Well, I’ve been running the table top RPG Call of Cthulhu for perhaps a decade or so. My old gaming group has fallen apart, and after a few months, I’m finding that if I don’t start telling some stories, my head is going to explode. So I figured I’d submit this to you all, as most of you seem to have the capacity for something cerebral like this.
Is anyone interested in playing in a Call of Cthulhu game that I would run through Skype or something similar? It wouldn’t be free form, we’d be making actual characters and using dice rolls (probably simulated on some computer program so we can all see the results) for task resolution. I’d be running a modern game, probably under the Delta Green setting (yes, I’m one of the lucky people who secured the books for hisself). It would be a long term game, probably something we’d meet once a week for over the course of a couple months. Interested parties, don’t PM me, say something here in the thread, so fence-sitters will know who all is thinking about trying it out. If you have no idea what Call of Cthulhu is, but beyond that the idea sounds good, let me know and I’ll type up a description here. Or, you could check this out chaosium.com
Count me most definitely in.
Sounds pretty cool, if a workable schedule could be arranged. I tend to work long hours but could play an evening or Sunday game (when the Vikings aren’t playing! 
). I live in North America, CST.
Is the Cthulu game OOP? That’s a shame. I’ve never played it, but my RPG collection contains 60 or 70 books ranging from AD&D to Torg, Rifts, Warhammer, Vampire, etc etc. But while I haven’t played the game I’ve heard a lot about it, and I’m a fan of Lovecraft.
Cthulhu isn’t OOP at all, but the Delta Green books are- they were made by Pagan Publishing with Chaosiums blessing. Delta Green Countdown is the biggest RPG supplement ever made! I support chaosium whenever I can, so if you want to add their stuff to your collection, feel free.
My best hours for doing this sort of things are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, all of which I have off. Saturdays and Sundays are doable...either late nights (in the Eastern Time zone) or else possibly from work...I have the kind of job where I [i]might[/i] be able to get away with that. If I could do it through a chatroom, I could definitely do it from work, but man...that's a lot of typing for a GM.
Thematically, I run a balls-to-the-walls horror game. Expect to be freaked out as much as this kind of experience can freak someone out, and do your part to contribute to the mood- cracking wise has it's time and place, but this isn't a funny game for the most part. Some of my inspirations would be films like In the Mouth of Madness, The Ninth Gate, and Saw. You can look to those for hints on what the mood would be. Giving people nightmares is a personal powertrip for me, I guess. :slight_smile:
I’ve got one other interested player on another forum, and my girlfriend Living Dead Girl will be playing too. Now, that’s 4, but more people please speak up, since you never know how scheduling will work out.
Skype, you say? I’ve played it on IRC just fine.
I’m interested though.
I’ve considered a chat format, but that’s just WAaaaaay too much typing for me as the GM. I think it would bog the game down, everyone waiting for me to type up my descriptions of things and events. Still, I plan to use a chat format for private messaging and certain other factors, so maybe I’ll find that idea more attractive as I go. 
Ah D&D… lol, they used to call me ‘priesty boy’ cause I was always a cleric. prepares for the onslaught of catholic jokes. I may not have been the most powerful char… but I could warp wood with the best of them.
Sadly, with b-ball, school and this blasted forum… I have enough distractions in my life.
OK, between the respondants here and on the other forum I post on, I think I have enough people to start working out time slots.
Technically, I could do ANY day of the week after 11 PM EST. Which nights I would like to play are in this order of preference:
Sunday
Tuesday
Monday
Saturday
…And the rest are tied for least favorite (but still doable). In addition, I could play
Anytime Wednesday, preferably not too late at night.
Anytime Tuesday, though Wednesday would be better.
Anytime Monday, though I would vastly prefer any of the above.
Sundays fine - I’m on GMT+2, baby zonks out about 8pm GMT.
So, what the story here? Will you post or chat? I have never played such a game before and so would I know what to do? Also, what are the potential characters that can be played.
On a side note, I think that it’s damn cute.
We’re going to try using a voice chat program, where we all speak into microphones and hear each other, with some chatting along side for private messages. If I get players who are unable to do the voice thing, it may be a purely chatrooom run event, I am warming up to that idea.
