OOC - GENERAL Campaign Discussion

To quote from James Starkweather, our expedition commander: "We will travel back to the campsight and last resting place of our colleagues from Miskatonic University, led by professor Charles Lake, some two years ago. We intend to confirm their amazing discoveries and to map and climb the Miskatonic Mountain range, reported to be the highest peaks in the world. Once we've reached those peaks, we will continue further. We will continue beyond the mountains. Beyond those mountains where we intend to perform an aerial survey of the lands on the far side of that range, into uncharted territory that has never before seen by the human eye. To uncover the secrets…"

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OOC - GENERAL Campaign Discussion

Post by Job »

This thread is intended for all general out-of-character discussion which is not specifically related to any certain chapter (which will have their own threads). For example, this area may include character creation, historical digression, or whatever chatting is desired.

Also, here is a link to our campaign summary on the Obsidian Portal Website

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Re: OOC: General Discussion

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~Bony End of Story~
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Job »

Too funny! Thanks for the laugh, Anatomist.
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EDIT: As the Keeper for BtMoM, I feel kinda like this toon too! ;)
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Job »

Hello Anatomist,

I made a couple of comments in red font in your character sheet. That seemed the easiest way to provide feedback. As a rule, I won't edit anyone's posts, but this seemed the easiest way to do this. I hope that this is OK.

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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Job »

Øyvind's character sheet is approved. I have a couple more threads to migrate from EnWorld, and also bit more organizing of details (i.e. newpapers articles, clues, etc.), so I'll give you the signal when it's time to begin posting. We also have a number of character sheets up for review, so I would say that we'll be ready to go in approximately a week.

Some comments on Øyvind's sheet:
  • I love the picture and the details and how nicely he's been converted to BRP! Nice work!
  • His HP seems low for a strong and fit individual, but I'm not used to GM'ing the Chaosium rules. I guess that there's no such thing as a "tank" in CoC? I'll have to familiarize myself with the CoC combat rules, so I'm assuming that your Block and Dodge skills will help a little.
  • Do we need to add an additional skill for your second language, English? Your current skill for "Own Language" is, I assume, for Norwegian?
  • Tighty whities. Nice touch. ;)
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Job »

Anatomist,

I reviewed George Barrow's character sheet and left comments in red font where I had questions. NOTE: If anyone has a problem with me editing your character sheet to add comments in red font, let me know and I'll put the comments in a separate post. As a general rule, I'll never edit one of your posts; instead I'll suggest changes in an OOC thread. This just seems like a fast and easy way to communicate questions/edits on the character sheets, which are somewhat lengthy and complicated. And FYI, I always save your original character sheet in a separate text file before editing it, just in case I make a finger fumble or we later find a need to examine the original.

Next up, hopefully tomorrow night, I'll review Mr. Handy's and Seon's character sheets.

Thanks!
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Equipment

Post by Job »

Below is the first of a number of posts that I plan to make to generate discussion regarding our campaign. I'm interested in getting everyone's opinion about these things since it's YOUR campaign too, and I don't want to make things too strict that it takes away from the fun. My primary objective of the campaign is for us to have fun. If you don't agree with something--or if you violently agree with something--I'd be happy to hear from you.

Equipment: Since this is a campaign about an expedition to Antarctica, what equipment our teams bring along (or forgets to bring along) is VERY important! Therefore, I'd like to have everyone prepare their equipment list as completely as possible prior to your character's start in the campaign. I'll need to approve all equipment lists and, in general, will only reject items that are extremely rare (e.g. mythos items, gatling guns, items from the future) or that don't fit with your character. If we get to Antarctica and you suddenly remember an item that you neglected to put on your sheet, but think that your character would've remembered, then I'll need to make a roll to determine if it was available and you'll need to make an INT roll to determine if your character would've remembered to bring it. So there will be a chance that you won't get that item, even if that item is extremely important! Be sure to take some time to think through your equipment!
Here's a sample list of items that you should consider so that I can approve them and so that we don't later have regrets:
  • Ammunition for your weapons
  • Special protective clothing, if any; the expedition will provide standard cold weather clothing and climbing equipment, but not things like army helmets or hidden pistol holsters or ankle sheaths for a knife
  • Unique lighting equipment
  • Unique hiking & climbing equipment (for an explorer or guide?)
  • Special weapons, such as throwing knives or brass knuckles
  • Equipment that is unique to your profession, such as a typewriter or camera or stethoscope
Some things will be obvious that your character would've remembered, even if you neglected to put it on your sheet (for example, an author would not forget paper and pens), but you should not risk leaving your equipment behind! Don't depend on a benevolent Keeper. ;)

I'll make one last call at the start of our campaign (in a week or so) to remind everyone to update your equipment lists.

