeper is:

How do you set up locations of interest with our appearing to railroading or too on the nose.

I found my self saying 'do you want to go to the records archive, the library, or visit a university professor'

I worry my players won't know about these sorts of places to find info If I don't.

Been running the new Things We Leave Behind book of modern adventures. They're actually pretty good, and I've been adding some Delta Green flavorings behind them for additional continuity.

>one of the PCs had the absolute worst idea ever. He rallied the KKK against them

player characters, not even once

part of me wonders if I would have planned for that possibility or not because it's one of those 'in hindsight of course they did that' things they're so fucking good at doing

Yeah, there's less math, clearer skills, simplified fighting rules...lot of the spells are more modular so there's not 70 different variations on Call X

I actually got to bumble my way through the chase mechanics last week and it was pretty fun and cool and managed to evoke some Innsmouth raid/Dunwich Horror feelings, so that'd probably be pretty good for Pulp Cthulhu too

well, in part, that's on how experienced your players are

Generally, the learning curve I've seen is:

>well, uh, where should we go to find clues?
then
>library, city hall, newspaper morgue, local uni, check
then
>fuck research let's just figure it out when we get there it's probably just fucking ghouls again

That's for both players and characters I suppose

but I remember in the very very early times where I would have to call for idea rolls and be like 'libraries are often sources of information'

once they get their feet under them, they'll probably start coming with their go-to checklists

alternatively, have a kindly NPC mention such places when doing the start-of-adventure infodump

if it starts with something exciting though, that's tougher

Usually whenever I list off locations I use more vague/general phrasing and throw some mundane or inconsequential stuff in with the places that the PCs can get useful information from so I'm not just handing them a list of places to get clues.

>"Do you guys want to do some more research on [clue], get any extra gear from your houses, visit the university, or talk to anybody in particular? Oh, and it's been a while since any of you have eaten anything."

Periodically reminding them to eat and drink has gotten them on edge ever since I ran Convergence.

my players will not stop eating during their adventures and it always turns into an hour-long in-character Tarantino thing and part of me loves it and part of me hates

it was a crux of the last adventure that they couldn't eat and they still found reasons to go to diners and 'see what happened'

Run Convergence, it'll change their tune.

I second that

In re-reading Convergence, I now remember where I was cribbing some of my 'fuck with their eating ability' ideas

I'll add it into the upcoming rotation