The other major thing we need is a random number generator for dice rolls- many chatrooms have such scripts. It’s important so that if someone needs to ‘roll dice’, they can generate a number that everyone can see at once. In a worst case scenario, I’d just roll physical dice for everyone, but I really don’t want that, and I’m sure the players don’t either.
As far as would you know what to do. Making a character would be a little tricky for you, but once you started playing, it would be like falling off a log, I’m sure. Think of it as improve theatre, where you have a list of statistics about your character that define the limits of what you’re capable of. So, you know how strong you are, how much you know about Chemisty, things like that are all quantified. Then I, the Keeper, basically tell a story, and all the players describe the actions of their characters within the limits set by their statistics and the genre. Hmm, I’ve probably made it sound more complex than it is. Here’s a teeny tiny snippet of what gameplay is like.
Keeper: You make your way down the basement. It doesn’t look like it’s been used for ages- the dust on the stone floor is at least an inch thick, with no visible tracks through it at any time. The air is musty and cloying, and in the back of your mind you can’t help but worry if it’s safe to breathe or not. On the other side of the room, you see a heavy wooden door set in the wall. The door is open a few inches, and a dim flickering light can be seen shining through the crack, as though from a candle or perhaps a torch. Why would their be candle light in a basement nobody has been in for years?
Player: Is there anything down here that might make a good weapon?
Keeper: Of in the corner, you see something long and thin, that you suppose might be the handle to a shovel or something similar, but it’s so dark over there, that it also may just be a water or sewer pipe built into the wall.
Player: OK, forget that then…my character [some people just say “I”] makes his way across the room, as silently as possible, to peek around the door and see what’s over there.
Keeper: Ok, make a Sneak roll.
[the player looks at their character sheet, and sees that they have a Sneak skill of 52. They have to roll a pair of 10 sided dice to get a result from 1-100, and if the result is equal or lower to the 52, they make it across silently. If not, then anyone trying to hear them down there will have an easy time of it. End of example]
So that’s basically what play looks like, the GM describes things, the players ask questions about details important to them, and eventually decide to do something. If the thing they want to do has a chance of failure pertinent to the story, the GM makes them roll dice to see if they do it right.
Apparently, I am GMT -5, if that helps anyone.
Thanks, I’m very familiar with the D&D concept as i have played a lot of video games before. However, due to growing up in a rural area never had the chance to play in a live setting.
I unfortunately am all full schedule-wise otherwise I’d be totally up for Cthulu.
I wish your game very well though. Brava on attempting a net Cthulu game!
Cthulu
Am I correct that that’s a Lovecraft character? Is it a being or a race? Do they hide in our world to do harm?
What’s the story, in brief if you want.
Alderlian, I’ll respond by PM to give you some idea of the basic history of the setting.
Really, it might be interesting for the reading here to know more about it.
Thanks U,
I get your concept. That’s the story that I am vaguely familiar with, but did not know many of the details. I like the part about the “worldview” as it fits into the cause of some mental problems.
The story is much much bigger than that, even. Cthulhu is one of maybe 100 different beings or races of beings that I could tell you about, that all have their own motivations, histories, and so on and so forth. Cthulhu is the most ‘popular’ because, I suppose, it has the most influence on human events, and one of the most beloved stories of Lovecraft’s is about it.
I’m trying to come up with a general expression of the background for people who don’t know, but it’s hard. It’s much easier to explain the genre than the setting. Picture a world where the ultimate truths of the universe are terrible things that are harmful to the human psyque, and you’ll be close. Imagine seeing a monster, some lumpy, squamous mass of flesh that defies the laws of biology and physics just by existing. Even if it has no ability to hurt you, it’s infected you with it’s reality- you have no choice but to try to assimilate it’s existence, to make sense of it. But the more you try to learn, the more you realize that it defies everything you held dear- science, religion, even fortresses like mathematics and logic, can all be violated in Call of Cthulhu. The more you know, the worse it gets, and the human mind can’t handle it.
The players are stuck in the middle- they are faced with this problem, but as one of the few people ‘in the know’ (players usually start off knowing nothing, and learn as they go), they are also the only ones who can protect humanity from the dangers ‘out there’. But fighting back the dangers of the Cthulhu Mythos involves learning how to handle them, with damages the mind. It’s bleak, but there is room for heroism.
If you must picture something from the modern media, picture the X-Files, but trust me when I say that does it no justice.