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BtMoM Classic? Or BtMoM Custom?

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I plan to run a slightly modified version of the BtMoM campaign wherein some details are changed, and I'd like to do this so that not everything is exactly known by our players and readers, and so that I can have a bit of fun being creative in certain instances. In fact, I've already inserted and written a few minor twists into the chapters, some of which haven't yet played out totally, so you've already seen a few changes here and there.

My questions for this are:

1. Have you read BtMoM, or any BtMoM threads or descriptions, so that you already know the general storyline or some parts of it? Or are you totally in the dark about BtMoM and have simply heard that it's a deathtrap, mindblowing experience and you just want to experience it? It doesn't matter to me whether you've read it already; I'm just interested in hearing whether you might already know some of the details.

2. Do you think it would ruin the campaign if I made some changes? Do you think that I should stick closely to the story as written? Or would you rather see a few new twists since that might make it a bit more interesting?

Thanks,
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Mr. Handy »

I haven't read BTMOM, but I did read some of the threads in Raiko's game (from the arrival in Antarctica up to the current point, where the expedition has found Lake's camp). I don't think making changes would ruin the campaign, but I'd prefer it to be run as much by the book as possible so that I get the experience the authors intended.

I'm going to be very busy for the next week, but I should be able to put together an equipment list late next week.
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Seon »

I have read the short story BTMOM, but not the Campaign if there is any difference. Of not, I don't think making changes would ruin the campaign either.

Either way, I will be paranoid.
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Mr. Handy »

The short story is ATMOM (At the Mountains of Madness). I did read that a long time ago, but I don't remember much of it.
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Anatomist »

Note to self: check equipment again.

Regarding the campaign. I dont mind the twists. I've repeatedly read the ATMOM story up the years since i first got it in 1991, i must have read the story some 20 times now :geek: And it's why ive insisted so much in playing this campaign. The book is goooooooood!

I know from friends that have played the campaign over a table that the story isint that similar to the book, so ive definitive got some surprise moments waiting for me. :) In my mind twists are good, makes the game interesting to ruin for you as GM as well. Which will reflect on us the players im sure.

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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by royya »

As the others - I read H.P Lovecraft’s story of the mountains but not the campaign adventure. Twisting the campaign as you see fit is what doing you a good DM.
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by royya »

Job,

I updated my character - please note the Cthulhu Mythos points I allocated - I placed 5% but I'm letting you to rule about it - a reminder, check the GM notes that I copied from ENworld about Father P.J Rucker and his past experiment with the Mythos.

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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Job »

Mr. Handy wrote:I haven't read BTMOM, but I did read some of the threads in Raiko's game (from the arrival in Antarctica up to the current point, where the expedition has found Lake's camp). I don't think making changes would ruin the campaign, but I'd prefer it to be run as much by the book as possible so that I get the experience the authors intended.

...The short story is ATMOM (At the Mountains of Madness). I did read that a long time ago, but I don't remember much of it.
Seon wrote:I have read the short story BTMOM, but not the Campaign if there is any difference. Of not, I don't think making changes would ruin the campaign either.

Either way, I will be paranoid.
Anatomist wrote:Regarding the campaign. I dont mind the twists. I've repeatedly read the ATMOM story up the years since i first got it in 1991, i must have read the story some 20 times now And it's why ive insisted so much in playing this campaign. The book is goooooooood!

I know from friends that have played the campaign over a table that the story isint that similar to the book, so ive definitive got some surprise moments waiting for me. In my mind twists are good, makes the game interesting to ruin for you as GM as well. Which will reflect on us the players im sure.
Royya wrote:As the others - I read H.P Lovecraft’s story of the mountains but not the campaign adventure. Twisting the campaign as you see fit is what doing you a good DM.
Thanks for quick responses, everyone! That gives me a good feel for our group and it sounds as though the campaign, as written, will be a surprise for most, if not all, of you. Our "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is actually a sequel to Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" novella, so the stories are different and your reading of Lovecraft's story won't spoil your surprises, but as a reminder, you must play your characters as if they do not have the knowledge of what happened during "At the Mountains".

