Character Creation

[Mi-Go Agent]

Kabukiman, Tschhh looks like he has appropriate stats. The skills raise a few questions. Does weather report let him predict the weather? Paleontology would have to refer to the planet he came from - although he would be familiar with prehistoric Earth, that would be part Natural History for him (Earthly paleontology involves knowing the techniques, theories, and vocabulary of human paleontologists, which he would not have). Unless poison has a unique place in the culture of the Ice-priests, it does not require a skill in CoC. Understanding poisons is part of medicine, and simply placing a poison in a beverage or on a weapon requires no skill roll.

I'm going to increase the costs for those spells. Control creatures and control mind both require you to match your current Mp against the target's POW. Control mind also costs sanity equivalent 1D(target's INT). With online dice-rollers, we can roll a die with any number of sides. Causing precipitation requires existing clouds; to actually summon a blizzard would be much more expensive (probably costing POW). Implant thoughts requires POW vs. POW to succeed and then a current Mp vs. POW in order for the thoughts to be undetected. People of high intelligence will likely recognize something odd is going on anyway if the thoughts are not normal for them. Freeze water requires you to physically touch the water, but it can freeze a sizable area - let's say about fity cubic feet in winter or the frozen lands of Ithaqua, and about 25 cubic feet elsewhere. Since you only need a couple inches to walk on safely, this would be 150 square feet if you are using the spell for its most obvious application. Call creatures requires the creatures to be nearby and to come under their own power (I think most call spells work that way); however, it works no matter which frozen land you are in, so you can call both polar bears and giant albino penguins.

[kouchpotato]

Yeah, I used the Ghoul stats from the rulebook and filled in with Investigator rolls when necessary.

[Mr. Handy]

You're welcome, Mi-Go Agent. Just post the name and the text here when you're ready, and I'll set up the forum. I'd guess it should go in Modern.

I'll finish character creation on Saturday at some point. I'll be carrying an HPG as well, since it uses Rifle skill for most shots; I just won't use it with powder or burst fire. I'll also carry a Psychic Rifle. 360 isn't a whole lot of skill points to work with (the average human investigator gets 400 total), but I'll see what I can put together. I'll probably end up forgoing Handgun skill entirely.

[Tabs]

Mi-Go - Art, hmmm. Only human art springs to mind. Next are the bas-reliefs the Elder Things carved onto their city in Antarctica. So, maybe, a study of alien carving and statues?

I have adjusted Jahee's skills slightly, he can use his HPG best with Shotgun skill. - I suspect I have allocated more than 360 skill points.

Finally, where can I find Dagon and Cthulhu spells? Spells are a part of CoC I've not used before. Summon/Bind Byakhee is a must; I would like Jahee to ride a Byakhee.

[Mi-Go Agent]

The roll of 5 for EDU was convienent, since I intended to keep Ghoul EDU pretty low.

The Ghoul Character Sheet:

Important Changes:

1. The appearance stat is removed, since when dealing with multiple species, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. If characters are described as attractive, ordinary, or ugly, I’ll take that into account, but you’ll need to specify to what race.

2. Sanity is still present, but the definition is different – insanity should not be a real threat to any character, since finding out the truths and secrets of the universe that would drive a human mad will only increase the sanity of a Ghoul. There is no longer a cap on sanity.

3. A lot of the base skills for humans are gone, since they require living in a more complex society than that of the Ghouls.

5. Since most Ghoul skills are instinctive, not learned, Ghouls have very high base skills, but with a maximum EDU of 8 (without secondary education, which does not exist amongst Ghouls), they have less skill points.

Name:
Sex:
Age:
Birthplace:

Statistics
STR:
DEX:
INT:
CON:
POW:
SIZ:
EDU:

Idea:
Luck:
Know:
Sanity:
DB:

Armor: Projectiles do half damage.

Skills:

Bite 30%
Block Dex*2 %
Burrow 75%
Graveyard Dance 30%
Claw 30%
Climb 85%
Conceal 15%
Disguise 1%
Dodge Dex*2%
Graveyard Lore: 60%
Hide 60%
Jump 75%
Knowledge: Humanity 15%
Listen 70%
Martial Arts 1%
Ride 5%
Scent Decay 65%
Sneak 80%
Spot Hidden 50%
Throw: 30%
Track: 50%
Dreamlands Lore 50%,
Occult Lore 50%
Own Language: Gibberish EDU*5
Other Language:
Other Skill:

New and Modified Skill Descriptions

Claw and Bite:
Claw is an attack that does 1d6+db damage.
Bite is an attack that does 1d6+automatic worry damage.

Burrow:
Burrow is used in constructing or repairing Ghoul burrows. Ghouls cannot dive into the ground, but given a few minutes they can tunnel out of sight.

Graveyard Dance:
The Graveyard Dance does not need to be performed in a graveyard. It is a wild and athletic improvisation of leaping, gyration, and unnatural movement used by Ghouls both for celebration and to frighten enemies. A human viewing the Graveyard Dance must make an additional sanity roll for 0/1D2 SAN loss per Ghoul (cumulative for loss; seeing three ghouls dancing requires only one roll, but for 0/1D6 SAN loss). This caps out at 0/1D10 SAN loss.

Graveyard lore:
Graveyard lore is a special offshoot of Knowledge: Human unique to Ghouls. While Ghouls might not know so much about other aspects of human life, they have a thorough knowledge of the world’s graveyards. This includes the ability to place burials in time and location, the ability to get a good idea of a graveyard’s basic layout from a few glimpses, and the ability to figure out where in the graveyard the nearest Ghoul tunnel is.

Knowledge: Humanity
Some Ghouls have infiltrated humanity to a great extent; most ignore humans until they have been rotting in the ground for a few weeks. It is possible for human beings with Ghoulish ancestry, such as the artist Pickman, to become Ghouls, and these strange beings will have exceptionally high Knowledge: Humanity. While a high skill in Knowledge: Humanity will allow a Ghoul to understand human systems and devices, Ghouls know slightly less about humanity than humanity itself does.

Martial Arts:
Most Ghouls are competent fighters, but the greatest warriors and chiefs know secrets of combat beyond the knowledge of the common Ghoul. Only they have skill in martial arts, which doubles unarmed combat on a successful roll as usual.

Ride:
In addition to ordinary animals, Ghouls can also ride nightgaunts. While Ghouls only start with 5% in ride, riding a nightgaunt will not require a skill roll for Ghouls except under the most bizarre circumstances.

Scent Decay:
The Ghoulish sense of smell has unique adaptations that tend toward sensitivity to decomposition.

Own Language: Gibberish
Gibberish, the language of Ghouls, is a relatively simple language, but serves their purposes.

Occult Lore:
Ghouls that have limited knowledge of science or history tend to remember useful information in the form of occult lore.

Other Skill:
A Ghoul may have one or two other skills. They must be physiologically possible for Ghouls, and the Ghoul must have a reason for having learned them. These are completely optional; a normal Ghoul warrior would likely not have them. They have a base of 1%, no matter what their base is for other species.

[Mi-Go Agent]

Really, don't worry about the skill points - going over is not going to cause any problems.

As for art, the immortal Deep Ones (as I mentioned before) have figured out how to make more or less anything into art, and this includes all the skills that people devote only utilitarian interest to. To them, sculpture is art, engineering is art, architecture is art, and ditch-digging is art. Any action that can be performed can be made into art.

As for the Cthulhu/Dagon spells, these are spells that Deep Ones have gained through understanding with their god (either Cthulhu or Dagon - take a look at the information I posted earlier). They represent the personal element of a Deep One's faith, and so are unique. Like the spells of Kabukiman's ice-priest, they are going to be custom. Tell me roughly what you want the spells to do, and I'll come up with costs and qualifications. A few spells in the CoC rulebook like summon/bind byakhee your priest can have free from studying them in the libraries of Y'ha-Nthlei, but they do not come directly from Cthulhu or Dagon and so are not the true power of your faith.

[Mr. Handy]

Here's my character sheet. I went over in skill points, using 460, but it's still a lot less than Jahee used. I'll have to think about my custom spell. The forum has now been created.

Name: Y'nkee (born Walter Gilman)
Occupations: Soldier
Sex: Male
Age: 165
Birthplace: Innsmouth, Massachusetts


Statistics

STR: 17
DEX: 15
INT: 15
CON: 16
POW: 16
SIZ: 14
EDU: 4

Idea: 75
Luck: 80
Know: 20
Sanity: 80
DB: +1D4

Skills

Art: 5%
Bargain 1%
Biology 1%
Block Dex*2 % = 30%
Boating 1%
Carpentry/Woodcraft 10%
Cartography 1%
Chemistry 1%
Climb 45%
Computer Use 1%
Conceal 15%
Cult of Cthulhu: 1%
.Cult of Dagon: 1% +19 (20%)
.Disguise 5% +45 (50%)
Demolitions 1%
Dodge Dex*2% = 30% +30 (60%)
Echolocation 25%
Electrical Repair 20%
Electronics 1%
Fast Talk 5%
First Aid 30% +30 (60%)
Geology 1%
Handgun 20%
Hide 30% +40 (70%)
History 30%
Hypnosis 5%
Jump 40%
.Knowledge: Humanity 1% +50 (51%)
Occult Lore 10%
Listen 30% +25 (55%)
Martial Arts (Dance of the Deeps) 1% +50 (51%)
Mathematics 10%
Mechanical Repair 20%
Medicine 5%
Natural History 10%
Navigation/Land 1%
Navigation/Sea, Air 10%
.Other Language (English): 1% +40 (41%)
Own Language (Reason): EDU*5 = 20%
Persuade 15%
Pharmacy 1%
Physics 1%
Psychic Will 5%
Pilot 1%
Psychoanalysis 1%
Psychology 5%
Ride 5%
Rifle 25% +50 (75%)
Scent 25%
Shotgun 30%
Sneak 50% +20 (70%)
Spot Hidden 30%
Submachine Gun 15%
Throw 25%
Archery 20%
Track 15%
.Claw 25% +26 (51%)
Grapple 30%
Club 25%
.Knife 25% +35 (60%)