I expect that our campaign will play out slightly differently from Raiko's campaign because all of your characters and in-game responses will be different than those of his players, and also because I am planning those minor changes that I mentioned. My changes will be minor and not major ones, though, and I do plan to adhere to the main BtMoM story line (don't worry Mr. Handy, I will make sure that you will experience all the death and madness that Chaz envisioned...), so if you'd rather be surprised/shocked/disturbed during our game (and if you can fight off your curiosity), then I recommend that you avoid reading other BtMoM threads.

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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by BenTheRat »

trying to catch up.

Yea read AtMoM a long... time ago in a galaxy... oh never mind. Anyway, never read BtMoM.

Character posted. At least we get good pics as we all die. ;)
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by BenTheRat »

Ok, caught up on all the threads. I know your still posting stuff, but I am confused on where we are starting.

Chapter 2 has 3 posts to it (older I know) and seems well before chapter 5.

But then you mention we are already at sea, which is why we used the older characters. I didn't go back and read on the old forum to catch up to ch 2, just confused.

BTW, love that avatar, one of my favorite movies of all time, have about 4 copies of it, all different versions.
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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Job »

BenTheRat wrote:Ok, caught up on all the threads. I know your still posting stuff, but I am confused on where we are starting.

Chapter 2 has 3 posts to it (older I know) and seems well before chapter 5.

But then you mention we are already at sea, which is why we used the older characters. I didn't go back and read on the old forum to catch up to ch 2, just confused.
Hello BTR,

Yeah, I can see why it would get confusing because there are a number of IC threads open, and they have different timelines. I also have not yet finished migrating my threads from EnWorld to Play@YSDC, so there's a lot of loose ends to tie up in this area, too. The best way to understand the status of the campaign is to keep your eye on this thread: BtMoM Campaign Status.

You'll see that only 2 chapters are completed out of 6 that have been started. Even though some chapters are still occurring back in NYC in the past (chapters 2 and 4) despite the fact that our players have also departed for Antarctica (chapters 5 and 5a), that's actually OK because I expect that the earlier chapters will just add background detail as we continue on with the Chapter 5 threads. If ever we encounter a conflict with something happening in the past in NYC versus something that's happening in the future in Antarctica, then we'll discuss it and work it out in a logical fashion.

I started chapter 5 before finishing the other chapters to keep the story moving and to keep everyone's interest while we continued with detective work in NYC in chapters 2 and 4. Otherwise, our story would move very, very slowly while waiting to complete each chapter in sequence.
BenTheRat wrote:BTW, love that avatar, one of my favorite movies of all time, have about 4 copies of it, all different versions.
Agreed! I have 4 copies as well. You have excellent taste in movies! ;)

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Magic in CoC and the Occult Skill

Post by Job »

OK, here's another one of those topics to discuss: Magic in CoC and the investigator's Occult skill.

As I was reviewing character sheets, I became a little confused about how a character's Occult skill compares to their Cthulhu Mythos rating. Fortunately, I found a thread that helped explain the difference and I thought that I'd pass it along: Yog Sothoth.com discussion thread.

Based on the above discussion, a character with a good Occult skill can identify or partially understand whatever mythos effect/artifact/monster/spell they are experiencing, but only from a human perspective or historical basis. They will not truly understand the full implications, otherwise they'd be insane.

For our campaign, I suggest and expect that our PC's will not be very likely to be able to cast or understand a magic spell. If a PC does get to the point that he is able to cast a spell (I will entertain this possibility), then that PC is literally insane--or close to it--and is essentially a threat to the expedition.

Your thoughts?

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Re: OOC: General Discussion

Post by Anatomist »

The rules might say so, but im not of the opinion of "have to be near madness" to cast/understand spells. Im of the opinion of making spells more accessible to the PC, not that it should be easy... In my experience of 15 years fooling around playing rpg's is that i once have gotten mythos knowledge, could never use it as my character went mad after few minutes. Was frustrating.

How interesting wouldn't it be (roleplaying wise) that the Phd in anthropology did understand what was happening, that it was a spell by a being far more powerful then himself, and that he could use the knowledge to defeat the being, help the group, instead of going mad for 1d6 months? or go catatonic for the rest of the campaign?

Dear GM be evil but let the PC play the role he made the char for ;) (a little while) before he go bananas :twisted:
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