Weapons: HPG, Psychic Rifle, Weighted Knife

Background: Walter Gilman was born in Innsmouth, Massachusetts in the mid-1840s to a human father and a Deep One mother. From a young age, he has always had a love of the sea, and he apprenticed on fishing boats. He also longed to travel and see the world. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He fought in a number of engagements, including the amphibious assault on Fort Johnson and the invasion of Johns Island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina in 1864. In 1865 he helped occupy Charleston after it finally surrendered, and he remained there for a few years after the war as part of the U.S. occupying force during Reconstruction. While in Charleston, he fell in love with a Southern belle named Penelope Ewell. They got married and he brought her back to Innsmouth in 1868, where she was indoctrinated into the Esoteric Order of Dagon and they began to raise a family.

In the 1870s, Walter's appearance began to change and he took on the Innsmouth Look. This delighted him, as he knew he would be transforming into a magnificent creature of the sea, but he was also saddened that he would eventually lose his mortal father and wife. In 1882, his transformation was complete and he became a full Deep One. At that point he went to live in Y'ha-Nthlei, where he joined his mother beneath the waves and was given the name Y'nkee. He still visited Innsmouth frequently to be with his family. He has served in the Horde ever since, and he is a veteran of the defense of Y'ha-Nthlei in 1928 when it was attacked by humans.

Y'nkee is a skilled soldier, but he also knows a lot about human culture and society, and he has kept up on events on land. Meddling in the affairs of humans is something that appeals to him, so he has volunteered for this assignment.

[Tabs]

Spells: Summon/bind Byakhee, Shrivelling

I'm winging it here, so if this is utter crap, don't hesitate to demolish these.
Dagon spells:
Influence Thought - like hypnosis, implanting ideas, but without one-to-one contact.
Talk to Sealife - ask a sealion the location of the sunken aeroplane.
Illuminate - light-up any darkness.
Find minerals - especially in the seabed e.g. manganese deposits.

[Mr. Handy]

For my spell, I'm thinking maybe something that would allow me to take on human form convincingly: not just in terms of appearance, but also sound, touch, and particularly smell. Taste doesn't matter so much. If someone's going to be eating me (looks warily at the Ghouls) it's already too late.

[kouchpotato]

Aww, come on. Just a nibble? I looove sea food.

[kabukiman]

About Paleontology, your right, natural history would be enouth. I didn't include history because all the history he knows is from his own civilization who died millions of years ago.
Weather report is to predict the weather. I was trhinking of using poison as a skill, since he would be able to make his own poisons (and that's more dificult than people usually thinks), but I can drop it for medicine.
I was using the spells from Innsmouth book. Each spell of weahtor control only allowed one change of wathor (so, in a sunny day I could make appear some clouds; in a day with with clouds I could make appear lot's of clouds, in a day with lot's of clouds I could make it rain or snow, but never in a day with sun could I make rain).

[Mi-Go Agent]

(With a little luck I can get the posts from the game idea thread moved here, so pardon the momentary disconnect).

Illuminate is easy. Expending one Mp will yield you a subtle glow (suitable for sneaking around), two will give about the same level of lighting as in a lighted indoor room, three will give a blinding light. Deep Ones can echolocate and see in much lower light and on a much wider spectrum than humans, so this spell might not always be necessary if you are alone, but I'm sure you'll find a use for a spell this utilitarian (not that it matters how useful your spells are).

The problem with Talk to Sealife is that, as long as the stars are not right, ordinary animals are going to either attack Mythos beings on sight or flee in terror, forgetting all normal instincts of self or even species preservation.

Find minerals is pretty simple. Dagon's mind can know the location of any mineral on the planet. If you know what you are looking for, he will tell you where it is. The contact requires only 1 Mp, but the spell can only be cast once a day.

What exactly do you mean by "without one-to-one" contact for Influence Thought?

Appear Human is going to have a bit of a cost, since imitating the movements, texture, sounds, and scents (if you smell like someone, you are more or less going to taste like him anyway ) of another creature isn't easy. If it were a Cthulhu spell, it would require sacrificing a bit of POW for an indeifnite period of appearing human. As a Dagon spell, it requires 9 Mp and the sacrifice of a human being. You will appear as a human for a number of hours equivalent to the sacrifice's POW. Mp will not regenerate during this time (although other methods of restoration, such as potions, will still work). If you have the time, you can make a Cult: Dagon roll to make the sacrifice a ritual pleasing to Dagon, which will give 20% more hours. If you fail the roll, someone assisting you in the ritual could also attempt it. If you do not want to make the roll, no ritual is necessary - you can kill the person however you want. Casting Appear Human a second time while it is still in effect will make you not only appear human, but actually be human for the overlapping time. Spending more than a few days with the spell in effect may be deterious to your health.

[Mi-Go Agent]

A forum is now up for the game.

[Tabs]

Yes, scrap Talk to Sealife. Influence Thought, is Telepathy really (I couldn't conjure the word), but rather than transfer thought or ideas to prod someone in to action.

[Mr. Handy]

Appear Human looks good to me, though I won't be able to cast it while it's already in effect unless I use one of those nifty MP-restoring potions - or if I want to become a sleeping human. Casting it twice will drop my MP to 0 under normal circumstances since they don't recharge while the spell is in effect. How do we determine which human I look like? Do I choose my new appearance, or do I automatically look like the human I kill?

Do I get one or more regular spells from the book too? The rulebook states that Deep Ones with a POW of 14 or higher may have spells.

[kouchpotato]

How many skill points does my ghoul get?

[Tabs]

Mi-Go, also, how about a cataclsymic spell: Quake - a mini earthquake but still pretty mega. I was thinking it will require Jahee's self-sacrifice, a last gasp/last throw of the dice (literally) event.

[Mi-Go Agent]

Kouchpotato, your ghoul gets EDU*20 skill points, like an investigator. It won't be very many, but most of the Ghoul skills are already high, so the points will go a long way.

Y'nkee will look like the 28-year-old Walter Gilman when the spell is in effect, although he will appear to be wearing modern clothes.

Tabs, you also have a Cthulhu spell. Quake sounds more like that than a Dagon spell (only as a Dagon spell would it require self-sacrifice).

[Tabs]

Mi-Go, yep, Cthulhu Spell: Quake - as violent and earth shattering/splitting as possible.

Just read your description under Cyclopean etc., good stuff; you've set the tone - now, to live the character...

[kouchpotato]

Full stats for my ghoul

Name: Argyle
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Birthplace: Kiev Cemetary

Statistics
STR: 17
DEX: 11
INT: 18
CON: 15
POW: 13
SIZ: 15
EDU: 5

Idea: 25
Luck: 65
Know: 90
Sanity: 65
DB: +1d4

Armor: Projectiles do half damage.

Skills:

Bite 30%
Block 22 %
Burrow 75%
Graveyard Dance 30%
Claw 30%
Climb 85%
Conceal 40%
Disguise 1%
Dodge 22%
Graveyard Lore: 60%
Hide 60%
Jump 75%
Knowledge: Humanity 30%
Listen 70%
Martial Arts 1%
Ride 5%
Scent Decay 65%
Sneak 80%
Spot Hidden 50%
Throw: 30%
Track: 59%
Dreamlands Lore 50%,
Occult Lore 50%
Own Language: Gibberish 25%
Other Language:
Other Skill: Handgun 50%

Equipment: .38 Revolver [1d10 dam, 2 RoF, 15 base range, 00-00-96 malf), 36 .38 rounds.

Argyle was born near Kiev, Ukraine, in a burrow of several dozen other ghouls. The cemetary offered a plentiful source of food amd shelter for the band, and they lived in relative harmony with the local human populace who were blissfully unaware. That all changed when a vampire, fleeing from Romania, was discovered by a lynch mob in village a few miles from the cemetary. The vampire ran for the cemetary, fleeing into a crypt. The villagers had been sure he was behind the abduction of several local girls. They happened to spot a ghoul digging up a grave, and shot him dead. The ghouls retaliated, and were slaughtered by the humans superior weaponry. Argyle was cowed by the display of the firearms, and managed to grab a gun from a dead human. He picked it up and fled into the burrow. The humans killed many of the ghouls, and left, their bloodlust sated.

The next day the surviving ghouls attacked the village. They burnt it down and Argyle saw the power of his new weapon as he gunned down several humans. They left the village soon afterwords, and Argyle eventually stowed away on a ship out of curiosity, ending up in America. He wandered the west, eventually coming upon Eleanor Pickman, a beautiful female ghoul. He pledged his life to defend her.